An Apple a Day

November 30, 2008. 11:30pm.

I finally purchased a Macbook after almost a year of computer problems.  I didn't get one of the new aluminum ones (way way cool but a little too expensive), but I got the white one and I'm really excited.  I think it was one year ago this week that I was staying with Jay at his school for the week and he tried to start the Mac attack slowly by having me use his laptop while I was there, but I finally jumped on the Apple Bandwagon over the last two months that I have been using John's iBook.  So...yay!  No more external speakers and half-working external microphones and clumsy external webcam hookups and terrible sound quality when recording podcasts!

Holler.

Podcast Awards Time!

Okay boys and girls, it's Podcast Awards time! Voting opens today, October 23 and closes at the stroke of midnight on November 7 (11:59pm on November 6).

You can vote once every 24 hours per IP address or name/email (cough cough). Just go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for "MetroBuzz" in the Best Comedy category. Whether you just do it this once or you remember to do it every day, I'd be so grateful. Here's what your ballot should look like, hehe:

Thank you so much. I went to the awards ceremony last year in California with Jay and it was really cool, so it's kinda surreal that we were actually nominated this year.

Packing Sucks

It's so funny. I HATE packing. Last year, I was packing up to move out on my own (with the lovely Amanda) to Astoria. And I did not mind at all. I stayed up ALL NIGHT (literally) packing and went running on no sleep at like 6am, fully energized. I was so excited to pack and move. That was when Jay and I were still just talking and I know I talked to him til like 2am that night, then kept packing til 6am. It was just really exciting "I'm moving forward" times. This year, I decided packing sucks ass. I hate it. It's a pain in the ass to do and takes away from precious sleeping hours and all the dust makes me sneeze. Meh. It's almost midnight and I'm sitting on my roof right now, procrastinating from packing, and sulking hardcore. Or rather, whining hardcore.

John & I just recorded our last regular episode of MetroBuzz in Astoria (potential Rooftop Session on Friday, but it's a very 50/50 thing right now because we haven't actually asked our guest yet if he wants to do it lol). Naturally, I got nostalgic. Amanda recorded with us as our guest. She recorded our first MetroBuzz ever in Astoria with us and she recorded our last one. I'm such a freaking girl. I wish things had worked out better, but I've got some REALLY amazing things planned for early next year and in order to do that, I HAVE to move home to save for it. So I'm going to do my best and not be a massive emo bitch til then lol. I think I can do it because I literally have something fun to do every weekend from now (well this weekend is moving so that doesn't count) til the last weekend of July. But right now, I have to rip off the bandaid, like Jay said.

I'll stop being a baby after the actual move happens. Right now, I'm just still bitter about all the disruption that this packing is causing. But I'm seeing Billy Joel with my sisters on Thursday night, which is going to rock!!!

Okay, it's getting cold outside and I've really got nothing relevant or important to say other than packing sucks. Today was Brian's birthday, so he and his new girlfriend Dina came by on their way to the Mets game (they live in Connecticut) as my dad and I were moving the first round of my stuff out. We all went to the Beer Gardens afterwards - Dad included (it was his idea to go this morning when I talked to him). That was actually REALLY fun. I love that I inherited my dad's love for drinking beer. He bought us 2 pitchers, which though was only 2 beers for each of us 4, it was still really awesome. My dad rocks. Happy Birthday, Bri :)

Thanks, TalkShoe!

As you may or may not have seen in the comment section of my previous post, TalkShoe VP Aaron Hauser left me an apology. I also had someone point out after hearing John & I talk about this on MetroBuzz that because it's free, we can't hold them too accountable - and reassured me that everyone there had a great time regardless.

I have honestly been meaning to post a follow-up to that post and say that TalkShoe did indeed make a donation to Autism Speaks earlier this week. Thank you for the apology, Aaron, and to Dave Nelson, the Founder & CEO of TalkShoe, for making a donation to a good cause. I truly appreciate both gestures. I do love your site and have had great fun participating on live podcasts on it.

