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I have quite a problem. He's an IM exchange with a friend from today. Names changed for our protection.

17:37:18 me: wouldn't it be nice to be able to strike up conversations with strangers
17:37:31 my_friend: just say hi
17:38:04 me: I was walking around outside, this fantastic looking late 20 someyear old passes, she's like "hi"...and I'm like...uh...
17:38:07 me: "herloo"
17:38:38 my_friend: then compliment her
17:38:47 me: ya, I did...5 minutes later in my head
posted by Brendon at 5:43 PM

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I find myself lately bogged down wondering about the future. I'm sure there's two primary situations from the past year or so responsible for this. One is easily inferred reading earlier posts, I don't want to get into it today. The other is what I can only assume is the soon-to-be-end of the first real job of my career.

So I'm at lunch with a co-worker discussing this issue. I tell him, I don't want to rush off and apply for a new job right now, I want the break, a nice, long, relaxing vacation. I want the summer experience, it seems so long ago, of seeing daylight for more than an hour during a weekday. My life, especially when it comes to work, has turned into a seemingly infinite Friday-with-good-weather. You know, the type of Friday you go out to lunch from work, perfect blue skies, great temperature, slight breeze, and you think, man, I don't want to go back to work. That's every day now. How very "Office Space" of me, I suppose.

And to compound the matter, I'm really not sure what kind of job I'd like to take from here. I mean, part of me thinks I can just hop over to a like position and be just fine. Then again, if I really think that's OK, why not rush out and do it now?

In the midst of all this uncertainty, I'm trying to make the relatively trivial decisions, should I dye my hair black again for fun, and get some piercings like I've always wanted. There's probably not going to be a better time later. I'm serious.

But for now, I'll dream of a summer cruising the Sierras on my stumpjumper during the week, and playing paintball every weekend. Can that time get here, already!?!

On an unrelated note, and at the risk of sounding like an elitist, I wish I wasn't so addicted to TV. Yes, I said addicted. What should I do instead? The obvious first choice is read more. All these books I've bought that lay unread or unfinished. Always convincing myself I'll take a few hours each night to read, working myself back into a better pattern. Have I truly become so lazy that reading is difficult? Or is it an attention span issue?
posted by Brendon at 4:09 PM

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Banner ads on yahoo are really irritating. Yes, they've always been, but of late I think it's gotten worse.

Today, I come across two fantastic banner ads I must describe for those that may not have seen them.

First, there's info for an online diet place. The image starts off with a picture of a womans face being lovingly caressed by a man's hand. The caption reads "Remember when you felt beautiful?"...lose 10 pounds if 5 weeks and get back to that point...or something along those lines. Awesome marketing. If you don't lose 10 pounds, no one will love you again, that's the underlying message, right? And we all know that those exposed to banner ads on a consistent basis (addicted internet users) don't often have body or self image problems, right?

Of course, X10 ads are still the worst. Under the pretense of selling cameras for home security monitoring, all ads now are obligated to have that soft-core feel too them. Today I see an X10 "lady" making a porno-face of sorts, with the caption "satisfy your curiousity". Now, what exactly does this have to do with home security monitoring? Every X10 camera ad sells the idea that with their devices you can better monitor hot women in your house, doing who knows what. Security...uhh...no. I'm starting to feel bad I ever purchased their products in the past.

Done beating a dead horse...
posted by Brendon at 4:55 PM

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I'm bored now, so naturally looking for something new. Tied down at work, the obvious outlet is the internet. What to do. How about find personally uncharted websites. Not the typical "news for nerds" or headline news type of sites I frequent. Something different. If you've got it, post it.

My discoveries so far are few. At yahoo, I found a small collection entitled "X of the day"...you know, daily lists. Perhaps something there will yield new insight or humor, who knows.

This in turn led me famousbirthdays.com an ugly site that returns purely trivial information that I still somehow mange to follow. Let me tell you that I'm so happy to know I share a birthdate with notables like...uhh...Pauly Shore. But wait, there's Clark Gable, and John Ford, and BORIS YELTSIN! Perhaps I too am destined for greatness. No, I don't really believe that where the stars were the day I was born matter.

I've heard Peacfire before, but their Blocked site of the Day page might be an interesting hit once it a while. It will gently remind anyone why content based internet filtering is tough to do without those pesky false positives.

And then, there's the foolish. Apparrently these nuts got sick of the Subway ads featuring Jared (I'm just speculating) and decided to have a contest in which they'd *gain* 30 pounds in 30 days. MTV, are you taking notes!?! I'm sure you could somehow turn this into a show. Should I mention that the editor of this site ran his own challenge where his goal was to infect himself with athletes foot? That's too gross to bother reading, just knowing it's out there is enough to make me, oh, I don't know.

And lastly (well, not really, but I grow weary of this entry) I stumble across waytoopersonal.com. Looks like folks with a habit of placing online personals get some weird responses at times. Gee, go figure. Anyway, some of the strange responses are here. Does a guy really think a date is inevitable with a one-liner like "My little pet rabbit says you sure are pretty ...". What does that even mean!?!

Lastly, lastly..really. There's adbusters.org. I'm all for law an order. I don't pirate music, I'm into *fair* fair use. I won't go tag up walls. Yet somehow, a part of me approves when a little guy sticks it to certain big guys. If you can change a Microsoft billboard to be more truthful, so be it. I'm still trying to convince my brother it would be OK for him and his friends to invest time by either a) safely but effectively disrupting some "important" MTV event, or b) Disrupting the orbit of satellites during the airing of either "Survivor", "Fear Factor", any Fox show besides "The Simpsons" of course, and, lets say, that very special episode of "Friends". Ideas found here?



posted by Brendon at 12:38 PM

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Today, I have made a simple discovery.

I think people are more willing to talk to me when I wear my contacts instead of glasses. This is due to my recent interactions with employees at Starbucks, and some other thing over the weekend I can't quite remember.

Now, if I can just drop my habit of squinting and relax, I'm sure my eyes would bother me less.
posted by Brendon at 11:52 AM

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Yesterday, I displayed a disappointing lack of self control with food. During the course of the day, I probably at the equavalent of a large bar of chocolate, with way too many marshmallows and peanut butter. Perhaps, I should go to the store again and get some food that has some color to it. As a result, today I feel quite gross. Off to get some oatmeal, I suppose.

At least I managed to be somewhat productive and do about half the cleaning my room needs. A cleaner room, open blinds, and sunlight is a good mood changer I'm sure.

So, I'm still curious as to why I haven't and whether I should try flirting with this girl at the Starbucks across the street. It's not like it will go anywhere, but, just seems like something interesting and productive to do. We'll see.
posted by Brendon at 12:22 PM

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