CRS Disease

I often feel like I'm losing my mind and can't remember, well, shit. At those times, when I have a short list of things I have to do which I know won't make it out of my short-term memory and into something a little more permanent, I find myself using bizarre mnemonic aids to remember my little lists.

Specifically, I often find myself reciting my list (in my head, fortunately) to the tune and rhythm of a song. Now, here's the weird part. There are three songs which somehow seem to get used for this purpose, which for some bizarre reason have been in my head off and on SINCE CHILDHOOD. I kid you not. These songs are:

1. California, Here I Come
2. On Top of Old Smokey/Spaghetti
3. Polly Wolly Doodle.

Now, in addition to these being INCREDIBLY annoying songs in general, and extra irritating to get stuck in one's head, I also have no clue why they would continue to plague me for, oh, going on a couple of decades now. I must be insane. So what happens is, to the tune of "California, Here I Come," I'll sing to myself something akin to the following:
"Boil some water, feed the cat;
Scoop cat box and get the mail;

And so on until I've gone nuts and/or accomplished the list items. It seems to be optimal for a list of between 2 and 6 items; any more than that and I get confused and can't remember them in the proper order, or at all. A lot of the time, though, I end up not singing, but chanting my list under my breath or in my head like some deranged cheerleader exhorting myself to get shit done. Perhaps I'm simply a freak. But it felt good to get this off my chest. It also felt good to be procrastinating...Okay, back to work.

This blog entry is dedicated to the memory of my high school AP/IB Biology teacher, Mr. Carroll, who taught us that Kings Play Cards On Fat Girls' Stomachs. I will never, ever forget, unless I get Alzheimers or somebody excises those particular brain cells, Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species.

Jeffrey Zeldman is God

So I've been trying desperately to get a proper handle on CSS so that I can a) finish redesigning my own website and b) design and properly put together a website I'm being paid to design.

In the process, I've discovered an awesome book, Designing with Web Standards--which, although it's a teensy bit technical for someone like me who is very low on the pyramid of geekdom, is just really well written and a major eye-opener in terms of the technology being used and coming into use on the web. Its author, Jeffrey Zeldman, is funny and intelligent and doesn't make me feel like an idiot (at least, not very often. I've only had to go look up a couple of things, which isn't bad). It's a lot more technical than your average book for dummies, but it's also way better.

Bad Sarah!

I've sure been crappy about posting to this thing lately. I had this fear--justified, as it turns out--that blogging would turn into just one more item on my list of "things I gotta do." I can't let that happen! So here's an update on my activities lately:

Went to Seaside, Oregon to meet up with friends from Cal at a beach house for the weekend. Played frisbee, flew kites, roasted weenies and S'mores, barbecued, rented a paddle boat, and all that good stuff.

Wrote Chapters 20 and 21 of my novel and got very sad because I had to write about a death and a funeral.

Stressed out about the fact that I need to get a "real job" and still haven't decided what exactly is my best option, and stressed out about the freelance work I'm doing in the meantime. Doh!

Broke our typewriter. Double doh! Don't even ask.

Finished my first real knitting project--a burpy cloth for our friend Rachel, who is expecting a baby in a month. Next up: a blankie, if I hurry up.

And much stress! Oh, wait, I mentioned that already. Stay tuned, because someday soon (ha!) I plan to not only post major linkage here, but also post a Geeks Gone Wild update--rather futile, since lots has happened since I last posted anything and I'm unlikely to remember it all. In the meantime, if you haven't been to JibJab to check out "This Land is My Land", you HAVE TO. Also highly recommended (from IGN days): the Founding Fathers rap.

Partying Like It's 1899

Amish in the City, a new UPN reality show...sadly, not quite as trashily good as I was hoping it would be.

For some entertaining discussion about it, go to this Fametracker forum.

Fantomas Lives

So here I was browsing the Moe's Books website--partially for old times' sake and partially because I will be helping a direct relation of Moe (daughter or niece? I haven't asked yet) set up a website for her interior design business--and I noticed on their resources page a recommended website: The Fantomas page. Here I was thinking it was a link to Fantomas, the band (which wouldn't necessarily be a surprise in Berkeley), but instead I found this out (ya learn something new every day, as they say): Fantomas is the "Lord of Terror, the anti-hero of the French detective thrillers written by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain."