Ask, Maricel, and you shall receive:

Wacky Shoes: August 2003

Argh. I hate it when I'm grumpy.

Here's a story to lighten up the day.

Dave hates the shoes I wore for the wedding. Not my nice shoes that I wore for the ceremony, but the Sketchers I wore for the reception. They're the most comfy pair of shoes I've ever worn!

Since the wedding, I wear the shoes all the time, because I'm not just going to hide them away somewhere just because they have silver metallic streaks. And Dave hates them. He calls them my 'Wacky Shoes'. I never bother putting any of my shoes in the closet when I take them off, but my wacky shoes always mysteriously end up in there. The other shoes are left on the doormat. When I ask Dave how they get in the closet, he just says, 'I don't like them out in the open like that.' As if the wacky shoes would take a life of their own and attack him. So I've come to terms with it. The wacky shoes will be found in the closet.

So Fatima and Melanie were in town a couple weeks ago. We were all hanging out in the living room chatting and talking before going to the convention. Then we got up to leave, and Mel was like, 'Hey! Where are my shoes?' We looked around and couldn't find them. Then I came to a realization. 'Did you check in the closet?' So she opens the door, and there they are. 'I never put them in the closet, though.' And the thing is, her shoes look very similar to my wacky shoes.

We confronted Dave later. 'Did you put my wacky shoes into the closet today?' He nodded, knowing that he was saving the world by keeping my wacky shoes in the darkness. 'Those weren't mine! They were Melanies!' The look on his face was priceless as he apologized. We all got a good laugh out of it, and all the wacky shoes were free to be outside for that weekend.

Did you ever have one of those days that started out just fine, but then progressively just turned into a horrid mess of crap?

Sometimes I feel like my life is a set of dominoes that I set up, each one standing on its end. My goal is to put them all up and at the end, seeing the whole masterpiece flow down into beautiful patterns and feel a sense of pride. But once in a while, I make a bad move, either I do something stupid or I say something out of line, and its like hitting a domino on accident. So I'm frantically trying to stop everything I've built up from falling down prematurely. Sometimes I can, sometimes I mess it up even more by hitting other dominoes, leaving me to clean up multiple threads of my life. I can only hope that the whole thing doesn't fall down.

I don't know why I care so much about making other people happy. I want so much not to care, but I do. I want so much to be true to myself, but also to be true to those around me. Sometimes that isn't possible, but that fact can't get through my big fat head.

Maybe I just don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

When it rains, it pours. Time to bring out the umbrella.

My head is just spinning. My stomach is in knots. The dominoes are falling, falling.

Thank God Jen is here to keep me sane.

I'll shut up now.

Congrats to my favorite lactose intolerant Buffy loving political blogging freak, Aaron, for getting mentioned as one of Chicago's Best Blogs by the Chicago Tribune.

That's some pretty scary shit.

One of my best friends from home, Jen, is in town this week staying with us. I was in such a funk this weekend I didn't have a chance to clean the place before she arrived. So I went to the Oaks yesterday, then straight to the airport to pick her up. I warned her that my place was a disaster, and she said not to worry.

So we get into my apartment, and the place is sparkling clean! I have the best cleaning husband ever!

I have to tell you guys, I'm the most horrible friend out there. I never call. I never write. I forget birthdays. All of you out there know more about what's going on in my life than my best friends do.

But that's why I have friends who don't mind my friend-shortcomings. And when I get together with my friends, it's like time hasn't passed by at all. Yesterday we just sat together and talked and talked and laughed and gossiped about people from home. It was nice, especially since I have been pretty out of touch with people from home. It's good to know that people are as crazy now as they were when I left. Hopefully they'll all still be crazy when I get back!

This week's Ten on Tuesday is a pretty simple one...

Ten Favorite Foods
1. Sushi
2. Tiramisu
3. Ice Cream
4. Catfish
5. Croquetas de Pollo
6. Cocoa Pebbles
7. Chili Cheese Fries
8. Guacamole Doritoes
9. White Castle hamburgers
10. Sansrival (a filipino dessert made out of sugar, butter, and MAGIC.)

If you'd like to get an email when the Ten on Tuesday is posted, just submit your email address here. Don't worry, I won't be sending you spam, just an update...

Here's some icons to use as links.

Use this for a link:
http://www.yanowhatimean.com/archives/001207.html

Add a comment once you're done, and if you don't have your own blog, feel free to comment your answers here!

This is for last week's Theme Thursday, and I took this pic just for the theme:

Artist Michael Turner Sketches for a Fan - March 2004: Santa Monica, CA

Remember the drunk phonecall entry?

Well, that isn't the end of it!

I had talked to my sister when I was on the way to the airport in Atlanta, and she had said that there was a drunk call to the house the same night I got mine. Unfortunately, my dad answered, and he got pretty upset and hung up the phone. They called again and he let the answering machine take it. There's no caller ID at him, so he had no idea who it was, but suspected that it was Fatima's friends which he wasn't happy about.

So when I get back to Long Beach, I call my cousin's cell phone, and it's not in service. So I call his house, ready to scream into the phone, 'WHY ARE YOUR DRUNK FRIENDS CALLING ME!' But he wasn't home.

So later that night I get an IM from my cousin:

Him: Hey.
Me: WHY ARE YOUR DRUNK FRIENDS CALLING ME!
Him: Oh man, they called you too?
Me: Yeah, and they're freaky!
Him: No, they're not my friends. My phone got stolen!
Me: It did?
Him: Yeah. When I was at the poolhall. I guess those jerks called everyone on my phone list!
Me: Yeah! They called my house! And talked to my dad!
Him: Are you serious?!?!
Me: Yeah!
Him: Yeah, we were walking around, and my friend is like, 'Hey, your phone is calling me' and that's when I realized I didn't have my phone.
Me: That sucks!
Him: Yeah! I didn't know how bad it was til this morning when my brother was banging on the door, asking me if I got my phone stolen. I guess they called my house, too!
Me: They were funny at first, but then they got really jerky.
Him: I know. I've been getting a lot of angry phone calls from friends today. And the thing is, I had all my numbers in there, so I can't even call people to apologize!
Me: They probably called everyone on the list. They even made it seem like they knew you...
Him: Yeah...they told everyone I was too drunk to talk. I'm so angry!
Me: Oh well, nothing you can do now!
Him: Yeah. It sucks.
Me: Next time, watch your phone!!!

So it turns out, not only do I get drunk calls from friends and family, I get 'em from strangers, too!!!

Just wanted to wish my cousin Michael a Happy Belated Birthday.

As much as he's afraid of my hugs, I'm sending him a virtual one from out here!

So Rod came over yesterday to show me his school final. Which is a movie that I starred in.

It was so weird to watch!!! I've acted before, but never on film. Most of my acting experience has been on stage, either with my improv group in college or some of the side things I did when I was in Chicago. But the only time I've seen myself on film was when the shows were taped.

I can totally understand now when actors and actresses say they can't watch their own films. You become overly critical of yourself and just squirm the whole time. I looked totally chubby on screen and my ass could have engulfed several JLos. My acting was also a bit off, but I think it's mainly because I didn't have a chance to rehearse a lot, and I had memorized my lines right before the cameras rolled. All things considering, I did OK.

But the film itself was great. It isn't completed yet, but the story and special effects turned out really cool (Rod had used some green screen stuff in his movie). And I have to admit, the first split second I jump on-screen dressed up as Tomb Raider I look pretty kick ass. It was a lot of fun to film, and I'd love to do it again...I can't wait to see the complete movie!

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Pitbull:: Dingoy (my cousin's dog)
2. TD:: Touchdown
3. Carter:: Vince
4. Japan:: Tokyo
5. 50:: Cent
6. Streak:: Red
7. Rifle:: Gun
8. Trap:: Parent
9. Easter:: Egg
10. Mitt:: Oven

Back in Long beach. It's been a busy week for me, and today I'm just going to relax. Maybe drive up to Santa Monica and go to a comic book signing.

I had forgotten to mention that Dave has been in Vegas for Manny's bachelor party. So when I got home, he wasn't home yet. But as I walked in, I looked on our coffee table and saw a copy of Maxim. That in itself isn't surprising, since Dave likes to read the articles in the magazine (yeah, that's it) and buys one every once in a while. But when I looked at the cover, I was shocked and a bit disturbed to see who was on the cover. It really makes me wonder about the man I married. Who was on the cover?

