dianaschnuth

Lots of randomness to post today. I spent too long making a neato surprize to be posted on the page in a couple weeks… so I’d better get started.

[Again. After my computer locked up and lost half my entry while trying to download some damn fool midi on a webpage. Sheryl, why is my computer being wonky and freezing during startup and at weird random times lately? I scanned for viruses, and I should be clean. Arrgh.]

I ran into two people today who work in the department I’m moving to on December 1st. They’re both people who I’ve worked with/under before, so they know me and are glad I’ll be joining them. It seems, though, that my identifying characteristic is my frequent wearing of headbands. One of the ladies said someone was trying to explain who I was, and called me "the lady who works down in that corner in Lockbox who wears headbands all the time." Heh… I have now sworn not to wear any more headbands to work. Hopefully in a few months, I’ll be "that lady who lost all that weight," instead.

Speaking of losing weight, I figured out today that during the first three weeks of this diet, I lost an average of seven pounds a week. In contrast, during the past month, I’ve averaged one pound per week. But I’m OK with that. If my weight loss is slow and steady, I have a better chance of keeping it off, or so I hear. And, hell, I’m already down 26 pounds. I’m a third of the way to my ultimate goal, which is being on the way-upper end of the healthy range.

Segueing with the food bit: Next time you go to Chi-Chi’s, watch out for the tainted green onions.

Also in the news: If you’re walking down the street, and a guy flashes you, don’t be afraid to kick him in the jimmy.

One more, one more… Every college student worth his or her salt knows you have to pace yourself if you plan to drink a liter and a half of vodka. "Gibby…? Gibby! Oh my God, Gibby, you’re passed out in the hallway in your own vomit!"

My quotable for today — and this one nearly made Loni squirt pop out of her nose: While processing a large batch of health insurance payments from a local convent, I declared, "Stupid Sisters of St. Francis! Why do you need health care? You’ve got God to take care of you!"

One day this week, I came in to work and sat my purse on top of my desk, instead of plopping it right in the drawer as usual. And someone happened to notice my Totoro zipper pull. And, of course, I then had to explain what Totoro is: kind of a part cat / part raccoon / part owl / God of the Forest. That really confused them. The one newer temp asked, "Is that Pokemon?" NO. "Digimon?" No, it’s just a Japanese cartoon. "You know the square brown guy? Yeah. I like him." Sigh.

And, the wrap-up for today… *drumroll* Written on a BGSU Foundation donation coupon were the words: "I am an alumni of the Men’s Track Team. Your fund can kiss my ass."

Just a brief catch-up post… I’ll write more later in the weekend.

Went to see Matrix Revolutions tonight. While I enjoyed it, I was also a little underwhelmed. The pacing seemed a little different to me in places, and it was more action-oriented than cerebral. I mean, sure, it’s the Matrix, so I liked it… but not as much as the other two.

Went to Steve Yoder’s funeral service yesterday afternoon. I knew about five people out of five hundred in attendance. I wore my Northern Aurora jacket, though, so my connection with Steve would be more obvious. I sat with Kristen used-to-be-Rebbeck, a former corpsmate of mine who actually marched in one of Steve’s winterguards. Made friends afterward with some Central Michigan students at the luncheon following, and met some of the Northcoast Academy members and staff. More on that later.

I’d already planned to take off of work on Friday and Monday, and Tuesday is Veteran’s Day. Five-day weekend for me… then I took off half a day on Thursday to drive out to freakin’ Wauseon — an hour’s drive out of BG by the Turnpike. But Loni called today and said she has a funeral to attend in Michigan on Monday afternoon, and asked if I could come in Monday afternoon so the rest of the department isn’t slammed too bad. So, I agreed. Only a half-day break in my five-day siesta. I can deal with that.

