Maybe Black Mesa...

April Fool's, or the real deal? No clue! But, it's rumored that tomorrow only, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Still Alive for Rock Band for free. Either way, it slated to be released for PS3 and X-Box on April 17th, but getting it for free would be pretty frickin' sweet!


And, as an added bonus: JoCo himself, rocking out to Still Alive! (not the best group of RockStars, but I guess it's the best they could get, so blah!)




Music pick for the Day: "Superman" by Lazlo Bane
Beverage pick for the Day: Agua
Socks for the Day: lime green and turquoise knee highs (trust me, the color combo works)

;_;

Bloggity blog blog

So, I've been looking up information on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and started reading Felicia Day's blog, The Flog and it's a fun blog! I'm going to have to add it to my rotation of blogs/sites I check daily! She recently updated about applications and sites she uses for social networking and Digsby was one of the ones she linked. And I kind of <3 it, as you can tell from the widget on this very page! It's very handy and I no longer have to use Trillian in addition to my G-talk! Plus, it also gives me updates from Facebook and MySpace, as well as e-mail notifications. It's pretty nifty and I suggest that everyone check it out! As for the rest of my list of sites/blogs in my "bored on the interwebs" rotation; these are a few that I check often, if not daily (in addition to the ones listed in my "Things that Keep Me Sane" box):

That Video Game Blog is one that recently was added to the rotation, since Mike recently started writing for them. My only gripe about it is that it leans more to the console games as opposed to PC games, but there have been a couple of WoW updates, so I can't really complain. Plus, even though I don't play many console games, some of the info still interests me.

Bricks Explode is a blog that I found a couple of months ago when I was googling for information on Arrested Development and I've kind of fallen in love with this Josh fellow. He updates about once a week, if we're lucky, and posts about life, TV, and whatever pop culture reference has popped into his mind that week. *sigh* <3 Josh. If he knew that some random chick from Wisconsin was stalking his blog, I think that he'd be pretty indifferent toward it. Plus, he's a good crush to have: he's pretty, he's far away, and completely unaware of my existence.

I Read More Than You is a blog that my friend Amie started. She started strong in the year, posting often, but has become more sporadic in her updating recently. But, she's still at an impressive 50 books and not even 3 months into the year. Go, Amie!!

Welp, that's about it for today. I'm off to mess around with the color schemes/skins on my Digsby app and watch some more Veronica Mars, season 1. So, good day to you!

I said good day!

You Can't Take the Sky From Me

Happy Sunday!

Hmmm... what to update on? Well, I'll just start with my weekend. I went into work yesterday for some overtime. Curt was there with me for about an hour, which made the time suck less, so yay Curt!! While I was there, my mom called. I'll give you a recap of the conversation:

Me: Hello?
Mom: Hi! Where are you?
Me: At work. What's up?
Mom: How long are you going to be at work?
Me: About another hour or so. What's up?
Mom: And then you'll be home?
Me: No. Then I have lunch plans with the Amie and Crystal.
Mom: So when do you think you'll be home? 1?
Me: Um, more like 1:30 or 2. ....why?
Mom: Well, your father and I were deciding what to do today and thought we'd come visit.
Me: But... you never come visit.
Mom: And that's why we're coming to visit! See you at 2!!!

Now, normally, I'd be all gung-ho for a visit from the parentals, but I'd already slept like ass the night before (bad night Friday), and I had plans for the day (which is rare). Could they have picked a worse day? I really think not.

So, I get done with work, go to Amie's and head to lunch at Bellafini's (which is my new favorite eatery. Quaint, delicious and new: what's not to love?) And, instead of it just being Amie, Crystal and me, Adam and Myrt came along, too, so it was fun! Curt and Brandie also came there for lunch, so I chatted with them for a bit before we finished eating. We left at around 1:30, so I had 30 minutes to get home and do some ninja-fast cleaning before my parents got to town.

My parents only stayed for about 2 hours, and I felt bad; I was practically falling asleep on my couch. I told them that next time they come up here, they should plan ahead so I can take them out for lunch or something instead of us sitting around my apartment watching TV. Plus, Jackson is at Scott's this weekend, so they didn't even get to see the peanut while they were here. Just a bad day for visiting, all around.

