Okay so there’s a lot of news with the iPad that I wanted to talk about, as well as the MSI competitor that’s being released at the same price point. I plan on spending some time getting images and details… so for today, I just wanted to touch upon a small conspiracy theory that I have worked up in my head.

Saturdays are out to get me.

For anybody that’s friends with me on facebook, you’ll notice on occasional saturdays I write an irate status update about how I ran out of coffee/creamer/sugar. This has been afoot for a long time now and today seriously took the cake.

To start: TODAY IS SATURDAY.

I was downstairs starting to make my morning coffee. I filled the pot with water, poured it in, and proceeded to grab the coffee so I could scoop it in.

Disaster 1: i was already low on coffee to begin with, but I KNEW that I would avoid the saturday doomsday corruption because I had enough to get through another day or two. As I picked it up, it flipped over onto the floor. COFFEE GRINDS EVERYWHERE. EMPTY COFFEE CONTAINER.

Disaster 2: As if that wasn’t enough, and I thought my saturday curse had run its course, I finish making coffee after salvaging whatever grinds I had left…only to realize that I just poured the last of my creamer. Yup. That’s right. It’s Saturday, and my creamer has run out as per usual. So now I am coffee-less and creamer-less until tomorrow, where surely I will forget that I need to buy it and wake up extra grumpy because I have no coffee to make and have to go to the store.

Disaster 3: THEN, to top it off- I was making breakfast and trying to carry up my egg with coffee for the boyfriend and I. As soon as I pick up the coffee, my egg commits suicide onto the floor. Meanwhile, Shane is upstairs listening to me curse and swear because all this literally happened in a matter of 10 minutes.

HOW DOES MY CREAMER KNOW?? I don’t make the same amount of coffee during the week, but somehow its synced up to my life. It KNOWS when Saturday is approaching and somehow cannibalizes itself so that I only have enough to leave me tragically empty handed on Sunday morning.

You know, I watch enough detective shows. Perhaps the TRUE culprit here is my creamer. It’s the common denominator in all my sketchy kitchen disasters. It has motive AND opportunity. DEAR COFFEE-MATE HAZELNUT CREAMER: consider yourself caught red-handed. I will put an end to this before you kill again. LEAVE THE EGGS OUT OF THIS.

Everybody LOVES to have an office. I know I do. I’ve always had an office. Does that mean I utilize it the way an office SHOULD be utilized? Noooo. I think we’re all guilty of that. Who ACTUALLY uses an office to.. well.. work all the time? The correct answer should be “I do!”, however the answer is “fail”. I don’t currently have a job (since I’m a student) but I do spend many, MANY hours in this office, that I fondly refer to as “black hole life consuming void of the house” writing and doing school work. The beauty of my UCF classes are that every single class I am in right now, is in a big lecture hall (like a normal college class) except they record them as well, so that if I am so inclined to stay home in my pajamas and feel as IF I am in class… well, I can. I don’t take advantage of this NEARLY as much as I should, because I actually like to have a physical presence in class. I find the work is much easier when I’m there,  and not being distracted by a full kitchen and a coffee pot. They are hazardous to my health when I am in the vicinity of either for more than a few hours… [if there is still any content left in them].

I figured that since I’ve had the experience of attempting to utilize my office for what it’s worth, I would attempt to share my misconstrued wisdom about “work” along to you. How do we work? Let me count the ways.

1) This application, called “Xmind” is completely free and supported by both Windows, Mac, Ubuntu and a few other platforms. Go to this link- Xmind and sign up for an Xmind account. If you have an OpenID, which chances are most of you reading this do not since I didn’t even have one, you can use that instead. Just go to this page- Xmind Downloads, click to download with your choice platform, and log in. Or, once you sign up for a new Xmind account, you can download it as well. Either way, this thing is AWESOME. It’s for mind mapping, the new organization and task related deal where you use visual objects to map out your progress. But it has SO MANY AWESOME THINGS! You can mind map and make it really custom too- the idea is that having it visually displayed will help you follow it and see the actual progress. Remember, people like to see results, not just words written down with no meaning. Here’s a screen shot from my laptop:

There’s a lot to learn on this thing, so I’m starting to work with it. It’s a weeeeeee bit complicated… it took me about 3 minutes to figure out the controls to show you those lovely two boxes. It’s magnificent though!

