It's been a while since I had an art project. I kinda miss having you know, personal goals.

I'm supposed to be in some horrid suburb of Houston at someone else's Christmas party right now. And I really don't want to go but I should. I guess I'll take a sketchbook, or something.

You guys let me know if this keeps on showing up on your friends page... :/

Rules, Regulations, & Conditions:
1// You must create one artwork for each of the themes listed.
2// Pictures are only to be done by traditional media or paint programs/ e.g photoshop.
3// These must be your pieces of art that you made, and abide by all d.a policies.
4// There is no time limit, enjoy.
5// Keep the list updated, when you complete a piece of art, put a strike through it and a link next to it.

Completed: 21/100
In Progress: 0/100

( THE LIST............... )

Note: to see all at once click on "the list" tag.

---

3/13/09: new use for this thing - illustration ideas.

black bile (a la spirited away). Juxtapose against light colors, of course.
Traps - asn, of course. DUH.

So, bossman convinced me to officially be on a "Leave of Absence." He's going to pay me for an extra month, which is very generous of him (yay more money!) which he explains by, "This isn't charity, I'm going to put you to work in the future."

Which is true. I've slowly been realizing over the past two weeks that as little as I feel I do around here, my job description is extremely diverse (everyone's heard me bitching about it, right?) and it is really difficult to find someone who can perform all the roles I can perform. Honestly I'm at least 3 part-timers: research assistant, lab manager, and tech chick. Research assistants and lab managers are easy for bossman to find, but he doesn't run across too many tech chicks, so he's gonna give me a month's pay for, well, probably a lifetime of occasional indentured servitude. Whatever, I need the money.

Otherwise, the last few days have been a battle between zen and stress. My brain's trying to stress out about the impending move, but I've been making lists and decisions and organizing, and doing research on my options, and then rewarding the effort amply with delicious delicious gaming time (mmm, delicious delicious gaming time). My workload has doubled, since not only do I have to do my work, but I also have to schedule time to teach other people how to do my work, which (as you can imagine) takes significantly longer. It's shocking to me that after 2 years of working here, our main cell culture guy didn't know where the autoclave is or how to operate it. No wonder he insists on buying expensive sterile-filter cups for everything.

I've unfortunately let human relations that are not immediate and pressing fall by the wayside, which I imagine suffering for in the near future (still need to call David. Schedule outing with Christina. For that matter, schedule outing with Cristina - no h. Ril isn't back yet. Need to tell Joyce I won't be here in August. Buy Sam a parting gift. Yoga guy dinner. Glen lunch. Carmen lunch. Return Becky e-mail. E-mail Claire about leaving the purchasing sub-committee. E-mail work contacts and tell them I'm leaving. Return e-mails from Lori and Lucas. Er, not in any particular order.) but honestly not curling into a little ball of Reewhimpering about having to tear my possessions life apart and pack it into boxes is making me feel pretty proud of myself right now. My stress reactions are a group of behaviors that I find rather poor and I'm pleased that I'm at least making some kind of improvement. Plus part of the stress reaction has made me "find time" to draw. Nothing worth showing, but it's still nice to draw. (J, it's actually Lizzy Siren. I dunno, the idea of an eyepatch just hooked me and wouldn't let go. But like I said, it's not fit for show, but I hope to clean it up eventually since the concept was good - I wanted to draw an eyepatch and nice boobs.)

Anyway, gonna go have lunch now. Subway's has a new orchard chicken salad out that I LOOOOOOOOOVE. Damn you Subway, you caught me young and now it seems I'm hooked for life. It's become stress-food now. I suppose it's better that Subway's is stress food instead of, I dunno, chocolate-covered bacon. (Mmmm, chocolate-covered bacon...)

The jokes community I watch posted some quotations from (they said) 5th and 6th graders today and I thought it was really cute.

Here's a few to get you interested:

"When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions."

"Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. There are 180 degrees between freezing and boiling because there are 180 degrees between north and south."

"Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know we know they're there."

