Fest of Ham March 29, 2008

Today I went to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium MD for a Hamfest. Now, before you get too weirded out, a Hamfest is not for pigs. Hamfest refers to Ham Radios, a type of public radio system, like CB radio, but with a lot more rules and regulations. There were tailgaiters, people selling their storage rooms of stuff out of the backs of their cars in the parking lot, people in a large exhibition hall selling all manner of radio and electronic equipment, and another building the size of a football field with the same kinds of things. We saw really old things, like a record recorder – yes, cut your own vinyl! And we saw things that people were selling brand new, like a whole display of stand-alone photo printers from Dell, 35 dollars each, I think. I bought a handheld trackball mouse. Unfortunately it’s a little fidgety when i try to move the mouse vertically. My friend bought a very tiny PC, but the power brick he was given doesn’t work with it. Whoopsie.

It was a pretty good day, aside from it being very windy. My dad and mom were there, they had fun and bought us all lunch. He picked up some goodies too, two wireless cards for his laptops, and a few other bits and pieces. He was very pleased with his finds. I think we all were happy with the things we found.

The Day of Dooms March 21, 2008

The boyfriend and I went to the movies this afternoon. We saw Doomsday, the tragic story of a girl who was whisked away from her mother during an outbreak of a deadly virus lovingly nicknamed the “Reaper Virus.” Actually, that was about the first ten minutes. The rest of it was a guns a-blazin’ body crushing gore-fest. That was pretty much it. They were supposed to go in to the zone looking for a cure, or a survivor who supposedly has the cure, but they really just discovered two vastly different ’societies’ – one punk style, with Mad-Max styled cars and cannibalistic tendencies, and one medieval style, living in a castle that used to be a tourist trap. The entirety of the film was just a large amount of guns firing, body bashing, and dismemberment. All in all, it really wasn’t worth the cash that was paid out.

What’s in a Name March 12, 2008

There’s a name for people like me who have the problem I have.

My problem is I get really worked over about a certain topic or subject or whatever. I want everything there is to have of it, I want to know everything there is to know about it, whatever.

Hello Kitty, Sailor Moon, Japanese culture,  Ravenclaws…

And Japanese Cherry Blossom from Bath and Body Works.

This, really, isn’t even all of it. I have another lotion, body spray, and perfume in my desk drawer at work. At my boyfriend’s, I keep a travel sized spray, a lotion, foaming hand wash, and I believe a shower gel. It my shower upstairs there’s bubble bath. Behind my monitor plugged in an outlet is one of their “WallFlowers.” In my purse I keep a waterless antibacterial gel.

I do now have every type of product they offer in Japanese Cherry Blossom, except for the very large bottle of perfume they carry, and a really fancy type of body lotion they have that’s pale pink.

I think it’s called obsession.

Bitstrips March 10, 2008

Twitter is an amazing thing. It can help people get jobs, like JC did. Or, it can help you discover completely enjoyable wastes of time, like Bitstrips. Here are mine -

And since I edited this enty from this morning, this is the one I made this evening:

Guard Your Balls March 4, 2008

Last Friday, my boyfriend & I went to Chuck E Cheese. Yes, I know, we’re a little old for that, and with no children of our own, it’s kinda pointless for us go to. But we did have a reason. Pete works in the Science department of his school, and there are about 4 children of the Science department. So, we went to Chuck E Cheese for them. The place was packed. Lines out the door, kids everywhere. You pretty much had to look down whenever you walked to make sure you didn’t run anybody over. It was cold outside, so Pete & I weren’t happy about having to stand out in it, especially when it started to flurry. So once we got in, we found out that we couldn’t use any of the bigger rooms until about an hour after we got there. Nobody wanted to wait, so we snagged some big booths that were back-to-back and parked ourselves there. We got our food pretty quickly, and the pizza was sub-par. But that’s not really why we came. We came for the games!! After everything got cleaned up, we let the kids loose to play, with their parents following closely behind. It’s what I liked most about these parents – unlike other children who were running all over without a parent, these kids always had their parents with them.

At the end, when we were all getting ready to go, Pete challenged another Science teacher to a game of Skee-ball. They were both getting ready to play, when all of the sudden a little girl came up and started playing the teacher’s game. I was so angry, I was going to say something, but being one of the youngest (besides the kids) there, I didn’t feel it was my place. Not to mention it wasn’t my game. So I watched, fuming. The teacher just stood there, just watching her fool with his game. At the end, when she finally got all the balls to go up the ramp, she turns to him, and points at the last ball he had in his hand. “Can I have the last one?” she grins at him. I was so disgusted. Where was this kid’s parent? I mean, if I had done that, I would’ve gotten slapped all the way to the car. But, being the incredibly nice man he is, the teacher gave her the ball and she threw it and scurried off. So he had to play another game to compete with Pete. I can’t remember who won, I was more preoccupied with being mad at the girl.

At the end, I’d won 114 tickets. So I had the attendant split my ticket receipt into two 60 receipts (which I just now realized adds up to 120, so I got extras), and gave one to each of the kids that were with our group. I don’t know how big their total turned out to be, but I’m sure it was a lot, since everyone who was with our group gave their winnings to the parents of the two kids. I hope whatever prizes they got were amazing.

All in the Timing March 4, 2008

I wake up around the same time every weekday – 7am. Sunday night, I didn’t get to sleep until about midnight. Last night, I was in bed with the lights off before 9 because I was so tired. I was tired yesterday morning. Today, I’m still tired. I have yet to find that “magic number” – the exact amount of time I need for a proper night’s sleep without feeling tired in the morning. I am constantly tired, no matter how much or how little sleep I get. It’s something I’ve been frustrated with for a while now.