Computers=The Devil

Yes, yes everyone knows us bloggers are in love with our computers, but do our computers love us back? Or do our computers lay in wait for a chance to make our lives more difficult, and as soon as they sense weakness they spring!! Then they laugh at us. That's what those beeps and occasional whirring noise are, it's laughter. Mocking laughter.

At least that's the conclusion I've come to with my computer, in any case. I'll be sitting there typing away at my Sunaku (My computer's name. Don't ask.) and she will have been working perfectly all day long. Not a peep out of her. Not a glitch or a slow load. Then all of a sudden BAM!! She freezes without warning. Just as I'm going to hit the save button. Then she beeps at me with her mocking laughter beep. Or she will wait until I'm just about to do something online that I'm really excited about and looking forward to and she starts to move incredibly s-l-o-w and whirs at me as she does so.

The only reason she does these things is because she knows she can do it and get away with it. I am.....errr......slightly dependent on my computer, and I can't afford to buy a new one, so throwing her out of the window is not an option. Not that I haven't thought about it anyways.

Now, I know you're tempted to claim "It's just a computer, it's not doing anything on purpose, you're just being paranoid", but don't let them fool you. They are smarter and much more devious than you can possibly imagine. Here is a warning for computer lovers everywhere: You may love your computer, but your computer is just waiting for a time when they can take you down. It's a conspiracy. I just know it, and deep down, you do too.

~If there is any specific topic you would like me to write about, send me an e-mail at BriarBlack@hotmail.com~

Apology and TV Shows

Guys I am so sorry for not posting last night!! You see the thing is, I sat down on my sister's bed around 10:00 to watch a few minutes of TV with her, and the next thing I know I'm waking up at 4:00 a.m. Figures right? Then I was a busy little bumble bee all day so early posting was not on the agenda. Well, I'm back now anyways with my deepest and humblest apology. No more watching TV at night for me before I post.

Speaking of television, has anyone tried watching the new children's cartoon out there? I have a twelve year old sister and a nine year old brother, so of course cartoons are constantly on in my home. I swear if I hear one more Spongebob "Who Lives in a Pineapple under the sea?" theme song I may have to do something drastic. Something truly heinous. Such as hiding all of the remotes in the house. That should break them in about fifteen minutes flat. I really and truly hate Spongebob Squarepants, but for that matter I'm not a big fan of most of the cartoons shows out there.

You know what cartoons I remember watching? Cartoons such as X-men, Spiderman, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hey Arnold, Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, and I'm sure there are more I just can't think about them at the moment. Now what do kids watch? They watch Spongebob Squarepants -shudder- a cartoon about an incredibly stupid Sponge. I mean a Sponge? Come one now, someone, somewhere could have thought of a better creature to base the show around. That and he lives in a pineapple. I won't even start on that one. So they watch Spongebob Squarepants and The Fairly Oddparents. Yes folks two so-called fairy godparents think it's fun to masquerade as a fish and live in a tiny aquarium. I can see they are mentally stable. I say "so-called" fairy godparents because any sane kid that watches that show would probably run screaming if they though that they might get fairy godparents such as these. I seriously think that buck-toothed kid is way better off without them.

What has happened to my beloved Nickelodeon? I loved The Wild Thornberrys, Hey Arnold, Rocket Power, and yes, even the Rugrats to a certain degree. Did you notice that Nickelodeon had multiple shows back then? Not just those four either, they had Doug, Ren and Stimpy and a few others I' m sure I'm leaving out. What do they have now? Spongebob Squarepants and The Fairly Oddparents. Those two, with the occasional Jimmy Neutron thrown in, are the only shows I ever see Nickelodeon playing these days and they're not any good.

The really sad thing about it is, they had two good shows on Nickelodeon Danny Phantom and Avatar The Last Airbender and those are the two they choose to cancel. Oh, Avatar is still technically running, about one new show every three month, and Danny Phantom is over for good. Oh lovely Nickelodeon how the mighty has fallen. Well, it's back to re-runs for me. Thanks for tolerating today's rant. Later.

~If you have a specific topic you would like me to write about, send me an e-mail at BriarBlack@hotmail.com~

Freelancing (again) and Fire

Well it finally happened. I was mundanely checking my e-mail account, not expecting to find anything other than spam, when I came across it. My eyes widened, I nervously clicked on the message. Then it happened..........I got my first freelancing job!!!

It's nothing major, mind you, but like I said in a previous post, once you get your foot in the door getting freelancing opportunities becomes much easier. Not that I'm going to stop steadfastly applying for all of the freelancing jobs that might hire me on. Slow and steady wins the race. It may take time with things like freelancing, but if you keep at it eventually you will get somewhere. You just can't get discouraged.

Now, onto a completely different subject.

Since the recent heatwave my area has been in, I've made it a point to keep any unnecessary ventures out of my home to a minimum. At least until late evening, because if you don't, you die. You would just spontaneously combust after 3.5 minutes outside. Poof. So, because I am thoroughly enjoying life at the moment, I decided to wait until late evening to go out for a walk. I walked out the door, quietly singing to myself, and almost choked. At first glance it looked like I was standing in the middle of a cloud. A very bad-smelling and dark cloud. Although it didn't take my aching lungs long to realize that I was standing in dense smoke. Now, this was not you little "a bonfire got out of hand" or "someone burnt all of the burgers on the grill" smoke. No, this was "run for cover, oh my eyes" and "should I be calling the fire department, the police, Smokey Bear, anyone?!" smoke. Needless to say my anticipated walk didn't happen. Once I got over my shock at seeing my neighborhood looking like the inside of a chimney, I retreated back indoors like the wimp I am.

