internet life/breakdown - BEDA 6

oh, the title is misleading. i mean, it's accurate, but the subjects are unrelated. there was no breakdown in my internet life, although there was a bit of internet life involved in the breakdown. so maybe the title isn't so misleading after all...

so, today was so boring compared to yesterday! no live internet broadcasts, no disturbing tweets from my government, no blogging (nearly) hourly... wow. my life really does take place online, doesn't it?

the real fun began when my mom came to pick me up from work (another exciting adventure in sharing a car!) and as she pulled away from the curb, the car died. or at the very least refused to accelerate. it seemed not to want to switch out of first gear. or in fact switch completely into first gear. :/
however, armed with a phone and a AAA card, i called for help and after towing the car to the mechanic, the tow truck guy was kind enough to take us home! :)

highlights:

• my poor mom seemed so stressed out!
• my thinking ahead and keeping an extra shirt in the car finally paid off! :)
  
• i got to talk to my friends on twitter throughout the ordeal

the empty half of the glass in this event rather depresses me, so instead i shall view only full part of the glass for now (and during this post)! the car may be in the shop, but at least that means i don't have to go to work tomorrow. :) time at home equals me finishing projects for the Guide and finishing little personal projects, and not being bored to death by my work. yay! ok, i'm falling asleep and in danger of nodding off. if it were 2 in the afternoon, i wouldn't be concerned. but it's 11:30pm and the chances of me waking up and pressing "publish post" before midnight are slim to none. so rather than fail and feel ridiculous for missing a day of BEDA for something so stupid, i'm gonna end the blog here! to elaborate on the topic of what i said yesterday about online friends and internet life, i shall leave you with this comment made to an IRL friend on Facebook today:

"...and yeah, i've made myself a little Blogspot home. and i stay at YouTube at least once a week. i also hang out on Twitter a lot. lots of cool people there. i venture into the IRL only to make money and to meet up with the people i hang out with on Twitter. oh, and Skype. i love Skype! :) (wow, i just reread that and... it's a lot more literal than i intended. :/)"

all day long... - BEDA 5

Blog Count: 5 Blogs Left: 25
Fatigue Meter: 0 :D

12:20am: i've been meaning to do this for a while so i'll do it today! i'm going to blog as the day progresses. i did this once before, but... here, i'll give you the blow by blow of the epic fail: at 7am i started, saved the draft, and left the window open for easy update access. i updated throughout the day at work. i came home and made my 6pm update (i was updating hourly). i saved the draft, and only after i'd hit the button did i realize that this is not the version i had been progressively saving to all day, but the window i had open at 7am. so instead of 12 posts, i had 2. it hurt. it really hurt.
anyways, i have been promising a post about the gathering, so without further ado!
there were 3 people, including me. which, i can't lie, i found rather depressing. we're in LA and i know we have a plethora of Nerdfighters because there were so many at the Tour de Hank! however, an overwhelming majority of them either didn't hear about the gathering, or refused to show up. :/
but i still think i made rather pretty signs to point them in the right direction! for those who are interested, *cough*Lydia*cough* video of the dismally small turn-out will be posted before the week is out.
after the "gathering" was through, i went to Barnes & Noble at the Santa Monica Promenade. it's three floors high, has escalators and an elevator going up the center, and the barriers are all made of glass so that from any vantage you can look and see all three floors of books! *swoon*
now, a bit of epilogue is that i spent most of my time in years 8-18 sitting any place i could find (a chair, a ledge, the floor) in my local libraries and the Barnes & Noble in Burbank. i even noticed last time i was in that particular Barnes & Noble that the trend had finally caught on and there were people sitting in nearly every row. (no longer would i be the weirdo receiving strange looks as people stepped over me. now, i was just another book lover on a Saturday afternoon.) so i thought nothing of finding a book i liked, nestling in a rather quiet corner, and beginning to read. but i overlooked the fact that this was not my Burbank Barnes & Noble full of nostalgia and comfy chairs. i even overlooked that there were no chairs. that is until a guard ever so politely (and i mean this literally, i was taken a little aback by just how polite he was. he appeared honestly appologetic.) that he was "sorry, but sitting isn't allowed in the bookstore." but at least i got to put a few notes into these, so it wasn't a total loss!



