My song of the summer.
'Cause If she wants to rock she rocks
If she wants to roll she rolls
She can roll with the punches
Long as she feels like she’s in control

P.S. I filled up my 80 gig hard drive. I'm irritated by the predicament of trying to figure out what to move onto this 250 gig external hard drive (which cost me $100).

Current Music: "Rock and Roll" by Eric Hutchinson

Preparing.
Though nothing is final on a house yet, I've already begun packing. Obviously, I am a little overeager. I do not care. Saturday night I did a little packing while cleaning. Today I did a little cleaning while packing. My desk and my computer are in the living room now (making it very cluttered and much less cozy, but I don't care), and that back bedroom will end up being a storage room again. If every day/night I have off I get even a little done, I will be ready to go no matter when we actually move.

I don't know what the etiquette is on moving out of a rented space. The last two times I moved, it was out of my own houses, as it were. When I moved out of Dad's house, we had the right to leave the house in any condition we wanted, and it would be the buyer's responsibility to take care of whatever we left. I am sad to say that I didn't necessarily leave the house in an exceptionally good condition. My landlord has told me stories of tenants (one of them being the girl who got me my apartment, as it were) leaving their units in complete disarray. I don't want to do that to him, as he's been very good to me. I have grand designs to clean the hell out of everything, replace the blinds that the cats broke, and, if we don't end up needing the stove, asking him if he wants it for that or another unit. It's going to take a lot of work, but I'm up to it. This will teach me to take better care of my living space, if nothing else. It wouldn't be as much work as it's going to be if I had done that in the first place.

Today will be a little slower, thank goodness. I'm going to get some stuff set up for the lecture tonight, simply so I don't have to think about it in the afternoon. My to-do list is much shorter than yesterday's, though I did leave a few things from yesterday to do today. I think I managed to acquire everything I needed for this evening, and if I didn't, I'll simply go out and get it after lunch. I'm already running errands at that point anyway.

One of these voicemails better have an address and some wedding dates on it. I'm sick of being avoided. If they're planning to quit as my boss feared when he heard they were moving as far away as they are, I wish they would just do it and get it over with. As much as I don't want to lose them, this is getting silly.

To work.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "Little of Your Time" by Maroon 5

macbook touch - want want want

I hope that's real. I mean..I know that's just a mock up from gizmodo.com but I hope Apple is seriously coming out with one of those because it would be mine in a heartbeat.

And from all the rumors recently it sounds like it just might be true. :D

macbook touch

*pleasepleaseplease*

[EDIT]
Just to note, I'm not exactly sure why I'd want one. I'm fairly certain that after a while I'd miss the keyboard and the ability to close it (no lid) to protect the screen from the "elements" and carry it around easily. But I think it's more of a novelty thing. Like who the hell would say no? Not me.

Even if it does come out I still want a MBP. :)

Current Mood: curious

A few questions!
Hi everyone! I'm a new graduate student at USC, and was just taken off the waitlist to live in Centennial for the fall. I'm a bit worried about living in the area because of the crime rate, and although it may be more of a hassle, am considering driving to class simply because many of my classes end at 9:30 at night. What has been your experience with commuting through the neighborhood? Is it worth buying a permit for both on-campus and my building, or is street-parking safe around Centennial? And while we're at it, how decent is Centennial as a place to live?

I'm moving from the east coast, so I'm completely unfamiliar with everything at USC! I appreciate any help/suggestions/guidance/tips/whatever you may have! Thanks!!!

Oh, my.
I finally connected with one of my September brides today. She left me a message, and I took longer to get back to her than I wanted. I mailed her a CD, and it hasn't gotten there yet. She finally managed to reach me at the desk (which really is a miraculous feat nowadays), and poured her heart out asking me to bend the rules for her regarding outside musicians. I told her that the directors tend to stick to the procedures pretty closely, but that I'd forward her request along to them. I already felt bad enough for not getting back to her immediately, and then when she started to cry over the phone about a sister who passed I felt even worse. I know I should have hardened myself to this by now, but obviously I haven't. Sigh.

Today is desk work day. I need to file stuff that's been sitting on my desk for over a week. I need to finish the new payroll binders and the new choir binder. I need to add stuff to the ordo. I need to compile weddings. I need to update the wedding file on our shared drive. I need to order a few supplies for the office. I need to finish the mailing. We'll call this my "to-do" list for the day.