Thanks again to everyone who came by and donated!

Talkshoe Wouldn't Let Autism Speak Today

After months and months of planning, my boyfriend Jay and his dad Jack of "The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack" had their 25-hour-marathon live podcast. It started yesterday (Saturday March 15) at 3:30pm & was scheduled to end today (Sunday March 16) at 4:30pm. They were raising money for the charity Autism Speaks. I followed along the donations that were made to PayPal and all in all, they raised $2,625 (and counting!). I was there for the entire time, minus an hour and a half it took me to drive home to my parents house. I've been awake since 8:30am yesterday morning. It is now 10:36pm.

The show started off with the Married Man Podcast, a podcast about relationships, etc. that Jack does with his friend Dale. It's hilarious. After MMP, Lost star Jorge Garcia (Hurley) stopped by for a good 3 or 4 hours. However, the company that was hosting the live podcast, Talkshoe, had issues (as usual it seems) & poor Jorge was left waiting for almost an hour til we could get it started again. Jorge ROCKS though & after the guys were done deciding who the Top 10 Coolest, Toughest Guys in Movie History are (I think Han Solo won in the end), he spent a while answering questions from fans. Talkshoe allows people to participate in big group calls or podcasts. You have one administrator (in this case Jay) who can mute or unmute anyone who is there in the chatroom with a microphone. I asked a question; Jorge, Jack & I made fun of Jay. It was grreeaaattt.

The rest of the 25 hours was filled with other awesome guests, such as Ryan & Jen Ozawa from The Transmission podcast, Jimmy Aquino from Comic News Insider podcast (he's the guy responsible for Jay & I meeting Michael Emerson), Ralph from the Dharmalars/'Lars & Cue the Music podcast (for a good 5 hours, including while I was driving, so I didn't even miss much of it lol), and a whole lot of other Lost podcasters such as Kurt from Black Rock, Josh from Josh Meister, and a lot of others whose names I feel genuinely terrible about not remembering at this 40-straight-hour of consciousness. Our good friend Clif was on. John Norton & I were set up to at the end, from 3-4pm. Lost actor Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) was going to go after us from 4-4:40pm. I know, right? FUCKING AWESOME! Jay and I were looking forward to a MetroBuzz meets Jay and Jack verses segment (we were all going to take one of the Indiana Jones movies and debate which was best, then leave voting open to the public). Seriously, we were so excited for it, especially since we both had been up and involved for the entire show. The only thing more perfect for us than such a FUN way to end such a tedious event was for Daniel Dae Kim to show up and talk. Oh yeah, wow, cool. Look at that. DDK was going to. He had only from 4-4:30pm to talk because he has such a busy schedule filming Lost now to make up for the time lost during the WGA strike. But awesome of awesome, he was still willing to do it. HOLLER.

Guess what? At 3pm, JUST as John & I were about to call in and record, Talkshoe, which had been running adequately since the Jorge Garcia event 18 hours before, decided to COMPLETELY CRAP OUT. Not just a "malfunction" but a total crash that they called an "error in their coding" that would be fixed within 30-60 minutes.

It was not fixed within 30-60 minutes. Everyone in the chat room waiting for us to start was so patient and wonderful. It was stressful to not know what was going on, to have no control over the situation, to know what was at stake. Daniel Dae Kim (and I call him that bc I have never spoken with him; I call Jorge by his first name because I have now officially spoken with him one time lol) was so gracious to continue trying to access the chat room until his free time was up. We waited from 3pm until 5pm to no avail. Talkshoe never went back up and Norton & I never got our chance to play with Jay and Jack. Jay & I were so disappointed that we never got to do that section together after using that as the way to get through the rough 25 hours to stay awake & sane. I was really excited to do the live show and interact with everyone. I hope that Daniel Dae Kim doesn't think badly of them because the issue was TALKSHOE'S FAULT, NOT THEIRS.