Marge Simpson.

The headline? "Marge Simpson: The Hair Comes Down!"

If it was Carmen Elektra, I wouldn't mind. Britney Spears, Denise Richards, Cameron Diaz, some Victoria's Secret model, it wouldn't have seemed as bizarre to me.

But Marge Simpson? That's a little weird! My husband is buying a magazine to check out a scantily clad cartoon character!

I breathed a sigh of relief to find out it was his brother's mag, who subscribes. His brother came to town before they flew out to Vegas and left it on the coffee table.

*sigh of relief*

I mean, I don't mind competing with the likes of Paris Hilton, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Halle Berry. But Marge Simpson? It's no contest! I would lose my hubby to the blue-haired babe!

Geez. I don't even know where to start.

Last weekend I attended the Wizard World Comic Convention in LA. Except it wasn't in LA. It was in Long Beach. I had to state that fact, because I gotta represent da LBC, yo! Haha. I'm so bad at ghetto talk.

This was the first year that Wizard had a convention in the LA area, and you could kind of tell. DC comics didn't have a conventional booth, it had a couple tables that formed a box. Crossgen, as well as Marvel, were non-existent. The hall was about half the size of the hall used for the Chicago 'con.

I had talked to some of the people at the booths, and they told me that a lot of people held back since it was the first year, and they didn't know how the crowd would be. I guess they were afraid that the 'con would be a dud. It was to be held on two days with a three hour preview night on Friday.

But when the place was packed on Friday night, they knew that this would be a big 'con in the future. When we got there, the line to get in was the length of the whole convention center. It was crazy!

The downside, however, was that there were too many people for too little things. There were lines everywhere for this and that, and companies had unusually long lines, since the other publishers weren't there to take up the slack.

So I had a good time, not a great time, but a good time. There just wasn't enough for me to be interested in for three days. The panels were OK, but there wasn't the variety of programming that I'm accustomed to. The lines for everything were crazy, and I didn't have the patience or interest to wait in them. But it's the first year, so I'll cut them some slack.

But there were some highlights to the weekend....some more interesting than others. Me and the girls had a lot of good laughs. Usually at my expense, but I don't mind being the whipping girl. So here's the more memorable moments...

Celebrity Encounters

There were a couple celebrities there, and we got to meet a couple of them. I think one of my favorites was meeting Noah Hathaway, who I had the biggest crush on when he played Atreyu in 'The Neverending Story'. Although the picture isn't that great (he was talking as the picture was taken) he's aged pretty well.

We also met:

- David Carradine - who is really really old. Like a carcass sitting on the chair old. But he was nice enough to take a picture with us and gave us a couple grunts of hello. It was pretty surreal.

- Ken Foree - from Dawn of the Dead. He called us the smelly girls during the whole 'con, because as I passed by him to take a picture with Noah, he caught a whiff of my perfume. Since the actor area was in a high traffic area, we passed by him (and Noah) often.

- James Marsden - OK, I forgive him for being in the X-Men movies. He was just amazingly charming and cute. How can you not like those dimples? We didn't have much time to chat it up, though, since we were actually in line to meet him, unlike the others.

Seeing Familiar Faces

One thing I love about going to a 'con is that every year I meet someone new, or make a new friend. This year was no exception.

- Of course, the people at Aspen were as wonderful as can be. Liz was the best and it was great to see her again. I didn't want to bug them too much because the booth was packed the whole time. There was always a line and the issues were selling really fast. But I got a chance to say 'Hi' to Mike during the panel. We passed by Frank as we were walking around, and he stopped by to tell us how the 'con was going for them. I also got a chance to chat with Talent at the booth on Sunday, he's a sweetheart! It was nice to re-introduce myself to Mark and Koi, the newest additions to the Aspen family, who I think I had met last year when we went out once. I didn't get a chance to meet Christina, but I hope she's in Chicago because I'd love to ask her some questions about coloring. I'm sure that Peter and the rest of the team got a good laugh watching me at the booth across playing the dancing game on the I-Toy. I didn't know they were watching, and I was forced to play. I felt like a dork afterward! But thanks to everyone at Aspen, who have always made me feel like I was a little more than just a fan.

- Also got to see Mike Wellman of Atomic Basement again. I'd venture to say that he's one of the first people I got to know at these things, and he was so cool when I came out to LA on business a couple years ago. Nice to see he's still involved with comics. Buy Gone South!!!

- We talked to the ultra-huggable Tone Rodriguez for a bit, who sadly told me that he might not be doing any more 'cons. We took one last picture together, but he said he'll try and make it to Chicago. He's the best, man!

- I had a couple brief convos with Mark Brooks, who this year, like Talent Caldwell, has become 'Mr. Popular'. Nice to see his career really taking off. If you're reading this, I apologize for not coming back to your table like I promised! I had to take the girls to the airport! Mark put a bit of terror into me when we were talking...

Mark: Hey, I checked out your blog the other day. It's cool!
Me: What? My blog?
Mark: Yeah. I was doing a vanity search. I looked up my name and came up with your site.
Me: Are you serious?
Mark: Yup. Listen, if you put any artists name on your site, they're gonna find it. We're always looking up our names on the internet!
Me: For some reason, I find that mildly terrifying! Good thing I didn't say anything mean!
Mark: Nah, you said good things, and you put up the sketch that I did.
Me: Ohh...ok.

So yeah. If you're doing a vanity search, 'Hey Mark!'

- We stopped by Jay Company Comics to get some goods, and Jay (if that is his name) immediately recognized us and said hello. He's such a great guy, and it's nice seeing him year after year. Then we stopped by the other table that they had and said hello to Mama Jay. She is the sweetest woman ever. When she saw us, she immediately recognized us and said, 'Ohh, hey girls!' and then turned to me and said, 'So, did you get married yet?' It's so amazing that she remembered such a thing! Then she did her 'I've seen you girls grow up! It's so wonderful!' After 6 or 7 years of going to comic cons, I guess you could say that she's seen us grow up!

- Got some great sketches from Ryan Odagawa and Sean 'Cheeks' Galloway. Ryan was great, he drew me a great picture of Psylocke, and later drew me Princess from Battle of the Planets. Sean fooled around in his sketch of Psylocke, and it turned out rather....interesting. So then he promised me that he would sketch another pic for me, so he got up early in the morning to sketch a pic of Psylocke riding a hippo. It's the cutest!

The Triplets of Long Beach

So we were talking to Tone, and he was telling his friend not to disturb him because he was with his triplets. We got a little laugh out of that. As we were about to leave, a fan who was waiting to Tone turned to us and said, 'Excuse me, can I take a picture of you? I've never seen triplets before!' I looked at him and said, 'Um, we're not triplets.' Which is obvious if you see the three of us. And he was like, 'Well, can I have a picture anyway?' Weirdo!

The Incredible Mr. Smith

Though Jason Mewes was there for his alotted signing time, he was supposed to be with Kevin Smith. However, Kevin was stuck in LA traffic, and missed the time. I guess they told people to keep their tickets (that they needed to get an autograph). After Kevin had his panel later that day, they reformed the line. And instead of having the people go through the line and coming up to a table to get a signature, Kevin actually went up to people in line to sign autographs, take pictures, and just talk to people. I was really impressed with this gesture. He really took his time and made sure that he got to talk to everyone.

Fine, fine, fine, Kevin Smith, I'll go and see Jersey Girl.

Oh, and if you missed it, you can get my "Dirty Sexy" Jason Mewes story here.

The CBDLF SAT Sketch-a-Thon

One of my mini-highlights was watching the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund auction. They had some popular artists like Talent Caldwell, Judd Winick, Amanda Connor, Mark Brooks, Ale Garza, etc draw their least favorite character to draw. Then they all swtiched papers and drew their favorite characters. And the theme was 'Compromising Positions'. So you had Spiderman on all fours and a fat Batman behind him going, 'Hmmm'. Or Hulk taking a dump as Namor is in the shower singing Air Supply. Or Spiderman handcuffed to the bed as The Pro is ready for some kinky electric torture.