2) Avoid the devil’s temptation. That’s right. You know just as well as I do what I’m about to say… what other massive time sink could I be speaking of? Facebook, Myspace and everything like that. While it’s fun to know you’re home “working” and you have the freedom to do whatever you want; you can’t. This is what distinguishes successful “work from home” or “office in home” people from the… well  not so successful ones.  For every second that you spend mindlessly scavenging those websites you could be doing something to give yourself more time when you actually need it. For instance: Me attempting to write a 7 page essay while constantly checking every social networking site available in an attempt to avoid my mind numbing work could accomplish nothing and only adds an extra hour or two to write it. On the upside, I do however know that “Billy” is no longer in a relationship and “Susan” has a status message up spilling all the wonderful information about her pedicure.. or electrolysis.. or whatever the hell else she did today that nobody really cares about, and I can also see my own status message stated that I baked cookies! Of course I lied, because my cookies come out looking like brownies that are hard as bricks but… whatever, I’m not suzy homemaker over here lol. That time could very well be restructured into me actually finishing the essay in the appropriate amount of time and having EXTRA time after for mindless stalking and life updates.

side note: I was just referencing Bruce Wayne, not to be mistaken with Bruce Banner.. why is the name “Bruce” common to the Marvel/DC comics world? HMMMM?!

3) POST IT NOTES! I love post it notes, as I’ve mentioned MANY TIMES BEFORE! There’s a new white board calendar thing that came out, with post it notes as the days! WONDERFUL OH MY GOD. These items are essential in planning your tasks, especially if you’re not computer savvy, or just like the looks of colorful post its. Please visit this website full of heavenly goodness- POST-ITS!

4) Treat your day like any other day. I know it’s fun to not give a crap and just do your work while lounging around (trust me! I know!) but it’s much easier to kick start the day and feel like you’re going to accomplish things if you wake yourself up the right way! That means get up, MAKE A FRESH POT OF COFFEE (note the important of that step… I would seriously take a shower before that if I was capable, but coffee holds a special power over me… mmmm), take a shower, throw on some nice clothes and clear your desk. Open up your organizer (you should have one! I harp on shane all the time but we’re complete opposites when it comes to that stuff) and check what exactly you have to do for the day. ORRR! If you did what step 1 told you, open up Xmind  (avoid the temptation to stalk facebook/myspace) and look at what is ahead of you. You can make a list of things you need to tackle today, and things that can be left for later in the week.

5) Keep snacks on your desk. Snacking while working (or studying) makes me happy. I swear I could snack for all 1,440 minutes of the day.

6) Set actual working hours. While it’s nice to take breaks and commence work for a while, only returning at 8 pm, think long and hard about it. If you have a structured “work” day, you can get up as late as you want, or work whenever you want, as long as its a constant block of time. Get up at noon if you want, but set your work hours until say… 6 PM. Then post it note (see step 3) or Xmind (see step 1) what you didn’t finish so you can have it ready to go for the next day.

7) Make sure that your desk is clean (Aside from step 5 and step 3) but make sure!!!! and this is important!!!! that you don’t have any old annoying notes hanging around that are already done or irrelevant. Throw them out, you pack rat! You’ll feel more overwhelmed if there’s old ones laying around (or stuck to your monitor). Having a nice clean work area will give you a supremely awesome peaceful feeling. If you own your house (or get approval from your apartment complex) pick a soothing color to paint your office, such as a nice neutral beige, a medium-ish blue, lavender etc. Having a new fresh coat of paint (that you pick out) can make your office extremely cozy :) Or, in the case of my hot chocolate brown family room, make you crave chocolate. Either way.. you have snacks, so no worries.

8) fueng shui like a badass! The layout of your office can make or break how comfortable you feel.

Another thought: I had somebody ask me yesterday if I had hazel eyes. Must have been the weird lighting in the room. Either that or somebody finally noticed the green line in my eye lol.

That is all for now. It’s past midnight and I’m sleepy. I need to get up and run before class tomorrow and I can’t do that if I’m half asleep and dreaming of all the post-it notes I wrote about in this post. Good night.

Yes. You heard correctly. I am having an affair with sleep. While it is something valued, it is something I never get enough of. Lowe’s in particular likes to get in the way of my happiness as much as possible. Clearly they are jealous that I love sleep so much, and attempt to choose that over their hum drum services each time. I find it slightly maddening that Lowe’s likes to do everything so damn early. I bought my washer and dryer from home depot, and the time they chose to install it was in the afternoon. Everytime I order something from Lowe’s, they’re like “OH!!! You’re a student! It’s the middle of the week! Why don’t I come at 8 am!” and I’m like “Ummm…. well is there anything later?” Then they’re like “OH. Wellll, we CAN do 11.” So I’m like “YES! 11 it is.”

7:45 AM

Cell Phone: *ring ring* I am here to disturb your peace!

Me: “errr ughhhh yarrr” *wakes up*

Cell Phone: ‘HELLLOoOOooOOOO!!! This is DAN from LOWES!!!’
Me: ‘ummm HI? Is it already 11?”
Cell Phone: ‘NO!!! It’s 7:45!’
Me: ‘Oh? Well I’m scheduled for 11″
Cell Phone: ‘It’s 7:45! Lowe’s specifically gave me a detailed instruction manual saying that Selena can not sleep, along with a FAQ and trouble shooter to reference in the event that she tries.