Oh, and book some musicians and check the voicemail.

Tomorrow I will sort through the robes and put them back in their respective lockers. I would rather get them in the old lockers before we reassign some numbers rather than just leave them in the closet. I want to get the robes that didn't get cleaned in there instead.

So much to do.

I now look even more like I was in a street fight. My heel caught on the cuff of my pants as I walked to my car yesterday and I took a dive. My cell phone and iPod survived the crash, but my pants weren't so lucky. Now I have no dress pants for work. I also have a scrape and a bruise on my right elbow and a huge icky scrape on my left knee where the pants tore. I'm trying not to limp today, but I'm not really winning that battle. Add that to the bruises on my calves from hoisting galvanised tubs and I am definitely sporting battle scars. Le sigh.

Oh, I need to get the reimbursement checks written for Theology on Tap. Damn it! I keep forgetting that.

What the hell is my problem?

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Lids" by Lotus Child

Work and iPhone apps
So I'm sitting here in my office this morning. Had my coffee, fixed some old ladies email (she smelled like my great-grandmother, very eerie..) and haven't done much since. Work is slow today, and I'm grateful because I was beyond tired when I woke up this morning. That sounds weird doesn't it? To be tired after you've woken from sleep. :/ But I don't get enough sleep ever. ;p

So I've been pretty happy with the new 2.0 software that Apple has put out. The new apps are nice, but I do miss some of the old apps like tetris, which is now 9.99 in the app store. Seriously?! $10 for a phone application? Not likely, someone hack that shit please.

Some of the apps I really like are:

Twinkle: It has a great look, neat sounds and I just think it's pretty cool overall

Evernote: Helps me remember funny things I think about during the day but forget later

Yelp: Helps me find taco's anywhere I am.

MySpace: Doesn't help me stay off of myspace :(

Remote: Helps me stay lazy.

Japanese Audio Phrase Book: Improves my nihongo

AIM: duh

World 9: It's sort of useless but it's awesome for like the first 2 minutes XD

I can't think of anymore at the moment. Hopefully the developers will crank out some cooler (and more FREE) apps.

Need to redesign my website. I have a problem, lol. I can't stop redesigning my site, I just get so bored with the layouts after I make them. Probably because I'm not completely satisfied with them in the first place. Hopefully some day I'll make one that I'll actually like and keep up for more than three weeks. :/

What are you guys up to? LJ seems so quite these days. :o

Current Mood: bored

a sound mind in a sound body
my bottle of birthdaywine led me to contemplate, this morning, the progression of my awareness of myself as an embodied being. unlike most elements of my experience of a growing self-awareness, there is a watershed moment that i can point to as the moment that i realized how un-body-conscious i was. predictably, and in keeping with the not-quite hangover malaise of this morning, it was the experience of substance-induced physical incapacitation that led to me realize how much i took for granted about my physical state, and how little i noticed of the minute changes brought on by dietary changes, caffeine, sleep patterns, exercise, and allergies. it was late in high school, and it coincided with the beginnings of my coffee habit.

fast-forward six years. a hangover, or its nearly as unwelcome relative, the vague feeling of muddled, shaky, off-kilteredness, forces the awareness of embodiment on the young theorist with papers to write. it forces one to acknowledge the connection between physical well-being and mental alacrity/capability. for these reasons, i am cutting my losses at 10pm and hitting the hay.

Housing question..
So, I'm a transfer student who was accepted pretty late, (like mid-late June) and getting housing was pretty was a big concern. Luckily last week, I was notified that I did get housing for the year. But I was placed in Honors House and my room is a double. Yeah, unfortunately I wanted to live in an apartment, but hey at least I have a place to stay!

Anyone ever lived/visited Honors House? Your thoughts? Good, bad? Rumors? Any information would be great. :)

According to the website it's a 16 minute walk/6 minutes bike ride. And I won't have a car, so should I really purchase a bike? I really don't mind walking, it's just at late nights that I kind of worry (or am I just being stupid?).

Thanks!

