For a Pessimist, I am Pretty Optimistic

Site News:

1.    New layout – Due to ad formatting changes, I switched from my original black and green two columned theme to this brighter and whiter three columned one. At first I thought it was too cheery and plain, but after I customized the header, it started to grow on me. What do you think about it?

2.    Random Pic of the Day – I felt I needed to do something to bring more humor to the site (especially on days when I write fluff posts or when I write about a “heavy” topic) so I started posting a silly picture everyday.

3.    More posts and updates – I’m trying, trying, trying to see if I can write a post everyday for a week. Once I do that, then I just may attempt joining one of those groups where everyone vows to write a post everyday for 365 days. So far, I keep missing posting on Sundays (I get way too lazy then!)

Collaborations:

1.    Stuart from Secluded Habitat has been kind enough to let me sponsor his monkey, Cheeky, during his International travels. An Australia native, Cheeky is excited to set his sights on the US but all he has on his itinerary is Salt Lake City and then NYC with me. Anyone else interested in taking Cheeky around their town?

2.    Athena from Hot Child in the Suburbsadded me to her blogroll and I couldn’t help but reciprocate.

3.    One of the pics of the day, A Dilemma, was featured on Bits and Pieces.

Funny Comments:

1.    Ok. I’m sure that was taking somewhere in my office. It seems like the kind of thing management would do. - Freelance Guru (in reference to pic of the day: You Are Destined to Burn)

2.    I LOVE when spell-check tells me I spelled my own last name wrong! And being so reliant on spell-check, I always go back and look before I realize that it’s spell-check that is wrong, not me! - keyster94 (in reference to the post “Damn You Useless Yahoo Spellchecker!“)

3.    I want my kid to be just like this kid’s best friend, you know, the one who knew all he had to say was, “I dare you…” - Kate @ All Over the Place (In reference to Pic of the Day: Someone Get This Kid a Snickers)

4.    So SO true about the time-wasting dialogue. Do porn writers get bonuses based on audience frustration? And that’s a great analogy. hahhahahha!– lolli @? (in reference to the post “Random Comparison: Porn and Chicken Wings”) 

Funny Comments from other sites:

1.    I hate it when these things get in the house. Happens to me all the time. (in reference to Pic of the Day: WTF?)

2.    Pedo? So… the male was pre-pubescent? For pedophilia to be an accurate label the object of one’s desire must have not arrived at puberty yet. (in reference to the post “A Near Brush with Pedophilia…it’s not only girls who develop early”) – Um, sorry to disappoint you with the fact that I’m not a pedophile?

Funny Searches:

It’s interesting that these are the most common searches that my site comes up for: sex, porn, Jenna Haze (one of the most clicked tags), pedophilia, Nigerian scammers, black syphilis, gay cat

These really caught my eye:

- i yell at my dad for viewing porn on my laptop and he hits me yahoo answers (I tried to search for this myself, but didn’t come up with anything)

- Pedophilia movie list girl (sounds like an interesting name for a blog)

- my father give me a name (poor guy wanted an Everclear song and got this crazy place instead!)

- cosmopolitan magazine june 2008 issue his g-spot (seriously why, why, why are people bothering to read this piece of crap article –  unless they wanted to see how ridiculous it was?)

- ambien scuba diving (what?!)

While waiting for the train in Penn Station, I was approached by a group of tourists. They barely spoke English, but they were all smiling widely, while one gentleman gestured towards me with his camera. Though the location was odd, I assumed they wanted me to take a picture of them. I reached for the camera, but the man laughed, shook his head, and motioned for me to move over near the rest of the group. Confused, I found myself in the middle of the shot. Why would anyone want to take a picture of me?

Three shots were taken before they smiled and starting talking rapidly to me, even though I couldn’t understand a word. “Rosario,” I heard them say more than once. That’s when it hit me. There are a handful (just a handful of people) who swear to high heaven that I resemble Rosario Dawson - which I don’t understand because I’m definitely not as endowed as her. Well besides my friends having blurred vision, these confused people must have mistaken me for her.

Since there was no way for them to understand if I tried to explain the mistake (and to be honest I don’t think I would have the balls to say anything regardless), I just smiled awkwardly and quickly walked away. During the ride home I couldn’t help but feel bad. They might not realize it right now, but what would happen once they got the pictures developed? The minute they show them to anyone, that person will say, “That is so NOT Rosario Dawson!” and then they’ll feel like I conned them.

I’ve heard stories of people go as far as to sign a fake autograph because someone mistook them for a celebrity…has anything like this happened to anyone else? 

I have been so utterly stressed these past weeks due to different life events. I hate when things get like this; instead of being in control like I prefer, I’m stuck waiting around for outcomes to be determined.

First, the end of the month is approaching any day now and we still don’t have a confirmed place to move into. We found yet another great place (this time I made sure there was absolutely no broker’s fee!) but of course there’s some problem. The landlord mentioned something about how even though the place is empty, the people who used to live there still technically own the place because paperwork hasn’t been finished yadda yadda yadda. Supposedly the place is ours, but I’m not reassured when someone has to contact me again to let me know if I can move in anytime soon or not. The way my luck is, I bet the previous tenants will all of a sudden decide to move back or something.

Second, I’ve been trying to wait patiently for a job offer to be confirmed. Since I found a practically perfect position with a perfect boss, it figures that I couldn’t get the position right away. First I have to wait for the girl who currently holds the position to travel overseas. Supposedly she needs to go away for an indefinite amount of time due to family issues. I don’t want to press the situation too much, but it’s been almost two weeks now…if I had a family emergency, I sure as hell would have been long gone. With my track record, the family emergency will clear itself up and I’ll receive a very polite “Thank you for your interest, but…” phone call. Worst part is that I think I’m jinxing myself – after all, my employment happiness depends on someone’s family suffering.

Finally, I’m eagerly awaiting the results of the monthly blog contest that’s held here at today.com. Last month I won the prize for having the most popular blog in June (I wonder if there’s some sort of badge I can get for my sidebars?) and am determined to win it a second month in a row. Judging by current stats, I should definitely have a shot. But then who knows, with the way things have been going, I’ll probably end up not being eligible since I won last month or something or other (though I don’t think the Admin’s on the site operate like that). At least this will be determined in just 2 short days.

Wish me luck!

While over on Secluded Habitat the other day, I found myself becoming one of hopefully many sponsors of a monkey with a love for travel. Cheeky, pet to the blogs’ author Stuart, has been itching for a holiday and since Stuart won’t be able to accompany him, he has asked if any fellow bloggers would like to help show his monkey around the Globe.

Of course I offered and I’m pretty excited about showing Cheeky around NYC. There are so many places I want to take him: the Empire State Building (how could I not?), Central Park, Times Square, The Village (both East and West), even the Museums of Art, Natural History, Sex (well maybe not that last one…I don’t think he’s that cheeky!)

Besides New York, Cheeky is also scheduled for Salt Lake City, Utah and possibly the UK. Anyone else interested in showing Cheeky about town? I know there are quite a few readers from the US that can help to really show Cheeky all different aspects of the country.

How about some other international hosts too? Cheeky doesn’t mind where he goes as long as it helps him spread his “monkey wings” outside of his home in Australia.

WTF, is that a llama?