web-goddess

Damn. It. I am having weirdo problems all over the place with new computer. Seriously. The first twinge was last Friday when I was trying to burn a CD, and it just refused to write to a blank. (I tested it with a music CD and it played fine; it just didn’t want to burn.) Then a couple days ago I noticed that my iSight camera didn’t start up automatically. I had to unplug it and plug it back in. Tonight I plugged in the iPod for updating… and was informed that it was unreadable and I’d have to restore it to factory settings. So after three hours of headache, it turns out that that wasn’t the problem. It’s the FireWire. The damn thing works perfectly with USB. Didn’t I have this problem before? When the hell is the FireWire on the G5s going to work correctly?

My sister e-mailed to let me know that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (where she works) is auctioning off signed bowling pins to raise money. (Just scroll down to the ones with the charity ribbon icon.) I think I found the Snook’s birthday present! Heh.

Holy crap! I was just reading through the schedule of events for the Notre Dame Film, Television & Theater Department Reunion this year when a name suddenly leapt out at me: William Mapother! William Mapother went to my university! He’s the creepy Ethan guy from Lost who kidnapped Claire and nearly killed Charlie and kicked the crap out of Jack. Wow.

Put your arms in the air, kids, because we’re officially on a rollercoaster! Yes, I’ve gone from gain to loss to gain. It’s cool; all that candy on Saturday may have been magical but it sure wasn’t Points-free. I can deal with a measly pound. I got renewed inspiration tonight from my friend Katie, who apparently found these posts inspirational enough to join WW herself. Kickass! That’s four people I’ve converted now. I stuck around afterwards to sit through the induction routine with her (since I never really had a thorough one myself), and it turns out I was totally doing a bunch of stuff wrong and never realized! (For example: I was banking my exercise points each day, when you’re actually not supposed to do that. Oops.) I’m a little bummed that Super Fun Leader Megan is leaving us for a semester because of a uni scheduling conflict, but I think the group is vibrant enough to sustain it. And get this – I may have a second job… working the cash box at the WW meetings! The girl who normally does it is leaving so the position is vacant. Nobody else seems to want to do it, so I told Megan I was thinking of volunteering. I apparently get my meetings for free, and I earn some nominal salary as well (like fifteen bucks or something). I kinda like the idea that I won’t be able to skip out on any meetings too. I’m supposed to go early next week to see what it’s like…

Awww, man! I’ve technically missed it, but for those of you in Chicago, happy Roger Ebert Day!

Ooh, I just got an e-mail that the Jordana Paige Knitter’s Messenger Bag is almost ready for sale! They’ve got pictures there on the site. I am seriously coveting the camel/brown version.

This one’s for the Snook: How to Poach an Egg, complete with picture of the results of each method. We’ve actually tried the Delia Smith method ourselves and were similarly disappointed with the results. We blamed it on not having extremely fresh eggs, though, which I’ve always understood to be the key to the whole enterprise.

Customer: I can’t believe you’ve got all this Christmas stuff but no Nativity scenes!
Me: We’ve got Nativity scenes! See?
Her: No, I was looking for Christmas stocking designs. *pause* It’s all because the Jews and Arabs are taking over the world.
Me: Excuse me, this shop is run by a Jewish family…
Her: I bet it is!
Me: Look, we’ve got tons of Nativity scenes here. See? Whole books full of Christian iconography. There you go. We just don’t have any stockings right now!

And I left, fuming. How dare she? She looked like any other customer, like somebody’s Mom. Your typical middle class, middle-aged, white Australian Christian lady with boofy hair and big earrings. When she said it, my first response was to try to shame her by pointing out that the people who owned the shop she was in were part of the groups she was maligning. Instead, she took it as a friggin’ explanation. I’m still mad. I went downstairs and Albert asked me what I was so upset about. “Could you go upstairs?” I said. “There’s a blonde woman over by the fabric counter. Could you just stand near her for a while? Maybe mutter something about Palestine or leave a suspicious package next to her?” He laughed it off; he’s dealt with people like her before. I haven’t. I just still can’t believe how casually she said it, as if everybody knows about the big Jewish and Arab conspiracy to keep Fat Racist Cows from buying Baby Jesus Christmas Stockings. (And who puts the Nativity on a stocking anyway? Stockings are about Santa, woman! So blame the damn commercialization of Christmas, not a Zionist conspiracy.) Some of the other staff said that she made similar comments to them, so evidently she was just wandering all over the shop spouting this crap at anyone with ears. I’ve worked out what I should’ve done though, and what I’m going to do in the future: I’m going to say that I’m Jewish. And I am going to shame her. And then I’m going to ask her to leave the store. Not that she’ll probably come back anyway…