After my parents left, I napped until about 5:30, and went to my 'puter to check my e-mail and such. And to my surprise, I get an update from Facebook that I have a new friend request from my friend Amy, whom I've barely talked to in...god, it's been at least 2 years. I'm going to have to bug her about coming to visit us, since we haven't seen her since Christmas 2006! Anyway, after checking my email and schtuff, I went to pick up Crystal and we watched some Firefly... mmmm.. Captain Tightpants FTW.

Watching Firefly again made me remember my undying and unrequited love of Joss Whedon. 5 years ago, I was all "Joss who? Oh, the guy who did that Buffy show? Lame." But, I was kind of eased into the Joss-verse. It started innocently: watching Serenity on pay per view. It was a good movie, so I decided to look it up on IMDB. And what's this? It was based off of a short-lived TV series? I then decided to check out the series and became hooked immediately. After the first disc, I was cursing the FOX execs who cancelled the show and pimping Firefly out to everyone I know. After finishing the series, I decided to try out Joss's biggest success and started watching Buffy... and then Angel. And I now own the collectors edition box sets of both Buffy and Angel. After falling in love with all three of his TV series, I'm convinced the man can do no wrong....and that makes me all the more excited about his next two projects!! Dollhouse, which is his new series set to premiere this fall on FOX (don't fuck it up this time, FOX!), and his new web musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. This...this may just be the most fantastic thing to happen to the interwebs in YEARS. Seriously, NATHAN FILLIAN and NEIL PATRICK HARRIS... in a musical!! That Joss wrote! I...it's just too much awesome for one Karen to handle!!

*deep breaths* Ok. I think I'm better now. Moving on...

Hmmm... I think that's about it. Sorry for teh boring, but I'm a boring person, so blah!

I shall now leave you with an entry from Urban Dictionary. I've been told that I have a new nickname... and that is b0rkatron.

i r the b0rkatron f34r my l33tness (yeah... I promise to never say that again. It scared even myself)

Music pick for the Day: "So Beautiful" by Dashboard Confessional
Beverage pick for the Day: Cherry Coke (I am a weak and horrible human being)
Socks for the Day: purple polka-dot knee highs!

Yummy

Last weekend I watched "Bye, Bye Birdie", which was fantastic, as always. So, this last week, I'd been thinking of other musicals and my mind wandered to Marlon Brando in "Guys and Dolls" (bwha???? video removed??? well, just know that this clip was FANTASTIC!). And, thinking of Marlon Brando, my mind will always go to Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire". And, then my mind wandered to sweaty, wet Marlon Brando in that movie (Steeelllllaaaaaaa!)... so of course my next mind-leap went to a drenched Colin Firth in the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice". And, that's how I spent the first part of this last week: watching Pride and Prejudice twice in 3 days (which, is 10 hours of television, so be impressed by my leet DVD watching skills). And that right there has been the highlight of my week: watching Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet fall in love.

I feel the need to apologize for my overly lovey-dovey posting lately. I've been in a weird place emotionally and not sure where my life is going at the moment, and I've become fixated on the notion of finding love and being happy. Friday night I was troubled and upset, just thinking about my lonliness. But, I'm making the effort to take a step back and just worry about being me and not let my lack of man-having bring me down. On the flip side, however, I would like to branch out and meet new people and not sit at home watching DVD's night after night after night after night. The bad part about this is that this city doesn't really have places to go to meet new people, aside from the bars...and I'm not really a bar person. *sigh* I'm doomed. :(

Blerg. Now I have to go get ready so that I can head into work for some overtime today. BLERG, I say.

BLERG!

Music pick for the Day: "Kissing the Lipless" by The Shins
Beverage pick for the Day: Cherry Coke (BAD Karen. BAD!)
Socks for the Day: none. My feet are teh nekkid right now

The cake is a... little dry

So, I've been a bit down for the better part of the day, but I'm working on getting myself out of the funk. Nothing exciting has happened lately, so I'm just posting to say that I <3 Jonathan Coulton and to post a video of him singing.

I hope you enjoy.



Music pick for the Day: "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Jonathan Coulton (the Leonard Cohen original is great, too, but I <3 me some JoCo)
Beverage pick for the Day: Iced venti mocha
Socks for the Day: black knee highs with multicolor stripes

That's how you know

So, since I got all blergy with my last post, here is my happy thought for the day: McDreamy in a musical.



