reconnecting

I have several times wondered about the creepiness of the Internet. Sure the Internet is great for keeping in touch over long distances but at the same time people are able to find things about you and you may not even have existed. Take a second to check yourself in the Google search and you'll see what I mean. For example there is definitely a horrible picture of me from a tour that I did with and old job. I can't really get rid of it but it's certainly not something I would have posted myself.

It also comes up with some profiles of people I am connected to on Facebook. Which is also kind of scary. I realize that you should never post anything about yourself that you wouldn't be comfortable with a stranger knowing. I've generally stuck to that rule, but a the same time it's difficult to control what other people to in relation to your profile. I've threatened a couple of times to remove my facebook profile, more and more as people who were in elementary school when I graduated have joined.

But the Internet has also been a wonder tool for reconnecting with people I haven't talked to in forever. For example I had a good friend in high school who was a couple of years older than I was. She moved on and then I did and we've never reconnected until last week. To put the timeline in perspective I remember discussing how hot I thought Jensen Ackles was back when he used to be on Days of Our Lives. So I guess Facebook isn't entirely evil.

Music Memory

So recently I've been listening to music that can only be described as crap. Absolute crap. So why would I listen to crappy music? Because it reminds me of other things. I'm sure everyone has songs that they associate with other thoughts, feelings, people, ect.

For example everytime I hear Calling Baton Rouge by Garth Brooks, I think of my College Graduation. It was the last song played at the social and everyone that was left there got up and danced. Similarly another Garth Brooks song makes me think of my high school graduation because it's the song we all walked into.

Some songs you don't even know remind you of anything until you actually hear the song again. There is a song that isn't often played on the radio anymore that reminds me of riding in the tractor with my older brother. I can't really remember what song it is but if I heard it I'd know right away.

I don't know if this can be an excuse for poor taste in music but it's what I'm going with for now. I just hope no one digging through my iPod with question my legitimate taste in music as a result.

I'm going to try to keep a list of songs that remind me of other things in the comments (we'll see how long this lasts). You can too if you want

You know I'm actually kind of sad that it's over

As has been discussed a length as of late I'm not actually a soccer fan. However I have watched an awful lot of soccer in the past two weeks. I'd like to blame it on there not being any sports to watch, but that's not exactly true either. Anyway now that Spain has won Euro2008 and everyone in the soccer world is looking forward to World Cup 2010 in South Africa, I turn my attention back to where it should have been for the last week anyway. Wimbledon.

Some things of note at Wimbledon. As discussed here Novak Djokovic lost to Marat Safin in an early round match which makes my taking next Friday off work so that I could watch the men's semi's kind of useless, though granted Rafael Nadal is still on course to be there. Andy Roddick surprisingly (well to me anyway) went out earlier this week as well. Oh and Mario Ancic is still hanging around, that's cool.

The women's side isn't looking much better. Ana Ivanovic the number one player in the world and Wimbledon number 1 seed got the boot, along with Maria Sharapova. So chances are a Williams if going to win again this year.

A couple more sports notes while I'm on the subject. I've noticed lately that I'm not quite the sports fan that I used to be. To be a true fan you have to follow a team and know the stats and standings. I don't know if it's just that I've lost interest in that sort of thing or that I don't really have time for it anymore but it's not something that I do. Yes I still watch a lot of sports but now I find that I enjoy just watching the game that I'm watching and not really worrying about what came before. Perhaps that's why I was able to pick up on this soccer thing and actually enjoy it (very attractive men didn't hurt either). It didn't really matter to me who won that last time or who was the favorite to win.

Never going to even suggest that I fake sick ever again

So some of you will know (because I have yet to stop talking about it today) that the Russia-Spain Semi-final was yesterday. The day before yesterday I was joking about faking sick so that I could stay home and watch the game because I had a horrible time trying to find a good Internet feed for the first semi. As it turned out I was home to watch the game yesterday but I really was sick and missed large chunks of the game.

