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December 27, 2005
My first shot at being a coder
In the last week, I came to the conclusion that I need a website for my proofreading business, and I needed it stat. I've never learned any type of coding or programming (except for a tweaking things in the blog a little bit, but nothing from scratch). I finally decided the time had come. At first I tried downloading Dreamweaver and experimenting with that, but it was too confusing. So, I'm teaching myself HTML/XHTML. I bought this book about a year ago, SAMS Teach Yourself HTML in 24 Hours. I just got through the first three one-hour lessons and I have a web page! It's pretty lame, it looks almost identical to a craigslist ad. In fact here's the comparison:
My 1st hour lesson:
My 2nd hour lesson:
My craigslist ad:
I know it's not much, but not bad for my first night.
Posted by meloknee at 10:01 PM | Comments (4)
December 21, 2005
The work Christmas party
Today was the second work Christmas Party. It was the potluck and Yankee/White Elephant gift exchange. I went into the gift exchange with a plan; my plan worked. The goal was to buy something that I 
would want and then win it in the exchange. A couple of days ago my brother gave me a book for Christmas from a new publisher, Hard Case Crime. They publish crime pocket books for cheap ($6-$8). I went and bought Kiss Her Goodbye, by Arthur Guthrie. The best part was because of the cover everyone thought it was a romance novel and so no one wanted it! I stole it from the first guy that picked and kept it in the end!!
On a side note, last night when I got home, around midnight, I saw a naked person. Aggie and I were walking up the stairs and trying to get the keys out when I looked up and through the doors; there was the backside of a naked person (I think a girl) walking up the stairway. I'm talking full on, buck naked! They were no where to be seen once I finally got inside...
Posted by meloknee at 01:39 PM | Comments (7)
December 20, 2005
more emmet
thanks for finding this andy...
Posted by meloknee at 04:17 PM | Comments (3)
PARK(ing)
This was really interesting to all the landscape architects and engineers that I work with. It's a fun idea and an informative look at an overcrowded city. Be sure and check out all the pictures on the right where they show people actually utilizing the space.
Posted by meloknee at 01:14 PM | Comments (1)
December 19, 2005
Boston
So, our trip to Boston was fun. We drank beers with politicians, ate lots of food, listened to the lounge singer in the hotel bar, watched people slip on ice, had lots of free wireless internet, bought some super sweet shoes, met crazy JFK conspiracy theorists, and hung out with good friends.
Oh, and if anyone knows a republican politician that looks like Kevin Nealon, let me know who it is.
Posted by meloknee at 12:14 PM | Comments (3)
December 13, 2005
Meloknee On:
OCD
Most people that know me, know that I "suffer" from a mild form of OCD. 
I say mild because I'm not like Monk or anything, I don't have to carry handi-wipes with me and although I'm clean I'm not too obsessive about it. Truth be told, carrying around handi-wipes sounds like a good idea, the reason I don't do it is because I know that once I started, I couldn't stop. So I guess I'm a very aware OCD person. I try to avoid things that I know will turn into obsessive behaviors.
Putting that blanket on my couch was a really bad idea...every 10 minutes I make alex stand up so that I can straighten it. 
Although there are some very annoying and frustrating things about my OCD, such as the fact that I have eczema because I wash my hands too much, which causes me to put lotion on every time I wash my hands, which means I have to carry lotion with me everywhere I go, or the fact that it takes me a good 10 minutes to leave the house every day because I have to make sure I've packed everything that I'll need for my one hour excursion to the coffee shop.
The problem is every time I get annoyed with being so obsessive something happens to reinforce it. Like the time alex and I were heading for San Fran and the whole time in the cab I was thinking to myself, "Don't ask him if he remembered his pills, don't ask him if he remembered his pills, don't ask him if he remembered his pills." Then I couldn't help myself and I blurted out, "You did remember your pills, right?" Sure enough he hadn't. We would have been totally screwed had we not had the pills. We would've spent a day schlepping around trying to call his doctor, finding a pharmacy, going to the pharmacy, or worse.
