2007 March archive at Jill’s Life Updates and Random Thoughts

Archive for March, 2007

Mar

H-Town Goodies

By Jill 2 Comments

Categories: Life Updates, Photos, Audio Posts and Videos

As you faithful blog-readers are well aware, I took a little trip last weekend to the lovely town of Houghton, NY. I had a wonderful time hanging out with friends/interviewing bands/sleeping more than usual, and I now have some delightful things to share with you.

First of all, and I wasn’t really aware of this, but apparently taking distorted pictures with an iSight camera is the single most fun thing to do in the universe. So people (*cough*LeslieandMindy*cough*) just took pictures of themselves with my computer all weekend long. And since I know you want to see me and my dear friends, here is a link to a lovely website that contains many of the pictures taken:

Houghton Pictures - March 2007

Next of all, I have a lovely video clip of my friends being crazy. Yes, crazy. I personally think they’re pretty funny, but there’s a good chance that you won’t think so if you weren’t there. But feel free to watch anyways. Just know that I warned you. Here is a link to watch it on YouTube:

Houghton Trip Video on YouTube

Lastly, my friend Mindy really wanted to be on my podcast, but I had to say no because of her bad musical taste. So instead, I “interviewed”/conversed with her and agreed to post it on the blog. We discuss Mindy’s bad taste in music (and my awesome taste in music), not watching movies, TV being the devil, the ethics of war, stalkers and pee (we’re very mature, I promise). I’m pretty sure only Mindy will listen to the whole thing, so here you go, Mindy… (just click the link and it should start playing)

Mindy’s “Interview”

Wow, that all makes me look like I have about two friends at Houghton. I do have more friends than just Mindy and Leslie. I swear. There are at least two others. umm… right, so that’s all I have for you.

I would like to thank the following people: Mindy for letting me take over her room, Leslie for co-hosting my podcast and encouraging me to participate in illegal music-sharing activities, Diana for being cool and for yelling at me for not going to church ever, Gina for letting me take over her apartment and for also yelling at me for not going to church or talking to God (aren’t my friends sweet? but really, I needed that. And by “yelling” I don’t actually mean yelling.), other people for other things. You all are wonderful and many hours in the car were worth it to see you. I hope I can come back soon (like, tomorrow).

I promise that someday soon I will blog about something meaningful and important and maybe even interesting. Someday…

Fondest regards,
Jill

Mar

I miss my bed.

By Jill 0 Comments

Categories: Life Updates

OK, quick random life update. For the past 10 days, I have been housesitting. I know what you’re thinking: “ooh, great opportunity to have wild parties every night!”, right? Well, I think I got that out of my system in middle school, so it was just me. But I did have a cute dog, and a hot tub, and a cleaning lady. Yes, I got paid for that. Try not to be jealous.

Now that the housesitting stage of my life has ended, I am leaving tomorrow to traverse the great state of New York for 4.5 days. I will be doing the following things during my time there:

-Hanging out with my (unspeakably awesome) friends at my ex-school.

-Interviewing Houghton’s very own rock stars.

-Lunching in Ithaca with my dear friend Gina, who I (regrettably) haven’t seen in over a year.

-Interviewing the ever-talented Casados and then (probably) attending their concert and then having a sleepover at Gina’s!

I’m pretty darn excited. I’m especially excited for the 14 or so hours I’ll be spending in the car (not). At least it will afford me some quality time to spend alone with my iPod. We get along really well, me and my iPod.

I also have been finding tons of amazing new music for my podcast, so if you listen to it, be excited. If you don’t listen to it, you should start now. Whether or not you listen to my podcast, I want you all to know about this artist: Dabney Morris (found for me by Greg… thanks, Greg). The more I listen to him, the more surprised and delighted I am at his musicianship. Go listen to him at myspace.com/dabneymorris. I promise that you won’t regret it (I feel confident saying that to all the people who I know read this blog… well, except Liz, who doesn’t generally appreciate good music). So there’s my shameless musician plug of the day. There are 24456 others I could tell you about, but it would take too much energy to type them all, so I won’t.

I also just got a new audio interface and a (beautiful) new microphone, which I’m super-excited about. Or will be, when I can figure out how to get the interface to work properly. I’m going to call and harass my Sweetwater sales guy with questions in the morning. I’m sure he’ll appreciate that. For now though, I must be off to finish laundry and pack my life into my car (you’d be surprised at how much stuff one person could need for 4 days).

