Ramblings of a Long Island Girl.

And awaaaay we go!

2009-02-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

In honor of the month of February, Ramblings of a Long Island Girl is moving to a brand new website, which can be found at www.collwrites.com.

Again, thank you Alice for all of your help. And thank you Jay for bugging me for the last month to actually do it.

"The key to success is often the ability to adapt."

2009-01-31T11:18:00.009-05:00

Brace yourselves. This is the last post you'll see on this blog. I'm going corporate. Well sort of. Within the next day or so, I'll be pimping out a brand new website version of Ramblings of a Long Island Girl. Yay!

Much, much, much, much, much, much thanks to the fabulous Alice (aka Aliceness on Twitter) for helping me set it all up and not killing me when I had 29 million questions about what the hell she was talking about (I'm not stupid, but I swear I can't grasp the concept of hosting still...)

But anyways, stay tuned within the next few days while stuff gets figured out. And then stay tuned within the next few weeks because I've got some other new stuff I'm working on too. Lots of change: new state to live in, new personal website, have to find a new job, who knows what else is in store? haha, the possibilities are endless but hopefully all good things.

Oh P.S. Jay & I watched The X-Files: I Want to Believe last night. I've heard lots of people just trash talk it or give generally negative reviews on it & I have to weigh in. I agree with Jana's opinion: it would have been way better as a TV movie rather than a motion picture. The supernatural element was weak & the plot wasn't strong enough to carry a movie. I loved having all the characters back (Yaaaaaay Skinner!), but it reminded me of a stronger episode of Fringe & a weaker (not weakest) episode of The X-Files. Also, isn't pedophile priests soooo 2006?

I'm off to do errands & see Michael Ian Black with my Pookie in NYC tonight. I'll leave you with Strider to say peace out to this blog:

“Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.” -Swami Sivananda

Blogging Like Bored People Blog

2009-01-28T18:00:00.002-05:00

Okay so we're having dismal snowy/rainy weather on Long Island today. My first-half of the day counterpart didn't come in today and the weather was all snow this morning, so there were a decent amount of cancellations. Basically, I've got not a lot to do & I'm bored so I'm doing what bored people do: blogging. I used to like having time to kill at work but the last 6 months has put me out of practice haha. So let's see what I can entertain myself by yakking about.

New Lost tonight. I may or may not have seen it already. Go ahead, hate on me. I wouldn't go back & unwatch it for anything. I've had to stop discussing the show with my fellow geeks since I'm afraid of giving something away because there were (IMO) a lot of puzzle pieces that start to fit together more and I don't want to disprove something someone says by going, "Well, that can't be because..." And if you think that Jay & I talk about Lost because of the podcast, guess again. 85% of the time, we only talk about it if we're surrounded by friends who bring it up.
Moving date approaches. I'm nervous but I've got a lot of fun things going on the next 2 weekends. I'm going to see Michael Ian Black do stand-up comedy in NYC with Pookie this Saturday night, January 31. She asked me if I wanted to go see it at 8pm or 10:30pm & my first thought was, "Why on EARTH would we go at 10:30pm? That's so late." Which then prompts me to think, "25? Fuck, I'm old."
The following weekend is my "last weekend" in NY. The weekend of my 25th birthday. Annie is throwing together a Birthday/Going-Away Soiree with the BTR crew on Fri, Feb. 6. It's going to be good times. Well, duh. Cause with Annie's cupcakes, how could it not be good times? Also, I'm having a gathering in Herald's Square on Feb. 7. I don't care if the bar is a controversial choice. It's close to Penn Station, where I'm probably coming from & it's still cold in NYC. Therefore, that's where I'm having it. It's for Ian-face's birthday too (naturally). Good times will ensue as well.
Fun Fact: My & Ian-face's 25th birthday coincides with the 2nd anniversary of Anna Nicole Smith's death.
I'd really like to go to New York Comic Con again this year (Feb. 6-8), but the only day that I could make it is Saturday. This isn't a problem except that the freaking cast of my new favorite show Chuck is going to be there on Sunday! Also, the casts of Fringe & Joss Whedon's new show are going to be there Sunday as well. Yeah, I'm a geek. Stupid birthday.
If you haven't already heard already, Scarlett Johansson is doing a cover of my boy Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye." I'm going to defer all discussion on this to Amanda.
And finally, I'm thinking about making this blog into an actual website or at least updating the format/template a little bit. But more about that another time, I suppose.