The Saginaires / Northern Aurora Alumni Yahoo! Group is taking off by leaps and bounds. Alumni are not only posting, but resolving their own issues, which makes me happy as Owner and Moderator. I hate having to step in and play peacemaker. You never know when it’s actually going to work, or if you’ll just piss off one or both parties involved. But that hasn’t been necessary, and the stories have been fun to read (for the most part). I’m glad that something I’ve done for the alumni is being recognized and appreciated so much.

Just spent all evening napping. Yeah, all evening. From the time the national news went off (7:00pm — no, wait, I watched some History Channel, so 7:30pm) to just a little while ago (11:30pm). My eyes have that weird, sleepish feeling, like they’re all dry and buggy, and I thought for a while I’d just go straight to bed from the recliner, but now I’m feeling a little better. That, plus the upstairs neighbors are having a little hoopdie (sp?), complete with booming bass. But at least his taste in music doesn’t suck too much. If I heard the whole song instead of just the bassline, I wouldn’t be completely opposed to his mixes. Anyway, I’ve got my normalradio cranked here at the ‘puter, so I’m good to go.

(Hey, Ellie’s playing my Depeche Mode request! Whee!)

Speaking of Ellie, I got an interesting idea from her website tonight. She posted a Cast of Characters from the year 2000 and the year 1999, and commented that of the eleven people who were central to her life back then, there are seven she’s no longer in touch with. Interesting, but typical for the college years. If I thought about it, my "Cast of Characters" would be completely and totally different from 1995 to 1996 and again in 1997, to a degree, where things stabilized a little. (At least, my roommate stayed the same from there on.)

So, just for shits and giggles (pbbt… heehee!), here’s my Cast of Characters for October 2003:

Aaron
is my newlywed husband and my best friend. I’m so lucky to be married to someone with such depth to his personality. He’s always, consistently and irrefutably (and sometimes against his will), the life of the party, and is a total goofball when the situation warrants. But he’s also much more responsible than I would have given him credit for back when we first met, and he doesn’t do anything by halves. Whether it’s the Atkins Diet, rollerblading, 8-track tapes, video games, or whatever, he dives headfirst into whatever seriously engages his brain.

Amy
was my college roommate from 1996-2000, but is now my long-distance best friend from Dayton. Normally, I wouldn’t count someone almost three hours away as being in my main CoC, but Amy’s special… at least, that’s what they told her in school. 🙂 But seriously — Amy has always been there for me, giving me sound advice and encouraging me to look into my inner motivations. I can tell her literally anything. Even though we don’t see each other as often as we’d like, we’re still just about as close as ever. I love you, man! *sniffle*

Kris H.
is the resident musician of our little circle of friends, and one of the thriftiest people I know. He’s also the vegetarian of the bunch, which makes eating out even more challenging, now that Aaron and I are on Atkins. He’s always good for a good Star Trek conversation (especially Next Gen), and will share mp3’s with anyone who asks… and sometimes even when you don’t ask. Kris is probably one of the most laid-back people I know, while still being kind of humorously indecisive at times — especially at thrift stores and garage sales.

Mark
has just moved out of his parents’ house and into his very own apartment! He was originally the quiet guy who hung around with Aaron’s group of co-workers at UPS, but has become an integral part of our social group. He tried making an independent film last year, but got discouraged when all his actors backed out on him at the last minute… gotta love Toledo talent. He’s also a sponge when it comes to new, good music — we’ve created a monster by introducing him to the White Stripes, Soledad Brothers, and their ilk, and I even got in on the scene by introducing him to Tegan & Sara. Now he reminds us of how we (or at least Aaron) used to be when we were his age, several years back: going to shows all days of the week, wherever they may be. Mark is another laid-back guy, but in a slightly different way than Kris. He’s comfortable with himself and his lot in life, and doesn’t have any qualms about working for UPS and not doing the college thing.

Kris Fries
was mainly a music-loving acquaintance of Aaron’s during high school at St. John’s, but their friendship was forged after graduation when they started attending concerts together (reference Mark, above). Now, ten years later, Kris is married and they’re expecting their first child next month. Whoa. Despite his lessened interest in music since his marriage, he’s still the biggest Rush fan I’ve ever seen.

