Happy Bithday Daddy

Happy Birthday Dad!

Ive been thinking about cheese popcorn and golf lately. Can we go back to a time that was simpler?

I love you.

Flexing My Social Networking Skills

Type “Social Networking Sites” into wikipedia and you’ll find a whole list of different sites… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

I belong to three of these although I only really am active on two. Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.

Facebook

The basic idea here is that you can connect to people… Anywhere. Share notes with friends, let everyone know what you’re up too. You create a profile that has as little or as much information about you that you want, and you have the option of making that profile public or private. The main differences being…. Public: anyone can read your profile and see you wall, Private: people can find you by searching and see your name and the area you live in but you have to approve them before they can see your profile or wall. My profile is private. I don’t want just anyone being able to get all up in my business. Once you’ve made some friends… You have the option of talking to them in private messages or on their public wall (just be warned that EVERYONE who is a friend with you friend can see the wall, so don’t say anything you don’t want others to know). I broke down and got a Facebook because some people at work wanted to be my “friend”. I created an account and “friended” a select few people but then… Didn’t really touch it much. That is until the Facebook iPhone app was released. It just made it so easy to see what all my friends were up to. Open the app and I can see a list of what all my friends have posted as their status (a sentence or few of… whatever you like, mostly moods and what you are up to), plus all the rest of the facebook stuff through I’ll admit I rarely post on anyone’s wall. It’s one of the few apps I open every single day and allows me to keep in touch with people that I don’t get to see all that often. I’ve even re-connected with a friend that I had when I was 5, as well as people I knew when I was 9, 13, 16…. I’ve had people request to be my friend just because they have my last name, and in theory you can find people with similar interest, though… I don’t really go searching for random friends (that’s just a little too creepy for me). Companies and musicians make sites, and you can sign up to be their fan (I haven’t found much use for this however, I am a fan of  Mike Doughty, Jonathan Coulton, Sweeny Todd, Rock Band, Portal and others). I really love Facebook, for no other reason but that I can see what all my friends and family have been doing without them having to remember to tell me (and visa versa).

LinkedIn

So this is the network I belong to because… It’s supposed to be good for business networking. I belong so that if and when I need to continue on from my current job I have an easy way of getting in touch with the people I’ve met there who aren’t on Facebook. But really… Aside from visiting the site to take the picture above. I haven’t opened it in months. But I belong!

Twitter

Something I just started using last night, but I’m kind of hooked. It’s kind of like the status updates on Facebook and… Nothing else. The main draw here is that on top of people that you choose to follow (you don’t friend people on Twitter, you follow them, like a stalker, only… NICER???) you can also read the “TWEETS” of random people that you would have otherwise never seen. Celebrities, companies and Websites also Tweet, but unlike on Facebook where you can become a fan and then have to visit their page to see their thoughts, twitter just requires you to open it up and see what their doing. People you may know that I’m currently following on Twitter include: Rainn Wilson (from The Office), Adam Savage (from Myth Busters), Penn Jillete (Bullshit/Penn & Teller), Ira Glass (This American Life on NPR).  Unlike Facebook, it’s not uncommon for normal people to Tweet 20 times a day, using it as an update for everything (where as on Facebook it seems to me that the average person updates their status 1-3 times a day).  Twitter also has an iPhone app that allows you to Tweet and look at others Tweets, and really the only flaw is that it doesn’t allow you to add someone to your list of people you follow (you hear that Twitter? Add the function and you’ll be perfect! We all want perfection right???).

Side Note: While I was writing this post I realized that I don’t know how to be an adult without the internet (and yes, I Tweeted that). Yet again I am so glad that I was born during the time that I was. E-mail connected us faster, Facebook and Twitter have made that easier. Google is my quick source to find information and I use it to find everything from recipies to cheap flights. I love being around as these programs and sites are made. Being in the middle of this technology revolution. The economy may suck right now, our contry is at war, yet I still feel lucky to be in the midst of all of this. Do you think there are people that are born in every time period that feel like that? I hope so.

My thoughts on Friendship

A friend is someone who let’s you know when your being too negative, critical, too over the top, but loves you anyway.

Someone who shares some of your intrests and trys things out becase you are interested in them.

A friend does things for you because they know you would do the same for them.

A friend understands when you forget to say thank you right away.

Good friends are hard to come by, I’m lucky enough to have (on top of my other friends) two wonderful families that I feel I can call everyone in them friends. I haven’t told some of you recently, so let me say it now.

Thanks for being in my life. For making me feel special and unique. For letting me be part of the ups and downs.

To my blood family, thanks for truly loving me for who I am and what I’ve become… Not just because you have to. Thank you for all of the hours spent laughing, crying, being with me.

To my second family, thanks for taking me in, for the thoughts we’ve shared and the jokes that no one else will get. For letting me become one of the family, and for wanting me to be…

I hope I can be as good a friend to all of you.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today is Chris’ Birthday, and at the end of today we will have shared 5 of them together.  I’m amazed looking back on these last years how everything has worked out.