I am very obsessive about my phone & email too. I check my email an insane amount of times during the day. It sometimes starts to really sicken me, but I can't stop!! So, this morning I got up to use the bathroom at 6:00 a.m. and went to check my email. I like to check my email anytime I wake up after 5:00 a.m., even though I fully intend on sleeping another 2-3 hours. My theory is that so many potential clients live on the east coast and if they email me in the morning, I 
may not get it until noon their time if I wait until I actually wake up. By then they probably will have found someone else to do their work - people aren't very patient when they have deadlines.
So, this morning as I was reaching out to the mouse to wake up my sleeping computer, I thought to myself, "You are sick in the head. You have to stop obsessing about your email." I couldn't resist though, I did it, I hit refresh. Sure enough, there it was, someone from Florida looking for a proofreader!! They had sent the email just 15 minutes earlier. I replied and got a phone call 2 hours later...I scored myself a new client; all thanks to my OCD.
Posted by meloknee at 09:12 AM | Comments (8)
December 12, 2005
Emmet Otter
This weekend I had my annual day of forcing my friends and family to watch Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas. I thought it was wonderful. I love singing along to all the horrible songs about holes in washtubs, fat aunt's bikinis, bothers, and pies.
I can't believe I have never heard a remake of the River Bottom Nightmare Band song. If anyone you know is in a band, they should definitely cover this song. The best line ever is, "We don't like to learn but we hate what we can't understand." It's awesome.
Too bad you couldn't have been there Trish, I thought of you when Emmet went down the slide and kicked mama ;)
Posted by meloknee at 02:45 PM | Comments (10)
December 07, 2005
Break-ups continued
On the subject of friend break-ups:
One may assume that due to me asking, "how do you break-up with a friend?" That I have never been dumped by a friend. Oh contraire. I have been dumped numerous times. It's a painful and bitter subject. I have not, however, been dumped in a decent way by any means.
In a couple of Liz's dumpings, she was given what seemed like clear-cut reasons, or reasons none-the-less. I can only think of one time when I was dumped that a reason was actually given and it was such a cruel lie by the evil friend, that my heart flutters and I get ill in the stomach just thinking about it.
Most of the time, my friends just stopped talking to me, or I would find out that they were saying really horrible things behind my back. However, I think the saddest of stories of lost friends are these:
The first was a close friend of mine that was raped when we were 16. I was on my way to her house to pick her sister up to go out with me. I had my friend in the car with me. When we got to her house, her sister answered the door. Obviously something horrible had happened. We were the first ones to find out what had happened. She had literally walked in the door just moments earlier, crying and telling her sister what had happened. It was devastating. I was the one that sat there and told her she had to call the police, I wouldn't let her shower, I made her call her parents (she was embarrassed to tell them). We stayed until the mom and dad got there and the police and then I took her sister out. She badly needed to get out of the house and have a chance to NOT think about things.
The weeks after this, this friend just quit talking to me. She didn't want to hang out with me, return my calls or anything.
I had a similar thing happen with my other friend. Her dad had a heart attack completely unexpected. He was in great shape, had always been healthy. He was actually at the gym working out when the heart attack happened. He didn't recover and was put on life support at the hospital. I was there the day they pulled the plug. I was there every day as long as my friend needed me. I almost failed my first semester of college because I spent so much time at the hospital. As soon as her father passed away she slowly quit speaking to me. She found a new set of friends almost over night.
I don't blame either of these friends for dumping me. I imagine that just seeing me reminds them of the most painful days of their lives. It doesn't stop me from hurting though, and missing them, and wishing things could've been different for all of us.
In fact, I did a very similar thing when I got divorced. I wanted new friends or I wanted my current friends to be only my friends and not the Ex's. So, yes, I understand. There are many reasons to end friendships, some are cruel, some are necessary and some are completely subconscious decisions.
These are some of the less painful ways I've been dumped by friends. Wow, this sure is depressing.
