The Scrolls

Archive for December, 2008

A Music Meme, If It’s All the Same

Elyse, that gosh darned devil, tagged me. So here you have it:

1) List five of your favorite bands/artists.
2) Choose three songs from each band/artist.
3) If you can find a link to listen to the song at Last.fm or YouTube, post it!
4) Tag five people.

Pat Benatar (an oldie but goodie)

1. Heartbreaker – Youtube
2. Promises In the Dark – Youtube
3. We Belong – Youtube
4. Love is a Battlefield – Youtube
5. The Outlaw Blues – Youtube

Elvis (I know, right?)

1. Suspicious Minds – Youtube
2. Kentucky Rain – Youtube
3. A fool Such as I – Youtube
4. His Latest Flame – Youtube
5. Return to Sender – Youtube

A Perfect Circle

1. Judith – Youtube
2. 3 Libras – Youtube
3. Weak and Powerless – Youtube
4. The Noose – Youtube
5. Sleeping Beauty – Youtube

Metallica

1. Unforgiven II – Youtube
2. Nothing Else Matters – Youtube
3. Bleeding Me – Youtube
4. Welcome Home – Youtube
5. Master of Puppets – Youtube

Matchbox 20

1. Push – Youtube
2. Busted – Youtube
3. Bright Lights- Youtube
4. Downfall – Youtube
5. You Won’t Be Mine – Youtube

I tag, Manda, Fruity, Terri, Karen, Damita, Shannon

Bleh

I tihnk I am coming down with something. Ryan came back (and is still) sick from Nevada and he must have given me whatever it is. MY throat has felt really strange the last couple days. It doesn’t quite hurt but it’s sensitive, like I ate something which scratched it (but I didn’t). My nose has also been runny and we’re almost out of tissues. Oh noes!

How did you all make out for Christmas?

The truth is..

I love Christmas. I love music and while I prefer the classics like “Winter Wonderland” and “White Christmas” performed in their classic way by almost anyone (Elvis, Reba, Alan Jackson, and Eurythmics are a few I love), I also love newer jingles and artists like Sarah Mclachlan, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Shedaisy who put their own original spin on them. Of course, I love to sing along.

I love Christmas movies, especially all the clay-mation ones. Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer are probably my favourites but I also love Home Alone.

I love to decorate and given the resources (time, money, perfect decorations and a house which is suitable) I would probably be one of those people who lights up the entire neighbourhood. I love to put up a tree and there isn’t anything like the real thing.

I love the big meal including ham and potatoes. I love seeing family and friends even if it means drama. I love the hustle and bustle and even like Christmas shopping – when I have money – no matter how frustrating.

I love gift giving and gift opening, even if it’s something silly. I still hang stockings (although ours hang empty tonight) and if I ever have children, I will tell them about Santa Claus. Last night I tracked him via Norad until 3 in the morning (and he wasn’t even done!)

While I do not consider myself a religious person, the holiday season makes me feel “closer to God” and everything around me seems to sparkle. Of course, if there actually is snow sparkling aruond me, that is a plus.

But it’s so easy to go through the motions of Christmas and not take any joy from it. It’s easy to forget what it’s about, even if it’s only about gifts to you but, hey!, those are as good a reason as any in my opinion.

I had been so disappointed in Christmas this year. It wasn’t feeling like Christmas and this made me frustrated ans sad. I know I’m not the only one but I wanted to be in the Christmas spirit so bad I was doing myself a disservice.

I feel a better today even though things aren’t perfect. I guess I forgot that Christmas is more than just a sum of its parts. Its something else entirely and while it might be extra special if everything comes together perfectly, it’s not unspecial just because it doesn’t.

So, with that, Merry Christmas! I hope you got what you want and – if you didn’t – I hope that’s okay, too.

Happy Holidays!

I’d just like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday!

Kitty cats and Backed up Sinks

So, I fished washing the dishes yesterday and noticed the sink seemed a bit clogged and tried to run the garbage disposal but nothing happened. I then noticed that when running down one side of the sink, the other backed up and vice versa. I called the office who sent a request into maintenance and we left to see The Day the Earth Stood Still and take Phantom to PetSmart.

Upon returning, we saw that the maintenance guy left a note on the counter which said not to use the garbage disposal because it was rusted and corroded and he needed to order a new one. Unfortunately, this apartment was the model and while it looked good, it hadn’t been used on a daily basis for an unknown amount of time. This is also why I reluctant to use the dishwasher (which had a loose piece) and the filter had not been changed in the air conditioner forever.

