Torture. My back has still been giving me trouble so I tried a new treatment today: massage. Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. I can’t believe I actually paid someone to make me feel this wretched. Don’t get me wrong; it felt great at the time and she probably did me good in the long run. It’s just that I’m having trouble seeing past the “blinding, throbbing pain” right now.

Apparently I am not the only one that finds the 8 Mile soundtrack inspirational.

New Poll: Cedar Point keeps bringing out bigger and faster roller coasters, but is that really what keeps the public coming back? Let’s find out. When you go to an amusement park, what’s the first thing you head towards?

Friday Five:

1. Would you consider yourself an organized person? Why or why not?
No. I wish that I were, and every now and then I get a surge of organizing energy and think I’m going to change my life, but it inevitably fades and then I’m left with a Handspring computer that I’ll never ever use again. (Just to cite one example.) I’m just too lazy.

(Sidenote: I find this week’s questions really difficult since my brain keeps wanting to spell it “organise”. I’m being assimilated! I can just picture myself going home to Indiana in a few months and saying “to-mah-to” and getting my ass kicked.)

2. Do you keep some type of planner, organizer, calendar, etc. with you, and do you use it regularly?
The sad fact is I adore planners and organizers. I just don’t use them. Right now I’m trying to use iCal and Address Book, since they’re already on my computer, but it’s so hard to keep everything current, you know?

3. Would you say that your desk is organized right now?
Oh good grief, NO. I’ve got a computer and a sewing machine and a scanner and a pile of socks (waiting to be turned into monkeys) and several glasses (that I bring up from the kitchen and forget) and a tangle of jewelry (that I take off after work and forget) and a jumble of batteries and coins and hair clips. It’s a mess.

4. Do you alphabetize CDs, books, and DVDs, or does it not matter?
Oddly enough, this is the one area where the Snook and I are organized. Movies and CDs are done strictly alphabetically, while our books are categorized into fiction, non-fiction, and reference. The fiction is all alphabetized, while the non-fiction and reference are sorted into a bastardized Dewey Decimal System that we invented.

5. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to organize?
Definitely the move out here from England and my application for Australian residency. There were so many forms and statements to fill out, and everything had to be witnessed at the court house and photocopied. We basically had to prove our relationship was legitimate, using everything from pictures and joint travel receipts to bills and bank statements. The scariest part was knowing that if we screwed up, I’d get deported. Luckily it all turned out right in the end!

I’m eeeevilll, like the froo-it of the devilllllll. Seriously, I just got banished to the seventh level of hell. What’s worse, I scored pretty high on, like, five other levels! I thought I gave pretty darn virtuous answers to most of those questions. I guess if I’m this bad now, there’s no point in trying to reform! 🙂

Where in Hell are you?

Oh, YUCK. My high school thankfully didn’t have any nasty hazing rituals. We did have an annual Powderpuff tournament as part of Homecoming, but it was officially sanctioned and took place during half-time of the big game. I never played but my younger sister did. First play of the game she slipped in some mud and cracked heads with the girl on the opposite line. She ended up in the hospital with a concussion and a line of stitches down the center of her forehead. Of course, she’d probably prefer that to human excrement and pig intestines any day…

Survivor was SO infuriating last night! The Snook and I watched in horror as Christy dug her own grave. Rob is a desperate man, and you don’t mess around with desperate men. She developed a bad case of what I like to call “The Hubris of the Swing Vote”. I laughed when she called Jenna and Heidi the “evil stepsisters” at the end though.

The gameplay actually wasn’t the really infuriating bit though. It was the whole reunion thing. I honestly can’t get why these people freak out after being away from their loved ones for a month. A friggin’ month! I haven’t seen any of my family for over a year and a half. Yeah, I’m homesick, but I don’t burst into tears at the mere mention of them. It just completely plays into the international perception that Americans are whiny little babies who never leave home. I could almost justify it in Jenna’s case, since her Mom is sick and all, but then why in the hell would you go on a game show if your Mom had cancer anyway? ARRRGGGGH.

I’ve got nothing but praise for Channel 9 though, since they’re showing an extra episode this Saturday to get us caught up with America. Thus I’ll only have to avoid Internet spoilers for 24 hours rather than a week, which would’ve been impossible. At this point I’m cheering for anybody but the “evil stepsisters”. Even Psycho Matt would be better than them. (And note to Heidi: It’s pronounced “percent”, not “persint.”)

Scariness. I came home tonight to find the Snook huddled miserably on the sofa, white as a sheet. He was running a fever and shivering so hard his whole body shook. I’ve never seen him with more than a sniffle, so I was actually pretty scared. (No, it’s not SARS.) I gave him some paracetamol and soup, which seems to have helped, but he’s such a stubborn little boy sometimes and he resists being babied. I’m hoping it’s just a stomach bug that’ll depart as quickly as it came. In any case he’ll probably stay home tomorrow to rest, so keep an eye on him via CouchCam for me, will ya?

Ernie – back from the dead and with a new design to boot! – linked to this interesting comparison of the X-Men movies and comic books. It’s slightly spoilerish though, so you probably shouldn’t read it if you’re one of the three people in the world that hasn’t seen X2 yet. (Sadly, that number includes me.)