R.I.P & A Good Investment

I've had the same trusty cell phone for the past two years with very few problems - it even withstood falling out of my pocket on a roller coaster (a week after I got it). But lately, it's just been acting up - not ringing when it's supposed to, not delivering me my voicemail on time, and a few days ago, when I closed it after a conversation, the top came completely off one of the hinges! (See picture above)

So now I'm on the market for a new phone, but I want to get it for free, since I think AT&T owes me an upgrade at this point. I'm leaning towards an LG slider, but who knows if that'll even be available. Anyway, I'll probably be making a trip to the AT&T store some time in the near future, hopefully.

On a more cheerful note, I went shopping for the first time in like, ever, the other day. Mostly I just looked and tried stuff on, but I have a zip-up hoodie hiding at the bottom of a clearance pile so that no one else will buy it until I come back for it. (I'm hoping it'll go down from $48 to $32 if I wait long enough....) The one thing I did buy though was this really cute vest... I'm pretty stoked about it. I don't really have anything to go underneath it right now, but it's gray and black, so it'll go with pretty much anything. I think Clinton and Stacey from What Not to Wear would be proud.

All About The Musique

Yesterday, when I was looking for the artwork for a Feist CD online, I happened to stumble across this really awesome blog called La Musique which lets you download all this amazing indie music! I found a couple of things that I've been looking for for ages, and haven't been able to find, like a Brazilian band I really like called Cansei de ser Sexy. I've never tried downloading music before, but the site seemed pretty legit so I tried a CD. It got to my computer fine and everything, the only problem is that it's in an RAR file, and I have no idea what the hell to do with it... I tried opening in my iTunes, which didn't work, and now I'm really at a loss.

So hopefully I'll be able to work that out someday... but if anyone happens to know how to fix it, that would be so great!

V as in Victor? No - Z as in... Zebra!

Today I started work helping an older lady learn how to use her computer, and everything was going pretty well until she wanted to scan something, and it wouldn't work. I kept getting an error message that it wasn't hooked up to the computer properly, so I tried to run the setup disk. It wouldn't read. So I called the support number, and after waiting for ten thousand years listening to their annoyingly perky jazz waiting music, they answered. Needless to say, the man had an almost indecipherable Indian accent. At least he was helpful and nice. I just couldn't understand what he was saying.

Anyway, he told me to go to the hp website, and download the software from there, since the disk wouldn't work, and after waiting another hour and a half for it to finish loading, I tried the scanner again and it still wouldn't work. I almost died. It was horrible. So I called them again and waited for ten thousand more years and then a different guy with an at least equally, if not more indecipherable Indian accent picked up. He kept using really funny phrases like "I think it would be for your best wishes to do this." But, he was like "I can't help you because your warranty expired." (Except he used much less decisive and intelligible language than that.)

The result of all this was, that she's going to go and buy a whole new scanner. I'll probably help her set it up next week, and hopefully I won't have so much trouble then. Not that I dislike the trouble myself, I just hate the feeling that I'm wasting someone's time because of stupid things that are out of my control.

Nothing Says Romance Like Roasting Frog Legs

So the other day I was flipping through the tv guide menu, and I saw a reality show on Cartoon Network called Survive This! I know what you're thinking - first of all, the fact that there is a reality show on Cartoon Network is just wrong. But I was intrigued. So I started watching it. It actually wasn't all that exciting - pretty much just a bunch of teenagers sitting around a campfire complaining about how hungry and tired they were. But it was just interesting enough to keep my attention, and on a whim I looked the show up on Wikipedia the next day.

From what I'd seen of the show, there was obviously something going on between Adam (the one with longish brown hair) and Jenn (the girl he has his arm around). They shared a plate of oatmeal! Enough said. Besides, everybody else on the show was talking about how those two liked each other. But when I looked the show up on Wikipedia, under the character bios, it said that Becky gets pregnant with Adam's love child! One, this is supposed to be a kids' show! Two, he's obviously not interested in Becky... Jenn should be the one getting pregnant! Three, when do they even have time to have sex on that show? They're way too busy foraging and whatnot.

But however it happened, my attention was definitely caught. I'm going to be avidly watching that show from now on.