It was really cute to watch them concentrate so hard on making these sketches, since they wanted to do as many as they could during the allotted time. It was like they were taking the SAT's. But you could tell they were having a great time just being goofy.

The sketches went from $20 to about $120. My top bid was $30, didn't get anything. But it was fun to raise my hand a couple times!

Hmm...that's all the stories that I remember. It seems like it was so long ago!

Pat, you owe me big time for going to the 'con and not giving me a heads up. Especially since we were at the same panel and I didn't even know!

Anyway, here's some of my favorite pictures...

Click here for my Wizard World LA Gallery

Wizard World Chicago, here we come!!!

Just got the most bizarre phone call at 2am on the East Coast.

Saw the number, and it was my cousin. Got a little worried to get a call from him so late at night.

Then I picked up the phone, and it wasn't him. Or at least I don't think it was. Whoever it was was pretty drunk. Yelling drunk. Laughing, giggling drunk. And they just started talking to me like they knew who I was, but I had no idea who I was talking to. Even when I asked, they were slurring so bad I couldn't understand. Then the phone was passed to someone else who wasn't my cousin, and they were babbling, too. Then passed to someone else. I got a pretty good laugh out of it, but then again, it was really weird. Here's some choice quotes:

- "Girl, girl, when you gonna hook up wit us? We're having a goooood time!" [sorry, can't. i'm in atlanta] "Atlanta? What da hell you doin' out dere?"
- "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, uh huh. uh huh. uh huh huh huh..."
-"We're so CRAZEEEEEE right now! Woman, come and party with us! Let's hang! Are we gonna hit it or what? I wanna be wit you!!!" [sorry dude, i'm married] "What? You're married, but you're not buried! AH-HAHAHAHAHAH!!!"
-"Where's your cousin? I dunno! He's around here somewhere! But he cares about him, baby. Let's talk you and me."
-"Sup girl. Mmm...you sound tasty. Yeah, baby, laugh for me again. Mmm...yeah...I like it like that. Oh...so good. Luagh again. Yeah, you know how to do me right. Ohh...oh...oh! Yeah...was it good for you, too?"
-"You don't know me? I know you. I seen yo' picture, girl! You got one hell of an ass on you!' [thanks, assmunch]

And I have NO idea who these people are. Maybe I do. But I can't figure it out by the slurring and yelling into the phone.

So this whole episode makes me ask myself, 'Why am I the person people call when they're drunk?' So many times I've gotten the drunken phone call, people who want me to go out, people who want me to help them sober up as their driving home, people who want to yell at me when they're in the car with other people, people who want to complain about their relationships, people who meet Leann Rimes, etc. Why me? Do they enter my name on their phone under 'CALL THIS NUMBER WHEN DRUNK'?

Though I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy listening to all your drunk asses. It's hilarious. Though the voicemails from strippers I can do without, thank you very much.

Photo Friday:Neglect

Dirty Car Windshield: Thousand Oaks, CA - September 2003

So I left the airport at 6am this morning for Atlanta. Which means I had to wake up at 4am Dallas time. Which is 2am LBC time. Argh.

I got into Atlanta at around 10, and there were no more rental cars left of the type I wanted, so I've got this massive SUV. I feel like I'm riding Shamu down the highway.

Finally drove up to my client's site at around 11:30, but I stopped by my hotel first to change, brush my teeth, etc. Poor things were so stressed out when I came, not only because my flight was messed up, but also one of the key guys I'm supposed to work with picked up the bubonic plague or something. Or maybe just a cold.

You know what I love about going to the south? The thing that makes all of this travel hell worthwhile? SWEET TEA. I have no idea what's in it, or why it tastes so good, but I love the stuff. I can drink it forever. And I can only find it in the south. But they serve it everywhere, and it's SO yummy. Today I had sushi, which by the way was some of the best I've had, and I had my sweet tea along with it. It kind of destroyed the taste, but I made sure to take a break after eating the sushi before drinking my tea and vice versa.

I might just buy a gallon of it and take it home with me! But then that means I have to share with HIM. Yeah Dave, I mean you.

Just kidding. I'm not going to buy a gallon of sweet tea. And please don't look in the closet behind all the bags, Dave, I won't be hiding a gallon of sweet tea back there. Nope.

I was doing some surfing around and found that one of the webrings I'm a part of spotlighted my site. How cool! So check out f.i.l.i.p.i.n.a.: a webring to see my little quote that they put in there...

Me! Me! Me! It's all about me!

Since I'm stuck in Texas on dial-up, the comic con pics will just have to wait. As will the 'con recap. But as I was typing it up on the plane, this one was pretty long, so I decided to break it off from the others...

___________________________________________________

OK, with the passing of time, I realize this isn't the story of stories. But it's a pretty good story still.

So we were wandering around the comic con looking for people to do sketches. As we're walking, we start to pass a group of guys. I feel that one of them is staring at me, and I look at him. He looks vaguely familiar. Then I realize it's Jason Mewes, who played Jay in 'Dogma', 'Mallrats' and 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'. At first I didn't recognize him because he's a lot taller from what I remember, and his hair is cut short and he had a nice tan going on. So he's looking, and I'm looking, and he says slowly, 'Hello...' You know, that creepy 'Hello' that guys say sometimes. I'm a little stunned, but I manage to say a cool, 'Hello...' back to him. Then we pass. And as we pass, he says, 'Sexy! Sexxxy!' I don't remember hearing this, but Melanie and Fatima heard it clearly. Melanie didn't realize who he was when we passed. Fatima was looking at something else and just heard someone say, 'Sexy' our way. The first thought in her head was, 'Who the fuck would have the balls to say that outloud here?' Because, well, comic cons really aren't a place where guys go to pick up women, nor do you get the type of guys that have enough courage to pick up women. So we're still walking, and I whisper to them, 'That's Jay!' And the girls are like 'What?' 'That was Jay, from Jay and Silent Bob!' So then I stop and say, 'Hey! I should take a picture with him!' I mean, we already said hello, we're practically best friends now. Then they tell me that they heard him say, 'Sexy' as he passed, and Mel said it was the dirtiest 'Sexy' she had ever heard. I didn't recall hearing it, but I was in such a daze that I didn't hear much after 'Hello'. Yes. He had me at 'Hello'. Just kidding, Dave.

So I walk back, and he's at the View Askew Booth hanging out. He's surrounded by an agent and some security. But I didn't notice them. As I was approaching, Jason saw me and smiled. 'Hey, sexy!' he called. 'Can I have a picture with you?' I asked. 'Sure, anything for you.' So we stood and posed for a picture, and he was talking the whole time. He acted just like his character Jay, I guess playing the part wasn't too much of a stretch. But the whole time he was like, 'Damn, you're so sexy.' Then after the 3rd or 4th time he said that (or a variation of it) he said playfully, 'I'm just kidding with ya.' Then he went right back to macking. And after taking the picture, we chatted for a little. 'Damn, so you're into comics?' and I said yeah, and he was pretty surprised. 'Are you going to my thing later?' he asked (He had an autograph session). 'No, I don't know what's going on with that.' He looked at his handler and said, 'Hey, what's the deal with my thing later?', to which the handler replied, 'They handed out tickets this morning and there aren't any left'. So Jay half whispers to him, 'So, can we get these three girls in?' The handler smiled at him and said, 'Anything you want is fine with me.' So Jay turns to us and says, 'When I'm doing my signing thing, just come up to my man here and tell him, 'Sexy's here'. He'll let you in.' I said thanks, and since a crowd was starting to builld once people realized who he was, I decided it was my time to get out of there. I said bye, and he said, 'Later, sexy' and made one of the LL Cool J kissy faces.

I just laughed at the thought of going up to the handler later and saying, 'Sexy's here. He's expecting me.'

