Bruno is now at the bottom!!

Jerksblog!

Date-Based Archive Worth Reposting

I'm off to Anime Boston!

In the meantime, here's some funny stuff that's come up recently:

79th Texas Legislature's Discussion of House Bill 16, reenacted as an IRC session otherwsie titled "no way i am not 486 wut do u mean" by BigBigTruck.

Something my dad said. (See #2)

Posted by erin at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive The Whiskey Party

Click the image above for more pictures.

The whiskey party was super-fun! Thanks to everyone who came and brought a gift and/or whiskey!

My parents were very concerned about this party when they read about it, and sent a birthday card expressing their wishes that I should have a "sober" birthday. Whatever. They should talk, those winos.

At the high point of the party there were 12 different bottles of whiskey. The pick of the bunch was Talisker, a Scottish whiskey from the Isle of Skye, brought by Naomi. It was so good, it no longer tasted like whiskey! It was amazing! I'd give second place to that whiskey that tasted like maple syrup. I don't know who brought it and don't remember what it was called. Third place is maybe Famous Grouse. Good stuff!

The worst of the bunch was Johan's Chinese sorghum whiskey! That stuff was terrible! Fortunately it was easily identifiable for the guessing game that me and N. and M--- played at the end of the night, as scored by Adan. I guessed 5 correctly, M--- guessed 4, and N. guessed only one, lamenting that he was waiting for Hal to leave before drinking.

Chris certainly didn't wait for Hal to leave. On unwise advice from Kerry (who was not drinking at all) Chris took the around-the-world challenge, downing 8 kinds of whiskey in 80 minutes. Chris was "successful" in this endeavor and Kerry crowned him Phileas Fogg. Chris spent the rest of party looking very pale and not really talking to anyone.

However, other than that, none of us got sick! I'd like to think that some age and wisdom, and indeed, alcohol tolerance can be gained in the post-college years.

I had a panicky moment on Thursday when I realized that I'm starting to feel old. Fortunately many of my coworkers think I look about 19, so by that logic I can continue turning 26 for at least another 8-9 years and no one will be the wiser.

Posted by erin at 12:07 AM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive Bags, Sacks

I'm glad to see this quiz based on a conversation with Hal and N. the other day:

Me: Hand me that sack.
Hal: What?
Me: The sack by your feet.
Hal: What the deuce are you talking about?
N: She means that bag.
Hal: Who calls it a sack?
N: I don't know, I was confused too.

In the midwest the terms "sack" and "bag" are interchangeable. You can carry your groceries home in a grocery bag or a sack.

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

20% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

5% Yankee

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Posted by erin at 04:44 PM | Comments (4)

Date-Based Archive Alright, so, the bathroom

I read a livejournal post by someone I don't even know which reminded me of an entry I started long ago, back when I had nothing to do at work, detailing the freakishness of NYC bathrooms. I hold a special place in my heart for peculiar East Village bar/restaurant bathrooms, which are often so tiny the door to the stall hits your knees, the toilet is only 10 inches from the ground, on which there are puddles of standing water, water that could not possibly be generated by a sink so tiny it must have been custom-ordered.

In Michigan most buildings are handicap accessible, apparently because of some laws that passed in the mid-1990's coupled with a growing population of elderly people. Almost every public building has a ramp out front and one stall that's extra wide with handles. This includes restaurants. In NYC everywhere seems pretty anti-wheelchair, but particularly the restrooms! I thought I'd seen a thing or two in highway rest stops, but those have got nothing on the freakishness of some NYC bathrooms. I don't refer, necessarily, to uncleanliness, but rather, to weird fixtures and treacherous hallways and non-standard narrow doors.

I guess it doesn't really matter - if you're 300 pounds, or if you 90 years old and walk with a cane, you're probably not going to eat in the East Village since you won't be able to navigate the narrow spaces between the tables anyway.

I particularly enjoyed this comment about the weird bathroom etiquette of Japan. They knock back?! Are you serious?