8:20am: it's raining! it rained all night actually. but i like that. it's the morning, "i have to drive through traffic" rain i'm not fond of. however, today it wasn't so bad cuz my mom drove. (welcome to the adventures of sharing a car!)
so, a couple things i forgot to mention about Saturday's gathering are a) it was at Santa Monica Pier and b) i used my Droid like CRAAAZY! it told me how to get to the pier, and then it showed me which way to walk (that's right, the navigation's not just for the car) to get to Barnes & Noble and to the gelato shop (i LOVE gelato!), an app told me how to get to back to my car (it's called "Carr Matey" and is pirate themed ^_^), and then it showed me where to meet the rest of my family who were shopping for new living room furniture.
accidental capitalization. once i start writing in a certain format, i have to stick with it! ---> So i'm going to try to update this as close to hourly as possible. wish me luck!

10:20am:ok, so all i gotta say is "WHY IS MY SIZE OUT OF STOCK???? IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" awesome shirt

12pm: i was scared when i saw this government tweet. but felt better when i saw this reassuring tweet. and went right back to shocked when i realized they're encouraging the madness! and on a side note, that is the real government of the country i live in tweeting about pop stars and JK Rowling. welcome to my sub-reality!
today is SUCH an awesome day to be online! right now i'm watching John Green live, and earlier i was watching JK Rowling live! AND i received the new ALL CAPS album today! i love them more than i should. :D internet, where would i be without you?

2pm: see, it's moments like this that make being a Nerdfighter awesome! just finished helping John prank Hank. the first stunt in a chain of events leading up to his birthday! here's the result! XD

3:24pm: so i looked at my blog post list and there were only 3 posts for March. i'm thinkin' one of the reasons is cuz i was considering how much blogging i was going to be doing this month! so, for May i'm either gonna love blogging or hate it. either way, i'm not gonna have another month where i only blog 3 times! lack of writing talent or not, that's just too few blogs. :/

4pm: something i never finished writing Feb. 20th: i have, rather recently, become more or less addicted to the internet. i can't remember the last time i went through an entire day without logging on. i blog, vlog, update, tweet, and scrobble. a chat app is always open, i worship Google docs, and TweetDeck is a godsend.
so it's a funny thing that i only just have come to fully appreciate my friendships online. wait! don't get offended! i already appreciated you! i said fully appreciate!
in the past couple of weeks i haven't had time to watch/read/comment on/respond to all the posts/updates my friends have made. (resulting in the small mountain of content i've now to get through. which i'm not exactly dreading.) i also haven't had time to chat on Skype (or anywhere else for that matter) as often lately.
i never realized how much i talk to people, or choose not to talk to people (sorry!), until i haven't had the time to do it. i've had to cut a lot of convos short, or not participate in them at all lately.
continuing this thought: this still, sadly, is mostly true. i want to watch/read/comment on everything, and i ALSO want to produce content for all of you to watch/read/comment on. but with all my online friends having YT channels and blogs, along with other blogs and YTers i follow, AND, ya know, IRL, it gets a little daunting. i've gotta get better at managing time though, cuz i don't want to give ANYTHING up. i either cut out IRL, cut out my friends, or cut out participating in the NF community. i don't know about you, but i'm not willing to part with any of those options. i love it all too much! well, IRL i wouldn't mind cutting out so much, but it's necessary to keep the other two. (need the job, to get the money, to stay connected and be able to afford cons and eventually travel.) so if anyone has any tips, please let me know!
by the way, it stopped raining at around 10am! ^_^ now it's sunny and kind of cool and breezy. in other words, absolutely gorgeous!

7:10pm: you have no idea how delighted i am knowing that i won't epically fail with my all-day blog this time! :)
so we're on the last legs of this blog entry. we're almost to the finish. i'm pretty sure i'm gonna wrap it up at 10pm. but now, if i buckle down and stay focused, i may be able to make this blog look a bit better!

