Captcha Woes

I was not blessed with Superman eyes. As I grow older I started to notice it was harder for me to read. My dad one day commented about how close I was holding the newspaper to my face to read it. I found out that I have astigmatism in both eyes, much more so in my right. I am a wearer of contacts now, bleh.
Now, that all being said. WHY must I be subjected to these horrendous captchas when I post comments for my lovely blogger friends? I understand there are "bots" out there and everything, but sometimes as a blogger I think I'd be okay with even a bot commenting on my post versus no comments! We are comment whores and just drool when we get a notification of a new comment on our blogs! It gives you reassurance that you aren't just some crazy old coot throwing out your ideas on the internet with no one ever seeing it. At least for the moment your ego is stroked.
I believe that these evil captcha creaters are the devil. I swear they get the grainiest, most pixelated photo on the entire internet to pair up with an insane swirly word. Nothing gets me more fuming that having to re-figure out what in the heck the captcha number is. Is anyone else plagued by this???

In example:

The muff is this crap? Seriously with those numbers??

Are they google-earthing address numbers and giggling??

Swirly letters! H's, N's, V's, R's, U's...all trip me up. Jerks!

DIE DIE DIE creator of captchas!

Netflix Addiction

If you are like me, and most people for that matter, you are addicted to Netflix! It is like cocaine. Once you finish a show you are trolling for your next hit, dying to find the next addiction to keep you glued to the TV.  Here are some of the shows I love, including some "sleeper" ones you might not be aware of that are amazing!  I will also put whether they are 30 min or 45 minute episodes because I love shorter ones because it isn't such a big time commitment.

Shows I love:

The Walking Dead: (45 min) This is my FAVORITE show ever. I love zombies. And this is zombie greatness. With a great, twisted story line and great characters. Even if you generally don't like zombies or the apocalypse, I highly highly recommend this show.

Lie to Me: (45 min) This show doesn't make you feel guilty watching it because you learn so much! Every episode you learn real life clues to how people lie. It was canceled after 3 seasons, I have no clue why, because it is one of the best shows I've ever seen, and is the number one show I recommend to all my friends and family (and yes, they all got hooked..)

How I Met Your Mother:  (30 min) My friends introduced me to this show and I was addicted. They are hilarious and there is a lot of drama and funny situations between the group of friends. It is legen-- wait for it---DARY!

Raising Hope: (30 min) This show has made me laugh out loud more than ANY TV show ever! It is basically a white trash family with a teenage son raising a baby. Don't count it out as soon as you hear white trash..it is NOT like Larry the Cable Guy or crap like that. This is one of my all time favorites.

Arrested Development: (30 min) This show is hilarious! It is stupid stupid stupid! So stupid you will find yourself laughing and wanting to watch the next episode. It got canceled after only 3 seasons, but was recently announced they are releasing a 4th season to air soon, only on Netflix, YAY!

The Office: (30 min) My mom watched this and I asked "Why are you watching this show?" but after watching a couple of episodes, I was hooked. It is so stupid it is hilarious! Steve Carell is a manager of a paper company and the show encases all of the drama/hilarity involved with working in an office.

Everybody Loves Raymond: (30 min) Such a great family show. I have seen these a MILLION times, this is the only tv I can watch over and over and over and never get tired of it, even though I can quote their lines with them. What a great show! A must watch!

Lost: (45 min) The first two seasons of this show you literally-cannot-turn-it-off! I lost days, weekends, to this show! But after the second season, it becomes so crazy and out there I had to stop. Restarted later on and got to the 4th or 5th season and gave up again because it was insane, and not in a good way.

The Hills: (30 min) This is a reality show about Lauren Conrad, formerly of the Laguna Beach TV show, and her friends in L.A. I love this show. It's one of my dirty little girly TV shows. I am in the middle of re-watching it now, and the drama of their lives is very entertaining to watch.

Prison Break: (45 min) I loved the first two seasons. After that it sucked. With that kind of storyline, you honestly can do only two good seasons. But Wentworth Miller is too diieee for. The show is worth watching just so you can drool over him. But on a serious note, the show is brilliant with good writing and actors.

Grey's Anatomy: (45 min) Drama city! One of my all time favorites shows (though I am two seasons behind!!!) It is sooo good and all the actors are great. It is a hospital in Seattle that follows the storyline of the doctors and nurses who work there (and all sleep together heehee).

Once Upon A Time: (45 min) This is a show about all of your childhood fairytale characters that are stuck in a town in the real world. If you have fairy tales, this will be your new favorite show. Jennifer Morrison stars in it (the blonde chick off of House).