Anyway here's my beta version of the NYC Bathroom Rating System. A bathroom starts with 100 points, but loses points for uncleanliness, as listed in the first part. After that are weird NYC things, so the bathroom gets "weirdness" points not to be added to the other points. The final section is for Midwestern bathrooms, which subtracts from weirdness points.

So you end up with a score that's like:

This bathroom gets 75 points for cleanliness, plus 220 weirdness points.

But again, I've never tested this, so who knows?

New York City Bathroom Rating System

Points
Basic Essentials:

Bathroom has a...

10 Working toilet
10 Working sink
10 Toilet paper
10 Paper towels (and/or...)
10 Hand Dryer (or Paper towels)
10 Handsoap
10 A Door to the Room
10 A Door on the Stall
10 A Mirror
10 A working lock on the stall

General Untidiness:

-5 No Toilet Paper (in your stall/one stall only)
-10 No Toilet Paper in any stall (multi-stall only)
-2 Excess of TP on the floor
-5 Sink is disgusting
-10 No Paper Towels
-5 No Handsoap
-5 Hand Dryer is Busted
-5 Horrible Unflushed Atrocities
-10 Smells like Latrine
-15 Puddle(s) of water (?) on floor
-2 Mirror is dirty
-15 Mirror is broken
-15 Door missing from one stall
-20 No Door on any stall (-10 extra points for Ladies' room)
-5 Broken stall lock
-7 Stall lock completely removed
-10 Door won't close
-10 Stall Door swings open at bad times
-5 Stall Door is ill-fitted to frame
-5 Long line to get to the bathroom
-10 Bathroom key tethered to large object to prevent theft
-10 Toilet will not flush
-5 Toilet won't stop flushing
-15 Flushing the toilet causes a small geyser to shoot across the stall
-5 "For a good time call..." written on wall
-5 Light is buzzing/flickering.

Unique Elements of NYC Bathrooms:

NYC Bathroom Construction Problems

10w No mirror
20w Freakishly Small sink
5w Sink with only one water temperature/other knob broken
10w Mysterious Step(s) up/down inside the bathroom
15w Extremely narrow stall (no fatties!)
10w Hopelessly inaccessible for the disabled
5w Bathroom is located down mysterious stairs
10w Bathroom is located beyond several unmarked doors
8w Bathroom is located in a crowded narrow hallway, and by waiting for it people have to squish past you.
15w Stall Door weirdly too high (look at my knees!)
5w Stall Door with crazy gaps in frame (onlookers can clearly see you)
20w Toilet is weirdly low to the ground
30w Toilet is weirdly tall

NYC Bathroom Reading

5w Hand-written sign telling you not to put paper towels in the toilet.
10w Bonus points if any handwritten signs are in broken english
20w ... Double points if broken english signs are not handwritten
30w Sign on bathroom that says "no messengers" (this happens in offices)
10w A sign instructing you to hold down the handle until flushing is complete.
5w There is no sign, but you know you must hold down the handle.
5w Mens/Women sign missing from one door
10w Mens/Women sign missing from both doors, or all Unisex bathrooms
15w Mens/Women signs too avant guard to read
20w Mens/Women signs in language other than English or Spanish
5w Advertisements inside the stall (usually for alcohol)
10w Stickers advertising bands on bathroom walls/mirrors
25w Stickers for bands also on toilet seat
5w Graffiti "tags" on walls
15w Poetry/intellectual quotes on walls
15w Anti-gay slogans written on walls (example; "I love cock! Dykes are stupid!" etc.)
10w Pro-gay sentiment on walls
25w Graffiti in foreign languages other than Spanish
25w Graffiti is scratched in rather than written

NYC Bathrooms and Other People

10w You wait 15 minutes or more, and a homeless person finally leaves the stall
40w You witness a homeless person sponge-bathing at the sink.
10w ... bonus points if you're not in Port Authority at the time.
20w ... bonus points if you can't use the/any sink because of it.
20w Bugs in bathroom
10w Bonus points for large cockroaches
100w Bonus points for fighting off a rat to use toilet/sink