Mmmmmmm... Patrick Dempsey, why are you so wonderful? Oh, and James Marsden. Mmmmm... James, my love for you has grown ever stronger since "Hairspray". Corny Collins, offering out stiff ones...
/rawr

Also, this song makes me all ^_^ so yay for Enchanted coming out on DVD yesterday! Swooty swoot swoot!

^_^

James Dean: Actor or Philosopher?

This is going to be a kinda weird post, so I apologize in advance for teh crazy. I just had a lot on my mind today and need to talk some stuff out.

In less than 1 month, I'm going to be 26 years old. I have a good job, good friends, get by on my own, and am a mother to a beautiful, wonderful 5 year old boy. From the outside, it would seem that I was happy with my life and on some levels, I am. If I had to redo my life, I can't say that I would change anything, since I am pretty content with where my life is at this exact moment, even though the road was quite bumpy at parts. Sure, I have "what if's" about tons of things, and wonder where I'd be if I had made a different decision at some point. But, all of those "what if's" are far from regrets. I can't say that any decision I've made so far in my life can be considered a regret, because I really do believe that everything happens for a reason. I do believe that there is a big, cosmic plan for everyone. I won't say that I believe in fate, per se: To me, it's more like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book than a pre-determined life path. Free will and all that.

So, life is a series of choices. Some are easy: coffe or tea? paper or plastic? boxers or briefs? Some are harder: college or work? family or friends? love or money? And some are just complicated: yes or no? talk or listen? stay or go?
Most people will take each question and decide which is best for them. And I'm not one of those people. With each choice (aside from the "easy" ones), I don't just think about my own want or need, but I instead will think of how everyone else will be affected. I can't say that I've made a big decision in my life that was solely what I wanted, everyone else be damned. I care so much about what others think of me and of being judged that I will try to please everyone, at all costs.

My biggest fears in life are rejection and disappointment from others, so I will avoid putting myself in a position where one of those reactions can be possible. If someone can be hurt from a decision I make, I will do my best to come to a conclusion that hurts the least amount of people, even if the only one hurt is myself. Because of this, I have become a very passive person. I'm a sit-back-and-hope-things-turn-out person and have pretty much taken a back seat to actually living because of it. My life is boring, and I'm pretty sure it's boring because I don't take chances. For an example, I don't initiate relationships/friendships because I don't want to put myself out there and be vulnerable, so I instead am defensive and distance myself from people so that I can't get close enough for them to hurt me. I *want* to let people in, but every time I start to, I get scared and pull myself away.

Also, my caring about other peoples' perceptions of me affects so much of who I am and what I do that it also accounts for the way that I dress. For, well, pretty much forever, I've worn a sweat shirt/sweater over my regular clothes. Part of the reason is because I get cold easily. But, the main reason? I'm very self conscious about my body and cover myself up as much as possible anytime that I'm in public. I don't wear skirts/shorts in public and haven't owned a bathing suit in ~9 years. BUT! I'll have you know that I have been working on this: I don't always wear sweaters/sweat shirts anymore. Well, *most* of the time I do, but people sometimes will see actual Karen skin that's not my face or hands! I KNOW! Progress.

Now, before you get all "Karen, you're dumb and you think waaaaaaaaay to much about this", please realize that I KNOW THAT ALREADY! You have no idea how much I wish I could just say "fuck it" and just do what I want and not care about how others will react. I really, super-duper do. But I can't.

However, as I said at the start of the year, this year is all about change and good things for me, so I'm going to make an effort to change these parts of my life, too. I'm not going to promise anything, since there have been years of self-loathing and paranoia that got me this far, and I don't know if I can erase all of that in a matter of months, but I'm at least going to try, and hope that this will be the beginning of more good things for me. So, to help me along, I'm going to make a "to do" list for myself for the next year and hope I get them done by the time I hit 27, so that I can maybe celebrate that birthday in a dress, while being overly social and hopefully I will have found my Mr. Wonderful™ by then.

And, I am going to be giving myself a new mantra: "Dream as if you'll live forever; live as if you'll die today". I already have the dream part down, so I just have to start living for today and I'll be good to go.