Ok, I’m off. Enjoy your mundane jobs/classes while I am having fun hanging out with awesome people on my mini-vacation.

love from me and mela,
Jill

Mar

WOTW 03/18/07

By Jill 0 Comments

Categories: WOTW

Hey all, and welcome to the word of the week! I apologize for the lack of wordage last week… I don’t really have a good excuse, but I hope to make up for it this week with yet another super-fantastic word. As always, remember to use this word as much as is humanly possible in your everyday conversations, in order to spread your superior knowledge with your less intelligent friends. Here it is:

-intempestive (in-tem-pes’tiv) adj. –> untimely; inopportune
Ex: The girl was being chased by a crazy, obsessive stalker, which made it an intempestive time for her to run out of gas.

And now, for this week’s random, word-related fact:

The word “decimate” doesn’t mean to wipe out or exterminate, as many think. A clue to its derivation is the prefix “deci-,” which means one tenth of something. Originally, the word described a bizarre punishment practiced on Roman soldiers. Disobedient legions would have every tenth man killed.

Alright, friends, I hope you enjoyed our time together as much as I did. Have a wonderful week, and I will be back in approximately 7 days with more wonderful words. Au revoir, mes petites crevettes!

Fondest regards,
Jill, M.D.

Mar

Best. Diet. Ever.

By Jill 14 Comments

Categories: Random Facts

One of the women I work with was looking up diets the other day. She was considering all the usual ones; you know, South Beach, Atkins, etc etc. Now, I’m not a fan of diets, but she really found one that suits me well. It goes something like this:

The Pasta-Chocolate Diet

The Pasta-Chocolate Diet focuses on:

Pastas
Pasta sauces
Salads with low-calorie, fat-free dressings
Vegetables
Fresh fruit
Popcorn (air-popped, no butter or salt)
Chocolate (1 ounce)
Water (2 quarts per day)

On the Pasta-Chocolate Diet you are encouraged to swap items for meals as needed and snack between meals. Having options for meals allows one to adjust the diet according to whim or desire…

An excellent point of the diet is that total abstinence could be counter-productive. That is why the diet includes snacking and satisfaction of your craving for chocolate, although you are limited to a 1 ounce serving of chocolate. An ounce of chocolate is equivalent to 1/4 cup chocolate chips, 2/3 Hershey bar, or one square of semi-sweet baking chocolate.

It is assumed that one could substitute the 1 ounce chocolate portion of this diet for any 1 ounce, non-diet food item that you crave.

So if you replace air-popped popcorn with unsalted rice cakes, that pretty much looks like my diet. Here’s the thing that kills it, though:

The following items are to be avoided while on the Pasta-Chocolate Diet:

Alcoholic beverages

Salt/sodium

Sugars (artificial sweeteners are okay)

Oils

Oily fruits (avocados, olives, coconuts)

High sugar/cal fruits (raisins, figs, dates)

Fried foods

Dairy products

Red meats

Nuts and seeds

Unauthorized snacks (chips, junk food, candies, cakes, pies, etc.)

Coffee/caffeine

Carbonated soft drinks

I like dairy products. And unauthorized snacks (lately I’m addicted to potato chips). And alcoholic beverages. You know I can’t live without those. (That’s a joke. Only sinners drink alcoholic beverages. And I don’t sin. Ever. Unless being awesome is a sin.) So really what I want is the pasta-chocolate-cheese-chip diet. Yum.

With my undying affection,
Jill

PS - I was just kidding. I do sin. On occasion. And I still love you even if you drink alcoholic beverages.

PPS - If you’d like to learn more about the Pasta-Chocolate diet, you can go here.

Mar

Le concerto de Switchfoot

By Jill 3 Comments

Categories: Music News and Discussions

Ideal situation: Arriving early to a concert, securing a place in line, getting a spot near the stage, being tall, and being able to see what’s going on.

Not-ideal situation: Not arriving early to a concert because you have a job, not getting a spot anywhere remotely close to the stage, being short, and not being able to see anything at all.

I’ll give you three guesses which one describes me.

But in spite of the lack of visibility, the Switchfoot/Copeland concert I attended on Friday night was fantastic. They are two bands who are both probably in my top 10 (top 15 definitely), so this was a concert that I was eagerly anticipating, and it did not disappoint.

