The other day Netflix said they were splitting into two companies then yada yada yada the internet lost their damn minds,  people were prepared to go to war over the issue, their stock dropped, letters of outrage were written to our congressmen, people wore sack cloths and nashed (I have no idea how to spell that and WordPress isn’t helping me here) their teeth, the cry of sorrow and alarm could be heard through out the country.

Two days later Facebook changed their format for the umpteenth time and yada yada yada a lot of internet addicts found themselves curled up in the fetal position with their bottle of JD saying they couldn’t deal with change – as they continued to surf Facebook for 3 hours.

Several month’s ago Twitter had to slowly taper it’s users off of the old format on to the new format just to keep said fetal positioning from happening because a mutiny was a stirrin and those Twitter folks make the Facebook folks look like milk toast.

Really?

This is what upsets us now?

What do Netflix, Facebook and Twitter all have in common? They are non issues, they are time suckers, they are entertainment, they are fluff and yet they apparently have the power to rile a nation?

Are these the kinds of things we really want to focus on being “upset” over?

Who cares? Lives were not affected by these changes, let’s be honest.

I don’t know maybe in a world of tax hikes, unempolyment, housing drama and an unending war on terrorism we need to get angry over something trivial?

Maybe it’s time to gain some perspective and unplug?

List serve mention of the day goes to ‘Thieves in a Purple Suburban’ – first off the idea of “thieves” running loose in the neighborhood brings images of plundering, pirates and mayhem – secondly they’re in a purple suburban, I know it’s Austin but really there can’t be too many of those around.

No really.

And as I wrote my gym today I realized I have been avoiding this for a month, it’s like an awkward break up.

You knew it was coming, I was distant, not spending time with you like I used to. When I got there my heart didn’t seem into it. You heard a rumor I was hiking more often and talking to people about rowing classes, you even heard a rumor I was planning on going back to Spin and Pilates, in fact I’m pretty sure you saw that Pilates instructor’s number in my bag when I saw you last.

Really, you’re great. You shouldn’t let this stop you from being the best gym you can be. It’s just time for me to move on, shake things up in a bit.

So for now I have to say good bye, maybe we can be friends. I won’t say anything bad about you, in fact we can keep all the same friends as we had before, no problem. And hey, it could be worse, I could be leaving you just cause I don’t care anymore about working out!

Good luck to you, I’m off for an after work hike.

Etsy Agrees

There are just some words and phrases that now make me cringe when I hear them. The other day I was listening to a very intelligent woman discuss a very intelligent subject (vague enough?)…problem was her filler words made her sound like a 13 year old moron. “Like um you know”…. I’m sorry I can’t take anything you say seriously, you might as well have a side ponytail, braces and bubble gum in your mouth.

I’ve had a running list of cringe words for a while. Then one day on facebook, Etsy posted a similar thought, what word would you like to retire in 2011. Yes please! The problem is the words enter in our craniums and saturate our vocabulary so easily, I find myself slipping on more than one occasion. I retreat to the basement and practice self flagellation for at least an hour, but still, the likes and ums haunt me.

Some of these words are just far to pubescent to remain in an adult vocabulary, some started out funny in certain situations then gradually became over used and abused.

So drum roll……

1. Like
2. umm
3. for real / for reals
4. You know?
5. Hear what I’m sayin?
6. Know what I mean?
7. ROFL
8. WTF
9. Sarah Palin (hee hee, ha ha, LOL, ROFL, LMAO – couldn’t resist)
10. ur (instead of you are)
11. dial in
12. phoned it in

Can you add to the list?

Sable, a.k.a “Princess Paws, little shit, fat maw maw”

…but mostly it’s just Sable – said in a very exasperated tone. She’s cute though huh? And anything you set down is apparently her throne, anything!

I’ve notice there is a distinct evolution of photos for women in the Facebook world, and it all corresponds with the relationship status.

