I swear, my life has been non-stop since getting a rental car last Thursday, which is a good thing since last week I totally lost my shit after being stuck in the house with no car.

Thursday I got my not-so-fabulous rental car - a red Dodge Neon. It has like no acceleration and I'm afraid it's going to get me killed driving on the freeway. It is kind of fun, though, to listen to a song with heavy bass because it totally makes the sideview mirrors shake, almost like a Tyrannosaurus rex is approaching, though I suppose it could have been the power trying to come back on.

The silly thing about the Neon is that I'm actually a little afraid of driving it. I realized the other day that I haven't had a car with a backseat since either 1993 or 1994 (my last three cars have been two-seaters; two were convertibles and the other had t-tops), so it just seems huge. I'm such a weirdo.

Anyway, as soon as I got the rental, I headed to Wal-Mart to get some shopping done since I needed Diet Cherry Cokes and some postcards to send to Flickr. I made out like a bandit there since I got four twelve packs of Coke, two pairs of boxer shorts (which is work clothing for me since I work from home), two pairs of shoes, some jeans, a purse, shampoo, conditioner, and some groceries for $100.

My parents, my brother, my aunt, and I usually go eat dinner somewhere about once a week and Friday my dad told me I could pick the restaurant since I usually don't get to which really made me happy. I chose Pei Wei since I hadn't been there in a very long time. Food was delicious and we all stuffed ourselves. Mmmmm. Mongolian beef.

After hanging out at Russell's apartment for a little bit, we went home and I was contemplating slipping into a food coma when my phone rang. It was my friend Johanna asking me if I'd left yet. I had no idea what she was talking about until she pointed out that the show at The Continental Club that I thought was the next day was actually starting. Ooops. I quickly touched up my make-up, threw on some clothes, and ran out the door, arriving at The Continental Club at exactly the same time as Johanna.

The first band was Two Hoots and a Holler, a mostly rockabilly group who also play some mean cover songs. Their guitarist was so incredible and they had a really hot girl on drums who fucking rocked. I was a percussionist in high school and one of only three girls to march a drum in four years at both my high school and the sister school across the way, so I'm always pleased to see a girl on drums. I liked them so much I bought one of their CDs and would definitely recommend catching them live if you get a chance.

Next up was Guy Forsyth, which is actually the reason that Marc, Irfan, Rod, Michelle, Johanna, a few other people, and I went to the club to begin with. Guy is Irfan's total hero/boy crush and he's a huge groupie, so an opportunity to see Guy is never missed.

Guy was really good, but after about two hours of him on top of the other band, I was ready to give my ears a break and get out of there. I was also starving, so Marc and I took off for an early morning breakfast at Katz's where I got my usual of French Fries and French toast. I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it's delicious.

By the time we got done eating and I got back to my side of town (Oh, how I hate living in the suburbs!), it was about 3:45, making it close to 5:00 in the morning before I even got the bed.

The next day I worked for a few hours and then headed out to the Heights to meet Irfan and Marc at someone's house for a pre-Pride Parade party. Jess was there too, so I got to see her briefly before heading over to the parade.

This was my first Pride Parade and I loved every minute of it. It's probably cheesy, but I was so proud of everyone that marched or even came out. I hate how this country is becoming more and more dominated by the conservatives and religious right and to stand up and be proud of who you are is wonderful. I clapped and cheered for each person that walked past me, taking pictures the whole time.

I don't have any of them up at Flickr yet except for this one, which seems to sum up everything the parade was about. I can never understand why people get so upset if someone's gay. There's not enough love in the world as it is, so why deny it when two people are lucky enough to find each other?

After the parade, we all went to JR's Bar & Grill for a drink and to get out of the heat. It's hard to believe, but that was my first time in a gay bar. How have I never been in a gay bar before? Melissa and I loved it, not least of all because of the fabulous apple martinis, so hopefully we'll be back there soon.

Next on the list was drinking and dart playing at Dog House Tavern. When we got there, it was dead, but soon some very drunk/high people including, apparently, a pro bowler (WTF? That's what they said the one guy was, but surely that couldn't have been right) showed up to liven the place up.

I swear, if I was a lesbian, I would never want for a date since no less than four girls came over to hang out with me, all of them proclaiming that I was hot. This doesn't even include the incredibly sexy girl at the parade that wanted to give me her number. I guess if I'm ever in need of an ego boost, Westheimer is the place to go.

