Test Day: Welcome to My Fridge

What Your Fridge Says About You

You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times. You tend to be a fairly thrifty person. You splurge occasionally, but you're mostly a saver. You don't tend to be a very adventurous person, but you do surprise everyone now and then. You have a bit of a wild side. You are responsible, together, and mature. You act like an adult, even when you don't feel like it. You are likely to be married - and very busy.

What Do the Contents of Your Refrigerator Say About You?

Yesterday's News

i have a unique talent, it seems, for catching wind of and embracing a trend, months (sometimes years) after it's out of style. Fashion, music, books, tv shows, and movies; if it was popular say, 6 months or a year ago, chances are i'm just finding out about it.

many are the time i'll see someone wearing a cool shirt or nice sneakers, ask where they got them, and then find out the store hasn't sold them in months. recently i went to Best Buy to try and find a couple of CD's and DVDs, only to be told that that they had been out of print for years.

take, for instance, my recent brush with the wonderful world of the iTunes Store; after finally uploading my rather extensive library of music to BTZ, most of which is stuff i've been listening to, in one form or another (read: cassette or homemade CD), for years, i decided to embrace the idea of finding new music on iTunes. i typed in "Rufus Wainwright" 'cuz i know he has more b-sides and odd tracks than anyone else in my library, and was not disappointed. amongst the CD's i already owned were some tracks he'd recorded for both Brokeback Mountian soundtrack and a Hedwig and the Angry Inch tribute CD (which has awesome covers by Cyndi Lauper and Fred Schneider, both of which i downloaded last night). All three Rufus tracks are amazing, and i highly recommend you download them; chances are, though, you already have and you've been sitting there shaking your head thinking "jeez CB, i've been listening to La Wainwright's cover of Origin of Love for years! where y'been" but that is precisely the problem...somehow i missed it.

my friends (namely Jenn and John) have been laughing about this odd phenomenon, independently of each other, for years. Jenn still laughs about the time i dressed as Harry Potter to go to the Village Halloween parade, six months before the HP explosion hit the US; it was the one and only time i was ahead of the curve. John, in particular will give me music or a movie and tell me, with 100% certainty, to take it home and listen to it because in 6 months i'll love it. i used to fight him on it, thinking that my musical tastes were slightly different than his, that i was an independent listener; but 99.9% of the time he's right. it happened with Kristine W and Natasha Bedingfield; when i he 1st told me about the latter, i was all "whatever another Anastacia white-girl-with-soul-diva-wanna-be"; 6 months later i was begging him to find me more of her remixes.

i'm lucky enough to have friends on the cutting edge; people who always know where to go, what to listen to and how to dress. it must be so terribly tiring, keeping up with the latest and newest in music, clothes and movies; personally, i prefer to let them do all the work and call myself "retro"; people have been doing that for years.

*Crickets* (or My Humor Doesn't Translate Well)

via text message
CawfeeGuy: totally bought today's shirt (on woot).
Bri-the-Pie-Guy: i almost bought the flatscreen telly yesterday. But "that is alot of diapers" sense kicked in at the last minute.
CG: *GASP* good choice Ward.
BtPG: Ward?
CG: Cleaver. the prototypical "American Dad".
BtPG: oh. Humor from the colonies.

Test Day: Icon, Yukon, We All Con

You Are the Very Gay Bert and Ernie!

Two grown puppets living together, sleeping in the same room? They've even got coordinating striped shirts!

What Gay Childhood Icon Are You?

Have i ever told you that Ernie was my absolute favorite muppet? it's true! have a great 3 day weekend boys and girls!

"He's gayer than a figure skater eating a corndog"~ Attack of the Theater People (Marc Acito)

30 Second Update

Mom's doing well; she's been home since sunday and has, over the last few days, become more like herself again. she, dad, stephen and i are going out for dinner tomorrow night, so things are definitely back to normal.

as i mentioned in the iPod post, i found out last week that i am still employed; and have not been subject to a pay cut. my department will survive the "transition" (no snickering) and i plan on coming here till they tell me not to. the latest rumor is that we're being moved from brooklyn into manhattan. that's a move i'd gladly make.

i fixed a major iPod problem last night: all my music playing at different volume levels; somehting which was quite maddening. thanks apple for posting the instruction book on your website (but not including it in the box). i also bought season 1 of Futurama and a song or two from iTunes...just to check them out. truth to be told, i wasn't overly impressed with iTunes selection of movies or tv shows; granted i only took a quick tour. we'll see what the future brings...maybe Maude.

Happy Birthday, Mother of Us All

Yup. today is the day the holy one was born created. watch Moonstruck and play Believe a few dozen times today in deference to She Who Shall Remain Fabulous.

and thanks, again, MS for keeping me informed of the high holy days.