Not that I can actually evaluate this but as far as I can tell Spain looked pretty darn good during that game. Now if only they can beat Germany in the final. And now for the fun stuff. I don't know if you guys have noticed but I've kind of become a fan of Fernando Torres. Me and every other female soccer fan who likes tall blondes with chiseled jaws and rock hard abs. Some people have issues with his hair, personally I just want to run my fingers through it.

I wonder if it's my fault

I am one of those people who believes that the things that I do affect other things. For example last year during the NHL playoffs I fell asleep watching a Senators game. The Sens were ahead when I fell asleep and as soon as I woke up the Penguins scored. I fell asleep again during intermission and when I woke up the Senators had gotten ahead again and then 1 minutes later the Penguins scored again. The Senators lost the game and I blame myself.

On Tuesday I wrote this post about changing my computer desktop. And wouldn't you know Novak Djokovic lost in straight sets to Marat Safin at Wimbledon yesterday. While it seems like the two things are completely unrelated I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for the loss.

People with no common sense

With a title like that you really have to be expecting another one of my rants coming on. If you're not then you probably just wandered upon this site at random and so to you I apologize. To anyone who actually followed some sort of link to get here come on you should know me well enough by now.

Okay so the last couple of days I've been really bother by really stupid people and the really stupid things that they've been doing. Let us start with my neighbours who are either running grow-ops out of their apartments or haven't realized that A) they have air conditioners and b) it's hotter outside than it is in their apartments. I've come home from work for the past 2 days around 4:30 to find both my upstairs and downstairs neighbour's windows open, which of course heats up MY apartment. Guys seriously it's 26 degrees outside there is nothing you can be doing in your apartment aside from cooking a 12 course meal this is going to make it hotter in there than outside. No fucking common sense.

Situation number 2 has to do with a certain future brain surgeon that I work with. Or at least she would be if she knew what the words appendages and electrolytes meant. Thank god she's a summer student, hopefully that means she'll learn something in the next couple of years. No but really are people that stupid? She can't really be pretending can she? Man I don't even want to think about what that means for the education system in this province that this girl has a high school diploma.

Reminder to myself that change is good

I don't like change. I never have. When I was 9 my parents got a new dining room set and I cried. I've obviously learned to deal with change a little bit better than that. I've moved away from home to go to school, I've lived in 3 different homes in the last 5 years and I've started a career in my chosen field (I think, but that's a story for another time).

One thing that has been constant for nearly 2 years is my computer desktop background it has been the same picture of Novak Djokovic since about December of 2006. Last night a changed it to a Spanish soccer player. Obviously I'm going insane and I hope that once this Euro thing is over I can go back to being normal again. Or at least a normal as I was before. However given my aversion to changing my desktop I probably won't be changing this one for a while either.

For the record my work desktop is Conner Atchley of the Texas Longhorns basketball team and my laptop background is one of the windows backgrounds, which I will likely change now that I've set up my laptop for internet.

The waiting game

I'm the kind of girl who likes to do things on her own. Always have been. All through high school (and junior high and elementary for that matter) I was the kind of person who wanted to do group work on their own. Partly because I was kind of a loner (oh surprise, surprise) and partly because I thought I could do a better job if I did everything myself than if anyone helped me. Truth be told this actually worked out really well for me in school because well quite frankly I wanted to work harder than most of the other people I went to school with, I had more desire to do well in school. Another reason this worked so well was that the only consequence of my work was my grade.

Now that I'm in the real world that changes. I can no longer be responsible for everything and really my results don't matter. This means that it is necessary to work as part of a team and I think I've adapted well to that. What I haven't adapted well to is the waiting. For example I'm currently waiting for 3 different people to send me 3 different things so that can complete my work. My biggest fear is that they're all going to come at the same time and that I'm going to be absolutely swamped by the volume of work to be completed. I guess that's why they say patience is a virtue.

I'm going to be so useless today

First and foremost let me apologize for being a terrible blogger as of late. I promised one of my favorite co-workers who is off sick for the next little while (actually starting about a week and a half ago) that I would update my blog more frequently in her absence and not less. Oops.

