(a side rant)

iTunes kinda disappoints me on a couple levels.

First. I bought a $15 card, because that's how I budget and treat myself. I'm not sure what I was treating myself for this time. Anyway, I punched in the activation code, and I got a "this code is invalid" message. After a frustrated email to tech support, it turned out I was misreading the B's as 8's. Um, shouldn't there be a way to print these things more clearly so this problem doesn't happen as often?

Second. The "Just For You" thingy is a cool concept, but honestly, it was better in beta. Currently, it keeps recommending the same things over and over, doesn't remember what I've previously set as already owned or not liked, and is recommending songs I've already purchased from them. Why can I set "already own" or "don't like" labels for entire albums, but not for individual songs?

Third. I wanted some Moulin Rouge songs. I can only get them if I buy the whole album. I don't want the whole fucking album. Wasn't part of the point of iTunes (and other online music stores) to allow people to legally obtain copies of single songs without having to purchase the entire album? And if it's the record company disallowing single song sales, not the store, then the store should put a note on the sales page that states this. That way, everyone's frustrated comments can be shifted to the correct outlet, and maybe dumb people will stop giving the album poor ratings simply because they only wanted to buy one song. (Or at least not in such vast quantities.)

Fourth. Listen to a song in its entirety before putting it in one of those iTunes Essentials playlists. For example, Death Cab For Cutie's song I Will Follow You Into the Dark, while aww-inducing, is about the death of a loved one, even if it is pondering a death way off in the future. And Rufus Wainwright's The Tower of Learning does include the aww line "I saw it in your eyes, what I was looking for," but later it also says "with one glance you smashed it with your eyes ... one blink and then my heart wasn't there no more." These are good examples of songs that should NOT be included in a playlist of indie-rock wedding songs.

I'm not completely frustrated with iTunes, though. I still love how I can buy [most] songs individually, and the new option to complete an album you've already purchased part of is awesome (I'll definitely be taking advantage of it). iTunes Essentials are overall a great way to discover new music. And the aforementioned Indie Wedding playlist included a Queen cover of the Wedding March, which was fucking awesome.

[end rant]

"So, does this mean you're gonna grow now?"

I got a new tattoo yesterday. I probably should've waited until I wasn't sick, but too late now.

I wanted to pay some sort of homage to oldskool gaming, ie. Mario. Mario Bros 3 is just about the coolest game ever. Most tattoos I've seen from that game, though, are of the 1up mushroom. No offense to anyone who gets a 1up mushroom, but I wanted something different.

And then there's this whole year. It's been a tough year for me, emotionally, and I wanted to symbolize all the people and things that have helped me through everything. The 1up mushroom gives you another chance at life. The super mushroom, on the other hand, helps you out along the way. Perfect.

So, say hello to the back of my left calf:

*squee*

1) After some freaking out regarding its whereabouts, I have my computer! It's spiffy. My only real complaint so far is that all my usual programs (Firefox, iTunes, Trillian) aren't really upgraded for Vista use yet, not to mention the adjustment that normally happens when one switches from a desktop to a laptop (or just changes keyboards).

2) I got my hair chopped off. It's shorter than it's ever been before. Like, note my profile pic. Put that haircut, proportionally, on a 23-year-old. It's shorter than that by a wee bit. I love it.

3) So, yay.

I can't wait...

The computer I wanted wasn't in stock. Dammit. But it was on sale for $850! It shall arrive in the mail tomorrow, and I shall be quite happy then.

I realized last night that I have a lot to be proud of myself for. Aside from an extra $236 from my student loan, I paid for that computer. Myself. I worked my ass off and saved up enough to comfortably dish out $850, plus an additional $300 for antivirus, a cordless mouse, and a kickass service plan. And at this time tomorrow, I will be able to reap the benefits of this.

I've been in a pretty good mood today. Lately I haven't been so sure of myself - particularly Saturday night, when I didn't get to sleep until 3am because my random bout of crying turned into a fairly severe asthma attack - but today, I'm great. I don't have to work today. I have time to relax. I have time to do some homework and clean to make room for the new addition. I have time to listen to how nicely System of a Down segues into Nickel Creek. This is awesome.