“I don't need a man. But I'm happier with one. I like to have someone I can touch and squeeze and kiss. But I don't fold up and die if I don't have a man around.”~ Cher

iAssimilated

yup, i sold out...resistance was futile.

after finding out that i'm still employed, i went out on Saturday and bought an 80g iPod Classic (black, shiny, named "Better Than Zen" since...well...it is) from Best Buy (on sale, $249!); extravagant, i know, but i'm worth it.

now the fun begins: wrestling with iTunes to make it do what i want it to do, while making it think it's doing what it wants to do, which is not what i want it to do. already, i've invested almost 2 days, straight, converting the WMA's of my Creative Zen into whatever Apple's version is (AAC's? ACC's? TTFN's?). of the 4500 songs i had on my Creative Zen, less than half have have been converted/transferred onto my iPod. after that's done, i have to invest more time to fix all the ID tags (song title/artist/album title/genre) that didn't convert correctly; i'm anal about my music and i want it to look the way i like it to look. i'm told by a reasonably reliable source that when it's done, it will be "like the glory of childbirth"; that explains the pain i'm suffering now...

Happy Birthday, Aunt Bea

thanks MS for tipping me off.

"I don't know this sea of neon/Thousand surfers, whiffs of freon/And my new grandma Bea Arthur"~California (Rufus Wainwright)

Not a Good Couple of Days

long story short:

• friday, dad called and cancelled Mother's Day; mom was sick and didn't want visitors; sad but not unusual.
• saturday, he called again to say she didn't want anyone coming over that day either. strange.
• sunday, after driving out to long island to see stephen's mom, sister and grandmothers, my sister-in-law calls to tell me that my brother showed up (unannounced) and called an ambulance for my mother.

we turned around, drove back to Staten Island and met my father and brother at the emergency room where we stayed till midnight. when we left, she was still there. the diagnosis was a small bowel/intestinal obstruction caused by hernia surgery she had last year. they shoved a tube up her nose and down into her stomach to pump out the contents which had been building since Thursday. they finally admitted her at 5 am yesterday morning and took the tube out last night at 8pm. she's on IV fluids to combat the extreme dehydration which nearly resulted in kidney failure.

she's still there and will be for the next couple of days, at least till they determine if the blockage is being shrunk by the antibiotics they're pumping into her.

Test Day: Cawfeemaker

You Are 60% Creative

You are a quite creative person. You're always involved in at least on interesting project. Keep it up and keep learning. Your creativity may bring you great things someday.

How Creative Are You?

CD Deathmatch: the B-52's Funplex vs Madonna's Hard Candy

Funplex: fun, quirky, upbeat and catchy. Kate and Cyndi sound fantastic (Juliet of the Spirits, Ultraviolet), like no time had passed since Good Stuff (their last studio album) when they sounded just as good, if not better, than their very 1st album. Fred is, well, Fred; funny, nasal and loud; he may not be able to sing (Love in the Year 3000, Eyes Wide Open, Too Much to Think About), but he writes fantastic lyrics. musically, the band has really embraced the electronic sound of 2008 without compromising their sound; like Erasure and the Pet Shop Boys, you know this is a new album, but the sound is classically theirs. thumbs up.

Hard Candy: what a waste of ten bucks. poor madge sounds old and tired, singing songs that even Britney wouldn't have touched in her crazier days (Candy Shop). musically, it sounds like Bedtime Stories/American Life rejects; over produced, with heavy bass with nonsensical rapping (the Beat Goes On). i'm not sure what she was thinking when she greenlighted this release. she hasn't grown as an artist, she's regressed and it's a shame. hopefully the DJ's can remix this into somehting better, like they did with Confessions from the Dancefloor. in the immortal words of Ben Folds, "give me my money back/give me my money back/you bitch/i want my money back".

Star Struck Pt. 6: That's Cold

Leo: Many friends like your enthusiasm, but some are turned off the noise; can you be happy, but quiet, that's the question!

Behind the Times DVD Review

Check out the Logo network's Rick & Steve; we rented Season 1 from Netflix and laughed our asses off! it's like that wretched South Park show, only...funny.

the best part? voices by Peter Paige, Wilson Cruz, Margaret Cho and Allan Cumming!

Where Everybody Knows Your Extension Pt. 2: Best Quote of the Evening

Ultra-Sassy Female Co-Worker (to Sweet but Painfully Dull Supervisor): aw, D--e, you're sweet; i like talking to you as if you were somebody.
SPDS: but i am somebody!
USFCW: sure you are (pats his shoulder)

i laughed so hard that Pinot Grigio almost came outta my nose.

Test Day: Piece of the Pie

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's" Your Pizza Personality?

Test Day: Whoa Whoa Whoa Listen to the Music, Whoa Whoa Whoa Listen to the Music

You Are Electronic Music

You are energetic and expressive. You love feeling alive. You never get sick of your favorite things - they're what makes life special. You don't take tradition or conventions too seriously. You live for the future. You enjoy remixes and re-interpretations of things. Life is about making improvements.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Where Everybody Knows Your Extension

Cunty thinks it would be swell if we all went out for a drink to unwind and relieve stress, at the bar on the corner. personally, i'd like to be locked in a steel cage with an aluminum bat and a few of my co-workers, with a gubernatorial pardon waiting for me upon exiting...but that's just me.