I'm Back! | Random Musings
OMG, SQUEE! Please pardon the capslock, but after weeks of frustration, I finally have new Internet service and can start posting and commenting on a regular basis again. It took so long because there were a couple of snafus with them sending me a broken gateway, but it has all been sorted out as of last night. They have given me two months of free service for the hassles, so yay for that as well.
*sigh* I've missed all of you very much. I don't access LJ from the office and it has been hard for me to keep up. Please let me know if I've missed anything important. I will be catching up with commenting and emails as fast as I can. It was hard to be offline for so long. I didn't realize how much I missed my LJ until I couldn't post whenever the mood struck. I do write a lot of private mind dump entries since my LJ does serve as a supplement to my paper journal and I missed doing that. Opening up a text document and typing entries in it wasn't satisfying at all.
*hugs you* I'm looking forward to catching up with all of you!
I've been compiling the musings for the past few weeks. It's a little long, so I'll put them behind the cut.
Random Musings: Commercials, Furniture, Sniffing, Laughing, Raging, Chicken, Books, Tolls, Food, Weather, Tahoe, Sparkle, T-Shirts, and Driving Edition
• I'm a little tired of seeing vampires everywhere. I know many businesses want to capitalize on what's trendy and popular, but I think the market has been oversaturated with this trend that won't go away. Versace's most recent ad campaign for their Versus fragrance is a magenta-tinted, toothy mess. It doesn't smell very good either.
• Quizno's 5-4-3 commercial with the singing kitties is just plain creepy. Whenever I see it, I want to switch channels. They've taken perfectly nice vintage pictures of cats and paired them with skeevy voices.
• The recent Ethan Allen commercial, which I remember seeing for the first time on August 10, has a catchy percussion-based tune that peaked my interest. Unfortunately the rest was completely annoying. The images of furniture and branding flash in time with the fast beat in an eye-popping, motion-sickening display.
• I loathe that Chef Boyardee big beef ravioli that features a mother and her young son shopping for groceries. They encounter a market worker giving out samples of said product. Worker is trying to tell mother about the hidden vegetable content in each serving and the mother is trying to get the worker to shut up. After interupting the worker three times, the mother finally knocks over the display cans before hurrying off with her kid. The worker stares at the cans and says it's the third time that has happened this week. It's irritating because it is rude to deliberately knock over a display. While I empathized with the worker, her cluelessness was annoying as well. After three crashes and interruptions, please get a clue. The parents don't want you to vocalize nutrition content because they are afraid their kids won't eat it if they know it is good for them. All the drama just for that.
• That Citibank commercial where kids are playing street hockey in the neighborhood is also annoying. It is implied that they have broken many things in the neighborhood while playing. Really? After the first couple of things break, you would think someone would put an end to the games. Windows and car damage is expensive to fix. However, I do like that he donated his Citibank rewards to fund a park for the kids to play.
• I recently saw a commercial for feedthepig.org. The name alone makes me smile. Ever since I was a kid, my parents would give me the leftover coins from every purchase; it is a practice that continues on today and I'm always told to "feed the pig" when they hand over the change. I still have my childhood bank. It's a big, red plastic pig that my dad decorated with words and small drawings. I once set out to find out how much it could hold and poor Crimson Pig almost split apart at the seams. He is cavernous enough to hold $700 in quarters alone.
• A few days ago, I was driving on the freeway on my way home from a mall in Milpitas. Ahead of me, I noticed that there were people suddenly swerving left to the shoulder from the fast lane. And then I saw it; there was a huge shrink-wrapped sofa right smack in the middle of the road. I didn't have much time to react and no choice but to do the swervy dance that the motorists had done. About half a mile later, I see a flatbed truck with shrink-wrapped furniture on it. I wonder how the driver would be able to retrieve the fallen piece given the traffic. If I was the customer, I certainly wouldn't want that sofa if it was damaged.
• At that Milpitas mall, I saw a woman plant her face into the butt of her toddler and inhale deeply. She then got up and put the baby's butt in her husband's face for him to smell. O_o Wouldn't it be easier to actually check the diaper to see if it was soiled rather than sniffing?
• The laugh of the minions in Despicable Me is amusing. I've been laughing like that with my friends and family and it inevitably leads to bouts of real laughter.
• I've been putting together an album of the Florida trip for my parents as a thank you. Normally I would upload the pics online and choose what to have printed. I saw a coupon in one of the flyers that arrived in the snail mail for 5¢ a print if you ordered one hundred or more at the store. It was a great deal so I took the memory cards to Walmart and set about the daunting task of wading through 457 pictures to find the best images for printing. It took about half an hour.