Apparently there had been some forest fire nearby (once again, call Smokey) probably caused by this killer heat wave we're having. It had better be caused by that. I swear if it was some brat playing with fire, I will hunt them down and.......do nothing anyone can prove. Luckily we're expecting heavy rain tonight, so by tomorrow the smoke, fires, and heat wave should be gone. YaaY!

~If there is any specific topic you want me to write about, send me an e-mail at BriarBlack@hotmail.com~

Vampires, Sleep, and Caffiene

This morning I was peacefully sleeping, curled up in my nice soft bed and catching up on some much-needed REM. Completely unaware that sometime during the night my whole family had apparently morphed into vampires. This morning I was woken up from my innocent dreaming by loud hammering noises. At first I thought that neighbors were working on their house again, since they always manage to do that when I'm trying to catch some shut-eye. Then I realized, the noises were coming from inside the house. By this point my curiosity has been peaked and going back to sleep is out of the question, so I drag myself out of bed and go to investigate. I proceed to find my mother in the living room, nailing a black bed comforter in front of the main window, a dark red blanket already covering the side one.

At this point I probably should have beat a hasty retreat back to my room, making a detour to pick up some garlic from the fridge. Instead, I stood there dumbfounded with my jaw hanging open. I suppose she felt my stunned gaze, since she turned around and noted that I was up awfully early for me. Like I could sleep with all of that hammering. She then begins to explain that the house was simply getting to warm during the day with all of that sun coming in through the windows. According to her, she does not want to put excess stress on our air condition. Yeah right. We know the truth. My mother has become a creature of the night and is turning our previously sunny home into her dark lair. That's the only rational explanation. Right?

Needless to say my now vampiric mother had cut in on my seriously needed sleep. So I stumble to the kitchen to make coffee. Yes folks, I am a coffee addict. I will proudly admit to that fact. I am also a sleep addict, but I never seem to be able to get enough of that. Sleep. Sometimes it seems like a distant illusion to me, for when I finally get to bed, more often than not I wind up lying awake with all of the day's activities running through my mind. I get so caught up thinking, that I forget to sleep, and when I finally begin dosing off it's really late, or early, as the case may be. Then when morning rolls around, I am inevitably woken up early by my sister getting up, our large black rat barking (previous post explains), or my vampire mother hammering. Obviously getting the recommended eight hours is out of the question.

That's when I turn to my best friend caffeine for help. It sustains me through the day, and makes mornings bearable. No I don't have a problem, and I'm not jumpy. Stop looking at me like that. Sleep is just a low-cost substitute for caffeine you know. Really. I'm leaving now.

P.S. Here is a link to a funny video that I thought suited this topic well. Enjoy.

Coffee Addict

~If there is any specific topic you would like me to post about, send me an e-mail at BriarBlack@hotmail.com~

Books with time warps and homing beacons

Sorry about the brief post earlier guys, now here is the real one.

On a side note, before I go into the topic I had planned, my preteen sister found the blog I wrote about her. The scary thing is she didn't get mad. On the contrary when she read the part where I called her conniving, she just shrugged and said it's true and she's not going to deny it. My mind promptly exploded.

Have you ever sat down with a book you were particularly excited about reading before going to bed? You find a nice quite, comfortable location, and curl up ready to lose yourself for a few minutes in another world. Then suddenly you look up and it's one o'clock in the morning!! You stare at the book in horror, realizing it has claimed three hours of your life without your knowledge. Just leeched it away to who knows where.

I have had that happen to me on numerous occasions. I'll sit down to read and hours of my life disappear before my very eyes. Sometimes I think all good books come with time warping devices. Those and homing beacons. I know this is a cliche saying, however, it is applicable in this case: "Sometimes I swear I would lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body." I misplace keys, papers, clothing, jewelry, my purse, but if there is a book I'm interested in reading I couldn't lose it if I wanted to. I'll walk into my room with the every intention of doing something productive, and it will be sitting there. Looking oh-so-harmless, ready to snatch away precious hours of my life as soon as I let my guard down. I'll be searching frantically for my keys, and while the keys have managed to vanish off the face of the planet, everywhere I turn there it is: the book. At times it even seems to follow me. Oh, my family members will claim that I just left it out the last time I was reading, but we know the truth. It's stalking it's reader, waiting for a chance to pull them back into it's time warp.

Luckily for me, I' m a fast reader, so the ever-present sirens call of the book, does not hold sway over me for long. I finish reading it relatively quickly and then run for my life, praying it doesn't have a sequel.

That's why I was so late putting up the latest post, a book had thrown it's time warp over me. See, it wasn't my fault, it was the book's fault. I promise. Really.

~If there is any specific topic you would like me to write about, send me an e-mail at BriarBlack@hotmail.com~

Filler- I'll write more shortly

This is my very short post explaining that between working on my first freelancing job and getting rather caught up in a new book I lost track of time. I will have a real post up in a just a short while.