08/25/02: No Witty Title

current music: Tori Amos | Boys For Pele
current book: William Shatner | Preserver
current obsession: Building the perfect Winamp 3 Skin

I know.

I know.

When I put up a blog design, it should get more than 3 entries before it's changed. And if I plan on changing I should at least make a post explaining the new layout. This is my second layout featuring Marilyn Monroe... strange that both version have featured her in black and white with black backgrounds. The first version used a more "Marilyn" version... this is more "Norma Jean". The name of this version comes from a Blondie song. I think that we've all reached a point where burning out fast is much preferable to actually living a full life. James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, more modernly with Kurt Cobain, and so many others... It's better to die young and never grow old. Yes. I designed this version while more than a tad depressed. Doesn't it explain the color scheme?

I also hate the commenting service I use. It used to be so nice... but in the last week or so, it's taking 10 times longer to load (thus making the whole page slow) and when it does load fast, it's because the service is down. Just watch... if it took forever to load this page, you'll be able to leave me a note to let me know. If it loaded fast (ie, like it should) You have nothing to bitch about, and obviously don't need to leave a note to complain. So you don't get a comments link. I'll be on the lookout for a new service to use for commenting. In the meantime, you can IM me with AOL IM at "AristanSaint" or email me at ramunto@carolina.rr.com. Let me know if you know any good commenting services that are easy to use too!

Remind me never to watch Trading Spaces again. I always end up angry. I hate Hilde, Doug, and Laurie. If any of them came to decorate my house, I'd burn it down. I want the perfect show... Frank, Vern, and Ty! That'd be a fun show. The rooms would even be fun AND livable. Tonight I watched the last show that Laurie did before maternity leave. Dear god... not only did she spend half the show BITCHING about the head board of the bed and how it was ruined because she didn't add a faux finish to, which the owner of the room said "Oh I love My headboard!", but quite frankly... it looked like a dining room that someone had put a bed in.

The shelf system was open... it looked like a china cabinet... and the fake trees... and PLATES on the wall. Just kill me.

I've been working on a Winamp3 skin. They went from a few bmps (2 for each element) to a couple of dozen pngs with transparency. Hell... my main window is 6 pngs & 2 pages of code. The equalizer is 2 pages of code and 3 images... the playlist editor? 5 pages of XML documents and around 16 pngs with lots of transparency. They're huge. I love being able to make oddly shaped players... but frankly they're huge even if you try to do something simple... and Winamp3 crashes much more often Winamp2. Hell, I don't remember Winamp2 ever crashing... Winamp3 lives up to the "win" part of it's name and crashes at least once a day.

But the Skin looks great... so far. Which is more than I can say for the Official Red Hot Chili Peppers Winamp3 skin. It looks like it was built by a 4 year old holding a crayon in his teeth. Their snap points suck too. (Snap points are those points where winamp consoles will snap together... when you bring them close to one another, they link together... that's called a "snap point'

I'm re-reading a Star Trek novel I read ages ago. It'd be nice if I ever read this particular series in the order they were written. Not that it matters... they're so not canon that it's funny. Picard is a dimwitted blowhard... Kirk has died and been resurrected in 4 out of the 6 books in the series. It's funny as hell. It's funny as hell when they try to bring all the crews together in one series, along with Mirror Universe Baddies (Evil Janeway!), who stop being baddies in book 4, and be coherent. Only Kirk and Tiberus (Mirror Universe Kirk, who was Emperor of the Federation) seem to be fully defined characters... which is good because Will Shatner is supposed to have wrote the book.

Bill... it's not a smart idea to thank your ghost writers in the dedication. And if you do... don't refer to them as your ghost writers. It defeats the whole point.

(Also of note that Janeway is one of the head baddies in these books, but in the series "Dark Mirror" she's a Terran slave, who's given Voyager. And in "dark mirror" All women are lesbians. Evil, mirror image Lesbians. And Lxawna Troi, and most of the rest of Betazed, are recluses because they never learned to deal with their powers.)

The dog's feeling better. We finally got his nails trimmed. He wouldn't let us cut them, and they were starting to become ingrown. They'd curled all the way under and started to poke at the pads of his toes. He's also gainging weight again, and the spot on his face is healing. Meanwhile the cat is still a bastard.

I've got an interview Tuesday with ATA. I really want this job. Unlimited Free (space available) Travel anywhere in the lower 48... and only paying taxes on anywhere else in the US... damn I want this job!

Hell... I just want to leave the house!

James & John called me today from San Francisco. They were out to eat... they seem to be having so much fun. I noticed that James is saying "Hun" about 3 times more often than he used to, and John uses "Fabulous" a lot more than he ever did before. I don't know if it was the Sangria they were drinking, or if San Francisco has changed them so fast. God... they were having so much fun. They live over a Starbucks in the Noe Valley.

I want out of Charlotte.

I'm not straight. I don't have a family. I don't like NASCAR.

This isn't the place for me.

and finally...

Annie posted... so I guess it's my turn now.

first off, some fun news: April Winchell used several of my links on her website. Listen to April... she rocks!

It also appears that I'm one of my favorite Weezer songs.


Which Weezer Song are You?

My sister came up this weekend... I burned Ebichu and Chobits for her... I'm sure she'll love them. Her boyfriend's dad also bought them a new computer... they brought the entire thing up with them. It's funny... they came fore 3 days and brought a desktop computer, their PS2 and DDR mats, and the cat.

Ok... now comes the crap.

My grandmother got out of the hospital on Friday. She wasn't any better, but my sister was coming home for the weekend. So my sister and her boyfriend are here, my grandmother is weezing the entire time (at least when she's not coughing that is), and then my aunt shows up.

