Bandwagon jumping
Feb. 16th, 2009 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteIt's only February 16th, but already I'm thinking 2009 is going to kick butt. For one, I'm going to Las Vegas in a few days. I want to have high hopes even though it's someone else's birthday. I'm planning on having fun, so that's what's going to happen. I'm determined! Also, Dad gave me what might end up being the most awesome present he's ever given me.
He was part of this rewards program that's going under, and he raked in TENS OF THOUSANDS of points. For any rewards program, this is a lot. Well, turns out with just a few thousand points, you can get eCertificates to sellers like Amazon, iTunes, and so on, plus DVDs. Dad told me to spend every last point, so... I did (almost). I got a ton of DVDs I've been wanting plus some eCertificates.
I had the genius idea to maybe use those eCertificates for NSLS as fundraiser incentives, but I'm still torn on that. I mean, for one, some of them (Sephora) might not be good incentives, because they're not really applicable to everyone... I suppose guys could find a use for a $50 eCert to Sephora, but the only way I can imagine is if they were buying gifts for another girl. Does that make me sexist? I'm sure there are things for men on Sephora....
So I'll wait for the DVDs to arrive and then I'll decide. In the meantime...
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
1. At the present moment, my "goal in life" is to write and/or edit video game strategy guides. To that end, the writer I admire most is Dan Birlew.
2. I've had dreams of all different kinds of careers. When I was younger, the most solid idea was "fashion designer," which I kept up until sophomore or junior year of high school. Then I knew I wanted to go into Journalism (because of a book called "Death by Cheeseburger"), but it wasn't until I took an upper division class on Editing that I realized I wanted to edit more than I wanted to write. I have a hard time coming up with ideas when I need them, but I really believe in helping others improve THEIR ideas so they're clear and comprehensible.
3. I've had more cavities than I have fingers, which is probably one of my biggest personal shames. Since the era when I used to chug a bottle/can or more of Wild Cherry Pepsi, Cherry Coke, or Coke Classic per day, I've now gotten smarter and more habitual about my teeth care. I've also switched to Green Tea sweetened with a bit of honey for my caffeine fix. Plus, antioxidants FTW! I prefer Lipton's "Pure Leaf" to AriZona's "Green Tea with Honey," because AriZona uses HFCS (aka corn sludge), but only AriZona seems to be available in gallon bottles; I'd prefer not to buy individual bottles of Pure Leaf if I can help it. Besides, the Pure Leaf ones only seem to come in flavors OTHER than the one I want, so I'd have to buy a ton of individual glass bottles to get what I want. Yeesh, how wasteful!
4. I don't think my mom raised me in a "charm school" way, but I've still got basic principles when it comes to manners, and I find it really annoying when people don't have them. For example, people talking with food in their mouth is disgusting to me. I've been told by an overbearing uncle that I've done it sometimes, so I've consciously tried to make myself "neater" when eating. As a result, sometimes I look strange when I'm eating, because I'm holding a napkin up to my face.
5. It takes someone else I care about telling me off to get me to change in a big way (or in an "unexpected way," I guess). I never knew I interrupted people so much until a certain someone said I did, and then I realized it and made a concerted effort NOT to interrupt. My conversations and listening skills improved, and now I find it horribly annoying when people interrupt or don't let me finish. The problem, of course, is that I tend to babble and over-explain. Ah, well.
6. I am a TSA expert. I've managed to get through security checkpoints faster than lightning, and I find it hilarious every time I go through them at airports and I see people trying to bring in gallon-size zip-top bags or bottles of shampoo or whatever. 3 ounces or less, people, yeesh!
7. I'm a stereotypical Aries with a Leo rising, and I fit the year of the Ox archetype to a tee, too. I place a lot of stock in those kind of things because, for me, they've been uncannily accurate. Therefore it tees me off when people dismiss them completely, because there's always a grain of truth to them.