So later on, when it was his time slot, we went over to the signing area. There was a huge line there. I felt bad for thinking about cutting in line, so we didn't even try. That, and the signing started late because Jay was signing with Kevin Smith, who was running late. Everyone was pretty stressed. So me and my girls just hung out at the side of the signing area with the rest of the people who were taking pictures. So I'm clicking away. Then he looks up while he's signing, and he sees me. I wave hello, and he gives me the nod. I smile. Then he mouths, 'SE-XY' to me and does the kissy face again. I laugh and giggle. Then I realize that people in line are looking at me like, 'Who the fuck is she?!?' I then proceeded to make myself invisible. But I stayed to get a few more shots since the lighting was kinda whack there. Every once in a while he'd look over and make this really lustful look which would cause all of us to laugh. Me, Mel and Fata were talking about how he's a lot better looking in real life, especially with the tan and shorter hair. That, and it looks like he's been working on those arms. After being there for a few minutes, we had to go to watch a panel, so we got his attention and waved goodbye. He looked at us like, 'Huh? What? Where are you going?' And Fatima said, 'We're going to the Aspen Panel.' I then said, 'We'll see you tomorrow.' Then he slowly waved bye to us. Once again, I realized that everyone was watching again, so I made sure to get out of there quick.

So yeah. That's the story. I know you're all rolling your eyes out there. But seriously, it happened! Unfortunately, I never saw Jay again. It just wasn't meant to be. I had to leave Sunday to drop the girls off during the time when Jay was scheduled to appear. But I appreciate the moments we had together. :-P Really, though, I'm flattered. This also proves my suspicion that he checked me out during the Chicago con of '01 when I passed by him. I swear he said 'Hey' to me, but I didn't believe it and just kept on walking.

Yes. My head is blowing up. These strokes of ego are needed every now and then.

Am I a stalker? Yes. But he started it!

It's that way cool 'Cute but Psycho' bunny tee that Marilyn gave me that reeled him in. That shirt is HOT.

So my flight from Long beach was delayed because they didn't have a pilot. The captain was 'detained', whatever that means. So they had to call a backup.

So now, I'm stuck in Dallas because I missed my connecting flight to Atlanta. I don't have any clothes or toiletries so tomorrow I'm going to be really gross on the plane.

Traveling sucks!!!

Worst of all...I'm on dial-up! Wahhhh!!!

Pity me! Pity me!

I'm off to Atlanta for the rest of the week. Later y'all.

Just wanted to congratulate proud mama Jen, who had her little girl Jazlynn Ximena on March 19th.

Wow, it just seems like yesterday that Jen said she was expecting a little bundle of joy, and our little internet family sat and waited during the last 9 months, reading updates and giving her encouragement.

So now she's here, and I couldn't be happier for her! I wish Jen and little Jazlynn all the happiness in the world!!!

Took the OK Cupid test from Deo's site. He's the Boy Next Door. So's Jamie. We should hook up for a threesome. And Dave can watch. Just kidding, Dave, if you're reading this. You can have a threesome with them in Vegas.

Here's my results...

I'm sure Denise is out there laughing her ass off somewhere.

In honor of my husband watching March Madness, the Ten on Tuesday is about sports:

Ten Sports You Love to Watch

1. Football
2. Short Track
3. Billiards
4. Basketball
5. Baseball
6. Gymnastics
7. Ice Dancing
8. Hockey
9. Skateboarding
10. Snowboarding

If you'd like to get an email when the Ten on Tuesday is posted, just submit your email address here. Don't worry, I won't be sending you spam, just an update...

Here's some icons to use as links.

Use this for a link:
http://www.yanowhatimean.com/archives/001191.html

Add a comment once you're done, and if you don't have your own blog, feel free to comment your answers here!

I'm watching MTV's "I Want a Famous Face" right now. I think I might lose my lunch! I've never had a strong stomach for plastic surgery scenes. I can watch an open heart surgery, but as soon as they start working of the face and start doing all that cutting, prodding, burning and inserting, ack!

Then once they're done, their face is all black and blue, they're in pain and their face is swelled up like a balloon. No pain no gain! I'm watching these twins who want to look like Brad Pitt, and they're so miserable after their surgery it's hilarious. They're bandaged, swollen, and crabby.

Although the change isn't too dramatic to me, it's incredible how much these changes have changed their self perception. They feel so much more confidence, which in turn makes them more attractive to women. Then again, they seem TOO confident

So I'm thinking, whose face would I want if I could have plastic surgery to fix? My choice would probably be Catherine Zeta Jones or Monica Bellucci. They are just beautiful to me! Though I think my face is WAY different from theirs. And I'm Asian, too, so that'll hold me back a bit. :-P That, and the pain and suffering.

Got about 40 pics to post up...plus the ones Mel will be sending me...

But here's a good one:

Me and Wolvie: March, 2004 - Long Beach, CA

The review will come later tonight, as well as more pictures!

Well, I'm still writing up my convention report...but it will take a while...

But I just wanted to thank Fata and Mel for coming out this weekend to visit. It's been so long since I've been home and so long since I've just hung out with people other than Dave. And I was so happy to see my girls again! Too bad the rest of the sister and cousins weren't there, but it was nice to get a touch of home in the LBC.

I apologize to them for being very hyper and talkative, but it's been a while, and I wanted to get as much in this weekend as I could! But we all had a good time, having many adventures at the con and eating lots of good food.

But I'm so tired now, and I'm still sick, and actually sicker than before. Hopefully I've spread the plague to the girls so they have a little souvenir of their trip here.

I miss you girls already!

1. Wife:: Husband
2. Criminal:: Intent
3. Campaign:: Political
4. Infection:: Blister
5. Portland:: Trailblazers
6. NASCAR:: Race
7. IMAX:: Jordan
8. Martian:: Marvin
9. Nike:: Shoes
10. Trial:: Error

OK, it's 4 in the morning and I'm still up from a day of comics and a night of clubbing (not to mention worrying about Rusty's face). I'm pooped.

Real quick...went out dancing for the first time in FOREVER, and it was a lot of fun, even though it was a Ginseng-esque type of all-asian crowd. I just don't fit into that scene anymore. But it was nice to dance again!

So here's my pic of the day, because Fata's complaining about my clackety keyboard keeping her up.

Guess who this is:

Snoochie Boochies!!!

And let me tell you, I have the story of stories to go behind this picture!

But it will be tomorrow.

'Night!

Asking you all to send positive thoughts to my friend Rusty, who was injured when skating in Sweden this morning. I'm really worried, but gladly it's nothing critical.

Thanks.

Gotta go to the 'con now!

I'm exhausted, so I'm just going to post one picture:

Guess who this is...

Actually, this isn't a good picture of this person. He was laughing when Fata took the picture. But you could say he was an idol of mine. I'm going to try and get a better pic of him tomorrow.

This con is pretty different from Chicago. It's a lot smaller, and the companies are pretty scaled down. It was nice to see that Aspen was busy the whole time - there was a line to see Mike Turner, and this time around, they were there for Talent Caldwell, too. Sales were pretty good at the booth, which is great. I didn't want to wait in line or bug them too much, so we just stopped by a couple times to say hi to Liz, Frank, Tal, Peter and Mike. Liz is the best!

The thing I love about cons is every year, you make more and more friends. Got to see a lot of the artists that I've gotten to know over the last couple years, and it's so awesome when they remember you and you just talk about whatever. Tomorrow I'm going to stop by Jay comics to see if mama Jay is working and let her know how the wedding went. Last year she noticed that I was engaged and she did the whole, 'I've watched you grow up!' speech.

It was pretty surprising to see that DC and Marvel (I don't even know if they're actually there this time) not being a big presence there.

I'm dead tired. More tomorrow!

Here's a quick trick. (All the other graphic ones are coming soon!)

I think Leen had asked about having links open up in a new page. You can have links open up in a new page by changing the target for the link.

Here's a link:

Click here for yanowhatimean.com.

And here's what it would look like in a normal page:

<a href="http://www.yanowhatimean.com">Click here for yanowhatimean.com.</a>

But here's a link that will open in a new window:

Click here for yanowhatimean.com in a new window

And here's what that looks like:

<p><a href="http://www.yanowhatimean.com" target="_blank">Click here for yanowhatimean.com</a></p>

You'll notice that there's an extra parameter after you speficy the URL of the link. This 'target' tag says how you want to open the new page. '_blank' opens in a new page. If you want to open in the same page, it's '_top'. '_top' is the default if you don't specify anything....

Unless you set you're whole page to open in a new window (which is how I have my site set up - most of the links open in a new window)

To do that, you need to add a line right above your </head> in your html file.

