Monday, December 27, 2010

Ways to Kill Time

I've been doing a lot of waiting at work lately - waiting to get assignments from my boss, waiting to get replies to my emails, waiting, waiting, waiting, etc. etc. So, in the meantime, I've found two new favorite ways to waste some time.

Way to Kill Time #1 - Google Translate
Super super fun if you speak an obscure foreign language. Here's how it works - you translate a phrase (that you of course already know) from English to the foreign language. And see how closely the translator gets it right. (Some more common phrases work quite well - they got Merry Christmas right). THEN, you click the button saying you want to listen to the phrase. That's where the true enjoyment comes - listening to a computer speaking in your obscure foreign language. You just have to try it. Every time I listen to that computer speak Armenian, I giggle. Call me silly, but I sure enjoy it.

Note: this might only work on the really obscure languages. Its sounded pretty normal in Japanese (or so my sister said.) Stick with the odd languages on this pasttime.

Way to Kill Time #2 - Squirrel Assassins
http://www.usanetwork.com/series/psych/games/squirrelassassins/
Um, I don't think I have time to explain how I found this game. Or why I think its funny. But think angry birds - except squirrels.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Love-Hate Relationships

So, I seem to have very intense love-hate relationships with objects in my life. See any post about a car I have owned. A good example of this love-hate relationship is with my computer. I have loved that stupid Lenovo Thinkpad. I have babied it - I took care of it when someone stepped on it, I made sure it had the best duct tape available to hold it together, and I haven't complained as its battery has decreased to a 25-minute maximum. All I have asked of it is to continue playing my music until I can afford to replace it and let it retire in peace.

Well, one day, the computer decided it was tired of Google Chrome, and apparently Internet Explorer (though I can't blame it for that one) - it will ONLY open the internet through Firefox. That's fine, I thought - I can learn to live with Firefox. Later that same day, however, I tried to go onto iTunes so that it would upload my new podcasts, but iTunes said it couldn't connect to the store. I've googled the problem, tried every solution possible, and all I can figure out is that a poltergeist moved inside my computer, who hates me and does not want to see me enjoy my weekly dose of "This American Life." That's just cruel punishment.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Joy into your humdrum lives

I love the movie "Singin in the Rain." A lot. So it isn't a surprise that random lines will just pop into my mind, like one of these classic lines from Lina Lamont, the best villanous ditz ever to prance their way across a movie screen: "If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'. Bless you all."

My life has been feeling somewhat humdrum. I enjoy my job (well, most of the time; less lately since I have felt my job move from "intern" to "chief babysitter"), I enjoy living with my family, and all together I don't have all that much I can complain about in my life. And I have had plenty of talks with family, articles read on the internet, and church lessons telling me I need to focus on the positive aspects of my life and not dwell on the negative. Which is true - I have so much to be grateful for that far outweigh the negative.

I just think the last few years of dating (or lack thereof) have been weighing on me and I'm kind of tired of it all. I know I'm a desirable person - I know that SOMEWHERE in this bizarre world of ours there is SOMEBODY who will actually appreciate me, who will be fascinated with the person that I am, and who will be so enthralled by me that he will actually *gasp* ask me on a date. I know all this in my head. I'm just tired of continuing to have to tell myself this, because at some point, I would sort 0f like evidence that what I've been telling myself is true. Because at some point my brain might get tired of telling this to my heart.

That's all. I don't think I want an answer - I'm just sending this thought off into the void. The serious post ends now.