Oct 29, 2005

Life: You're Fired!

Have you ever had to fire someone? Break up with someone? Cut off a friendship? How do you go about it? Do you just march right up and say, “You’re fired!” I guess if you’re in the professional world, firing a person is a heck of a lot easier than breaking up with a significant other. Moreover, breaking up is easier than cutting off a friendship, I feel. But how do you do it? A phone call, a message, an e-mail? Do you explain why? Do you worry about something coming back round to hurt you? Do you ignore the situation and keep up pretences because you fear confrontation?

I have absolutely no problem with confrontation if my heart is in the right place.

I can cut you off faster than you can ask why if I truly feel deep down inside that I have to let you go. I do not think this is a bad trait, though I have had people get quite upset with me. However, I’ve watched friends and colleagues suffer due to a fear of confrontation. Really suffer.

Sometimes I avoid a situation, but only if it just doesn’t feel right to break free from the person. In those cases, I need to sit back and contemplate my hesitation because I know that my instincts are always correct (it’s just my brain that gets in the way and musses things up).

Thus, sometimes I look like a wimp because I’ll tend to just ignore the person at all costs until a confrontation is absolutely unavoidable. And when that happens, something positive usually comes from it. So, I take such situations quite seriously.

Burning a bridge should not be done flippantly.

Depending on the situation, business or personal, it should be approached with severe caution. In business, pretences should be maintained until such time as one knows for sure that said bridge must be burned. In personal situations, one needs a little bit more time… Things should be handled delicately.

But, ultimately, you have to do what feels right for you. Seek advice, listen, ponder, but don’t necessarily do everything everyone else tells you to do. Only you know what you need to do.

I write all this because I wish someone had told this to me about 6 months ago.

Oct 25, 2005

Photo: gold boots by Nine West


A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by U2Mel.

OMG

Photo: Pharaoh


A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by U2Mel.

Love me.

Celebrity: Clerks 2 - Silent Bob Dies?


Forever Silent
Originally uploaded by U2Mel.

Yeah, so I was procrastinating and began mindlessly surfing the various blogs I link to when I landed on Kevin Smith's video blog about the making of Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks and this whole big hoopla over an accidentally leaked major plot point via some storyboards. Well, me being the ever curious one, I had to find the original footage, so I trekked on over to a Torrent site (that I found via Digg.com) to DL the mpeg, watched the whole thing, and caught this, like, millisecond glimpse of a non-blurred image (some of the conversation in the video was bleeped and some footage was blurred, I guess, to keep the secret). Well, when it comes to working with audio/video files, I'm big into minutia, so I did a frame by frame, then trimmed to selection, and exported the image sequence (love Quicktime Pro) and got the attached image. It's the only real clue. The characters are at a funeral. Jay is crying. Then there's a slow tilt down this blurred out statue that stops and moves in on the blurred out text, which is "Forever Silent." Cool, huh? (In the end I used a "Print Screen" capture instead... Yeah, I know I'm a dork. Get over it.)

Oct 23, 2005

Webmistress: phpnuke mp3 player block

Embedded phpnuke mp3 player block with stand-alone option.

That is what I want.

Just thought I’d share.

Rant: Great. I spoke too soon.

Great. I spoke too soon.

Just when I’m ready to call it a night on the old computer (at 3 am, lol) I check in on my torrents only to find them in the red! Argh. I know I paused them, which caused them to time out, but they were still in the red when I resumed them. Glitch? Oh well…

Restart computer (which has been on for 3 days straight without rest), try BT again, if works – great, if not – check settings. I just love Murphy’s Law.

Edit: It works just fine now. *shrug*

Oct 22, 2005

Randomness: Im feeling very Pop.

I’m feeling very Pop today. Dark and moody undercurrents dressed up in a fancy suit. Almost finished downloading three U2 torrents. Drives me nuts when users don’t configure their firewalls for P2P. I’m sitting here downloading for 3 days one file because two out of three users are blocked. Argh. It’s not that hard to fix. Heck, if you can figure out BitTorrent you should be able to figure out your own firewall and ports.

<plug>

In other news, I recently discovered a brand spanking new online calendar that is the answer to my dreams… Introducing Planzo! (You can view my calendar via the event blurb located towards the top of my sidebar.) Awhile ago I went surfing the internet to find the perfect online calendar. I was unhappy with Yahoo’s calendar because I felt it wasn’t versatile enough. I wanted more control.

Then I discovered Calendars Net, but it was difficult to use, took long to load, and was just terribly ugly. Recently one of my U2//Mp3s.Com members pointed out a cool interactive map, Frapper, for members of a group to share their locations with each other. (It’s one of those things that us message board users enjoy because we’re usually all over the world and it’s neat to see all the little red flags everywhere… Kind of humbling.) Anyway, I checked out Frapper’s main site, Rising Concepts, which is where I saw Planzo.

The calendar is incredibly “user friendly.” You need not be a computer guru just to use it. It’s easy to read and navigate. You just hover over the period on the calendar in which you want to add an event, click, type, hit return and voila! You’re done. There’s also a notebook feature that could be used as a blog or just a place to jot things down, as well as the ever indispensable “to do” feature. I love this addition because lists are my life! My favorite aspect of “to do” is how quickly I can use it. I found Yahoo’s version more time-consuming to use than necessary.

Planzo is everything I wanted in an online calendar and more because it has a little “get to know me” kind of section in the sidebar. My one complaint would be that accessing community features seems under-developed, but it is still in Beta.

