katie's blog

iPhone!

2009-11-07T08:08:14Z

I got an iPhone today, after wanting one for a very, very long time.

I've had it for little over 12 hours and am already wondering how I functioned without one. My last phone was horribly out of date (it was 2 and a half years old) and didn't really...well....do much. Texting tweets to Twitter was about the highest of tech that it could do.

So, anyway, now I have an iPhone and have joined the tech elite.

As someone who holds a minor in Philosophy, the fact that I am basically expanding my memory and productivity via an external device is a bit scary and disconcerting (I'm thinking that calling myself "Kwad-Kore Katie" might be going a bit overboard.) I hope I will learn from the information provided by my iPhone, and that I won't become dumb and complacent, knowing that it will do whatever work needs to be done for me.

I find the whole thing rather easy to use. The touch keyboard is not bad at all, hell I probably make fewer typos on that than I do on a normal computer keyboard. I have been using Macs and iPods for several years so I'm used to the whole Appley interface.

Anyway, any tips and recommendations on apps and the like are most certainly welcome!

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It's the MOST...stree~eessful tiiime, of the yeaarr....

2009-11-06T06:06:06Z

I'm pretty sure I'm getting an iPhone tomorrow. Like, I will get one, barring any unexpected meteors that might hit me on the way to get it.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and this is quite possibly my favorite time of the year in general. Though I enjoy the overall spirit of the "holiday season" more than the actual holidays themselves, I think. Christmas especially seems kind of disappointing after the HUGE INSANE BUILDUP OF AWESOMENESS. Not to say that I don't enjoy Christmas - I love Christmas - but I love the Christmas season even more, so Christmas itself is kind of an anticlimax.

Not to mention that Christmas inevitably brings up weird jealousy issues between my sister and me. I don't want to go into gory details, but I also don't want to sound like an ungrateful brat, so I'll just say that it's not "oh she got more than me," but a bit more complicated and...weird. Very weird. I STILL LOVE CHRISTMAS. it just opens some old wounds, is all. [this is foreshadowing to a future Vox entry where I am drunk on eggnog and emoting about sibling jealousy.]

While I'm sounding like an ungrateful little shit, I might as well get this out of the way: Am I the only one who gets kind of annoyed when people ask what you want for Christmas (or any other present-giving holiday), and you tell them something specific...let's say, a specific book. And then they get you a different book that's more or less the same price? Like, ok, why ask if you're just going to get a similar yet different thing? And it's not like, "oh I couldn't make it to the bookstore, enjoy this delightful [something else]" but like, "I know you wanted that book, and I wanted to get you a book, so I got you THIS TOTALLY DIFFERENT AND RANDOM BOOK."

Anyway, I don't really care about "getting stuff" nearly as much as I did when I was a kid...usually I ask for a video game, a movie, etc, and maybe one "big" thing that is maybe $100ish. I am excited for this Christmas especially since it's Alison's (my sister's daughter) first Christmas, so that's going to be a lot of fun. She won't remember it, but it will be awesome!

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Nerd crisis!

2009-11-03T01:41:43Z

Nervous breakdown: averted.

Today was pretty fantastic, which is weird since I have been at work all day. But, still, the restaurant that I had gone to like a thousand times since losing my wallet, begging them to look further, etc, called around 11 and they had found my wallet. Unsure where the hell it was the aforementioned thousand times I asked them about it, but whatever. Point is: I have my wallet, with everything intact. Which means that I can now proceed to spend money I don't have! Oh, credit cards, I love you.

Anyway, I had way too much coffee today, as well as lots of Twizzlers and Pixie Stix that one of my co-cashiers brought in. SO I AM BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS. Despite getting reprimanded by one of the owners for complaining about customers a bit loudly, it was a "fun" day at work, I suppose.

I am still undecided on the Droid or the iPhone. I think I'm going to wait and make a decision when I talk to Verizon and see what it's going to cost me on a monthly basis. Both phones look fantastic, and both have things that I want that the other doesn't, so I really don't know. I'm not sure just how integrated all of Google's shit is with the Droid (i.e., Google Calendar, Reader, etc). I don't use Mail or iCal on my Mac, but I suppose getting an iPhone might encourage me to do so. I DON'T KNOW. Fellow nerds: Opinions?

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Snow day!

2009-10-30T03:50:15Z

As predicted it snowed allllllll day today and is, as far as I know, still snowing a bit (though not nearly as much.) Both my parents stayed home from work, and a lot of things shut down except for stores and restaurants. I snapped this picture almost exactly 24 hours after the one I took yesterday of my car in front of my house. Since everything's so white it's hard to see how deep it is, but there's about 3 feet on my car.

Poor car again...

