turkey day, minus the turkey
we're not a normal family, so we didn't have a normal thanksgiving. we had our thanksgiving meal the day before, and it was barbeque. on thanksgiving we stayed at home all day. we watched pearl harbor, and i picked a wart out of my toe. my sister, the resident foot wart expert, advised me on how to do it. of course, she told me just to leave it the way it was afterward, skin peeled back and tender parts exposed, while my mom said i should put some neosporin on it. so take my sister's advice with a grain of salt. and neosporin. today, we got together with some family and ate more barbeque. and we've got two cakes and one pie for desert. so ya'll can keep your traditional thanksgiving, and we'll eat our barbeque and dig out our warts in peace. happy thanksgiving!

except for hal and skynet
sometimes i feel like i can relate better with computers than people. i'm sure i'm not the only geek that feels that way. in fact, i think that's a prerequisite for being a geek. and people may laugh at us because they don't understand how we'd rather be around inanimate objects as opposed to our own species. but it's pretty clear for me. computers don't judge you. they don't care if you're cool or not. they don't care what clothes you wear. you don't have to worry about hurting their feelings. sure, sometimes they'll make you mad or annoy you, but it's never personal. some people say that computers are stupid because they don't have a brain, but i think the exact opposite. it's because they can't think for themselves that they aren't susceptible to the moronic impluses of humans. do i need a better reason? i could also say that they're not fickle, but that would only apply to certain platforms, and you know who you are. :c)

homeless shelter
we went to the homeless shelter today to serve a thanksgiving meal. it was outside in the cold. we had to pick "buddies" to stick with, and the rules of engagement were pretty stiff. you can't be too careful, you know. well, amber was my buddy and angela joined us since she didn't have one. so here we are, three anti-socials released to mingle with the less fortunate. poor neurotic amber was fighting back the nausea that so often accompanies the social situations she's forced into. angela just stood there with amber. i felt guilty, though. as much as i hate being social, i didn't want to be selfish. i did help a man carry his food to where he was sitting. but amber and angela didn't follow. i was all alone, so i went back. a while later jeremiah tried to get us moving, and i stood by him smiling while he talked and asked people if they needed anything. i should have abandoned amber and angela and stuck with miah. the difference between them and me is that while i am antisocial, i know how to survive in a social world. one has to find a person or group of social people that one is comfortable with, hence deflecting much of the social responibility from oneself with a manageable portion left over. you're vulnerable in the open. hide in the crowd. that's what they didn't understand. and what i didn't fight to do. so while i did want to help and do feel guilty, i probably deserve whatever anyone would think of me for not helping as much as the other for not being proactive about it. shame shame. i'll go bury my self-pity in something productive now.

daisy's alter egos
i've got a little dog. she's a puppy, and her name is daisy. well, sometimes. you see, she's got these other personalities. sometimes she gets an insane look in her eyes and goes crazy, running around the room as fast as she can and making bank turns off the couch. that's "crazy eyes." one has to watch out for that character, lest one finds oneself a victim, pawed, clawed, and slathered with stinking saliva. then there's "randall." randall has no spine and slides everywhere. you've already heard about him. my favorite alter ego is "madam query." she was born out of a strange little game my sister created which involved a rawhide chew "treasure." my sister couldn't think of the exact name of the lady that discovered radium (madam curie) so she called her madam query. madam query would invade my sister's sofa cusion "ship" to steal the "treasure," and my sister would steal it back. well, the little dog looks dejected and alone, so i guess i'll go play with it. :c)

slinky dog
we got a dog a few weeks ago. a cocker spaniel puppy that is the cutest, most loving little creature that ever walked the earth. she's also rather annoying, too, because she likes to trip people, bark at nothing, and chew on pencils. of course, this is not unique or unusual behavior for puppies. but she is different. we are convinced that her spine is double-jointed. she bends like gumby and can twist and move in ways we didn't think possible. one of her favorite ways to stretch is to slide head first off the couch, leaving her back legs on the couch but standing upright on the floor with her front feet. when she's done stretching, and she leaves, letting her back legs plop onto the floor behind her. it's like she's part snake. since she slids around so much, we gave her the nickname "randall," the name of the slithery villain monster from "monsters, inc." another alter-ego is "madam query," a pirate that invades my sister's barricades and steals rawhide sticks for treasure.

cascading stylesheets
i first discovered HTML almost 6 years ago. before then, i thought the method for making web pages was similar to a WYSIWYG editor. needless to say, i was miffed, but i learned that quaint little mark up language. and for years i saw mystical acronyms like CSS and dHTML sprinkled across sites like Webmonkey. but i resisted. i had no desire and no need to learn them. and that's the way it was up until just a few days ago. i realized that i was old school. and i'm not even 17 yet! i was like those old people who use their egg timers even when the all the numbers are worn off. so i resolved myself to learn CSS, a more efficient way to do HTML. and i did, and now i feel empowered. enlightened, even. so if you're a geek and want to feel alive again, go to Webmonkey and learn CSS. you'll be glad you did.

some rebel i am
well, i finally broke down and decided to use the angelfire blogging tool. for those of you that just tuned in, when i heard that angelfire had a blogging tool, but one had to pay to use it, i was indignant. i don't know why, exactly. i just didn't think it was fair. i rebelled. i didn't need them anyway, so started my own make-shift blog. eventually i got tired of it and decided to use this because i'm lazy and would rather do things the easy way than try to change the world. have you ever noticed how the apathetic are far less stressed than the ambitious?