NYC Bathroom Cleanliness Problems

50w Bathroom light burt out.
40w Bathroom lightbulb weird color (example; red).
50w No evidence that there were ever paper towels/hand dryers
50w Unidentifiable smell that's not originating from the bathroom

The NYC Posh Bathroom

50w Office Bathroom has lit candles
75w Bathroom Attendant employed
50w Fancy bathroom has free samples of soaps/perfumes/whatever
50w Hair dryers provided (outside of gym)
30w Creative Paper Towel Dispenser
40w Creative Toilet Paper Holder

The NYC "Public" Bathroom

5w Empty Starbucks cup on floor/sink/wherever
10w ...and you're not in a Starbucks bathroom
100w Glory hole? (I'm not telling you what it is.)
40w A key is not enough, someone must "buzz you in" to the bathroom.
100w Bathroom is "public" in a subway station, but locked forever (conditions inside unknown)
150w Public Subway bathroom open for use of public!
100w Public Bathroom that is freakishly clean

For Comparison:

Weird Midwestern Bathrooms

-50w That "Footprints" Poem framed on wall
-50w Framed paintings of naked kids bathing
-10w Fake flowers
-5w Scented candles (poiints per candle
-10w ... bonus points if continually lit
-15w Can of air freshener on back of toilet
-20w Hand Lotion in single male's apartment
-25w ... bonus points if it's scented

Posted by erin at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive Free Tea, anyone?

I placed an order for some tea from this adagio website and now the site is spitting out a seemingly unlimited number of gift certificates for $5 worth of tea. Adagio doesn't seem to have the selection of in-stock cheap sample packs that uptontea.com does, and consequently, the cheapest stuff at adagio is $6 before shipping.

Anyway, if you want a free $5 tea gift certificate email me at erin.finnegan at gmail.com.

Posted by erin at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive Image of the Day

These Evangelion "Wedding" figures are totally ridiculous. I would NOT ask Asuka to be a bridesmaid. Not Rei, either. In fact, who on Eva would even get married?

Posted by erin at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive ... of the day

Word of the day: Zainichi.
Link of the day: In Japan, Korean actors set hearts aflutter

Video clip of the day: Power Puff Girls Anime
Here's an image from a decent website about the show:

Posted by erin at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive What do I want for my birthday?

Maybe I'm the vainest person alive, but historically I have spent all of March and most of April planning my birthday - every year, for as long as I can remember. Maybe my parents made a big mistake throwing me an awesome party in kindergarten and I've simply come to expect too much every year since then.

My birthday is April 21st, and I'm hopelessly obsessed with it. April 21st has a lot to compete with - the 15th is tax day, the 20th is Hitler's birthday, Earth Day often falls on the 20th.

I share my April 21st birthday with Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Danza, the lead singer of the Cure, and Iggy Pop (and the lead girl in Mahou Sensei Negima).

This year I plan to go out drinking with coworkers on April 21st, a Thursday, and have a large party for non-coworker friends on April 22nd, Friday (so mark your calendars). The party on the 22nd will have a whiskey tasting theme!!

If you plan on going, please read on. If you're already nauseated by my vanity, or you don't plan on showing up, might as well stop reading now, it's only gonna get worse.

The year before last I said "no presents" which apparently means "bring oodles of cool gifts," because I got lots of great stuff. I'm tempted to say "don't bother getting me anything" again, but instead I'll just tell you what I'd like. If you already know what you're going to get for me, then stop reading now, it's just embarassing. For everyone else, I know I can be very difficult to buy for, and not everything I want can be covered on an amazon wishlist, so here's the following guide:

I recommend either participating in the whiskey exchange (more on this in a second), or getting me a gift certificate, or looking at the list of items at the bottom of this post.

The theme of Friday's party will be whiskey tasting. If you don't drink or hate whiskey don't worry about it, my party will not become frat-like I swear, but if you ARE interested, I'm assigning people different countries to get whiskey from. The plan is, you:

1. Sign up for a country,
2. Bring a bottle of whiskey from that country. INSTEAD of a gift! The whiskey is the gift.
3. At the end of the night, I will pick my favorite bottle(s) and keep them.
4. Then I will raffle off the remaining bottles to interested people - with whisky-buyers getting first preference.

