Mac Mini Mania

I am a PC.
(Scratch that.)
I was a PC.

Back in the day, I was strictly PC. What was this new apple thing people were always talkin' about? I liked my comfortable Dell and all its familiar things like toolbars and start buttons.

But as a student graphic designer, I began to go to the school computer labs a lot and was forced to work with Macs. I was a little frustrated. Where's the start button?! What's Garage Band?! What the hells is up with this dashboard crap?! But as I got to sophomore year, I got used to it. I got used to the speed. Used to the amazing applications that come with it for free. Used to the built in antivirus that actually works.

I was getting tired of my stupid Dell laptop. But Macs are so expensivo!!(I meant to put that "o" there because I like to pretend I know other languages) My boss told me if I wanted to get a Mac so badly, I should just get a Mac Mini on Craiglist for like $300.

It was like the word of God.

So I got one! I went to this creepy doctor's house and bought his Mac Mini for $340! It has a dual processor, 2 gb of ram, and already has a built in DVD burner! What a deal! I mean it's not the most impressive piece of machinery, but for $340 that's great. It was worth the possibility of bloody doctor murder!

My boss has tons of Mac Minis, because they're fairly cheap (half the price of a Mac laptop) and they can do whatever you want. He uses one to watch movies on, one to control the music in his office, one as a server, and one just to design on.

As you can see in the picture above, you really can use it for anything!

I was playing with mine all day today. There's all these awesome widgets you can download for free online. You can have a widget that's just a monster dancing. That's it. C'mon! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

PS. That picture's a joke. Just in case any weirdos out there thought it was real. Hehe.

Nervous Parenting

Let it be known that I'm notoriously spontaneous and the fact that my boyfriend can also have these tendencies does not help matters at all.

I've recently just come back from a vacation at the beach. I saw hermit crabs and suddenly had a romantic idea of owning two little ones with that bf of mine. I was on the fence about it. When I asked my boyfriend if he wanted to get a couple with me he said, "Yeah, sure. Sounds good." That did it. All doubts went out the window and my eyes were starry with romance. We got them as soon as possible.

Lord all mighty.

Don't doubt that I love Theodore and Pigby, but holy bajesus, they are not "easy and affordable to care for" as oh so many people claim. I feel as though the general public is under the impression, as I was, that all hermit crabs need are some food and water. My eyes weren't twinkling for long! As soon as I google searched those bad boys, I knew I was in for it.

Here's an image of a proper tank:

This doesn't even list a hygrometer I had to get also to measure humidity! We've already spend over $200 on these suckers.

So here's the truth. They need a humidity of at least 70 or they can't breathe properly and they can slowly DIE. They need the temperature to be 80 or they'll DIE. They need salt water to bathe in or they'll DIE(I don't know if they'll actually die because of that, but I wanted to keep the pattern going.).

For the past week, I have been a nervous wreck. I eat, sleep, and breathe worry! (Literally. I just had it for breakfast earlier.) I've been struggling to keep the humidity levels over 70. Just this morning it was 60 then it dropped to 30! I've been laying in bed fretting because my poor babies can't even BREATHE! I haven't even had time let them crawl on my shirt or throw a ball around with them or embarrass them in front of their friends! I've been researching and researching, doing everything the websites advise to no avail! I've had dreams! Dreams no normal 20-year-old should have! Not only about how they can't breathe, but also that I don't have any shells. Websites say you should have at least 3 extra shells for hermit crab so they can change to their pleasing. If a crab wants to change, but can't find any suitable shells (let alone any shells at all!) they can get stressed out.

But I won't end this ranting post on a sad note. In the past few minutes, while writing this post actually, I figured out how to keep the humidity levels up. I simply covered the top with a piece of scrap cardboard. I feel intellectually (and physically) beaten by a piece cardboard.

I can't make fun of Tina and her worried husband anymore. I've now been begrudgingly shoved into their category (several years too early I might add) of being a nervous parent.

PS. Look at the time. It's 8:43 am. I've been know to sleep til noon. Sigh...

Be Proud to be a Nerd!

So I'm finishing up a Southeast Asian Art History course this semester and we primarily learn about art in India. My teacher commented on something today that I thought was funny.

She said that when they translated Spiderman, the comic book, for India, they had to change the story line, because the Indian people weren't understanding why a boy that's so smart and studious could be an outcast. They changed Peter into a boy that came from the country and moved to the city.

I thought it was funny how society in schools today think people who slack off are so cool. I was actually thinking about this recently, because I know some people who dropped out of high school and are basically occupational potheads. And I've spoken to one of my friends recently and he was telling me careers he wants to pursue. This is not the first case of this that I've witnesses. It seems a lot of teenagers nowadays have this idea they can slack off now but in the future when they're good and ready to actually try in life, they can be successful at whatever they want to be.

