I decided I wanted to learn some Flash animation. So I hit up this great Flash tutorial online and started whacking away. Here's the example I was trying to emulate:

... which I thought was boring, so here's my version. (You need sound to fully "appreciate" my work of art here.)

Not sure why the screams are off. They're not supposed to start before you hit the button, and they're certainly not supposed to be continuing after her untimely demise.

*Update: I've figured out how to stop the annoying screaming-upon-pageload, but I can't figure out how to cut the screaming short after the squish. Hmm.

Lesson learned: just because I had a hassle-free experience purchasing from an online merchant 6 months ago does not mean that I should trust them again for other purchases without checking ResellerRatings.com first.

Turns out a merchant that I bought from a while back has been getting tons of "Very Dissatisfied" reviews as of late, but I hadn't checked. Well, at least I was able to cancel the order, and my credit card company is always on my side.

Still don't have my goodies though. Poop.

I didn't know that our local HEB grocery store was so ... ahead of the times.

I wasn't gonna celebrate my birthday this year - I was totally hating being a girl that day - but I ended up having a week-long celebration of sorts.

So, for my bday, in addition to calls / e-mails (aww, thanks guys!), I got:

Dinner with friends,

Chocolate-covered strawberries (hand-dipped by Carol!),

Godiva chocolates,

Belgian chocolates brought over from Belgium (I'm seeing a pattern here),

Exquisite caramel cookies, also brought over from Belgium (there WERE 10 in there),

More dinner with more friends,

A Calvin and Hobbes treasury, with notes by Bill Watterson,

And a surprise non-alcoholic champagne toast. And a perm.

Starting January 2007, I will no longer shop at Best Buy.

Well, I think I have a $50 gift card still hanging around somewhere. I suppose I'll spend that, but that's it.

1) Set dial to the 6-minute mark, because you want crunchy toast, and according to the picture, that is the crunchiest toast setting.

2) Forget to set dial to "Toast", leaving it on the settings from that cheese stick late-night snack the other night.

3) Stupidity © me.

An approximation of my thought process while the toast was on fire:

omg it's on fire but the lack of oxygen should probably make it stop by itself hmm should take a pic before it goes out ok unplug the thing dousing with water in there would probably be bad oh crap the fire alarm is going off damn it's hella loud shut up how do i get it to stop i can't pull the cover off yargh ahh hey it's still burning my theory was not correct i should try to take it out of there but i only have wooden chopsticks won't those get set on fire too if i go in there with them oh well i'll be really fast ok here goes omg omg shut up fire alarm boosh ok now i'm safe. whew.

... has come to me recently by way of Thi, Shilpi, and Amit. Thank you guys. Where there was an intangible, unexplainable void is now a ray of hope that is shining in and filling me, which sounds cliché but ... it truly is hard to put into words what I feel right now.

It's gonna take me a few weeks to get used to writing "2007" or "07" at the end of dates now.

Hope the coming year is good for you all, in stepping closer to realizing your goals and dreams, and in keeping safe and healthy.

I'm spending the day at my parents' house in front of the TV, setting up a Logitech Harmony 659 universal remote (my gift to them, fulfilling the geeky curiosity in me). It's supposed to be really easy to setup. I am always scared whenever something is advertised as "really stupidly simple for dummies" to set up, cuz if I can't figure it out, that means *I* am stupid and dumb. It NEVER goes smoothly for me ... been at it now for 2 hours and counting. This is gonna be so worth it, though - my parents have a bucket of 5 remotes that I will hopefully be replacing. (I think I'm the only one who is proficient at the use of all the remotes in a somewhat harmonious manner.)

Big juicy thanks to Dean (aka the L337 case-modding-revolution leader EnVaDoR aka the BillSplit mastermind) for upgrading my dasBlog! And continuing to graciously host my insanity that is iHaTePiNk year after year! I would kiss his feet, but he ain't within feet-kissing distance (fortunately for him probably, haha)! :)