The United States of Tara: (45 min) This stars Toni Collette as a wife and mother who has multiple personalities. The catch is how different they all are: one is a teenager, another is a red-neck guy, another is a 1950's housewife, etc. This show is really interesting and different.

Gossip Girl: (45 min) One of my favorites. This is a younger TV show of high school girls, but it is amazing! So much drama and hot guys! They are well-to-do-blue-blood people and its just really entertaining to watch how everyone screws over everyone and sleeps with everybody's boyfriend.

Glee: (45 min) If you like music or musicals, this is the show for you. Yes, it is a younger TV show since the kids are in high school, but a lot of them face grown up decisions (i.e. teen pregnancy) and it's all around a feel-good kind of show.

Breakout Kings: (45 min?) Sadly I don't remember much about this one,  other than that I know I really enjoyed it when I watched it. About to rewatch the first season!

Breaking Bad: (45 min) This is a dark show. My husband and I enjoyed watching it together (we never agree on shows) but this was good. This is not a family, feel good kind of show, but it is interesting to learn about meth.

Nip/Tuck: (45 min) Another show that is NOT a family show. Lots of sex, but the drama is good. I have only seen 2 seasons (shame!) but it is definitely an interesting, drama filled show.



Shows I dislike/hate:

30 rock: It wasn't funny to me
Weeds: Trashy show. Couldn't bring myself to watch the second episode
Rescue Me: NOT geared towards a female audience whatsoever
Mad Men: I really really really wanted to like this show. But couldn't get into it.
Sons of Anarchy: I've only seen bits and pieces. Maybe I would like it if I watched it from the beginning
Friday Night Lights: I only watched the Pilot and it was too much football, not enough drama
Army Wives: I don't need to see a bunch of women cheating on their husbands. Ridiculous. Just like in real life, stupid army wives!
Pretty Little Liars: It started getting cheesy after a while. Too tweeny-bopper for my taste (whereas gossip girl totally isn't, weird..)
Parks and Recreation: Not funny at all



Shows I want to watch:

This show looks good! Haven't started it yet though!

It's always sunny in philadelphia
Scrubs
Revenge 
Alias
American Horror Story
Dawson's Creek
One Tree Hill
Friday Night Lights
Vampire Diaries
Supernatural
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
TruBlood (not on netflix)
Nikita
Flashpoint
The Tudors
Downton Abbey 
Party Down
The Riches



 Non netflix shows that are good:
Dexter
Gilmore Girls
House


Please leave a comment and tell me what shows you love on Netflix! I love trolling for new shows!

Illusions of marriage

Image via courtesy baloocartoons.com

I shake my head when I scroll through my facebook stream and see all the little girls saying "Only 83 days until I am Mrs. Blah-blah!" Sister, please. I have only been married 8 months, but even I know how much your tune will change once you actually are married to him.

Girls. We are beautiful. Smart. Powerful. Emotional. But we are disillusioned.  Our problem is that we want to live in a sparkly, rainbow world that's full of unicorns, a knight in shining armor, and when it rains, diamonds fall out of the sky. But we don't live in that world. We are told from the age of, well birth, that we are princesses. We grow up believing this. And then reality smacks you in the face.

Let me share my illusions that I had with you. This is how I saw marriage in my mind's eye: We would wake up everyday and I would make breakfast and we would sit on the back porch (um..we don't have one) and drink orange juice, hold hands, kiss each other from across the table, and just be in loooove. This has never happened! Marriage is hard. You fight. You don't like each other. You yell. You get your feelings hurt. You cry. You complain. But in the end you love him. No matter what happens, you want to be with that person at the end of the day and let him wrap his arms around you and tell you he loves you. Because what we really want most is the sense of security our man gives us.

I sometimes sit down and wonder if it will get better. They say the first year is the hardest, and I believe it.  Please don't think that I hate being married or my husband or that my marriage is terrible. I just want the unmarried people to know how hard it is. It isn't all sunshine and sparkles. There's clouds. Lots of clouds. Clouds from money, bills, housework, jealousy, pets, friends, sex, and money again! Always money issues.

Every romantic comedy ever made fills us full of illusions, and when we turn off the TV and sit on the couch listening to it sizzle we feel shortchanged. How come our men aren't as amazing as the leading man in the movie? And this is ridiculous. And ludicrous. But it's what we do. Then we go and complain and say "Why don't you do this for me? Or that?" and then an argument ensues because you are nit-picking. It doesn't help that everyone on facebook constantly praises their other half and say how amazing they are. I'm sorry, but nobody believes you! I have a friend who says "My husband and I never argue". BULL! You are LYING! No relationship EVER does not argue! Arguing is healthy!

