I've even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi.

what she said.

I spent a couple hours on my budget yesterday. I am in so much debt. But not really. I hope to have 2 of the debts paid off by the end of August.

In the free etext department, I read Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm. It kinda sucked. I mean it was entertaining enough, and the prose was stylish, but it made absolutely no sense whatsoever, and it wasn't nearly as scary as Dracula. Apparently it was his last novel before he died. Oh well.

France is still burning

And I didn't get my direct deposit today because the bank is closed. Fucking veterans. It should be illegal for banks to be closed on FRIDAY. Anyway, if it doesn't go through tomorrow I'm definitely fucked and won't be doing shit this weekend.

We watched Down with Love and The 13th Warrior last night. Two more diametrically opposed movies cannot be imagined. But anyway I've fallen madly in love with Ewan McGregor, and bet that in 15 years he'll be the new Bond.

I made cookies last night. They're monstrously sized.

edit: they made us checks instead of DD. which is bullcrud.

I know it depends on where you live, but the cost of living in almost all american cities besides NYC, Boston and SF isn't that remarkably different. Rural areas of course are, but they don't have as many high-paying jobs either. When I lived in Raleigh I spent probably $1500 on fixed costs per month and probably another $500 on unfixed costs, but I was making enough money that I was able to save like six grand in a year to move to Seattle. Now I have a lot fewer fixed costs, but I make a lot less so I'm four grand in debt. My new job pays about 150% what my old one did, so I feel totally loaded now.

So yesterday after lunch I switched machines, just to the one across from me. First I had to bring my chair with me, because with the back thing I was dealing with yesterday, the presented chair was no fucking good. It leaned back really far, and if the monitor was on the ceiling I'd be well pleased, but as it is, no. So then I had to install all my other favorite programs. The one great thing about this machine, well, first off it's a faster processor but only 256MB of RAM, still probably better than the other one, but really my favorite part so far is that it allowed me to set Mozilla as my default browser. I'd asked people for months to let me do it on the other machine, so I guess it's just company policy to ignore such requests. It worked just fine when I did it, though. So.

The other nifty thing is that it has Acrobat 7.0, because I installed it. Well, the reader, not the other version. It does have the real thing but it's version 5.0 and for my needs, totally wrong. But it also has the newest versions of office, the 2003 editions, which are lots prettier and stranger. It's a little discombobulating, and due to this as well as other factors I feel like I'm not really required to do work anymore. On the other hand, since acquiring the net at home, I feel like surfing isn't any fun at work anymore. So it's a little bit callous and strange.

llarian picked up my futon yesterday, so that's the end of that tale. Reg refuses to buy a microwave till he has enough money to pay rent, which is sensible but unfair to all the microwave popcorn i have sitting around. I guess it will have to just stay at work.

even with no money, a three-day weekend isn't the worst thing in the world.

- So apparently it's possible for that reflective surface on top of CDs to peel off. And then, they don't work anymore. Who knew?

+ I made a spot trip to: the bank, the gas station, and Wendy's. At the gas station I got another 2fer1 ski thing (I am so taking next wed off ifn I get my income tax refund), at Wendy's I got nuggets, fries, and a diet Coke. I asked "What's the biggest drink size you have?" and the lady plopped the Biggie in front of me. It's 32oz of caffeine, carbonation, caramel color and ice. And nutrasweet. I wonder if my antsy-ness isn't a direct result of a lack of aspartame? It's one idea.

= The lady at Wendy's who waited on us was, well, utterly cute. She reminded us totally of an elementary school teacher who much prefered the instant gratification of waiting on hungry fat slobs to dealing with snotfaced crotchfruit.

I have a boy in my bed
and 1.17 in my bank account