That's the thing. Talkshoe sucks. They're a company that, according to their website, "a new way to create live group calls, conversations, discussions and interactive podcasts." Basically, Talkshoe markets themselves as a company that specifically caters to large groups. Jay & Jack's Autism Speaks podcasting marathon was a big deal. It was "official." The charity knew that it was happening and expected donations as a result. Talkshoe let us all down with its numerous service errors. As a result of these errors, Autism Speaks suffered. The errors resulted in a loss of donations from potential listeners who were turned off by the lack of the interactive podcast that is the main aspect of Talkshoe's service.

Here's what I propose to all those who participated in Jay and Jack's live marathon podcast and to anyone who is a supporter of Autism Speaks. Let's start a campaign to get Talkshoe to rectifiy their mistakes by donating money to Autism Speaks. This will make up for the loss of time and donations that the charity suffered as a result of THEIR continually technical issues.

Make blog posts, comments on a website, or email a complaint to Talkshoe at support@talkshoe.com. This may not seem like it, but to anyone who was involved in this event, it really was a big deal to us & Talkshoe has let us down completely. Urge them to make a donation to make up for the donations that were lost because of them.

If you'd like to make a donation to Autism Speaks, you can do it through PayPal, by sending it to LPDonate@gmail.com OR you can send checks made out to Autism Speaks to the following address:

P.O. Box 40716
Raleigh NC. 27629

Thanks. Hopefully we can do something. The theme of this weekend seems to be making a difference in lots of different ways. And thank you to everyone who came by during the 25-hours and helped Jay & Jack raise $2,625 electronically. Can't wait to see the total number after the checks come in :)

Of "Lost", Haircuts, Apartments & Graduation

For all my Lost fan friends, this may be the funniest thing I heard all week:

JNorton15: So you want to see possibly the best Lost message board quote ever?

JNorton15: "When Rose said to Bernard "If you are going to be hiding in the bushes, lets get you into something dark" .. was she refering to herself ???"

Anyway, I didn't want to leave a sad post like I did yesterday as the last one I did, especially since May 17 is over & I feel much better now AND there's all sorts of awesome things going on right now.

1. I cut my hair, about 7 inches. I don't think I look like me at all, but sometimes you just need a change, so I'm glad I did it :)

2. Amanda Giordano & I are moving into an apartment in Astoria, Queens on June 1. Visitors welcome. Yay, NYC livin'. It's sort of scary to officially be an "adult" now, but we all know that I'm definitely not going to start acting like one any time soon. Hooray for being broke, but it'll be worth it...

3. I helped Paul from Barenaked Hurley (the Lost parody band) write his last 2 songs & it was really fun. I stayed up literally all night on Tues so help him finish it, but it was such a blast to be a part of something that awesome. If you're a Lost fan, go to iTunes & download the Barenaked Hurley podcast feed, because all of his songs are hysterical.

Finally, to all my Marist friends who are graduating - GOOD LUCK! I'm so proud of you guys & I miss you all a lot. I'll (hopefully) see most of you tomorrow, whenever I get up there (I'm going to Rachel & Will's grad party). <3

Sane is a relative term.

Okay, so made my return to Marist April 21 for Festival, the student written/acted/directed one act plays. Damn, I freaking miss MCCTA, which is somewhat disgusting. I have my soul back, this should NOT be happening. Haha, Phil has a tendency to reuse his favorite line from his play the year before in whatever play he's written for Festival current year. For Speed Demons (the show I was in Sr. year), it was my infamous Marisa-Tomei-influenced-Jewish-LI-accented-"32 hours!" monologue from Gods, In General (his show from Jr. year). <3 I love that Phil writes parts just for me & Steph, hehe. So spoiled. Anyway, this year, he gave Steph the same line from Speed Demons, which I love: "Sane is a relative term. We're all completely nuts. Some of us are just more forward about it."

