pray for our troops
Mood:  down
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Friends and Family
One of my buddies in the blogging community, Colonel Mustard is stationed in Iraq. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past day and a half, you've heard about the horrific attack in Mosul. Col was a regular here on Tripod until a few weeks ago when he went over to Mindsay... anyway, here are some excerpts from an entry that he made today:

I don't know who I am anymore. I don't know why I am here anymore and I have no idea what I am doing. I woke up this morning devoid of all emotion, I feel neither anger nor pain, joy or sorrow. My desires, hopes and ambitions now appear meaningless. I lack even the remotest sense of self and everything is now numb. The ringing in my ears the only knowledge I have that I am still alive, nothing else even really bothers to register. Except for perhaps the images tattooed right on to my psyche of the finality of yesterday afternoon.

If I am not making any sense, or rather just rambling, you will forgive me, if you don't I doubt I would care either way. Will I ever care about anything ever again? We lost 6 people yesterday. 6 faces I will never see again. I can't even see them now...People you saw every day, worked with, lived with, laughed with, argued with in some cases, especially this head case...but not anymore.

My heart just flew kamakazie into the abyss and now I am just an empty shell where a soul used to be, however tattered and tarnished it was, it was mine, and now it is gone.

If I were able to I'd be crying right now, but I suppose that requires emotion and feeling, something with which I am now lacking.


This is the second time in the past month that the war has seemed too close for comfort. If that makes sense. I'm not sure how to really describe it. Yes, I knew that there were people over there that I knew -- some mere acquaintances, others being friends, either old or new. I worried about them, but never thought that anything bad would happen. I read the latest casualty reports in Iraq... I see how old they were. There is another site with more information, sometimes photographs and backgrounds.

At any rate, with all that being said, it still seemed like it was far away from me... no one that I knew had been injured or killed. Then Kyle comes home and kills himself, and now I find from Col Mustard's firsthand experience how awful it is over there. I knew it was bad, but.......? I don't really know that to think about all of this anymore. It seems that none of our soldiers are getting the help that they need, whether that means some kind of psychological preparation for war, or even having the right supplies and equipment. What is the right solution? We can't just pull out, can we? There will probably be civil war either way, so what should we do? Is there anything that we can do? Saddam might have been a threat, yes, but he's out now, so what now?

what is this world coming to?

gluttony, site, Isaak
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on
I updated my site, so CHECK IT OUT. I decorated it for Christmas. ;-)

I was an absolute glutton yesterday and I loved every minute of it. I mentioned that we were going to Ruth's Chris steakhouse for our Christmas luncheon... well, we went to the one in Eastport and it was absolutely delicious... I was a big piggy. Anyway, little did I know that Kurtis had made reservations at the Ruth's Chris in Baltimore at the Power Plant (next to the Ram's Head). We're walking towards Power Plant live and he says. "Well, Marilee said that Babalu was good, so we can eat there..... or....... I made us reservations at Ruths Chris at 6." "You're kidding." He wasn't. So I must have consumed about 5,000 calories yesterday, and I loved every minute of it! Unfortunately, we rushed through dinner a bit since we were worried about getting to the Isaak show on time. We walked in to Ram's Head around 7:15 -- Isaak didn't go on until 9!!!! We weren't very happy, obviously, but we waited. The show was fantastic, although he *did* have one joke/comedy segment that we had heard at every show we'd been to before. It's funny, and people who had obviously never seen him before were hysterical, so I'm willing to overlook that. :)

Can I add that the new Ram's Head venue is AWESOME!?! Supposedly it holds about 1,000 people, but I doubt it. There are 3 levels, the very top one being reserved for media or special people (not schmucks like us), the main floor and balcony is open to everyone... there are probably 7 bars or so throughout the venue, 3 or so food stations, plus a restaurant. The balcony curves around to make use of every possible area, so that there is more space to see the band. There really isn't a bad seat in the place... I'll definitely be going back! Hopefully some other acts that I want to see will play there, it is just an incredible venue!

I guess that's it for now.... I probably won't be making quite as many posts (at least from home) in the next few weeks, since Kurtis's family is now in town and my laptop/work area has been temporarily commandeered. :-/ If I show up knocking on your door with a crazed look in my eyes, perhaps you'll understand.

a new quiz
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Chris Isaak
Topic: Jokes & Funny stuff

You are Sir Bedevere! Wise and creative, you are
able to counsel others as well as come up with
some really ingenious plans of attack...sort
of.


