yay

i have a plot! i have a main character! i have conflict!

i'm still so screwed ;)

NaNoWriMo

i know i said i wouldn't blog my novel, but i'll probably bitch about it a lot.

like right now. i don't even have a main character yet. dammit >_< i do have a basic plot though.

better late than never.

although i do feel sorry for the poor kitties.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Town pardons executed "witches"

damn you, blogger.

i noticed this afternoon that blogger is having a NaNoWriMo gimmick they're calling NaNoBlogMo, which is very cute. and i got interested, and i followed their link to the NaNoWriMo site, and...i signed up >_<

i don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting 50,000 words written in the month of november, seeing as i have a full-time job, i'm moving on the 5th (and 6th and 7th and...). but i liked their reasons. especially this one:

Can anyone participate in NaNoWriMo?
No. People who take their writing (and themselves) very seriously should probably go elsewhere. Everyone else, though, is warmly welcomed.

*grins*

and i need something to do. i feel like my brain is atrophying. early this year, i actually started writing, but my surgery put a quick end to that. so i'll use this as an excuse to try again. also, they put the emphasis on "quantity, not quality." it's very easy to get defeated by too-high standards. so i'm not going to be able to worry about stupidity or awkward prose, i'm just going to write it out and leave it at that. maybe i'll edit it into something more publicly digestable when i'm finished. if i finish.

and yes, that mean's i'm not going to be part of NaNoBlogMo. i'm sure you're all heartbroken. wish me luck anyway? ^_^

milestone.

almost literally. the golf ticked over 100,000 miles this morning on the way to work. and we figured it's just about exactly 3 years since we bought it. what do you get a car for its birthday? :)

business practises.

it finally happened. the long-awaited consolidation of the u.s. cellular market has begun. it ends when you decide, and we both drink. er. for more immediate web-type coverage, go check slashdot ;)

i have to say, i've been pretty happy with my cingular service. scanning the posts on /. it appears to be about 50/50, depending where you live. verizon around here sucks ass. and their customer service sucks ass. and sprint sucks ass. ever since t-mobile became t-mobile (i.e. when Deutsche Telekom bought out voicestream), they've been getting better. if i switched, i'd switch to them, but...ya know, my calls connect, my voicemail works, and i get reception. what else do i need, really?

that's not to say it's been all perfect; i've had my share of billing problems with cingular, but they've always been very nice and polite, and quick to answer my questions and resolve any problem. as an added bonus, their call center is in oklahoma instead of india.

probably if i was an AT&T customer, i'd be more concerned, but all i'm really curious about is: will they keep att's "go phone" plans? no credit check and no contract sounded like a phenomenal deal to me. i almost switched last september when my free phone offer came from cingular (every 2 years, they give you a free phone, but it usually involves a plan "upgrade"), but even back then i heard cingular was going to buy at&t wireless, so i figured to hell with it.

well, well. it ought to be interesting to watch, at least.

why i'm not in marketing

so Levi's is trying to re-awaken interest in their classic "red tab" line of jeans. instead of using a creepy mannequin, i thought they should use Underworld.

"and here comes another god/ here comes another god/ like a buffalo thunder/ with a smell of sugar/ and a velvet tongue/ and designer voodoo/ and i got phone sex to see me through the emptiness in my 501s/ freeze-dried with a new religion/ and my teeth stuffed back in my head."

hmm. maybe not ;)

addictions.

things i am addicted to:

1. coffee. well. caffeine of any kind.

2. the new ABC show "Desperate Housewives." although articles like this make me a little less ashamed: CNN.com - Commentary: Why 'Housewives' is thriving - Oct 25, 2004

3. yoplait nouriche yoghurt smoothies. i drink 3 a week. at least. you can't let them get warm, but they're fortified with more vitamins and minerals than i knew existed. panthotenic acid? biotin?

4. cigarettes? well, maybe. i'm one of those people who says, "i can quit anytime i want, i just don't want to yet."

5. www.weather.gov and its parent noaa site. especially image archives.

6. watching mortgage rates, even though we've already locked. and settlement is in 11 days anyway. and articles like this: USA TODAY - Existing home sales surge in September

7. car reviews. i don't know why! this one is most puzzling. but i can't stop reading about all the new features and technology and marketing gimmicks behind new cars. i mean, cars i don't even care about otherwise like minivans.

i can't think of any more right now. and i haven't included little OCD habits, because i don't think they quite count as addictions.

creativity.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Sex pledges to boost US vote turnout

it's creative at least, you have to give them that. although it could cause problems for those of us in relationships with non-citizens. does that mean john kerry can't have sex with his wife? i can't remember if teresa heinz kerry ever acquired u.s. citizenship. i guess she must have since her husband is running for president, after all.

kibble.

after 3 weeks, the cat is finally eating normally. and, of course, we move in another 3 weeks, which means he'll get all upset again. poor kitty.

when we got him, i guess we didn't think we'd be moving this year. but mortgage rates stayed low, and house prices are skyrocketing, and the general advice we got was either buy now, or wait five years for rates and prices to settle down and normalize. since the fed is raising rates, it meant by this time next year or in two years, probably mortgage rates would also be up, but property prices still wouldn't have come down. a double whammy, as they say. then, of course, we found this place, and got stuck with a 6 week interval between our apartment lease ending and being able to make settlement on the house. and we jumped at it, because we were one of four offers made within 24 hours of it going on the market. we'd already lost one bid by that time.