<base target="_blank">

</head>

Adding this line above your </head> will affect how all links on your page open, in this case, in a new window. However, if you want a certain link on your page to open up in the same page, just add the target="_top" to that specific link.

Does this make sense? There are other target parameters you can use, but that's a little more complicated. These are the most widely used ones.

If you...

1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
Sushi and Dessert. There's not enough places that serve sushi and a good ol' piece of tiramisu. :-P

2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Probably art and craft supply. With comic books in the back.

3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
Fantasy.

4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?
Art

5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
Gangsta rap, yo!

I'll just keep on pimping out my Maui pics for these photo memes. Once again this is Haleakala crater, this time a but after sunrise and in black and white.

Photo Friday: Morning

Haleakala Crater: March 2004, Maui

So I've got a couple hours free before I have to pick up Mel and Fata from the airport, so I'm just killing time here at work.

I haven't been keeping up with reality TV lately, and I really got into 'Survivor' and 'The Apprentice' for the first couple weeks, but with travel and my schedule (and now March Madness) I don't have much time to watch.

But yesterday I got a chance to watch 'Survivor: All Stars' and damn you Lex! You're supposed to be a good guy! What are you doing plotting with Jerry? Argh. And they voted Colby out last week. And yesterday....*sniff*....they voted out poor Ethan. Yeah, I know he was a winner from before, but he's a good guy! He played the game well, but played it with more morals than most of the people there. I don't know why they're keeping Jerry there, unless they're keeping her for the final two because they KNOW no one is going to vote Jerry to win. But still. I'll miss my EZ and his smile and buff body trying to catch fish and trying desperately to stay on the island.

Hmm...who to root for now...Rupert! I like him. It's like Hagrid landed on a deserted island.

So I'm at Thousand Oaks again today.

Usually in the morning, it takes about 2 hours or so to drive up here, depending on the traffic. It's about a 70 mile drive.

Guess how long it took today.

Come on. Guess!

7 HOURS.

Yup. More than a fourth of my day. I left at 6:15am and got here at around 1pm.

I guess a gas tanker overturned on the highway or something, so they closed the highway and redirected traffic. Which is kinda hard when you're in the mountains.

You know its bad when the people on the radio are saying, 'It's really bad out there! This is a day you'll remember for a long time. We really feel bad for you guys stuck out there.' At around 9 this morning, they had mentioned that the spill would probably be cleaned up by noon. I thought to myself, 'That's too late! I'll be way gone by then. Poor saps that are coming through here around that time!' Then I was talking to my client on the phone (just because traffic stops doesn't mean that work does) and traffic started clearing up - all the lanes came open. I mentioned it to her when I was on the phone. 'Well, they said they'd get it cleared up by noon,' she said. I looked at the clock and yes indeed, it was noon. I was the poor sap that was stuck at that time!

Even if I did know an alternate route, I would have been screwed. Those that took an alternate highway found another accident, and the drive was even worse for them. And those that tried going to local route also had a little accident to deal with.

So it was 7 hours in the car with me, the Black Eyed Peas, Norah Jones and the radio. Actually, it didn't seem that long. It was't bad at all.

Except for the sun. It was getting pretty hot in my car. One of my arms is much more tan than the other. And I was worried that I would run out of gas.

But here I am, safe and sound. And my client was nice enough to leave me a piece of cake on my desk for my pain. Isn't that nice?

And for those of you wondering what happened yesterday with 'that thing' that I didn't know, I was talking with our sales person this morning, and she was nice enough to type up minutes from our meeting, so NOW I KNOW. Whoo hoo! She escapes the yelling once again!

FYI - I'm still sick, and my sunburn is really itchy.

OK, so I had some extra time today to add a little bit more to this one...
_______________________
Got this one from Kathy...who got it from somewhere else...

It's pretty interesting to do...

If You Call Me...

if you call me Yano, then you're someone from college or the internet

if you call me Sisterfriend, then you're one of my sisters

if you call me Sharra Defender of the Universe, then you're one of my sisters

if you call me Delux, then you're one of my cousins

if you call me Tin-Tin, then you're an older relative of mine

if you call me Tin, then you're my dad

if you call me Ate, then you're a younger relative or one of my college 'siblings'

if you call me Christini, then you're Mel or one of my guy friends from home

if you call me Christini-Weinie, then you're Manny Fanny

if you call me Yano-Chan, then you're Hawaiian Sam

if you call me Dude, then you're someone I work with

if you call me Psylocke, then you're someone from IRC from waaaaaaaay back

if you call me Felici-yahhhno, then you're high school bio teacher

if you call me Q, then you're one of my best friends from high school

if you call me Adingcrunch, then you're Mike

if you call me Stupid Girl, then you're Nikki

if you call me the Erotic Exotic, then you're Jaygee

if you call me Feleesi AH NO, then you're Alan

if you call me Christina, then you're my sixth grade science teacher

if you call me Scooter, then you're Gil

if you call me Bo-Bo, then you're my husband, Dave

if you call me Chris, then you don't know me that well, or you're one of the 3 people I let get away with that

if you call me Christine, then you're everyone else

Hmm...I think that's all...

Posted by Yano at 12:07 PM | Comments (5)

Theme Thursday: Sport

Well, I've posted enough short track pics for these things, so we'll move on to something else. Body surfing! Dave brought his bodyboard to Hawaii with us, and it was always in the trunk, ready to come out when needed. He caught some really great waves!

Bodysurfing: March, 2004 - Maui

OK, I've spared your eyes from the green overload!

This week's layout is a tribute to comics, since I'm going to the Wizard World LA Comic Convention this weekend. I'll be frolicking with my favorite comic book creators, Kevin Smith, Stan Lee, and Rebecca Romijn Stamos. Comic geek heaven!!!

The two drawings are by my favorite artist, Michael Turner. It's from Soulfire, a comic that will probably be launched sometime this year. If you're interested in Mike's work or his company, Aspen Comics, you can check out their site here. They're an awesome bunch of people and amazingly talented! And yes, I'm kissing their asses in hopes that they're reading this (yeah right) and will give me some freebies when I come and stalk their booth this year.

I think I'm really diggin' this layout. One thing that was a total bitch to figure out was the transparent tables. Don't even ask. I don't know how I made it work. I still haven't mastered it, because EVERYTHING in the table is transparent. But then again, it's pretty cool.

So I hope you guys like it!

I forgot...

Happy St. Patrick's day!

I raise my pretend pint of Guinness to you in a toast to the man who drove the snakes out of Ireland. If he really did. No matter. We have this wonderful day in honor of you and of drinking.

I really wish I had some Guiness right now. Maybe I'll break open our cheap wine in the fridge and celebrate by myself.

Wheeee!!!!

I'm so glad this day is here. This green blog is really getting irritating!

Is what I SHOULD have said today.

So I'm on a conference call with the president of our company, our sales person and a client. We're going over a statement of work for a site visit next week. It was pretty much, 'Here's what we need...' and the prez saying, 'We can do that...Yes, that can be done.' We were going over items on a document that they had sent us, and just going down the list with no problems.

I was paying attention. I swear. For the first 20 minutes at least. But really, no one was talking to me. I was just there as a backup. Then I lost my concentration. And all of the sudden I heard the Prez say, 'Yeah, we'll definitely look into that. Christine, test this out and we'll work on this later today, ok?'

'OK!' I say.

But I have no idea what he's talking about. No clue. Then there was another thing that he asked me the check into, later on. Which I heard.

So I checked on that second thing, still trying to figure out what the first thing was. I talked to Dan to test it out at the office and he got the same results that I did. I also tell Dan my predicament, and he laughs. I told him to tell the Prez about the results that he got. The Prez is appreciative, then tells Dan, 'Tell her to call me later and we'll work on the other thing.'

WHAT OTHER THING!

Argh. Wish me luck on my phone call!

I'll probably just have to suck it up and say that I have no idea what he wanted me to look into. *sigh*

And some good news...Fata and Melanie are coming into town tomorrow! It will be so awesome to see people from home!

Update: Called. Left voicemail. *whew*

When Dave used to play in a basketball league back home, I would sometimes go. Rarely, but sometimes. And when I'd go, I'd see these groups of women there, who went to every game to watch their boyfriends/husbands, a group that I later learned to call 'The Basketball Widows'. Women who, for once or twice a week, lost their significant others to the basketball court. Who sat there and chatted it up with the other widows while watching their men play.