Which Monty Python & the Holy Grail Character are you REALLY?
brought to you by Quizilla

moving up in the world
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on
I'm now #7 on blogspotting. I wish that there was a different button that I could put on my blog, something that would update with my position. Oh well.

A bit tired. Stayed up too late last night. Tonight will be another late one, probably, since we're going to see Isaak. I guess that I should be listening to him to get in the mood, but I'm not in the mood for Isaak now. Figures. Oh look, Mr. Borderline walked in front of my desk. Very surprising. I think that he's been hiding. Fine with me. I hope that they demote him...

Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm playing in my Fantasy Super Bowl this week! I beat Jeff and Kurtis beat Bob, so I'm playing Kurtis for the championship. The Pummelers (my team) have been ravaged by injuries, most recently losing top receiver Terrell Owens for the rest of the season. Not to mention losing Priest Holmes really hurt, too. My guys will find a way to win, though... I gave them a talking-to and they're going to fight hard this weekend.... we have home field advantage, you know! ;) lol. I'm such a freak.

wtf??
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Rants
I can't believe it!!! Mr. Borderline showed up!?>?!!? I haven't seen him yet, but I saw his car in the parking lot. What the hell do you say to somebody like that? "Oh hey, nice to see you?" "Glad you're not dead?"

???????????????????????

If they don't do something to him, I am seriously going to start looking for another job. NOW. It just pisses me off that he can get away with whatever he wants and have the balls to complain about other people! Not to mention that if I had done the same thing, I'd probably be out the door. Why he gets the preferential treatment, I don't know. It's not like the clients love him or anything. If this were any other company, his ass would have been fired *months* ago. The last I heard, his ex-wife was going to file a missing persons report on him. The guy has a 10 year old kid! Don't show up or call to work, okay -- but to not even call the mother of your child to let her know that you're still alive?? To not call your son?? Now he's just going to waltz in here and pretend that he didn't do anything wrong. GRRRRRR

Do I even acknowledge his existence? Do I do any work for him? I guess that I have to if he gives it to me. It makes me so mad. Can you tell??? I think that I'm justified in my anger. I guess it's not him that I should be mad at, though -- it's management. Bastards.

They're taking us to Ruths Chris today for lunch, so I guess that I'll bite my tongue for now.

i am sooooooooo tired, should be in bed
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on
The new stuff that I've put on my blog in the past few weeks has been fascinating for me........ I just can't believe the number of pagehits I'm getting a day! I'm averaging about 78 pageloads a day... that's pretty cool......... 45 new visitors, not so many returning visitors, but who cares? It's fun to see what people have typed into search engines and found my page...... here are some of the latest search terms: patrick ramsey throwing javelin marley station mall hot topic employees love lexapro hate anorgasma nick sywak new york magazine november 2004

Interesting that someone does a search on patsy and finds ME instead!!! haha!!!!!!!!

Oh, I'm also #17 on blogspotting today, so good job, people... click that little button on the left side of the screen a couple of times. ;-) put me up there, will ya?

thanks! :)

okay, i'm really out of it, so i'mre ally going to bed now. night.

ugh
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Weekend happenings
High drama in our little island at stone hollow court last night. We don't need desperate housewives, we have our own soap opera in Aspen Park!

Take:
4 neighbors + 1 mother with alzheimers + 1 idiot alcoholic husband + 5 paramedics +1 ambulance + alcohol + gossip x 4 hours = chaos

it was interesting!

Why are people so gullible?
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: xmas music
Topic: Rants
If you know me at all, you know that I can't stand the stupid rumors/urban legends that arrive almost daily in my inbox. Okay, so they don't usually end up in my inbox, because most of my friends know better than to send that crap to me. Why? Probably because I humiliate them when I do a "reply to all" and send a snopes link and story about their bogus forward. It's my hope that those people check snopes before sending their bogus emails forward, so I'm doing my own part at cleaning up all the junk on the internet. Act locally, think globally, right?

This morning, I have a blinking light on my phone - gee, I have a voicemail. Listen to the voicemail and it's a general message for the whole company - "effective such and such a date, telemarketers will be able to call your cell phones, so you must sign up on the do not call list for cell phones, the number is 888-382-1222." Me being the skeptic (or maybe realist) that I am, went immediately to my trusty snopes.com site and found the following info: You must register your cell phone with the national "Do Not Call" directory before 1 January 2005 to prevent your number from being provided to telemarketers: False.