*giggle*

http://community.livejournal.com/jokes/1026568.html

Good: Adrian came to LA to visit me this weekend, mwahahaha. I took him to Palomino's and Father's Office and Venice Beach, which ('cept for the awful parking situation) worked out a lot better than I thought it would. I meant to show him a good time but then those sweet potato fries and omg the pizza from Palomino's and MMMM. Anyway hon, now that I know you play nice with sunshine and raspberry pomegranate glazes, I'm going to have to introduce you to Furaibo (Japanese chicken joint), Daikoku (awesome ramen house), Spumoni (Italian place with the olive stuff that I was going on and on about) and The Standard (rooftop bar/lounge). Oh, and BJ's b/c they have this awesome beer I really like, and this tremendously terrible dessert that's delicious. There's a couple other places too but I think I need to figure out how to get to them :P. Oh and we still haven't gotten midnight yogurt yet, that's the best. Oh geez, and Cuban pastries... Oh and Korean BBQ. And Mongolian BBQ.

Meh: It also kinda reinforced everything I'm gonna miss about this place. :/ I thought all the visits to Houston were fun but actually having Adrian visit me here is *more* fun. Houston's comforting, but my favorite things in TX were steak, kolaches, and beer. Here, I've found salads I like and forms of exercise I like. I'm still pretty terrified of getting fat when I move back - like I'll forget how to eat healthily since it won't be readily available, and I'll neglect exercise 'cause the weather's awful and there's no such thing as using bikes as transportation... but I dunno. I think I have to remember that the way things work out in my head tends to be worse than how things work out in real life. Well, 'cept for the times it's not. Hm, I guess that's not a really reliable indicator, then.

Bad: WoW crashed this morning (shut up, I was just checking on the AH to see how things have sold) and it refused to run. I ran repair.exe and it told me things were so f'd up I have to reinstall. Trouble is really living up to its name. So anyway, I uninstalled a lot of crap that may affect WoW (Mr. Oskner, the guy who sold me this machine, "helpfully" installed a load of crap on there that I neither need nor want, and then also "helpfully" configured it the way *he* liked it which was full paranoid mode. That configuration would be great if I kept Soviet secrets on my computer and my roommates were all government agents.) and it's reinstalling ATM. Annoying! And then all my Gatherer and Fishing Buddy and AH info will be gone! Ugh. :/ They'd better not fuck with my action bar configuration. I'm just sayin'.

On the other hand though... Trouble's really making me learn a lot about how things work. For example, corrupted data does not necessarily point to a hard drive issue, did you know that? While hardware failure is one cause of corrupted data, data corruption is more commonly caused by I/O processes. One factor that influences I/O processes is actually anti-virus software and spyware monitors, for obvious reasons. There are plenty of other influencing factors, of course, including bugs in the code, viruses, and any kind of interruption to the data flow (RAM spikes, data jams, having the power go out), but there isn't too much that can be done about those factors, short of joining Blizz programming and debugging their software.

I can see software evolving to resemble the human genome someday: bulky, with many repeated segments, but for the most part pretty immune to complete and total failure. Also what the hell? How do things like Mabinogi, Ragnarok Online, and Adventure Quest seem so free from failure when WoW can't seem to run for a single session without something going wrong?

Random: Every once in a while it occurs to me that spending so much time mentally preparing for the zombie apocalypse might be kind of crippling since it means I don't spend time mentally preparing for scenarios that might actually happen. (Honestly, I don't think it's useful to anyone that I think ultimate zombie protection involves landmines and napalm. Obviously the land mines will damage lower body, decreasing the already slow movement speed, and as move approaches zero, damage from napalm - essentially a fire wall - approaches infinity. I'd throw some poison in there too if I thought anything could possibly poison zombies. Much more effective than guns, right?)

*Edit: Well, reading more on data corruption, I'm less sure about the above... but I'll keep digging.

Holy cow, I just had the "I'm moving back to Houston" convo with my mom and she's like, "Oh, cool. Glad to have you back. Looking forward to seeing you again."

(Mind you, I've been fighting with my dad about this. He's all worried I won't find gainful employment. I'm all like, "Well if I don't find gainful employment, then I'll have an opportunity to learn how to deal with not finding gainful employment then, won't I?" Probably not the answer he wanted to hear.)