Okay, I think I've successfully killed a little bit of time. I've actually written this blog twice because it didn't save the first time when I went to publish it and then it was gone. I was way wittier the first time, but oh well. At least it's 6pm now. May 7pm come fast & may 9pm come even faster. That's what she said.

Doesn't She Mean Fist Bumping?

2009-01-22T16:10:00.001-05:00

This is priceless:

How does she even know that about Barack and Michelle anyway? Journalists nowadays will stop at nothing to get a good story, I guess! (Note to self...)

Is Faraday's Mom the Ring Lady?!

2009-01-21T23:38:00.001-05:00

Dear Lost,

Thank you for still being awesome.

Love,

Colleen

Colleen Vs. the Tuna Can, Round 2

2009-01-19T22:34:00.000-05:00

Who will win THIS time?

The Taconic Tales or "Things That Could Only Happen to Me"

2009-01-18T23:30:00.001-05:00

Alright, so this one is for you, Grandpa, the one who just laughed at me at 2:45am after I barged into your house & woke you up with tales of things that could only happen to me and who just shrugged and said, "Write it down."

So last night (Saturday), I had to travel up to Poughkeepsie for Sara & TJ's engagement meet-up at Mahoney's. I left in a good mood after an enjoyable recording of MetroBuzz. Although I was weary of making the trip up and back within the same night (I'm dog sitting again for my aunt), I was still really excited. So there I am, on the Taconic Parkway still near the Bronx/Westchester border, but on the Westchester side. Suddenly, I'm half-blind. My contact is no longer in my eye! I have really bad eye sight. Like, I'm a barely contact prescription away from legally blind. So this is not good. I find a spot to pull over. There's no shoulder on that part of the Taconic, so I pull over in the triangle shaped area between the parkway & an exit ramp. I've found my contact on my scarf, but it must have fallen out because my eyes were dry because it was rolled up and I couldn't unroll with. I tried, but it would have ripped.

I was too far along my way to turn around but not close enough to Poughkeepsie to justify driving further. I would have had to drive with one eye closed the rest of the way in the dark and then the 2.5 hours home much, much later that night. I ended up pouring water from a re-filled water bottle onto it to try to moisturize it so I could try to put it in my eye. I got it to resume regular contact lense shape, but my elbow hit my water bottle (I was too blind & anxious to get my contact into my eye that I had not put the cap back on it) and naturally, it spills directly on my iPod. Fabulous! It wasn't working on the way there, but it must have dried out while I was at the bar because thankfully, it was working again (knock on wood) for my drive home.

Sara & TJ's party was awesome. I had a kick ass time. So I was in a great mood again at 12:45am when I left to embark on my 2.5 hour drive back to my aunt's house, where I am dog sitting again this weekend. Well, my cell phone was dying. It was dying when I got to the party, but I had taken it into the bathroom with me and charged it for a few minutes here and there while I was at the party, just to buy me a little time on the way home with a working phone. I also needed gas, but was hoping that I'd have enough to make it to Queens or Long Island before having to stop. About 30 minutes into my drive, the gas light goes on (damn driving to Riverhead for work with all the stop & go traffic every day). The stretch of the Taconic I was on was unfortunately where the exits led to other highways or across the Hudson River or into Connecticut or whatever.

10 miles pass since the light goes on, it's almost 1:30am & I turn my phone on to call my dad to see if he knows anything in the area. He doesn't. I get off at the next exit, but there's nothing. Like, nothing. I keep driving & see a guy at a stop light. I flash my brights at him several times & wave my arms out the window. He directs me to "Go straight, bear left when you get to a stop sign & you'll run into a Mobile station." I head off in the direction he says, call my dad back and go, "I have no idea where I am or where this gas station is, but if you don't hear from me again soon, it's because my phone is dead & I may run out of gas so you may have to call the auto club or something. I'm by a Children's Hospital called---" Yup - that's when my phone died for good.

I found the gas station & started on my way back. Found the parkway really quickly but I'm still really friggin exhausted at this point because, well, it's late. Naturally, I'm not paying attention quickly enough and I end up going NORTH towards Albany instead of south towards New York City. The exits aren't close between (I love how Rt. 95 once you get into Delaware has it's exits corresponding with miles), so I drive a few more minutes to the Pleasantville exit and turn around to go south. Can we all guess what happens next? If you answered, "You missed the correct exit ramp & ended up accidentially traveling on the service road next to the parkway which then started to lead away from the parkway but were luckily blindly following a State Trooper who turns out was heading towards a different parkway that connected with the parkway you needed" then you guessed correctly!

