Life in Beta

Time to put things in perspective. I’m not doing so well in my personal life right now, so I don’t really want to talk about myself. And ya know, that’s a good thing, because there’s a lot more important things to talk about right now, things that make my problems look that much more petty and insignificant.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, The Yarn Harlot (a favorite blogger and author of mine), threw up the Knit-Signal (like the “Bat-signal”, ya know?) yesterday:

As I’m sure most of you know by now, yesterday, while we knit, ate, drank and slept – a massive earthquake struck Haiti, largely effecting the city of Port au Prince. Haiti itself is a very poor country with other problems – and that means two things. (Well. It means a lot of things actually, but lets only dwell on two of them at the moment.) First, it means that they entirely lack the ability to respond to this emergency without a lot of help, and secondly, it means that when the quake struck, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières was already there.
[Read the rest of her blog post.]

I’m sure many people have also seen on Twitter or Facebook that you can donate $10 to the Red Cross by text messaging “Haiti” to 90999.

As of their last press release, the American Red Cross said that “several hundred thousand people have chosen to make a mobile donation” and the latest numbers (not sure if these are accurate) that I’ve been seeing floating around the interwebs are that these mobile donations have hit $3 million.

Do you know how incredible that is? The geek in me is jumping up and down and cheering having observed how technology and social networking can work to do so much good. And the hippie-idealist in me is emotionally overwhelmed by the idea of how many kind hearts that $3 million amounts to.

A friend of mine on Facebook made the comment, “wondering why no one is texting or tweeting to donate money to help, say, the homeless in America.” He has a point, but I think that what’s key here is that this “text message to donate”-success story opens the door to other charities and relief efforts. And THAT, my friends, is exciting. Make it easy for people to do, and they will DO it. Leverage social networks to get the word out, and to make donating the “cool” thing to be participating in. One could argue that it’s manipulative, but I disagree. Companies and individuals marketing comparatively unimportant products do it every day — why not do it for something important, something good? I think you’ll see a lot more of this in the year to come. And ya know… I like that.

On my commute home from work last night, I was scrolling through my iPod, trying to find a new playlist to listen to. That’s when I stumbled upon the automatically-generated Top 25 Most Played playlist. It piqued my curiosity, so I selected it and hit play.

Some songs weren’t a big surprise, but a few seemed completely out of left-field (see #18, for example). So, without further adieu, enjoy my (embarrassing) list, linked to the song/video/band wherever possible…

1. Alone in this Bed (Capeside) by Framing Hanley
2. Wings of a Butterfly (Album Version) by Him
3. Fine Again [Explicit] by Seether — Probably one of my favorite songs ever.
4. Lollipop by Framing Hanley
5. Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey — Any top-songs list in my world has to include Journey!
6. Lost in a Memory by Casting Shadows — My favorite song by friends’ band.
7. Never Leave by Seether
8. Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts
9. Happens All the Time (Album Version) by Cold
10. Crazy Bitch by Buckcherry
11. Better Off by Casting Shadows
12. You Think You’re a Man (7″ Radio Edit) by Full Frontal — Random song from the Queer as Folk season 1 soundtrack. I love me some dance-music.
    
13. Dear God by Avenged Sevenfold
14. I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry
15. Girl Next Door by Saving Jane
16. Addicted [Explicit] by Saving Abel
17. Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood — One of my favorite songs to sing at the top of my lungs when I’m alone in the car.
18. Joyride by Roxette — I don’t even know what to say about this one. I have NO IDEA how it got on here. Really.
19. Reckless by Alabama — One of my favorite songs to crank up when driving with the t-tops off on my 300ZX.
20. Cure My Tragedy by Cold
21. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley — Can’t believe this is on here! At my old job, a coworker of mine used to listen to this on repeat All. Day. LONG. I can’t stand this song anymore.
22. More than a Feeling by Boston
23. The Way I Are by Timbaland featuring Heri Hilson & D.O.E. — Totally random! I love the beat and it’s another song I love to turn up loud when I’m driving in the Z.
24. Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane — Uh, DUH … total car-song!
25. I’m in a Hurry by Alabama — Apparently I’ve been on an Alabama-kick recently?

If you have an iPod or other MP3 player that aggregates your “Top ‘X’ Songs”, I dare you to have a look, then post about it at your blog and comment here with the link, or just post your list in the comments!

I’ll be turning 28 at the end of February. In the past, I’ve always dreaded my birthday. If I could have stopped time, I think I’d have stayed about 17 forever. (I had a hell of a good time as a teenager…)

Turning 27 last year was a difficult birthday for me, for some reason. It was just that much to the side of being past mid-20′s and into late-20′s, and it freaked me out. I spent my birthday feeling sorry for myself, despite my friends trying their best to cheer me up.

A good thing came out of it though: a few days after I turned 27, it started to sink in that birthdays will come and go and sulking about it wasn’t going to do a damn bit of good. (DUH!) Perhaps not much of a revelation, but once you let this truly soak in to your psyche, you realize that it’s silly not to celebrate every moment and enjoy it for what it is.

So this year, I’m looking forward to 28. There’s a small part of it that bothers me. Ya know, the part where 30 is oh-so rapidly approaching. But what’s the point of being upset? Besides, 28 just sounds like a good number to me. A happy number, even! I’m going to go with it…

A dear friend of mine turns 27 later this month and he’s taking it hard for the same reasons I’ve had in the past. Getting older just isn’t fun sometimes. I’m trying really hard to think of the good things about being in your late-20′s, so that I can cheer him up.

IDEAS, anyone!? Share in the comments, please…

Ya’ll… it’s Monday and I’m feeling completely brain-dead.

I spent my weekend mostly covered in paint. As I think I’ve mentioned before, I had to paint our bathroom. I always seem to get temporary amnesia and think, Oh painting isn’t so bad.

No. It freaking SUCKS. You know why!? Because I can’t seem to ever paint a room without stepping in the effing paint!!

I’m not joking. I had paint covering the bottoms of both feet (thankfully I was barefoot). I also had it in my hair (despite having worn a bandanna), covering my entire left shoulder (because I backed into a wet wall on accident) and of course all over my hands.

At least it’s pretty much DONE.

I spent my evenings knitting and finishing my February Lady Sweater, which I’ve had on the needles for over a year and haven’t touched since last winter.

I’m really excited to get to wear it! If you want to read more about this sweater and my other knitting projects, have a look at my other blog: Mandi Knits.

When I wasn’t painting or knitting this weekend, I was watching marathons of Forensic Files, Snapped, Haunting Evidence, and some special on the Zodiac Killer. I don’t know WTF was up with that, but needless to say I had myself scared stupid all weekend. So last night before bedtime I threw in some good ol’ Iron Chef America to balance it out.