On a more positive note, I am thrilled to have reconnected with my friend Erica. I'm glad we grew apart when we did because we both had a lot of things to figure out about ourselves, but I'm even more glad that she saw my ad on craigslist searching for her. I can't believe it worked. Every single day I am thankful that she is back in my life. I am also thankful that she was out of my life for the entire time that I was married because she doesn't know the Ex at all so it's like getting a new friend that remembers all the wonderful things about me from the old days.
So, um yeah, off to the therapist for me now...
Posted by meloknee at 04:03 PM | Comments (5)
December 03, 2005
Christmas Tree shopping
I never realized it would be so hard to find a place to buy a Christmas tree in the city. I hadn't thought about it before because normally I just set up my antique silver aluminum Christmas tree and color wheel. This year I had a desire for a real tree, I needed the smell.
We searched online, looked for signs, asked around and didn't know where to get a tree without finding someone with a car to drive us. Finally we searched craigslist and found an ad looking for volunteers to work at a Christmas tree lot on Capitol Hill.
So, if you are looking for where to buy a Christmas tree in Seattle, or more specifically, where to buy a christmas tree on Capitol Hill, the dunshee house is the place to go.
Posted by meloknee at 07:58 PM | Comments (10)
December 02, 2005
Break-ups & Divorces
Today is the one year anniversary of my D-Day. Hard to believe that only one year ago I was headed to court with the ex to finalize the transaction. That's all it felt like too, just the formal paperwork. In my mind, it had been over since the week after we split up and I went to Boston with my friend Collin taking his place. That week was the end of it for me and that had been 7 months prior. I was lucky to have such a good group of people supporting me that day. I went out afterwards and had a fabulous divorce party with presents and all.
All of this, along with with recent posts of fade-outs and break-ups, I've been thinking about the difference in friendships and relationships. Why do people seem to stay friends for so long. Do you not grow apart from your friends? Do your friends not screw you over, stand you up, not return your calls, cheat on you with new and better friends? Yet, we always seem to take them back. Or we treat them badly and expect them not to dump us. Why aren't there more friendship break-ups?
When we were kids (especially little girls) we always dumped our friends. The constant fights, jealousy, and name-calling. When did the transfer happen to where we stopped dumping our friends and started dumping our boyfriends?
Why is it so wrong to dump a friend? What if I just don't like you anymore?
Then I start to think that this is probably why I don't have that many close friends; because I see nothing wrong with the friendship break-up. So tell me, have you really met friends that you don't get
annoyed with, mad at, hurt by, or do you just look past these things and realize the good outweigh the bad? What's the best way to break-up with a friend? Do you have to follow the same rules as breaking-up with a boyfriend/girlfriend?
What about online friends? Are you going to be mad at me if I remove the link to your site? Will you in turn remove mine? Or maybe this just goes back to me and my not maturing past age eight. Either I'm first at hopscotch or I'm not speaking to you :P
Posted by meloknee at 09:17 AM | Comments (8)
December 01, 2005
Sometimes I think I stopped Maturing at age 8
Or at least a part of me did. I get excited about things like a little kid. I can't sleep for a week before I go on vacation. I would give anything to go to Disneyland once a year. I love, I mean LOVE, Christmas. I even love the commercialization of it. I love the presents, the TV shows (yes, I watched Rudolph last night, how depressing is that story anyway!); I listen to the music, set up a tree, and decorate my 400 sf apartment. I love thounder and lightning storms, snow, hail, and wind storms.
Today, it is snowing in Seattle. I can't concentrate. My neck is getting sore because I keep turning around to look out the window. I want to run outside and play with my dog. A few days ago when they said it would snow, I woke up every couple of hours to look outside to see if it had started yet (it never started, in fact when I looked outside, it was clear and starry). I think my love for the snow is even greater because growing up in Fresno (you know), it only snowed like 5 times in my whole life.
So yes, I'm like a little kid. I can't sit still in my seat. I got to eat the first chocolate out of my advent calendar today, yay!! My friend Maria brought it back all the way from Germany.
Posted by meloknee at 12:08 PM | Comments (5)