When the place shut down, I was starving, so Marc, Irfan, Josh, Melissa, and I went to Late Night Pie for some pizza. Man, it was good. It's not as good as Frank's or Romano's in my opinion, but neither of them are open at 3:00 am either. After dinner, a quick stop at the store, and the drive home, it was a little after 4:30 before I got home.

Is it obvious that I was glad to get out of the house this weekend? ;-)

.: 1129 words at 01:32 AM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (8) :.

Show comments here »

Last week Mikey asked which is normal: If your second toe is longer than your big toe or vice versa. Turns out that if your second toe is longer, it's a forefoot disorder called Morton's Toe and can lead to foot pain.

I actually had no idea which way my feet were, so I immediately took a look and my second toe is definitely longer, very much so on my left foot. No wonder my damn feet always hurt.

So now I'm curious. Who else has Morton's Toe? Surely I'm not the only strange footed blogger out there.

On a random side note, any time someone says that they have nice feet (I think mine are kind of nice), I always hear this Geena Davis and Michael Keaton exchange from Speechless in my head:

Julia: You have nice feet.
Kevin: Well, you know. I work out.

Thinking of that always cracks me up.

.: 153 words at 11:08 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (12) :.

Show comments here »

About a month ago, a contact on Flickr by the screen name of luvforboobies (classy, no?), using usaforever@hotmail.com as their e-mail address, sent me a some Flickr mail about how he thought my boobs were beautiful and we should talk.

I mailed him back saying I don't use Flickr to try and pick up people that want to talk about my boobs, so thanks, but no thanks. He kept mailing me saying that he had a big cock (yeah, right) and finally I sent him mail to please stop contacting me. He did, until yesterday when he poppped back up asking me to post more "boobie" pictures.

I told him again to leave me alone and then got "i will if you send me one boobie pic. just one hun. Do this boobie loving guy a favor; btk7@hotmail.com" I finally told him to fuck off which got me, "nope, I won't... i wanna lick your boobies."

That was the final straw, so I reported him to Flickr for sexual harassment and told him I had done so and was probably going to contact Hotmail as well. His reply to that? "i dont give a fuck bitch. I like big boobs and you got em... so send some pics and cut the shit."

What the hell is wrong with this guy? What makes him think that he's entitled to half-naked pictures of me? Maybe I should never have replied back in the first place, but I assumed, foolishly I guess, that if I told someone to leave me alone that they would. I absolutely love Flickr and it sucks that every time I get new mail there my first thought is to wonder if it's more shit from that asshole. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of it than I should be, but I find it abusing and upsetting to repeatedly get mail from this creep.

Like I said, I've reported him to Flickr, but does anyone know if there's a way to block someone from sending you mail in the meantime? I shouldn't have to take that from him.

.: 351 words at 01:40 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (12) :.

Show comments here »

And I can drive it all night long now. Thanks to my fantastic insurance company, I now have a rental car (one day shy of the three week mark of my accident) and I can once again resume having a life. Yeah!

Allstate, my insurance company, should also be sending out an adjustor to take a look at my car and getting the details of the accident in the next few days. The nice guy who filed my claim said if the other driver (or "lying fuck" as I like to refer to him) got a ticket, then they should be able to go after his insurance company. I hope so. I don't want to pay the damn deductible, especially after getting a bill for $177 more from that kidney stone procedure I had in done April.

So, the good news is that I have a car again, even if it is a rental and not my cute little Miata. I hope the adjustor doesn't find a lot wrong with her! I don't want to be without my car for too much longer.

.: 183 words at 11:21 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

Show comments here »

The goddamn insurance company for that lying fuck of a dump truck driver just denied my claim. The guy got a motherfucking ticket! How much clearer can it be that he was at fault?

Almost three fucking weeks, I still don't have a car, and now this. So much for justice.

.: 52 words at 01:05 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (6) :.

Show comments here »

I love Flickr big time. I spend quite a bit time there browsing through photos, adding favorites, uploading pictures to groups, and more. By far, though, the coolest thing I've found seen on the site is when people geotagged their photos.

Following these very simple instructions you can add geotags to your own images which then will plot your photos on a Google map, allowing you to see who's taken pictures at nearby locations, in essence, creating a virtual tour through these photos. This is especially cool in places like New York City and Las Vegas.