Actually she's been fighting with both sets of grandparents. Unsurprisingly, neither set wants to be in a nursing home and neither set is okay to stay home by themselves either (and hiring nurses hasn't been productive so far...). It sucks that all this is happening (legitimate conflict of interest is my new favorite phrase I think) but honestly, I don't know what can be done about it... 'cept for I dunno, widespread and immediate social reform in China as far as treatment of the elderly in nursing homes is concerned. Or maybe body doubles - one set for employment state-side, the other set for care in China. Option 3 is let my grandparents do what they want, which will lead to accelerated er, dying. I'm all for letting people do what they want but even I'm completely uncomfortable with option #3.

Anyway, this experience has led my mom to make peace with her lack of control over other people which means that she's like "Do whatever makes you happy! Come home for dinner once in a while!"

Man I don't know what I did to deserve that (probably nothing, aside from have grandparents) but shit. Time for a happy dance. And a note to self to keep sending mom flowers. She seems to really like those.

Well, this makes Part 2 of my plans significantly easier... I have - had! - plans to go back to Houston and smooth over the rift between me and my mom but garsh, looks like my plans are useless! Man, I don't even know what I'm going to do with all this extra time. I think I'll declare all of it Ree Takes Bubble Baths Time. I'll need a rubber ducky and some ships. Maybe a pirate hat.

Adrian! Very important question time: Do legos float?

Yick, I made the fatal mistake of both eating lunch and reading about how fetal bovine serum is made. I mean, I knew from its name that it wasn't exactly wished into being by sparkle fairies using dandelions as happiness wands, but man, I use this stuff on a daily basis. How many unborn cows have been vampirized for my work?

A more graphic (and non-wiki) description can be found here.

So I went to Anime Expo on Friday with Bossman's daughter (Laurie) and her friend (Yujing). Laurie was a few days shy of 13 and Yujing's 14. Man those girls are so cute. They're all artsy and socially awkward! I love 'em.

AX was a lot more fun than I thought it would be even though I didn't get to meet Yun Kouga (manga artist of Earthian, Loveless) and I didn't get to meet Kari Wahlgren, whom I'd never heard of until Andrew said something about playboy. And I mean, I already thought AX was going to be tons of fun so yay! Happy surprise.

I *did* get to meet Brion Foulke, the artist of Flipside, which I LOOOOOVE. It turned into the most embarrassing encounter I've had in a while 'cause I just ran up there and started gushing to him "Omg I LOVE YOUR COMIC you're so awesome I love your characters everything's awesome you're cool" and then I told him I wanted to support him and he said every book gets a free sketch from him and I'm like "SUREWHATEVERYOUWANTYOU'REAWESOME." And he asked me who I wanted a sketch *of* and then my mind just went a quiet, deadly blank. I couldn't think of anything to say. I think I stood there and went "Ummmmm" for like 30 seconds before desperation made me finally think of the name of the main character (and she is my favorite, but I wanted to say someone else! Just to be like "Look, I know all your minor characters too!") And he was sketching and he asked me who else I liked and then again, deadly blank. So then I blurted out the name of the other main character and augh. That was so embarrassing.

Luckily at the time the girls were off doing whatever. I took a page out of Violent Acres and told them to wander about by themselves and either call me if they wanted me, otherwise I'd come back for them in an hour.

(They lasted about 5 mins before they called, I thought that was kinda funny.)

I could spend this entire entry talking about parenting, actually. But I won't. I'll tell you the meeting stone story instead.

So we were walking down the halls of AX, surrounded by Ls and Sasukes and various people from Bleach, when in front of me there appears this giant meeting stone.

Me: "OMG A MEETING STONE! Quick, Laurie, take a picture of me."
Laurie: "O... kay..."
Me: "OMG OMG OMG!"
Laurie: *snap*

( Meeting Stone )

And then... later, we're walking through the convention halls... and then I see the meeting stone walking down the hall.

It was a costume.

*cringe*

Somewhere out there is someone making a blog post about "So I want to AX 2009 and this random girl just comes up and starts touching my costume w/o even asking..."

Yeah.

And anyway some more pictures below.

( MOAR )

So yeah, AX was totally fun, and my two little charges were awesome. And then I came home and there was an Ulduar raid and then yesterday we full-cleared 10-man Naxx and I got a decent helm out of that so that's good. I have the talk with my boss to look forward to tomorrow, that'll be a real hoot. And then calling people and telling them I'm going to leave earlier than I told them before I was going to leave, going to hit up doctors, etc. while I still have insurance... aah. One month. Whew. I can do this.