But here's my problem. I don't know how many of you have seen me in the beginning stages of a crush. I'm not going to go into details because it's pretty ugly but I basically wrap myself into this little fantasy world where everything is connected to the current crush. I get so entirely distracted that I have difficulty concentrating and am constantly distracted.

Take this morning for example. I went into Starbucks like I normally do but I didn't realize until I was halfway between Starbucks and work that they had only made a regular instead of my usual double. First of all I usually watch the Baristas fairly closely to make sure that they don't screw it up. Secondly I can't believe it took me so long to realize that something was wrong.

Anyway so that's the excuse that I'm running with for not posting more. I'll try to pass some of my focus on to something else and perhaps get another post in sometime today.

Euro 2008: Germany

As is often the case when I decided to do something like this I'm both getting bored and feeling pressured to finish before it becomes irrelevant. As a result I'm becoming more strict about what I'm going to post in terms of hotness. If it's even semi-questionable it's not going in.

Piotr Trochowski

Arne Friedrich

The more things change the more they stay the same

As some of you know I made my way back home this past weekend for the local fair, in conjunction with Father's Day. I remember fairs of my youth being exciting and entertaining (and a lot of work), this one was none of that.

It's not that I expected my town to have changed much but I expected some changes. Sure the largest employer has moved from farming and agriculture to construction. Yes, they did build a daycare on to the high school (don't act so surprised!). But other than that not much has changed.

I thought going back I might catch up with the few high school friends I hadn't already found on Facebook. As it turns out anyone worth talking to from my high school days has moved on to bigger and better things. The people who are still around from my high school days are still exactly the same, a little bit older and with a few more kids but otherwise exactly the same. There is even that one guy who refuses to believe that he's too old to be hitting on high school girls, like Wooderson in Dazed and Confused.

Yup, small town living. Hard to believe I long for that lifestyle again. But despite all the bad stuff there is something to be said about being able to go and visit your neighbours for coffee at random and not having to be suspicious of every stranger you meet on the street.

Euro 2008: Italy

Alessandro Del Piero

Andrea Barzagli

Simone Perrotta

Euro 2008: Switzerland

Tranquillo Barnetta

Eldin Jakupovic

Philipp Degen

Ricardo Cabanas

Euro 2008: Netherlands

Now that the round robin is almost over I guess I'd better get a move on and finish this. So to that end here we go.

Maarten Stekelenburg

Nigel de Jong

Robin van Persie

Euro 2008: Czech Republic

Okay so here's another totally unbiased post from me. And by that I of course mean not unbiased at all. I love Czechs, to the point where I even attempted to learn Czech once. It did not go well, I can't roll my r's. But I can say "I don't speak Czech", in Czech.

Petr Čech

Zdeněk Grygera

Zdeněk Pospěch

Michal Kadlec

Jan Polák

Rudolf Skácel

Martin Fenin

Václav Svěrkoš

Euro 2008: France

After yesterday's review of Spain and Portugal I get the feeling at all of the other teams are going to be a bit of a letdown from here on in. For that I apologize, even though I don't really feel like it's my fault. Anyway on with the show.

Karim Benzema

Patrice Evra

François Clerc

Thierry Henry

I've created a monster

Okay it's more of an I've become a monster situation. I've really turned into the one thing I would never be. The girl that knows nothing about sports but watches for the men. To this point I've been the girl who watches sports and maybe notices the men as a nice little bonus on the side but since I've been watching this soccer thing it's 100% about the guys, although I appreciate great footwork.

Euro 2008: Spain

So I'm beginning to think that no matter who wins this thing we all win from a hotness perspective. I hope that a certain water cooler buddy of mine who is off sick for the next couple of weeks spends some time watching Euro while she recovers from surgery. Maybe this will convince her.