10:08pm: just finished watching the "special 2hr presentation" of 24. the last season. i'm going to miss hearing Jack Bauer threaten to tell him where the (insert threat here) or "i'll kill your family!" another favorite is when he's holding a gun on someone and yells, "don't make me do this!" or the always classic, in a hushed and menacing tone between clenched teeth, "have no doubt. i will do this!" ah. good times!
anywho! if you've gotten to this point in the blog, then you've done it! you've gotten through HOURS worth of my worthless prattle. perseverance like this is really admirable!
i promptly failed that bit about buckling down and staying focused by the way. that went out the window immediately as i began reading Lydia's blog. (which i'm a bit backlogged on. :/)

well, i hope this makes up for the crappy blogs this weekend as well as the vast lack of blogs last month. :)

Time Mismanaged - BEDA 4

if there's one thing that is becoming abundantly clear through the process of BEDA, it's that i seriously mismanage my time! right now, i have 5 minutes to get this written and posted. 5 minutes!!! how did this happen??? and i haven't even posted the Minutes for the Guide! not to mention i still need to edit the press package, transfer all of our documents off of etherpad, and make my lunch for work tomorrow.
at least i remembered to email everyone i needed to email. *sigh* 2 minutes! ok, i keep making little edits to every, single sentence! i'm freaking out about time and it's slowing me down! ok, i'm posting now.

i'd blog, but... - BEDA 3

blog count: 3 blogs remaining: 28
fatigue meter: 0/10

ok, i know the fatigue meter is giving conflicting readings, but i promise it's not broken! i'm not actually tired of writing. i want to write! however, it's been a long day, and i am TIRED!

i promise to make a better blog tomorrow. right now i'm doing that thing where you keep snapping back up right before you nod off. my head is starting to do that achy thing it does when i'm REALLY tired.

so tomorrow when my eyelids don't feel so heavy and my head isn't so achy, there will be a proper blog!

sorry. :/

remember not to forget! - BEDA 2

blog count: 2 blogs remaining: 28
fatigue meter: 1

ok, the fatigue meter already has a 1, but that's because i'm posting so late. where did the time go?! so yeah. welcome to day 2!

i thought of all kinds of clever things i could blog about all day! now that it's 11:30pm and i'm doing the actual blogging, i have nothing to say. i think this is a phenomenon that probably has some kind of mathematical equation attached to it that calculates the probability of enticing banter being included. but sadly, more for me than for you, i am mathematically challenged. (yet somehow hoping and praying whilst swiping my debit card is an effective method for keeping my bank balance out of the red! who needs math?)

so... there's a gathering tomorrow! now, hopefully this doesn't turn out to be a gathering of just me and Tiff. not that i don't think that would be awesome, but a gathering is traditionally supposed to consist of more than 2 people. :/
i also hope that the gathering doesn't include a random creepy guy who stumbled upon my tweet advertising the gathering. (enter mouth breather a la "Hey Arnold!")

ack! there are still so many things for me to do! a lot of little things, but if i forget them, well, it might not be disastrous, but it won't be preferable either. like remembering to set up tweets to announce the meeting on Sunday. will the world end if i don't do this? of course not. will some people forget to show up and others not even know about it, therefore missing a major opportunity of increasing awesome? yes! and that would MAJORLY bug me!

ok, got 6 minutes to get this blog up while i can still officially call this day 2. so i'm gonna post it now and not 7 minutes from now when i'll have to enter the world of slanted views and technicalities.

Guide, Guide, Gathering - BEDA 1

Vlog Count = 1 Vlogs Left = 29
Blog Fatigue Meter = 0 (let's make this a 0-10 meter to keep it simple!)


so i'm gonna Blog Every Day in April. and here we are on April Fool's Day with Blog #1. i'll warn you early that you should lower your expectations (if they can get any lower) because there are going to be A LOT of days where i have NOTHING to say. and lots of others when i talk about nothing but the Guide. but then again, who could ever get tired of hearing about the Guide? #totallynotobsessed #lyingthroughhashtags [haven't heard of The Guide to Nerdfighting? well, click --> here <-- silly!]


hmm... what's going on in Chelsea's life?


this weekend there will be a gathering! that's right! at the Santa Monica Pier @ noon! it will be awesome! i really, really, really, really, really, hope people show up. otherwise hiding all those eggs will be for naught!


also, i made this lovely beast last night: Lovely Beast ...er, document
i need criticism! tell me what's wrong with it so i can make it super-awesome!

i'm gonna cut off here cuz i still need to edit a video i recorded on Tuesday! the plan was to edit it yesterday, but i was too busy editing that PDF! oops!

who the eff is...

