Daily Peril

A Sad Day

Hello My Peeps,

Today is a sad and frightening day. My Powerbook appears to have bitten the proverbial dust. From what I can tell, it may be something I can repair, but I'm not completely sure of that and won't be for another day or two. I'm typing this now from Eric's computer. Needless to say, internet access will be sporadic at best --most likely dependent on the kindness of strangers, the random relative and a few generous friends.

In any case, hopefully things will be resolved in the next few days.

I will keep you posted and continue to update as frequently as access allows.

Pray for me and the Powerbook.

Basically, it is my lifeblood. Without it, I won't be able to look for work, or even try to find work. Since I've been unemployed for about six months now, I don't really have any extra funds to speak of and therefore, won't be able to replace it with a shiny new computer (or even a perfectly good used one). I have a bunch of projects in queue, some of which could lead to some freelance work and not having the computer available to finish the projects or to work on freelance stuff should it become available is most distressing.

So you can see why I am stressed.

Sadly Yours,
Paula

P.S. If anyone needs to reach me via email, please use my yahoo! account. The adress is: pabilheira@yahoo.com

Hey! Look What I Bought!

I decided to abandon my whole abstinance-from-any-needless-spending thing last night. It's been about a month since I've purchased anything of interest and I was running out of stuff to escape into. So I allowed myself a small splurge on a small budget.

The best part was all of the truly good stuff I found:

1. Craig Thompson's Blankets is truly a personal epic of the comic book genre. At a whopping 582 pages, I'm sure it'll keep me busy for quite some time. The first chapter was very sad. This is the first time I've read anything highly personal and seemingly tragic in the comic book genre from a male perspective. Or, maybe he's just a person telling a story and there is no "male perspective" involved. In any case, I'm hooked and very happy with my big-ass chunky comic. Here is a link to Top Shelf's homepage as well, since it has quite a few news bits about Blankets. Don't forget to scroll down.

2. Neil Gaiman's Endless Nights has just been released. I found it last night at Barnes and Noble of all places. It looks gorgeous. I haven't read it yet, but being a long-time Sandman fan, I'm pretty excited to read more tales about The Endless. And, the best part is the design and cover art by Dave McKean and a fully illustrated story by Bill Sienkewicz.

3. Pokemon anyone? I'm dangerously obsessed with Pokemon Sapphire. So obsessed, that I actually bought the card game for Eric and I to play. He's reading through the instructions as we speak since, like my mother, I'm too lazy to read through such things and prefer his patient explanations. Plus, he thoroughly enjoys this stuff, being a hardcore gamer. So, see, everyone's happy.

4. The new issue of Bust is quite good. Lot's of dark and Halloweeny stuff. There's an interview with Juliette Lewis -- although, I'm not too sure about the name of her band. It wreaks of Kevin Bacon and The Bacon brothers and that can only be a bad thing.

5. Embarrasingly, I simply had to buy the Talk Talk Natural History CD. What can I say? My eighties music fandom knows no bounds.

I also purchased some miscellaneous items like about eight packs of Teaberry Clove Gum, a case for my beloved Gameboy, some aluminum game cartridge cases (the blue one being the same shade as my Sapphire cartridge -- and how perfect is that?) and some chocolate pumpkins for my pumpkin. Ahem.

And now, I can say that I'm satisfied. Hopefully this feeling will last longer than a week.

Email Missives

Girly email I just now, this very minute, sent to my former co-workers (all female, of course):

"Ok Chicas,

I've been meaning to mention this for like, EVER, but keep forgetting in my daily panic of joblessness. So, let me take this opportunity to mention the new Johnny Depp movie that you've all probably heard about already.

It is very, VERY good.

Sort of a parody of the Western genre, like Desperados, but funnier and new plot. It's a Robert Rodriguez movie! How can you not like it?!

Plus, Johnny Depp.

This time he just looks awesome and not dirty. And, Antonio Banderas looks unbelievably hot as well, with his long dark locks. YUM-MY.

Ok, I am done.

Get thee to the theater, people!"

You people should also see this movie. If you like that sort of thing.

John Ritter

I'm not sure what it says about me as a person when my second thought after hearing that John Ritter had passed away was "Damn! You just know his death is going to be eclipsed by the whole Johnny Cash thing!"

I mean, I like Johnny Cash, but John was a part of my childhood. I can remember my dad, who barely understood a word of English back then, laughing hysterically at Three's Company. It's one of the few shows you can comprehend on mute, simply because most of it is physical humor.

And, truth-be-told, I still watch Three's Company on Nick at Nite, every night at 3am because I have no life, and when unemployed, immediately fall back into my night owl schedule.

Poor John.

Virtual Feng Shui

I spent much of today and this evening trying to wrangle my resume into shape. It turns out, that art imitates life in my case. Apparently, my resume was "too wordy." Luckily, my good friend Karen, an employee of the good 'ol RISD Career Services (my alma mater and source of never-ending debt) and long-time cool friend, went through it LINE BY LINE with me on the phone this afternoon and "gently forced" me into deletions and re-wording and even some rearranging.

