So, if your face will surely show it when you're happy and you know it, why do you need to clap your hands?

Labels: random

I have come to a conclusion. I very much like Flock. I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone, but I tried to switch to Firefox 3 yesterday, and I just couldn't deal with it. I don't use a lot of what I thought I would use (the blog thing gets really annoying, and so does the media stream so I disabled it), but I have become completely dependent on others. The RSS sidebar, for instance. I never paid any attention to RSS feeds before, but now I can't live without.

Anyway, it's worth a shot.

Labels: flock

Someone decided my life wasn't quite shitty enough right now. The cab company won't send a taxi to Hyde Park because it wastes miles for the drivers, but instead of acknowledging that, they tell me over and over again that it will be here in three to five minutes, and then just stop answering my calls.

Thanks, Chicago Carriage Cabs. For the second day in a row I missed my vet appointment. Now PAWS is going to come to my apartment and take back my cats because I have defied my contract with them.

Awesome.

Cause then I will have so many friends left.

Labels: kitties, whiny

My new kitties. Two of them.

Gilroy:

I would call Gilroy a pretty unique cat, but I can't, because I have met Boris. Gilroy is basically Boris, but a little smarter, and a lot louder. Therefore, not as awesome. Still, pretty awesome. Today he took a shower with me. Boris always insisted on being in the bathroom when I showered. He really like the steam bath. Gilroy? He enjoys the shower itself. Climb in and wash up. Pretty crazy. Gilroy does not fetch rubber bands. He does, however, like grabbing anything you are holding (e.g. my camera) and not letting go. Period. Not letting go. He's a year old, so he's growing out of his kittendom. (Gil has a black nose.) He's also incredibly protective of:

Audry:

Audry is a four month old baby baby. She is scared. Very scared. She's wonderful, full of personality and playful and loving, but she's scared. PAWS didn't have a full history on her, but it's very obvious that she was abused. I'm hopeful that since she's young she will be able to overcome it. She nearly killed the volunteers at PAWS, but since she's been home, she hasn't hissed, scratched, or bitten once, not even when we pick her up. It is pretty hard to pick her up, since she likes to maintain a four foot radius at all times. Still, after each time we hold her and pet her (she in fact does like this once she's in our arms, we're not evil) the radius decreases. It used to be about twenty feet. She spent the first day here in the darkest corner of the closet of the bathroom. Lauren and I each sat with her for about twenty minutes keeping her company and petting her (very slowly) and by evening she was exploring other hiding places in the house. By the end of the next day, she actually would let herself be seen in open spaces without Gilroy around! This was a very big achievement. (She has a goatee.)

They are not related, but they act like a very tight big-brother, little-sister thing. Gil always makes sure Audry gets enough food and enough play time with the weird feather thingy, and he makes sure she doesn't hide in the closet for too long. He keeps her company under the bed when it's pretty clear he would rather be getting lots of petting. She loves him dearly. She trots around behind him constantly, and cries and cries and cries and searches the whole house for him when he sneaks off to take a little break. Pretty soon, of course, he can't resist her, and emerges to snuggle. I think on their own, each would be a pretty uneventful cat, but together, they are a fantastic pair. I'm hopelessly in love.

Labels: audry, gilroy, kitties

So, I guess that's how it goes sometimes. It's ok. I'm ok. I get it.

1. I have internets now. And cable TV. My life is magical.

2. Did you know that I don't live in Hyde Park anymore? I don't. Technically I live in Kenwood, the neighborhood just north of Hyde Park (where the U of C is and where most students live). Do you know who else lives in Kenwood? Obama!!! So we are in the same neighborhood...so we're neighbors!!!

3. Ok, ok. Just kidding. I mean, I'm not kidding. But neighborhoods in Chicago are really big, and Kenwood is no exception. So living in his neighborhood doesn't mean much.

4. Except then there's this:



5. So, um, yeah. We're fucking neighbors, bitch.

6. Go Obama!

7. P.S. here is his house from as close as you can get without the secret service people looking at you funny:

Labels: apartment, chicago, kenwood, obama

I'm definitely that kid in my sosc class. Shit. Someone do the world a favor and shoot me now.

Labels: sosc

I have missed you!! I forgot how boring life is without gmail and rss feeds. MacLab is closed. I am on a stupid pc outside of it that is really really slow.

Stuff:

1. I got kitties! I will post pictures when my internet is existent (hopefully Wednesday). I will talk more about them, too, because they are very interesting kitties.

2. I beasted my linguistics class. Well, I mean, I got an A. And I passed (it was pass/fail) my philosophy class. (Note that this makes my major GPA a 4.0, haha. Yay for only being one class into my major.)

3. Now I have the incredibly exciting task ahead of me which is summer social sciences!!! Yay for Self, Culture, and Society for nine hours a week! My first class begins in approximately 27 minutes.

4. Gabe is rocking Chicago for three weeks for the U of C high school summer session. It's badass.

5. Jon is stinky. Ok, well...not really. Actually he smells really good. I have decided he is not going to break up with me. You hear me Jon? You might try. You will fail. Sorry, tough luck.

6. Bob Loblaw Lobs Law Bomb.

On to the land of sosc now...