Sometimes the weirdest thing you hear on the radio is not the 12 yr. old singing "thought you'd always be mine" about his first love. I mean, it's obviously ridiculous, but to be fair, what else does a 12 yr. old have to sing about? Unless he's one of the more imbalanced 12 yr. olds, there won't be any songs concerning drugs, sex, booze, sketchy past experiences, and those years gone and passed.
No. What's weird is the little rap bridge performed by Ludacris where he reminisces about his first broken heart at 13. Really Ludacris? I mean, I'm not your biggest fan or anything, but you're a platinum artist who's been in Academy Award winning movies. By doing songs with fly by night Justin Beiber, you're just denigrating yourself.
Is this what celebrity is nowadays? Clinging to the teen pop flavor of the week in order to stay relevant? And what does it say about society that we'll forget you unless you do something with the teen pop flavor of the week? Why do i even know about the teen pop flavor of the week?! ...oh, right. my guilty pleasure is TMZ. ...and Jessie was hanging out on the beach with him.
but i'd know who he is anyway because of all the radio chatter i've heard and billboards i've seen!
maybe it's just me, but would it be so bad if we talked about more important things? something i need to know like the time and channel of the president's speeches or the death toll in Iraq. ya know, something a little more important than who's the next kid we'll be replacing (and forgetting) when he turns 18. Aaron Carter? anyone? anyone?

The Envelope Theory

Much like the the Grassy Knoll Theory, The Envelope Theory is deficient in logic and shrouded in mystery.

The Crime Scene (?):

The table in the lobby at the sister company next door.

Evidence:

1 FedEx Envelope set (thrown?) down to be picked up for delivery

1 Phone System gone wonky

The Theory:

Someone (or I) tossed the envelope on the table and, in the process, hit the button on the phone causing it to go into Night Mode*.

WAIT!!!

couldn't this just be the result of a technical glitch, like we origianally suspected?

NO! this theory was pulled fresh out of my ass! there's no way anything else could have happened! besides, it's not like the repair man has been called several times before!

*sigh*

ok, so basically, coworkers start coming into the front office wondering what's up with the phones. why are they getting emails about them not working?

my office mate and i look at the phone to see it is in Night Mode. Neither one of us set it to Night Mode, and we're the only ones with Night Mode buttons. so we call the phone company.

while we wait for a repair man, The Envelope Theory is revealed. and at first, i accept The Envelope Theory. and had it not been for the condescending manner in which The Envelope Theory was introduced, i probably would have set it out of my mind and moved on. but i had been rubbed the wrong way, thus inciting the need to put things right.

whilst doing my mind-numbingly dull work, my mind began churning out logic. if it happened when i put down an envelope yesterday, how had we recieved calls earlier in the morning? since then, how had the phone set itself to Break Mode? twice? were people now throwing envelopes at it for sport? unless they've moved tho phone, then i would have had to have tossed the envelope toward the left. i'm right handed, so that didn't happen. and finally, as my office mate pointed out, the trajectory is all wrong! the button is just high enough that for it to be hit by an envelope, the envelope would have to be tossed at a very peculiar angle.

the evidence just doesn't add up.

see?!!! Grassy Knoll all over again people!


*When in Night Mode, the phone doesn't ring and goes straight to voicemail.

fun for children

the creators of children's programming are perverted. i could pick from any of a thousand instances as evidence, but i'm going to use the one i just heard.

a table full of children were singing a song with some guy (or possibly lady) in a rabbit suit where they leave one word out each round. what they ended up with was "Little Peter ____ had a _____ upon his ____."

"well, that's all good and fine, Chelsea (and yes, rather disturbing)," you may be saying. "but what the fuck are you doing watching programming designed for 5 year olds?"

three words. my autistic brother. oops! i mean he's a person with autism. (yeah, i'm a really laid-back person who gets over things quickly. really.)