So now I'm finally back on the Taconic Parkway going south. No cell phone & a half hour behind schedule. It's around 2am at this point and I'm still about 2 hours from home. My parents have no idea what's happening to me & I'm exhausted. I sped back to the Throgs Neck Bridge as quickly as I would dare to (with my luck or my level of tired, I wasn't going to push it). I made a beeline for my grandparents' house to try to use their telephone to call my parents & Jay to tell them I was okay. I should note that I was somewhat afraid that my uncle would wake up to the sound of someone coming into the house at 2:45am & come downstairs with his gun drawn on me (he's a cop). But I figured I'd take my chances and I had to pee anyway so whatever.

So that's basically where this story ends. My grandpa woke up while I was on the phone with my parents. I explained to him everything that had happened to me the entire night whining, "Why does this stuff always happen to ME? Who has a problem on the way there AND the way back?!" He just laughed at me and shook his head and said, "Write it all down." And that's what I did! My grandpa is so cool. I ended up getting back around 3:50am. I went to bed somewhere around 4:30 by the time I let the dog out and got changed and woke Jay & my parents up to tell them I finally made it home. A lovely little story about there and back again.

A Little Birdie Loves Me

2009-01-17T14:34:00.000-05:00

Yeah, this may not be the greatest shot in the world. And yeah, it's far away. But YEAH it's real! A little birdie sent me this picture during the Golden Globes last week from backstage in the press area:

Gawd, I <3 Tina Fey. I want to shake her hand and give her a hug one day.

Baby's First iMovie

2009-01-15T09:25:00.003-05:00

So I've been teaching myself more cool things that my Macbook can do and moved into iMovie, which completely and totally confused me haha. However, thanks to some screen sharing sessions with JJ, I've learned enough to at least imitate what he what showing me (That's what she said) and decided to take this little video we shot one day when he drove me to work while he was in New York over Christmas and make it into a 34-second feature film just for you!

I think I shall title it, "I Need to Go 70 in a 50, Motherf*cker". Enjoy, it deserves a full 5 stars!

Next stop, Hollywood, right?!

Oh this is the start of something good, don't you agree?

2009-01-13T22:56:00.001-05:00

Okay, so the gorgeous Allison has requested I make a new blog post so that she doesn't have to see my bloody finger anymore and I kinda think she's right! So lucky for Ali and the rest of you tired of looking at my mangled claw, I've got an announcement:

I'm moving to Raleigh in the middle of February!

My last day of work is February 4 (a Wednesday) and my birthday is Sunday, February 8. I also found out as I got home tonight that Brian & Bobby got tickets to see "The Daily Show" on February 9, so I am going to go with them and then drive down to Raleigh that week and try to find a job, etc. I'll couch hop with Jay and Sara & TJ and who knows maybe Clif'll let me crash for a night. At least the slumber party will distract me from the absolute terror I have about finding a job haha. I told my bosses at work and although I was scared to do it, I was really more just sad in general. It's a nice place to work and they're really good bosses and I like the people I work with so it's kinda like I'd be losing more friends.

But anyway.

I'm really excited and really scared. I'm excited because I think that it'll be a great new chapter of my life but I'm scared about finding a new job. I accepted back in 2007 when I decided that if it came to it, I'd be the one to move that it would mostly mean giving up 90% chances of ever having a job in the fields that I have my degree in (Communications with focuses in Journalism & PR as well as a minor in English & Theatre). I worry too much and I think too much. And nothing is or will EVER be as beautiful as New York City and that's a fact. BUT I like Raleigh and even though it's clear that I will really want to end up back in NY someday, I cannot wait to start a new life there.

