Silly Wedding Industry

Under: Wedding by Bobbi @ 8:46 pm

For all the ladies out there wanting to some day get married, here’s a warning. These are all things that I’ve learned since July, and I’d like to pass them along.

From the moment you’re engaged, change your facebook relationship status as such, or go to any chain establishments looking for dresses, you are going to be BOMBARDED. Bombarded by what may you ask? Every kind of business wanting your money for your “big day”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for helping out the small businesses, and helping the economy. But… when it comes to Wedding Business, it’s just downright crazy.

Of course, there’s things such as dresses, tuxedos, cakes, invitations and rings… but there’s other things that are downright ridiculous. The Wedding Industry tries to drill several points into your head, feeding off your bridal insecurities. Examples are this:
(more…)

Happy Halloween

Under: Personal,Work by Bobbi @ 11:08 pm

I need to get into the habit of blogging more often. Looking back on Archive.org, most of my blog posts were always about what I did that day.

It’s Halloween! Sadly, my plans for this weekend fell through since I had to work late on Friday. I was also called in today. The good news was that we could dress up this weekend if we worked. So I wore part of one of my cosplay costumes to work. Just the top and a wig. I couldn’t wear the dress portion out because it was too big to move around in. It was still fun and it made the time fly by a lot faster.

Mark and I were planning on sleeping in and then going out to eat, then we were going to shop around in a city nearby. Mostly looking for Monster High dolls since there’s one that I’d like to add to my collection. I woke up at 9:30 and went to use the bathroom. Then I got the phone call from work. Trying to say “No” to my manager is impossible. I don’t like to think of myself as a pushover, at least not as bad as I used to be. But she literally guilt trips you.

After work, we ended up going to a fancy Chinese restaurant. Thankfully, lunch prices were on until 4pm. I didn’t find the doll I was looking for, but I bought another one instead. Mark also bought a Hot Wheel’s Fararri. :P Then we came home and napped! Happy times!

Sunday!

Under: Love and Romance,Web Nostalgia by Bobbi @ 11:55 pm

Ah! Sunday! It can sometimes be the only day off I have during the weekend. During the week, it’s Thursday. So I really kind of relish these two days by sleeping in as much as I can get away with. However, it’s not possible when you share a bed with someone else.  I was having a nice, wonderful happy dream about something or another (I don’t quite remember exactly) when I hear “omnomnomnom!” a second later, “omnomnomnom!” He’s trying to eat my shoulder. We went to bed unusually late last nite (3am) because he was playing a new MMO. So, I really didn’t want to wake up at 10.

We went out to eat at Penn Station (a sub place) and then I went on a search at the local Target and Toys R Us for Monster High dolls. Apparently the one character I really like was recently released (the zombie girl) so I was hoping to find her. Nope! I did find the Dawn of Dance version of Frankie Stein, but I really didn’t want to pay $25 for her. So, I suppose I’ll wait.

While at Toys R Us, we were looking around at all the neat toys. Mark loves Legos and Nerf guns, so he was eyeballing those. Then we stumbled upon the scooters and… Power Wheels. There’s one massive one that goes up to 7mph and can hold up to 130lbs. If I got down to my goal weight, I could probably ride it! We decided that once we have kids, we are definitely giving them all the things we wished we had as a kid so that we can play with them (and probably break it). If I have a girl, she’s going to HATE Hello Kitty by the time she’s 3. If it’s a boy, he’s going to hate Mario/Nintendo/Pokemon.

After that, we took a walk. It was a really warm day today. Pretty sad since it’s late October. Soon, we’ll be freezing under 3 feet of snow.

I’ve been spending a bit of time working on a webdesign pet-project of mine.  It’s been pretty fun and enjoyable thus far! Plus, it lets me make some use of old files I’ve kept ahold of for almost a decade.

While I’m at it, does anyone know of any good cliques/webrings to join? Looks like all the ones I used to be a member of are dead. I know it’s a pretty dead trend to begin with, but… I’m hoping there’s still some out there.

Parental Visit and Buffets are EVIL!

Under: Friends and Family,Work by Bobbi @ 2:08 am

I posted this on my LJ first, forgetting that I should post here first and crosspost. Whoops!

Yesterday, my parents came to visit. More lulzy fun. I look forward to seeing my parents because Mark and I always have good laughs and facepalms afterward. I love them dearly, but OMFG!

So we ended up going to a buffet chain that my mom absolutely loves called Ryans. We found one a bit south of here and I told my mom about it awhile ago. She was determined to go yesterday. So we go out there.

It’s kind of like the ideal elderly buffet. They did have some good stuff. But… I have a hard time trying to control myself at buffets and I like to avoid them like the plauge. This is especially true since I’ve not been keeping up as well with my diet/exercise regimen. I’ve not gained weight (still hovering between 163-166 on any given day). But I’m getting flabby. Anyway!