Music pick for the Day: "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake
Beverage pick for the Day: water
Socks for the Day: purple knee highs with multi-color polka dots

I Hug on the First Date

WOO HOO!! <--- That sums up my last two days. Let's rewind to Friday night for a recap! Friday night, the Vogds and I hung out at the Main Exchange until ~11:30, and it was good times! We chit chatted, bared our souls, and drank delicious fruity concoctions that probably made me ramble a weeeee bit more than I should have, but c'est la vie; it was fun! I got home about 11:45, went to bed, and slept ridiculously well (which was much needed, after my 2 nights of restless quasi-sleep).

Saturday, I wake up refreshed and in good spirits. I then decide that Mexican food is as delicious as the previous nights fruity drinks, and track down Amie to go and eat at Mazatlan with me. And it was gooooooooood. After we got our food on, we went to Target, then Starbucks, then to Crystal's house for our day o' gaming FUN! We start out with some Rock Band, then switch to Super Smash Brother Brawl (Zelda FTW), then Amie and I make the food run for everyone. So, we head to Starbucks yet again, then Burger King with food orders for 7 people ($43!!!!) and then head back to introduce Pat and Trent to the glory and wonder that is "Arrested Development". We watched the first 10 episodes and it put me in a very happy place. I headed home at about 11, went to bed at about 12:30 and again slept wonderfully.

Today, I wake up at 7am, completely awake and in the best mood ever. Seriously, I cannot remember the last time that I was in a mindset that made me feel this good about my life and myself in general. So, I decide to go shopping. ^_^ I got a new pair of brown pants, two new hoodies (so cute!), some make up, some new fingerless gloves, a new bra, some knee high socks, and two t-shirts that are too freaking cute. One says "I hug on the first date" and the other has happy cupcakes and a sad muffin and says "Muffins are just ugly cupcakes". *sigh* So adorable.

But, back to my happy mood: I'm really hoping that this sticks around, because I've been in varying funks since September and I am so sick of being moody and crabby and sad and depressed and BLAH! I just want to get back to where I was this summer, and I think I am. I feel myself becoming a new and improved version of my "I don't need anyone but me" Karen, now with more spunk and better hair!

Now, to go finish watching "Being John Malkovich" and continue feeling fabulous about everything.

Music pick for the Day: "You Know I'm No Good" by Amy Winehouse
Beverage pick for the Day: Mighty Mango Naked juice (sooooo good!!)
Socks for the Day: white socks that have monkeys on them and say "How funky is your monkey?" (which is one of life's great questions, up there with "why is the sky blue?" and "does God have feet?")

Hello? Is this thing on?

Um, so yeah. There is not much going on in Karen world at all, hence the lack of any updates. I was tempted to post a few times, but the posts would have been ultra lame. Well, about as lame as this post will be, actually. So, why update now and not any of the other times? That is an excellent, excellent question, without an excellent, excellent answer.

BLERG I am so bored lately! This week, if I haven't been at work, I've been at home, on my couch, in my jammies, watching tv. Lame. Super, mega, ultra lame.

On the plus side, the weather is finally getting warmer outside, which I hope will give me the kick in the bum I need to just get out of the apartment. And, tomorrow night I'm going out, so hopefully I'll have fun and maybe something exciting will happen that will warrant an actual blog update, so here's hoping for an awesome Friday!!

*crosses her fingers and hopes for fun*


Music pick for the Day: "Heaven's On Fire", by KISS
Beverage pick for the Day: Coffee
Socks for the Day: pink and gray argyle knee highs

...Sorry we said fuck so much

So, today was an average day. Not too great, not too bad. Just a day. Well, there were some goodish parts, but overall: meh. I seem to have meh days a lot. It's like I pissed off some meh gypsies and they put their meh curse on me. Fricking gypsies and their fricking curses.

...so my mind just wandered to Buffy, but it's back now.

Today = meh. Jackson and I get home, put in "Super Secret Super Spy" (if you don't have kids, you are missing out. FYI.) and made some dinner. Crystal then tells me that my Amazon order arrived today, and that she forgot to give me the package. What. The. Frick. That could have tipped my day over to "good" from "meh", but noooooo. She had to be a whore and forget. Dirty whores. Good for nothing, I tell you! (ps. <3 teh Crystal). I am kind of disappointed, though. I mean, I ordered "Pretty in Pink" (DUCKIEEEEEE!), "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", and "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", and any one of those movies could have made my night great.

