From In The Bubble

Life outside my computer has completely taken me over lately, but I was still shocked when I realized that the last time I posted was February 22. I have so much going on right now and without any rhyme or reason, time seems to fly by and I don’t register it at all. I have a lot of posts planned, including a series on religion that I’m really excited about, so I hope that if I have any regular readers out there, please keep coming back.

The opening of the Entrecard market is really a great thing. It gives all EC users a chance to interact with each-other in a new and creative way. You can sell almost anything in the market; advertising space, lip balm, your first born. Well, I’m kidding about the last one but you get the point. And while I may not have any extra lip balm hanging around to sell, I did put up an ad or two of my own. Specifically…..

I placed an ad for blog reviews. I enjoy doing them because it involves two things I love to do…. read…. and judge. If any of you Entrecard users out there would like a blog review, my link in the market is http://entrecard.com/market/listing/88/ 

So…please stop buy and maybe even make a purchase or two. And for those of you who would like a review but don’t use Entrecard, please feel free to leave a comment with your email and we can try to work something out.

APPEARANCE

Overall Appearance = 9

Layout = 9

Color Scheme/Theme = 9.5

Headings/Font = 8

Use Of Pictures/Video = 8.5  

Ease Of Navigation = 8  

Loading Time = 9

CONTENT

Quality = 9

Quantity = 10

Spelling/Grammar = 9

Content Interest = 8.5

Theme Continuity = 9

MISCELLANEOUS

Reader Interaction = 9.5

Incentive To Return = 8.5

Active Links = 9.5

Accessibility = 9

TOTAL = 143/160

I definitely enjoyed my time on Spicybugz.com. It’s layed out very nicely with a bright, attention grabbing background and an organized sidebar. Needless to say I was very pleased to not be assaulted by a bunch of ads or misplaced widgets. As far as I can tell the blog has no set “theme”, which is just as well since the variety of the content is what makes it so interesting. The author updates the site often, encouraging readers to return daily for another of her posts. The site is easy to navigate and great for any age group. The content itself is well written, nearly free of spelling and grammar mistakes, and the perfect length to keep interest. The headings are catchy and she makes great use of pictures and videos to draw your attention to the posts. If I were to change one thing about the site it would be to move the “Recent Posts” from the bottom of the page to the sidebar, simply to make it easier to find. Overall I was very impressed with this site and will be visiting it often! And you should too!

Some Great Posts:

http://www.spicybugz.com/2009/02/18/jokes-to-make-you-laugh-or-piss-you-off/ 

http://www.spicybugz.com/2009/01/29/how-do-you-spot-a-gay-terrorist/ 

http://www.spicybugz.com/2009/01/29/how-do-you-spot-a-gay-terrorist/

*NOTE* Anyone interested in purchasing a review (you need to have Entrecard) can visit my listing in the market at http://entrecard.com/market/listing/88/

My hatred of The City is well documented. In fact, I hate most reality shows. Unfortunately boredom tends to trump hatred and I end up watching a lot of them anyways. As the minutes tick by on the clock I can feel my braincells dieing, or rather, committing suicide just to get away and I know that when the credits roll I will be significantly more stupid than I was an hour earlier. Okay….on to the point. I can’t remember where I first heard about this but it’s a reality show satire from Newsweek about Barack Obama called The District, and it’s hilarious. There are three episodes so far and the second one is definitely my favorite, mostly because it features Olivia Palermo from The City in all her idiotic glory. Watch it….and then go watch the rest of them.

Last Tuesday I went to bed happy. I had already done all of my Entrecard drops for the next day and had posted an ad on the Entrecard marketplace and already received 5 orders. I was content, and well, tired. Hence the going to bed thing. I woke up the next morning ready to start fulfilling my orders, hit the on switch on my computer and heard it whir to life. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Evidently my patience alone wasn’t enough to coax my monitor to life. A little over a year in and it has decided to stop working. If I unplug everything from it and wait for a while I get a faint glimpse of the blue power light when I plug it in, but it still won’t turn on. I have a bad reputation in my family for murdering electronics, but this is a desktop that has only been moved once and has never taken any major hits, unlike most of my former laptops. Thankfully there is a warranty for it somewhere (it was a christmas present from my dad and stepmom, and he keeps everything, but can never find the important papers) I’m taking it in tomorrow so wish me luck. In the meantime my sister had an extra monitor sitting around and is letting me borrow it until mine is fixed. Have I mentioned how much I love her? It’s her birthday by the way. Or well it was. February 16th. My big sister is 21. Insanity.