I just watched Meryl Streep's movie "Hope Springs" in which she bottles up everything for years and never says anything to her husband about how he made her feel. At one point I said "She is about to wiiiiiild out on him". Holding in your feelings is not the way to go, so I am a-okay with arguing. I pride myself at how well I argue and how good I am at using stinging sarcasm and pushing the perfect buttons to make my husband explode. Oh it's terrible. I know. I'm conniving. But better out than in I always say!

No marriage is perfect. It's a learning process and you don't truly know a person until you live with them. What I have learned is...I'm still learning. I have no sage words of advice, nor do I think you would want to hear them from someone who is so newly married. Each day is a battle. Just make sure that at the end of each day you know you love that person, and even if you don't like them at that moment, you love them with all your heart.

Ah, yesteryear!

I got this idea from Krystal's blog, at Krystal with a K. I thought it was a fun idea. This is a rehash of everything I went through last year through my facebook status updates from month to month. I won't make this too long or tiresome, I'll just try to pull the interesting/funny ones. I generally try to not get too personal, but maybe this will help you to get to know me as a person a little bit more. It's so easy to forget what we have gone through. Hopefully you will find it amusing. Excuse my grammar, not quite as literate on facebook.

January


"My hair has a mind of it's own...I just wish it was the mind of a genius's instead of a dunce" I still hate my hair. Ugh.

"Working a double tomro :/ wish I could make dishonest money honestly...this whole working all the time is killing me..."  And I still feel this way. How come strippers and pimps and drug dealers get all the money?? Not fair!!

"Thinks I might pursue photo journalism when I move...I think working for a newspaper would be an awesome start. Fingers crossed I can get in." And little did I know that I would get a job at a newspaper! Wahoo!

Faceless self portrait

"I can't get over why celebrities feel the need to call their children strange things. Beyonce and Jay-Z named their baby blue ivy. It's a lot better than apple, but still. You named your child after a color. Why?" Taaaruth! Celebrities are dumb. I don't know why people follow them and get upset when stuff happens, as if they are involved in those celebrities lives. Dumb.

February

"I feel like when I'm creeping on people's pinterest boards it's like looking through the drawers at their house to find out what they like lol"

Monty Python! Funny, but so stupid!

 "Myspace just emailed me and said they have over 1 million new users. Lies. Sorry myspace, you are not cool anymore. Stop trying." I recently heard they were trying to overhaul the site to make it cool again. Never. Gonna. Happen.

"Lady gaga was in my crossword puzzle...what are these puzzles coming to? Lol. Come on. Challenge me." I love crosswords. But seriously. Come on.

 

Our generation is so obsessed with social media!

March

My comment after this tip I got at work

  "Are you kidding me???????? I HATE PEOPLE! Get in a car wreck on the way home"

"When all else fails, read a book" Patting myself on the back for this one. Reading expands your mind. Something everyone should do!

"I just found a thing on foursquare to check into called Robin Sparkle. Yesss! If you get this status update, you're awesome" My friends in my hometown are awesome. HIMYM marathons

"Fail. Drove across town to the liquor store on a Sunday. Prohibition still exists"

May

"A vanilla coke, salt and vinegar chips, a hunger games book, and the ocean. When can this be everyday and not just one week out of the year?" The ultimate goal. To live at the beach.

 Not an actual status, but note that I got married in May at the beach. It was awesome :)

Phillip Phillips Concert in my hometown with my mum :)

"Just had the grandfather of all cockroaches crawl up my leg in the shower...don't think I've ever jumped out of the shower so quick before...one heart attack later.." My husband pretty much thought I was getting stabbed in the shower, the way I was screaming and ran out. 

June

R2 when he was a puppy and busted open a red pen. He looked like rudolph

"I keep hearing noises from the kitchen and told myself its just the ice machine...then realized we don't have one...eeek"

July

*Got my job at the newspaper!*


"Dumb moment of the day: typing up an article of news I hadn't heard about "Was this in the paper? I Haven't heard about it" lol. Oh goodness." I surprise myself sometimes how blonde I can act..

"I wish Abe Lincoln would come abolish me from house cleaning.." LOL! Wow, don't remember writing this one, but best status of 2012 right there!

August

"Jack sent off R2's pedigree paperwork. We got it back, and apparently his grandfather was called Harry potter! Lol so I guess we have a magical dog lol" Yes, so magical he destroys everything in my house :/ 

My draw something picture. I'm such a dork.

