Random photos I’ve saved over the last couple years, posted for your enjoyment/horror.

Random thoughts I’ve had as of late:

- I think I’m going to take advantage of some of the time off I have whilst on maternity leave to learn how to cook.  It’s been a long time coming, and with nine full months off work after Little Doodle is born, I really should utilize any time not devoted to the baby.   Because really, when you fear screwing up boiled rice, it’s time.

- I’m asked on a fairly regular basis in the office if I watch (insert reality show du jour here) or (cheap soap opera here) and it really surprises people when I tell them we don’t have TV/cable.  We have A tv, which is used to play games and watch movies, but we don’t get any channels.  It’s a great way to alienate yourself from idle office chatter, but I am grateful to not have it.  I mean, with such quality entertainment out there such as Jersey Shore and I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here, why DON”T we have cable, amirite?!   Lately I’ve had to google terms such as “snooki” and “fist pump” and “who the fuck are Heidi and Spencer Pratt?” (an ironically fitting surname based on what I’ve read) just to decipher Twitter tweets and other pop culture references on the internet.  In doing so, I’m glad I’ve spared myself the braincells.  The day I become obsessed with Jordan or “guidos” or who danced what on Strictly Come Douchenozzle, is the day I kill myself.

-Sometimes I think people post ten million photos of themselves and other people in various locations on  Facebook just to prove to others they leave the house.

-I need to get out of the house more. But it’s cold and miserable and wet all the time.  Or dark, it’s dark all the time too.

-I Just finished the book Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster and, while it was a bit too “chick lit” in places, it was a good, light read.  The book is basically a memoir about what it’s like to live in a big city, deal with anti social types, the horrors of rent prices, and the comedy of life.  Oddly, I recommend it.

-Customer service is dead…. and the customer killed it.  I may write a full blog about that one actually.

-I got an 82% on my Chemistry coursework (an A- ish in the American system). Oddly the unit I was dreading the most turned out to be my best grade yet.

-I really wish I could find/ be friends with a group of people in the UK interested in either old school table top gaming or Magic: The Gathering.

-After seeing no less than three dozen properties for sale in the Brighton area, one can safely assume the following:  1. For the price of the average two bedroom maisonette with no outside space and tiny rooms in Brighton,  you could buy a five bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, two story, two and a half car garage, renovated basement, granite counter top-having, sits-on-a-full-acre-of-land, fuck off HUGE house in the USA.  Fact. 2. Whatever number they give for bedrooms in the listing, you can safely subtract one, as they will be counting a room that is nothing more than a glorified walk-in closet as a bedroom.  3. Most people have not updated their homes since the 70s.

-I never realized just how much being a goth is about the attention seeking until observing a girl at work.  There is a definite behavioral pattern where, when the shocking appearance and garb fail to garner the required attention, this girl will step it up by being louder and louder, singing (in the office? Really??), being random, and generally annoying.  Hey, negative attention is still attention, right?

And lastly, I added a new photo to my portfolio:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

One evening last week I was finishing up at work and I exited the building only to find it was pitch black outside.  I guess I expected a more gradual season transition than that.  One day, light, next day… completely black.  WTF I say.

Been busy as usual, inbetween studying, starting school, and my healthy appetite for gaming.   Lately I’ve been using my off days to get through the Life in the UK study material, which I can assure you is completely boring.  I have to have my Indefinite Leave to Remain application submitted by the beginning of December and, among all the other proof I have to provide, must be a certificate showing I passed the Life in the UK exam.    Oh and £830.  That too, let’s not forget the large sum of money to which they can only justify £300ish of it goes towards the actual processing of your application… and the remaining lot is used to enforce immigration laws on those who go the illegal route.  completely fair, obviously.  I guess I should just count my lucky stars that  I am going through this now and not two years from now… when the fee is going to double…

(more…)

Remember that kind, wise, infallible Danny-freakin-Tanner from the 90s show, Full House?  You know the one who single handedly “raised” three young girls, let his brother in law move in, and had a solution and hug for every problem?  Remember him?

Well watch him go absolute ape shit while filming the commercial for his Comedy Central Roast.  I LOVE this video: