This video is so frickin’ hilarious. I still laugh everytime I look at this. No captions necessary! Just know that they are playing with a Wii controller. Alec Baldwin at his finest!
Over the last several months, something knocked on the door of the conscious part of my brain. It took a while, but suddenly my conscious jolted awake after a long bout of suppression. Instead of drowning myself into mindless shit, I’ve decided to finally open myself up to listening to me, myself, and I.
DUDE AND DUDETTES, let me tell you – me, myself, and I are confusing. Regardless, something suddenly gave me a shove into a direction that finds myself actually going to the gym, getting my mind clearer, seeing the beauty of life, laughing hard at work, getting things done like my taxes, and whatnot.
All of this is real simple. It’s just fucking productivity & living.
And fucking vague, I know. Just go ahead and click “X” and mumble to yourself what the hell came over me to write this very odd entry.
The point is: don’t ever be afraid to say what you want, desire, crave, know, love, despise, yearn, and wonder. Life is too short. There is no take two.
Effective February 14th, we as Americans will no longer be able to see our FICO score from Experian. We’ll still be able to see our FICO scores from TransUnion and Equifax, thank goodness. Lenders will still be able to see all 3 FICO scores. This is probably very bad for us, and very good for lenders! Once again, this is probably an act of capitalism to screw us over.
All three credit scores can really vary, trust me. A few years back, I ordered all 3 FICO scores and was shocked to see that one was 75 points off. If the lender wanted to go off on the 75 points lower score, I would be armed and ready with the other higher FICO score.
I’m not sure exactly why Experian is doing this. It’s clear that we’re no longer at advantage. Like any other greedy business, Experian is focused on lenders, because they get income from them.
NOW, lenders can play games with you without full disclosure. This is just so capitalist. Lenders are doing tough in this market, so they want to play more dirty games. This is good for the lenders and Experian.
If you are thinking about buying a house in the next several months or any big credit purchase, I’d recommend you to get all 3 FICO scores NOW. If you’d like to object to this, you can do so by writing a complaint to FTC.
TransUnion and Equifax, please don’t be stupid and follow Experian’s route. Keep helping us, Americans, manage our credit!
And eat the glowing mushroom…
I don’t play Mario Kart as much as I used to, but everytime I DO play, it’s always such a HOOT! This song is genius! Not that I would listen to it for pleasure, but the video itself and the lyrics – GENIUS.
Leah (QueenAlpo and Mutuku’s daughter) knows her stuff!
San Francisco is all that! AND MORE.
My friend from the west got me this coffee table book for my birthday/Christmas recently, and I love it.
By the way, I have to admit Leah’s cuter than the city, though. You can’t pinch San Francisco on the cheeks, can you? But you can definitely ROCK IT in San Francisco. Even after living in San Francisco for ten years, my face still looks like Leah’s whenever I visit.
Wow! What an important day! Goosebumps all around! I’ll be honest and say I didn’t really think of Obama’s race. I voted for him as a person and someone who I wanted to be President, regardless of his color. But, after today, I finally see the historical part and how much it’s affecting so many people in wonderful ways, and it truly gives me goosebumps!
This is what I did all day long. Sat on my tushie at work and watched the inauguration stuff. My company provided a live feed all day long through C-SPAN, so I was a happy camper. I doubt anyone got work done, though!
Do I regret not going to the inauguration since it’s next door? No. It was surreal enough, just being in my office with the live feed. And, as you can see, it was CAPTIONED, WHOOHOO! And, hell, I don’t want to fall onto the metro tracks like this woman did. About 30 children were lost, taken to local police stations to be claimed. Nor did I want hypothermia. My local metro station was filled with tour buses and police. I went to the inauguration concert on Sunday, so that was good enough for me. Heck, Obama was about 5 blocks from me!
Some thoughts about today:
I thought it was completely cute that Malia, the oldest daughter, was taking pictures with her cute blue camera. Surely, she’s in a whirlwind herself.
Obama’s speech: AWESOME! To whoever wrote his speech, let me give you a kiss! I ought to make a separate blog about the speech. We’ll see if I get to that!
The parade was a complete FLOP! It was estimated to start at 2:30, but was mega delayed! It got dark, colder, and people just started going home while the parade just went on and on for what seemed like forever! There was barely anyone in the bleachers or sidelines by 6pm. AND GET THIS. That white box Obama and his wife was in? ENDED UP EMPTY TOO, with the exception of the Obamas, Biden, and a few others. How pathetic is that? I bet everyone in the parade was disgusted and just wanted to quit, but then again they are LIVE ON TV! How exciting? The Obamas on the other hand looked very bored. I bet they felt their bed was calling for them. Obama, come to bed, I know you’re pooped!
Obama’s going to bring everyone together. I Know he has a lot of work ahead of him, a lot of expectations to fill, challenges, and of course it’s not going to happen overnight. I’m proud, but Michelle Obama looks prouder than anyone.
This is a new beginning. President Obama and Vice President Biden, welcome to Washington and best wishes!
For weeks now, every time someone asked me if I was going to go to any inauguration events, I laughed and retorted right back saying, “Are you nuts?! Hell no. There’s going to be a shitload of people!” I mean, come on. There are hotels booked all the way out to West Virginia. There are people renting out their places for a shitload of money! People traveling from thousand of miles just to be here. So of course I am going to stay right here on my ass at home and watch everything on TV. Basically, I was hell bent on staying away from all that inauguration mess. However, when the weekend actually arrived, I kept flip flopping: Should I go?! Should I stay home? Should I go? Yes I’ll go. No I won’t go. On Saturday, I stayed away from DC.
But…yesterday at noon, while sitting on my ass, I suddenly just stood up and announced, “I am SO taking my ass to DC now. What was I thinking staying home on my ass!? I am SO going to regret not going!” This was history and I live right next door to it all! This is OBAMA! This was CHANGE! This was HOPE! And, Dude and Dudettes, there was a free concert in DC with Beyonce, Shakira, Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder, and so on!! This is exciting! What was I doing on my ass?! I started running around like a headless chicken getting ready to leave. I grabbed my scarf, gloves, hat, and whatnot, because baby, it’s cold out there.
Once I got to the metro, I saw three helicopters heading in the direction of DC. I can almost guarantee you that it was either Obama or Bush, because I’ve lived here long enough to know if its the Marine One or not. But then again, it could have been someone else important.
Upon arriving to DC, I could already see road blocks by cops and military. The buildings were plastered with welcome signs for Obama, our 44th President. It was so surreal. I’m sure Obama is flattered with all these welcome signs and support. The concert was at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall, but by the time I got there, swarms of people were walking to the Monument instead. I asked people what’s up!? Why is everyone walking in the opposite direction!? Turned out that the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool were all blocked off, too crowded and that people were forced to go to the Monument area where there were screens scattered with a live feed of the concert. There was no way to get to my friend over in the Lincoln Memorial area. Worse, the AT&T network crashed! I couldn’t use my phone at all! Doesn’t that say a lot about how crowded it was?
I couldn’t see ANYTHING! All the areas with screens were already super crowded, and I couldn’t even read the captions. I could hear what was going on at the Memorial, just couldn’t see the captions. I dragged Jeff into all kinds of directions just to be able to see! Finally, I just gave up. Stood in the same spot. Ten minutes later, I was ready to go home. I was satsified just being there, but on the same token, also sad I couldn’t see anything! I figured it would suffice to see the concert on TV on HBO. There were firemen on top of their fire truck taking pictures for people just because people couldn’t see anything! One fireman stopped and said, “Hang on! Let me take my own picture with my own camera! One moment!” Ha!
So, I proceeded to walk back to the metro, but Jeff noticed another screen. We walked towards it, and saw that there was room for us to just sit at the front. We had to kind of pull our heads back to be able to look up. AT LAST! I was one happy camper! The speakers were incredibly loud and with awesome quality. The captions were clear enough! The experience was just so surreal. Every time Obama came on the screen, everyone cheered so loud. When Garth Brooks was playing, everyone followed his lead and put their hands up in the air whenever he sang “Shout!” People were clapping their hands. I was thinking to myself that this totally beats watching it at home on HBO!
Let me tell you this, though. I have never seen so many porta potties in my life! Everywhere I turned, there were porta potties lined up that seemed to go on for miles. They came in handy because I had to use a porta potty twice! I know this porta potty thing won’t end up as a feature in history books (or will it?), but for me, I am never going to forget this part!
What’s amazing is that no one was rude. People were civil! Many of you have heard me say how rude people can be here, pushing and everything without even saying excuse me, and whatnot. But at this concert, everyone was just incredibly nice. They even let me through the crowds even though I stepped on some shoes. Everyone must have been just so excited and filled with hope, change, and a new presidency. On a second thought, maybe these people weren’t from DC! Hah! I’m sure many were, though.
Here’s a slideshow. To see the titles/description, just hover over the slideshow and click “Inauguration Concert Set.”
I’m incredibly glad I hauled my ass to DC to witness a part of this history in the making, and to support the person I voted for.
(The concert is running on HBO continuously if you want to see the whole thing!)
My brain earlier today: “I wonder how many minutes in life I waste just because I am deaf.”
This new, random thought caught me off guard. Could it be possible that all this time, my life has been inefficient and a waste of valuable minutes because of my deafness? All my life, I have had the same thoughts that come and go, like these:
I could be making dinner faster if I could just use my ears to hear what is being said while I cook.
I could be writing notes in class efficiently rather than staring at an interpreter because I’m afraid I’ll miss something that will be on a test.
I could be reading a good book instead of looking up lyrics and trying to hear/learn how the lyrics go in a song I fall in love with.
I could be learning so much more at work if I could overhear discussions about projects and so on.
I could be finishing my work faster at the computer if I could talk to my co-workers across the room rather than having to walk over and lipread.
I could lay in the complete darkness enjoying intimate conversations rather than having to turn on some kind of low light.
I could be more in tune with current events if I could hear the radio or overhear people talking on the train.
I could laugh along with everyone at work, if I could just hear what they are laughing about.
I could have my hamburger ready if I could just pop out the cell phone and call the burger joint ahead of time.
I could watch all the videos on the internet with 100% understanding if I could hear because they don’t have freaking captions.
I could go on and on, but you get the drift.
But now, 29 years later, I have this BRAND NEW thought about minutes being wasted as a deaf person. People talk about how much time we waste sleeping away our life, how much time we waste on a computer, and such.
I started to calculate the minutes. About 5 minutes per dinner, 365 days a year, times how many years I’ve started cooking. About 2 hours a day at work, times 260 days a year (excluding weekends). About 2 minutes per text or email message rather than using the phone, times holy shit, forget it. This math will never be accurate!
After doing silly calculations, my brain thought, “But you have the magic of even having a mode of communication! If it wasn’t for sign language, cued speech, or ability to write/read/lipread. you wouldn’t have communication at all!” Then, “Saz, you’re not at your accounting job at the moment! What are you calculating for?” So true, my mushy brain. So true. Sure I lose many minutes or take longer to do stuff, but things could be worse. Much worse.
So, how many minutes do I waste in my lifetime being deaf? None. Having the ability to communicate at all is a blessing. And, I’m lucky to even be able to talk and hear pretty good to the point where some people forget or don’t believe that I’m deaf. Being ALIVE is even a bigger blessing.
I know this is overdue, but I am 100% sure that the engaged couple is still in bliss!
Congratulations with all my heart! Peace chin five throat!