Busy busy busy
I would much rather be in a location similar to Ganondorf's in that icon. In my bed, covers up to my chin, hugging a plushie. Not at work, doing payroll but not, doing mailings but not, trying to work hard and failing.

Speaking of plushies, the bit in Venture Bros. with Dean and the giraffe? Aw!

Anyway.

( Weekend update. )

I bought another bridal magazine while at Target on Friday. I'm going to be snatching up any of the Chicago-specific ones I can find. They have eight gajillion ads in them for everything you can think of, and this one was even better. They took reception venues and photographers/videographers, and listed them with what their price level was. This will be very helpful.

I also thought of what I think might end up being a cute idea for our place cards/favours. Instead of just having cards attached to the favours, we thought we might combine them. They would be designed like a convention badge, since Lowell and I like to go to conventions: They'd have the date and our names on them, and a simple picture on them, drawn in anime-style, like a wedding cake or something. I kind of want to run the idea past a few of my more art-minded friends and see how that would work. Even though I had already planned on making the place cards inexpensive since most people throw them away or leave them at the hall, this kind of kills two birds with one stone. We could even put little clips on them or lanyards as if you were to wear them, though it's not necessary. Lowell seemed open to the idea, but nothing is set in stone. I just thought it was something interesting that's also very "us".

House hunting still goes on. We'll see what happens later today or tomorrow.

Time to buckle down for the day.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Ithaca" by Cepia

PWN 2.0
Hacked my iPhone so it will run the new firmware 2.0! I used the PWN application and it worked flawlessly! I'm super excited about all the new apps I downloaded from the app store.

Papa bought the new 16GB black iPhone 3G and is going to trade with me, I'll just PWN his iPhone and we'll switch. :D

I woke up early this morning, not feeling too well so I took some advil and got more blankets and then went back to sleep. Woke up around 11pm, ate breakfast, had coffee, and then got ready to go do some shopping. I didn't really want to but mom said we might buy a new TV so I went. We didn't end up even getting to the store to look at the TV's because mom took so long shopping. I went to Bath and Body and got some really pretty smelling body spray called Velvet Tuberose (weird name, great smell) plus some aromatherapy stress relief lotion in tranquil mint.

Then we headed over to the World Market, this awesome store selling products from China, Japan, Indian, Malaysia and so on and so forth. I got too cute ramen bowls, black and orange complete with chop sticks. I also got a large replica painting of the famous Japanese wood block painting "the wave".

Now I'm back at home, just finished hacking my iPhone and I'm beyond tired. I want to go to sleep right now but I need food. So I'll just have some cereal and then fall asleep.

All this week I'll be working by myself since the kid I work with is on vacation. It's okay though, I'll have my week's vacation too. :D

Okay, cereal time.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: hyori lee - u go girl

Furniture!
So, I have a few pieces of furniture that is still sitting in my apartment in Habitat Soo Zee. I've been tossing around the idea of selling them for a while and, frankly, I've been putting off deciding their final fate until very recently.

Anyway, the list!
(Sorry I don't actually have a picture of any of the furniture pieces :/ )
Sofa (loveseat): $50
Headboard w. storage: $20
Floor lamps: $10
Desk: Free.
(One of the drawer is dead, and I put in some extra nails in places when it fell apart once when I was moving it. It still has a decent amount of life left in it.)
and there's some other random trinkets...

Prices are negotiable. :) Please let me know ASAP if you want something. I need to arrange for it to be moved out before Friday (25th).

Here's the link to the note on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=32921683376&saved&suggest#/note.php?note_id=32921683376

LGB as an airport option for USC?
Is LGB (Long Beach Airport) a feasible transportation option for USC students? I just noticed some relatively cheap tickets on JetBlue, but the thrill of the find wore off very quickly when I checked transportation rates...

USC - LAX = 15 miles, $15 one way
USC - LGB = 22 miles, $47 one way

Both rates are for a shared shuttle van. Yowza...

Dr. Horrible
Another bit of brilliance from the minds of multiple(!) members of the Whedon clan!

http://www.drhorrible.com

It stays free until the 20th at midnight, so get watching!

NEW LJ PROFILE >>

New LJ Profile !

So yesterday was my brother Sean's 12th birthday. We're actually celebrating it today though since everyone is home today.