Status 1 - Single: Photos of herself, her friends her extended family…maybe her pet

Status 2 – In a Relationship: Photos of her boyfriend, she and her boyfriend, her boyfriend and her friends…maybe her boyfriend and her pet

Status 3 - Engaged: Photos of her ring, her fiance, her fiance and her extended family and friends…and definitely her fiance and her pet

Status 4 – Married: Photos of herself and her wedding gown…more of herself and her wedding gown. The wedding, photos of she and her husband, photos of her husband and their families and their friends….and the new couple with the pet.

From here on out it’s an array of sub status’ – Married with….

Married and pregnant: Photos of her belly, more of her belly, his hands and her belly, him kissing her belly….wait what happened to the pet?

Married with a baby: Photos of the baby, the baby, the baby, her and the baby, him and the baby and we sold the pet for more baby clothes.

Married with children: Photos of the kids, her and the kids, the kids and… is she still married? Check relationship status, yeah says she’s still married but…

Basically by the end the man is no where to be found – you can go to his facebook page if you’re really that curious. He’ll have a picture of himself from 10 years ago with the college buddies, buttt that’s about it. He’s now ghost hubby- by “his” request….riiiiight.

So low and behold, it did not surprise me one bit when what could have been a flirtatious conversation went south and went south fast!

Enter…Mr. California, white teeth and all.

Him: What do you do for a living?

Me: Real Estate and Web design

Him: Cool, I am in sales and marketing…for a dental and whitening company
(notice, I didn’t even have a chance to ask him what he does)

Me: Oh, teeth whitening, like Milkbones?

Him: (head cock, lost look on face) Did I say anything about pets?

Me: No

Him: Oh…uh, well yeah we do teeth whitening and cosmetic dental work

Me: Do many pet owners use your services?

Him: (getting a little twitchy at this point) It’s not for pets it’s for people….small huff at the end

Me: So where do the milkbones come in play?

Him: They don’t…never mind, well it was nice to meet you.

And fade to black….

Anyway, so the post ended up as a piece to prod stay at home workers into revealing what other gross things they do as a result of not having to work at a formal office. I have to admit I went from always having an office to sometimes having an office to not having an office at all. The later ended with my working in 5 day old unwashed PJ’s – hair up to heaven and needless to say I’ve seen CSI Vegas three times through. And I slept…. oh how I slept.

Then I got an office – PRAIIIIIIISE. I was beyond excited. This time was different. All the other times it was an office for someone I worked for. This time it was just me, all mine. So now I can work from home or go into the office. I may have already said this, but just in case….PRAIIIIIISE! So I’ve learned to get to the office by mid morning, why not earlier. Well I get some focus work out of the way. The kind of work that if I was at the office it would be 4pm and would still not be done.

This was a general concesus on the comments for the blog post I was reading. Going into the office meant less work would get done. And as crazy as it sounds, its mostly true. The office is where everyone wants to socialize these days, show their favorite you tube videos and such. I myself have had to threaten the office within an inch of their lives if they do not leave me alone and let me work. I’ve contemplated digging a moat and putting a guard dog named whiskers at the door.

So why is this? Why is so much time wasted at the office, forcing many to feel that they will only get work done if they are at home. Are we so efficient now we can get more work done in less hours, leaving us with all this extra time? Or are our work ethics so laxed now that the office has become play land?

So this fourth of July I was about as anti social and lazy as it got. I slept WAY in, lounged, watched movies, ran a few errands and ate and drank and ate and drank. And  a small part of me felt like mayor of slackerville. Why is that? Why must we feel the pressure, especially at holidays, to do it up big? It’s like we’re trying to live up to the year before and live up to the image of a perfect holiday.

Oh well, me and the damn dog ate and lounged like the fat Elvis days, and I’m thoroughly rested. Well I did find a new favorite – thank you snarky Spec’s guy. You know I love being able to go into Spec’s, Central Market etc and ask for help picking out something – but I REALLY don’t want to be hassled and messed with – is that too much to ask?

When I first started blogging I jumped on the blogspot bandwagon with my first blog. Then I created a site for my photography. THEN I decided and began fixating on the idea of having a blog and photography site all in one place. Now to be fair – this was before the days of a blog on every corner. This was when blogging platforms like WordPress were only for blogs and weren’t for managing content the way they are now.