Teenagers nowadays (and I can say that without including myself because I'm 20!) seem to have this general idea that things will just happen for them without work. And I'm really not saying this just because I think it, I see it.

There's this general lack of motivation in America that's kinda depressing.

What About Flip Flops?!?

A lot of people may not know this about me, but I turned into quite a germaphobe over the years. The commercial about toilet cleaners where they zoom in on the germs skeeves me out. Laura makes fun of me about it. I wash my hands constantly and sometimes have to ask my husband to do the same. "Did you wash your hands when you came home?" "Did you wash your hands after you took the trash out?" "Did you wash your hands at all today?" Sometimes to mess with me, he says no and then proceeds to wipe his germy hands all over my arms and face, whilst I am screaming. Then he'd say he did wash them. Not cool...

So I love wearing flip flops. I liked them before they were everywhere. It is one of my favorite things about summer. I think they are comfortable, goes perfectly with my casual style, and is just easy. Then I read the most horrible article today, titled "Can Your Flip Flops Kill You?" The tagline is "Summer footwear harbor more than 18,000 bacteria, including deadly germ." BUHHHH!! If I had really thought about it, I would have guessed. Flip flops are worn to places they probably should not be and, hence the name, flips up stuff I'd rather not think about. Ahhh, my flip flops are going to kill me! I gotta go right now and disinfect my flip flops immediately. Ack! Okay, I am not really going to...my laziness won out. But I will be SERIOUSLY thinking about it!

If You Seek Amy

I don't watch MTV, so maybe I am the last person to realize this. But Britney Spear's song "If You Seek Amy" spells out the F word followed by "me." I never realized what the chorus meant, but now it makes so much sense.

"Love me hate me, say what you want about me.
But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy."

Get it? Get it? So tricky...and so very bad. ;)

Listerine: Use with Caution

My husband told me the most disturbing thing this morning that left me with a minty taste in my mouth. (Get it? Minty...instead of sour...anyway). He told me that he read an article about how overuse of Listerine may destroy tissue in your mouth and leave you with perpetual bad breath--the very thing that Listerine is supposed to help with. I asked him how much is overuse, and he wasn't sure. I use Listerine as directed--twice every day. But now I am afraid that that is even too much. My husband and I started using Listerine regularly last year. So naturally after hearing the news from my husband, I had to look it up. And note that he told me this immediately after I finished rinsing with Listerine. Nice...

It's true that overuse, meaning rinsing from 5 to 10 times per day, can cause a lot of problems. That's true with overusing anything. But what I found was pretty disgusting. Like most mouthwashes, Listerine has high levels of alcohol (around 26%), which is a desiccant or actually dries out tissue. This can cause your bad breath to worsen. Also, I read somewhere that Listerine can cause thrush, which is or like yeast infection in your mouth! Yuck!

Also, mouthwashes (not just overuse) can cause loss of taste and teeth staining. Wil and I noticed that, after we used Crest Pro-Health Rinse, which contains no alcohol, that our taste is altered or numbed. Now, I notice that effect when I use Listerine as well. Also, I read in a few places that Crest Pro-Health Rinse causes people's teeth to turn brown, especially in the gaps. See reviews on Amazon.com. So be forewarned! I am going to stop using Crest Pro-Health altogether and limit my use of Listerine to once a day. I am so freaked out!

FreeCreditReport.com or Is It?

I am sure everyone has seen those FreeCreditReport.com commercials. Laura loves them and can be found singing the songs from time to time. Sad but true. The jingles are pretty catchy, and the commercials themselves are pretty funny. But there is more to it than that. The FTC has been after the company for deceitful advertisements, namely, that there is nothing "free" about their services. FreeCreditReport.com appears to allow customers to take a peek at their credit reports when, in fact, customers are expected to do and pay for much more than just that. The FTC has gotten a lot of complaints from people who say they are getting charged by the company and cannot cancel the service. In 2005 FTC settled with the company, but the company went right on with the commercials. So in order to fight back, the FTC did a spoof ad. Way to fight back...although they say imitation is the highest form of flattery. So they may be doing the reverse of what they intend.

Tidbit: The singer in the commercials is lip-syncing. He is actually French Canadian too! Laura was so disappointed when she heard that.

Online Shopping

Online shoppers shouldn't have to pay full price for their purchases. There are always coupons somewhere out there. Before you buy anything, you have to look up coupon codes. The most popular site is probably retailmenot.com. I only discovered this a couple months ago. It's a gold mine. I've saved 20-25% off my entire purchase before. It's great. It is yet another reason to avoid people and to stay inside.