I never really became a widow, since I didn't go to too many games. But I did suffer from the loss of Dave once or twice a week (twice a week when he was playing softball). But once he went away to med school, he couldn't play in the leagues anymore.

But once a year, I get that pang of being the basketball widow. Sitting on the sidelines, waiting while my man is on the court. And during this time of the year, it's more than once or twice a week. It's every day. For a whole month. You know what I'm talking about.

March Madness.

Dave has the madness. Too bad Illinois lost....it really started the month off badly. But there he is, day after day, night after night, catching the games. Watching ESPN to catch up. Watching specials like 'The Road to the Final Four' or 'Bracketology'.

He even printed out the brackets so he can keep up with the winners and losers. The other day, I thought he was studying intensely for his boards - his head was down, he had a look of extreme concentration on his face, and he was scribbling something on a piece of paper. I looked up, and he was was working on his bracket. I laughed really hard, and he was like, 'What? I'm updating my brackets!'

GO ILLINI!

Almost forgot to put this one up!

Since I'm in a hurry today, I'm making up a list that I can come up with quickly:

Ten Great Ice Cream Flavors

Ten Great Ice Cream Flavors
1. Coffee Chip by Graeter's
2. Coffee by Breyer's
3. Moosetracks
4. Bailey's Irish Cream by Häagen-Dazs
5. Chunky Monkey by Ben and Jerry's
6. Cherry Chip by Edy's
7. Macadamia Brittle by Häagen-Dazs
8. Scooby Snacks by Edy's
9. Chocolate Eclair Bars by Good Humor
10. Anything at "The Village Creamery" (If you're in Chicago, you've GOT to go!)

The downside to making this list is that it makes me VERY hungry!

If you'd like to get an email when the Ten on Tuesday is posted, just submit your email address here. Don't worry, I won't be sending you spam, just an update...

Here's some icons to use as links.

Use this for a link:
http://www.yanowhatimean.com/archives/001169.html

Add a comment once you're done, and if you don't have your own blog, feel free to comment your answers here!

(I'll be making more icons soon!)

Phototime Tuesday: Golden

Couldn't choose between two pictures!

Sunset in Maui: Maui, HI - March 2004

Sun Rises over Haleakala: Maui, HI - March 2004

I have been on the phone with the office in a conference call for 7 hours now. I was supposed to wake up early and slept through my alarm and woke up to the telephone ringing.

I don't have a headset or speakerphone. My neck is totally cramping up!

I know a lot of you are waiting for the 'How to make pictures pop up in a new window' tutorial, but I'll have to post that when I've got some projects out of the way. It'll be pretty intensive!

But for today, we'll start with something related, posting pictures on your site.

First of all, to post your own pictures on your site, you need to have them uploaded somewhere on the internet. You can't post up pictures that are on your hard drive. Your hard drive isn't accessible to the web. There are a lot of sites out there that will let you upload your pics, but not many that will let you upload your pics and post them on a site other than theirs (like Geocities and Angelfire). If you know of any free sites to upload and use to post pics, please tell us, and I'll add them here.

But if you owned your own domain, then it's no problem. Just upload them to your server and point to them, and you should be A-OK.

So what's the html to post your picture?

Well, lets start off with a picture, my little South Park Yano.

Ain't she purty?

The code behind this picture is this:

<img src="http://www.yanowhatimean.com/blog/spyano.jpg">

As you can see, she's a picture that's taller than she is wide. Which is fine. But she takes a lot of space. Why not save some space and just push her over to the right, fitting in next to the rest of my text? That way, I don't get a lot of empty space around her, and if I'm incorporating her into my story, it doesn't destroy the flow. So that's what I've done to the right. You can see that the text stops right before the picture and flows to the next line.

Here's the code for that:

<img src="http://www.yanowhatimean.com/blog/spyano.jpg" align = "right">

But you can see that she then stays to the right of any section after that. There may be some instances where you want to start anew. So here's South Park Dominatrix Yano on the left, and there's some additional coding that I will add after this paragraph (you don't want to put it after the picture, because the tag for the picture is at the start of this paragraph) so that I can 'close' this paragraph and picture and start anew afterwards.

After manually putting in a break (shown below) this text is no longer to the right of the picture, it's in a whole new section.

So here's the code for the left alignment:

<img src="http://www.yanowhatimean.com/blog/spyano.jpg" align = "left">

And here's the code that I put after the paragraph:

<BR clear="all">

OK, that's all for now! I have a hellish day at work today so the Hawaii review is still on hold!

You may not know, but I'm a Pern book fantatic. I think I own every one of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, and most of her others. I found this cute little quiz on Fata's blog:

You are a gold dragon! Golds are the queens, the rulers of the dragons. You are respected by every other dragon, and everyone listens to you, no matter what. The highest-ranking males compete to be your mate. Your human partner is the leader of the Weyr. You are diplomatic, and good at finding solutions to problems that satisfy the majority of the people concerned. You are the largest dragon, and the most powerful. All hail the queen!


What color of Pernese dragon are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm a queen rider! Whoo hoo!

In a tribute to my Irish heritage, I thought I'd make up a layout for St. Patty's day. OK, I'm not Irish. But I do love those car bombs and Guinness!

And I have a distant cousins that live in Ireland. They came for a visit and we made them say 'They're always trying to steal m'Lucky Charms!' over and over again.

It's up a little late because, well, I just did it today. I'll keep it up a bit after St. Patty's til I decide what layout I want to put up. Do you have any suggestions for layouts? Are there any old layouts that you want to see come back?

You know, I've always had a problem with balance. Not only physically, but balancing things in my life. Balancing my social life. Balancing my need for independence and my need to have someone there for me. Balancing all my different projects, from this site, to Rusty's site (which I have neglecting lately), to getting my pictures organized, to getting some blog layouts together for people to use. Balancing real life and the online life. Balancing real life and work. Balancing short track fandom and comic book fandom. Balancing the amount of time I spend online and the amount of time I dedicate to Dave and taking care of our place. Balancing my TV needs and Dave's, especially since March Madness has started.

Sometimes I feel like that circus act where the guy is spinning plates on sticks, and as he's going down the line and setting up the spinning plates, he has to run to the plates that are about to fall and keep on spinning them.

But I'm sure you all have had that feeling before, right?

Oh, and that physical balance thing is a bitch, too. If I had some, I would SO kick ass at snowboarding right now, rather than worry about getting shitters and splitters as I'm going down the mountain!

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Old Navy:: clothes
2. Out:: Break
3. Indecent:: Proposal
4. UPN:: Buffy
5. Pupil:: Apt
6. Toothpaste:: Gel
7. 1999:: Prince
8. Passion:: Christ
9. Social security:: Number
10. Cliff:: Claven

Here's a funny for ya, since I'm too lazy to post today.