Planzo is the kind of site I want all my friends and family to be on so we can plan get-togethers, keep in touch, and generally know where each other is at. It’s a good thing.

</plug>

Music: Tomorrow Never Knows

“Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream,
It is not dying, It is not dying
Lay down all thought, surrender to the void,
It is shining, it is shining
That you may see, the meaning of within,
It is being, It is being
That love is all, and love is everyone,
It is knowing, it is knowing
That ignorance and hate, may mourn the dead,
It is believing, it is believing
But listen to the color of your dreams,
It is not living, it is not living
Or play the game, existence to the end,
Of the beginning, of the beginning,
Of the beginning, of the beginning,
Of the beginning, of the beginning”
-John Lennon

I love that song…
Feels like I can wrap myself up inside it like a thick blanket on a cool night.

Oct 18, 2005

Insomnia: So I tried to sleep

So, I tried to sleep but the endeavor was unsuccessful. Too many thoughts racing around my brain. Thought I could read, but too tired to absorb the information. Great. Another round of silly games? Why not? Man…I think I’m in a holding pattern waiting on U2. While I am excited to see them live, I’m also exasperated… Is that the right word? It’s like I can’t wait until they’re done touring so I can just get on with my life. That might sound dumb to some, but those of you who know… Well, you know.

Randomness: I went to the gym today.

God that sounds so LA. "I went to the gym." Ha.
But I did.
And I liked it.
*Shock* *Horror*
I used to work out in my apartment, but now it's too messy to do that.
So, I'm contemplating handing money over to some random corporation so I can walk in one place for 20 minutes a day.
Our culture is so bass ackwards.
Meh.
Then I went to see Domino at Mann's Chinese with my friend Kevin. I liked it, but I think Oliver Stone would've done a better job with it than Tony Scott did.
But... Any which way around, I just like seeing cool chicks kick ass. (And I secretly wish I could, too.)
Kevin told me I look like Chloe from 24. I'm not a fan of that comment.
But, then again... He's short and bald, so why should I care? HA! (You reading this, Kev? Ah, you know I luv ya!)
Alrighty then, off to bed, but first - a quick game of Big Kahuna Reef (I'm so darn addicted to these "match 3" games... It's sick, sick I tell ya!)
PS: I'm gonna make myself a T-shirt that says: I'm just a dorky white chick from New England. (Thanks K. He should have a shirt that just says: Got Pulse? Muahahahaha!)

Oct 17, 2005

Life: Need Therapy? Yup.

I haven't been to my therapist in ages. Between sharing a car & J. on Clerks 2 it's been ridiculous. But now I should be able to go, it's just getting back into the habit again that'll be tough. Blargh. I need to sound off.

Oct 15, 2005

Life: Black Ennui

I got sick of the pink - plain and simple. Which is not to say that I dislike pink. I *love* pink. But sometimes, with blogs, too much color can just bug me. So, I decided to go with either simple black or simple white and for right now black white won.

In other news... I'm bored out of my gourd. The boy's on Clerks 2 5 days a week and plans to do *nothing* on the weekends but lounge. I don't blame him - he's working a lot, but I need to get out and do stuff. I had been hoping to go see Gary Baseman's art in Pasadena but I seem to have no one available to come with. Blargh. Thing is, I only want to go because I actually met Gary at Starbucks and, to put it bluntly, he was cool as shit. I also want to have a Margarita at Cat & Fiddle... Or maybe a glass of Shiraz. I need a platonic boyfriend to go out with, but LA is just not like NYC or Boston in that arena. Too many people here are either completely jaded or just out looking for connections, angling everything. Well, I ain't jaded and I ain't got no connections for anyone but myself (as of yet). Oh well! And next week the boy will be staying down in OC at a Days Inn all week. I want to have a party. I need to clean first... But how much fun would that be? Won't happen, tho. I just do not have enough time to clean up that much.

Y'know what I really wanna do? I want to go see The Fog. I need some good dumb fun and some popcorn.

The one good thing I can say about today is... *drum roll, please* I bought myself the Leather iPod Case by Coach. So freaken cool!!! I absolutely adore it! here, look:

New Coach iPod case in black

Cool, huh? yeah....

Oct 12, 2005

Photo: LAFD truck and a flag


A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by m220.

America as an idea is still a good one. Now we just have to find our way back to truth, Justice, And peace.

Oct 5, 2005

Photo: Another Melissa in Larchmont


A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by m220.

Photo: Starbucks Cup Wisdom


A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by m220.

Randomness: Pain in the Neck

OMG my neck is killing me!!! Man. Slept funny plus an old injury to my neck that never was corrected plus temperature changes plus stress equals me not being able to turn my head to the right. Argh. And now I smell like a nursing home or locker room what with my Icy Hot and my Bengay, not to mention my Aspercreme and my Traumaheel.
Goodness gracious. My body is like 80.

Insomnia: 103

Is it U2? Is it the new car? Is it J starting Clerks 2? Is it my back pain? Is it feeling a fool for reasons I shouldn't mention? What is it? Is it that I haven't written in awhile? But I need notes...facts. I could write something else, but my passion lies in no other script at present. What is it? I can't sleep and it's driving me bonkers. I have a meeting in the morning. I have things to do, people to see and yet my mind won't let me be. Why can't I sleep? What is it? Whatever it is, it's driving me crazy. I wish I could just sleep!