I had just finished choosing 285 pics and waiting for final processing when one of the clerks comes up to the kiosk. She needed to get something from the shelf beneath the monitor and I made room for her. She looks at the screen and decides she's going to help me. Never mind that I didn't ask for help nor did I want/need it. She told me that since I ordered over 100, I could get my prints in an hour. Without even asking me, she starts touching the screen. Because it was moving sluggishly, she kept hitting the back key. Long story short, she erased every single one of my selections. *primal scream of fury* I was absolutely enraged. I let her know how much time I spent at the kiosk already and how upset I was, but I was calm and didn't scream. I tried very hard to be polite. I swear, if I didn't have that coupon, I would have chucked it all and left. *sigh* I had to go through all the pictures again.
• A few days ago (August 9) I was eating a chicken dinner with my parents. Some of the topics of conversation naturally centered around chicken (new recipes, which pieces each family member liked [Mom got drumsticks, brother got the thighs, sister got the wings, and parents shared the breast and organs], etc.) and my mom just decided she needed to share this chicken story from childhood. She grew up in mostly rural areas and the family would prepare their food rather than buying it packaged from a grocery store. My grandmother would slaughter chickens and my mom would help by holding the wings and legs at an angle to allow the blood to drip out of the neck faster. They would catch the blood in a pot filled with uncooked rice; my grandmother would then turn it into a savory treat that enhanced the meal. O_O Ewwww! While Mom was telling this story, a rather grotesquely vivid image of the actions popped into my head. I felt like dry-heaving after thinking about that.
• I took a pic of the Wuthering Heights cover I was talking about in this entry.
It might Edward and Bella's favorite book, but anyone thinking it's about vampires will be sorely disappointed.
• I finally broke down and bought a FasTrak toll tag on August 3rd. Last month they made significant changes to pricing of the bridge tolls and I felt like I needed to get one to save on carpools. Carpools used to be free during peak periods; now they are half price, but only if you have a FasTrak toll tag. That thing is a pain to set up and use. I don't even use the bridges that often, but I can't complain about the savings-$10 so far for four bridge crossings.
• Because I unexpectedly had to get my car serviced on August 6, I was stuck in the waiting room with nothing to do. Forgot to grab my book before the mechanic took my car, so I ended up watching Regis & Kelly; they had some kind of cooking contest. They were featuring contestants who introduced themselves and why viewers should vote for them. If you're going to be on TV, please enunciate. I swear I heard this one guy say, "Choose me because my food is awful." O_o
• I really don't understand this August weather. On the 11th and 13th, it was cold enough to require jacket and sweater use during the day and it was especially cold in the early mornings and late night. Now, for the past three days, the area has been experiencing a horrible heat wave. *sigh* I would rather have the cold weather.
• Speaking of August 11, happy belated birthday to mat_kat. Actually, I was able to send her a timely greeting since feather_quill and I took her to Tahoe to celebrate that weekend. It was a fun trip filled with hiking and swimming. ♥ *hugs Mat*
• I was channel surfing on August 23 when I caught a brief glimpse of Sandra Lee's Money Saving Meals show. She was making shortcake and told the viewers to sprinkle sugar on the tops of the cakes before baking to make them sparkle. Right away I knew that tip would be useless, so I stopped my surfing to see if I was right. I was. She dumped strawberry sauce and whipped cream on top of those cakes and the "sparkle" was smothered.
• On August 14, I saw that my mom had one of her house T-shirts on backwards. It was a souvenir shirt that when correctly worn has a huge picture on the back and the name of the location in smalll font on the front (close to the left shoulder). I informed her of this and she grumpily told that she knew that. Later, I saw that she corrected the mistake and I commented on the change. She then said, "Yes, but now my tits are showing." O_o OMG, I've never heard my ultra conservative mother say that. It was a shock when she used "hooters" about two years ago (it was that memorable and I wrote and LJ entry about it), but this was just too funny. Sure enough, when worn backwards, the picture covers up the noticeable outline. The white shirt front reveals all. And no, no bra. She was home for the evening and relaxing in house clothes.
• On August 17, I was driving home around midnight when I saw a most bizarre thing. As I turned onto my neighborhood street, I saw a woman riding a bike while texting on a dark road. There are streetlights, but she was in a dark patch. The only reason why I noticed her is because she had blinking lights and reflective stickers on her bike. Please pay attention to your surroundings. I saw her right away and slowed down considerably-about 5 mph. She almost sideswiped my car because she was too busy with her phone.
