Conspiracy-Girl.com

The Starbucks Chaise Lounge

2011-04-07T15:07:00.000-04:00

Today's Booking Through Thursday made me think of the chaise lounge chair in my favorite local Starbucks. I fell in love the moment I curled up with a latte and a book. I must have sat there for hours and wanted to take it home with me.

This got my wondering if you could buy similar furniture from the company that supplies Starbucks. My internet searches didn't turn up much. I guess they like to keep their sources secret, going as far as removing the tags... in most stores...

This particular chair came from Quality & Company in Concord, Ontario, Canada. I'm sure they won't sell this to the general public and, even if they did, I have no idea how much it would cost. It looks like they supply hotels and restaurants. If anyone knows how I can get my hands on something similar in quality and size, leave a comment!

Booking Through Thursday - Visual

2011-04-07T13:56:00.001-04:00

Question: So … the books that you own (however many there may be) … do you display them proudly right there in plain sight for all the world to see? (At least the world that comes into your living room.)
Or do you keep them tucked away in your office or bedroom or library or closet or someplace less “public?”

Answer: Many of our books are on large shelves in the living room. I wouldn't say I've got them on display for all to see, though. For me, it's really a matter of space. Nearly every room in the house has at least one bookshelf. I've long dreamed of having one large library surrounded by shelves stretching all the way up to the ceiling. There would be a wood burning fireplace, an antique desk and a chaise lounge chair for curling up with a good book.

tinfoil hat fashion

2011-02-21T10:52:00.002-05:00

I am looking for the latest fashions in tinfoil hat wear, the current one i am wearing is an old style "tri-fold", but i am looking for something in more of a "I live in my parent's basement" style. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to put them in the comments below.

"The Gun" by C.J. Chivers

2011-02-21T10:27:00.003-05:00

I am currently listening to the audio book "The Gun" by C.J. Chivers, its an interesting tale on the evolution of the AK47 through machine gun development from the Gatling gun on up. While not a complete account it provides an interesting flow to the A47's development. The book also discusses AK47's superiority in many respects to the M16 due to its simplicity and reliability. It's a bit wordy and rehashes items a few times but, if you're interested in firearms i would recommend this book..

Del.icio.us Bookmarks Gone!

2011-02-21T00:23:00.000-05:00

All I did was log into del.icio.us (or, now, delicious.com) and suddenly none of my bookmarks are showing up in my widget! I might have to scrap everything and start over!

Frustration!

2011-02-20T23:42:00.000-05:00

I've been writing more in lately so I thought "why not revamp this old blog for the fun of it?" So far, it's been anything but fun. I can't get any of the monetization stuff to work *with* Blogger correctly. Everything I'd done in the past was added manually. I already have Google Adsense and Amazon Associate accounts. It looks like there are ways to add them to my Blogger account but none of them work. When I add an "Adsense Widget" nothing appears. I'm very confused. If anyone per chance is reading this and knows how to get all the services to play nice... please let me know!

Success!

2010-11-21T20:19:00.001-05:00

It works! Also I'm loving the ability to multitask that comes with iOS 4.0. I can listen to Pandora or NPR while blogging from the palm of my hand. <3

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Test post

2010-11-21T19:25:00.001-05:00

I'm curious if this actually works. If it does, I see myself blogging a lot more in the future. :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

2009-05-28T21:47:00.001-04:00

Testing my blogging capabilities from my brand new Blackberry Curve. I love the phone but I miss the enV's keyboard. #

2009-03-14T20:01:00.001-04:00

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2009-03-14T20:00:00.000-04:00

2009-03-14T19:59:00.001-04:00

I popped my woot.com cherry!

2009-03-10T15:26:00.007-04:00

After many months of keeping an eye woot! I finally gave in and made my first purchase: The XPal Harry II XP2000 Portable Li-Po Battery Pack! Actually, since it was Valentines Day, I bought one for Da Hubby, too. At $16 a unit, we got a pretty good deal. These little guys retail for about $40. After having had it for only a few weeks, I can say I am very pleased with the purchase. It's already saved me from a dead cell twice, dead ipod once and it's tiny so it's super packable.