My mom is trying to pour those little creamer cups into her coffee. She barely opened it, and is SQUEEZING IT out. I’m sitting there eyeing the yummy rolls contemplating how delicious it might be with my baked chicken and mashed potatoes. Maybe I’ll add just a little bit of butter! Suddenly, creamer shoots ALL OVER the rolls, the table, and almost onto my plate. T_T

They have a buttload of deserts. BAD BAD BAD. I got little small portions of all the chocolately goodness. In the end, I was pretty stuffed. Like, OMFG I CAN’T MOVE stuffed.

I made sure to bring some 1′s with me just in case my parents decide to leave a itty bitty tip like they usually do. Like, we’re talking $2 (for a $50 bill). Instead, they leave NO tip. When I ask my mom if they’re going to leave a tip, she says “No, the waitress was hardly here!”

But… she was there and getting drinks when our glasses were still only half full, getting plates every time we finished one, and she even brought out the extra eggroll samples for us when my mom asked for them thinking Mark wanted more! ;_; I felt so bad, so I left her the measly $3 I had.

So anyway, I was stuffed. I was all hot and trying to digest the food. I couldn’t fall asleep very well. As soon as I’d fall asleep, something would wake me up. Either a car pulling in, my neighbor drumming on something near the wall trying to be a rock star, or just thoughts. I didn’t sleep at all last night. By morning, I was feeling sick.

I wanted to call off today, but work is so short-staffed. Calling off there is like a recipe for disaster. So I went in anyway and did an 8 hour shift. (Was supposed to be until 1). Mark and I had originally made plans to go to Cici’s Pizza (a Pizza buffet which I DID NOT NEED after yesterday) with his parents today. But I couldn’t get out of working till 5. On the bright side, I ate very little since I was feeling sick. I did have Subway for lunch though. I’m somewhere around 1300-1400 calories today. I’m really trying hard to stay around this amount.

I came home and promptly NAPPED! <3 It was happy time!

A post in which Bobbi waves her cane.

Under: Web Nostalgia by Bobbi @ 7:20 pm

Every now and then, I’m stricken with a bit of web-nostalgia. I think it’s pretty common for most of us who have had an online presence for quite awhile. Next year marks 12 years since I’ve been making webpages. It’s really hard to believe how much the internet, design, the world, and myself have changed in that period of time.

What I really do kind of miss is the days of the personal homepage. Back in the late 90′s there was no Social Networking. If you wanted to put content on the web, you made a website somewhere, usually on Geocities or space provided by your ISP (like AOL for instance). While it sucked for people who were terrified of diving into site-building, it was also kind of neat being one of the few out there with a website. Your own website provided a multitude of creative capabilities that social networking as it stands today, just does not compare.

Also there was the added benefit of anonymity. You could take up a pseudonym, rant all you wanted about the girl you dislike the most at school. Yet nobody knows who you’re talking about, and it doesn’t come back to bite you in the butt. I never really took up any pseudonyms until… fairly recently. Nor did I ever rant about people online publicly. But still, the benefit was there if I needed it. I mostly used my websites to talk about my dorky obsessions, share my fan art and talk about my life. None of it effected me offline, except the few friends that did see my sites.

Now you can find out everything about a person from their Facebook. Everyone’s on Facebook. Oddly enough, I post more blog entries on my LJ (and hopefully soon, here) than I post Facebook status updates. Yet, there’s far more information about me on my personal websites, but their a lot harder to find. I like it this way. I think I really keep my Facebook to keep in touch with my non-web-savvy friends and relatives. This unfortunately boils down to just about everyone I know IRL.

Sadly, a lot of websites out there just went forgotten and abandoned. Today, there’s far fewer people that run and maintain personal websites. It’s kind of sad. But the people that do maintain them these days tend to really know what they’re doing and they’re awesome. This means there’s a lot less copycatting going on than there was 5-10 years ago. I’d find copycats twice a month at least back when I primarily used sweet-essence.net as my domain.

I don’t think I can or will move on to just a social networking account (or twelve). I like the ability to fully and entirely manipulate the way everything looks and feels. You just can’t do that with other places. Sure, you can make your (now dying) Myspace profile look all shiny and snazzy. But no matter what you do, it will still look like Myspace!

I for one, definitely will not ever abandon my own unique spot on the web just for me, be it a domain or just a site hosted somewhere.

How about you? What are your thoughts on this?

First Entry!

Under: Other Stuff by Bobbi @ 4:39 am

It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve blogged on my own domain, much less the main page. I think the last time I did this was in 2004 when I had a blog of sorts on one of my previous domains. Since then, I moved to various other accounts, but mostly, my livejournal.

I decided I’d really like to do this again. For one, not many people in my little web-circle do it anymore. Another, I just want to keep everything in one place (although I will be cross-posting entries here and there). Lastly, my new lovely host Bubble.nu requires updates every two months. Sometimes I can go a year without really updating the main part of my site. So a blog would be a good way to keep things current.

Anyway, that said… I’m finally unveiling my new layout! I need to do more work on the content. I also have a few upcoming mini-projects that I need to add to the list.

I’d really like to write a lot more, but it’s almost time for bed!

Toodles! <3