1. What is your favorite non-alcholic drink? Why?
I'm a big fan of 7up and Gatorade. I like 7up for the bubbles, and Gatorade because my Mammaw always had a jug of it in her fridge, so I learned to love it!

2. Do you drink? If so, what's your favorite alcoholic drink?
I go thru phases. Currently, I'm on a 'healthy' kick and am not really drinking. However, when I am drinking, my two favorites are scotch and beer. I'm also a sucker for sweet martini drinks.

3. What liquids do you drink most often?
Water and green Gatorade. I drink at least 32 oz of water everyday at work, and then usually about 32oz of something else at home. I throw in the Gatorade to mix things up.

(I decided to go mindless this week...go with it!)

1. What is your favorite non-alcholic drink? Why?

3. What liquids do you drink most often?

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So, my eye perscription has flip-flopped between two specific numbers over the years. Apparently, it's switched back to the lesser number, which is why I've had to wear my glasses for the past almost 2 months, and haven't been able to wear my contacts for more than an hour without getting a horrible headache. And even tho I got my eyes checked on 8/7, they seemed to have changed since then. I think some of it was due to the stress of getting off my meds. But, I have the correct perscription contacts in, and I can see! My eyes are adjusting to the correct strength again, so it'll take a day or two, but I'm not in the horrible pain (with constant clusters in my vision) like I was! I'ma go to Lense Crafters and get new lenses tomorrow. They'll replace them for free since I've had them less than 90 days! I'll also have to do something about them getting scratched to shit by themselves. I've had those things less than 30 days and it looks like I've had them 30 years. Sheesh.

Anyway, one less thing to worry about!

Things are slowly getting better in my land. I've been struggling with Life, the Universe, and Everything, but I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Friday night, I went to go see Henry Rollins speak on the Berkeley campus, which was cool. He was pissed off as usual, and it's always entertaining to hear his stories. The rest of the weekend was spent laying low and playing Rock Band.

I have spent the past month or so basically doing nothing, or wanting to do nothing. I think it's time to start putting things on the schedule again, so I'm making an effort to do that. I'm staying home with Josh tonight, and going out tomorrow night. This weekend, we're going to Tahoe to hang out with some people. Next week, I have a test thing on Tuesday, but have plans for Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

I've still got these stupid headaches, and I'm wondering if my perscription is wrong, so I'm getting it double checked tomorrow. Maybe I just need to do some muscle exercises or something. We'll see what eye dooder has to say. Hell, I can't even wear my contacts right now. I haven't been able to for a month!

Anyway, I'm hoping for a better week this week...can't rain all the time.

I'm all for inducting Metallica into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just as long as they specifically state dates for which they are being inducted for.

"Metallica is being inducted for their musical genius and imput to metal and rock and roll for the years 1981-1991".

That way, no one would be confused as to what they were talking about! :P

1. Are you generally healthy? Do you have anything that requires a regular perscription of some sort?
Mostly! I take b/c, but that's it. I'm done with perscription drugs.

2.Do you react okay to drugs your doctor gives you when you have an infection or a condition?
My body's pretty sensitive, so anything affects me pretty strongly. I'm pretty done with going to doctors for the most part.

3. Have you ever had a bad experience/allergic reaction to any drugs you've been given by a doctor?
Yeah, my doctor thought putting me on Neurontin was risky, but a good idea. It turned out to be one of the worst things I've ever experienced in my entire life. I'll never mess with my nervous system like that ever again.

1. Are you generally healthy? Do you have anything that requires a regular perscription of some sort?

3. Have you ever had a bad experience/allergic reaction to any drugs you've been given by a doctor?

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I just haven't felt like being social, so I haven't been posting. I'm still getting back to a normal shade of weird, and it takes a lot out of me lately. My boss has decided to move on to greater frontiers, causing me stress because I didn't know if I still had a joba. They want to hold on to me for awhile because they're awesome, so at least that stress isn't so bad. I am very fortunate and grateful.

Tonight, Steph took me to sushi for dinner, which was great! I hadn't seen her in awhile, and I was starting to miss her!

Now I'm home, so I'm gonna go watch a little TV and then go to bed. I gotz a stupid headache today.

Name 3 goals that you have for yourself that you want to accomplish by the end of the year.

1. I want my work situation to remain stable.

3. I want to lay low in general. I feel life has gotten a little too chaotic lately.

Name 3 goals that you have for yourself that you want to accomplish by the end of the year.

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1. I am so very not impressed with the new Apple products. They stopped making anything over 120gb for the iPo, they don't offer a 4 gig nano, the nano's are ugly, and the interface still fucking sucks ass.

2. At almost 33 years of age, I am still a very firm believer in the fact that I do not ever want human children of my own. I am good with kids, and love to be around them, but 24/7 of that would literally drive me insane, and I understand why mother is certifiable.

