that’s basically the jist of my dream last night. i was with a bunch of other contestants trying to finish the obstacles set out for us. oprah winfrey was our host/leader. that was the creepiest part.
we’d get split up into teams: one fighting super-ants which would eat you alive if they caught you; another climbing red clay cliffs, the object being to dig yourself an escape route with a very soft silver spoon; and yet another getting the cushy assignment of figuring out why there was smoke an a spooky, abandoned machine shop (a generator overheated, but there was no threat of it spreading to anywhere else — but the movement of machinery in the sub-floor was freaking me out a little).
somehow i was involved in all three challenges. what’s fair about that?

but i nearly burned down my apartment building last night.
i was out on my balcony last night having a smoke while i waited for win98 to install. when the phone rang, i put the lit cigarette on a stair while i went inside to answer the phone. it fell off the stair, onto the balcony, and down into a crack between the slats.
“shit!”
this is when i started to panic. the major contributing factor to my ensuing hysteria was the presence of a lot of dry, tinder-like, pine needles and other tree debris which i was sure was immediately going to catch and cause my entire building to burn down while i stood there gawking.
running inside, dodging my ill-placed futon, i filled the nearest available container with water. i ran outside, again dodging furniture, and poured it in the general area the cigarette would have landed, that being a total guess as i couldn’t see between to anything underneath.
“shit — there’s smoke!” i thought.
i went back for more water. i poured it. i went get yet more water. then, as i’m pouring the water, i would have sworn i could see even more smoke. ugh. until i realized i was pouring hot water and the air temperature was just cool enough to make it steam. it was about this time i started to relax a little. i made two more trips (this time with cold water) just to make absolutely sure everything was thoroughly doused.
of course, whenever i looked at that section of the porch, i could have sworn i saw smoke.
the real kicker was that the phone call that started it all was from a fucking telemarketer!

so, it’s election time in british columbia. the candidates have littered every available greenspace with their name and party affilation. everywhere you go “vote for joe bloe!” bleh. i think it should be illegal to put political advertising on public property. landowners should have every right to put whateverthehell they want on their lawns, but defacing public parks & meridians. it’s shameful.
that’s not my point. my point is that the leader of the party trying to oust the party who’s been in government for the last, um, ten years or so is complaining because the opponent ran a “negative” television ad. why is he complaining? don’t all politicians run negative advertising? well, the twist is that reportedly these two gentlemen promised not to run any negative ads during the campaign.
that’s really nice. very big of them. personally, i hate election time in the states because of all the crappy negative advertising which wafts up here thanks to our reliance on american broadcasting. so, i actually appreciate that they swore not to sink to that level (forgetting entirely that i turn the channel as soon as i see one of their ugly mugs on the screen).
what makes me laugh is mr. campbell is upset because he actually *believed* what another politician said. that just goes to show he shouldn’t be in charge. never believe what comes out of a politician’s mouth. that’s just common sense.

i brought my old, tired, dusty 1mb trident video card to work. i’m hoping that if i ask really nicely, someone will let me run a train over it. back and forth. back and forth. until it’s utterly destroyed… yup, that would make me feel very good, indeed.

when i was younger, my sneezes always came in threes. if i sneezed once, i’d sneeze twice more. you could bank on it. as i’ve gotten older, i now sneeze in twos or even one at a time. for some reason this concerns me.

my video card arrived! it’s installed!! i have a beautiful 800×600 32 bit colour display!! i also got windows 98 installed! holy shit, i’m in geek heaven! =)

i just remembered that i forgot to set the vcr to tape queer as folk last night.
actually, it’s worse than that. i remembered to program it, but i forgot to turn it off so that the timer would kick in and record the show. i was too busy watching the sappy, fat-girl romance kiss my act.
dammit. dammit. dammit!

at this very moment, i have a paperclip through my left ear and a green push-pin through my right ear.
i think it’s a distinct possibility i might be a little bored.

have i mentioned yet this week that i STILL haven’t received the little card telling me my video card is at the postal outlet anxiously awaiting my picking it up and bringing it to its new home?
consider it mentioned.