DUDE! I almost forgot that today is Wednesday! I take back any bad things I said about today, because tonight is the season finale of Project Runway. And that is gonna rock. HARD. I am so excited, I may need a moment to recoup.

...Ok. Better. So, back to the DVD's (which Crystal is keeping hostage... whore). I am really needing to rewatch "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" and I think that will be my plan for Thursday night. Jackson will be at my parents', so after work, I can just come home and veg on the couch all night.

*sigh* I'm lame. Sitting at home, by myself, and watching a movie in my PJ's sounds awesome to me. Well, the alone part kind of blows, but some days I'm ok with being single. Like, when I want to veg and watch movies, I'm kind of ok with my single status. Hearing other people talk about their plans for the night that include significant others? That makes me not so happy with my single status.

Ok. So, going to go off in my Crazy Karen head for a bit and tell you my thoughts on my singledom, and you can judge me all you want! (just keep the judging to yourself, please... I have enough of a complex without other peoples input, thankyouverymuch!)

So. Single. On one hand, I think that I am not ready for a relationship with anyone and that I need to be happy being just me before I can be happy with me and Mr. Wonderful™. But, on the other hand, the more I find myself unhappy, the more I start to think that maybe what I need is Mr. Wonderful™ in order to become happy. And then on the 3rd hand, I think that if I think that I need someone to be happy, I will latch onto the first guy that makes me feel funny in my bits. Which, you know, is good, but I want more than just the attraction, so if I go this route, there are good odds that I will end up with someone pretty who drives me crazy. And on the 4th hand, if I get the mindset that I can't have a relationship right now, what if Mr. Wonderful™ comes strolling through and I miss him cuz I'm all "down with the peen!"? And on the 5th hand... yeah, I think that's it, so the 5th hand shall remain empty.

...and now my mind has wandered to the thought of actually having 5 hands and I'm a little creeped out at the thought of it....although getting ready in the morning would be crazy easy with 5 hands...

Ok. So, I really only have 2 hands, but they are full of these 4 contradicting views on my love/lack-of-love life. There are other thoughts on this, but those are the ones that come up most often.

*sigh* Why can't my mind come with an off button? I could use a break from me.

ps. My overuse of the word "frick" is to be blamed on my rewatching Scrubs. <3 Zach Braff <3


Music pick for the Day: "Schadenfreude" by The Cast from Avenue Q
Beverage pick for the Day: Coffeeeeeeee
Socks for the Day: white and pink argyle socks (made from wool, so extra comfy and warm)

I'd have his babies

So, I was in a less than great mood today, so Myke was trying to cheer me up (<3 teh Myke). He made me a picture of Jonathan Coulton, saying that Jonathan Coulton wanted to have geeky babies with me. Which I would. I'd have Jonathan Coulton's babies. I'm sure his wife would disapprove, but I can dream, dammit. But, regardless of whose babies I will or will not be having, the picture did help to cheer me up. And it got me thinking that in less than 2 months we will be going to see Jonathan Coulton for the THIRD time. I'm just sad that it's on May 2nd and not the 1st of May.

*sigh* Stupid Minneapolis stealing the 1st of May. CURSE YOU, MINNESOTA!

Madness??

So, yeah. Still bored. Not much to update on. I am watching 300 for the 3rd time in 2 days and it made me think of this comic that I saw the other day that made me smile. And just before 300 came on today, I caught the last 30 minutes of "Coming to America". Man, I love that movie. Makes me think of the good ol' days when Eddie Murphy still made good movies...well, good by my standards, anyway.

So, I shall now leave you with the greatest joke in Eddie Murphy Movie HISTORY: Whaddya know from funny, you bastard?


Music pick for the Day: "As Long As You're Mine" by Idina Menzel and Norbert Leo Butz (from Wicked)
Beverage pick for the Day: Ramune soda
Socks for the Day: black and pink (they actually say "PINK" on the bottom in pink)...pink (that sounds eerily familiar, doesn't it??)