3. 3.5 weeks after being off my meds, I am *still* having an incredibly hard time with life. I keep learning hella interesting things about my psyche, but I'm ready to go back to being fricking boring as all hell for a little while :P

4. Nothing is permanent. Go with the flow or drown :P

I'm a Jaded, Cynical, Confused, and Emotional Panda today...I'm a handful!

The withdrawl process of getting off the Neurontin has been a psychologically traumatic experience. Really really! I had horrible headaches, horrible headspace issues, haven't been able to wear my contacts because the hypertension has been so bad....it's been pretty misreable. But, I'm 3.5 weeks into it, and things are getting easier and better everyday. I keep having bubbles of normalcy that keep getting longer and longer, so that's good! I figure I still have another week or so of still feeling janky. My chiropractor is *finally* back in the country after my acupuncturist and massage guy overloaded my nervous system, so I went to see him yesterday, where he put everything back into place. I'm gonna go see him again next week also. He's done more good for this than anyone else has! I've also been a good girl while my brain is trying to adjust, and haven't been partying or drinking. It's fairly boring, but it sure beats how things were.

I don't have an addictive personality, so I don't get the concept of having to quit something, but that damn stuff changed my brain chemistry in such a way that I'm convinced that it *does* more harm than good. I wouldn't sue over such a drug, but damn...I know how real addicts feel now.

Because I'm stuck wearing glasses full time right now (and because I absolutly hate the pair of glasses I have...never go to Costco), I went and had a new pair made today. They look like the ones in the picture, cept for that they're purple! They cost a little more than I wanted to pay, but what the hell. When it comes to glasses, you definatly get what you pay for.

I've got Munchkin Duty all of the rest of this week, which should be fun! Friday, I'm gonna grab Jag (my stray) and take him to his new house! I'm greatful that finding him a home wasn't so hard. He may be old and kinda grumpy, but aren't we all?

Speaking of getting old and being grumpy, a few weeks ago, I noticed these open sores on Squeeek's chin. His hair is thinning there cause he's getting old. After doing some reading online yesterday, I was mortified to learn that it's probly my fault. Apparently, the plastic food and water bowls that they eat and drink out of have harbored some kind of bacteria, forming this 'acne' skin condition. z0rg has them too! Helen didn't get it cause she's so young (and her immune system is better), but I need to learn to be more mindful of my 2 old men! I sterilized all of their food and water bowls. IPlastic bowls were thrown out and replaced with either Corel dishes, or stainless steal dishes until I can go purchase new ones. So, once a week, I will just wash all of their food and water bowls, which should make the problem go away. But I feel so bad! It could have also been fleas too, so I gave everyone Advantage. But, because Helen didn't get them, I'm pretty sure it's a getting older thing. No one complained at all...I'm a bad mommy :/. At least I figured it out!

Anyway, that's about it for me. I'd like a restful nap!

I just read a review of the new Metallica album written by Cosmos Lee on the Pitchfork site. *Damn*, it's harsh. Full of truths, but wow. I would never ever want to piss this person off in real life, is all I gotta say :P. I may even go out on a limb to say that it's harsh enough to make even Lars Ulrich ashamed of himself.

But, truth hurts, don't it?

The show last night was *awesome*. Josh and I met up with Ivan at Ben & Nicks for preshow beers and food. Our waiter's drummer is dating Josh Freese, and did the drum studio tracks just that morning for their album! How cool is that?

We got to the Oakland Coliseum some time after 8p (after riding the train with a crazy Jesus Freak....she kept going on about how everything she was wearing was $2 and her 9yo kids pops up with, "...and that dress! That dress cost two dollas too!". Hehe...she won best comment of the night!)

Just as we found some friends and said our hellos, the lights went down and Reznor and camp took the stage. We were fairly close to the sound and lighting setups, so I watched a lot of what they were doing last night. The sound guy was *rocking out* the entire show, having the time of his life. That guy looked like he was in 7th heaven. "I'm doing sound for NIN...could this get *any* fucking better? No, not really....oh, and I could be sitting in that nice high-backed chair, but I think I will just take my shirt off and rock out instead". I've never seen a crew member have that much fun in my entire life. It was awesome. He did an excellent job, too. The sound at the same venue in 2005 was nowhere as good. The lights and effects setup was pretty amazing too. They did some neato things with it and emo screens. They had a huge main lightboard with 2-3 screens, a sequencer program running on a lappy, and then 2 mac books running various other things. Talk about geeking out! And it was pretty well done, too. Reznor went above and beyond the call of duty, as usual. The only other cool thing they could have done was to let you pay an extra $50 and get a tour of the lights and sound setup. Knowing how they did a lot of those affects would be really cool.

Anyway, he played for 2.5 hours or so, and apparently, right thru a 4.2 earthquake! I was standing on the floor, but the whole damn building was shaking already, so there would have been no way for me to feel it unless it was much stronger. Everyone had a good time, Josh drank too much like he likes to do when I'm around at shows, oh, and I got pelted with an entire soda, but whatever! Everyone had a great time. Kevin took us all back to our cars at Rockridge, and we came home and passed out.