8. I consider myself a pagan and the majority of my family seems to know that and recognize it, but it still freaks me out to mention it to complete strangers or people in my class that I might never see again or have to deal with outside the classroom. The temptation's been there to tell some of the members of the evangelical organizations on campus that I'm a pagan, just to see how they'd react, but I'd honestly be upset if someone that I was previously able to talk to just fine before suddenly decided I was a) worse than the dirt on their shoes or b) in sudden need of "saving."
9. I can't stand the genre I call "stupid funny." I don't like Will Ferrell (much), I don't watch "The Simpsons" or "Family Guy," and I detest stuff like "Married With Children." I just don't find that kind of stuff funny! I think I have a dark or dry sense of humor, and plenty of people (my grandmother, especially) think I have no sense of humor at all, so....
10. I get a huge kick out of accomplishing anything, whether it's getting something organized, putting my laundry away, or beating a boss in a video game. Yesterday I reorganized my DVDs and that made me really happy.
11. I'm not very good at organizing myself, but I love helping others get organized. I've thought about being a consultant to help small businesses get set up running Macs, but I don't even know about the options available! I just like helping others and helping them get clean. Once I cleaned my aunt's basement in Long Island because I was bored. Just give me some good tunes and the right tools to clean and I'll do the dirty work. (Oh, you should probably feed me, too.)
12. I have a bad habit of not closing my tabs in Firefox. At present, I think I have something like 90+ open. My bookmarks weren't working until just recently, and besides, I'll put something in my (already massive) bookmarks folder and forget about them, so I find it easier just to leave tabs open. Of course, sometimes it backfires....
13. I've taken to reading my LJ Friends' Page in NetNewsWire, an RSS feed reader. It took me forever to configure it to read protected entries, and in the meantime, I was trying other options but still not going back to just reading it on the Web. And of course, I'm way behind. I wonder when that happened?
14. I prefer a mouse to a track pad, even if you can do awesome stuff with "gestures." I'm a traditionalist with some technology and a die-hard "GOTTA HAVE THE NEW!" with others. I used to hate Macs because of their stupid round mice; now that I have a "normal" mouse (my Bamboo Fun tablet), I'm quite happy with everything. I can't stand using my laptop without SOME mouse, so I tend to bring my tablet to school. Of course, it doesn't work too well when I'm in class, but....
15. I want to learn PHP, but it's very daunting. Unlike HTML, I get the impression that a series of books and online tutorials won't be enough. *sigh*
16. Since I switched to the Mac, I'm much more on the "straight and narrow." I'll be honest, I used to be fine with software "borrowed" from friends or music downloaded from the Internet. Now? Not so much (at all).
17. People think I'm "good with computers," but the fact is, I'm good with software. Don't ask me to take a computer apart, I'll never be able to put it back together again. Me and hardware (even little bits of hardware, like memory chips) DO NOT get along.
18. Once, I kissed a girl and I liked it. She wasn't wearing cherry chapstick, though. (Also I started laughing --because I knew other people were looking-- about midway through, which makes me kind of ashamed.)
19. I've never seen snow in person. I want to go skiing or snowboarding, even though I don't really like the cold. You've got to do everything at least once, right? (Or something like that.)
20. I feel guilty whenever I get an email from my old Japanese teacher. I still know some Japanese and try to use what I can WHEN I can, but I felt awful the other day when she sent out an email in Japanese and I could only make out some of it. I had to put it through Google Translate, and even when I got the gist of the message, I still felt bad: basically I've been ignoring all the emails and not responding to them because I don't want to have anything to do with the program at CSUN anymore. It did a lot for me (I got to do study abroad in Japan, I got to meet a lot of great people, learn many new things), but I don't want to pursue it academically, and every time she emails me it feels like there's a sour taste in my mouth.
