Paul gave me an early Christmas present last night: a KitchenAid mixer!
Anyone who knows me knows that I love to bake. For years I've been using a little $25 handheld mixer, and it's served me well...until it died a few days ago while making a batch of cutout cookies. I mentioned to Paul that I needed to get a new one last night while we were out Christmas shopping; I was just planning on picking up another cheapie at Target. We were at Macy's, and he opened up a new Macy's charge to get the extra 20% off on the Keurig coffee maker we were getting for his parents. He told me that he remembers me mentioning months ago that I've always wanted a KitchenAid--we were watching a cooking show on PBS and I was drooling over the mixer rather than the food--and he was planning on getting one for me anyway. Since we were already there, he wanted me to pick one out now since we could get an extra 20% off and I could get the exact one I wanted. I fought him on it for a while (I'm a much better gift giver than receiver), but he insisted, so I finally relented.
Ooh la la! It's a beauty! After I'm done working today I'm going to make another batch of cutouts on my new toy. I can hardly wait to play!!! :-)
Sometimes technology empowers me. Things work smoother and faster and I can write, connect, watch, create and generally do and be more, as result of magic of technology.
Then there are times when technology thwarts me at every turn. Things break, slow down or just become ridiculously complicated. When that happens, technology can suck the energy out of just about every task big and small.
After months of everything working relatively smoothly, I seem to find myself thwarted by machines, captive to electrical conundrums, bogged down by bad connections and generally wading through the muck of technology gone wrong.
The televisions have had memory cards replaced, firmware upgrades and new panels installed. The cordless phones have taken to randomly deciding to let me know who's calling or not, as it pleases them. The programmable thermostat seems to want to decide for itself when the heat should go full blast or completely off. Bulbs in my bedroom and the backyard refuse to power up and provide light. My Blackberry's trackball has developed a sluggishness and a stickiness that makes me suspect that some of that nasty green goo from Ghost Busters is oozing just behind the faceplate.
But the most vexing problems are with my computer and its relationship to programs and the Internet. It's slow. Really realley sl-o-o-o-o-o-o-w. Which is maddening enough, but it loses things. It forgets things. It doesn't want to connect to sites and people it should connect to. It misbehaves, acting like it doesn't care to help me do the things I need and want to do. This defiant, sluggish laptop was purchased in May of this year.
I've tried all the usual (but not extreme) remedies that those of us with an above average comfort level with personal technology know to do in these situations. I've tried them two and three times or more.
It might be time for more drastic measures. But before I go that far, one of my business partners offered up his "Technology Cleansing Ritual".
I think it might be worth a shot.
When you are in the snowy cold of Minnesota, take your laptop, remove any jewelry and do the following:
1. Gather freshly cut parsley and place it in a pan of distilled water. Let it soak for nine minutes. Sprinkle the water throughout the house while visualizing a calm environment.
2. Go outside, face Seattle and chant the following: I will uphold the Redmond creed. High in spirit, I shall succeed. Power of the Elements Five, will help my data stay alive. From grains of earth to the moving air, past the burning fire that magic flares, flow with water, lakes, and streams; around the spirit's aura and dreams. Keep my karma high aloft and let me play with Microsoft.
3. Avoid eating any liver or organ meat for one month.
You should be good to go!
J
Enjoy!
I like to start my workday (after the coffee & Ellen DeGeneres) by choosing a soundtrack the day. Oftentimes this is either listening to 89.3 The Current or just hitting shuffle. If I'm feeling extra procrastinatey I have to create a playlist for the day. These vary quite a bit. One playlist is just a mashup of Exile on Main Street with Exile in Guyville, alternating the Stones with Liz Phair. Speaking of Phair, she has another playlist dedicated to her. This one alternates the rejected Whitechocolatespaceegg demos with the released versions of the songs.
The latest playlist was quite fun to make and it's just called Duets. I seem unable to resist a duet. I blame this on listening to a lot of Kenny Rogers in my formative years (he loved the duet too). And since we're very nearly hitting the 12 days of Christmas, I thought I'd share four of the more unusual duets in my collection.
Rocket Man, Elton John & Ryan Adams
Even though everyone knows "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" is Elton's best song, I have a soft spot for "Rockt Man" because it brings up fond memories of spending a drunken night on the company dime in a swanky Canadian hotel, where some co-workers and I commandeered the piano in the hotel bar and this song was sung repeatedly with made up lyrics involving Software Man.
Come on! Does this really need any explanation? I didn't think so.