...

At least I have the open road to look forward to. That was so peaceful, the drive here. Sun, miles and miles of just... space. When I was a kid I used to like being in enclosed areas. It made me feel safe, like I could hide. But now I feel better in wide-open areas, which is kinda hard to come by in LA.

Anxiety, my old friend. I will squash you like a bug if you flare up.

I didn't wanna post this yesterday b/c I was all LJ'd out... but some dude hit my bike. I'm fine, of course, but the bike's not. My roommate helped me take it to the shop and I hope it'll be fixed today, or at least tomorrow. I love bikes. The repair bills are so cheap.

That's not the owie. The owie is my stupid decision to walk home instead of take a bus or hop a ride with someone. It's not far - 2.5 miles - but when I do a lot of walking my knees hurt. I delivered a package for my boss that probably tacked on an additional mile of walking since it was pretty far away and I was walking in circles for a good deal of the time 'cause I had trouble finding the building. In my defense though, the entrance to the building I was looking for is clearly marked "UCLA police station." Like, how was I supposed to know there were administrative offices in there?

In my natural state I'd be unable to walk and mostly blind. Serenghetti? Totally lion food.

Ree, going to down some painkillers, out.

I've been meaning to make this post for a while. When I was in Austin, I had the chance to talk to Lisa (outside, smoking. Oh, cancer sticks. What don't you make better?) and talking to her made some pieces kinda click in my head. She thinks really differently from me and I think because I needed to explain my way of thinking to her, out loud, in real actual words instead of just thinking abstractions in my head, it really helped piece together some things.

Sofia's very wrapped up in this too but... I don't think I'm ready to talk about that yet and plus I should probably talk to Sofia about things first (well, we have been... but I don't feel like everything's resolved yet) before I start talking about her. So I'm purposely omitting anything that isn't pretty much indisputable common knowledge.

( Cut for length. If you're actually planning on reading this... you might wanna grab a drink or a snack or something and maybe take a potty break because Yes, it is that long! )

I like people who post comments like "You guys have waaaay too much time on your hands" on WoW forums. That person's obviously *superior* since he has so much *less* time on his hands. Which I find odd because I'm sure at some point in human history leisure was the epitome of "You've got it made."

In other news, I hit 80 this weekend. BITCHES! Who's better than you? I am!

Anyway I'm posting on LJ because my unarmed skill is sitting at 399. I suspect that I can punch any ol' thing to hit 400 but as always, when you have something that has a low occurrence rate, people will make up all sorts of stories about it.

"You have to hit lvl 80 mobs"
"You have to hit lvl 82 elite mobs"
"No, you have to go find this one hermit, he sits in a cave..."

Bah. BAH I SAY. Chudots is punching some 63 ogres in Nagarand right now. Why? Because they can't kill her, which means I can just walk away. She takes... I dunno, I haven't timed her, but I had time to go do some dishes while she punched a single ogre to death. Considering unarmed, I do about... 6-7 damage per hit (sometimes I crit for 13!) and these ogres have about 5K hp, let's just say that it takes a while.

Unless I'm wrong, in which case it will take slightly longer than a little while.

It's actually kinda good b/c ever since I got my flying mount I haven't been cleaning my room. Like, I used to do the, "Okay Ree, every time you get on a flight path, you have to pick up one thing from the floor." And it worked! Some nights I'd be doing a lot of flying and by golly, my room was *almost clean* by the end of that. But then I got a flying mount and *then* I got my epic flying mount and then everything just went downhill from there. It was awful, I tell you. AWFUL.

I could use that as a story of how leisure time is good but... um, I don't think it'd hold general relevance.

Man, bloggers must really have some kind of dedication or sommat because I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't just stream-of-consciousness/ramble on a public forum.

Haha, maybe I'd go talk to people in real life.

Oh god, that's horrifying, someone having to listen to me ramble in real life. But then again, do I ever talk without rambling? I APOLOGIZE IF I'VE EVER TALKED IN YOUR PRESENCE BEFORE. I'M SURE YOU FELT ALL THE POORER FOR HAVING LISTENED TO ME.

Alright, time to check on the Chu and...

