web-goddess

Great article about REM in preparation for their new album launch. I especially liked the bit about how Peter Buck has become obsessed with gifting iPods to everyone involved with the record. Apparently he fills them with thousands of songs and albums specially tailored to the receiver. How cool is that? Like Max with his mix CDs, only times ten. (Link courtesy of The Cult of Mac Blog.)

Money and computers.
I was reminded today of this recent Ask MetaFilter discussion about the maximum amount of money you feel comfortable spending without discussing it with your partner. At the time I read it, I remember thinking that most of the couples sounded really strict and uptight. The Snook and I have never really had money-management issues between us. We have separate bank accounts along with a joint business account, but I don’t think of the money as belonging to either one of us specifically. Last year I was the regular breadwinner so the rent came out of my account, and now that he’s the sugar daddy he’s paying it. When we go to the grocery store, whoever has their wallet handy pays. Bills get paid online out of whatever account works best. It works out for us. I’ve asked him on several occasions if he’s comfortable with our system and he claims he’s totally happy with it. So maybe it’ll come back to bite us in the ass someday, but for now I can’t imagine doing it any other way.

But getting back to the real issue, the reason I was reminded of the discussion is that I got an SMS from the Snook today at work that said, “So I got us some of that sweet sweet storage and also $1300 worth of upgrades for my PC. Any time you want to order that G5…” And you know what? I didn’t bat an eye. The storage is for our home-made TiVo, so he knew I’d be cool with that. And I know he hasn’t upgraded his computer in ages so that’s fine by me too. Of course, I did take advantage of his pseudo-guilt long enough to order myself one of these babies (17″ Superdrive with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, AppleCare, and iSight). Woohoo! Only “three to four” weeks to wait now. I’m so excited. My computer is going to be so tomorrow. Anybody want to buy a broken-down iBook? 🙂

Mmm. Dr. Atkins’s Maple Chicken Strips are officially delish!

Ooh, Ebert’s finally launching his own site! It’ll be finished later this month and apparently I’ll finally be able to read every review the man’s ever written. Kick. Ass.

Trilobite cookies. How cool is that? Cookies that look like fossils!

The most hated men in rock discussion is pretty fun. Now how ’bout the ladies? I nominate Fiona Apple right off the bat…

I feel a niggling sense of guilt over my lack of posting these days. It’s just so hard when I’m not sitting in front of a computer all day long. As much as it pains me to say it… The Internet is not a priority anymore. *gasp* I know, I know. Actually, I have a whole list of things that are more important right now:

• Finishing my sister’s wedding gift. (Seriously, you guys. It’ll never be done in time.)
• Dealing with drama at work.
• Playing with the cat.
• Not going to the gym.
• Watching Neighbours and The O.C.
• Planning our trip to the States in November.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about you. I plan to return to my posting days of yore soon, I promise.

Uh-oh Brigita… Somebody’s calling out your boyfriend Sting as the most hated man in rock. Them’s fightin’ words! (For the record, I think Fred Durst should be a lot higher on that list.)

Who’s a damn pincushion? I am. I got stuck with needles three times today! First I had to go to a “haematology” specialist in yet another (probably) vain attempt to find out what’s behind my raised ferritin levels. The real danger is hemachromatosis, but the doctor thinks it’s unlikely I have it since I don’t have a corresponding raised saturation of iron. He wanted to rule it out though, so he scheduled a bunch of tests. They had to take seven vials of blood! I had to get a bunch filled from one arm, then come back fifteen minutes later to do the other! (And that butcher of a nurse took, like, four tries to hit veins on both arms.) Then in the afternoon I headed off for my first round of allergy desensitisation therapy. The doctor injected me (on the back of the arm this time) with a tiny amount of the stuff I’m allergic to. Then I had to sit in the waiting room for half an hour to make sure I didn’t go into anaphylactic shock. Fun. As I SMSed to the Snook afterwards, “He didn’t have to inject steroids into my heart, so I guess that was a success.” Now I just have to do that, oh, every week for the next three years. Would’ve been cheaper to just buy stock in Zyrtec, I guess.

I’m absolutely ecstatic to report that at long last, we have partial TiVo-isation of our household. The Snook has managed to get MythTV up and running with a downloaded Australian program guide. We don’t have enough processing power at the moment to play and record at the same time but the mere scheduling of recordings is enough to satisfy me for the present. Within five minutes we had it set up to record every episode of The O.C., Dead Ringers, and Iron Chef. The first actual program we recorded? This one. (It wasn’t porn! It was a fascinating medical documentary, I swear!)