Me: ‘Oh, really? They must have given you the wrong manual. Mine says that I do not do any sort of activity in the morning that requires consciousness before 11 AM”

Cell Phone: ‘I would like to do your installation now.”

Me: ‘Ugh okay, I’m already awake now… how far away are you?’

Cell Phone: ‘I’m riiiiight around the corner! I can be there in one minute!”

Me: ‘NO! come back at 11.’ *click*

This occured about 3 weeks ago. He did, begrudgingly, come later in the day. I think he tried to be spiteful by saying “well, I’m busy later so I probably can’t get there until after 11. *rubs in face*” and I say “GOOD! the later the better.” Now, it is another day, it is 9:30 am and I am wide awake because Mr. big bad Lowe’s man had decided to come at 8 o clock. After going to sleep at 2:30. (Me, not the Lowe’s guy. As much as it might tickle me to know his oh so interesting schedule, I do not. Although,… if I DID I could probably harass him at 3 am, or an hour earlier from whatever time he decides to wake up so he knows how it feels. Unfortunately I would not have anything fun or necessary to install so this time I would merely be disturbing his peace.)

I don’t know HOW the Lowe’s guy is SO cheery in the mornings. I wish I could be like that. Instead, you will hear the following if you try to wake me up when I am not ready: “YARRRR! *snarf* whaaaaaat? NO! SLEEP! *gurgle*”

Do not question why I sound like a pirate/attack dog/blonde/angry lady early in the morning. That’s just how it is. Deal with it. Shane has learned to plan accordingly by either giving me Rum and gold, a cookie, bubbles or .. umm whatever is it that makes angry ladies happy. *insert object here*. Of course, the more logical thing to do would be to give me coffee. Give me a cup of coffee and I’m all sunshine and flowers and “HIIII!! GOOOOOOOOOOOD morning!” (Not sunflowers though, I will never be as happy in the morning as that one yoga teacher. He likes to scoop them up. I vote we let him and stand clear). I suspect the Lowe’s guy might have had an extreme amount of caffeine. I am jealous. I never told you who I was having my affair ON.. and that is coffee. How I love coffee.

Anyway, back on track- He also told me his daughter was thinking about going to law school and changed her mind because Law eats your babies. Yes, he went there. Yes, Jenna and I go there all the time. I guess we aren’t the only ones.

I am exhausted. I am supposed to go riding today but I don’t think I can.. I’m way too tired and I have to get everything ready to go back home. As I had said before- YAY for 20 hour road trips!

There is nothing more that I could possibly want other than to go back to bed right now. But I am some kind of malfunctioned young adult who cannot nap, nor go back to sleep once I am awake. It sucks big time. Therefore I find myself writing early in the morning while the boyfriend is in class. Oh class. How I remember you. I used to loooove naps. Evidently they don’t love me back anymore. They are too mad at my love affair with sleep.

PS: I went ice skating this weekend for my first time (Well, I think it was my first time. That’s still up in the air)

I am proud of myself because I did not fall. Even though I was clinging to shane when Michael Jackson’s “beat it” song came on , and I almost threw him off balance. But really! I did good! My mission of keeping all my fingers was a major success. This weekend I also think that I realized I am allergic to scallops. It was a sad, sad day.

I would like to thank Mccain for making us MORE sure (or sure, if we weren’t already) that Obama is indeed it for the next president. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you know I’m an avid Obama supporter, and I think he’s exactly what we need to help this country flourish once again. I was watching the Democratic Convention, and his speech was AMAZING! I would throw some quotes in here but, really, there were so many awesome things that you may as well just watch it yourself. John Mccain conveniently picked the governor of Alaska (who was a hockey mom and a PTA mom… and happened to make her way up to governor.. of ALASKA) who also has children (one with down syndrome) and has less experience than Obama does, as his VP… Is that a little weird to you? I don’t really know what on earth he was trying to do. Republicans seem to think this was a good move on his part, but I just don’t see it.

What happens if she needs to step in and take up his chair for a while? Is she going to know what to do? I was told once in my politics class that essentially the VP does most of the decisions and the President is actually just a tie breaker. If that’s the case (and how it “really” works in there) then he’s in trouble. Obama chose Biden, who is fully capable of walking in there and taking over if need be. I haven’t even HEARD of Palin’s name before.

Brief interlude: I have a mosquito bite that is the size of a small tumor on my arm. it’s extremely itchy, a little disturbing, and really annoying.