If you’re not listed here (Dan, Sheryl, Eric, Beth, Donna, et al.), be assured I haven’t forgotten about you. You’re in my Supporting Cast. 😉

Yeah. I see from my logs (which are tedious to browse) that I’m getting hits, but nobody is tagging. Ah, well. I guess I’ll press on and hope someone gives a shit about what I’m writing. If not, well, it’s still a good outlet for me.

I have ten rolls of Super-8 film in my refrigerator. I got them for cheap at a garage sale last year. I still haven’t figured out what to do with them. I still haven’t sent in the few rolls I shot back in the year 1999 or 2000. I finally have one mailer, though, so I’m going to send in a roll and see what comes back. None of them are labeled, so I guess it’ll be a surprise. I’m guessing most of my movies will be hopelessly underexposed, but we’ll see.

Work tally today = 11.75 hours.

After you’ve gotten used to eating less than 20 grams of carbohydrate a day, bumping it up to 25 is a challenge. I have a pretty set list of things I eat, and adding carby stuff to that requires thought. So far, it’s midnight, and I’ve only eaten about 13 carbs total. Won’t even make it to 20 today, much less 25. Egh… never thought I’d have that problem with this diet.

I’m tired, and I should at least go read, if not go to sleep.

Of all the blogs I frequent, everybody except Sheryl seems to be in a bit of a blog hiatus. And, while I would like to complain, I will instead make myself part of the solution rather than the problem by updating my own site. And, boy, do I have a bunch of randomness to throw out there. I’ve been saving it up.

I ate tuna salad for lunch yesterday. So all afternoon, at my desk at work, I had the most awful tuna burps. I finally just had to share this fact with my co-workers, and they were rightly amused — not so much that I was belching tuna, but that I felt the need to share.

Oh, and I managed to miss last week’s fire drill at work, though it sounds like it was so pathetic that there might be another one before it snows. One department just didn’t leave the building. I guess they didn’t want to stop working or something. Wish everybody had that kind of balls.

Here’s an announcement you’d never want to be applicable to you: "Heather Ard, please return to your desk." Now, I don’t know Heather, but I know she’s the building’s new Executive Assistant. And all I could think of was poor Heather, whoever she is, sitting on the shitter and hearing herself paged back to her own desk. You are our prisoner! Muah-hah-hah!

The quotable for yesterday: "Are you trying to make me cry?" After I’d reminded our 23-year-old temp that it would soon be her turn to process the god-awful huge account that all of us hate.

Have you ever listened to the lyrics of Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4? Sounds like the dude is fucking high.

Staring blindly into space
Getting up to splash my face
Wanting just to stay awake
Wond’ring how much I can take
Should I try to do some more
Twenty-five or six to four

Get to the part about the room spinning deep, and he’s in the middle of a goddamned acid trip or something.

Psychologists at the University of Liverpool in England have completed a study wherein they measured people’s reactions to overweight or obese people. The results showed a lower opinion not only of those who are fat, but also those who socialize with fat people. So, yeah, sorry ’bout your luck, folks. I didn’t mean to make people think you’re a lazy, slothful bum just because we hang out together. 🙂

And in conclusion, let me unveil my very first desktop background! Ta-dah! I decided that this photo of a dude jumping a dirt kicker (read: hill) would make a good desktop. Plus, I felt the urge to dust off the old Photoshop skillz and learn some new stuff.

The only thing I scammed off the internet was the Gravity Games logo — and damn, getting it to look that nice in plain black was a trick, I tell you. Check out their page and see what I mean. But, anyway, the skyline photo and the biker photo are both original work. If you’re wondering what kinds of fun tricks were used, think masking and layer blending modes. Whee!

If you like it, it’s available for download in 1024×768 and 800×600 sizes. Oh, and if you want to set your desktop color to match, it’s R:26 G:120 B:167. I’m so proud of myself. Go me!