Answer and New Question

So what sort of animal is a porgy?

it's a fish!



Now onto today's "Hard Ass" question:

Once called Quintilis, which month was named in honor of Julius Caesar after his death?

Don't forget...nobody likes a cheater!
The answer will be posted tomorrow.

A Saturday Hard Ass

I bought myself this Smart Ass daily calendar for 2009 and so far I like it. Here's the question for today - comment and tell me the answer. No cheating!!

What sort of animal is a porgy?

(I'll post the answer tomorrow)

Soy de Burque

A column I read today in the Albuquerque Journal that I wanted to pass along:

Here's a Q Tip for You: ¡Viva Burque!
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer

The city of Albuquerque's official nickname — The Q — has been a thorn in the side of a growing revolution of city dwellers since it was rolled out a little more than a year and a half ago.

The revolution has been led by the anonymous subject of today's column. The Q drives him mad. Not because he's got any particular beef with the 17th letter of the alphabet, but because of what it represents: "We as citizens were never asked what we wanted to call ourselves," he says. "It was brought upon us. I think it's strange, this whole idea of branding a city."

Since Mayor Martin Chávez's desire to come up with a city brand resulted in the official Q logo, billboards have advertised Albuquerque as The Q; the mayor's radio show is called "The Q Hour;" local shopping cards are Q Cards; the annual Downtown music fest was named the "QJam;" and the new bicycle borrowing program is being named Q Bike.

The mayor is a happy early adopter of the Q. "I just like the heck out of it," he said when the logo was rolled out.

Outside of official channels, The Q isn't exactly spreading like the flu. Ever heard anyone say, "I'm spending the weekend in The Q"? Or, "I just moved to The Q and I'm lovin' it"?

Ever heard anyone outside official channels use The Q in any context, ever?

Spending about 30 seconds on Google reveals what we all suspected: The Q did not spring from the loins of originality.

The Q is an arena in Cleveland (still time to get Monster Jam tickets!); a gay dance bar in Lincoln, Neb.; a hard rock radio station in El Paso (and a host of radio stations elsewhere); the subway train that goes to Coney Island in Brooklyn; and the nickname of Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Mass. (It is also the odd devotion of a librarian at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, who has a trippy Web page devoted to "facts and fancies concerning the seventeenth letter of the alphabet.")

So back to our anonymous hero, who fought back and launched the Burque movement. With a Web site and T-shirts and bumper stickers for sale — and a You Tube video showing how to make your own Soy de Burque shirt — he has reclaimed some control over what he wants his native city to be called.

He opts for Burque because that is how he grew up shortening Albuquerque. While his shirts have shown up in shops and on chests around town, he has remained unnamed through it all, opting for Burque to get all of the attention.

"I'm just a guy on the street. I'm just another regular old citizen," he says. "It's not about me and I don't want it to be about me."

The Burque movement has spurred quite a little nickname war — one that Burque is winning on the streets.

Or was winning.

Then came the dark day late last year when the city's new blue curb side recycling bins were delivered. It's hard to do battle with a city-funded blue army.

"I was driving down the street and everybody had their canisters out and I just saw Qs everywhere," he says. "I thought, 'What can I do? It's this thing that's just being pushed on us.' "
What happened next will help explain why Mr. Burque likes to remain anonymous.

"I stared at it for a little while. Then I got some vinyl and cut out some stencils and went out and put my own little mark on it."

And the official Q became BurQue. Seditious or delicious, depending on your point of view.

The Duke of Burque is excited about the possibilities for all those Q's as Albuquerqueans receive their recycling bins. He points out that those without stenciling skills can use a "Soy de Burque" sticker to amend their Q.

"I think people can go crazy with it," he said. And then added judiciously, "I'm sure it's city property, so I'm not encouraging anybody to do anything with them."

He's also not pushing Burque — that would be as bad as what the city is doing.

"You can call it Albuquerque. You can call it ABQ or Duke City. You can call it The Q. You can call it Burque," he says. "It's about where do we live? Who are we? Shouldn't we have a voice in this?"

If you've never had any trouble spitting out "Albuquerque," all four pesky syllables and two Q's, feel free to continue. If you want to be the first in the city to actually say you're "from The Q," well, good luck. If you're thinking of joining the Burque Brigade, please, some words of advice. Practice rolling your r's. And, remember, Burque does not rhyme with turkey.

You can reach Leslie at 823-3914 or llinthicum@abqjournal.com. Read all of her columns at www.abqjournal.com/upfront.

Sick...again.

Well, the sore throat I mentioned in my previous post turned into something gross. I went to the doctor's office yesterday and had a strep culture done by a very rude nurse. The "rapid" test came back negative and she sent me home with instructions to sleep and drink.