Anyway, I switched so that I’m registered to vote in Florida, so I don’t have to do an absentee ballot in NY. I was watching the RNC last night… has anybody else noticed that Laura Bush is somewhat reminiscent of a Stepford Wife? Okay I should stop.  I know some of my readers are Republicans, and politics isn’t supposed to be about dividing people, but uniting people. Though doesn’t it seem that it’s taken that direction? The dividing path?

I’m well aware this blog is probably making NO sense (and less so than any of my other blogs) but I just woke up and I’ve taken three sips of my coffee. My brain is all jumbly and I SHOULD be going to the gym, but I can’t get shane up and I’m really nice and cozy under this blanket… I’ll probably expand/make sense of this once I get back from class.

On another note, my dad made an offer on a house! If everything goes well and the bank accepts his offer, then shane and I can move in this month! I’m soooo excited because I’ll finally have a place to decorate that isn’t massivly huge like my parent’s house in NY. This one is only 1600 SF as opposed to 4000+. So we shouldn’t have too much empty space in there. Though I must admit, when we were house hunting, all I wanted to do was move back to NY and back into our house after seeing the houses down here. What a difference. I really prefer the style up north to the style down here. But it has a FIREPLACE! Totally unneccesary, but extremely aesthetically pleasing.

mmmmm. cofffeeeeeeee. That is all for now. Be back later to edit this.

So, I’m sitting here sipping on my daily morning cup (barrel) of coffee, and decided to write a blog. It wasn’t so much that I ‘decided’ to write one per-say, but it just so happens I got up in a rush at 10 o clock to get to class, when my class isn’t until 1:30. Yup- welcome to the first week.

Anyways, since I’m such a avid coffee drinker, I always get people who don’t touch caffeine asking me what the hell is so great about it, why I drink it constantly, and that it’s a crutch and I can REALLY wake up in the morning if I wanted to without it. *Gasp* How dare they talk this way! Well, just to throw this in your faces, there are actually multiple benefits to drinking this perilous caffeine you speak of. For one, if you have low blood pressure like me, having a delicious mug-o-coffee in the morning thins your blood and helps to get it pumping. Yes, it’s true. It’s also beneficial to drink it before going for a run or before working out. Not for the sugar rush, but merely to start thinning your blood so it pumps faster and gets you moving.

(I’m not making this up- I’ve researched this)

More benefits! Many studies have shown that coffee/caffeine can reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease, where people are 80% less likely to acquire it… as well as reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes. Now correct me if I’m wrong (it was a LONG time ago that I took my pharmacology class) but I believe type-2 is the acquired diabetes, not the hereditary one. It also cures and helps prevent the onset of heavy headaches. I know when I get a headache I love caffeine. Running is also another thing that helps because it gets your blood moving, but honestly who wants to go thump around outside when you have a throbbing mass of pain in your head? Chronic migraines are treated with caffeine pills. They are horse pills mind you, but they work. I’ve seen it.

“Overall, the research shows that coffee is far more healthful than it is harmful,” says Tomas DePaulis, PhD, research scientist at Vanderbilt University’s Institute for Coffee Studies.

There is also evidence that it may help prevent asthma attacks, or also be a intermediary when there’s no asthma puffer thing available (inhaler).

“What caffeine likely does is stimulate the brain and nervous system to do things differently,” he tells WebMD. “That may include signaling you to ignore fatigue or recruit extra units of muscle for intense athletic performance. Caffeine may even have a direct effect on muscles themselves, causing them to produce a stronger contraction. But what’s amazing about it is that unlike some performance-enhancing manipulation some athletes do that are specific for strength or sprinting or endurance, studies show that caffeine positively enhances all of these things.”

And when you say people who NEED caffeine in the morning are liars, think again. There was also a study on the effects of caffeine on the brain that showed some peoples brain activity when they wake up ACTUALLY takes longer to process and start up. Having coffee in the morning speeds up that process and gets them up to speed so that they may function. I can attest to that. I am awful in the morning and don’t want to talk to anybody, nor can I think or function. See, I don’t take morning classes for a reason- not ’cause I’m lazy.

Coffee is also the number one source for anti-oxidants (they clean out your body). Black tea is the second. Anti-oxidants act as free radical scavengers which repair the damage left over from by-products that other foods leave behind in your body. I have to get ready for class now (the real one at 1:30, not the pseudo one at 12:30) so I’ll cut this short… BUT

Of course there are negatives to drinking coffee. You can’t very well have a debate on just the benefits without stating the other side of the equation. There’s the obvious… jitters, nervousness, anxiety. There’s also the fact that if you drink it after 6 pm you can’t sleep very well at night. (Not that THAT’S ever stopped me. Jenna and I have had plenty of 9 PM coffee/target dates). If you have high blood pressure it increases your risk for heart attack and cardiovascular disease. So don’t take my work on it and start funneling coffee like it’s your job. I just wanted to make you aware that I drink coffee for a reason. So stop hating. Lol.

Bye!