Adios 2008

What's to say about the end of 2008? It was a year that started out sorta crappy (He Who Shall Not Be Named & [edited so that no one comes after me legally, physically or otherwise] then turned liberating (Dobby Colleen is freeeeee!) then was fun (roadtrips to North Carolina) then depressing (not having a job for more than 2 weeks made me bored out of my mind) then fun (yay finding a job again) then depressing (moving out of Astoria & back to Long Island meh) then super fun (the cruise & the rest of my AWESOME summer, including but not limited to the James Taylor concert, 4th of July, the wedding on July 5th, my parents' surprise 25th anniversary party, working from home as gas prices were out of control, Comic Con, randomly flying to Raleigh just to see "The Dark Knight" in IMAX, etc.) then stabled out (starting a new job in August & settling into the day-to-day life with trips to Raleigh every 2-3 weeks).

It certainly was just as action packed and roller-coaster a year as 2006 & 2007 were. Geez, I can't remember a stable year since before I graduated college. But I've had some amazing things happen the past two years, so I can't complain (much).

So what does 2009 hold for me? Endings and new beginnings. Things that I've been doing for years just aren't fun for me anymore and it's (heartbreakingly) time to move on. Stuff I thought I wanted to do (career-wise, as one example), I don't know if it's for me anymore. Everything new that I've got planned (more details to come!) is exciting and friggin' terrifying at the same time.

Since we're leaving for our annual New Years' Eve family dinner in approximately 4 minutes and I have yet to brush my teeth, here's my summary for what I have learned from 2008:

There will always be tough times & things to worry or freak out about - and with my personality, I'll probably magnify each time about 29,000 times worse than need be - but there will always be those great times that are staples. Like big family parties and upcoming weddings (I'm going to be a bridesmaid in Sara & TJ's wedding on September 5!!!) and Comic Con and beach trips and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years. And the fact that I finally got Jay to start reading "Harry Potter" last night. And those are nice things to always have, no matter how shitty things may seem. Life is livable.

Merry Christmas 2008 From Colleen, Jay, & the Fam

After a bit of a delay and then some lost luggage (it got delivered finally, not even 5 minutes ago), Jay finally arrived here for Christmas! We've been doing a lot of eating, drinking, and being merry. I was showing my family what my Macbook can do and we decided to do some "Merry Christmas" messages. So without further adieu, here are some holiday wishes from us:

P.S. Sorry about the bad lighting!

Have a Keifer Sutherland Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

For your holiday cheer, here's one of (in my opinion) the reasons why YouTube is so awesome. This clip NEVER gets old.

My First California Christmas Experience

California last weekend with Jay's family ROCKED. Seriously, I had such an awesome time. We flew in on Saturday morning, with our connecting Southwest flights meeting up in Vegas and then flying to Burbank (I had no delays getting in to Las Vegas but Jay did; we then had a bit of a delay leaving Vegas because of snow in Utah I think, but it was way better being delayed with someone!)

Anyways, here's some pictures from that weekend, with captions. There's also a video in here of Jay playing guitar off-the-cuff in the kitchen while no one was paying attention. I noticed he was and grabbed my camera to pretend to take a picture and recorded some of it before he realized what I was doing & we had to go eat or whatever it was. Enjoy some of our lame pictures from our very fun Christmas #1!

Video First:



Now the photo album:

We drink when we are delayed in airports, no matter what time of day it is.

The start of the (literally) 24-hour long game of Risk that Jay & his family played!

Taking a break to text/look at pictures. We're so technologically dependent.

Naturally, we had to take a picture of the game before we went to bed that night to make sure no one cheated over night! Jay is green.

My first time ever playing Wii bowling.

All tuckered out from my 10 minutes of Wii Bowling (plus it was like 9pm NY time...)

We played in Claire's Accessories during a quick mall-trip on Sunday, 12/14. Sylar - I mean Jay - wants glasses for some reason...

I found the pickle hidden in the Christmas tree & went to claim my prize! (Okay, maaaaaybe I had a tad bit of help from Aunt Mary & Uncle Brett...)

All set for take-off from Burbank to JFK and wearing my headband because it hurt my head when I tried to sleep :)

God, we LOVE JetBlue...

On the Day Before the Day Before Christmas Eve, Justin Timberlake & Andy Samberg Gave to Me...

A holiday classic brought to you by my blog, YouTube.com, and Hulu.com

Step 1...

Angels We Have Heard on High

Happy 25th Birthday...

...And 10th Christmas in Heaven

It's Delightful From Inside (TWSS!)

It's snowing like crazy here in New York. My sister's boyfriend, Jeremiah #2, works right near where I used to work, only in a way cooler spot that directly overlooks Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District (I was 2 blocks north of the park on 28th/5th). He took this picture of all the snow in NYC and texted it to her, who sent it to me and somehow made its way onto the Internet! So thanks, #2 :)

Here's the view of the snow in NYC in Madison Square Park:

I really, really miss living in NYC.

Wait, When Did PostSecret Become So Greedy?

I'm back from California and I've got a huge post to talk about it, but first, I'd really like to finish a thought/post I started more than a week ago. As you may know, I am a huge fan of PostSecret. I have two of the books and bought my boyfriend another one of them last year for Christmas because we both love looking at this genius website. I don't think that 25% of them are real, but I do believe that 100% of them relate to someone in some way. From time to time, I'll even repost one on here that I like & want to share (find the category "PostSecret"). Like she usually does with most of the things I've come to love (cough cough Fiona Apple cough cough), Cassidy sent me in the direction of this site probably a good 2 or 3 years ago. New "secrets" are posted each Sunday on the website linked to above. I actually sent in one myself earlier this year, but it was never put up. Perhaps I should keep trying.