"So dies liberty not by the roar of gunfire, but by the sound of thunderous applause." Such a great quote! And its so true.

My first week at the job we were in the paper :)

 "Just saw a woman buy 3 buggies worth at least a couple hundred bucks, full of soda, ramen noodles, and junk food then proceeded to pay with her EBT card. Boy I sure do love paying my taxes for these needy people. I'm sure she couldn't have survived without those oatmeal pies. Go Amurica" Yeah, this still makes me angry.....

October

"That awkward moment when the guy in the walmart parking lot sees you licking your GPS to make it stick starts laughing at you" Yeah, this definitely happened..

"you know it's true love when you give up the cinnamon bun cooked in the middle to your other half..." This is truth. The one in the middle is amazing.

"How to have a good time alone: drink 6 glasses of wine and read damnyouautocorrect.com haha" And this was an awesome night I had alone by myself haha

"so i started a blog last night and am so inspired. I am wanting to start another one very soon, with it being a 30 day challenge blog. Each month I will do a different challenge. Super excited, super inspired right now. "  Awww, the beginning of my blog!

 awesome, love this movie!

My vintage-themed 24th birthday with some of my best friends

                                                                       So funny!

That's about it for this past year. Pretty fun. Next year should be way better since we are moving to Atlanta! WAHOO!! Just a month or so. We are looking at houses next weekend :)

Men's deo vs. Women's deo

Well, I have had an epiphany, ladies. Over the Christmas break, I left a lot of stuff at my brothers house in Atlanta, including my wallet, which had to be overnight-ed and cost $27, eek! But I also left my deodorant.

I hadn't realized I had left it until I hopped out of the shower and was getting ready for work. So I was faced with a dilemma. Go to work without deodorant on, or wear my husbands. I was a little grossed out, but decided it was a much better idea to wear his than none. I pretty much felt like this guy, and thought it was going to be gross....

But I overcame my fear, and  carefully wiped off the top of it with tissue and used it. Wow. WOW.
I wish I had done this YEARS sooner!

For the first day, I kept getting spooked because I thought my husband was walking up behind me and about to grab me and hug me because I kept smelling him. By the second day I kept smelling myself and thinking how sexy I smelled. By the third day I really did believe I had swagger ha.

It has been a week since I have been using his deodorant and my underarms have completely changed. Let me break it down:

Women's Deo: It wears off after a couple of hours. Everytime I wore tight tshirts I would get self conscience, knowing I was going to sweat on the part that was sticking to my pit and it wouldn't smell good. Women's deo also leaves white marks on ALL clothes and it a pain to scrub off. Also, my armpits were always extreeeemely dried out and white and skin would peel off, not to mention how bad my razor burn was.

7 days after using men's deo: My underarms are healthy, my skin has been restored and is not dried out, the deodorant stays on for hours and never wears off. There are no white marks on my clothes. I have no razor burn, no bumps, and it doesn't hurt to shave them anymore! It is AMAZING!

I am NOT a sweaty person. I generally don't sweat too much, but I have been self-conscience about this because of how bad our deodorants work. My body seemed to grow a "tolerance" to a brand and I would have to switch. I could never be loyal to a brand because they all never seemed to work well, even clinical strength ones (which are uber expensive).

I mentioned this to one of my friends, waiting for her to tell me how gross it was. She immediately told me she uses her husbands as well, and told me of a more feminine one. I have been wearing Old Spice Swagger, which is super manly. It's pretty much a panty dropper as soon as you smell it, which is totally not what I'm going for, so I decided to find a more feminine male deodorant! I got Old Spice Fiji, which is refreshing and not quite so manly!

Last week I wore a hoodie and didn't realize how warm it was. I could feel myself sweating and thinking "Great, gonna stink it up and have to take another shower", but when I got home and took my hoodie off, my manly deodorant just radiated up to me and smelled amazing. If I had been wearing my Dove deodorant, I would have been stinking to high heaven. So ladies, do yourself and favor and SWITCH! It will be the best decision of your life! Trust me! At least give it a 3 day trial run. I promise you that you will change your mind!

And now my pits smell like this! Fresh and clean!

Texting Myself

I have the memory of a goldfish. For real. The one good thing about it is that I can watch a movie for the second time and have no memory of the plot and enjoy it just as much the second time. Other than that, it's pretty much terrible.

I forget peoples names I'm introduced to in about 10 seconds tops. I can't ever remember what my best friends are going to college for (or their birthdays). I forgot how old I was last month.  Yeah,  the list goes on and on. It has gotten to the point that I want to download an app that helps workout your brain for memory loss, you know, the ones for old people. Yep. It's to that point already. Somehow at 24 I have the mind of a 60 year old...scary.