I'm just going to miss my friends. I'll miss Cassidy (bitch moved back from North Carolina as I was moving there), Tricia, Julia, Amanda, Amanda, Ali, Ian, Brian, Claudio, Randy, Anthony, Joe & Steph, Eddie, Bobby, and everyone around here that I know I'm not mentioning (forgive me). I'll miss the BTR crew, Annie & Jeff & Max & Maia and all of our mid-day margaritas. I'll miss Yankee games with Angri & Sabella & Storey. I'll miss my dog Strider. But most importantly I'll miss my family: my parents, sisters, grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin. Just as way excited as I am to move, I'm just as sad that I won't get to see them whenever I want to anymore. I know that this post sounds somewhat shaky but I made this decision with both my heart and my head and I'm certain that it's the right one.

It's gonna be a big adjustment and I'm really gonna need a lot of support from all sorts of places.

Oh, and I'm gonna need a job if anyone's hiring...

Colleen Vs. the Tuna Can

2009-01-08T09:57:00.006-05:00

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT SCROLL DOWN SLOWLY IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE SIGHT (OR PICTURES) OF BLOOD, OPEN WOUNDS, OR STITCHES! Skip way ahead.

Okay, so I got an early start in 2009 with all the action. Sunday, January 4 started off as a normal day. Woke a sick Jay up at 7:30am after having gone to bed at 2:30am (Chargers game at a sports bar for Bobby's birthday then the last 2 episodes of Season 1 of Chuck did us in). Realized at like 9:30am that we didn't have to get up at 7:30am because I miscalculated what time we had to leave for the airport. Oops. We could have had a full extra hour to sleep. We were dog sitting for the weekend at my aunt's house, so we headed to my parents house for the worst bagels I've ever eaten, both in and out of NY combined.

Side note: On the drive over there, I learned that I bought the wrong version of The Sims for my Macbook. I wanted the one that went with the Livin' Large expansion pack - which I had just bought as well - but I bought The Sims 2. I don't know, I thought that The Sims 2 was the one that went with everything. I'm an idiot.

Anyway, after the crap bagels, I drove Jay to MacArthur Airport in Islip and sent him on his way. Went back to my aunt's house to clean up and basically wash everything that Jay had coughed on before going back home. My aunt also go very sick on her trip, so my grandparents were stopping by her house to leave food, etc for her. They head out the door at 2:15pm. I was waiting for the sheets to come out of the dryer and then I was going to go home. My mom wanted me back home between 3-3:30pm because as Italians, we eat dinner at like 3:30pm on Sundays.

So it's 2:15pm and Grandma & Grandpa say goodbye. I decide I don't to wait to eat dinner because I am hungry NOW. I get one of those single servings of tuna fish cans, that you peel it back to open and put it on crackers and eat. That'll hold me over. Yeah. I'm sitting on the couch, watching Supernatural on my laptop & Skype chatting with Jay, who is at the Baltimore Airport for his layover. Please note that Jay's new Blackberry had some sort of software issue that day and was not working at all. I go to peel back the tuna can and instead of peeling up evenly, it rolls up together (as in instead of an even horizontal motion, it rolls up vertically) and completely into my middle finger on my right hand. I looked down and saw immediately that it was not going to be okay. I ran to the front door and was SO lucky that my grandparents hadn't left yet. They were fixing something outside the house but had already started the car. My finger is a gushing blood like a fountain & I've got the plastic carton the can & crackers came in under it to catch the blood. By the time my grandpa got to the door 30 seconds later, there was A LOT of blood in there. I just called out from the door across the lawn, "Umm I cut my finger and it's bad."

My grandpa can't hear me and goes, "Huh?!" So I do the only thing I could do and hold it up, blood streaming and all. We go wash it out and it's evident that the bleeding is NOT going to stop and that it's really freaking deep. My grandparents place calls to my parents to tell them that someone has to come over to take me to the ER for stitches. Now at this point, I had left a very sick Jay on the computer for a good 5 minutes, probably wondering what's going on. So my grandpa types him the funniest message: "this is lou. colleen has to go to er. bye."

Yeah, I could only imagine what I'd do if I had gotten that message and had no clue what had happened and had no phone at all. So after we get my finger wrapped up, I called thru Skype to fill him in. My mom arrived and we went to the ER.

That's basically it. We were there for about 3 hours and some guy kept puking in the room across the hall from me so it smelled terrible. I didn't really cry at all BUT I did lose my cool when the doctor was pulling it apart and touching it to see if I had cut a tendon or not. And I started to shake from nerves and sweat when he put the anesthesia all around it because I could feel it going through my veins and it's just such an unnatural feeling in general. Something cold running through your veins and all. It took a good 3 or 4 minutes before it was numb. My dad had come down when he heard what was happening and he stayed in there with me because my mom's not so good with blood at all. It felt silly having both your parents with you in the ER to get stitches in your finger at 24 years old, but neither wanted to leave and I felt loved. I ended up watching him do the stitches.