So the site that hosts my photography added a blogging platform- yay. Except I don’t really like their blogging plat form, nay. So eventually this will have my photography on it but for now its just the blog. I moved curlsz.com away from the photography to use for the blog because its my favorite child, yes I’m one of THOSE mothers.

YEAH you just wasted 10 minutes of your life reading that drivel!

Dear Diary

Just moved to Texas ! Now this is a state that knows how to live!!

Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place!It is beautiful. I’ve finally found my home. I love it here..

June 14th:

Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car.

What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I’m turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th:

Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain.. No more mowing the lawn for me.

Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:

The temperature hasn’t been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat?

At least, it’s kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th:

Fell asleep by the community pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body).. Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol’ sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:

I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then
popped like a water balloon.

The car now smells like Kibbles and Shits. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat. Good ol’ Mr. Sun strikes again.

July 25th:

The wind sucks.. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!!

And it’s hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:

Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now, $225,000 house and I can’t even go inside. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 4th:

It’s 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.

Aug. 8th:

If another wise ass cracks, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to strangle him.. Damn heat. By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 9th:

Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts, and when sat on the seats in the car, I thought my ass was on fire..

My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and ass . . . Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried ass, and baked cat.

Aug 10th:

The weather report might as well be a damn recording. Hot and sunny.

Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It’s been too hot to do shit for 2 damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.

Doesn’t it ever rain in this damn state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over.

Even the cactus can’t live in this damn heat.

Aug. 14th:

Welcome to HELL! Temperature got to 115 today. Cactus are dead.

Forgot to crack the window and blew the damn windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? “Hot enough for you today?”

My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail. Freaking Texas .

What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??

Will write later to let you know how the trial goes.

These are the now infamous Nike running short. I have loved these for many years – FOR WORKING OUT! They hit the fashion scene a few years ago in the college world – hideously mis matched with an old button up and old loafers – I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now. It has since moved to the adult world and often I see them on people that probably don’t realize they are FOR WORKING OUT.

The trend is done, it’s over, you look ridiculous, sell them to your running friends and quit wearing them out unless you need to make your weekly Wal-Mart run…Not to lunch with the girls. Oh – and it’s 90 degrees – you are wearing wool lined boots with running shorts. Those boots are bad enough with jeans but with running shorts? Not even if you were an Olsen.

Ahhh teens – one more reason for me not to have children. Actually I have found the man of my dreams – recent conversation revealed this.

(While watching a group of middle schoolers do their thing): Me – I want a baby and I’m fine with them becoming kids but I do NOT want one of those. How do you feel about boarding school? Garland: (also watching in horror at this group of girls) I’m good with that.

So according to Wikepedia teenagers and recipients of these tantalizing texts are being charged and prosecuted. Hello – it’s underage porn you morons!!!!!

But really what do we expect – moronic hormone driven beings with all the freedom in the world on their cell phones – shocker they are using it inappropriately??!

I knew he had been in India the last two months – he and his brother are native Brits but his parents migrated from Northern India many moons ago. His parents, namely his mother, have been on him for a year or so to go to India to find a wife. He’s been pretty opposed to this idea, images of eager young – very young – women looking at him as a potential green card. But in his words “I’m sick of fighting them”, so he agreed.

I think he’s contemplating writing a book on the experience at this point. He indeed was seen as a walking green card, I wish I had been a fly on the wall for these meetings. He’s what you would consider a “serious sort”…needless to say parading him in front of 15 families is not his idea of fun! I haven’t gotten the details yet, but apparently he met some doozies!!!

But at last a “normal” family and a “normal” girl was presented to him. Now this is the fascinating part. He met her, liked her, had his cousin inquire about whether she was being pressured into all this or not and how she felt about him. All of her answers were positive so they met again, hit it off and decided to get married. “Do you think this will work?” he asks, “I think it would work, you are easy to be with” was her response. And boom it was done! They courted for two weeks, got engaged and were married within the following two weeks.

He came home to London a married man! Now if that isn’t efficiency I don’t know what is!! So can arranged marriages work in today’s world? I don’t know, but it is intriguing I must say.