Honk your horn.

OK, so I signed up for Beep, which appears to be the Daily Herald’s version of Chicagoist or Metroblogging or something. You have to register in order to post comments, which I think kind of blows, but I did it for the sake of my domestic partner, whose paycheck is signed by the D.H. You aren’t engaged to anyone who works for the Daily Herald, but maybe you should sign up anyway. For the sake of the Chicago blogging “scene” or something. Ha! Anyway, they do have a pretty cool logo… And us suburban bloggers are a little under-represented, right? OK, I might not have signed up at all, but for the deck that reads “Raccoon on swan crime has Itasca residents feeling blue.” It’s hard finding interesting news in the suburbs–I feel their pain.

April 30, 2005 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

On houseplants and offspring

I think my thumb has stopped twitching. I got distracted with something else, and by the time I was done, my thumb wasn’t twitching anymore. Was it a psychosomatic twitch? Perhaps. Or else the water/vitamin/banana are kicking in.

Anyway. Do you think that growing houseplants is easier or harder than raising children? Because, let me tell you, growing houseplants is HARD. I lost two branches on my rubber tree because I over-watered it, and they rotted. But my hydrangea is dying because it’s too dry. What the hell! Nobody’s ever happy. I water them at the same time, and one is rotting from too much water while the other is dehydrating. I fucking hate houseplants.

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Twitch, twitch, twitch.

Normally, I am the least crazy person I know. The one exception is with this sort of OCD-like hypochondria thing that I have. I don’t know how it started, but I am aware of it, so I don’t always take it too seriously, but the bottom line is that on any given day, I think I have some sort of fatal disease.

Today, my thumb is twitching. Potential causes include tetanus (I’ve been on a tetanus kick lately), Multiple Sclerosis, Lou Gherig’s Disease, or Parkinsons. Other potential causes include stress, vitamin deficiency, dehydration, or exercise-related injury. It’s obviously tetanus. (by the way, read the webmd description of tetanus, and you may get some idea of why I’m so terrified of it).

Apparently, thumb twitches are almost as common as those god-aweful eyelid twitches that everyone I knew in college always got around finals time. OK, so I’m trying not to panic, because obviously I slept on my arm wrong or I drank too much last night or something, but it’s REALLY ANNOYING to have your thumb twitch constantly all morning. I hope this doesn’t last too long. I’m going to go take a vitamin, drink some water, and do some yoga. And also pray to God that I don’t have a major neurological disorder.

Maybe it’s some kind of neurological advertisement for the new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie… DON’T PANIC!

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I’m a Pod person

Man is Windows XP a buzz kill. I bought my adorable little iPod Shuffle at the Apple Store on Monday, stopped by Best Buy on the way home to purchase a Windows XP upgrade, and brought it all home only to figure out that Windows XP takes 3 goddamn hours to install. OK, when I put in the CD, it said “approximately 88 minutes until installation is complete” but apparently there’s some kind of Albert Einstein Speed-of-Light Theory-of-Relatively malarkey going on inside my computer because it took THREE HOURS to install. So I didn’t get iTunes installed until after midnight, and I didn’t have time to actually rip any CDs. So on Tuesday morning, I loaded my little white baby up with the 20 measly mp3 files I already had on my computer and I took it to work. I was going to iPod no matter what!

Last night I ripped three more CDs, plus I downloaded the two iTunes free music sampler album doodads, so today I had a little more selection, but the Shuffle was still only half full. Seems like it will fit approximately 10 CDs worth of music on it, which is just fine for my tone-deaf ass. They were all sold out of the armband, though, so I guess I’m going to have to quit jogging for a while (har!).

April 27, 2005 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Baby It’s Cold Outside.

Wow, was today a bad day to sit in my garage all day or what? If you’ve never had a garage sale, you totally should, if only for the cultural experience part of it. Garage Sale-ers are WEIRD! Do you know what sold first? USED PERFUME. What? People buy used perfume. For $1 per bottle. Hello?!?!? IT’S USED. I marked the bottle of Colors (by Benetton, circa 1990) down to 50 cents because the bottle was only 1/3 full, but judging by how fast it sold, I could have put it at $5. Someone also paid $1 for a mostly-full bottle of some kind of Gucci perfume that I think I took from my mom when I was in 5th grade. That perfume sat unused for 20 years for a *reason* you know.

And everyone has a story. Not only that, but everyone wants to tell you their story. Many of them want to tell you their story more than they want to buy your old tchotchkes. Even if it is only 35 degrees Fahrenheit, all of these people will stop by to tell you about their home businesses or how their husbands hate their collection of monkey statues. Fascinating and horrifying, and sorry if I sound like a snob.

Anyway, I came away with $120 and a less cluttered house. Now I’m can buy that iPod Shuffle I’ve had my eye on. OK, I was going to buy it anyway, but now I have justification. A garage-full of crap traded in for a digital music player the size of a pack of gum. There’s beauty in that, isn’t there? Too bad I also have to spend $99 to upgrade my sorry-ass operating system, since the iPods won’t work with Windows 98. Oh well. Welcome to the 21st century I guess.

Now I have to go warm up with a nice cold beer…

April 23, 2005 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

I can’t remember what I was going to write…

Hey! I think I had a purpose for blogging today, but whatever it was has left my brain. Oh well… Moving on…

I finally got around to putting a link in the sidebar to Enjoy and Exciting, a blog that has been supplying most of my hits for quite a while. Hello K! You’re the only person reading my blog who doesn’t know me personally!

So, I ended up NOT getting tetanus while gardening on Saturday. At least I don’t think I got tetanus–it does have a 7-21 day incubation period, but I didn’t cut myself or anything, so I don’t know how I would have gotten it. Hypochondriac much? Yes.