But anyway, my love of the website has been thrown out there. And that's what makes me so disturbed about what I found when I visited the site bright and early on Sunday, December 7, 2008:

Seems innocent enough, right? Until I started thinking. Why would a website that's hosted by BLOGGER a FREE Google-owned blogging website that I host THIS very blog on need to start begging for donations? I absolutely love this website, but right now, I'm starting to feel like this is the blogging website equivalent to the Catholic Church's Bishop's Annual Appeal. To make matter's worse, every 5 postcards or so, these appeared:

Frank originally claimed to be wanting to donate money to the suicide prevention hotline "Hopeline," but why would he need to beg for money to keep a free website running? They don't even have archives on PostSecret; sometimes you'll get lucky and the previous week's "secrets" will be up, but most of the time, if you don't catch them within the first week, you're out of luck and have to wait until the $30 book is published. And as someone pointed out in an email he posted to the website, "I would prefer any cash donations be directed to the suicide prevention hotline; HopeLine (not PostSecret)."

I can't help but get the suspicious feeling that Mr. Warren is really only trying to pay for his book tours. We're in and have been in for the last 12 months a bonafide recession. These are tough economic times and someone who spends their week reading postcards with people's darkest secrets and deepest fears and insecurities on them should realize this, too. This almost seems silly to question, since the answer is 98% "DUH!", but is Post Secret really just a business opportunity for Frank Warren?

There is truly nothing wrong with asking for help, but trying to guilt someone with the excuse, "I am desperate to keep paid ads off this site..." is really shady. Do you get some sort of tax break if it comes from donations and not from paid advertisers?

I guess there really is no such thing as a completely unselfish act and Frank Warren & PostSecret are swept up in the money-making tide. But why am I complaining? I'm still gonna visit the site every Sunday and probably buy the books I don't have eventually.

I Was Just Doing My Job!

It's been a while since I've had a Dumb Colleen story. Last night, I had a fantastic time at my company's holiday party, btw. I don't think anyone had less than 3 glasses of whatever their drink of choice was. I told my parents about it when I got home and their response was, "Yeah. We can tell." Whatever THAT means.

Anyways, here's what I did today:

Early this afternoon at work, one of the doctors, handed me an envelope. Now, I'm used to him handing me envelopes and usually it means, "Can you please stamp this?" 9 out of 10 times, he'll ask me out loud because they are very respectful and nice to you there. So when he just said, "Here you go." I assumed that since it was a shorter day for everyone, he was just cleaning house and wanted me to mail something and that it was simply a case of him being one-track minded (as in 'it's Friday and we all have to be out of here early so we're in time for the Christmas party').

So I start to automatically put it into the postage machine without even bothering to look at it or basically even get up to do so. My co-worker Linda rushes over to me and goes, "DON'T DO THAT!" She grabs the envelope out of the machine. "That's your holiday bonus!!"

Oops. Well, in my defense, I was really expecting it so how was I supposed to know what I was handed? haha, I'm a dumbass. I tried to mail my bonus!

Okay, off to the airport. Jay & I are going to California til Monday. Yay! I wanted to do fun video blogs from the airport/plane (we have the same layover in Las Vegas), but I was told I have a problem lol. We shall see!

My Macbook Does Cool Things Part 2: The Sepia Diaries

I promise to stop with the lame videos soon but SERIOUSLY I haven't even BEGUN to explore everything this computer can do! Yesterday morning, I found out that I could film using different effects and backgrounds yay. So last night, I decided to once again be a tool and film in sepia. I know all these settings are old news to most of my mac-whore friends, but I don't care, I'm having a ton of fun playing around with this myself (That's what she said). I promise the videos will stop soon and life can go back to normal.

So here's Colleen featuring Jay's voice presented in sepia! Golf claps.

Andy Samberg Creates Funny Videos

Thanks to Mr. Skypeck aka Chris in Boston for Tweeting this video last night.  It is hilarious.  Trust me.  Just watch it:

My Macbook Does Cool Things

Sooooo I found out that not only do I have this awesomely clear quality internal webcam built into my brand new Macbook, but I can actually record things using this webcam and (naturally) post them to the Internet!

...Which is, duh, exactly what I attempted to do just now.  Forgive my tired, dirty looking appearance - I actually did shower this morning, but my 2 hour nap mid-day kinda ruined that I guess.  So for all you fanboys and girls out there (ahem Paul Rudd, I'm talking to you!) who have always wondered what I look like when I'm at my hottest, here's your chance.  :P

Call Me Mac-Allister Now!

This is why I'm so excited about my new, beautiful Macbook, which arrived on Wednesday. Observe my Dell, duct tape/ external webcam/speakers/mic and all next to my pretty new computer. Excuse the doofus who insisted on being a part of the pictures via Skype video.

Bigger is not better.

Observe the external speakers, the duct tape, the ghetto web cam & external headset set up.
P.S. That's my dog Strider in his Halloween costume as the background!

The next set of pictures exhibit the duct tape, just because it seems that people think I'm being melodramatic when I say my laptop was held together with duct tape:

Band-aid from Jay's dad, Jack.

Isn't she lovely? I think I should name my new Macbook. Any suggestions?

Bless your heart if you made it down this far. Now that the computer issue is taken care of, I have to go to Verizon early tomorrow to get my phone fixed. It stopped charging. I bought a new one and it still doesn't pick up that the charger is plugged in. Boooo. I hope I don't lose all of my pictures and favorite texts. That would be sad...