21. People think I'm picky, but the truth is, I just find what I like and stick to it. Sometimes if I think something has a lot of "plus" points or positive traits, I'll defend it even when people bring up some really big negatives. It usually takes something pretty huge to get me to change my mind about a place or company or whatnot. It took "Super Size Me" to get me to stop eating at McDonald's, Burger King, and their ilk; it took lots of cavities for me to stop drinking Coke every day; it'll take hell freezing over for me to stop liking In-N-Out burger. :P
22. It bothers me when international artists try and sing something in English and their grammar is way off. I think it would be so much cooler if their songs actually made sense so that they COULD be international hits, not just "cool-sounding" because they use English. Koda Kumi, I'm looking at you! (Also Italy's "Name.")
23. I don't drink much, so I think I'm a bit of a featherweight drunk. Seriously, one Sangria or two Smirnoff Ices is all it takes for me to start getting red in the face and acting kind of stupid. :P Well, at least I'm a cheap date?
24. I used to claim to hate my middle name, but it's really not so bad. And I've used it as an alias when I don't want people to know my real name and I think my other nicknames are too weird.
25. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if just ONE thing changed-- something like how I reacted to a situation when I was younger, things like that. *sigh* I guess it's no good to regret though, is it?
Tag!
1![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schmollieollie
2cutieme4u
3guardian_kysra
4winterwing3000
5aelibia
6arien_elensar
7fountain_the
8praiseofshadows
9geniusgirl
10bewareofdogz
11katiat325
12kitesareevil
13dqbunny
14lin_ko
15obabscribbler
16staplerx (don't shoot! :P)
17azhp
18hikaru_jan
19psyjoe_dilandau
20zigx
21rose_of_pollux
22 Denise S.
23 Mike C.
24 Sheila F.
25 Carlos R.
He was part of this rewards program that's going under, and he raked in TENS OF THOUSANDS of points. For any rewards program, this is a lot. Well, turns out with just a few thousand points, you can get eCertificates to sellers like Amazon, iTunes, and so on, plus DVDs. Dad told me to spend every last point, so... I did (almost). I got a ton of DVDs I've been wanting plus some eCertificates.
I had the genius idea to maybe use those eCertificates for NSLS as fundraiser incentives, but I'm still torn on that. I mean, for one, some of them (Sephora) might not be good incentives, because they're not really applicable to everyone... I suppose guys could find a use for a $50 eCert to Sephora, but the only way I can imagine is if they were buying gifts for another girl. Does that make me sexist? I'm sure there are things for men on Sephora....
So I'll wait for the DVDs to arrive and then I'll decide. In the meantime...
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
1. At the present moment, my "goal in life" is to write and/or edit video game strategy guides. To that end, the writer I admire most is Dan Birlew.
2. I've had dreams of all different kinds of careers. When I was younger, the most solid idea was "fashion designer," which I kept up until sophomore or junior year of high school. Then I knew I wanted to go into Journalism (because of a book called "Death by Cheeseburger"), but it wasn't until I took an upper division class on Editing that I realized I wanted to edit more than I wanted to write. I have a hard time coming up with ideas when I need them, but I really believe in helping others improve THEIR ideas so they're clear and comprehensible.
3. I've had more cavities than I have fingers, which is probably one of my biggest personal shames. Since the era when I used to chug a bottle/can or more of Wild Cherry Pepsi, Cherry Coke, or Coke Classic per day, I've now gotten smarter and more habitual about my teeth care. I've also switched to Green Tea sweetened with a bit of honey for my caffeine fix. Plus, antioxidants FTW! I prefer Lipton's "Pure Leaf" to AriZona's "Green Tea with Honey," because AriZona uses HFCS (aka corn sludge), but only AriZona seems to be available in gallon bottles; I'd prefer not to buy individual bottles of Pure Leaf if I can help it. Besides, the Pure Leaf ones only seem to come in flavors OTHER than the one I want, so I'd have to buy a ton of individual glass bottles to get what I want. Yeesh, how wasteful!