Okay, so here's the gross part. I have pictures from my camera phone that I took while we were in the ER and then pictures of what it looks like now, 4 days later. I just took the badages off for the first time to change them right before I took them. I went big, huh? Gotta go big or go home. Thank goodness that I only cut my finger!

All stitched up:

Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully this is the only time I'll have to post open wounds on here ever again (knock on wood).

Adios 2008

2008-12-31T17:03:00.000-05:00

What's to say about the end of 2008? It was a year that started out sorta crappy (He Who Shall Not Be Named & [edited so that no one comes after me legally, physically or otherwise] then turned liberating (~~Dobby~~ Colleen is freeeeee!) then was fun (roadtrips to North Carolina) then depressing (not having a job for more than 2 weeks made me bored out of my mind) then fun (yay finding a job again) then depressing (moving out of Astoria & back to Long Island meh) then super fun (the cruise & the rest of my AWESOME summer, including but not limited to the James Taylor concert, 4th of July, the wedding on July 5th, my parents' surprise 25th anniversary party, working from home as gas prices were out of control, Comic Con, randomly flying to Raleigh just to see "The Dark Knight" in IMAX, etc.) then stabled out (starting a new job in August & settling into the day-to-day life with trips to Raleigh every 2-3 weeks).

It certainly was just as action packed and roller-coaster a year as 2006 & 2007 were. Geez, I can't remember a stable year since before I graduated college. But I've had some amazing things happen the past two years, so I can't complain (much).

So what does 2009 hold for me? Endings and new beginnings. Things that I've been doing for years just aren't fun for me anymore and it's (heartbreakingly) time to move on. Stuff I thought I wanted to do (career-wise, as one example), I don't know if it's for me anymore. Everything new that I've got planned (more details to come!) is exciting and friggin' terrifying at the same time.

Since we're leaving for our annual New Years' Eve family dinner in approximately 4 minutes and I have yet to brush my teeth, here's my summary for what I have learned from 2008:

There will always be tough times & things to worry or freak out about - and with my personality, I'll probably magnify each time about 29,000 times worse than need be - but there will always be those great times that are staples. Like big family parties and upcoming weddings (I'm going to be a bridesmaid in Sara & TJ's wedding on September 5!!!) and Comic Con and beach trips and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years. And the fact that I finally got Jay to start reading "Harry Potter" last night. And those are nice things to always have, no matter how shitty things may seem. Life is livable.

Merry Christmas 2008 From Colleen, Jay, & the Fam

2008-12-25T19:13:00.004-05:00

After a bit of a delay and then some lost luggage (it got delivered finally, not even 5 minutes ago), Jay finally arrived here for Christmas! We've been doing a lot of eating, drinking, and being merry. I was showing my family what my Macbook can do and we decided to do some "Merry Christmas" messages. So without further adieu, here are some holiday wishes from us:

P.S. Sorry about the bad lighting!

Have a Keifer Sutherland Christmas

2008-12-24T18:08:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!!

For your holiday cheer, here's one of (in my opinion) the reasons why YouTube is so awesome. This clip NEVER gets old.

My First California Christmas Experience

2008-12-23T02:01:00.000-05:00

California last weekend with Jay's family ROCKED. Seriously, I had such an awesome time. We flew in on Saturday morning, with our connecting Southwest flights meeting up in Vegas and then flying to Burbank (I had no delays getting in to Las Vegas but Jay did; we then had a bit of a delay leaving Vegas because of snow in Utah I think, but it was way better being delayed with someone!)

Anyways, here's some pictures from that weekend, with captions. There's also a video in here of Jay playing guitar off-the-cuff in the kitchen while no one was paying attention. I noticed he was and grabbed my camera to pretend to take a picture and recorded some of it before he realized what I was doing & we had to go eat or whatever it was. Enjoy some of our lame pictures from our very fun Christmas #1!

Video First:

Now the photo album:

We drink when we are delayed in airports, no matter what time of day it is.

The start of the (literally) 24-hour long game of Risk that Jay & his family played!

Taking a break to text/look at pictures. We're so technologically dependent.

