Ben the beagle finally made his way home to my mom's house. Buddy and Ben are getting along famously, although Ben decided to pee in the house while I was on the phone. Mom's not a big fan of indoor canine urination.

Do you really think Microsoft will do something with Linux. Ironically, my friend Art started this controversy. Good going, Art!

Behold, a veritable plethora of those pens that change scenes when you turn them, including all time favorites like the last supper, OJ's Bronco chase and of course, Jesus Walking on Water. Wow.

This morning Andrea and I went to McDonald's for a nutritious breakfast. There was a guy wearing a bicycle helmet sitting outside, he asked if we could 'help him' with a breakfast sandwich. Help how? With unwrapping it? The guy had a brand new bike and didn't seem homeless or even unemployed, but who knows. I realized that I hate it when people beg from me, but if someone was too stoned to go in and get their own food, I'd probably get it for them. Nothing sucks worse than being stoned, having the munchies but being too stoned to move.

I don't know what's so damn fascinating about this commercial or the excellent parody but I can't stop answering my phone with a hearty 'whassup', followed by a 'yo'.

Liz, posting to blogger, havin' a bud.

It used to be that I'd start my day by reading the news. These days I'd rather read brig's blog. Maybe it's because we're not working together anymore (although the last place we worked together was an open room and everyone heard everything you said, so we didn't talk much there except to sneak outside and speak in hushed voices that made the higher ups nervous). I dunno, but her blog is usually more interesting than the news.

Andrea's car was in the shop all week, so I've been driving my 1972 VW Squareback. People take great pleasure in zooming past that car, as if there's any glory in besting a 28 year old car that, in her prime, had a top speed of 84 mph. Assholes.

Here's a guy who tried to scan his cat. I wonder how Alice would feel about being scanned. She's small enough to fit on the scanning surface.

Web design aside, this woman makes some kick-ass soaps.

One of the many advantages of being a one person webteam is not needing to check with anyone. Someone wanted to try yet another design and I said no, there's not time. Since I'm pretty intimate with the entire team's (my) schedule, I said it confidently and my judgement on the team's behalf was accepted.

I heart my job.

This photo is always good for a laugh. It's one of the few relics of my stepford wives days. The guy in the picture was my fiance at the time. Guess I've come a long way since then...

This should come as no surprise to anyone, but having a blog is addictive. Amy has joined the growing ranks of bloggers.

I'm speechless but intrigued by the Psycho Stalker From Hell. Some people just don't understand what no means.

I never know how to react to a site like (link removed) this. It's done by someone who's trying to make a living as a web designer and I don't know how to say that using Front Page as an editor (then leaving the meta tag in at the top) will most likely not get you a lot of business. Or will it? Do people still pay for design like this? Maybe I'm jaded by all the slick designs I see at work and there's still a huge industry for people who do sites like these.

This is a typical scene from my office.

This came up on a search for more about Tattoo. It's morbidly addictive. Cockpit Voice Recorder Lastwords. I can't bring myself to listen to the recordings, that seems wrong.

I admit it, I've been addicted to television for as long as I can remember. I was once a devotee of Fantasy Island. Recently, Amy and I were in Urban Outfitters, who has the lamest website ever, and I found a lovely t-shirt featuring Tattoo driving his little car while making what appears to be the black power sign. Now that's a piece of americana.

Part of this article gives oxygen a hard time because they could be using women to get marketing money by having a women-centered channel on tv. So what? Why is it so bad to make money off your audience? I don't care if I'm being 'exploited' in this way as long as it brings programming I'm interested in.

Have you ever noticed that all the ads during the Price Is Right are for either diapers (stay at home moms) or geritol (retired people)? That show has a growing audience of people my age (27) who have watched it all our lives, why not throw in a little something for us?

Thanks to Ev for linking to my rant about my job search.

One thing I really like about my new job is that the heat works. My previous job never did fix the heater, so now I have a ton of long sleeved shirts that I don't need since it's always the right temperature here. I think people are getting sick of working for startups that have problems like lack of heat, getting evicted and overcrowding. I know I rejoice every time I walk into my cushy office and can work in a short sleeved shirt again, without going outside to warm up.

Feel like an ass?
Silicon Valley is so small. This guy I know was flying to Vegas and started talking to the guys sitting with him. These guys were pretty cocky, since the company they'd founded is doing well. Turns out that their company had hired an ex-coworker of his as CEO. My friend was more than a little drunk and started harrassing them, saying 'why did you hire that idiot, anyway?' They all looked at each other, the seed of doubt had been planted. After that, they stopped talking to my friend but the damage has been done.

I'm still laughing about that one. Good going, drunk ass friend of mine! Here's to you.

Lest you think that I won't present both sides of this story, here's the other side: California Proposition 22 - Protection of Marriage Initiative. I only have to ask, protect marriage? From what???

Have you seen the ads for No on 22? It's a ballot that legally defines marriage as between a man and a woman, legally excluding any future legislation that would allow gays to marry. The TV ad is hilarious, saying 'gay marriage is banned, and stays banned' and 'what if your child turned out to be gay? You'd still love them.' It's done just like a Saturday Night Live ad, and while I agree with what they're saying (keep the government out of my bedroom, thank you very much) their ads make me laugh.

I've been thinking about all the places I interviewed with. The one thing they all have in common is that they don't make sense, or at least they're all way too complicated.

I just wrote a diatribe about my most recent job hunt, read all about it if you dare.

I was telling my mom about my upcoming birthday party and she asked "did you invite Marcia?" The only Marcia I know was the (stupid) reason I moved to Oregon from Ohio, she later broke my heart in ways I'd never dreamed possible. I was stunned that Mom would ask. Then I realized that she meant Marci, my brother's girlfriend.

Wow! Every review of this movie on the web is here. Cool.

Here's the right winger's line by line synopsis of BOYS DON'T CRY. My favorite part is the itemized list of curse words, if I may quote "3 hells, 1 S.O.B., and 10 uses of "G-damn". Sounds like a drunken barn dance to me!

Andrea, Gail, and I saw a happy film yesterday, Boys Don't Cry. Okay, it was actually pretty damn depressing. This girl, Teena Brandon lived in Nebraska (well known for open minded folk and diversity) and knew she should be a boy. So she dressed like one, acted like one, and got more babes than men who were born as men.

Time after time, her cover is blown and there always seems to be an older brother waiting to kick her ass for sleeping with his sister. Eventually she gets raped and killed for her crime, being born with the wrong body.

Sad stuff.

I think I've moved everything over to lizspeaks. Next stop, site design.

My friend Gail came to visit last week. She arrived 4 hours late on the train. If your'e looking for a good time while travelling without too much concern about time, the train's the thing. The good people who work at the station don't know anything about when or if the train will arrive, though. I kept calling Gail's cellphone and promptly being accosted by other people who were waiting to get any scrap of information I had, then trying to strike up a converstation. There's a different, more desperate crowd at the train station than I'm used to at the airport.

Since I moved west from Ohio 6 years ago, I've gotten very used to flying all the time. Most of the time people don't bother you in the airport but the train station has fewer (read none) amenities than the airport.

Used priceline successfully today for the first time. Usually, I use expedia. Even though it's a Microshit product, it beats the competition hands-down for good prices. I bought a ticket for my friend Amy's upcoming visit, which will conincide with my 27th birthday and party. Just like last year, I guess I'll be having a frozen girlie drink party. There's something about a slushie with hooch added that gives me great joy.