Of course my monitor picked the worst time to die. Not only did I have a bunch of stuff to do but my house was empty from the 10th to the 16th, and I don’t have cable. I spent about 8 hours cleaning and then decided to go visit my dad for the long weekend.  It’s amazing how lost I feel without my computer. So I’m back now, and I’ll try to post more, unless I experience another computer malfunction. Let’s hope not.

Watching 7 episodes of The City really tested my will to live. I even briefly considered faking my own death and going on the lamb just to escape every facet of the show. Whitney Port was tolerable on The Hills where they were considerate enough to hire someone to stand on a platform above her, pulling on strings to manipulate her face into those “situation appropriate” yet ridiculously over the top expressions. The fact that they neglected to (intentionally, I assume) have someone shove their hand up her ass and make her speak just made me appreciate them so much more. For some reason, no puppeteer was factored into the budget for The City, her strings were cut, and she’s been left to her own devices. Each episode is more painfully awkward than the last, panoramic views of the city fade to shots of the dead behind the eyes ostrich serving as Whitney’s stand in. I feel I need to share my reasons for despising the show, because I assume my blind hatred alone isn’t enough.

Whitney Port Filming The City - Photo By Fred Montana/Splash News

Asinine Story Lines - Every single episode, the following occurs without fail; Olivia “The last 10 pounds I lost were from my brain” Palermo says something bitchy. Someone (maybe they roll dice to decide who?) complains about their relationship, cries (if they have ovaries) and then the music swells. And at some point Whitney makes her “I don’t understand your human language” face. It’s like watching all the really stupid kids in high school trying to figure out their combination locks. Entertaining…but then just really, really sad.

Olivia Palermo At A Screening Of “He’s Just Not That Into You” - Photo By Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Jay Lyon -Whitney’s sort of boyfriend. Every-time I see him I just want to… well what I really want to do is tie him to something large and heavy (perhaps his overinflated ego) and drop him off of the Brooklyn Bridge, but that’s a bad thing to say. He’s a straight up douche-bag who plays wing-man to a guy who cheats on and lies to his girlfriend but takes serious offence to Whitney suggesting that “You are who you hang with.”

Jay Lyon Taking A Stroll Through New York City’s Noho Neighbourhood - Photo By Tom Meinelt-Jackson Lee/Splash News

The Entire Cast - While I’m not a big fan of The Hills either, at least the interactions between the characters (real or fake) are believable. On The Cityit doesn’t even look like any of them like each-other, yet we are forced to watch them awkwardly brunch. Every. Single. Episode. One girl in particular, model girl, I can never remember her name, (A….A….Anorexic?) has this really manic look about her, like she’s one misplaced calorie away from shaving her head and chasing plastic bags through Central Park.

Partial Cast Of The City - Olivia Palermo, Whitney Port, Erin Lucas - At A Party In NYC - Photo By Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

Geography - I’m fine with absurd reality shows set in Los Angeles. I’ve accepted that it’s the land of watermelon chested slow thinkers and prematurely balding wannabe rockstars in too tight pants. Pants whose tightness I can only hope will someday (soon!) cause infertility. But not New York. I love New York. I want to move to New York. But now I’m afraid to even go there, lest I run into one of them and they steal my soul in an attempt to inject some life into Whitney.

Waterfall Art Installation At The Brooklyn Bridge - Designed By Olafur Eliasson - Photo By Mario Tama/Getty Images

So…for at least the foreseeable future I will be hating from afar, just hoping that their idiocy isn’t contagious.

Note: All Photos Are From www.picapp.com

Really funny commercial from restaurant chain Nandos. Just another one of the many reasons women shouldn’t get implants…..especially stupid women.

Not all that long ago I wrote a post about the end of a friendship. She had been my best friend since 8th grade creative writing class and I missed her a lot. I suspected, without proof, that the demise of our friendship had something to do with her new boyfriend. We were all in the same circle of friends in high school but I never really spent any time with him, so it’s no wonder I didn’t realize that he is less than fond of me. I can’t say that for sure, but I was told by someone who used to be really good friends with him and I trust this person. So I feel that it is no coincidence that our friendship ended only weeks after she started dating him. I thought about deleting her on facebook but I am a big believer in the whole “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” thing, so I refrained. Anyways….onto the real reason for this post. My dilemma.