1. Any Man who brings a camera to a stag night may be legally killed and eaten by his fellow partygoers.
2. Under no circumstances may two men share an umbrella.
3. It is ok for a man to cry under the following circumstances:
a. When a heroic dog dies to save its master
b. The moment Angelina Jolie starts unbuttoning her blouse
c. After wrecking your boss's car.
d. One hour, 12 minutes, 37 seconds into 'The Crying Game'.
e. When your Date is using her teeth
4. Unless he murdered someone in your family, you must bail a friend out of jail within 12 hours.
5. If you've known a guy for more than 24 hours, his sister is off limits forever, unless you actually marry her.
6. Bitching about the brand of free beer in a Mate's fridge is forbidden.
Gripe at will if the temperature is unsuitable.
7. No man shall ever be required to buy a birthday present for another man in fact, even remembering your Mate's birthday is strictly optional.
8. On a road trip, the strongest bladder determines pit stops, not the weakest.
9. When stumbling upon other guys watching a sporting event, you may always ask the score of the game in progress, but you may never ask who's playing.
10. You may flatulate in front of a woman only after you have brought her to climax. If you trap her head under the covers for the purpose of flatulent entertainment, she's officially your girlfriend.
11. It is permissible to quaff a fruity chick drink only when you're sunning on a tropical beach....and it's delivered by a topless supermodel...and it's free.
12. Only in situations of Moral and/or Ass peril are you allowed to kick another guy in the nuts.
13. Unless you're in prison, never fight naked.
14. Friends don't let friends wear Speedos. Ever. Issue closed.
15. If a man's zipper is down, that's his problem---you didn't see nothin'.
16. Women who claim the 'love to watch sports' must be treated as spies until they demonstrate knowledge of the game and the ability to drink as much beer as the other sports watchers.
17. You must offer heartfelt and public condolences over the death of girlfriend's cat, even if it was you who secretly set it on fire and threw it into a ceiling fan.
18. A man in the company of a hot, suggestively dressed woman must remain sober enough to fight.
19. Never hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last slice of pizza, but not both. That's just plain mean.
20. If you compliment a guy on his six-pack, you'd better be talking about his choice of beer.
21. Never join your girlfriend or wife in dissing a Mate of yours, except if she's withholding sex pending your response.
22. Phrases that may not be uttered to another man while lifting weights:
a. Yeah, Baby, Push it! b. C'mon, give me one more! Harder! c. Another set and we can hit the showers! d. Nice Ass, are you a Sagittarius?
23. Never talk to a man in a bathroom unless you are on equal footing, both urinating, both waiting in line, etc. For all other situations, an almost imperceptible nod is all the conversation you need.
24. Never allow a conversation with a woman to go on longer than you are able to have sex with her. Keep a stopwatch by the phone; hang up if necessary.
25. You cannot rat out a co-worker who shows up at work with a massive hangover. You may however, hide the aspirin, smear his chair with limburger cheese, turn the brightness dial all the way down so he thinks his monitor is broken, and have him paged over the loudspeaker every seven minutes.
26. The morning after you and a babe who was formerly 'just a friend' have carnal drunken monkey sex, the fact that your feeling weird and guilty is no reason not to nail her again before any discussion about what a big mistake it was.
27. It is acceptable for you to drive her car. It is not acceptable for her to drive yours.
28. Thou shalt not buy a car with an engine capacity of less than 1.5-litres * thou shall not really buy a car with less than five litres and eight cylinders.
29. Thou shalt not buy a car in the colours of brown, pink, lime, green, orange (unless it's a Pacer/Charger) or sky blue.

Even though I'm still working at the Oaks, I went home yesterday for a night. Turns out Dave caught my cold. We went out to dinner with his family and his mom who is in town, and the two of us were coughing and sniveling together throughout dinner. It was quite an entertaining sight to see.

Dave's a much bigger baby about this than I am, complaining that he needs some TLC. Who give TLC to the TLC giver? He also stated that he thinks his eyeballs are melting.

I don't think so.

I'm totally swamped with work (I thought I was going to be there only one day, but I'm here all week) so I haven't had much free time to do anything...but here's some Maui pics to tide you over until I finish them up...

Sunset on Our First Day

A Thai Statue at the Hyatt

Luau Dancers

Photo Friday: Clean

Even Bunnies Need to Shower - Navy Pier, Chicago: April 2003

This week's Friday Five:

1. What was the last song you heard?
Black Eyed Peas - "Smells Like Funk"

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
"Passion of Christ"
"Miracle"

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
- Snack Mix
- Sketchers Sneakers
- White Calvin Klein Jeans

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
- Finish up my Maui pictures
- Work on my Aspen project
- Pay bills
- Unpack

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
- Dave
- Dave's mom
- Cathy
- Uncle Monching
- Uncle Gene (we all went out to dinner)

So I went to this HUGE outlet mall in Camarillo yesterday. Actually, my motel was just down the street from it. I didn't have much time, since I went after I stayed late at work, but I did manage to find some good deals.

I bought my first pair of white jeans. I've never found a pair that didn't make my hips look like I was stuffing pillows in my pants. Until yesterday. I went to the Calvin Klein outlet and saw that they had a sale on bootcut jeans, which is my favorite cut. Saw a white pair of jeans, and though, what the hell, might as well try them on. And they fit rather nicely. Though since my legs are pretty tan, and the material is white, the pockets kinda show through, which looks a little weird to me. I've never really looked at the pockets of white jean wearing people. So I went to pay for them, and I was pretty content, since they only cost $29.99. But when the gal rang them up, it said $59.99. What?!?! So I said, "Um, they're on sale." And she said, "Sorry, these aren't part of the sale." I pointed to the sign, under which a pile of white jeans were folded. She looks at me, a little embarrassed, and calls over her manager. "Are the white jeans on sale?" He says no. She points to the table. "That sign shouldn't be there. Has it been there all day?" He looks at me and smiles, "I'm sorry, miss, but these jeans aren't on sale, but since you pointed it out to us, we'll give it to you for the price you saw." Whoo hoo!

Now when am I going to wear these things?

I also bought 2 miniskirts. Those things are all over the place, though unlike trucker hats and super low rise jeans, this is a fad that I can look halfway normal in. Or at least that's the way it looked in the fitting room. I haven't had a miniskirt since my mom made me wear this horrible ice blue acid washed denim thing in eighth grade. I haven't worn a skirt since, uh, my wedding. My legs are pretty ugly, though with my tan, they don't look as weird.

My prediction is...these two babies will be lost in the bottom of my closet by next week.

I also bought two pairs of pants for when I'm consulting, a new button up shirt, though the lady was really pushing this silky gross thing on me. Echh. Just a plain old button up, please.

There are other things I bought. But I've forgotten what they are. That's when happens when I shop too much.

Oh! I bought a new pair of gym shoes. Well, one would have to go to the gym to call them that. I'll call them sneakers. The pair I've been wearing around is old and worn out, and Dave, the sneaker fanatic, hates them. I think he's embarrased by them. They don't meet his athletic shoe standards. He also hates what he calls my 'wacky shoes' - the sneaker platforms that I wore on my wedding. A little too flashy and outrageous for him. I always find them hidden in the back of the shoe closet!

So as I said before, I'm working on a contest submission for Aspen Comics. They provide the line art, which is an AWESOME cover done by Talent Caldwell of Fathom: Dawn of War, and we color it.

I've never colored comic art before, not of this magnitude. I've checked out other people's work in progress, and I'm competing against professionals, their work is really breath taking. I'll post some up when the contest is over. It doesn't really matter though, because I really enjoy doing this, I don't really care if I win. It's so much fun and it's so relaxing. It's almost like meditation. Everything else disappears and all I have is my Photoshop, my mouse, and my palette of colors.

So here's the original:

and here's what I've got so far:

I've done all my 'flat' colors, and I'm working on the background right now. Once that's done, I'm going to do the highlighting and shading to give it more depth. Hopefully my computer can handle the workload. It's already exploded into a 20MB file with all the layers I'm using! I'll keep you up to date with my progress as I go along. I'm switching in between doing this and working on my Maui pics. Don't worry, that's still coming along!

The peeling has begun.

It seems that I had forgotten to put on sunscreen on my stomach when I was on the beach, so it was really red and irritated for a while. Now it's peeling. And I'm addicted to peeling. Yesterday, while playing online poker with Jones, I pulled off a nice sheet of skin, about half the size of my palm. It was oddly entertaining and mesmerizing. I feel like snake-woman.

The only other place I'm really peeling is on my face, which kind of looks gross, and on the top of my head. I had totally forgotten that having my hair in pigtails exposed my scalp, so it's been red and painful, too. And now it's peeling, so I look like I have dandruff. A really bad case. Luckily, I have no human contact at my client site, so no one will notice. But the hotel guy this morning did see me, and I wanted to yell, 'It's not dandruff!!! It's sunburn, I swear!!!'

A lesson learned indeed.

Thought I'd start out my tips and tricks with something nice and easy. Font tricks to use in your HTML pages.

Most of you know how to make your text bold or italic.

Here's how it looks like in HTML:

Most of you know how to make your text <b>bold</b> or <i>italic</i>.

As you can see, to make something bold, you start out with an opening tag - the b in the angled brackets, then your text, then the closing tag - the forward slash and b within the angled brackets.

So what else is there?