I've only tagged around forty of my own pictures right now, but you can see them here. So far I've got photos in Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and New York. I'd have some in New Jersey, but I can't find the damn address for the Secaucus train station.

Here I've been thinking it that it must be so hard to get your latitude and longitude onto a photo, but with these scripts, it literally only takes a minute.

If you geotag any of your photos, let me know! I'd love to check out your map.

.: 193 words at 07:48 PM in Geeky Things, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (4) :.

Show comments here »

Is it wrong of me to watch old Monty Python movies and think John Cleese is hot?

.: 17 words at 09:03 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (12) :.

Show comments here »

I didn't know it, but the article that The Houston Chronicle wrote about me came out on Thursday, so if you still have your paper from then, look in the "This Week" section.

If you already tossed it, though you can read the article here.

Kind of cool, huh?

.: 50 words at 06:50 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (8) :.

Show comments here »

A few weeks ago I installed Brad Choate's SpamLookup plugin for Movable Type and I now get virtually no comment or TrackBack spam.

Considering I was getting dozens of them a day before, this is a huge improvement. If you're using Movable Type, I cannot recommened installing SpamLookup enough.

.: 50 words at 04:13 PM in Geeky Things, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (1) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

Show comments here »

In case you missed it Flickr, which rocks my socks more than I can even say, is giving away free schwag. All you have to do is send them a self-addressed envelope (they even take care of the postage) and you get three buttons and two stickers.

Yeah for free schwag! Go get yours!

.: 57 words at 10:49 PM in Participation, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

Show comments here »

The BBC Philharmonic is currently performing all nine of Beethoven's symphonies. The really nice thing is that the day after they are performed, they are offering them up for download here. Go take advantage and get a little free culture.

.: 41 words at 12:45 AM in Media Consumption, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

Show comments here »

When I connected to the Flying Saucer's WiFi downtown Friday night, several other networks were detected. My favorite was STOP Stealing My Internet. Of course, if you don't want your connection used, seems to me like you'd at least secure your network.

My friend Jon got on it and left him text files that said You'll never shut down the real Napster.

.: 63 words at 09:32 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

Show comments here »

About an hour after posting yesterday that I was heading out to meet Katie, I was on the road. I had just passed Greenspoint and was nearing West Road when the traffic slowed to a crawl. I was thinking, "Shit. This is totally going to make me late to meet Katie. Wonder if I should call her..." when I felt something hit the side of the car. I looked out the window and saw that a big dump truck had decided to change lanes and, not seeing my car (I drive a Miata), had just hit me.

I started to get over so that I could pull off onto the shoulder. I get over and notice that while the truck has done the same thing, he's not actually stopped, but is still moving forward slowly. I figured he was just moving up enough to give me room, but the further he drove up, the less likely he seemed to actually be stopping. I start to panic, look for a license plate on the back, realize he doesn't have one, and start running after him.

I'm now in between his truck and the wall of the HOV lane, so I start banging on his door. He's still not stopping, so I start yelling things like, "Open the door, motherfucker! You just hit my car! Stop the fucking truck! Hey, stop!" All this time, I've been on the phone with my mom since I grabbed it off the dash, speed dialed her, and told her I just got hit as soon as it happened.

The truck finally stops and this old Hispanic man opens the door. I'm all like, "You just hit my car," to which he responds something like, "No. Me no. Pequeno? (Little in Spanish)" He kept asking pequeno or mas (big), but I told him it didn't matter, he'd just hit me. Turns out he spoke pretty much no English which certainly added even more frustration to an already awful event.

Since he didn't look like he was going to take off, I started back to my car to get my insurance card and driver's license. Suddenly, a green Mustang started to pull in between us. Turns out that my friend Kendall was driving by and saw me so she pulled over to help. I give her the phone and have her call 911 and go take a look at my car.

A truck full of the coworkers of the guy who had hit me also had stopped. Since they didn't speak English very well either, they gave me a cell phone so I could talk to their boss who kept trying to tell me that it wasn't necessary to call the police, he would cover all my damages, yadda yadda yadda. There was no way, though, I was just going to take his word and drive off since I could call him the next day and get, "Kymberlie who?" I was not going to get screwed since none of this was my fault.