4. I don't think my mom raised me in a "charm school" way, but I've still got basic principles when it comes to manners, and I find it really annoying when people don't have them. For example, people talking with food in their mouth is disgusting to me. I've been told by an overbearing uncle that I've done it sometimes, so I've consciously tried to make myself "neater" when eating. As a result, sometimes I look strange when I'm eating, because I'm holding a napkin up to my face.
5. It takes someone else I care about telling me off to get me to change in a big way (or in an "unexpected way," I guess). I never knew I interrupted people so much until a certain someone said I did, and then I realized it and made a concerted effort NOT to interrupt. My conversations and listening skills improved, and now I find it horribly annoying when people interrupt or don't let me finish. The problem, of course, is that I tend to babble and over-explain. Ah, well.
6. I am a TSA expert. I've managed to get through security checkpoints faster than lightning, and I find it hilarious every time I go through them at airports and I see people trying to bring in gallon-size zip-top bags or bottles of shampoo or whatever. 3 ounces or less, people, yeesh!
7. I'm a stereotypical Aries with a Leo rising, and I fit the year of the Ox archetype to a tee, too. I place a lot of stock in those kind of things because, for me, they've been uncannily accurate. Therefore it tees me off when people dismiss them completely, because there's always a grain of truth to them.
8. I consider myself a pagan and the majority of my family seems to know that and recognize it, but it still freaks me out to mention it to complete strangers or people in my class that I might never see again or have to deal with outside the classroom. The temptation's been there to tell some of the members of the evangelical organizations on campus that I'm a pagan, just to see how they'd react, but I'd honestly be upset if someone that I was previously able to talk to just fine before suddenly decided I was a) worse than the dirt on their shoes or b) in sudden need of "saving."
9. I can't stand the genre I call "stupid funny." I don't like Will Ferrell (much), I don't watch "The Simpsons" or "Family Guy," and I detest stuff like "Married With Children." I just don't find that kind of stuff funny! I think I have a dark or dry sense of humor, and plenty of people (my grandmother, especially) think I have no sense of humor at all, so....
10. I get a huge kick out of accomplishing anything, whether it's getting something organized, putting my laundry away, or beating a boss in a video game. Yesterday I reorganized my DVDs and that made me really happy.
11. I'm not very good at organizing myself, but I love helping others get organized. I've thought about being a consultant to help small businesses get set up running Macs, but I don't even know about the options available! I just like helping others and helping them get clean. Once I cleaned my aunt's basement in Long Island because I was bored. Just give me some good tunes and the right tools to clean and I'll do the dirty work. (Oh, you should probably feed me, too.)
12. I have a bad habit of not closing my tabs in Firefox. At present, I think I have something like 90+ open. My bookmarks weren't working until just recently, and besides, I'll put something in my (already massive) bookmarks folder and forget about them, so I find it easier just to leave tabs open. Of course, sometimes it backfires....
13. I've taken to reading my LJ Friends' Page in NetNewsWire, an RSS feed reader. It took me forever to configure it to read protected entries, and in the meantime, I was trying other options but still not going back to just reading it on the Web. And of course, I'm way behind. I wonder when that happened?
14. I prefer a mouse to a track pad, even if you can do awesome stuff with "gestures." I'm a traditionalist with some technology and a die-hard "GOTTA HAVE THE NEW!" with others. I used to hate Macs because of their stupid round mice; now that I have a "normal" mouse (my Bamboo Fun tablet), I'm quite happy with everything. I can't stand using my laptop without SOME mouse, so I tend to bring my tablet to school. Of course, it doesn't work too well when I'm in class, but....
15. I want to learn PHP, but it's very daunting. Unlike HTML, I get the impression that a series of books and online tutorials won't be enough. *sigh*
16. Since I switched to the Mac, I'm much more on the "straight and narrow." I'll be honest, I used to be fine with software "borrowed" from friends or music downloaded from the Internet. Now? Not so much (at all).
17. People think I'm "good with computers," but the fact is, I'm good with software. Don't ask me to take a computer apart, I'll never be able to put it back together again. Me and hardware (even little bits of hardware, like memory chips) DO NOT get along.