*sigh* the poor cat. felines and financials apparently don't mix. oh well. one of the reasons we picked him at the shelter is because he was, in fact, a very assertive and friendly cat, right from the start. we spoil him to death, too. moral of the story is: if you're going to buy a house in a seller's market, make sure you have a confident and well-adjusted pet. or just wait until after you move to get one :)

bad timing.

so, we had cable in our apartment, and we actually got the food network, but my parents don't have cable. *sniffle* not that i watch that much tv, but i'd like to see this. anyone want to record it for me? ;)

CNN.com - John Cleese's guide to wine - Oct 18, 2004

grumble.

bad mood this morning.

and have i complained about how much i hate my job recently? i really hate my job.

at least i'm old enough (mature enough? have enough good taste?) not to do something ridiculous, like play "Karma Police" on repeat for 5 hours.

*ponders* also because the only Radiohead album i own is Kid A because it's the only good one.

i still hate my job, though.

current reading.

Weaveworld

by Clive Barker

birthday gift.

obit.

somehow, i missed that Jaques Derrida died last friday from pancreatic cancer. very sad. the last of the 20th c french philosophers.

work.

you know the rest of your life is boring when the high point of your week is discovering that Mozilla Mail handles S/MIME certificates and encryption properly.

current reading.

Going Postal

by Terry Pratchett

i go through these too fast. they're fun, though.

shoes?

USATODAY.com - Slip into the sole of yesterday, ease of today

ironic shoes. good lord.

current reading.

Monstrous Regiment

by Terry Pratchett.

borrowed from a friend. i missed The Last Hero, apparently. i shall have to see if i can snag it at some point.

justifications.

it's really very amusing to watch people try to justify their racism. well, amusing and kind of depressing at the same time.

"oh, i would just feel uncomfortable letting my child marry someone...different."
as if single-race (monoracial?) marriages never break up because of "irreconcilable differences." and race makes it impossible to compromise. yes, indeed.

"but the children won't know who they are!"
yes, because fitting into little checkboxes of race is so important. and, of course, the human mind simply can't extrapolate and create.

"you're diluting your culture."
because, of course, you can't teach your culture to your children. or to your spouse. nope.

maybe it's not racism in the classic sense, but it's certainly ignorance. and i don't feel sorry for those people at all. and i'm very blunt about it. as you see *grin* they can get offended if they want. i just wish they'd leave us the hell alone.

neglect

i feel like i've been neglecting my blog recently, but really, it's more like i've been neglecting my life. things have finally slowed down, it seems. eh. give it another month. i'm sure things will become hectic enough when we move again.

heard the best phrase the other day...

unfortunately, i can't take credit for it myself. we were discussing the vagaries of a friend's co-worker when he said, "yes, he suffers from cranio-rectal spatial distortion."

hee.

food.

so, my birthday happened to fall on the last day of restaurant week. my father graciously agreed to take me out, seeing as there were some neat restaurants on the list, and it meant he didn't have to get me a birthday present anyway ;)

i chose Twenty Manning based on their proffered menu, which was larger and more interesting-looking than probably 90% of the other restaurants on the list. what i discovered after the reservation was made was that it had a reputation for being a collection place for rittenhouse square's chic-est of the chic. which, needless to say, isn't me. on the other hand, one assumed that the clientele would be somewhat different during the restaurant week promotion. in the end, dad said he'd like to come back for the food, but he felt too old for the place.

since it was my birthday, and even though i hadn't eaten for 7 hours or so, i decided to have a cocktail to "start off with." i don't usually drink cocktails; i don't like sugar with my alcohol in general and they don't generally go with food. but they had a "ginger cosmo" which was (iirc) "ginger-infused vodka" and cranberry and grapefruit juices. the ginger was more apparent in the nose than on the palate, but it wasn't as sweet as i was fearing (do cocktails have a nose?).

it also went surprisingly well with my first course, peking duck spring rolls. the peking duck filling was very, very mild, and unfortunately rendered essentially flavourless by the inclusion of a sweet and hot sauce. however, it enabled me to drink my cocktail without falling off my chair.

for my main course, i had seared mahi-mahi over grilled vegetables in a green coconut-milk-based curry broth-thing. that's an incredibly sophisticated description, i know. but it was very good. the curried coconut milk and the still-crisp vegetables cut the monotonous flavour of the fish very well. i like fish like mahi-mahi and tuna in steaks, but i find that uninspired chefs will present you with a block of fish over something bland, like rice. halfway through your meal, you desperately want to taste something, anything other than your fish. this one was very nicely done. for dinner, we had a dry riesling which was alright because 3 of the 5 of us ordered fish, and my brother is too young to drink anyway.

dessert was a "sampler" that included some very good ice cream and a disappointingly unripe blackberry in the fresh fruit melange. there was also a cinnamon-dusted puff pastry and a chocolate thing.

all in all, it was very good. the waitstaff was attentive and not snobby, although the restaurant was so full with tables that they could barely get through. also, if you happened to be left-handed, they kept missing your water glass.

i really enjoy philly's restaurant week promotions because they work exactly the way they're supposed to: you can try out new or previously unknown places, or places that would otherwise be just too expensive. it's a great idea, and from everything i've read, it generates a hell of a lot of business for the city. i'm all in favour of anything that keeps philly's food scene going :)

oh yes.

happy birthday to me.

interesting...

frankly, i'm surprised cnn published this review. suggesting that a "family film" might have a gay subtext is one of the fastest ways i can think of to kill a film's financial potential in certain markets. who knows, maybe they weren't planning to get much money from there anyway. it still surprised me. i'm not objecting; i was always planning to go see this film, and now it intrigues me even more.

CNN.com - Review: 'Shark Tale' goes swimmingly - Sep 30, 2004