The fact that these two sing together and have formed a sort of mutual admiration society is enough to make my heart burst with joy. It's a little known fact that I bought the Tank Girl soundtrack not because of the name Paul Westerberg but because Joan Jett (and L7, I was going through quite an L7 thing at the time). My Joan Jett admiration predates my Westerfetish by quite a few years. Of course, I should admit a lot of my Joan Jett love was due to the fact that in my early-childhood brain I had decided she was also Leather Tuscadero from Happy Days. Oh well, serendipity I guess.
Changed the Lock, Elvis Costello & Lucinda Williams
I have nothing to say about this one. I just really fucking love the both of 'em.
Watch this stunningly beautiful, breath-taking vision of Picasso's anti-war masterpiece Guernica animated by Lena Gieseke.
This morning I posted here on Vox, started a batch of cookies, then took the dogs for a walk. I felt totally fine. Immediately upon returning from my walk, however, I am stricken with sneezing and a stuffy nose. Sure enough, I have a cold, as if someone just flipped a switch. What the HELL is up with that?
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
“This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.”
This month has been positively shameful. I blame a lot of it on how Await Your Reply totally wrecked me, and made everything else seem boring and unimportant. I only finished two books in November and I didn't like one of them. How sad am I? But, well, this is my last week of class and now the time I've devoted to reading some 425+ student pages a month can be spent on other things.
BOOK ACQUIRED
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
BOOKS READ
The Complete Essex County by Jeff Lemire: Sweeping and brilliant graphic novel about hockey, forgiveness, loneliness, and family in Canada.
Totally Killer by Greg Olear: Despite being a sort of homage to American Psycho, a bad choice in point of view ruins what could have been a pretty funny novel about murder, babyboomers, and 1991.
CURRENTLY READING
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
There are certain pieces of art -- music, books, movies, tv shows -- that click with you in ways that are hard to define. Oftentimes mere words cannot explain the feelings you have for certain things. The heart wants what it wants, right? Though I have tried, I still can't explain what it was about the Wakefield Twins of Sweet Valley that had me entranced for years on end. I can't adequately explain how the music of The Replacements exhilarates me and makes me feel understood and not alone all at the same time.
Nor can I explain why I love Dawson's Creek so much. It's a silly teen drama that I fell in love with when I was much too old to be in the show's target audience. I remember having a great time making fun of my parents who were early-fans of the Dawson's Creek/Felicity night on the WB. Little did I know, three short years later I would be the biggest fan of Dawson's Creek.
It caught me when I was at my weakest. I was working a crap job in Customer Service, living alone for the first time, and fighting a battle with pneumonia where the doctor made me choose between staying in my apartment for 10 days or going to the hospital to rest.
I opted for the home quarantine and it was then I caught my first episode. It was the one where Pacey kissed Joey. That's all it took and I was hooked. I watched the show religiously for the next two years. Then I proceeded to Netflix the hell out of the entire series so I could get the full Dawson's Creek experience.
It didn't end there. Once I moved into Supergenius HQ and had cable, I began to TiVO the show on any time it was shown. I'd watch it every night and it ruled. But then I got laid off in the winter of 08 and by that summer decided that I needed to slash my cable budget. I dropped down a level, saving myself a measly $13 a month (seriously Comcast, are you fucking kidding me?) and thus ended my Dawson's supply. There was much sadness throughout the land.
Over the years I've spent a lot of time debating the merits of purchasing each of the six seasons of Dawson's on DVD. But somehow I always held back, mostly because I am cheap. But then they released the Complete Series as a box set for only $81. I could not resist, and snapped it up immediately.
There was much rejoicing throughout the land when it landed on my doorstep. However, after making my way through 2.5 seasons I've discovered that one of the discs is flawed. It won't play the finale of season 3, which is a very important episode. It is here where Joey makes the decision to ditch whiny, crybaby Dawson and spend the summer sailing to Key West with Pacey.
So, what's a girl to do? I, of course, e-mail customer service at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment whereby I was told to pack up my entire Boxed Set send it to their giant conglomerate and then spend the next three to five weeks with my fingers crossed praying that they return a working set to me.
Perfect solution, huh?
I don't think so. While I am all for sending them a proof of purchase, and even sending back the defective disc for a new one, the idea of just sending something I paid hard-earned money for into the void doesn't sit well with me. And why does it take so long? Three to five weeks? It took Amazon 2-days to get the set to me, apparently it takes the makers of the boxed set a couple of fortnights to get a working product to me.
I call bullshit.
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