Of course this means that the flood gates have been opened and I'm constantly checking the site for the latest deal. Heaven help me during a woot-off! I think my F5 key got quite a workout during the last one. Since I don't have a lot of money these days, I'm only going for the cheap, really good deals. Most of the stuff is pretty easy for me to walk away from but the t-shirts are becoming an addiction. Cute, original t-shirts at $10 a pop including shipping. Here are the ones I've purchased so far:
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The Epic Begins - I personally believe that this shirt needs no explanation but for those who don't know, it's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reference (“Go Ninja Go Ninja Go”). I don't advocate the poisoning of tiny baby turtles.
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Nevermore - The words to E.A. Poe's famous poem written to form a shadow of a raven. According to to woot! this shirt tells the world that I'm an english major. I most certainly am not! I am an engineer, thank you very much. Believe it or not, engineers can read even when it doesn't involve numbers.
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One Flew out of the Cuckoo Clock - According to woot! this shirt tells the world “I must be crazy to be in a loony clock like this.” I bought it to wear to my next psychiatrist visit. Engineering and craziness are rarely referenced in the same shirt. I'm not sure why, though. We're all kind of nuts.
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My Life's a Little Ghetto

2009-02-12T13:08:00.001-05:00

You know you live in the ghetto when your local laundry mat chains and locks the toilet paper to the wall.

2008-09-04T20:23:00.000-04:00

Giant Eagle GetGo Rules!

Peer Pressure « Booking Through Thursday

2008-09-04T16:17:00.000-04:00

Peer Pressure « Booking Through Thursday: "I was looking through books yesterday at the shops and saw all the Twilight books, which I know basically nothing about. What I do know is that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the *only* person who knows nothing about them.

Despite being almost broke and trying to save money, I almost bought the expensive book (Australian book prices are often completely nutty) just because I felt the need to be ‘up’ on what everyone else was reading.

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because ‘everyone else’ was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?"

I rarely feel pressured to read a book but I have to admit I did pick up Twilight because it seemed like it was everywhere, making me clueless and curious. In this case, I'm glad I did. The saga was a fun read. If the first 50-100 pages had bored me to tears, I would have put it down and moved on to something else. Life is too short to read crappy books.

When book is personally recommended to me by a friend or colleague, though? That's when I'll feel pressure to finish a book that I'm not really into. I feel obligated to finish it because they took the time recommend it and might actually want to discuss it with me.

Stories « Booking Through Thursday

2008-09-04T15:59:00.000-04:00

Stories « Booking Through Thursday: "If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?"

I'm a week late on this but here's my answer: As much as I love good character development (I think that's why I like to read series books) if the story line isn't working for me, I won't keep reading. It may be a great literary work, well written with depth and hidden meanings but for me it will be a snoozer. Prime example here: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. I never finished it .

If, however, I enjoy the plot despite the shallow characters and abundant clichés, I'll likely finish the book. My high school English teacher called these types of books "Summer fluff"- to be read occasionally for the sake of giving our brains a break from all the literary analysis we had to do during the school year. It's entertainment for entertainment's sake. Example in this category - The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. (Please don't flame me over this. I don't mean this as an insult at all. I just mean to say that it was a great page-turning story but not a contemporary classic. I loved the series. Even the last book that 50% the fans hated.)

If a work of liturature contains all of the wonderful elements stated above, I find it to be ideal for re-reading. For me, a perfect example of this is William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

2008-09-04T15:03:00.000-04:00

My hot pepper seed pack came with a EULA. I had to read it twice to be sure I wasn't breaking any laws by growing them. I can't use the seeds from the peppers I produce, I guess.

Da Hubby Takes the Personality Defect Test

2008-08-24T18:48:00.003-04:00

Here are the results from Da Hubby taking The Personality Defect Test. Smartass... I couldn't agree more.

Your result for The Personality Defect Test ...

Smartass

You are 71% Rational, 71% Extroverted, 57% Brutal, and 57% Arrogant.