I also had way too much fun playing in the snow this afternoon with my dog Holly (aka Holly Balls, Poochie Magoochie, Stinky Pants, Jingles, Nibbles, Smiley, etc etc etc). My mom was nice enough to take some videos, one of which I uploaded for my embarrassment your enjoyment. Pardon my brief flashing of asscrack, foul language and obnoxious laugh.

October 29, 2009

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Let it snow...

2009-10-29T03:29:21Z

It started snowing last night and continued today and is, as far as I know, supposed to go on into tomorrow. This is the first "real" snow of the season, we've had some accumulation here and there but nothing major until now. It's nice, I like snow when I don't have to go out in it (which I didn't other than for 3 hours of work.) Though I do get tired of everyone flipping out about it, as if they've never seen snow before and this is a TOTAL SHOCK. We always get snow by late October, and while maybe it's usually not this much this early, it's still nothing unusual. Oh well. Out of staters, probably :P

Here's a shot of the street in front of my house that I took with my phone before leaving for work a bit before 6pm (my dad was nice enough to drive me in his 4Runner.)

My poor car!

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Uncharted 2

2009-10-17T06:09:40Z

I just finished Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the PS3...hoooly shit I don't even know, guys. It was so amazing, easily the most raw fun I have had playing a game in a good long while. Some parts were a bit frustrating but the rest totally made up for it. IT WAS CRAZY.

Not-really-spoilery thoughts:

lol @ random banter between characters. <3 them all (even the generic "big bad" of the game. well, ok, maybe not him, he was pretty blah.)

Kinda buggy in places. I got caught on the environment at least twice and there was one point where the game straight up froze on me and I had to restart my PS3 (fortunately it autosaves, like, all the fricken time so I wasn't set back at all.)

Needs more Sully.

The first Uncharted was mainly in the jungle with some indoor places. UC2 is....a lot more varied. And pretty. So pretty...

There were some points where the environment didn't communicate very well how you were supposed to move on, which sometimes got aggravating. Am I just dumb?

The "supernatural twist" this time around was, for me, a bit less insane than in UC1. If you compare it to Indiana Jones, the game's supernatural bits are more in the realm of the Last Crusade than, say, the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which doesn't even count as Indiana Jones as far as I'm concerned.) When I first played UC1 I was horribly disappointed in the supernatural element because I was not expecting it. I think playing UC2 now has let me accept that the game world is not the "real" world, and now thinking back on UC1 I can appreciate the fakey bits without getting irritated.

The puzzles were pretty easy. Which is fine by me since I hate puzzles in adventure games.

HELLO ENDING, YOU ARE WIDE OPEN FOR A THIRD GAME. BRING IT.

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Happy Monday

2009-10-12T22:31:21Z

Ugh I have been extremely irritable lately and I'm not really sure why. I seem determined to be in a bad mood until I mentally slap myself and tell myself to get over whatever shit I'm apparently upset about (which, of course, I don't even know what that is.)

Today's episode of moodiness, however, was brought upon by my return to work at the liquor store. I am depressed because this time it really is "indefinite." How long I work there depends on how long it takes me to get a life and a real job. I am telling myself it's "just for the holidays" but who knows.

Also, it feels like The Universe is telling me something about relationships, since it seems like everyone I know who is in a relationship is, shall we say, not having the best luck at the moment.

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Random post is random

2009-10-08T08:51:33Z

I went out tonight (omg!) and hung out with my good friend Christina and this other girl Rachael who I've sort of known since middle/high school but was never really friends with until recently, I guess. This was actually the second time I've ever hung out with her, and the first was when we went to Red Rocks to see Jaws over the summer which naturally was more "movie watching" and less "socializing" but she's a nice girl and despite not knowing her at all really she is very easy to talk to and we all had a good time. We went to a Starbucks in Denver that is open til 2 (it used to be 24 hours, but I guess the recession has even hit Starbucks) and just chit chatted about shit for a few hours. We are all three in drastically different "situations" in our lives and talking and complaining about things was rather therapeutic.

This weekend I am going to stop into the liquor store and see if they want to take my sorry jobless ass back for a couple months. I want to be home for the holidays (or, more specifically, I don't want to deal with "moving across the country" during the holidays) so I'm just going to be here until the new year. Then, hopefully, I will get a "real" job and actually get moving on, like, doing something with my life.

I bought the Metroid Prime Trilogy today. I realized that it's the first Wii game I've got in almost 2 years, the last being Super Mario Galaxy (which I got as a Christmas present.) What the hell, Wii.

And, day by day I get a little more excited for the new season of Skins which (I believe) is going to air in January. I think my love for that show is somewhat unnatural and possibly unhealthy, but I don't CARE. It is awesome and makes me giddy like a schoolgirl.