I slept and drank as much as I could yesterday, but around 2 am I could feel my ear starting to hurt. By the time I woke up in the morning I could barely swallow, couldn't talk, and it hurt even to move my head. I went back to the doctor's office, this time to see my real doctor. She took one look at my throat and was writing a prescription two seconds later.

It just sucks that I'm sick again. I'm going to look into taking a daily vitamin and really working on getting enough sleep, eating healthy, exercising, and drinking lots of water a day.

Getting Healthy

One of my best friends from high school is literally traveling the world right now. Mike has been to Italy, Greece, Egypt, and is now on his way to India; I’m so impressed that he actually “did it.” Everyone talks about achieving their dreams, but how often do we actually get out there and make them happen? He sold his car, bought the ticket and hasn’t been back home for many months. It’s just amazing to me.

When he first left I would get a little sad reading about their (he went with another friend of mine, Abel) adventures, but now I can read them without wanting to purchase the next flight out of town. These days I’m not as antsy reading about how much excitement he’s having because I know that I’m just in a transition phase right now. Traveling is in my blood and I know I’ll be back with my passport in tow when the time is right.

In the mean time, I’m keeping my adventures close to home. In other words: I think I’m about to start fighting off yet another cold. I’ve literally been going nonstop for the past 17 days; I’ve been traveling, drinking, eating all the wrong foods, not sleeping, not drinking water, and so on and so on. My body is pretty mad at me right now and is screaming at me to start taking it easy again and bring it back to a healthy state.

With that said, I worked out this morning despite waking up with a sore throat (bleh) and a somewhat stuffy nose and I had a Lean Cuisine for lunch. The workout darn near killed me, but hopefully I can keep it up. And later today after I get home from work I’m going to take a nap and work on catching up on all that sleep I’ve missed.

When Bliss Says Bye

Kenny's plane took off ten minutes ago and I'm not on it. No, not that I was supposed to be on it, it's just that he's going back to Georgia and I'm staying here, the way it's been for the past two years.

You'd think saying goodbye and dealing with a long distance relationship would be easier after two years of sporadic encounters, but it's not; if anything, it's getting harder.

The two of us had an unbelievable time together during the past two weeks and we were lucky to see each other nearly everyday. In fact, it was almost like having a boyfriend who lived here! But now we go back to our countdown (26 days days possibly; 40 days for sure) and look forward to the next time we see each other.

Till then, I'll truck on and continue my life of having a relationship thousands of miles and several states away, and I'll be thankful for dating in the 21st century when I have devices like cell phones (what would I do without unlimited texting???!!!) and instant messaging.

Here's to seeing my love again in t-minus 26 days...

Through My Eyes

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed NYE and had fun with friends/family. I rang in 2009 at my friend Brandon’s NYE party. This is the same party where Kenny and I met three years ago, so it holds a special place for both of us. It turns out that I definitely can’t drink like I used to in college; I was out of commission pretty much all day yesterday.

While I was lounging on the couch during my daylong siesta I stumbled upon Project 365. Basically it’s a yearlong photo documentary of whatever type of pictures I feel like taking that day. I started Through My Eyes to serve as my digital scrapbook for the next 365 days and I plan on being diligent and posting pictures as often as I can. I’m hoping to get a good following over there (i.e. I’m hoping people will leave me comments on my pics!), and I have several ideas on how to not get bored with taking a different picture everyday. Some ideas:

1. Guess what the photo is – I’ll take a close up picture of something and people will have to guess what it is.
2. Theme weeks – one week of the same type of thing
3. Food – I plan on baking a lot more this year (see the last post)
4. YOU tell me what to shoot!

I guess I can add this to my 2009 To-Do List! On that note, it’s time for me to start snapping some photos. Happy January second.

Adios Oh Eight, Hello Oh Nine

Last year around this time I posted my resolutions for this year:

MAKE a scarf.
TRAVEL to England.
MOVE out of my parents house (maybe - I actually enjoy living there)
GET a pet hamster
GET published in another magazine
EAT healthier (this is with the exception of literally the past two weeks!)
DO more spontaneous random acts of kindness
VOLUNTEER for an organization I'm interested in.
CREATE a book from my European pictures
READ at least one book a month.

As you can see, I didn't do too well with keeping those resolutions. So this year I'm not making a resolution list. As you can see from above, I like crossing things off. In fact, I may put my 2009 To Do list on the side of this blog so I can cross them off as I accomplish them.

