Spendy Jeans

There are a bunch of new boutiques in Claremont, so that now I have at least three options for stores that would love to charge me over $100 for a pair of blue jeans. I don't get this. I know I'm not a fashionista, but seriously, $178 for a pair of jeans? I have trouble bringing myself to spend $100 for dress slacks, where it's arguably worth while. Jeans I put on to be comfortable, not scared of puddles. One of the newer shops is also offering a pair of very comfortable-looking pajama pants type things for $84. This is the sort of garment that I would spend half the weekend in and get covered in cat hair and possibly various food products. Eighty-four dollars. Did togas get really high-end and expensive before Rome fell?

Dorking Around on Facebook

So, I have been kindly invited by a few friends to join Facebook. This has been interesting. Most of my work on the Facebook page I have created has been accomplished while nursing an upset stomach. I wonder if I'll go back and look at it later and be horrified at what I posted when I was too ill to know better? I also wonder if there is a selection bias towards geekiness (geek is sexy!) in the sub-group of friends who are using Facebook? Coming from me, this is a compliment, so please remember that before bristling, o dear ones. For example, one friend of mine appears (judging by his friends list, which is one female) to have joined just to be friends with one chyck. Probably a strategically wise move. And then there is one guy, whom we shall call KON, for King of Networking. He has a ridiculous number of friends. Next we see GooberJock, who is one of my favorite people ever. He immediately sent me six widget requests of some sort or another, involving alcohol, hotness, and werewolves. I called him and asked why he had so much time to be dorking around on Facebook.

I'm starting to feel a bit like the cyberworld of Ender's Game is upon us. Not the war part, but the part where his siblings are writing stuff on the net, or whatever they call it. Hey, maybe that would be a good book for bookclub. Nothing to get political about in there, right? ha ha. Anyway, it feels like there is a whole universe in there, which of course only exists in a couple of really huge servers in Virginia? No, that can't be right. I have a lot of resistance towards learning how the internet actually works - because it sounds terrifically boring to me - but it seems important, like knowing how to change a tire. Maybe a responsible adult should know the rudimentary workings of the internet. Although unlike the tire, I am not going to be called upon to fix it ever. But it seems like I ought to know how it works, like I know how the electoral college works, or where the food I eat comes from - you know, Jeffersonian Citizen sort of thing. Come to think of it maybe I should look that up... But I'm a little afraid, like if I learn too much I'll get sucked into it a la Tron, and be forced to wear glowing spandex and throw frisbees to save my life, neither of which I would want to be called upon to do under even less dire circumstances.

Interestingly, I used to have a similar level of resistance towards learning how the stock market works... Hopefully this doesn't mean we'll find me making my living at something to do with the Internet in ten years.

So, I better go find something to eat that won't worsen my tummy.

Apostrophe Catastrophe

Okay, I don't know what hit the fan recently, but it seems we have had a sudden epidemic of people thinking one uses an apostrophe to pluralize something. For example: "Shopper's serve as the eyes and ears for those clients as part of their efforts to enhance the quality of the customer's experience." Ack. This bugs the foo out of me. It's bad enough with its and it's. Or maybe I'm confused - maybe the country has just been feeling really possessive recently. And Lord help us if we need a plural possessive - what then, quote marks? 'Worker's"~_* Compensation'?

Feeling grammatically isolated today.

Partial Victory

So, Courtney and Ben did not win the Starbucks Music Makers competition... but they DID win the online vote! So thanks everyone for your help! As I pointed out to Courtney, while a free trip to Hawai'i would have been awesome, the popularity they can demonstrate with this accomplishment should be very appealing to record labels and other biz folks. Congrats to KaiserCartel!

Vote for Courtney!!!

Notice the cool "widget" I added to this page - with this, you can vote for Kaiser Cartel in the Starbucks Music Makers Competition and help my sister-in-law win!!! You have to enable pop-ups to get the verification screen. We only have until 10/11/07 so please vote now!

Yay!

Braindead.

So. Completely. Comatose. Seriously people, if ever my nose was in danger it would be now, from the imminent threat of hitting my keyboard. My intestines seem to have decided that not only will I be utterly unable to consume coffee, now tea is getting a little too strong for me. Tea. This is the drink that genteel English ladies whose ribs were being crushed by corsets and thus were prone to fainting would drink. Not whiskey. Tea. I am old before my time. I've been greying since I was 15, and apparently my intestines are joining in the line of stuff to go early. Next will be something equally weird no doubt, like my toenails. Ooo, actually, my knuckles have been getting stiff and achy... but that's probably from my secret double life as a vinyl-catsuit-clad Woman of Mystery. Too much punching bad guys.

So that's enough random stream of consciousness for one afternoon when I'm supposed to be working, I suppose.

Post HP7 Let Down - very mild spoilers

I wrote this the Monday after Harry Potter 7 came out but I didn't have this blog yet to post it on, so here it is, a bit after the fact:

I can't concentrate. I o.d.'d on Harry Potter this weekend (I really wanted to avoid spoilers...) and now I'm totally distracted. First I'm bummed that I'm not a witch. Yes, thank you peanut gallery, I realize I can be witchy. You know what I mean. Then if I can't be magical, maybe I could be Harry's cool American cousin, whom he comes to visit to recoup after his big battle. Except he's fictional. Okay, then how about I be J.K. Rowling. Um, sure, go right ahead, Kaiser. You do that then. Okay, fine, I'll just go look at pictures of Daniel Radcliff. Um, I could be his MOTHER. Sure, I would have been 15, but more scandalous things have happened. So that doesn't work.

So here I am, stuck in my utterly muggly, unglamorous office, trying to force a spreadsheet out of my brain and into my computer. And it ain't working. Obviously it's time for that fabulous career as an International Woman of Mystery. But it's a little hot out for vinyl catsuits...