You are the Smartass! You are rational, extroverted, brutal, and arrogant. In fact, you could very well be the anti-Christ, as you are almost the exact opposite of everything Jesus was supposed to be. While Jesus says love your enemy, you say love beating the crap out of your enemy. While Jesus raises the dead, you raise hell. While Jesus walks on water, you tend to sink. You probably consider people who are emotional and gentle to be big pussies who are obviously in lesser stature than you. You have many flaws, despite your seeming intelligence and cool-headedness. For instance, you aren't very nice. In fact, you're probably an asshole. And you are conceited and self-centered. Not only that, but you are very loud and vocal about all this, seeing as how you are extroverted. There is no better way to describe you than as a "smartass", I'm afraid. Perhaps just "ass" would do, too. But that's a little less literary and descriptive. At any rate, your main personality defect is the fact that you are self-centered, mean, uncaring, and brutally logical.

Friday5.org

2008-08-22T22:32:00.001-04:00

1. What’s something really, really stupid you’ve done that could easily have resulted in your own death?
I've done plenty of stupid things but I don't know if any of them could have resulted in my own death. I suppose texting on my cell while walking down the steps wasn't my brightest moment, though.

2. What makes you feel stupid?
Standing at the white board in front of a group of people while trying to figure out a problem.

3. What’s something that’s stupid in a very smart way?
The TV show The Simpsons... or is that smart in a stupid way?

4. What’s an example of a stupid idea working out in a way that solved a problem?
I couple of cell phones ago, I was getting really bad reception and lots of dropped calls. Out of frustration, I yanked the antenna out and replaced it with a soldering iron tip. Best reception I've ever had.

5. There is apparently a brand of packaged popcorn called Smartfood. What might be found in the package labeled Stupidfood?"
Fried Twinkies. I hear they taste good but they sure can't be good for you.

Libraries « Booking Through Thursday

2008-08-22T20:57:00.002-04:00

As usual, my answers are in green.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.)

So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you?

My family already had most of the books I read as a child. I was always surrounded by shelves and boxes full of them. If I really wanted more books, mom rarely said no. In fact, I remember going to Walden's way before my first trip to a library. I think my earliest memory of the library takes place in 1st grade at the school library. It was there that I discovered the science section and never looked back.

My classmates checked out a variety of fiction titles while I checked out You can be an Astronaut over and over and over again. I also checked out books on weather, astronomy and basic science but always in addition to the astronaut book. Except when the librarian wouldn't let me... "in case someone else wants to read it" she'd say. I'd have to let it sit on the shelf for a whole week (a painfully long time for a six year old) and then I'd get to check it out again. Yep, my status as a complete geek was established pretty early in life but at least I stayed consistent.*

Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?"

My funny/odd memories in the library don't start until high school when I worked for the public library. I really miss my library days. Thinking back, they are the fondest memories I have from my high school years. I remember shelving the romance novels as a newbie when a more experienced student assistant explained the smut test to me.

Her: See how each paperback has a major break in the spine?

Me: Yeah, they are in pretty bad shape. Do you think I should tape them?

Her: Nah, it would just make it harder to do the smut test.

Me: The smut test?

Her: Yes, the smut test. You drop the book, let it fall open to a page and then read the page out loud. The break in the spine is usually a result of people reading and re-reading the juicy passages. If it's not a particularly good passage then you know the book doesn't have much sex in it.

Me: Oh. Um. Good to know.

Boss walks in.

Boss: Ahh, the smut test. Lets see what we have here.

He starts to read out loud in a deep false-baritone voice.

Boss: "He caressed her creamy white thigh and she quivered..."

It was all heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods from there... we laughed until our sides hurt and I knew instantly I'd finally found a place where I fit in.

*You can be an Astronaut introduced me to the engineering profession. I'm not an astronaut (I wish) but I did finish my Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering (and minor in physics) this past May and I still want to work for NASA more than anything.

Giant of Internet Radio Nears Its 'Last Stand'

2008-08-20T22:40:00.002-04:00

If you haven't checked out the internet radio station Pandora.com you might want to do it soon because, according to the Washington Post article linked above, there is a good chance that it won't be around much longer.

For those not familiar with the site, Pandora does so much more than just stream music. Funded by venture capital, they've put a tremendous amount of effort into analyzing individual songs in a project they call the Music Genome Project. You start by providing Pandora with the names of your favorite songs or artists. It then scans the database for musically similar songs based on nearly 400 attributes (melody, rhythm and vocals, to name a few) and provides you with a customized playlist.