The Lizard-Spock Expansion

I was watching Big Bang Theory last night, and it was a rerun of The Lizard-Spock Expansion episode. I am not going to talk about the episode although it was very funny. Actually, I want to discuss what BBT called the lizard-spock expansion. Sheldon and Koothrappali both wanted to eat the last dumpling, so Koothrappali suggested they play rock-paper-scissors for it. But Sheldon said that the game would not be outcome determinative because people who were familiar with each other would tie 80% of the time. So Sheldon suggest they play rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock. Haha! Try saying that five times. Lizard is displayed as you would a sockpuppet, and Spock is denoted by the Vulcan hand sign. This variation is so darn cute and funny to watch people play. And every time they would play the game on BTT, everyone always chooses Spock. Sheldon suggested they play rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock to determine who must choose something else besides Spock. You know how that turned out.

Here are the rules: Scissors cuts Paper covers Rock crushes Lizard poisons Spock smashes Scissors decapitates Lizard eats Paper disproves Spock vaporizes Rock crushes Scissors. My favorite part is "Paper disproves Spock." Haha! Anyway, this got me thinking of other TV shows I've watched where other variations of rock-paper-scissors were used. In That 70s Show, Hyde and Fes were playing a nuclear war version, Foot-Cockroach-Nuclear Bomb. Hyde described the rules as "Foot squashes cockroach, nuclear bomb blows up foot, and cockroach survives nuclear bomb!" I remember an episode of Friends where Ross, Rachel, Joey and Pheobe were playing rock-paper-scissors except Joey used fire and said fire beats everything. Then Phoebe whipped out the water balloon and put out the fire. Very cute.

As for the lizard-spock expansion, I found out that it was made up by some guy named Sam Kass a few years back. He and his wife made it up while they were dating and are confessed geeks. And guess what else! He went to my alma mater. That explains a lot. Isn't it weird how you find some connection with a total stranger?

Anyway, go forth and play rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock.

I Think I've Just Been Trolled

I was on failblog.org last night (you should check it out), and I came across this one particular fail called Google Fail. Apparently when you type "I am extremely . . ." One of the suggestions given by Google is "I am extremely terrified of chinese people." This gave me pause of course, and the curious person in me made me investigate further. When I did the search on Google, I got a bunch of results talking about this phenomenon on Google. Then I came across a blog by a person who did exactly what I did. He found that the Google results refer to an article called "I am extremely terrified of Chinese people. But I'm not racist."

So I read the article, and I had a couple reactions. First, I thought the author is completely insane. And second, I thought it was funny because of how ridiculous and ignorant it was. The article basically states how China wants to take over the world and eat you and your babies. Yeah, crazy, right? So I started reading people's comments, and most expressed their outrage. People cursed a lot and said some really mean things about the author. I will refrain from opining on whether they were warranted although I was mentally agreeing with them. ;)

Then I came across several comments that said "Trolled" or "You've been trolled" or "I smell a troll." At first, I ignored them because I didn't know what the heck it meant. But finally after seeing the word "troll" ten times, I figured it was a slang for something. So I decided to look up "trolled" on urbandictionary.com. I found that "trolled" means "anyone who fails to recognize a troll and responds to it with anger or annoyance is said to have been 'trolled.'" Huh?!? So I looked up troll. What I found out hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized I've just been trolled!! Troll means "one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument." Haha! That's hilarious! So you see, I was doubly trolled because I went through all that trouble to find that stupid troll! Well, I think it's funny. =p And I learned something new! My lil sis would be so proud of me. She taught me what "fail" meant although I refuse to use the word because it's just not proper English. Those who know the meaning of troll must think I'm an idiot. I am not hip, okay? I admit it.

Mucinex Warning

I've had this horrible disgusting phlegmy cough for three weeks. I got it from my husband who recovered in a couple days, and when it got to me, it turned into some sort of superbug. So I was finally fed up and bought mucinex. If my mucus could walk and talk, I guess it'll look a little like the guy pictured on the right--yucky and slimey. So I was ready to get him out.

When I bought Mucinex DM at CVS, I got a warning with my receipt--"Must be 18 or older to purchase. Teens abuse drugs with dextromethorphan." or something to that affect. I took it the next day and swore that I felt a little light headed and cloudy for several hours. How I described it all day was "woozy and fuzzy"--like I said, I was a little loopy that day. Before that the only symptom I had was the cough, and my cough did not get any better with the medicine.

So the question is whether it was all in my head. My husband thinks it was all psychological. Or it could be worse--I am the only sad person on earth who is affected by a little cough medicine. One thing is for sure I am not taking Mucinex again.