Of course, no 400th point.

Damn.

Alright, time to play Gemcraft while trying to do a WoW achievement.

Huh, too much time on my hands. Yearite.

ETA: Hot damn, I got it! Now to slay everything in the region in celebration. :D

Haha, kidding. No I won't!

I often type and re-type my comments/posts so I'm never 100% sure what I've actually written and what I haven't. This is an article that I wanted to mention in my previous post because it offers a theory that I'm not 100% comfortable with. While objectification and being desired is obviously a turn-on for many women, it still bothers me to think of female sexuality as reactive rather than... what, proactive? But hey, I haven't even linked the article yet.

Rape, Fantasies, and Female Arousal

I find it... unsettling, to say the least, mostly because I want to say, "That's not true! You guys are jerks!" but then... I can't! The evidence all goes their way! I hate when that happens.

The only point of contention I can actually speak out against is their hypothesis that in rape fantasies, the focus is on his desire, which makes it hot. I do believe that implies that distress, pain, mortification, anger, etc. etc. *can't* be hot because, well, shit, it can't, right? But obviously there are fetishes like BDSM and humiliation (is there a word for fetishizing humiliation?) and all this other stuff that NTs (normal types) don't consider hot. By far my favorite example is in this issue of Savage Love in which some reader writes:

My ultimate fantasy is being strapped to a gurney by a hot stud who uses medical tape to secure one of his sneakers to my face, covering my mouth and nose, so that I have to breathe through it.

Man, that gets me every time. I mean it's so random! I don't know how the human brain comes up with this shit but the point is, human sexuality is a broad spectrum and his desire isn't the only thing that could possibly be in a rape fantasy that's arousing. Duh, all you smarty-pants scientists.

Also, in case you were wondering, details of the neurological arousal v. corporal arousal experiment can be found here. Hint: Yes, the participants self-rated their mental states.

No One Wants To Be Defeated.

1. Received text from Adrian about Michael Jackson.
2. Googled, confirmed.
3. Memo goes out about Charles E. Young Drive South closed. No explanation.
4. Coworker mentions he saw ambulance ~ 1:30
5. Biking home, huge crowd.
6. News vans.
7. Someone blaring "Beat it" from unknown source.
8. Lots of cars parked ON sidewalk. Hope the ticket's worth it.
9. People holding giant "We love you, Michael Jackson!" signs (punctuation added for clarity.)

I don't think that was enough signs, though. I mean, how can you *really* be sure?

10. Tapped some guy on the shoulder who was taking pictures w/his camera phone.

Ree: "Hey, so what's going on?"

Guy: *long, what-rock-have-you-been-hiding-under stare"
Guy: "Michael Jackson is dead."

There you have it, folks. The flashbulb memories of our generation? 9/11, and possibly the death of Michael Jackson. Only time will tell.

How many countries can you name in 5 minutes?

I wish they let me keep my list of countries I named in the order I named them. Because I was totally using the animaniacs song.

My countries after the jump.

( 50 countries even, bitches! )

For the record, you'd better do better than me, or I will laugh at you. I struggled with a *medium* badge on Kongregate - struggled! - because I suck at geography. But luckily fairly recently Ril and I were sitting outside on the stairs (I was smoking, that's my smoking spot because my neighbors asked very politely that I go smoke somewhere else and I, knowing full well that I'm going to curse their names whenever I drop my lighter between the steps on the stairs, obliged anyway because smokers get enough hate, let's not make it worse. And yes, I drop my lighter ALL THE TIME.) and he didn't know something that I had presumed he knew and I was like, "Oh yeah, your primary education wasn't in this country. Say, what *did* they teach you in those Nigerian boarding schools? Other than to say zed like the King of England was lording over you. Can you name all the countries in Africa?"

And then Ril went and did a really goddamn good job of naming countries. I forget exactly how many he ended up with but we set a reasonable goal and he hit it and then I think he thought up a few more for good measure before giving up. Anyway, that's the only reason that Chad and Algeria are even on that list because honestly, I wouldn't have remembered those by myself.