Naturally, we had to take a picture of the game before we went to bed that night to make sure no one cheated over night! Jay is green.

My first time ever playing Wii bowling.

All tuckered out from my 10 minutes of Wii Bowling (plus it was like 9pm NY time...)

We played in Claire's Accessories during a quick mall-trip on Sunday, 12/14. Sylar - I mean Jay - wants glasses for some reason...

I found the pickle hidden in the Christmas tree & went to claim my prize! (Okay, maaaaaybe I had a tad bit of help from Aunt Mary & Uncle Brett...)

All set for take-off from Burbank to JFK and wearing my headband because it hurt my head when I tried to sleep :)

God, we LOVE JetBlue...

On the Day Before the Day Before Christmas Eve, Justin Timberlake & Andy Samberg Gave to Me...

2008-12-22T08:12:00.000-05:00

A holiday classic brought to you by my blog, YouTube.com, and Hulu.com

Step 1...

Angels We Have Heard on High

2008-12-20T23:36:00.002-05:00

Happy 25th Birthday...

...And 10th Christmas in Heaven

It's Delightful From Inside (TWSS!)

2008-12-19T16:02:00.004-05:00

It's snowing like crazy here in New York. My sister's boyfriend, Jeremiah #2, works right near where I used to work, only in a way cooler spot that directly overlooks Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District (I was 2 blocks north of the park on 28th/5th). He took this picture of all the snow in NYC and texted it to her, who sent it to me and somehow made its way onto the Internet! So thanks, #2 :)

Here's the view of the snow in NYC in Madison Square Park:

I really, really miss living in NYC.

Wait, When Did PostSecret Become So Greedy?

2008-12-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

I'm back from California and I've got a huge post to talk about it, but first, I'd really like to finish a thought/post I started more than a week ago. As you may know, I am a huge fan of PostSecret. I have two of the books and bought my boyfriend another one of them last year for Christmas because we both love looking at this genius website. I don't think that 25% of them are real, but I do believe that 100% of them relate to someone in some way. From time to time, I'll even repost one on here that I like & want to share (find the category "PostSecret"). Like she usually does with most of the things I've come to love (cough cough Fiona Apple cough cough), Cassidy sent me in the direction of this site probably a good 2 or 3 years ago. New "secrets" are posted each Sunday on the website linked to above. I actually sent in one myself earlier this year, but it was never put up. Perhaps I should keep trying.

But anyway, my love of the website has been thrown out there. And that's what makes me so disturbed about what I found when I visited the site bright and early on Sunday, December 7, 2008:

Seems innocent enough, right? Until I started thinking. Why would a website that's hosted by BLOGGER a FREE Google-owned blogging website that I host THIS very blog on need to start begging for donations? I absolutely love this website, but right now, I'm starting to feel like this is the blogging website equivalent to the Catholic Church's Bishop's Annual Appeal. To make matter's worse, every 5 postcards or so, these appeared:

Frank originally claimed to be wanting to donate money to the suicide prevention hotline "Hopeline," but why would he need to beg for money to keep a free website running? They don't even have archives on PostSecret; sometimes you'll get lucky and the previous week's "secrets" will be up, but most of the time, if you don't catch them within the first week, you're out of luck and have to wait until the $30 book is published. And as someone pointed out in an email he posted to the website, "I would prefer any cash donations be directed to the suicide prevention hotline; HopeLine (not PostSecret)."

I can't help but get the suspicious feeling that Mr. Warren is really only trying to pay for his book tours. We're in and have been in for the last 12 months a bonafide recession. These are tough economic times and someone who spends their week reading postcards with people's darkest secrets and deepest fears and insecurities on them should realize this, too. This almost seems silly to question, since the answer is 98% "DUH!", but is Post Secret really just a business opportunity for Frank Warren?

There is truly nothing wrong with asking for help, but trying to guilt someone with the excuse, "I am desperate to keep paid ads off this site..." is really shady. Do you get some sort of tax break if it comes from donations and not from paid advertisers?

I guess there really is no such thing as a completely unselfish act and Frank Warren & PostSecret are swept up in the money-making tide. But why am I complaining? I'm still gonna visit the site every Sunday and probably buy the books I don't have eventually.

I Was Just Doing My Job!