Two days ago my former bf’s status changed from ‘in a relationship’ to ’single’ and then her wall was flooded with posts from other people asking what happened and if she’s okay, so I figured the breakup was legit. I also wondered, if my hypothesis about the guy was true, would I be hearing from her soon. Last night I came home to a message from her. Not an apology or expression of any sort of regret. Nope. Just a two sentence message about CD’s I made for her months ago. I know her well enough to understand that she’s trying to test the water, and my response will determine whether or not she tries to reconcile. My problem is that I don’t know what to do. I keep thinking about it in terms of breakups I’ve had with boyfriends. When someone hurts you like that, discards your relationship like yesterdays trash, it’s hard, if not impossible to continue on like nothing happened. Part of me, the part that remembers my ‘old’ friend, really wants the friendship back. But then there’s the hugely apprehensive part of me that keeps waving red flags yelling “hold on a minute!!” There is no guarantee that something like this won’t happen again. And I really can’t blame the entire thing on her boyfriend. We fought more in the latter part of last year than we have in the rest of our years as friends combined.

I’m stuck. I sent her a message back on facebook, so we’ll see what happens next. All I know is, if I decide to try to be friends with her again, we have a lot to discuss. And she really needs to learn how to apologize, sincerely and without being asked. If anyone reading this has any insight or advice please, please, please share it.

“Do not waste life. Every time you let someone leave you without knowing how they make you feel, you have died a little death for nothing. Do not assume that you have more than the moment you are living in. It’s never too soon or too hard to tell someone that you love them, thay they move you, that you are better for knowing them. Your job is to celebrate love, and to trust in the universe to bring you the people you need and tell you how to be with them when they arrive. Live a life that will end with regretting only things you did, not things you never did. Tell everyone, make them hear you, put aside your petty fears and love loud.”

 I just came across that in a book I’m reading - Sleeping Over By Stacey Ballis - and thought I would share it. I think they are very beautiful and very true words. We take a lot of things for granted in our lives, and time is one of them. We assume that we will have another chance to say the things that live in our heart, but sometimes we don’t. My only resolution for 2009 is to live without regret. It means not saying no when my heart says yes. It means cherishing everyone I love and never wasting a moment with them. It means telling the people I love that I love them, and knowing that if I die tomorrow, none of my love was unspoken. And what it really means is making mistakes. Fumbling, flailing my way through life. Embracing those moments of pure embarassment, knowing that I got there by pushing fear aside and saying or doing what I felt. Too often I swallow the words that so desperately want to be spoken, and instead say something easy, something safe. No more. Living without regrets means living purely, honestly and courageously. I know this will be hard, but it will worth it. 2009 is my year to live and love loud.

This isn’t my first blog on today.com. Last September I first learned about the site, and as an aspiring writer looking for any entrance into the world of writing, I was all over it. After I was accepted, I posted the link on Facebook, both on my info page and as my status. Within a couple of days I had comments, albeit only from my sister, my mom, and a friend of mine. I was beyond excited to be able to share my writing with my friends, my family, and whoever else might have happened upon the blog. However, I began to worry about the topics I chose. Normally I am completely unconcerned with who I offend, but knowing that my sweeter than sugar aunt might read something not so nice, I got the worst case of writers block. Shortly before Canadian thanksgiving, in a desperate attempt to write something, anything, I wrote a post about my mild dislike of the holiday, why I wasn’t looking forward to it, and what could be done to improve it. After I got home from visiting family I had a comment on the post from someone who clearly didn’t enjoy reading it. They ripped apart my writing, my personality, and my appearance. And upon seeing that their comment hadn’t immediately appeared under the post (obviously it was still in moderation), they proceeded to post the exact same thing again. All with a fake name and email address.

My attitude about writing is that I can’t please everyone, and I really don’t care to. One of my favorite quotes is “If you can’t annoy somebody, there is little point in writing” - Kingsley Amis. I welcome comments that oppose my views, and I love a good debate, but this was different. This person has continued to comment on the blog, long after the account has been shut down. There have been at least five separate occasions, and each time, the comment is basically the same thing. They call me ugly, a loser, say I have no friends, and I can’t write worth a damn. I am unable to let this slide off my back for one simple reason. I know this person. They know details about my life that I thought were limited to my close circle of friends, but, clearly someone has been talking, and the information is in the worst hands. In the grand scheme of things, someone commenting on an old blog every few weeks is a really minor upset, but it’s starting to escalate. This morning I checked my email to find that this person (I’m assuming it’s them) has set up an account under my email address on a website and posted information about how ugly and fat I am, and how much I hate myself. I can handle stupid things like this, but it’s really bugging me that someone I know hates me enough to spend time trying to hurt me. I have theories about who it could be, but no proof. The comments have all come from different IP addresses, and none of the email addresses are real. After way too much time and thought spent on this person, I am giving up. This post will mark the last time I talk about it. The last time I feel that familiar welling of tears in the corners of my eyes. The last time I spend more than a second caring about what some coward thinks about me. It’s all so ridiculous, and not worth even a second of my time. I’m done.