• *shakes fist at the driver of the red car who was honking at me to hurry up and turn into my neighborhood street yesterday* There were pedestrians in the crosswalk and all of them were children. Red Car Driver, I hope that the next time you're a pedestrian, that drivers respect your right to cross safely.
*sigh* I've missed all of you very much. I don't access LJ from the office and it has been hard for me to keep up. Please let me know if I've missed anything important. I will be catching up with commenting and emails as fast as I can. It was hard to be offline for so long. I didn't realize how much I missed my LJ until I couldn't post whenever the mood struck. I do write a lot of private mind dump entries since my LJ does serve as a supplement to my paper journal and I missed doing that. Opening up a text document and typing entries in it wasn't satisfying at all.
*hugs you* I'm looking forward to catching up with all of you!
I've been compiling the musings for the past few weeks. It's a little long, so I'll put them behind the cut.
Random Musings: Commercials, Furniture, Sniffing, Laughing, Raging, Chicken, Books, Tolls, Food, Weather, Tahoe, Sparkle, T-Shirts, and Driving Edition
• I'm a little tired of seeing vampires everywhere. I know many businesses want to capitalize on what's trendy and popular, but I think the market has been oversaturated with this trend that won't go away. Versace's most recent ad campaign for their Versus fragrance is a magenta-tinted, toothy mess. It doesn't smell very good either.
• Quizno's 5-4-3 commercial with the singing kitties is just plain creepy. Whenever I see it, I want to switch channels. They've taken perfectly nice vintage pictures of cats and paired them with skeevy voices.
• The recent Ethan Allen commercial, which I remember seeing for the first time on August 10, has a catchy percussion-based tune that peaked my interest. Unfortunately the rest was completely annoying. The images of furniture and branding flash in time with the fast beat in an eye-popping, motion-sickening display.
• I loathe that Chef Boyardee big beef ravioli that features a mother and her young son shopping for groceries. They encounter a market worker giving out samples of said product. Worker is trying to tell mother about the hidden vegetable content in each serving and the mother is trying to get the worker to shut up. After interupting the worker three times, the mother finally knocks over the display cans before hurrying off with her kid. The worker stares at the cans and says it's the third time that has happened this week. It's irritating because it is rude to deliberately knock over a display. While I empathized with the worker, her cluelessness was annoying as well. After three crashes and interruptions, please get a clue. The parents don't want you to vocalize nutrition content because they are afraid their kids won't eat it if they know it is good for them. All the drama just for that.
• That Citibank commercial where kids are playing street hockey in the neighborhood is also annoying. It is implied that they have broken many things in the neighborhood while playing. Really? After the first couple of things break, you would think someone would put an end to the games. Windows and car damage is expensive to fix. However, I do like that he donated his Citibank rewards to fund a park for the kids to play.
• I recently saw a commercial for feedthepig.org. The name alone makes me smile. Ever since I was a kid, my parents would give me the leftover coins from every purchase; it is a practice that continues on today and I'm always told to "feed the pig" when they hand over the change. I still have my childhood bank. It's a big, red plastic pig that my dad decorated with words and small drawings. I once set out to find out how much it could hold and poor Crimson Pig almost split apart at the seams. He is cavernous enough to hold $700 in quarters alone.
• A few days ago, I was driving on the freeway on my way home from a mall in Milpitas. Ahead of me, I noticed that there were people suddenly swerving left to the shoulder from the fast lane. And then I saw it; there was a huge shrink-wrapped sofa right smack in the middle of the road. I didn't have much time to react and no choice but to do the swervy dance that the motorists had done. About half a mile later, I see a flatbed truck with shrink-wrapped furniture on it. I wonder how the driver would be able to retrieve the fallen piece given the traffic. If I was the customer, I certainly wouldn't want that sofa if it was damaged.
• At that Milpitas mall, I saw a woman plant her face into the butt of her toddler and inhale deeply. She then got up and put the baby's butt in her husband's face for him to smell. O_o Wouldn't it be easier to actually check the diaper to see if it was soiled rather than sniffing?
• The laugh of the minions in Despicable Me is amusing. I've been laughing like that with my friends and family and it inevitably leads to bouts of real laughter.
• I've been putting together an album of the Florida trip for my parents as a thank you. Normally I would upload the pics online and choose what to have printed. I saw a coupon in one of the flyers that arrived in the snail mail for 5¢ a print if you ordered one hundred or more at the store. It was a great deal so I took the memory cards to Walmart and set about the daunting task of wading through 457 pictures to find the best images for printing. It took about half an hour.