Thank you for allowing me to be part of your life. Thank you for…. everything… I love you more than anything and more than you will ever know. I hope this and the days to come bring you lots of joy. Happy Birthday Chris!

I’ll be home as soon as I can.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom’s Birthday, and like most years, it falls during one of the busiest weeks in my life. This week we are in Tech for Beauty and the Beast, and so since I don’t have any time to sleep this week (much less celebrate), I just wanted to post something special for her (quick and short as it my be).

Happy Birthday Mom! Thank you for being supportive of what I do. Thank you for dinners even though I don’t live at home. Thank you for advice when I need it. Thanks, for being my Mom.

Sunday (or some time near in the future if that doesn’t work out), dinner is on me!

I love you very much.

Little Piece of History

Chris and I sat on our couch last night and watched Barack’s acceptance speech. Pillow in hand I hung on his words, inspired by his message and in complete awe at what I was witnessing. I never thought that I would care about politics. I never thought that I would be as (and please pardon the clique) proud to be an American as I am today.

Who would have thought that so many people would turn out to vote, not only for Obama, but just vote? Try to make a difference?

Who would have thought that with two states still uncounted that one man could get 349 of the electoral votes?

And I, certainly did not think I would see Florida and so many other “RED STATES” go to a Democrat.

I make a vow today to stay informed, to stay involved. Our country can only be for the people, if the people make their voices heard.

Yes We Can!

more about “Hulu – MSNBC Decision 08: Obama Presi…“, posted with vodpod

A Weekend of Family, Friends & Fish

So I had a pretty eventful weekend.

Friday Chris and I had our big move from our first Apartment to our new one (for those of you who don’t know our landlord decided to renovate our old Apt. and so, one year after moving in, we lost the place, through no fault of our own since I always payed the rent at least a week in advance). Chris took lot’s of pictures of our old place, and I’ll take some of our new place for comparisons sake, but that… is not what this post is about.

We got off to a late start because our downstairs neighbors were also moving and their movers didn’t leave until early afternoon, but once they did, we kicked into high gear. Chris and I packed up the “Mothers Attic” (yes it’s really called that) in the U-Haul as well as both the Box Spring and our Mattress. Soon afterwords Chris’s family arrived (Pattie, Bill, Max and Tess) as well as our friend Erik and everyone set to work.

I carried a few more things down but ultimately ended up staying with the truck and organizing what I’ve decided to call a giant game of TETRIS, stacking boxes in the bookcase that was lying on it’s side, balancing chairs and couches… Mollie showed up later but we made her promise not to work since she had an interview for a job about 45 minutes after she got to our place.

It only took us a few hours and then we had the Truck completely packed up. The only issue we had was when we took the Air Conditioner out of the dining room window and dumped water all over the floor (oops). It was amazing the way that we all just did what was needed to get the job done. What was even more amazing was that we had so much help, and no one asked for anything in return. Erik left to take a shower before work (what a great guy, he had a huge excuse not to help and yet…). We saw Mollie running down the street and we ran out to meet her. SHE GOT THE JOB!!! (yay! way to go Mollie!!!). We finished cleaning up (thanks Mom-O for sweeping so much) set the keys in the counter and closed the door of our lovely little apartment for the last time. ::tear::

Tired, hungry, sad to leave the first behind (but very happy for Mollie), we took the family to see our NEW Apartment and ordered Chinese food. While we were waiting we un-loaded some of the truck (about half?) and then took a well deserved break on chairs/boxes/the floor. After a half hour of relaxation (and way too much food) we finished unloading the truck and the rest of the famliy went home to Ice and Aleve (as did we though we were home).

Saturday was spent sore, unpacking boxes (where again Pattie, Max, Tess and Mollie came to help) and going to IKEA for some odds and ends. Saturday though we missed Bill and we came to find out that he was very sick and at home in bed (thank you Bill! I can’t thank you enough for all of your help especially since you were not feeling well, I had no idea, you certainly didn’t let it effect you). Because of all the help, we got everything unpacked Saturday, and the new place started to feel like home.

Sunday Chris helped move the Harp for the wedding that Mollie and Tess were playing at. I went to see my friend Meagan in RENT (the same Meagan from URINE TOWN) and bought four new fish (I now have 6, one Betta “Xerxes”, two Platy’s, and three Cory Cats (1 green, 1 peppered, 1 albino).

Up until now I haven’t had any pictures, in all of the excitement and panic of this weekend I failed to take any before/after pictures, pictures while we were moving or anything. I wish I could have captured the amazing team that helped us move (thanks a million times over, I don’t know how to say it better than that, if you ever need help moving, I’ll be there in a flash!) I’ve learned something for next time I guess, document the big things in life.

But I do have pictures of my new fish and their new tank. So I’ll leave you with those.

Fish TankXerxes

This post was brought to you by the letter F.
Family
Friends
Fish