You can also do underline, strikethrough, ^superscript,
_subscript, and keyboard

Which looks like:

You can also do <u>underline,</u> <strike>strikethrough,</strike> <sup>superscript,</sup> <sub>subscript,</sub> and <kbd> keyboard</kbd>

That's not all! You can play with the sizes!

tiny,small, regular, big, bigger, even bigger, huge

Which is:

<font size="1">tiny,</font> <font size="2">small,</font> <font size="3">regular,</font> <font size="4">big,</font> <font size="5">bigger,</font> <font size="6">even bigger,</font> <font size="7">huge</font>

You see in this instance it isn't just a simple beginning tag. This time the beginning tag is 'font' but also includes an extra parameter after it, indicating what you want to do the font - this example being the size change. You can also change the color by using the font tag:

red, blue, green, purple, lavender, brown, gray, maroon

Which is:

<font color="red">red,</font> <font color="blue">blue,</font> <font color="#00FF00">green,</font><font color="#FF00FF">purple,</font> <font color="#CC99FF">lavender,</font> <font color="#663300">brown,</font><font color="#999999">gray, </font><font color="#990000">maroon</font>

As you can see by the code, you can either use the color name, or a hex code, which is a 6 character code that designates color. To get a great listing of hex codes and their corresponding colors, check out webmonkey. There's a ton of helpful stuff on that site.

OK, I'm sleepy, so I'll end it here. Before I go, let's mix it all up together!

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog!

Which is:

<font color="#6699FF">The </font><b><font color="#6699FF">quick</font> <u>brown</u><font color="#CC3300"><i>fox</i></font></b><font color="#CC3300"><i> jumped</i></font> over <font size="5"><strike>the</strike> <font color="#00CC66"><b>lazy</b></font></font><font color="#00CC66"> dog</font>!

Pretty easy for the first lesson. Next week (or even tomorrow) we'll talk posting pictures!!!

No Room at the Inn

I'm at the Oaks again, a spur of the moment kind of thing, and I have to stay here for at least the night. So I'm searching around the net, and all my regular hotels are booked! Even my last resort Days Inn has no room. That place was a ghost town last time I stayed there! So I must venture out, deep into the city of Camarillo and find a place to lay my head for the night...

A Good Excuse to Go Shopping

I only packed enough clothes for 2 days. But it looks like I may be in for a three day haul. Oh my! What to do what to do! Wait...I think there's a mall nearby...Hmm. Maybe I should buy some new clothes! Yes! What else am I to do? Wear the same clothes twice? No way!

Hair Happenings

In case you cared, my hair is growing rapidly. I am now able to put a majority of it in a ponytail, as runtly as it is. In Hawaii I sported the pigtail look, sometimes at the back of my head, sometimes at the top sides, to catch my bangs. Because there's nothing more annoying when you're snorkeling then your bangs getting stuck to your mask. The bangs are growing out nicely, I'm really fond of them now. The were short little buggers at first, but now their nice little wispy things at the sides of my face. Also, you may be happy to know that I no longer wake up looking like I've just come out of electro shock therapy. The layers on top of my head are now long enough to lay flat on my head without the need of my hair goop.

Making the Cut

I'm going through my Hawaii pictures, and had 491 total that I kept. I had taken many more than that, but I deleted the ones that were out of focus. Through a painful process, I've whittle down that number to a mere 196 shots to share with you. I just couldn't say goodbye to all my sunrise, sunset, beach and whale shots.

Now comes the resizing and cropping!

Mini-Rant

Have you ever read something that someone wrote and thought to yourself, 'You are the biggest moron ever! You have no clue at all! If I ever meet you I would like to bludgeon you with a club!'? Not that I have. I'm just wondering.

It's Just Like Using Crayons

Over the last couple weeks, I've been working on a project for a contest I'm entering. I have no chance of winning, especially seeing the other artists' (for that is what they REALLY are) works in progress. But it's good practice for me and my Photoshop coloring skills. It's just like coloring in a coloring book again. And I'm happy just trying my best and submitting whatever I can, it gives the other people who've never colored line art before the chance to say, 'I can SO do so much better than her!' I'm here to make them feel better about themselves. :-P When I get a chance, I'll post up the work I've done so far.

Hmm..there are so many things on my plate right now!

In my adventures in blogging today, I've noticed that a couple people have mentioned that they're looking for blog help. If you've got a blog, or are interested in getting one, and need some ideas/help with HTML or getting a blog skin just the way you like it, feel free to email me or IM me. I need some practice with my css and html skills so this will be a big help. I think I've got some free time in the next couple weeks so catch me while you can!

Probably in the next couple weeks I'll be putting up some HTML tips and tricks as well...

I was definitely spoiled by my vacation. Now it's back to reality for me. But this week's ten is based on ways you spoil and indulge...

Ten Things You Do to Spoil Yourself

1. Eat sushi
2. Buy clothes
3. Put on nail polish
4. Call in sick
5. Eat a lot of ice cream
6. Work on my site/pictures
7. Go to the clubs
8. Sleep in
9. Drive with the windows up and the music blaring
10. Buy computer/tech gadgets

If you'd like to get an email when the Ten on Tuesday is posted, just submit your email address here. Don't worry, I won't be sending you spam, just an update...

Here's some icons to use as links.

Use this for a link:
http://www.yanowhatimean.com/archives/001150.html

Add a comment once you're done, and if you don't have your own blog, feel free to comment your answers here!

It's been a while since an email has had me in tears. Lucinda sent me this one, and I bawled like a little baby. OK, not that bad, but I did cry a little...it's really beautiful...though bittersweet for me in a way...

Wow...this page looks pretty empty without me posting in the last week!

Got some pictures here for you to tide you over while I work and write my trip memoirs...

A solitary hula dancer at the luau

A man painted with Maori tattoos

Sunrise above Haleakala Crater

A picture at the bottom of the Seven Sacred Pools

The sun sets over the ocean

Our new friend 'Whalea' comes to check our boat

We got back late last night from Maui, and I'm suffering from a horrible cold. A stuffy nose and coughing mixed with a sore throat. At least it came on the last day of my trip.

Now I must work.

Pictures and a recap of the trip to come later! I've got a lot - over 500! (60 of the sunrise on Haleakala alone!)

And how are you all?

Since I'm going to be on vacation, I'll post this one up early. I'm thinking of posting it on Mondays, anyway, so you have a day to ponder your answers. It was requested if there's icons you guys can use as links, and in the little free time I had this week, I was able to whip these babies up.

There'll be more after Maui! Also, I'll set up the email notifications starting next week, once I test it all out.

But for now, here's this weeks...

10 on Tuesday

Since I'm going on my honeymoon, I'm sure this will count for one of my best vacations ever (it better!)...So before it gets added to the list, here's a list of my...

Ten All-Time Favorite Vacations

- Band trip to Orlando, FL, 1992
- Puerto Rico with Dave's family
- Orlando with Jeanette, Jen and Rachel
- Mammoth Caves in Kentucky with the big family
- Sisterfriend Orlando Gay Days trip
- Family trip to the Philippines
- The early Cincinatti trips with the family
- Salt Lake City world cup
- Vegas with Megan, Christine and Rachel
- Pre-Honeymoon/Birthday cruise with Dave

I'm sure there are some I've forgotten, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head...

Use this for a link:
http://www.yanowhatimean.com/archives/001147.html

Add a comment once you're done, and if you don't have your own blog, feel free to comment your answers here!

See y'all next week! I'll miss you!

- In the heat of emotion we say things, and some people would like nothing more than to take the words that we say and twist them to make a good story. That's what sells newspapers, after all.

- The thing that sucks about truth is just like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. We can only see the truth based on the facts given to us. But the important thing is what we do with that truth we had created. Keep our minds open for other truths and give people the benefit of the doubt? Or stay with the truth we have constructed and make judgements?

- That's probably why I usually keep my mouth shut during controversies, or I try to give people both sides of the argument. I'm always trying to see the other side, though sometimes I'm not successful and can get as hotheaded as anyone else. But that's pretty rare.

- Maybe it's wrong of my to fight for a utopic world where everyone is happy. But that's me. I'm a healer. I love to fix things, to help people. And I love my friends, I would do anything for them. I'll be there for support, whether I think they're right or wrong, whether we have the same opinion or not. Whether their truth is mine or something I cannot comprehend.

I know none of this makes any sense. I'm a bit delirious after recent events, packing for Maui and a seriously lackluster Academy Awards.