It goes on to say: Some versions of the exhortation to cell phone users to add their names to the Do Not Call Registry erroneously state there is a 15 December 2004 deadline for getting listed. Says Lois Greisman, the Federal Trade Commission official who oversees the anti-telemarketing registry: "There is no deadline; there never has been a deadline to register."

However, belief that there might be such a cut-off coupled with the e-mailed alerts themselves have served to multiply many times over the number of registrations. Since the initial wave of sign-ups following the 2003 launch of the list, registrations have come in at the rate of 200,000 new numbers a week. Yet in the final week of November 2004, nearly 1 million new subscribers were added, and in the first week of December 2004, that figure jumped to 2 million. At this point in time, 69 million phone numbers are contained in the registry.

Adding one's cell phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry (even if currently unnecessary) won't likely have any adverse effect, but customers should be aware of exactly what that action will or will not accomplish.

At the bottom of the snopes page, there was a reference to a Washington Post article written a week ago... so I looked it up, and the following info is from the article: It's not clear where the e-mails originated, but industry and government officials say they are an urban myth; they are not true. There is no list of cell phone numbers being turned over to telemarketers, and telemarketers are barred from calling cell phone numbers. [...]
Telemarketing officials say companies review their lists twice a month to eliminate any cell phone numbers, as FCC rules require. Even without such a rule, "we don't want to call people's cell phones," said Tim Searcy, head of the American Teleservices Association, which represents call centers. "We know it eats up their minutes, annoys them, and the likelihood of them buying anything is very low. It would be a waste of our time."

What did I do? Oh, I made copies of the aforementioned Washington Post article and posted them ALL OVER the office! I asked Teddra (receptionist) who told her to put the message on voicemail. Pat in accounting. This doesn't really surprise me. Pat tends to freak out over the smallest things, and worries needlessly. This is the same woman who is convinced that no one is capable of doing anything, and she has to do everything herself. Last week was the FIRST TIME in (at least) 4 years that she didn't stay until the end of our tree-trimming party to clean up. It took a lot of convincing to get her to believe that we were quite capable of putting the food away, throwing away trash, etc. without her help. Granted, we did do body outlines in tape on the lobby floor, but that was just for fun.

McAnnoying is being annoying today. Shocker. Did I mention that he has a green tweed jacket that he wears everyday, with every single outfit? Today it's particularly awful, because he's wearing a different shade of green checked shirt with the tweed jacket. Probably the most interesting combinations have been the jacket with his purple silk shirt that he wears at least once a week. This guy has the same wardrobe all year long! I mean, there are certain things that I'll wear year-long, but I generally don't wear long-sleeved shirts in the summer. Yep, the purple silk shirt is a summer staple. So is the tweed jacket. He even wore the jacket to the Christmas party. I bet it smells lovely! I think for Christmas we should all pitch in and get him another jacket.

BTW, the Melting Pot was WONDERFUL. Coincidentally, we had the same waitress as before, and didn't refuse to serve us! She definitely remembered us, of course. Kurtis gave her a very generous tip... I'm sure that all is definitely forgiven now, if it wasn't before. :)

been a while since I posted anything funny
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: xmas muzik
Topic: Jokes & Funny stuff
So here is some assorted stuff from Engrish.com

do we really want to know??

no thanks, I'll take the bus!

I'd like the cake, please...

sounds appetizing!


and my personal favorite.....

in the future, many people dead, too!

I did it!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: HFS
Topic: School
Got my 4.0 this semester! Hopefully I can keep this up. I just wonder what I could have done had I actually tried in school -- both in high school and my first college attempt at Chesapeake. Maybe it had to happen this way, though... now I appreciate the value of an education more?? I feel even more that there is a reason for everything that happens, because I had a hell of a time registering for classes and ended up having to completely rearrange my class schedules. I remember how frustrated I was at the time at having to change everything around, but it ended up being for the best, because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the same teachers. Guess that's it for now.. I have lots of work that I need to catch up on!

1
PSY-111-400
Intro Psych
3.00
3.00
A
12.00

2
ENG-112-400
Comp & Lit 2
3.00
3.00
A
12.00