You know, I just realized... I don't think I learned any of this shit in school. Seriously. Denmark is from Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. Jamaica is most definitely from (oh my god I've forgotten his name) a college friend. Fuck, what was his name? Geez, I've got his face super-clear in my head but I can't remember his name. Rameez! Rameezy, can't believe I forgot even if it was only a minute or two. South Africa is David WB and Zara. Indonesia is Aditya. El Salvador is well, Clara, Geo, and my coworkers from Subway that I can't remember the names of anymore. Greece is Andrew. Haha. :) I tried England a whole buncha times but it didn't let me, and then I typed "United Kingdom." The fuck? Okay, so Mark always called it the UK but I've always called it England because it's fucking England. Turkey is my 4th-grade teacher, I don't remember her name either. Ukraine is Andre from darts. Nepal is girl who taught me how to grow MRC5 cells. Singapore is where my dad went on a business trip and then he brought me back a necklace that had a mouse on it and then when you blew into the mouse's butt it made a whistling sound. Maldives is from watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics while Justin was here and shortly before the whole Eric thing started. Luxembourg was from when Xiao and Aileen and I were all little and we'd used to be so bored out of our f'in skulls that we'd look for tiny little countries and then repeat their names to each other because you know, if we know the names of tiny countries, then by golly, that meant we were smart. And fuck, I just realized I left out Sweden (IKEA) and Holland (my cousin went to school there). And Vietnam. Okay, I feel kinda stupid having missed that one, what with Linh and having dated Tony for 2 (horrendously adolescent) years. Oh geez, *and* the Koreas. I really have zero excuse for that one as well. But the point is, I can't connect any of these countries with school.

So screw you, public education.

(Sorry, been reading Violent Acres again. Violent Acres is like Bad Clams - it makes you angry.)

*ETA: Augh, and Venezuela! I'm sorry Sofia I left your mom's country out. But on the upside I hope she's still making those arrepas (sp?). And I guess also Venezuelan guy from painting class. God, I can't remember people's names from college anymore, that's so ridiculous. College wasn't that long ago!!

Stop playing WoW, stop reading blogs (god, I can't get over how much I love Ashley and Me's writing style. He's just so... upbeat.) and stop slacking off!

I need to:

Clean room
Do laundry
Make food that doesn't involve a) toast b) eggs c) frozen waffles or d) a can opener
DRAW SOMETHING. ANYTHING. IT'S ALMOST JULY AND YOU HAVEN'T DRAWN ANYTHING YET! For serious Ree, what the hell? All those other webcomic artists you used to sneer at because they had so much trouble with proportions and color choices are leagues beyond you now.

(Jealousy, the best weapon in an artist's arsenal. Er, other than "inspiration," I guess.)

Data off old 'puter, reformat, donate.
Vid card for Trouble
WATCH FIXED
STOP SLACKING OFF.

*huff, puff*

If you see me on WoW please remind me I'm supposed to be responsible and Kirin Tor rep is *not* worth living in squalor for.

I was talking about Ashley and Me to Lis last night. It's basically written by a guy who's married but uses this website called Ashley Madison (hence title) to find women to sleep with. He's got a very lighthearted, upbeat writing style that's half self-deprecating, half self-congratulating (because you know, he has a penis and he scores), and overall I find the writing very endearing. His handle is Riff Dog and it's apt; the personality that comes through the writing sounds like that of an errant puppy that you'd like to swat on the nose and go, "Bad dog!" but he's just so darn cute.

I'm still trying to find this other blog I was reading a long time ago written by this girl who had many sexual exploits with company superiors. I think it was called Confessions of a Corporate Slut but that's apparently a book now? I wonder if she closed the blog and just made it a book. Maybe there's something to that idea. I could write a book called Confessions of a... Research Assistant.

Yeah, I don't think that writing career's gonna work out for me.

Any good blogs you read? Sexy or not, it's all good. :)

Back in LA. Weekend was SUPERFUN but now I have to work, when I just want to take a nap. *grumblecakes* Pictures later...

Oh yeah, I was reading P-A notes today and I forgot to add that when we saw Chris off, I bought him a coke when I got the beer b/c he said he wouldn't drink during work hours (he totally lied, bless him). I stick it in the common refrigerator in the same plastic bag as the beers and thought it well hidden... but no, when I came back for it like THREE hours later, it was gone.