while cleaning out one of my desk drawers i found:
   two pixie sticks (green)
   one jack in the box key chain
   one pocket calculator
   three packets of mcdonald’s ketchup
   thirty change of address cards
   one tube green cake decorating gel
   one pair earplugs
   seven q-tips

gee, seems either my cdrom or the cd mike gave me is fucked. there’s no reason why it should take over half an hour to copy a 1.7mb file to my harddrive. ugh.
bad hair day. no. really bad hair day.
i made a big pot of what i’m affectionately referring to as “lentil stew” last night. you see, i don’t like beans unless they come out of a can with tomato sauce and pork. sometimes, if i’m in a generous mood, i’ll deal with some kidney beans, but only in chili. other than that, i would rather eat my shoe than consume legumes. i find them too sandy in texture. and i’m all about the texture, baby.
being concerned lately about my protein intake since i seem to have gone all veggie without any real intent, i was contemplating lentils. marie had mentioned making them for her family and the way she prepared them made it sound almost appetizing. so, knowing nothing about lentil preparation, i picked her brain. she even brought me in some red lentils to experiment with. what a sweetie.
sunday night, i measured out a cup of dry lentils and put them in a big container full of water and let them soak. you have to soak them, you know. then i diced up some carrots, celery, onion and put it all in the fridge. last night, when i came home from work, i got to cooking.
big pot. oil. saute onions and some garlic. toss in celery and carrots. little more garlic. heat up. dump big can of diced tomatoes in. heat up. stir. pepper. mmm, more pepper. *deep breath* putting in lentils. stir, bring to boil, turn down heat, let simmer one hour. pour in a can of tomato sauce. yup, more pepper.
it was more of a surprise to me than anyone else that i actually *liked* the final product. i had two small servings even though i’d already had dinner. it was that tasty. just call me lentil girl!

i’m feeling lonely and bored and dull and listless and ugly and gross and useless. if i didn’t have to come to work, i don’t think i would have left my apartment yet even though i was getting a frightening case of cabin fever.
i phoned tyler last night and he was distracted and overtired, so all i really got to do was listen to him babble about his new hobby/obsession and groan about having jury duty today. i basically told him that i’d gotten enough of voice fix and hung up.
i miss heather a lot lately.
i got my first random chat request on icq saturday night. oddly enough, it was from a rather charming guy who lives local to me. i’m not sure if i’m disappointed my inaugural chat wasn’t with some illiterate perv, though.

Outside of the vital statistics above things you may or may not like to know. I am professionally employed, and have gone back to school, seeking a post graduate designation and am active playing soccer at least twice a week. Time has been at a premium as work, school, and team commitments seem to take up a lot of my time. The lack of time and a somewhat shy personality make it tough to meet people as I’m sure many others on here can attest, so I guess that’s why I’m here. About me, intelegent, good sense of Humour(some what dry and sarcastic), adventerous, well mannered, polite, and cuddly but not clingy. What I looking for: intrigue, intelegence, challenge, and a spark. Everybody is beautiful in there own way, the trick seems to be discovering that beauty in others. If I have interested, or intrigued you please drop me a line, I look forward to it.
how can you possibly say you’re intelligent when you can’t even spell the word, not to mention having no concept of comma placement? he needs a dictionary, more like it.

i had very dull, hermitish weekend. did the card & chinese food thing friday night at meghan’s. other than a quick trip the the gas station for a pack of smokes sunday afternoon, i didn’t go outside. at all. i almost went to london drugs to price 56k modems, but once i’d finished at the esso station i really didn’t want to deal with any more people, so i just went home.
the worst part of staying at home like that was the complete lack of anything at all interesting on television to distract myself with. the best thing was judge dredd yesterday afternoon. i was online most of the time, and i didn’t even get any interesting email. i’m worried now that i’ve unsubscribed to my linux users group mailing list (what’s the point in getting linux-oriented mail when i no longer use linux?) i’ll never get any email. *sob* time to find some new mailing lists to subscribe to.
sixty-one days until seattle.
seventy-one days until i’m twenty-nine.

getting up at 5:27am (half an hour early) on a monday… i must be cracked.
thank goodness for the coffee.

linux is gone, windows 95 is installed, netscape 6 works, and i still hate 640×480 256 colours.
i had a little bit of trouble getting the drive sorted out to install 98. i lost access to it for a bit, couldn’t get dos 6 to recognize my cdrom to even attempt it. i ended up making an emergency phone call to jason to see if he had a working win95 disk one since mine started reporting sectors missing. he must have been on the phone with me for at least an hour and a half, maybe longer. although he’ll be the first to admit he may not have actually *done* anything to assist me, just having him there to bounce stuff off of was a great amount of moral support.
while i wait for my g450 to arrive, i’ll start installing stuff, i suppose. no cards tonight, so i have tons of time to muck about.
i wonder how things are going in north carolina…