At first, it the damage looked pretty minor (gash in the back driver's side tire, damage to the section around the wheel, scraps on the hubcab), but after my parents arrived (they left as soon as I called them), we started looking at the car from the back and noticed that the wheels seemed to be leaning in from the top. The wrecker driver that later towed my car said it looked like when the truck caught my car, it pulled either the suspension or the axle.

Apparently everyone must drive past this section of I-45 around 7:00 on Fridays since, in addition to Kendall, Elaine and Joanna, my brother's girlfriend, drove past and called (or had Russell call) to see if I was alright.

After about an hour, a state trooper (Trooper Cash; I wanted to ask him if his first name was Johnny, but I refrained) arrived. It looked like we'd be able to at least get the car off the freeway so our little caravan (my car, my parents, Kendall, the dump truck, and his truckful of co-workers that had also stopped) moved to the Taqueria Arandas.

Trooper Cash took our statements and then started looking at the damage to the cars. He kept saying there was no tire residue from the truck to my car which puzzled me; I couldn't figure out what that had to do with anything. He did, however, find some white residue, though he was unsure where it came from.

After a little while he came over and said that while he could tell that there was damage done to the cars, he couldn't make a detemination on who had hit who. I start freaking out because I *know* I'm not at fault. Hell, I'd see a dump truck if I tried to get over but he wouldn't necessarily see me if he tried to and I always check my blind spots.

All this time, Kendall had been looking over the wheels of the truck, trying to find some evidence of what had happened. We'd found a part of the center of the wheel at the front of the truck that had what appeared to be a new scrape (it was shiny while everything else was rusted looking), but it was hard to tie to my car. Suddenly, Kendall holds up a shred of silver plastic that was embedded in one of the lugnuts. Turns out that it was a small piece of my car.

We took it to Trooper Cash who looked back over the tire and my car, and then he went back to talk to the driver of the truck again. I wasn't aware of this, but the truck's driver had told him that we were actually in the same lane, with me behind him. He said that I got over into the next lane, saw a car coming, and swerved back into the lane, clipping his truck.

If he would have told me this at the beginning, I think I could have saved us all some time since I don't think it would be physically possible for this to happen. If I would have hit him, I would have hit him with either the front of my car or the entire side. When you turn the wheel, the front of the car turns first, so there's no way for only my back to have hit him if I would have been behind him.

Anyway, Trooper Cash comes back over to us and tells me that the other driver is receiving a citation for an unlawful lane change since his story doesn't fit the evidence. I asked if that meant he was at fault to which he replied, "I don't assign blame, ma'am, that's for the courts to decide. However, he is getting a citation and you are not."

Thanks to Kendall turning into a CSI (Trooper Cash even told her she should be a police officer), everything looks like it's going to turn out okay. I did call the guy's insurance company today and only got an answering machine telling me to call back during normal business hours, so I'm a little freaked by that. Please don't let them be some fly-by-night cheap ass rinky dink company.

Kendall dropped me off downtown, so I was able to make it to the Geek Gathering, though it only lasted about a half hour or so longer (damn it!). Katie, Chris, Jon, and I went over to the Flying Saucer which was more crowded than I'd ever seen thanks to some pub crawl. Eventually Sat showed up as well and even let me talk him into driving me back home to Spring. Thanks, Sat!

I was so hyped up on adrenaline yesterday that I just felt plain exhausted today. I was supposed to go to bingo night at a bar with a bunch of friends and shopping with Katie, but since I didn't have a car, I couldn't make it. A weekend with stuff to do and no car totally sucks.

Cross your fingers that when I call that company on Monday everything works out. At least I work from home so I won't be totally screwed if I can't get a rental car right away, but I definitely don't want this thing to drag out.

.: 1392 words at 10:26 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (6) :.

Show comments here »

Today is the first Friday of the month, so that means that tonight is the monthly Technology Bytes Geek Gathering at Kaveh Kane's downtown around 7:30. Jay is back from Europe, so I'm sure we'll be entertained with stories of his trek cross the continent.

I'm meeting Katie at her place and Jess is supposed to meet us there. It's rumored that Elanie and Sat may be joining us later at the Flying Saucer, so it's almost like a little mini blogger meet up.

If you're free tonight and want to join us, drop me a line and I'll get you any information you need.

Happy Friday, y'all!

.: 108 words at 05:14 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

Show comments here »