I had just finished choosing 285 pics and waiting for final processing when one of the clerks comes up to the kiosk. She needed to get something from the shelf beneath the monitor and I made room for her. She looks at the screen and decides she's going to help me. Never mind that I didn't ask for help nor did I want/need it. She told me that since I ordered over 100, I could get my prints in an hour. Without even asking me, she starts touching the screen. Because it was moving sluggishly, she kept hitting the back key. Long story short, she erased every single one of my selections. *primal scream of fury* I was absolutely enraged. I let her know how much time I spent at the kiosk already and how upset I was, but I was calm and didn't scream. I tried very hard to be polite. I swear, if I didn't have that coupon, I would have chucked it all and left. *sigh* I had to go through all the pictures again.
• A few days ago (August 9) I was eating a chicken dinner with my parents. Some of the topics of conversation naturally centered around chicken (new recipes, which pieces each family member liked [Mom got drumsticks, brother got the thighs, sister got the wings, and parents shared the breast and organs], etc.) and my mom just decided she needed to share this chicken story from childhood. She grew up in mostly rural areas and the family would prepare their food rather than buying it packaged from a grocery store. My grandmother would slaughter chickens and my mom would help by holding the wings and legs at an angle to allow the blood to drip out of the neck faster. They would catch the blood in a pot filled with uncooked rice; my grandmother would then turn it into a savory treat that enhanced the meal. O_O Ewwww! While Mom was telling this story, a rather grotesquely vivid image of the actions popped into my head. I felt like dry-heaving after thinking about that.
• I took a pic of the Wuthering Heights cover I was talking about in this entry.
It might Edward and Bella's favorite book, but anyone thinking it's about vampires will be sorely disappointed.
• I finally broke down and bought a FasTrak toll tag on August 3rd. Last month they made significant changes to pricing of the bridge tolls and I felt like I needed to get one to save on carpools. Carpools used to be free during peak periods; now they are half price, but only if you have a FasTrak toll tag. That thing is a pain to set up and use. I don't even use the bridges that often, but I can't complain about the savings-$10 so far for four bridge crossings.
• Because I unexpectedly had to get my car serviced on August 6, I was stuck in the waiting room with nothing to do. Forgot to grab my book before the mechanic took my car, so I ended up watching Regis & Kelly; they had some kind of cooking contest. They were featuring contestants who introduced themselves and why viewers should vote for them. If you're going to be on TV, please enunciate. I swear I heard this one guy say, "Choose me because my food is awful." O_o
• I really don't understand this August weather. On the 11th and 13th, it was cold enough to require jacket and sweater use during the day and it was especially cold in the early mornings and late night. Now, for the past three days, the area has been experiencing a horrible heat wave. *sigh* I would rather have the cold weather.
• Speaking of August 11, happy belated birthday to mat_kat. Actually, I was able to send her a timely greeting since feather_quill and I took her to Tahoe to celebrate that weekend. It was a fun trip filled with hiking and swimming. ♥ *hugs Mat*
• I was channel surfing on August 23 when I caught a brief glimpse of Sandra Lee's Money Saving Meals show. She was making shortcake and told the viewers to sprinkle sugar on the tops of the cakes before baking to make them sparkle. Right away I knew that tip would be useless, so I stopped my surfing to see if I was right. I was. She dumped strawberry sauce and whipped cream on top of those cakes and the "sparkle" was smothered.
• On August 14, I saw that my mom had one of her house T-shirts on backwards. It was a souvenir shirt that when correctly worn has a huge picture on the back and the name of the location in smalll font on the front (close to the left shoulder). I informed her of this and she grumpily told that she knew that. Later, I saw that she corrected the mistake and I commented on the change. She then said, "Yes, but now my tits are showing." O_o OMG, I've never heard my ultra conservative mother say that. It was a shock when she used "hooters" about two years ago (it was that memorable and I wrote and LJ entry about it), but this was just too funny. Sure enough, when worn backwards, the picture covers up the noticeable outline. The white shirt front reveals all. And no, no bra. She was home for the evening and relaxing in house clothes.
• On August 17, I was driving home around midnight when I saw a most bizarre thing. As I turned onto my neighborhood street, I saw a woman riding a bike while texting on a dark road. There are streetlights, but she was in a dark patch. The only reason why I noticed her is because she had blinking lights and reflective stickers on her bike. Please pay attention to your surroundings. I saw her right away and slowed down considerably-about 5 mph. She almost sideswiped my car because she was too busy with her phone.
• *shakes fist at the driver of the red car who was honking at me to hurry up and turn into my neighborhood street yesterday* There were pedestrians in the crosswalk and all of them were children. Red Car Driver, I hope that the next time you're a pedestrian, that drivers respect your right to cross safely.