In order to help myself with my disability, I text every random thought I don't want to forget to myself. I have recently also taken to sending myself links to my facebook account so I won't forget them. It's kind of fun to go through my phone and decipher what I have sent myself, and sometimes am left scratching my head saying "What the heck was this about??"

Here are some of the things I have texted myself:

"All that I know is that I'm breathing" - I think this is a song on Grey's Anatomy that I fell in love with. That's probably not the title, but the only part I could remember

"Period started May 8th" - A text to myself so the freakin ladies at the health dept wouldn't jump my case about my period, saying "When did it start? When did it start? You seriously can't remember?"

"Andre Desjardins. Vainre" - This was a painting by an artist I had never heard of while looking at an art gallery on my honeymoon. I didn't want to forget him.

Andre Desjardins "Vainre" painting

"Sex on Fire, Mr. Brightside, Tonights gonna be a good night, Superstition, Don't Stop Believing, Dancing Queen, Hey Ya"  - These are (according to the Bobby Bones Show) the top wedding songs. Random.

"Prankdial.com" - Apparently I must have thought this was a funny website and wanted to prank someone? Hm. Guess I never did because I don't remember texting this ha

"Riunite D'oro" - ol wino, was trying to remember what wine I liked...

"thecarepackageproject.com" - A website dedicated to sending care packages to soldiers. They write heart-rending letters saying what they need. Unfortunately I couldn't make one because of my LOW SALARY!

"It takes two" - I have no idea what this means or why I sent it to myself...fail

"Hellraiser" - I watched this movie and wanted to remember the title to watch the second one. Which SUCKED btw.

"Q107.3 diamond dash" - Well apparently its a radio station but I have no clue why I would text the name to myself or what diamond dash means. Jeez..

"Trenton Heath" - A baby name I thought was adorable..always on the lookout for my future kids names

"Atlanta Parent. Cherokee tribune." Publications in Atlanta I saw that I want to apply to

That's about it, the rest of the stuff is telephone numbers, addresses I'm going to, and blogging ideas. That is the most common thing I text to myself. I will get random inspiration and say "ooh! I need to blog about that!" So i text it.

In high school I used to write everything down on my hand, my homework and such. My classmates used to always kid I would get ink poisoning. But it helped me remember, and everyday I would have ink in my palm to remind me. What do you do to help you remind yourself? I write with dry erase markers on my bathroom mirror to remind my husband (i do it on the bathroom mirror because I know he loves to look at himself and he loves to spend time in the bathroom *tsk men* so for sure he will see it) plus a dry erase board to remind me of everything else. What helps you?

Job Hunting Smackdown

I generally try to write about interesting topics, and not get into too much of my personal life. I tend to get very bored when I read every minute detail of a person's life..I instantly click off of that post to find another blog to read. That being said, I am going through a rough time right now, and job searching is something that affects everyone, so this is what I am feeling right now, and need to talk about.

Job hunting has got to be one of the most brutal and depressing things a person can do. It's kind of like dating...you put yourself out there by sending your resume (or giving a crush your number), and then wait for them to call you back. And when nothing comes back, there it is. Rejection. Staring you in the face. It hurts. I understand we are in a recession and all, and that there are thousands of people all across the US trying to find jobs, but it doesn't mean it makes it any less painful.

I called about 15 different companies today trying to see if there was an opening in their design department. Every single one told me they weren't hiring, and some were even a little rude about it. It sucks, but it's a rule of thumb that if you don't know someone on the inside, chances are you aren't getting the job. How are you EVER supposed to move up on the ladder??

My lease is going to be up in a month and a week. We are supposed to be moving then. But neither of us have even come close to a job. Heck, not even close to an interview! I don't handle stress well. I haven't told my boss that we are moving yet. I was waiting to tell him at the beginning of January, so as not to get replaced or something. My brain was so cruel as to give me a dream last night that I was house hunting and called the realtor and it was my boss! I woke up stressed out and felt as if I hadn't rested.

So my life is up in the air right now. It's exciting and amazing on the one hand, and stressful and depressing on the other. I have dreamed of living in a big city since i was about 10, and Atlanta is the biggest and best place in the entire south. Life is either about to get fabulous or miserable, all depending on what jobs we can land. Here's to hoping someone out there needs a designer somewhere...


Are you dealing with this? What are your horror stories about finding a job?  Any worst job stories? If I get some great worst job stories I will make a follow up post and refence you and your blog in it!