Without further ado, here's my 2009 To Do list

Visit England again (the plan is to go in September)
Make a Scarf (this one will continue to appear till I actually make one!)
Get published in another magazine
Start my own Web site
Lose 25 pounds (ideally I'd like to accomplish this by June 13.)
Meet someone from MIG
Run (and walk) a full marathon
Work out at least three days every week, but won't freak out if I miss a day
Dye my hair
Read at least 10 books
Bake more

Tonight should be exciting to say the least. In about two hours I'll be joining Kenny, Amanda, Chris, my grandma and my parents at The Cooperage for dinner, then two hours later Kenny and I will join his parents for dinner. No, that's not a miss-print; we're having two really yummy dinners tonight. Ah, the things we do to make each other happy.

After dinner we're scooting over to the west side for the annual New Year's Eve party. Kenny and I met at this party three years ago and got together at the party two years ago, so we're also celebrating our two-year anniversary today/tomorrow! With that said, I need to go get ready. I hope you all have a wonderful NYE and will continue to follow me and my typing into next year.

Have a save and very happy new years!

Merry Christmas 2008

To all my friends and family:

Here's hoping I get to do this sometime this winter:




Cute!!!:



Please?



And Happy Hanukkah!


Seriously. Need. A. Drink.



Merry Christmas :)

Lonely Eyes

It seems like just yesterday that I sent my laptop away to get fixed, but here I am waiting for it to come back again. This past weekend my screen was going black on me and wouldn't let me do anything, so I sent it off yesterday to get fixed.

I hope it comes back soon, because I miss it already. My evenings are lonely without it, which I guess goes to show you just how much of a homebody I really am.

Yesterday, besides sending my computer away, I went to the eye doctor to get new contacts. They feel SO much better than the old ones I had, but I think the prescription for the left eye is just a touch off, because it's not focusing as it should be. And after staring at a computer screen since before 9 this morning, my eyes are starting to get really tired and very dry. It's all I can do to keep them open for the next few minutes.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Not only am I going to Las Vegas (woohoo!), but friends I haven't seen for a very long time are coming into town, as is my boyfriend! So excited for next week :)

Sellin' on eBay!

Well, it's official: I'm an eBay seller!

Yup, my first auction ended tonight and the bag sold for...are you ready for this?...$81!!! Oh yeah, baby! Not only that but I was able to print out the shipping label from my home and the postal carrier is picking the package up tomorrow. Very, very cool.

Now that I'm on a selling "high" all I want to do is find more things to sell. I have three more things up for bid right now, but so far they don't have any bites. That's not stopping me from putting more up there, though. I have some books, VHS tapes (I'm sure there's someone out there looking for Notting Hill on VHS!) and some prom dresses I want to get out of the house.

I would LOVE to work on that tonight, but my computer kinda sorta crashed earlier tonight. I called Apple and it's something to do with the power cord...again. So right now it's running on it's little battery, and unfortunately for me (and my laptop) my battery sucks out energy very, very fast.

I guess this is the perfect time to turn the computer off and go scrounge up more things to sell!

*Shameless plug: See the eBay logo to the right of this post? Yeah, you should click it; it takes you to the things I'm selling. Who knows, maybe my junk will be your treasure!

StumbleUpon

I saw this while "stumbling" and all I can say is WOW:

Photos That Changed The World.

My eBay

I'm an official eBay seller as of yesterday evening! I finally got fed up with some of the stuff I had hanging around that I didn't exactly want to take to Goodwill, but they wouldn't take at Buffalo Exchange. Actually, since there haven't been any bids as of yet, I guess I'm a wannabe eBay seller.

As of right now I have three items up for bid on eBay. I took the photos, I used attractive-looking templates, and now I wait. And wait. And wait...

Up for grab I have:
*Harveys Black Original Seatbelt Bag Purse Satchel Tote

*Red "Emilie M" Leather-Like Purse Handbag

*"Last Kiss" Black White Red Blue Coat Jacket XL
*Note: the links above will not work once the items have sold, but I do have a Jesstagirl02 Store

I also have several prom/fancy dresses, shoes, and books I'd like to sell. It's kind of a fun venture and I'm excited to see if anything comes of it! (click the link; it's the items above plus whatever else I add) and I'm going to try to get the code for the scrolling gallery to put on this blog.

But I am le tired

I am very tired today because of the Best of the City Party the magazine hosted last night, so in honor of feeling completely useless today I'd like to post two videos that made my day. The first is an oldie, but goodie; the second one just made me laugh so hard that I started crying. I mentioned to a coworker that I wanted a bagel for lunch and she directed me to watch the second video shown here. Good times.

End of Ze World:

Foamy - Five More Minutes:

Now it's time for work.

An Eskimo Proverb:

"May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart!"

Happy first day of December.