Fernando Torres

Rubén de la Red

(as if that's his real name)

Iker Casillas

Raúl Albiol

Andrés Palop

Cesc Fàbregas

Fernando Navarro

Xabi Alonso

So I may have added like half the Spainish squad here but DAY-UM. I also feel that the "that's it I'm moving to Spain" tag will get alot of mileage in the future.

Euro 2008: Portugal

I'm not actually into soccer. I just like to gawk. But I think I make up for it in other areas, football and hockey for example, so I don't really feel bad about it. Join me in the gawking or not it's your call. But I think it's worth it.

Nuno Espirito Santo

João Moutinho

Miguel Veloso

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ricardo Quaresma

Euro 2008: Sweden

Alright I don't generally do the soccer thing but I got suckered into an office pool for Euro 2008. Now that we've picked our teams it's time to find the hotness. I'm going to start with MY randomly selected team, Sweden.

Before we start I have to admit that my Icelandic heritage leads me to a preference for the blonde haired, blue eyed crowd. Possibly so that we can have blonde haired, blue eyed babies. So Sweden isn't actually all the bad a pick for me. Well except that apparently they suck.

Alright here they are. I'm going to apologize in advance for the graphic suckiness. I need to work out a good way of getting pictures on here I just haven't mastered it yet. Will continue working on it.

The New Crush

I would like to believe that at some point in the five years it took me to escape from university with my degree I had grown up just a little. Perhaps in some ways I have. I’ve learned a lot more about who I am and what I feel passionately about. However I do have this one terrible pattern that keeps repeating.

My first year of university I went through five crushes, not to mention my numerous crushes on celebrities. Second year I did a little better, there were only three. I would like to tell you that I had outgrown this pattern but sadly not. I just hope that now I’m a little better at hiding it. But maybe not that either.

Until last week I probably would have said that I’m too old to be having crushes but I think that as we get older we just expand our vocabulary and call it something else, or maybe we want to believe that our feelings are either something more or something less.

Okay wow talk about be a little wordy this is really getting away from me. Here’s the deal, you already know about my first two office crushes, which really could be expanded to four if you count office hotness (which I don’t) and my fleeting interest in someone who now makes me cringe every time I think about it. Anyway I’ve moved on to a third. Details are still not quite clear to me, and it’s probably yet another case of me over analyzing a situation. But I’ll keeping you posted as things continue to develop.

If you want something done right

After I watched that Chelsea-Man U. match with the boys at work a couple of weeks ago it was determined that we should do a soccer pool for the upcoming European Championships. As you know I know nothing about soccer but I agreed to participate on the condition that teams were chosen randomly from a hat or some other random choosing device (perhaps bingo balls like the drafts). Anyway so far there's been a lot of talk and no action. Damn it, I want a team so I can do some hotness research. Oh right and it starts in 3 days.

In the meantime here are some Youtube videos promoting the event which are totally awesome. Have I mentioned soccer guys are HOT?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_7fKzasYjA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAh5xFomauE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axqZ7HoOLtQ&NR=1

Money Saving tips from Janalee

So now that I have a little bit of money I've been reading a lot of personal finance articles on the web, trying to figure out the best way to turn a little bit of money into a lot bit of money. It seems that the "in vogue" topic these days is how to save money on groceries. See here or here or here .

Normally I drop $125 easily on groceries every two weeks, which is funny because I don't eat breakfast and I buy lunch. So maybe I eat too much (which I probably do), or maybe it's just that meat is freaking expensive. I do manage to save on the beef but 4 chicken breasts will run you about $15. Anyway, today I went to the store and cut my bill down to $75. So how did I do it? The secret is to go when you are so sick that you don't feel like moving at all. Trust me when you're on the verge of losing your lunch not a single thing in the store looks appealing. Thus you don't want to buy junk food which costs an arm and a leg (and a healthy heart).

Okay that's horrible advice but hey it works. The other option is to determine exactly what you intend to cook each night and buy only the ingredients you need for those meals. Again this cuts down on the unnecessary junk food. It's also a fantastic way to clean out your cupboards. I've probably got enough canned/dry food in my apartment to eat for 2 months.