Labels: arrested development, Gabe, jon, kitties, linguistics, school, sosc

1. Killing Chinese people indiscriminately.
   
2. NPR podcasts.
3. Hot pockets.
4. Applying to be a counselor at atheist camp.
5. Reading snarky graduation speeches.
   
6. Unscrewing things and organizing said screws.
7. Pop-ice. (6 fruity flavors! Knock off of Fla-Vor-Ice)
8. Making lists of all the boys I have pictured naked.
9. Making lists of all the girls I have pictured naked.
10. Buying things from this girl.
11. Packing clothes that I will wear tomorrow.
12. Playing fetch with Boris.
13. Thinking of possible topics for semi-witty blog posts.
    

Labels: atheism, Boris, chinese people, etsy, hot pockets, lists, naked, nattily, packing, podcasts, pop-ice, procrastination, screws

Hours and hours of amusement and putting off your philosophy paper.
Poke the penguin.

Labels: amusing, paper, penguins, poking

I do! I want to so bad!! But I also don't want to die...

Brought To You By Lovers Toy Stores

Labels: drugs, LSD

Holy crap do you know what I just watched? Probably, from the subject line. I watched Corsaire!!! Like, instead of writing my paper. You know what? It wasn't that bad!!!

Also:

Labels: corsaire, paper, procrastinating

I admit defeat. I will write my paper. But I will continue to be very bitter about it.

Labels: school, whiny

I regret to inform you that I have committed suicide.

I left a note:
It went unnoticed. Now I am dead.



Tragic, I know. Maybe you shouldn't have made me write that philosophy paper.

Also, in addition to being dead, my misfortunes are adding up. My paper remains unwritten and now my neck is stained red from food coloring.

Labels: suicide

Something, anything, anything at all to give me an excuse to not write this fucking paper. Can you give me something? Anything?

• I opened an online savings account.
• I packed everything I own.
• I did my laundry.
• I wrote checks for hundreds of dollars to my roommates.
• I mastered Snood evil.
• I got caught up with This American Life
• I searched the Miami Herald archives for my mom's stories about me.

Give me something else. I'm desperate.

Labels: school

My cousin Suzannah got married a few weeks ago. I had to miss the wedding because of Corsaire and midterms, but she just posted the pictures on facebook, and I'm about to die.

 

I don't know, they just look so happy. :-)

Labels: family, suzannah, weddings

I'm assuming everyone has moved on from IE to Firefox by now, but does anyone use Flock? It is "the social web browser." I downloaded it yesterday, and I don't really know what I think of it yet. Has anyone else had positive/negative experiences with this?

So the deal is, after Mozilla's success with Firefox, they tried to branch off and create sort of web browser gone crazy, for you know, us internet age fiends. It has the framework of Firefox, but has a little extra. Flock attempts to integrate with, well, anything on the internet. Obviously it can't, yet, but it has mastered a few important sites. It's got a really awesome integrated feed reader/finder, a "media stream" finder - which I didn't even know existed, full integration with most popular webmail services, and the personal favorite for every internet stalker, a "People Sidebar" which gives you constant updates on all of your friends on all of you networks on all of your social networking sites: facebook, myspace, twitter, youtube, whatever. It's kind of creepy. Also you can update any blog service and upload photos to any photo service from anywhere at all. (What I am doing right now, for example.) Finally, and perhaps most coolly, it is all drag and drop based, which I am still exploring, but it is generally awesome.

Labels: flock, internets

Labels: amusing

Did you know that The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny has Tobias in it? You know it is a quality piece of viral video when it references Arrested Development.

Labels: arrested development

It's my birthday!
Rock so hard.

You have to appreciate a google image search for "natalie's birthday."

Labels: birthday, jesus

So, I have no faith in University Theatre productions. I just don't. HOWEVER, Batboy...fucking sweet! I knew Amelia was a great dancer, and I knew she acted, but for some reason I suspected that she was one of those girls who was good enough for high school competitions, but not actually that great. Like me, I guess. I held my own in drama, but I never claimed to be seriously talented. Really though, she was spectacular. This is the second time in a month (re: Iron Man) I've been my usual pessimistic self, and then ended up ashamed that I had no faith in what was clearly fucking awesome.

Also, did you know my birthday is in like three days? I totally forgot until Jon reminded me today. Cool though. I'll be twenty, so still a baby, especially compared to every single one of the people I associate with in Chicago. Oh well. That's why we live off apartment parties here instead of bar night. If you want eternal love you can get me something off my wish list but don't worry, I have no expectations, not even from Mom and Dad. Maybe Jon. Yeah, Jon better get me something. But I'll probably still love you all if you just write on my Facebook wall or something. That might actually be the only way I can remember that it's my birthday.

Remember when you were eight and birthdays were the most badass thing in the world? Like, way better than Christmas because it's all about you! Well, I never really had that because my and my brothers had kind of one big cooperative birthday (June 7th, 9th, and 10th). Still, my birthday was something I lost sleep over (in a good way). I think that stopped when people disregarded my extreme love of presents.

Labels: batboy, birthday, chicago

Question: If you had to spend your summer taking sosc for the core for nine hours a week, but you got to choose one person, anybody, to come live with you while you do it, who would you choose.

Answer: Motherfucking GABE!!! Rock. Rock so hard.

Labels: Gabe, school, summer