I mean, I and everyone else have had food disappear out of this common fridge for AGES. It's mostly just a minor annoyance because the mystery thief only takes readily identifiable stuff so if you've got like something in tupperware it's pretty much left alone (i.e. it's the snacks, not the main course that disappears), but yogurt/cokes/anything prepackaged? Apparently fair game.

I've considered (and I might do this when I quit) putting up a note that says:

Hey you, stealing the food.

I've been putting some of my experiment in the food I've left out for you.

I mean, most of the virus is probably inactivated, but you won't even know what to get tested for, will you?

Love,

Anonymous

Effin' food stealers. Honestly!

Today was Chris's last day as our security guard.

Chris is this incredibly likable guy. I could go into detail but honestly I've been typing and retyping and I can't think of any way to describe Chris in less space than a small novel. Let's just leave it at his method of interacting with people is extremely effective and man, I'm gonna miss him.

Chris and I started talking because of two things: diabetes and cigarettes. Diabetes because he was diagnosed last year, and talking to him about what ha'happened is easier than getting my own dad to talk about when he (dad) was diagnosed with diabetes. (My dad's idea of telling a story involves, "Hey I have diabetes. I'm okay. Alright seeya.")

Cigarettes because of the obvious. :) Chris is tryina cut down though, so I got into the habit of asking him to come outside to enjoy the great weather instead of come outside for a smoke.

(Not that the "weather" thing's stopped him. I suppose I should feel guilty about being an enabler.)

Anyway, so Chris and the 3 other security guards were supposed to only have been working at our building for 6 months while the security system was set up. Well, they've been there two years now and two years is a lot of "Hey, how you doing"-s and "Alright, see you later"-s. 'Bout a month ago, they finally got the security system up and running, and since then there's been this clock ticking over all our heads. Our building as a whole have gotten real attached to our security guards and that front lobby is sure gonna be empty without them.

We did manage a proper sendoff though. Last week (I think last week anyway) I lost a bet with Chris and Yoga guy - I bet the Lakers would lose game 4 - and so this week I brought the beer, Yoga guy brought pastries, and we all sat around drinking beer out of coffee mugs (it's just a coffee break, right?) and eating really good Cuban pastries. Chris regaled us with stories from the midwest, people coalesced and dispersed around us, goodbyes and well-wishes were said, and good times were had by all.

I wish I could put more of what I mean to say in this entry. I wanted to describe Chris but well, I just realized that over the last 2 years we've had a lot of conversations and I can't fit it all in one entry without making it so long that no one, including me, will want to read it. So I guess I'll just go play WoW now or something.

*grumbles* sometimes I feel like Blizz treats WoW players like a Columbian drug lord treats a crack addict. They know that they can do whatever they want, and we'll come crawling back for more.

Yeah? Well screw you Blizz. I'm going to d/l RO onto Trouble (the new puter) and play Gemcraft. SO THERE. NYAH.

My weekend was awesome.

Adrian took me shopping. I got this bright orangey/coral colored nail polish and a little black dress and some earrings and a necklace and I got to play with them while watching the Addams family movie while Adrian raided. Didn't get that swimsuit I've been trying to buy for weeks now. Ugh, I'm so picky about swimsuits. I feel like I can look good in just bout anything that's in the lingerie category but when it comes to swimsuits all of a sudden I'm just like, "Does this make me look fat?" "Does this color go with my skin tone?" "I don't know, the pattern's so flagrant." "So it doesn't make me look fat, right?"

But then again with swimsuits, you're pretty much on public display whereas I think with lingerie you're with a much more forgiving audience.

Incidentally, did you know that oxytocin levels in the human brain are significantly different for men and women (it's higher in women) but are at their closest levels shortly after the male orgasm? Oxytocin is associated with attachment and care.

Also, when women look at a picture of their romantic partner, their centers for memory and attention light up. When a man looks at a picture of their romantic partner, their centers for visual processing and lust light up.

So I guess there's really no helpin' men being men but I suppose if one wanted to make men more like women then frequent orgasms are a must. ('cept for that immediate drowsiness thing, that seems to be largely biochemical as well. It seems a darn shame that guys will sleep straight through the time span when their brains are biochemically most female.)

ANYWAY.

I had some pretty awful nightmares this morning. ( DREAM )

The upside is nothing I deal with today can scare me.