The movie was okay. It was a nice change of pace to not have the entire Earth be destroyed by aliens (is that a plot spoiler? oops!) but they obviously only picked Keanu Reeves to play an alien because he talks in that strange, halting manner.

At PetSmart, we got Phantom a new toy so he hopefully redirects his aggression away from him. We also spent some time looking at the adoptions centers for possibly a new friend. We saw some adorable little kittens who were barely 2 weeks old. We decided to stop at the other PetSmart and saw a nice female cat about one year old but we have not made the final decision yet. We let Phantom and the kitty get to know eachother and while they didn’t love eachother, I think they could be good friends in time.

Phantom was really nice in the car. He eventually calmed down and curled up in my arms. He was also surprisingly mild when he was meeting the other cat; almost scared. This was the most mellow we’ve ever seen him! It was almost as though he was a different cat!

Today was spent looking for a Christmas tree (which we didn’t find) and a little Christmas shopping for Samantha (she’s getting PixOs).

This last week has really flown by.

Sleep is for the weak

Actually, I disagree. I love to sleep. I would rather get lots of good sleep than socialize, sometimes. However, sometimes I just sleep because I feel like there’s no reason to get up which is a bit depressing.

Because I don’t have many commitments, my sleep schedule is well, not very routine at all. Especially as of late. I pretty much wake up whenever and stay up until I’m dead tired. When Ryan is home, I usually wake up in the early afternoon and go to bed pretty late but it’s been even more unusual since I got back from Wausau. I’ve gone to bed at 5 or 7 in the evening a coupe times and I’ve woken anywhere from 6:30 in the morning to 5 in the evening. It’s really all over the place.

Generally, I try to be awake around the time when the mail comes so I can check the box but that’s the only thing I really must be awake to do so I just sleep when my body calls for it and wake when I cannot sleep anymore. Sometimes, I wake up and realize there’s no reason to be up and go back to sleep.

I think that I will be glad to get back on any schedule once Ryan comes home.

The Things You Love to Hate

In my case it’s technology and, sometimes, my kitty Phantom.

Not too long ago I asked for ideas for keeping him out of places and one response was to use double sided tape. Apparently cats don’t like the feeling of it on their paws and if you put it over the entrance to a place you want to keep them out of, it should help. Well, I went to the extreme when I used some double sided tape; I put a grid of the tape over our entire fireplace.

It didn’t work.

That’s right. When faced with this barrier, Phantom simply chewed through it and made a hole big enough for himself. Since then, we have resorted to zip tying the chain link metal “curtain” over the fireplace. This seems to have worked. But, it renders the fireplace completely useless. Pah!

I also needed suggestions for how to get the kitty to stop going places we don’t want him, like near the computer, behind the TV and on counters, tables and dressers. Ashe suggested I get a can of compressed air and this has actually worked really well. I’ve only had the air a few days and Phantom already knows not to fuck with me. If I even grab the can, he scrambles.

Still, if the cat can’t be kind of naughty, he tries to be really naughty. He is now spending time on top of the fridge. He originally went up there because he could smell a ziploc bag of treats I had. He proceeded to chew open the bag. Now, I tihnk he just likes being up that high and he reaches down to play with the magnets and papers on the freezer door. This is especially problematic because I can’t spray him very well up there and we moved everything to the freezer door because he was jumping to get everything on the bottom door from the floor. I guess no magnet is safe.

When it comes to technology, I really like my computer and my MP3 player and the internet but when it goes wrong, it’s so costly. I caught a trojan (W32.Renos) the other day which was redirecting my search results and slowed down my internet as well as blocking potentially helpful sites and webpages. It took over 2 days to finally find a trojan scanner which fixed it. I am very grateful to Dez for finding, downloading and sending me the program since I couldn’t fully utilize my internet.

A lot of people had the same trouble with Renos and similar trojans which fall into the family of Smitfraud. I downloaded/used at least a dozen programs and only 1 of them detected it. I even used tools specifically for these type of infections like SmitFraudFix which did not help. The program which finally did the trick is Simply Super Software’s Trojan Remover and I highly recommend it to anyone with Renos or a similar invasion.

I hope that anyone with this problem stumbles across my site and finds a solution that works for them.

There you have it, the things I love to hate.