You want to talk about a shopping mall that's been abandoned for a long time...



Photo taken in the ultra prosperous region known as East St. Louis.

Mar - ket - ing
- noun
1. Improving the perception of your product without improving the quality of your product, thereby increasing sales.

Common uses: McDonalds, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Apple Computers, Comcast Cable, and the U.S. Military.

Starbucks Rolls Out Energy Drinks

Oh, dear god. Because nothing quite says "college student" like adding the equivalent of Red Bull to your quad shot before you even leave the Starbucks. Of course, nothing quite says "coronary" like an overdose of caffeine, either.

My grades are as follows:

Bowling - A
Learning - B
Modern Social Problems - B
University Success - A
Abnormal Psychology - C!

OMG!!!!!! I passed abnormal! That means I don't have to take it over the summer! When I saw I got a C in that class I just cried. If y'all only knew how much that class took out of me......

I'm supposed to get my package from Old Navy today. I went to check on the UPS site to see when they were going to deliver it. It says that they delivered it today at 10:44. I go outside to see if maybe it's sitting on the porch 'cause sometimes they'll leave it in the door or under the grill. I look and there's nothing. So where the hell did they put it?!?!?! I'm so angry right now! I want my package damnit!

I posted this over at The Rotund as well, but it bears repeating.

Dear people who post in the sewing forums at Craftster (or anywhere, really),

OMG stop with the apologizing. For reals, your stomach pudge does not offend me. This being your first project does not offend me. The spots on your mirror don’t offend me.

Trust me, first-time-sewers, if you are anything like me, there will be something you hate about every single thing that you make ever. But very few other people will notice it. Stop drawing attention to it and you’ll be much better off.

But, seriously, stop apologizing for your body. You are already posting in the Curvascious part of the forum and you are posting pictures. If I am surprised that you are fat or that you have even a tiny little bit of extra flesh on your body, the problem is mine and so totally not yours.

Apologizing for your body takes the attention off of the garment you have created and puts it squarely on whatever you have perceived as a horrible enough flaw that you have to apologize to random strangers on the internet for it.

And, really, if your bathroom mirror bothers you that much, take a paper towel or cloth and clean it off before taking your picture and putting that picture on the internet.

But mostly, just stop apologizing for your arms and your fat legs and the size of your breasts (always too small or too large) and the way you are making a silly face and that your hair isn’t totally perfect and that your smile is crooked and that you aren’t wearing makeup. Stop apologizing for making projects that you love but that are not “flattering” because they don’t make you look skinny.

You don’t owe anyone any apologies for your body. That goes for everyone.

Love,
Marianne

P.S. The proper response to a compliment is to say thank you. Not to say thanks and then *insert self-denigration here*. It's not modesty!

And I feel like I've been hit by a Mac truck.

I haven't updated in a while, so I thought I'd sum it up in those two little sentences.

One day I'll get around to posting the 10ish pictures I took while rowry and I were in New Orleans on vacation. I just don't have time before I go to work.

Kyle! Are you still gonna do Ness from Earthbound? I could probably pull together a Paula pretty cheap, if you are. (Something like this could easily be modified) Let me know!

Grades are up, but now I can't get a degree progress report from SOAR.  My guess is that it is because it takes a while for all the grades to update into system that makes the progress reports.

Anybody else having the same problem?     

Does anyone have information on pet friendly apartments in Hattiesburg? 

My tweets for the last 24 hours:

• 19:04 Testing twitter what has been eating my tweets #
• 00:24 I don't know what to do with myself right now. #

[LoudTwitter]

DAMMIT. My LJ account expired again.

Can't upgrade until payday. Dammit dammit dammit.

Last night I go to turn the TV on. It comes on fine, but when I change the channel it gives me a black screen and the sound of static. Now it does nothing but that. I'm trying to hook up this damn digital box thing mom got for me, but for some reason it's not even coming on. I think I'm gonna go to Wal-Mart and see if I can get some audio/video cables. Maybe that's the problem.....I don't have any extra to hook that up to the TV/digital box. This is gonna give me a headache I just know it.

Edit: I got the box to work....there was a switch on the side that I didn't see. Heh....I'm not sure if the rest of the stuff I have hooked up to the RF converter will work or not though. I'm gonna try that out later if I get bored. I have TV now!

Might as well stick this picture over here too.

I did graduate. With a kick-ass GPA that would have given me latin honors had I been in honors college. But I wasn't. So it's just called highest honors.

This picture proves it.

I double checked; they will be sending my diploma to your house, Mom. Keep an eye out for it please... probably won't be for a month or two if I have to guess though.

PS: SenProj grades still haven't been posted!



Other things accomplished this week:

Boxed 1/3 of my things
Set aside a good bit of things to sell at the yard sale
Sold some things to the cosplay kiddies (yay)
Got to see Jack
Got to see Jack
Got to see Jack
Ate too much sushi
Lost the newest Tsubasa somewhere in my own house
Jack took what was boxed to Jackson with him

Need to see if anyone will take my full sized bed off my hands.
Also need to sell my computer to someone for cheap.
(Also have a entertainment center, computer desk, cabinet, and a couple of little tv shelf things to offload)

Jenna won't be in town except for the yard sale on Saturday.  Keith is out of town until Saturday night.
I'm gonna be lonely this week :/

My tweets for the last 24 hours:

• 15:36 One kid said 'thats gen nick fury!' and the other said 'thats sam jackson from SoaP!' #
• 12:22 Fuu. I think giving Eulalie a bath caused a clog in the tub drain :/ #

[LoudTwitter]

Anybody know when grades will go up on SOAR?  I feel silly checking it every hour.

Listed some plus sized slacks, some regular sized jeans, a few shirts, and will hopefully be listing some jewelry boxes before I leave today. If I can't get to them today I will definitely get them listed tomorrow.


Also finally getting around to listing the salwar kameez Rima helped me identify. I have one listed and hope to get the rest up this week.


I reduced the price on the leather jackets I have for auction.


I will be listing more jewelry and clothing this coming week. I hope to get at least 50% of my remaining unlisted stock listed by next Sunday. We'll see how close to my goal I get.

My tweets for the last 24 hours:

• 17:57 Jack is holding my hand. Love boat for two with sake san! #
• 17:58 Oh, and i graduated with 'highest honors' it would seem! #

[LoudTwitter]

New jeans in the same size do not fit.


At all.


Very displeased.



I have no pants.

The History Channel has a special about the history of computers (probably Modern Marvels). I think I've seen this before, but one quote got me laughing. It was Steve Wozniak saying that in the early days computers required command lines "so to copy one floppy to another you'd have to type something very cryptic like C: or D: or something like that. When we came up with the GUI that all changed."

1. Apple did not invent the graphical user interface, Xerox is commonly credited with this feat. This is a myth held by both Mac users and Mac inventors.

2. Is it really that cryptic to have a label for something? You have to call your hard drive something... why not letters? I suppose they could have gone with numbers... but then the same argument arises "You'd have to type something cryptic like 3: or 4:". I didn't realize having a label for something was beyond human comprehension. "In the old days to talk to someone you'd have to say something cryptic like 'Hi, Michael, how's the weather?' with the Apple iPod you don't even need to talk to people. You just put earphones on and disconnect from the world around you."