2008-12-13T06:14:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I've had a Dumb Colleen story. Last night, I had a fantastic time at my company's holiday party, btw. I don't think anyone had less than 3 glasses of whatever their drink of choice was. I told my parents about it when I got home and their response was, "Yeah. We can tell." Whatever THAT means.

Anyways, here's what I did today:

Early this afternoon at work, one of the doctors, handed me an envelope. Now, I'm used to him handing me envelopes and usually it means, "Can you please stamp this?" 9 out of 10 times, he'll ask me out loud because they are very respectful and nice to you there. So when he just said, "Here you go." I assumed that since it was a shorter day for everyone, he was just cleaning house and wanted me to mail something and that it was simply a case of him being one-track minded (as in 'it's Friday and we all have to be out of here early so we're in time for the Christmas party').

So I start to automatically put it into the postage machine without even bothering to look at it or basically even get up to do so. My co-worker Linda rushes over to me and goes, "DON'T DO THAT!" She grabs the envelope out of the machine. "That's your holiday bonus!!"

Oops. Well, in my defense, I was really expecting it so how was I supposed to know what I was handed? haha, I'm a dumbass. I tried to mail my bonus!

Okay, off to the airport. Jay & I are going to California til Monday. Yay! I wanted to do fun video blogs from the airport/plane (we have the same layover in Las Vegas), but I was told I have a problem lol. We shall see!

My Macbook Does Cool Things Part 2: The Sepia Diaries

2008-12-10T08:04:00.000-05:00

I promise to stop with the lame videos soon but SERIOUSLY I haven't even BEGUN to explore everything this computer can do! Yesterday morning, I found out that I could film using different effects and backgrounds yay. So last night, I decided to once again be a tool and film in sepia. I know all these settings are old news to most of my mac-whore friends, but I don't care, I'm having a ton of fun playing around with this myself (That's what she said). I promise the videos will stop soon and life can go back to normal.

So here's Colleen featuring Jay's voice presented in sepia! Golf claps.

Andy Samberg Creates Funny Videos

2008-12-08T23:10:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Mr. Skypeck aka Chris in Boston for Tweeting this video last night. It is hilarious. Trust me. Just watch it:

My Macbook Does Cool Things

2008-12-07T22:27:00.004-05:00

Sooooo I found out that not only do I have this awesomely clear quality internal webcam built into my brand new Macbook, but I can actually record things using this webcam and (naturally) post them to the Internet!

...Which is, duh, exactly what I attempted to do just now. Forgive my tired, dirty looking appearance - I actually did shower this morning, but my 2 hour nap mid-day kinda ruined that I guess. So for all you fanboys and girls out there (ahem Paul Rudd, I'm talking to you!) who have always wondered what I look like when I'm at my hottest, here's your chance. :P

Call Me Mac-Allister Now!

2008-12-05T19:39:00.000-05:00

This is why I'm so excited about my new, beautiful Macbook, which arrived on Wednesday. Observe my Dell, duct tape/ external webcam/speakers/mic and all next to my pretty new computer. Excuse the doofus who insisted on being a part of the pictures via Skype video.

Bigger is not better.

Observe the external speakers, the duct tape, the ghetto web cam & external headset set up.
P.S. That's my dog Strider in his Halloween costume as the background!

The next set of pictures exhibit the duct tape, just because it seems that people think I'm being melodramatic when I say my laptop was held together with duct tape:

Band-aid from Jay's dad, Jack.

Isn't she lovely? I think I should name my new Macbook. Any suggestions?

Bless your heart if you made it down this far. Now that the computer issue is taken care of, I have to go to Verizon early tomorrow to get my phone fixed. It stopped charging. I bought a new one and it still doesn't pick up that the charger is plugged in. Boooo. I hope I don't lose all of my pictures and favorite texts. That would be sad...

An Apple a Day

2008-11-30T23:51:00.006-05:00

November 30, 2008. 11:30pm.

I finally purchased a Macbook after almost a year of computer problems. I didn't get one of the new aluminum ones (way way cool but a little too expensive), but I got the white one and I'm really excited. I think it was one year ago this week that I was staying with Jay at his school for the week and he tried to start the Mac attack slowly by having me use his laptop while I was there, but I finally jumped on the Apple Bandwagon over the last two months that I have been using John's iBook. So...yay! No more external speakers and half-working external microphones and clumsy external webcam hookups and terrible sound quality when recording podcasts!

Holler.