Last year, hell/tech week for Festival just kicked off the greatest month ever. After rehearsal, we'd all go to Eddie's house & chill out, drink, etc. til the wee hours. And let's not even begin with the crazy ass, never-ending game of Catch Phrase...(Natalie's the default winner, haha). Then everything continued to be awesome for the next month, til graduation. I remember constantly quoting one of my favorite movies of all time, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in my away message - the "This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon" part. ("I know." "What do we do?" "Enjoy it.") And we all know how rough last summer was for me, trying to grasp that it really was all gone. Admittedly, I was not in a very good place for months after graduation. But I've talked that to death in previous posts, I'm so over talking about it right now.

My point is that going back & walking around campus, it was almost like I never left, which was weird. I keep in touch with all my friends who are seniors - and I remember talking to everyone who graduated a year ahead of me at this time last year. Everyone goes through the same thing. They're all excited, but panicking about graduation & the real world. It's freaking scary. You start to really reminisce about the last 4 years. How intimidating it was to be a freshman & how graduation seemed to be so far away. Then, bam! Suddenly, YOU'RE the senior. You're the one that the freshman look up to, are scared to talk to (as Joey put it: underclassmen had this concept that he was 'all that' & were amazed if he said hello to them at a party or something & he didn't get why, until he remembered that he was the exact same way; we all were). Plus, you grow up a lot in those 4 years. Being away from home does wonders because you start to come into your own as a person. I certainly did. Definitely did. It's strange to watch them all experience the same emotions that I saw the seniors have when I was a junior & felt myself. Now seeing it from all 3 sides, I have a clearer perception that everything is okay in the end. Just as Phil points out about sanity, it really is all relative.

Anyway, it was also Phil's 22nd birthday, soooo at least I got to see everyone. I was up there for most of the day, met John for a little while, hung with Joey for a couple hours (drove him on a beer run, for old times sake), got to go to the Palace with Phil & Beth for dinner - hooray for sweet potato pancakes! :) Chilled with Crissy, Steph & Steph. "Slept" on Steph (Speranza's) couch. Here's pictures for anyone who actually cares. Note how exhausted I look in all of them, because I haven't slept in ages it seems. Yay, insomnia.

Phil & his muses; Speranza & I stay sane inside insanity :)

The lovely Miss Garrison
Memory of the Day: Matt dressing up as a mental patient & wandering into people's houses until someone called security on him. Typical.

The beautiful Amy Kate, who took over for me in my MCCTA board position :)

March 14 is Pi Day.

...and my Spelling Family Care-O-Meter is STILL at zero!

Soooo it's March 14 -> 3/14 -> 3.14 -> Pi Day. This means absolutely nothing in the scheme of things, but I just made fun of Cassidy Jill for having "Happy Pi Day" as her away message. According to her, "I'm in grad school, so it's okay."

OH speaking of CJ, I'm 98% going to visit her in North Carolina at the end of April. April 26-27 (Thurs-Fri), I have to be at something at Penn Relays for work (we're sponsoring a concert). Fri night, I'm flying out of Philly & going to NC. She's at Chapel Hill, so I assume we're staying there Fri night? She has a friend who I think lives in or right outside Raleigh, so the next day, we're going to the Raleigh Beer Festival for a kickin' good time. Hopefully Tricia will come too. Plus, I wanna go to Comic Con in July. Randy may go with me - and Norton, too. Yay Dork Fest '07.

Finally, the latest episode of MetroBuzz is out; if you like hearing me & John Norton talk (aka me being stupid since I get sidetracked easily & he's got a good voice & actual podcast-hosting abilities;)) then you should go on iTunes & look up MetroBuzz and download us or click here.

That's all for now. Off to help my friend Jen write an essay then to watch Lost. Happy Pi Day & all that jazz.

February 8!

What's today? Tom Durante put it best:

Dog SiMoT: Colleen's birthday will forever remain infamous as the day Anna Nicole Smith died

haha, and as John Norton put it in a text message: "How appropo."

Excellent. Ian & I are very excited to share the anniversary of our birth with this event.

(Hey at least I'm finally acknolwedging it's my birthday, even if I'm still being a brat & refusing to go out and celebrate it.)