18. Once, I kissed a girl and I liked it. She wasn't wearing cherry chapstick, though. (Also I started laughing --because I knew other people were looking-- about midway through, which makes me kind of ashamed.)
19. I've never seen snow in person. I want to go skiing or snowboarding, even though I don't really like the cold. You've got to do everything at least once, right? (Or something like that.)
20. I feel guilty whenever I get an email from my old Japanese teacher. I still know some Japanese and try to use what I can WHEN I can, but I felt awful the other day when she sent out an email in Japanese and I could only make out some of it. I had to put it through Google Translate, and even when I got the gist of the message, I still felt bad: basically I've been ignoring all the emails and not responding to them because I don't want to have anything to do with the program at CSUN anymore. It did a lot for me (I got to do study abroad in Japan, I got to meet a lot of great people, learn many new things), but I don't want to pursue it academically, and every time she emails me it feels like there's a sour taste in my mouth.
21. People think I'm picky, but the truth is, I just find what I like and stick to it. Sometimes if I think something has a lot of "plus" points or positive traits, I'll defend it even when people bring up some really big negatives. It usually takes something pretty huge to get me to change my mind about a place or company or whatnot. It took "Super Size Me" to get me to stop eating at McDonald's, Burger King, and their ilk; it took lots of cavities for me to stop drinking Coke every day; it'll take hell freezing over for me to stop liking In-N-Out burger. :P
22. It bothers me when international artists try and sing something in English and their grammar is way off. I think it would be so much cooler if their songs actually made sense so that they COULD be international hits, not just "cool-sounding" because they use English. Koda Kumi, I'm looking at you! (Also Italy's "Name.")
23. I don't drink much, so I think I'm a bit of a featherweight drunk. Seriously, one Sangria or two Smirnoff Ices is all it takes for me to start getting red in the face and acting kind of stupid. :P Well, at least I'm a cheap date?
24. I used to claim to hate my middle name, but it's really not so bad. And I've used it as an alias when I don't want people to know my real name and I think my other nicknames are too weird.
25. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if just ONE thing changed-- something like how I reacted to a situation when I was younger, things like that. *sigh* I guess it's no good to regret though, is it?
Tag!
1
schmollieollie2
cutieme4u3
guardian_kysra4
winterwing30005
aelibia6
arien_elensar7
fountain_the8
praiseofshadows9
geniusgirl10
bewareofdogz11
katiat32512
kitesareevil13
dqbunny14
lin_ko15
obabscribbler16
staplerx (don't shoot! :P)17
azhp18
hikaru_jan19
psyjoe_dilandau20
zigx21
rose_of_pollux22 Denise S.
23 Mike C.
24 Sheila F.
25 Carlos R.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 01:16 am (UTC)I've been tagged? Okay then, but you'll have to give me time; it's midterms...XD
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 04:20 am (UTC)and if you ever wanna see snow, you're more than welcomed to come up to good ol' Boston during the dead months of december to february! you'll get sick of it within days (cuz it gets all gray, black and dirty)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 10:09 pm (UTC)I think if you want to be a video game guide writer, the first thing you should start doing is play and write guides for video games! There are a TON of people online who write video game guides completely for FREE, see gamefaqs...the more experience you have writing game guides, the easier you can pull out a sample if you on the off chance happen to be asked for one if you apply for a position. Now, this is super time consuming, so I suppose it can wait till you're out of college, but it's something to think about. A lot of people whose stories I've heard in the industry just happen to have had a good video game related writing sample because they just happen to love writing and video games.
Plus, the better you get at beating games quickly, the better you can be accustomed to a job doing it.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 01:21 am (UTC)Btw, Sephora does have mens products. The one I went to in LA (I was visiting my twin sister) this past weekend had a whole wall devoted to mens sprays. But I can see why it wouldn't bee the most practical since people will likely interpret it at face value.