No Speak English???

Yesterday, I was downtown and my mom wanted me to get her an iced tea. Being the extremely generous and kind-hearted person that I am, I had no objection. Besides, I wanted to buy one too. So I walked down the street to the tea store, and got my two glasses of tea from the self-serve dispenser. While I was doing this, I noticed a family (or maybe just a lady on a date?) with two children. (It kind of seemed like it was a lady and her son and a guy and his daughter but they were together at any rate.) The reason they caught my notice was because the kids were extremely noisy and irritating. I really, really dislike overly noisy kids. They were not only noisy, but they were greedy - they wanted to buy everything in the store - and they were running around haphazardly.

However, I wasn't going to let that bother me. I finished getting my iced teas, stole all the sugar packets from the sugar packet area, (there were only 3 left, so it wasn't that horrible of me,) and went to the register to pay. This was when it went from mildly irritating to extremely exasperating. The same woman that had no control over her kids was now trying to pay for $9 worth of food with a $100 bill. Throw into that mix the fact that she couldn't speak English!!! It took forever for the lady at the cash register to finally get through to her that there wasn't enough money in the register for her to give her change.

Finally, she went over to her date/husband and got the right amount of money, but all that time I'd been waiting in line behind her with nowhere to put the two iced teas that I was holding. If it had just been the one tea, I could have at least changed hands when the one holding it got too cold, but since they both had teas in them, they were both freezing. It was actually that that irritated me most out of the situation, not even having to wait. But then when I went up to pay, I forgot that I stuffed the sugar packets in the same pocket as my money, and I think the lady totally saw that I'd taken a bunch. I felt a little guilty.

You're So Demanding

So... you guessed it. I finally got OnDemand. I pretty much flipped when I saw the remote, since I thought we were just getting your basic cable package, but no, now I too can enjoy watching Bollywood dancers and Eraserhead whenever I want.

But honestly? After flipping through it for about half an hour last night, I have to admit that I'm not that impressed. The only "good" movies that are available you have to pay at least $2.99 for, usually it's more like $4.99. I can walk to the grocery store and rent the same movie for $1, so why would I even think of paying their ridiculous price? Because they're counting on the laziness factor. The average American with OnDemand doesn't want to get off of their fat ass and go rent a movie when they could just press a button on their remote.

Anyway, it's just made me see how much I need to get Netflicks, which I probably will reasonably soon. (In time for my film class, anyway.) And it's not because I'm too lazy to walk to the store! It's a better deal, honestly!

Film Class Ahoy!

My first encounter of the college kind happened yesterday. I wanted to sign up for a summer class at Evergreen called History of Film, but since I haven't actually applied to the college yet, I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to get credit from the class or not. So naturally, I e-mailed the professor, with a nice, fairly enthusiastic enquiry:

Hi,

My name is Ina Vitale, and I just graduated this year from Capital High School. I am interested in taking your film course, but I have a few questions. I understand that you can take the class for credit, which is what I would like to do, but I was wondering if you have to have been admitted to Evergreen for this to be an option? I would be happy to submit my application if that is a possibility. Either way, thank you very much for your time!

Ina

So you can imagine my slight surprise and incredulity at receiving the following:

Check with the registrar Vitale. I have no problem with you taking the course.

Mark

Wow, he has no problem with me taking the course? Why, thank you! How generous! What a fantastically nice guy!

Not to mention, he didn't even answer my question. But I decided to look up the registrar for kicks and giggles, and found that you don't actually need to be formally enrolled to take the summer classes for credit. So all's well that ends well, no?

But, being a little curious I decided to do an investigation. RateMyProfessors.com was about to become my best friend. Mark Harrison not only had a happy face next to his picture, but he was also adorned with the coveted chili pepper. (After looking at the picture though, I'm not quite sure it was deserved.) With ratings of 4.2, and 3.6, I figured I would be pretty much home free, despite the unpromising e-mail.

Besides, I'm already interested in film and history, so it would take a really spectacularly bad teacher to make me hate the class. I guess we'll find out when it starts, though. Now I just have to figure out how to sign up for it... ah well, baby steps.