It was painful.

In the end, though, I caught the fever. After that first description was whittled down, I felt so light and breezy that I was like a madwoman on the rest of the resume. I am now the proud caretaker of a fabulously succinct resume.

It now occurs to me that I spent all of last week doing this very thing to my hard drive. And, it also occurs to me that every time I boot up and search for files, I feel so good I can't believe it. This organizing thing really lifts the tension. I'm so Feng Shui'd I can't stand it!

Anyway, LINE BY LINE, people. LINE BY LINE! Now, that's dedication. That's friendship. That's love. She is one fabulously good egg.

Thank you, Miss Karen.

Cat Nap

Today's milestone event centered around Tiger, Eric's parents' cat. We were over at the house and Tiger suddenly jumped up on the sofa, curled herself close to me and proceeded to nap while I pet her little head. At one point, her soft furry paw rested on my leg. And she stayed this way for at least an hour.

Now, before anyone rolls their eyes or makes any snarky commentary, this is MY blog and I wanted to document this momentous occasion for posterity!

If you knew this cat, you'd understand the magnitude of this event.

That is all.

Cautious Optimism

Ok. This time, it had better be true. I don't think I can take another false Pixies reunion story. Really. But it was reported on MTV.com so it simply must be true, right? RIGHT?

Anyway, until the first date is announced and tickets are officially on sale, I won't believe it.

But if it is true, I'll probably faint. Or freak. Or both. Or something.

Do you think they'll reserve tickets for people who've been fans since the beginning? Because, even though I know it's wrong to feel this way, I just think it would be tragic if I couldn't get tickets. Maybe I'll start a "Make Sure Paula Gets Tickets To A Date In Her Immediate Area" campaign.

Who's with me? Anyone?

Sweetness and Light

I just bought this UK magazine entirely devoted to Pokemon. There are Pokemon on every page!

Also, while at Barnes & Noble, I noticed their new Halloween Godiva display, complete with amazingly soft and fuzzy teddy sporting bat wings and a black Godiva box of chocolates with a spider web embossed on the front.

There has never been anything sweeter for Halloween sweetness.

She Bangs The Drums

My mom does this thing every morning that she swears is unintentional, but I know better because I overheard her admitting to a friend that she, in fact, does it intentionally. This was back when she and my father were still together, living in the height of their domestic dysfunction, where every word, sniffle or sideward glance was cause for argument and love was in fact -- a battlefield. I heard her admitting to this friend that she did this intentionally in order to wake my father up when he'd come home late at night and sleep in the next morning. Passive-aggressive is my mother's middle name.

But, back to me...

At approximately eight am every morning, my mother engages in a flurry of pot banging. Not to quote too much from popular culture, but she in fact, "bangs the drums." She knows I'm still sleeping and that my bedroom is a mere two feet away from the open kitchen area, seperated only by a thin wall and yet, this doesn't stop her.

Now, this isn't your normal dish washing pot banging. A few clinks and clanks of glasses and spoons never hurt anyone. This is different. When she bangs, there's a pattern. This is how I know she's doing it on purpose. Well, that and the fact that she is known for this type of behavior.

See, my family thinks it's scandolous that I sleep until 10 am each morning. They can't stand it. Despite the fact that I'm a night owl, unemployed and have nowhere to be early in the morning -- they think I should be up at the crack of dawn like a respectable person. Their theory is that everyone should be up by 6 am and that if they're not it's too bad if "regular life noises" wake you up because you should be up anyway.

So, the other day, my mom overslept and I happened to be up. Let's just say that when those proverbial tables are turned, some people can get a bit too cranky for their own good.

Ahem.

Rockin' My Body

I've been running back and forth between my office and bedroom during commercial breaks because I just can't tear myself away from the Ellen show. The whole point of not having the TV hooked up to any cable in my office room was to get more done, but somehow I've found ways around this by "accidentally" leaving the TV on in the bedroom and then, after an hour or so (usually when the soaps and talk shows start), jacking up the TV volume so I can hear it in the other room.

This was working out really well until today, when I realized that the Ellen Show was on and, if that wasn't great enough, that her guest for the entire hour was Justin Timberlake.

Come on, people, you know you're shaking that booty when Rock Your Body (or whatever the hell that song is called) comes on so don't give me that look.

It started when I told myself I'd just sit for a bit in the bedroom while "taking a break" and that I'd leave as soon as I finished that bag of Baked Lays. But then, it was so funny and so good that I stayed through each segment and only stepped back into the office during the length of the commercial breaks, and even then, only out of guilt.

THEN, if that wasn't all bad enough, I decided that I really like Justin Timberlake and that I need to buy this damn album before I drive myself crazy trying to deny that I like it while simultaneously "rockin' my body" to it whenever I hear a song on the radio.