I had heard that Copeland wasn’t as good live as on their album, so I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. They were pretty good, except the instruments all sounded a bit mushed together, and I couldn’t really hear the singer at all. But they had a lot of energy/passion, which makes up for a lot when you’re doing a live show. And I knew most of the songs already, which made it easier for me to enjoy.

Even the worst opening act in the world (which Copeland was not) couldn’t have diminished the excitement of seeing Switchfoot live. Man, they packed a ridiculous amount of energy into that show. They started out strong with “Awakening”, which is one of the catchiest songs from the new album (and also one of my favorites), and the rest of the show followed suit. My favorite moments went something like this: using guitars as microphones (a strange but wonderful sound), jumping on drums, cowbells, the fatal wound, acoustic only hope, general rockingness. Seriously, even though they are total rock stars, even from a distance, the guys of Switchfoot seem like totally humble, normal, honest guys. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t feel at all starstruck when Jon Foreman took a walk around the theater to stand about 10 feet away from us less fortunate people in the back. I felt glad to be able to see, and that there were suddenly a ton of energetic people around me, but not at all starstruck.

So after lots of great songs and some thunderous applause from the (ridiculously loud) crowd, Switchfoot ended out the show with Dare You to Move. It’s never been my favorite Switchfoot song, mostly because it’s so overplayed, but it really struck a chord with me at that moment. Maybe because lately, everything in me and around me has been screaming out “Take action. Do something.” So it was a good reminder, and a really nice way to end the show. Plus, I got to talk to Copeland’s bass player a bit, which was cool. And I got my bootleg CD of the evening’s show, which was even cooler. So yeah, if you ever get to hear Switchfoot live, I highly recommend that you take advantage of the opportunity, because they’re way cool. Way cooler than me, anyways.

Here’s Jon Foreman, singer extraordinaire:

Jon Foreman

Mar

You bought what?!

By Jill 6 Comments

Categories: Life Updates

So if you’re looking to sell something, you should probably come talk to me, because I’ll buy anything. No lie. And today was no exception. After work today, I drove to the (lovely) Danbury mall and bought myself a very large, very beautiful (not to mention very expensive) 17″ Macbook Pro. My first Mac. It’s a special day. And I just thought you all should know about it, because I’m pretty excited.

Just look at this. One just looks classier than the other (although my camera can’t quite capture its majestic nature).

Two Computers

In other news, I am now completely broke. I’m not sure that I’ll even be able to put gas in my car this week. Heck, I even stole hundreds of dollars from my tithing account to pay for the stupid computer. I’m a terrible person. A happy, terrible person. I’ll pay it back someday (I swear). I should go to bed now, but I’ll probably spend a couple more hours feeling completely computer illiterate, because I don’t know how to run a Mac. What joy…

Here’s my “I’m so happy I bought a mac and can take glowing pictures of myself; I’d be even happier if I wasn’t freezing cold” face. Trust me, only the cool kids sit around and take pictures of themselves. I should know.

Glowing Me

PS - Just so you don’t think I have a problem with compulsive shopping, you should know that I’ve been planning this purchase for months. I didn’t really expect it to happen today, but it did, so I went with it.

PPS - Mom, get psyched, because in a few days, this awesome ThinkPad will be yours. Say goodbye to your $10 recycled computer. Sheesh, it’s about time.

Mar

WOTW 03/04/07

By Jill 0 Comments

Categories: WOTW

I figured I might as well post the WOTW on the blog, since I’m writing it anyways, and it only takes an extra minute to put it up here. So here you go…

Hey all, and welcome to the word of the week! Remember, as always, to use this word as much as is humanly possible in your everyday conversations, in order to spread your superior knowledge to the rest of the world. Here it is:

-gallionic (găl-ĭ-ŏn’ĭk) adj. –> indifferent; careless; irresponsible
Ex: Because we were all gallionic, we didn’t shovel the sidewalk, and were therefore trapped in our house for eight weeks.

And now, for this week’s random fact:

One of the lily’s closest biological relatives is asparagus.

Alrighty, folks, I hope you have a wonderful week, and that you manage to stay warm! And even if you live in a cold, snowy state, be comforted by the fact that you don’t live in this house, where the heat broke last night and we all froze to death (I’m writing this from heaven, actually). Goodbye, good day, goodnight.

With my undying affection,
Jill, M.D.