He's going to be super excited when he opens his presents because we got him an XBOX 360 Pro which he's been asking for forever. :D I don't know much about the XBOX or what cool games to get for it so if any of you do comment and let me know. We got him a second wireless controller to go with it and a memory card. My mom got him some game called GRID? It's a race car game.

I passed my algebra class and I'm sooo relieved! I can't believe it, I never have to take algebra again. :)

My new job is going well, I really like it. I have a lot of freedom there. I can walk around where ever I want, talk on the cell phone (not too much though). Pick when I go to lunch and how long I go for (not past an hour though >_>). The catch is they discourage us leaving to go to lunch, though we can if we want to. But I don't mind because it saves on gas annnnd we just got a cafe on campus with free wifi and coffee. So I'm happy to just go there.

That's a picture of on of the classrooms I maintain. A room full of Vista :p I spent an hour in there updating all those computers.

I can't wait to get my first full pay check. It's going to be super awesome.

I heard a rumor that the macbook/macbook pro line is going to be updated. I really hope so because I want to get one and I can't decide which, so it all depends on what they update and if I like it or not.

Current Mood: geeky

visual circuit simulation
i'm trying to find some circuit simulation software with a lot of great visual features, so we could simulate a power distribution system and show it to, like, kids (or managers, same thing) and they'd see parts lighting up or not lighting up depending on which power sources or switches we shut off. I've used pspice and workbench and other simulation stuff, but it's just not colorful enough. Got any recommendations?

Undesired pimping.
( I need some help. D: )

( And some shameless pimping... )

Relearning
I know how to delegate responsibility. I can deal with confrontation. I didn't do it last night. Because of that, I finished my night an hour after we closed again. I realise it would help if one of the kids I regularly worked with wasn't so God damned oversensitive. But that's something I'll have to deal with. He pouted at me last night when I got upset that he wasn't pulling his weight. For serious. Once again, need to just suck it up and be in charge. Maybe then I wouldn't be ready to face the day on freaking zombie mode.

Today:
--store 9-5
--Batman at 8

Tomorrow:
--store 7:30-4
--clean bathroom
--clean out back bedroom
--start packing miscellany

Sunday:
--Kristi's girls' Christening
--party

Booyah. Time to nap again.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Pokemon on the TV and my mother

Aw, kitty.
I feel beat up and blah after yesterday. The event itself went generally smoothly, and it had its good points. Just between the heat and nearly 12 hours spent at the Cathedral...bleh. Feeling a great need for anything and everything comforting today. It will have to wait until...um...next Sunday. Whoo!

Sarcasm!

The approaching full moon is messing with my moods.

And the Superman theme song is still stuck in my head. Curse you, Fr. Matt!

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "Superman" theme

WHY U SO UGLY ?

check it!

I love CSS because it makes ugly things pretty. Like ugly myspace.

I spent hours making this design for my myspace and I'm pretty happy with it! What do you think?

Tomorrow is my day off!!! yaaaaay!

Sleep in, watching cartoons, eat junk food. Plus I got my very first paycheck from my new job today so I am HAPPY !! :D

But...some bad news. I took my algebra final on Monday and I don't know if I passed it or not T_T The teacher hasn't email me yet so I'm sooo scared about it because I need a C in the class to pass. I don't want to get into it much because it's too long of a story but basically the teacher felt he didn't have enough time to teach us anything since he came into the class in the middle (our first teacher got sick and quit) so he decided he wasn't going to go over everything, barely anything really. So I didn't learn anything and haven't done well since. I went from 90's to 50's and I'm pissed about it. Anyway I hope I passed the class, I need it to graduate. :(

Blah blah. Papa got an 16GB iphone! I'm so jealous!! I want one!

At least the 2.0 software was hacked so I can run it on my hacked first gen. iphone. :D

Okay going to sleep now, best part of the day!

Orientation?
So, I just got accepted as a transfer student into the Computer Science (Games) program (They wanted my spring grades, and then my admissions letter got lost in the mail, which made things take forever and a day. Imagine my surprise at getting my financial aid award before my admissions letter). Right now, I live in Oregon, and it was suggested I come down for an orientation on the 25th. However, it's gonna cost me about 400 bucks to fly down there. Or I could take the train for about 150 and spend 60 hours round trip not being able to do much of anything... neither option is particularly appealing. On top of all that, I've got to wait for my confirmation payment to get processed before I can actually apply for the orientation. Red tape is evil.