Tomorrow (today?) is supposed to be cold and nasty. I am looking forward to it since I don't have to go anywhere or do anything and enjoy being lazy and warm inside while it's cold and crappy outside. Bring on the winter! I'm looking forward to having a "normal" winter, no more of that crazy -30F weather in Gunnison which I suffered through during college.

My neck hurts, which I'm hoping isn't my lymph nodes exploding with disease or something. I just recovered from a tiny little cold, I don't want more crap :(

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Facebook rant

2009-10-06T03:37:09Z

Every time I get on Facebook (which is like 80 times a day normally) I see more crap about people getting married, having babies, going to med school, posting about their awesome job, whatever. It doesn't really bother me, hell if they want to get hitched when they're fresh out of college and pop out some kids, go ahead! But I feel like a lot of the posts are almost meant to alienate those of us who are not living equally "contented" domesticated lives. Like, "oh, look how succesful I am, aren't you jealous, Facebook friends?"

Granted I admit to posting things on there that I probably wouldn't usually post but do for a sort of "hey look how cool I am that I am doing [whatever]" but I definitely do not make a habit of it. I probably bragged a bit too much about going on my trip, but that's different, damnit! I did not update the same shit every day about whatever the hell I'm doing that I think is so awesome that everyone else should be jealous of.

I have actually only de-friended one person for extensive "look at me I'm married" posts. It was actually the overuse of the word "hubby" which I absolutely despise that promted the de-friending. Everything was "Oh, great day at work, can't wait to have dinner with hubby." "I'm feeling sick, but hubby is taking good care of me!" ALL. THE. FRICKEN. TIME. Yes, I'm glad you're married and seem to be happy, GOOD FOR YOU, but that shit gets old after a while, just like the "I'm tired" and "Not feeling so well" posts. If you're bored or tired or whatever, please don't bore and tire the rest of us with your inane status updates.

I also am friends with a guy I went to high school with and worked with briefly at the liquor store until he got a job as a liquor sales rep. He doesn't update too much, maybe once every few days, but when he does it's always about work. I think I actually went to his profile once and looked at all his status updates and they were all about work in some way. It wouldn't be annoying if it was interesting things about work, some people update a lot about work but still keep their posts varied and interesting, but this is always "I spent all night memorizing price lists!" oh my god DID YOU SAY PRICE LISTS?!?!?!? HOW NOT EXCITING!!!!!!!

Anyway, enough babbling.

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Talk nerdy to me

2009-10-05T04:03:55Z

Things are slowly normalizing. It's weird not having anything to do. No school, no work...though I have been keeping myself fairly busy anyway.

After my stressful return a week ago, it took a few days to recover from jet lag, and then I proceeded to get sick! Fortunately it was little more than a runny nose, itchy throat and general "blah" feeling. I feel pretty good now though.

Last Monday I took my computer in to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store to get fixed (LONG STORY), and it should arrive tomorrow. I guess "Priority Overnight" packages shipped on a Friday arrive on Monday...lame. Whatever, I am just happy to be getting my computer back in working order, with all my music and pictures and bookmarks and everything just the way I want it. I hate sharing computers. I hate using other people's computers and I hate when other people use my computer. So that will definitely be nice.

As usual, this time of year is when the "holiday season" of game releases gets kickin'. There are several upcoming games that I really want, and I have enough money to buy....half of one. oh noes! That's not going to stop me from getting them somehow though.

First up is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The first Uncharted is an amazing game and the second looks to be even better, not to mention it's so damn pretty. This is my "if I can only get one game, this is it" game.

Then there's Modern Warfare 2. This game wasn't even on my radar until about 10 hours ago when I finished Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which was quite unexpectedly brilliant. I knew it was "a good game" but I was expecting it to be a good game in the way that Gears of War is a good game - fun to play, blow shit up, etc, but not actually much of anything in terms of story or emotions, and damn I was wrong. Beautiful game! Hope the sequel is just as good!

Third is Assassin's Creed 2 (what's with all the sequels this year?) I really enjoyed the first one despite its large number of flaws, so if this one is what the first one promised to be, then I'll be happy.

And then at the bottom is Dragon Age Origins. I don't know much about it, other than it's BioWare, and I love BioWare. It also looks to be pretty bloody and awesome. So I will get this one "eventually." Though I believe in January, Mass Effect 2 is going to be released which is another of my "absolutely must have on day 1" games.

As excited as I was for the Beatles: Rock Band, I suddenly realized that all the games above I want more, so that's going to have to wait until I have a disposable income.

Aaaaanyway....I've also been watching Firefly. I bought the DVD set of it a while ago for cheap on Amazon and watched maybe half of it or so, but never finished it. I think I'm about at where I was when I stopped watching before. I like it a lot more now, it's a pity that show got cancelled. Maybe they'll cancel Dollhouse and let Joss continue Firefly...?

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