Here are the countries:

• United States - "Maker's Mark" - Q
• Scotland - Ms. Cutiepants
• Ireland
• Japan - claimed by Alison
• China - claimed by Johan already (he says it's made of sorghum)
• Miscellaneous - any country other than the above

Claim a country by emailing me or leaving a comment! As countries are claimed I'll post them here.

If you want to get me a gift certificate instead of whiskey - any of the following places would be freaking awesome: amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, www.rightstuf.com, Image Anime (store on 30th St.), Kid Robot (store on Prince St.), threadless.com or even The Unemployed Philosopher's Guild.

If you want to get an actual gift instead of whiskey or a gift certificate, here's a list of anime/manga and other stuff. If you're going to buy me anime, I recommend going to Image Anime, or buying from Rightstuf.com, or even amazon. Try to get me legit North American R1 DVDs - that is to say, legit goods. American releases always have 3-5 episodes per disc and an English audio track. Bootlegs often contain the entire series and Chinese subtitles.

If you're worried you might end up getting me the same thing as someone else, email Ms.Sakaki at gmail.com. Then log in and check to see who else has emailed that address - log in by going to gmail.com, the username is Ms.Sakaki and the password is "erinsbirthday". I'll change the password after my birthday, but I PROMISE NOT TO CHECK THIS EMAIL ACCOUNT UNTIL AFTER THE PARTY. I swear!

Anime

• I have Paranoia Agent volume 1, and would like any subsequent volumes you can find.
• I have Evangelion platinum edition volumes 1 and 2 and will gladly take any disc from the rest of the series. Remember - they're the ones in the shiny silver boxes!
• I have Mezzo volume 1 and would like later volumes to complete the set.

Manga

• I have Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) in english, books 10, 12, and 13, and I desperately need volumes 8, 9, 11, and/or 14.
• In Japanese, I am looking for Hikaru No Go book number 3, and any book numbered 11 and up except 18 and the character guide, which I already have. This is one of the cheaper options on my list - Hikaru No Go in japanese from Book-Off is $1.50 to $3.00 per book!

Other

• I could really use one of those Nalgene bottles. The smaller the better.
• I'd like a coffee thermos - the kind that you can screw the lid on a throw into a backpack (not the sippy-cup kind, those suck). Preferably silver.
• Plush robots frigging rule!
• Anime keychains, also greatly appreciated!
• Just want to bring a bottle of wine? I'm especially partial to blue wines. Or wines that claim to be blue.

And, if none of that appeals to you, you could always check my Amazon Wishlist.

If you've read this far I've always wanted an ice cream cake. Be sure to email Ms.Sakaki at gmail.com if you plan on bringing one (and check to make sure no one else is, see the instructions above).

Truly this list confirms the sneaking suspicion that I have some kind of Narcissist complex.

Posted by erin at 01:09 PM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive

I stole this question from this quiz, and added one option.

Annoying People Poll

I know who I try hardest to avoid - and the answer may surprise you - I'll avoid boring people first and stupid people second. Stupid people may be, at the very least, amusing on some level. I think N. would give a very different answer.

Had I added "zombies" I think everyone would largely avoid them. I can easily think of other types of people I'd like to avoid - the very loud, for example, or the outright obnoxious. N. accused me of being obnoxious the other day and I offered to commit seppuku on the spot. It has always been a goal of mine to never be loud or obnoxious.

The quiz results are here:

My Inner Hero - Wizard!

There are many types of magic, but all require a sharp mind and a cool head. There is no puzzle I can't solve, no problem I can't think my way out of. When you feel confused or uncertain, you can always rely on me to untangle the knots and put everything back in order for you.



How about you? Click here to find your own inner hero.

I really don't recommend taking this quiz. They demand an email address in order to get your results! WTF? (Or my new acronym, WTH - What the hell?)

Posted by erin at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)