Jay and I order Lou Malnati’s and we’re going to drink beer and set up the garage for tomorrow’s garage sale. Give it up for domesticity! By the way, I’m having a garage sale tomorrow. If you know where I live, you should stop by and buy some of my garbage. If you don’t know where I live, I’m not telling you. Geez, what are you, a stalker or something?

April 22, 2005 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Say goodbay to Seasonal Affective Disorder

My first 1/2 week at my new job was SOOOO fun. I love it there. Major change from my old job, which I hated before I even started. I have an office! with a door! and windows! Oooh, the windows! So awesome. My new title is “writer/assistant producer.” That’s right! So send your scripts my way! Just kidding, please don’t send me any scripts. It’s not that kind of job. Anyway, the cafeteria alone is worth changing jobs for. No more vending machine sandwiches or ugly linoleum floors! The cafeteria at this place is a massive sun-room: glass ceiling, patio tables: it’s like the botanical gardens in there or something. And the salad bar only costs 39 cents an ounce. Fresh food!

Ok, sorry for all the exclamation points. I’m excited, can you tell?

Now, it’s a nice day, so if I can get over my fear of tetanus, I think I’m going to go do some gardening.

April 16, 2005 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Festival of the Week: Whiskey Week in Chicago

That’s right folks, I’m picking up Geektastic’s “Festival of the Week” feature for another year. And with festival season quickly approaching, I thought I’d start things off right with Whiskey Fest 2005.

The main event at the Hyatt Regency costs $95, which includes all the whiskey you can drink. However, free events will be held around the city, including Twisted Spoke (the yuppie branch on Clark, not the one on Ogden and Grand), Delilah’s, and Binnies. I can’t make it, since I don’t want to show up for my first week at a new job with whiskey breath or bloodshot eyes, but I might have my own personal whiskey fest on Friday night.

April 11, 2005 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Wrigley Report Volume 1

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first edition of a new semi-regular feature on Geektastic: The Wrigley Report. This is not quite a sports feature, as I am not quite a sports person. Instead, think of it as a cultural experiment. Or something like that.

Game Day: April 10, 2005

Seats: Section 224, row 7, obstructed view seats purchased 1-1/2 hours before the first pitch.

Ceremonial First Pitch/7th Inning Stretch Celebrity: Jeremey Piven. Overheard conversation:
Guy 1: Who’s Jimmy Piven?
Guy 2: He was in Grosse Point Blank
Guy 1: No, that was John Cusak.
Guy 3: PCA, Dude.
Guy 2: and he was the principal in Old School, dude.
Guy 1: Dude.

Fashion Report: The tube top density was low, due mostly to the arctic Wrigleyville wind coming off of the lake. Shorts-clad frat boys were in full effect, though, obviously forgetting that it’s APRIL for God’s sake.

Last year’s “Cubbie Pink” has been replaced by a new team uniform abomination, “Cubbie Red,” proving yet again that a large percentage of Wrigley Field patrons have no idea what the hell the team colors are. Listen up, Trixie: Blue. White with blue pinstripes. Grey and blue. THOSE ARE YOUR CHOICES.

Where not to go: The most obnoxious fans in the crowd will always announce what bar they are going to after the game (or rather, after they stop serving beer at the end of the seventh). Now, I have never heard of “Tunes” but judging by the number of times I heard “Dude, let’s go to Tunes” it is not a place I will be going any time soon.

Dude factor: (The ratio of the word “dude” in relation to other words in the sentence) 1:20. Not horrible, mainly because the obnoxious Brewers fans behind us left in the middle of the eighth, leaving us with 4 glorious innings of peace.

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Belly dancing, overcommiting myself, and bikes

I just finished writing a 550 word article titled “Learn to Belly Dance” for writeforcash.com. (I know, I’m starting to sound like a commercial for them.) Anyway, I’ve never belly danced, but I do like a good Lebanese restaurant, and I’ve become a little obsessed with all those hookah places that have been popping up. (Jay won’t go because he’s been a non-smoker for more than 2 years now and doesn’t want to risk starting up again just because of some stupid Wicker Park fad.) I found a place in Glen Ellyn that offers 8-week belly-dancing courses for $80. I’m considering it. If anyone volunteers to go with me, it will probably seal the deal.

I actually wrote this last one in under an hour, which is awesome, because I’m supposed to write two more articles for them before Wednesday, and with my commitments to Centerstage (the Virtual L guide by Sunday, and 2 venue reviews by Wednesday), it’s not looking so good for me. Luckily, the writeforcash system is almost completely automated, so nobody will really know or care if I miss the deadline.

Also, Jay and I bought mountain bikes at Target last night. They were only $68 each, but we’re not going to take them to actual mountains, so suck it. We tried to fit the two assembled bikes into my car, which is a hatchback, but they wouldn’t fit. Just one bike would have fit, but two was too much for my little Korean machine. So Jay went back in to buy a bungee cord, but instead came out with a trunk-mount bike rack. AWESOME! Except that the rack’s “Compatibility Guide” said that it’s not compatible with my super-sleek Hyundai Tiburon. So I left Jay with the bikes and switched cars. After I got back, it took us just 30 quick minutes to mount the goddamned thing to the car, and even then it was kind of wobbly. We probably would have been better off riding the bikes home, since it’s only about a mile. But anyway, we got the bikes home in one piece, put a little air in the tires, and took them out for a spin around the cul-de-sac just as the rain was starting. So fun! Now I can’t wait for the weather to get nice again so we can go biking.

April 7, 2005 | Geektastic | Comments Closed
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