I used to really like my aunt. But in the last few years, I've really grown to (and I don't want to say this) hate her. She's personally caused a lot of bad things that have happened in my life.

When she ran off with that guy on a multistate theft spree, I'm the one who ended up raising her kid for 3 months. I was young at the time, I think I was _maybe_ 16, almost 17. It was summer, I was depressed, working at a resturant at night and running my dad's office in the morning after I got home from summer school, running a house for 2 parents who were never home, and watching my little sister. And suddenly I had an 8 year old to take care of who'd never had to answer to any sort of authority firgure in his entire life.

Is it any wonder that I started sleeping under my bed?

Well... now let's come back to present day...

My sister told me Saturday that my Grandfather's class ring, and his and my grandmother's wedding bands were missing. She said that my aunt had taken them, that she'd admitted to taking them, but wouldn't tell my sister where they were.

My blood boiled.

I never knew my grandfather. He died about 6 months before I was born. My grandmother has given a few things of his to me... mainly because I remind everyone in the family of him. We're both taller than everyone else in the family and I, like him, will probaly always have a full head of hair that'll be white before I'm 30.

One thing Grandma had told me that was mine was my grandfather's class ring. And My aunt stole it.

She won't say where it is, but I have a feeling it's probaly up her nose, where a lot of things have gone. She did return Grandma's wedding band to my sister... but she won't say where Grandpa's is.

I used to think that you always would love your relatives, even if you didn't like them.

I hate being proven wrong.

Oregano & Catnip

Well... for some reason the last few days have been interesting.

My Grandmother is in the hospital (stress related, and a long story I'll get to in a minute), my dog's sick (ditto), and for some reason S+S+D+D is number 42 with a bullet on Google if you search for "oregano catnip".

Don't believe me? look for yourself

I'm almost scared to even think what other keywords for my blog are. So... for the Googlebot's amusement: here are the keywords I'd like to have my blog indexed by:

Well Hung, Rivers Cuomo thinks I'm sexy, Love Toy Lazy Susan (Home Improvement Projects), Nymphomanic-Depressive, Well hung, Tossed Salad (Cooking), Well Hung, Well Hung, Hale Bopp, Black Nikes, Apple Sauce, Well Hung and Google.

Yes, I feel I should be the top choice when you search google for the keyword "Google".

Not that it matters, last time the Googlebot crawled my site was in June.

My Tori Amos Land Mail Art Object (LMAO) is up on Nervouseness. You can join or view the object here. Basically it's what's called a "Traveling LMAO". I send out the object, everyone does their part and eventually it comes back to me. This LMAO is called Tori Amos Pancake Recipes. I'm going to send out big index cards. On one side the person will add a recipe, or talk about their favorite syrup, whatever they feel like. The other side is dedicated to Tori Amos. Whatever they want to write, draw, paint... it doesn't matter.

In the end I'm going to scan all the cards and put them online for all to see. So far 6 people have joined. If you'd like to wax poetic about Tori Amos and Breakfast foods, come on and join!

Land Mail Art Objects are great, it's finally a chance to get something FUN in the mail. Remember when you were a kid, and you wanted mail? Now all you get are bills. These things make checking the mailbox fun again! From Photo Swaps to Angelina Jolie Fans to CD Swaps, what have you got to lose? Postage?

I've also been worried about my grandmother lately... She's had to up her breathing treatments to about 3 or 4 a day. A breathing treatment consists of her filling a nebulizer with a liquid medicine, and basically inhaling it. The Nebulizer basically makes it a fine mist so it get into her lungs. This morning at 5 am she called. My dad had to take her to the hospital. She had taken 3 breathing treatments back to back and they weren't working.

She's spending the night in the hospital.

It seems to be because of stress because whenever my aunt does something really stupid, my grandmother starts having problems. And lately my aunt has been doing stupid things. I'm not going to get to them here (again). It'd just take too long to explain everthing. Plus it makes me feel like I should be on Ricki Lake or Jerry Springer when I think of it.

My dog is also sick, he's had the spot on his cheek that swells, and yesterday it broke open. I think it hurt me worse. He didn't seem to care... I'm the one crying.

and to top everything off, my stomach's upset and I had rice for dinner -_- ugh

yes... I know

More layouts than posts. I hated v8. It really lived up to "Malbela" (if you know what that means ^_^).

I like this one better. Chii!

Today's Friday Five:

1. What is your lineage? Where are your ancestors from?
My family traces it's roots back (well 3/4 of our roots) back to Scotland. McLaurin, Hannah, Mungo... all very Scottish. Mungo is Scottish for friend and Saint Mungo is the Patron Saint of Glasgow. There's also a little French in us.

2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit?
Scotland. >_> Ok... it's because I find Scottish/Irish/British accents sexy, not because of any history.

3. Which would you least like to visit? Why?
:::idle shrug::: There's no place I'd really not like to go.

4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage?
Nope

5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)?
We've been in the US for a long while. Our family started in New York, but my branch quickly saw the error of it's ways and moved to the South. The Alanta House from Gone With The Wind (The movie at least) is based on one of the houses that my family owned.

I've been offline for a few days... damn Roadrunner... and now I NEED MORE CHOBITS! :::scream:::

more later

1:58pm

Cake or Death

Which Izzard Are You?

Slut Izzard: You'll crawl into any duvet any time of the day. You get to shag everyone, and wear all their clothes. You're concerned with appearances, whether anyone will shag you, or whether you'll shag anyone else. Rejoice!! For you are a fashion queen.