Five

Hello, blog. Five days. It's been a while.

1) My last day at the truck stop was on Friday. Not only that, it also happened to be a close-early-day due to remodeling. Hells yes. The only drawback was that the floor to the back room was being retiled, so I couldn't get back there to have the satisfaction of punching out for the last time. Oh, and when I was dusting products I accidentally knocked over a bottle of Aqua Velva, which went sploosh onto my pants, which left me smelling like minty old man for the rest of the night. No offense intended to Aqua Velva users. I just can't stand the smell and the flammable nature.

2) We once again have Reese's Pieces at Cold Stone (although it's probably temporary). I was reminded of Katie's Reese's pronunciation guide-slash-rant when several people ordered "Reesies" this weekend, but I seriously twitched when a girl ordered "Reesies Piecies." WTF! Mispronouncing "Reese's;" I can understand that to an extent, since it's a name of a person. But "Pieces"? That's clearly an actual word!
I was able to spread some friendly education, though (I hope). As much as I wanted to start screaming a sermon at people, instead observe the following examples of excellent customer service:
--"Um... I'll get Reesies Piecies and a brownie." "Ree-SAYS Pee-SAYS and a brownie, coming right up!"
--"Um... I'll get Reesies..." "Ree-SAYS peanut butter cups or Ree-SAYS Pieces?" "Ree-SAYS peanut butter cups."

3) Earlier this week, my computer decided to restart itself twice within a 24-hour period, and the buzzing noise continues to irritate me. Assuming what I want is in stock, I'll be buying a new one tomorrow after class. And then once I get everything transferred, I can finally take it out back and pull an Office Space on it. It's a fitting sentence for a machine that doesn't like to run more than two programs at once.

4) Boy on a Stick and White Ninja had wonderful Valentine's Day comics.

5) I really need to start on my hall council projects and wiki homework.

Fuzzy

Over winter break, I got bored and started teaching myself how to knit. Here's pictures of the first thing I made...

I had a bunch of that annoying fun fur left over from when I dressed up as Red Fraggle a couple Halloweens ago, so I knit up a rectangle of sorts, sewed it together, and wove some black string in.



It's a dice bag! I'm a geek and bought my first set of dice over break, and I needed somewhere happy to store them. I have never seen anyone else with a knit dice bag, much less one this annoying. The bag came out kinda lopsided, but whatever. I'm learning; sue me.



It also serves to irritate people, which is quite awesome.



And, here's a teaser of what I'm currently working on (a bag that will probably need more than two skeins of $4 yarn):

oops

I seem to have fallen a bit behind in the reading for this class already. Shite. I'm working on it, I swear. I'll have some sort of commentary up either tomorrow or Sunday.

In other news, today I meandered over to the rec and worked out for the first time in forever (aka sophomore year). Man, did that feel good. I think I'm gonna go there a few times a week now. Assuming I have time, anyway.

Oh! and I checked out my finances earlier. I'll probably wait until my next round of paychecks in two weeks, but with my loan money coming in I should have enough money leftover to buy a new computer. I will have a spiffy piece of technology sooner than I was expecting! I'm so excited. And I just can't hide it. Woah no no no no.

...

Um. I need to crash.

"Blog" is a fun word to say

Food poisoning! Woo! Okay, I don't know if that's what I got, because the boyfriend came down with similar symptoms after I borrowed his garbage can last night. Either way, yuck.

Windows Vista is released today, though. *sigh* if only my computer wasn't five years old and had more than 128mb RAM (yes, those still exist). I found a Yahoo tech blog entry about the whole thing, and although it contained no information I didn't already know, this made me giggle:

Windows XP's dog slow built-in search is so pathetic it's a joke, and not just because of the little yellow dog that's there to "help you" find your files.

Hah! I hate that damn dog. Almost as much as that paperclip from Word.

And OH MY GOD Talespin is on! I haven't seen this show in ages.