the phone book...

do you ever use the phone book anymore? and i don't mean the yellow pages - though the internet has made those obsolete as well. how about the regular old phone book, where people just have their phone numbers listed for anyone to call?

i don't. i haven't for a long time. if i need to call someone or somewhere, i either have the number, or i look it up online. i just had telephone books delivered to me this week, and at the moment i haven't even unwrapped them because i just don't need them.

and then i was thinking about when i was younger, i can distinctly remember looking up friends' phone numbers in the phone book...i couldn't remember them all, so i would just look them up when i needed them. and there was nothing weird about that. now, if someone i knew marginally called me up and said they found my number in the phone book, i think i would be a little taken aback. maybe that's because it seems like it requires so much effort.

i think the fact that so many people use cell phones for their daily phoning needs is another factor. just about everyone i talk to is programmed into my cell phone. i don't even need their numbers anymore. will we ever have a cell phone book? to look up numbers? or will we simply bypass the archaic paper step and go straight to an internet directory of cell phone numbers?

a couple of notes on things that annoy me...

i went to see the movie 'identitiy' today - which, by the way, is very good, and you should go see it now. go. now. go on. okay, you can read the rest first. one of the trailers was for 'pirates of the caribbean', and there's a line where a girl hits a guy with a shovel and says something like - "you think you know pain? try wearing a corset." and a girl in the back of the theater goes "YEAH" and then a whole bunch of women start to clap. now i think to myself - "what do any of you know about wearing a corset?" just because we are women doesn't mean that we are any more in tune with that kind of pain than the insolent man who was hit with the shovel. i hate it when people are stupid like that.

and another thing - i think the line "the united states doesn't negotiate with hostage takers/terrorists" should not be allowed in movie scripts ever again. never. because what this really means is - "we will get dangerously close to negotiating when it looks like we have no other option to get back the super important person who is being held hostage...but in the end, the hero will save that person and we won't have to negotiate. HAH!" again, just plain stupidity. this actually harkens back to a blog by bryan, where he spoke about stupid movie lines. i recommend you check it out.

by the way, there was a distinct lack of help on that last one - gold star to patricia for offering worthwhile advice...boys in general get zero points because none of you offered advice and he still hasn't asked me out (though i think we're getting close).

help please...

okay. so i'm trying to get this guy at work to ask me out...i think he's interested, there have been signs, but the actual date thing isn't happening yet. and that's okay. i'm patient. i'm just wondering if there's something i can do to move the process along. any suggestions?

now, i know, i know - "why don't you ask HIM out?" and the answer is - i don't want to. i want him to ask me. and i'm willing to accept the ramifications of that (ie - he may never ask me). but guys do ask girls out sometimes. so what can girls do to make you want to ask them out? guys? input appreciated.

just so cool

saw the matrix reloaded today...it reminded me of how i felt when i saw the first one. its just soooooo cool. man. i left there feeling like a total geek - no matter how hard i tried, if i tried for the rest of my life, i could never be that cool. for starters, i don't have enough all black, leather outfits. and my hair is blond. and i don't have super cool sunglasses. and i don't do anything that makes the world slow down and rotate 180 degrees.

it made me wonder how the really geeky people felt - and they were there. you know, the ones who are really interested in explaining the intricacies of the matrix to those who are less enlightened. i wonder what they do to feel cooler...maybe they blog about it...

water balloons and men

you may not know it, but this week is "hospital week" (you know, like last week was nurses week, etc. everyone should have a week). today, to celebrate, the hospital where i work had a big picnic with free food for all the employees and a "water run" where employees coule pay money to buy squirt guns, super soakers, and water balloons to throw/shoot at their managers and supervisors who ran through in groups. it was quite fun actually, much more so than i thought it would be, and the sun was out, people were laughing, everyone got wet...good times. of course, then we all had to go back inside and go back to work. the water balloon thing was such a distraction, i felt off my game the rest of the day due to lack of sunlight.

as for men, well...isn't that self-explanatory?

do you do this?

i was driving to the airport the other day to pick up a friend, and since i'm new to the area, i've not driven there before and i noticed something...

when i drive around in unfamiliar places, my first instinct is to turn down the radio. seriously. the more unfamiliar and unsure i feel about a place, the quieter the radio gets, even when i'm alone - as if making the radio quieter will somehow make it easier for me to follow my written directions or intuit the way i should go. i find it funny...these two things are unrelated, and yet, the minute i need to pay attention to where i am, my hand goes to the radio knob.

what weird things do you do?

the other night i was watching MTV (not actually in an attempt to improve my popular music knowledge) and i am deeply ashamed to admit how much i enjoy watching "sorority life" and "fraternity life". it is particularly good right now because there is a girl on SL who is digging a guy on FL, and that relationship is definitely not mutual. i have to say that the girl is an idiot, and the guy is an asshole, but it makes for some seriously good drama, including dinners at applebee's where pseudoserious conversations take place, including:
FL guy: i just need you to know that if i kiss you, it will takes things to a whole other level, and i'm just not ready for that
SL girl: oh, i know, and i'm NOT asking for that at ALL (emphasis included)

see, the funny part is that this entire conversation is bullshit. the guy doesn't want to kiss the girl because he thinks she's annoying (which she is). and the girl is most certainly asking the guy to take the relationship to the other level (TOTALLY asking for that ALL). it makes me laugh - how much of their behavior is due to the cameras, and how much (gulp) their true personalities? and why is it that these people take the "confessional" thing so seriously - don't they realize that TONS of people will see what they say when it's all over? i'm baffled...and yet somehow intrigued.