The hard work of Pandora’s 50 musician-analysts has earned them many loyal listeners. I've encountered bands I might never know of otherwise and I've made many purchases as a result. Unfortunately, recent legal developments are making online music streaming services cost prohibitive to service providers. It could be exceptionally difficult for Pandora because thousands of listeners are playing different songs at the same time, unlike traditional-style stations that stream just one song at a time to thousands of listeners. Fractional pennies add up fast when you have to pay-per-play of individual songs

The argument is that internet streaming should be able to make larger profit margins compared to other forms of media and therefore be charged higher royalty rates. Internet stations, according SoundExchange, aren't doing enough to make money. It appears that greater focus is being given to the technology and user experience rather than the creation of revenue.

Obviously a balance needs to be found. Surely there must be some way we can pay those in the recording industry fairly for their efforts while maintaining a high quality product for consumers. I'm just not sure how much "fairly" should cost or where the money is going to come from. Truthfully, I pretty much ignore the visual ads on Pandora. Its tab gets moved to the background while I’m working on other things and I only click back when something catches my ear. Audio ads might be a solution I could deal with as long as they are kept short, relevant and infrequent. Would that be enough to save Pandora, though? At the expected $17 million they’ll owe SoundExchange by the end of the year, I doubt it.

By (Un)Popular Demand...

2008-08-19T20:38:00.002-04:00

Since CG asked, I'm sure this won't be a shock to her, but it's funny. My personality defect results are in:

Your result for The Personality Defect Test...

Hippie

You are the Hippie! Characterized by a strong sense of extroversion, irrationality, gentleness, humility, and a faint scent of marijuana, you no doubt frolic through fields preaching peace and free love! Immediately following that, you then frolic to the hospital with herpes! You are probably either very spiritual or needlessly paranoid about "the man", like most hippies, as a result of your focus on intuition and feelings over cold, brutal logic. You probably enjoy poetry, especially beatnik ultra-liberal crap about how horrible fascism is, even though your suburbanized, sheltered idea of "fascism" is having to pay two dollars per gallon at the gas pump. You are also very, very social. And like any hippie who would have no qualms about hitchiking across the country just to meet some interesting people, you also love to interact with others, even complete strangers. Though I highly doubt they love to interact with you! Because we know most any hippie is peace-loving and humble, it stands to reason that you, as well, are terribly gentle and humble, almost to the point of revulsion. Your carefree attitude of peace and harmony is probably very, very sickening to realists or cynics or anyone who isn't a hippie, to tell the truth. In short, your personality is defective because you are overly emotional, extroverted, gentle, and humble--thus making you an annoying hippie. Now go do your drugs and have sex with filthy bearded men in tye dye shirts.

CG voted most likely to... Go on shooting rampage? YIKES!

2008-08-19T19:41:00.002-04:00

... but, wait, I never drew pictures of dead babies in high school! That's gross and just a bit screwed up, even for me. I would, however, like to point out that this quiz clearly states that those going on shooting rampages are 86% rational. So that means they must have a good reason, right?

This quiz insulted and threatened me the whole time I was taking it, which I found oddly entertaining (insultainment?). I'm a little worried that says more about my personality than the results of the quiz itself. Now I have just one question. What is The Sister's personality defect?

Your result for The Personality Defect Test...

Spiteful Loner

You are 86% Rational, 0% Extroverted, 57% Brutal, and 29% Arrogant.

You are the Spiteful Loner,the personality type that is most likely to go on a shooting rampage. In high school, you were probably that kid who wore all black and who sat alone in a corner of the lunch room, drawing pictures of dead babies. You are a rational person and tend to hold emotions in very low-esteem; not only that, but you are also rather introverted, meaning you probably bury any emotions you feel deep inside yourself, like all of the bodies in your backyard. Combine these traits with your dislike of others and your brutality, and it seems that you would be quite likely to shoot innocent people in a rampage. Most likely, you also have low self-esteem. Hell, I get low self-esteem just looking at you. This is only yet one more incentive to go on a shooting rampage, because you wouldn't care if you died as a result. Granted, you probably haven't gone on a shooting rampage and probably never will, but all the motivations are there. All you need is for someone to push you over the edge, calling you names and belittling you. Like me. But don't shoot me. I have a 101 mile-long knife, you know. In conclusion, your personality is defective because you are too introverted, brutal, insecure, and rather unemotional. No wonder no one hangs around you, you morbid, cold-hearted freak!