Anyways, I don't know how vital orientation is, and I wanted to get some input from anyone who's gone, and whether they feel it'd be worth all that money. I'm planning on moving so that I'll be around the week before term starts to iron out any remaining logistical difficulties, look for a work study job, all that good stuff. So if anything I'd get done at orientation could be done during that week, I'll probably just wait and save my sanity.

Also, I might as well ask, I'm gonna be living with some family until I get acclimated to LA, as the housing folks told me my chance of getting into housing was slim to none (And it's free!). I'm pretty sure they're in Valley Village, and I know there's some shuttles that run back and forth between parts of LA and USC, does anyone know of a website where I could find the locations of said shuttles? Or is there an alternate form of transport that might work? I'm from Portland, and I'm pretty much able to walk wherever I need to go, but I don't think I'll be able to the same in LA.

Any other tips, advice, or insight would be much appreciated. I have a hunch moving to Southern California after living in Oregon all my life is gonna be a bit of shock for my tree hugging hippy-ness >.>

EDIT: Wow. You people rock. Here was expecting a reply, maybe two. After a week, if I was lucky. Thanks for all the information and welcomes and congratulations. I feel kinda warm and fuzzy inside :D

Oh, my.
I need to learn to control my emotions better. Going from anger to giddiness is tiring.

Phone conversations are very nice. One needs to find a more affordable way to accomplish them, however.

I don't like it when weddings appear out of nowhere and are two weeks from now. God damn it.

I am craving Chilis and Panera. I am a weirdo.

My brain is just going to be off today. All sorts of things need to get taken care of by the end of today, and one big project should be taken care of by the end of tomorrow. I suppose it's another working lunch day for me. Perhaps tomorrow I'll take a proper lunch.

The air conditioner at the apartment isn't working properly. I'm probably just wasting electricity using it, but it does cool the place off to a degree. Either way, it's too hot to sleep in the apartment right now. Damnation.

Time to make today's to-do list.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz

2 questions:

1) i got an email today informing me that i had received a permit for lot 21. transportation services seems to have redesigned their site and i cannot find a map with any lot 21 on it to save my life (lot 23, lot 6...but not lot 21). i applied for the troy complex garage/lot, is that the same one? last year i didn't have a permit at all, i lived in parkside so there was plenty of nearby street parking, so i'm new to this whole permit thing...

2) has anyone here worked for dormroom deliveries? how did you like it? were they flexible with days off etc? how do they go about paying? (i work as a delivery driver when i'm home for the summer at a sandwich shop, and i get hourly + all of my tips + 7% of the deliveries i take [which is essentially the delivery fee they charge]) i really enjoy delivery driving and would like to find a job doing that in LA (especially since i'd rather not have the same job i had last year), but most places won't hire me because i have a nevada license instead of california (i already asked dormroom deliveries, they said it didn't matter as long as i had a valid license from a US state). plus i'd like to work in the USC area, but obviously it's not the best area for a girl to be running around to random people's doors with lots of money in her pocket, so dormroom deliveries seemed like a good idea because they only deliver to students.

thanks!

Whoo!
And now I am on far too much espresso. Go me, whoo!

Perhaps I should get something productive done for work today. Then again, I did go to the staff meeting...hmm.

Sigh. Will be good.

Current Mood: whee!
Current Music: "Hill Top Heaven" by Jayson Litrio

bah
i'm having a hard time trusting people. i feel like no one wants me around, and i try to tell myself it's all in my head, but there seems to be a lot of evidence that it's not.

i don't even want to make plans with anyone because it seems that odds are they'll fall through.

i'll be at the pool tonight for the movie, followed by matchless. i'm not gonna call or text, i'm trying to be more socially passive, if i don't ask people to go somewhere, they can't cancel on me. but, if you want to come, that's where i'll be. if you don't want to come, don't worry about it.

ETA- this isn't meant to be hostile or directed at anyone.

Blargh.
I am unreasonably angry right now. I suppose I have some right to be, but not to the level that I am. God damn.

I need to throw things.

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: "Welcome to the Metropolis" from OC Remix