Recently in Life Category

New York magazine has an article talking about Grups*. It's the new thirtysomething. Or something like that.

He owns eleven pairs of sneakers, hasn’t worn anything but jeans in a year, and won’t shut up about the latest Death Cab for Cutie CD. But he is no kid. He is among the ascendant breed of grown-up who has redefined adulthood as we once knew it and killed off the generation gap.

*Also known as yupster (yuppie + hipster), yindie (yuppie + indie), and alterna-yuppie. Our preferred term, grup, is taken from an episode of Star Trek (keep reading) in which Captain Kirk et al. land on a planet of children who rule the world, with no adults in sight. The kids call Kirk and the crew "grups," which they eventually figure out is a contraction of "grown-ups." It turns out that all the grown-ups had died from a virus that greatly slows the aging process and kills anybody who grows up.

Thankfully I only seem to partially fall into this classification. I hate being labeled too easily.

For the first three hours I was awake today I thought it was monday. I most probably confused a few people that I was talking to this morning.

Another year has come and gone. I'm spending a relaxing day watching movies and stuff. Then the parental units are taking me out to dinner someplace. Should be nice and relaxing. Also, working on some goals for this year. Seems like a good year for big things to happen.

Found in my fortune cookie tonight:

You won't be bored for long! New adventures are on the way.

I think I like the sound of that.

It's raining cats and dogs and penguins and armadillos outside! When will it end!?

I just want to take a moment to whine about the weather. I need sun, just a little every day. I love that nice warm feeling. But we've had overcast/rainy weather for days now (with more days of it ahead) and I'm sick of it. Mom and I have been talking about getting a light box this year, since we both felt the benefit of it when we borrowed one from a friend of hers last year.

I also have to drive up to Boston tomorrow, I hate driving in overcast weather. I like to be able to have the windows down, wind whipping around inside the car, and the music playing loud.

On the plus side I might be meeting up with someone from my LJ Friends list for lunch, so that may make the trip more fun than the typical drive up, buy things, drive home. I'm also thinking this may be a good trip to make a stop to do some record shopping, since I haven't in ages.

Maybe it is about time to do a new mix, that tends to put me in a more positive mood usually.

Happy 4th of July everyone. I haven't been posting much because I just haven't felt like I've had much to say. But the last day or two I've been feeling a little bit more talkative and it finally reached critical mass.

My sister and nephew are here visiting for the week, which is nice. My nephew is all about playing Pokemon on his GBA. He keeps wanting to trade with me (Yes, I have it too.) The problem is I haven't played in months and have no idea how I got different Pokemon. Though he's since educated me on how to evolve all kinds of various ones (whether I wanted to know or not). He's a good kid, needs to listen to his mom more, but a good kid.

I also missed my goal of walking around the block. Mostly because the weather was pretty oppressive last week, not the best conditions for pushing myself some. Instead I walked all the way down to the CVS on Friday, which is considerably longer than going around the block.

I've also been poking around at dating sites online. I'm kind of curious to hear what sites people like. I think I had a profile on match.com years and years ago, but it's probably long gone. Anyone have any favorites?

Today I was calling my cell phone company to make a payment since I realized I'd spaced on paying that one online. Upon calling I discovered that they now have a voice driven menu system. So, first I had to say "I'd like to make a payment", then say every little bit of information that was needed. First, saying this with any kind of cough is difficult, took me two tries for my credit card number. Second, it was slow.

I could have been done with the phone call in about 1/3rd of the time if I hadn't had to say it all. It's a heck of a lot easier to key in all that stuff. The sad thing is that I bet this will become the norm because it is 'cool'.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I've been a bit slow posting lately, so I'm just finally getting around to posting about my Turkeyday. It was a great holiday this year. My cousin and his family came to visit. Which was nice because I always like it when there is more family around. We ate lots of food and followed by passing out. They also brought their dog, which was great and reminded me how much I think we should get one.

And as for things I'm thankful for:

• My parents. These past few years they have been wonderfully supportive. And if it weren't for them I don't think I'd be able to handle this whole lung thing.
• My friends. They always seem to be there when I need them. Especially when I need stuff carried for me :).

I just wanted to put out a big public thanks to some of my friends online. Thanks to MWF for succumbing to my blog begging for the Looney Tunes collection. To Ellen for the gift certificate, and to Izumi for the stuff soon to be received. Also, a big thanks to my parents for the Peanuts book.

A friend of mine asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I really wasn't sure. I mean, I want the new Looney Tunes collection coming out on my birthday. In fact, I'd say the first three things on my Amazon wish list are the big items.

If money wasn't an issue I'd want something like the new Think Outside bluetooth mouse or a iPod Photo (60GB of course) (only partly care about the photo part, I want most of it for music).

Oh, and I just signed up with that freeipods.com thing, so if you want to help me out, sign up for something using http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=10659946. I'm actually opting for the $250 gift certificate for the iTunes music store. Since that will be handy for impulse puchases.

Last night I was at a birthday party for a neighbor that was held at Real Art Ways in Hartford. I'd never been there before and it's a neat little place (and their movie theatre has some interesting sounding things coming up). One of the exhibits there was by Laura Carton and featured pictures that were originally porn that had been downloaded from the net, and then had the people in them removed with the help of photoshop. It definitely changes one views them once you find that out.

The thing is, the concept sounded so damn familiar. I knew I'd heard about it before, and had a feeling it was from BoingBoing. So, this morning I did a bit of searching about and discovered it had been on BoingBoing. And not only on BoingBoing, but by a posted by guestblogger there: the amazing Susannah Breslin.

I've been in an absolutely crappy mood all weekend. I dunno if it's the phase of the moon or that time of the year or what. In an act of desperation I sent someone some songs anonymously, and got an absolutely wonderful response to the second one. I am now smiling. The End.

ps. please don't kill me.

I was looking through the list of places where Ghost in the Shell:Innocence was playing in the next month and Hartford, CT was nowhere to be seen. Heck, there wasn't even anywhere in CT it is showing. I guess I'll have to see it in the Boston area (where it is showing at two different places). Anyone up for going to see it next Wednesday afternoon?

My parents have a number of puzzles from ELMS Puzzles, Inc. They are a company that makes these beautiful hand made wooden puzzles that are usually quite hard. I took some pictures of the one we're working on right now. It is one of the more challenging puzzles I've ever done because the edges aren't straight. Also, they seem to like to put some pieces in that have a straight edge on them that go in the middle of the puzzle, helping to confuse you more. Oh yes, and there's no picture of what the puzzle will look like, so it is kind of cool waiting to see what the whole thing will look like.

My mom also just mentioned a place called Stave Puzzles, that sounds like another place that does the same kind of thing (with some even crazier looking puzzles).

The parents are going away again for the weekend and I have made absolutely no plans. Anyone feel like a road trip to CT?