Thanks for an awesome show, Reznor. It's good to know that you still have it, unlike certain other bands out there!

Extreme's new album "Saudades de Rock" sounds like they picked up where they left off after 'Waiting For The Punchline'. While I normally would not appreciate that, I like this new album. I've always liked Extreme, tho. Ever since I heard 'Play With Me' when I saw 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" in...what, 1988? Sure, the new album doesn't sound anything like their first two albums, but their progression seems to have been natural and unforced, and it happened in such a way where I didn't wince like I was being hit. I have been playing this album about once a day since last week, and I'm already half-singing along to the songs. So, yay for this album!

Last week, I bought and downloaded a 32 re-mastered set of Tesla tracks. They are comprised of all of the singles off all their albums, plus a handful of tracks that were on imports or not released at all. I had all of those tracks in crappy quality, but now I have them in 256 quality, so yay! I have been listening to this almost every day as well. I can't wait for the new album to come out on 10/7! I heart my boys :)

So, see, it's not *all* bad! I was pretty much expecting to be disappointed by the new Metallica. I was pretty much expecting to like the new Extreme album and remastered Tesla tracks. But you know what? I wanna be surprised by something. Can music do that for me anymore?

But, again, I was jaded and wrong. The new Metallica album is not *substandard*, per se, but it is more like they took the first 5 albums, mooshed them up and re-arranged the music, and then added bad Hetfield vocals on top of that. Not bad lyrically, but after 1991, when he started adding the Bob Rock 'yeeeaaaah' 's on top of everything, it got pretty intollerable.

Much like GnR's 'Illusions' albums, if you took out the vocal track, this album would be *awesome*. They spend the first couple minutes of every song proving that they can still play their instruments. I can't take that away from them. They can! It's good. But the vocals are just bad. Hetfield has lost it. Sorry buddy. They sound way over-produced. 10 tracks, and each one is 5-9 minutes each. At about track #7, I wanted to pull my hair out. I seriously thought Josh was kidding when he mentioned something about 'The Unforgiven III', but no, sadly, he was correct. Were the first two not bad enough? When will they stop the torture?

I'm also a little disappointed in Rick Ruben. His resume is impressive as hell, and I kinda expected better out of him. The music is well-produced, but again, the vocals are just...bad, in my opinion. But consistant with say, all of the badly-produced-vocals of RHCP after 'Bloodsugarsexmagik'. Maybe I just don't like his vocal production style after the early 1990's. That could be it too. Personal opinion and all. Afterall, I am admittedly a very harsh music critic. I have lots of opinions :P.

So, I can't give this Metallica album a 0, but I can't give it any better than a 6 or 7 either. I may download a few tracks to GH when it comes out, because I can see 'playing' some of these tracks might be fun, but I do not think from a 'sitting down and listening to music' perspective, that this album has any place in my music collection.

I have just moved on, I suppose.

1. Well, it's almost Fall! Did you have a good summer? Why/why not?
It certainly wasn't the summer that I had planned for the most part, but it wasn't too bad. I'm anticipating on the fall being a little less chaotic.

2. Do you have anything special going on this fall? What is it? If not, do you want to plan something special to do?
The only thing I have planned is a cabin trip at the end of September, which should be cool. I'll also have some medical tests lined up to determine how to fix some stuff once and for all, which'll make my future a little less stressful, which'll be good.

3. Obligatory Fall Question: Are there any favorite TV shows that you watch starting up again this fall? If so, what are they? If not, is there another event in a hobby that's coming up that you're looking forward to?
'Eli Stone' got a second season, so I was pretty happy about that. And BSG won't start again until sometime in 2009, so that'll be a wait. Other than those 2 shows, I don't really watch TV with any regularity. I find most of it to be crap, personally.

1. Well, it's almost Fall! Did you have a good summer? Why/why not?

3. Obligatory Fall Question: Are there any favorite TV shows that you watch starting up again this fall? If so, what are they? If not, is there another event in a hobby that's coming up that you're looking forward to?

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I love 4-day weeks...less bullshit to deal with!

Josh came home Saturday night and we spent the evening just hanging out and spending time with each other. Sunday, we went to a tkost BBQ, where I appear to have left one of my Heorot hoodies (d0h!). Yesterday, we just bummed around the house, played a little GH/Rock Band, and then I sat next to Josh and crochet'd for a bit while he played Civ.

Not too much to write about! Tonight, I'm taking "I" his car, his keys, his wallet, his money, and his fone...you know, the non-important things he didn't take to Burning Man :P. Tomorrow, I think Josh and I are going to dinner at Cato's, since we haven't been there in awhile. Thursday, he's making me dinner at home, and Friday is the NIN show. Monday is Mogwai, and then I have Munchkin Duty Tuesday thru Friday, so this week and next week are pretty busy!