The Journal of Liz

Alphabeat - Fascination

2008-05-08T05:06:00Z

Because I’m totally obsessed with the Mashup I presented to you earlier, I checked out Alphabeat’s album and present you the original version of Fascination that was mashed-up with The Futureheads.

Tell me you’re not dancing right now.

We love this exaltation
We want the new temptations
It’s like a revelation
We live on fascination…

Dunproofin’ - Alphaboot

2008-05-06T14:38:39Z

“The Futureheads”, a British indie-rock band meets up with the Danish pop band “Alphabeat”. And this tune is the perfect soundtrack for summer…put out your sunglasses and have some fun! - Mashuptown.com

LJ Advisory Board Nominee

2008-05-05T21:05:45Z

I have decided to nominate myself for the LJ Advisory board.

If you wouldn't mind having me on the advisory board, please follow this link and reply with "I support this nomination": http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/6181.html

Spread the word if you can as I will need 100 votes to proceed after nominations.

Thanks in advance!

May the 4th be with you…

2008-05-04T20:57:06Z

Beltane & Scotland

2008-05-01T23:05:35Z

Today is Beltane. I remember a year ago yesterday I was living in Edinburgh and working during the Beltane Fire Festival in the bar. I remember straining with all my might to make out the fireworks from the front of the pub. I wish I had experienced that night on Carlton Hill but then again, the locals know that it’s not the same as it was years ago so I wasn’t that miffed about missing it.

I also moved into the flat with Suzy a year ago this week. Best flatmate, ever.

This post is somewhat pointless but I do miss living in Scotland and the muppets I call friends. I hope to go back soon to visit.

Family Tree Maker & PHPGedView

2008-04-30T05:44:14Z

Been updating family tree stuff with some information a couple of distant relatives have sent me after finding me online. Kinda neat. I still have relatives in Ireland and Scotland, Australia and the kicker? Bryan McCabe is my 5th cousin or some shit. Same with Henry Ford. Interesting. Maybe that info will get me into a Leaf's game for free next season. :)

Anywhoozle, if any of you are bored and wanna browse my tree:
http://www.lizvang.com/phpgedview

I haven't finished it as I have a ton of new information to get to that I was just sent from the McIlhargey side of the family and I mean a gazillion names to go through. /sigh

Happy Birthday sickboy!!!

2008-04-29T18:30:22Z

Happy 37th sickboy! Man you're old.

Click photo for set of 8 on Flickr

More than meets the eye…

2008-04-29T13:18:27Z

You know what’s awesome? Waking up to dogs barking, the carbon monoxide detector freaking out and my Mum hovering over me asking to borrow my mobile phone at 7 o’clock this morning.

Nothing really to call home about (or blog about I suppose) but we were experiencing brown outs and certain things would work like the kitchen television, the phone (eventually), the wireless router (but not the modem) and certain electrical was only at half power like the fridge, microwave clock and the ceiling light and fan to name a few.

The electrical company’s phone was busy (good sign that it’s not just you, we’re a bit rural you see) and then the whole house powered down.

Now, I work from home so I was a bit concerned that I would actually have to get dressed and leave the house to work (poor me, I know) but the power came back on, fully, and all was well with the world once again. Finally, I got through to the electrical company who said they were having transformer issues.

I don’t work until 11 o’clock so I’m debating on going back to bed or…there really is no “or” today. Hooray!

Happy Birthday to Blue!

2008-04-26T02:31:42Z

For billijean's birthday, you know what I got her?
It's like the best gift, ever.
Ready for it?
Really, I tell ya, it's amazing.

A play-by-play, as it happened, audio of my brother's dog vomitting on my floor and my bed.

She'll remember it forever I'm sure.
I'm a great friend.

Happy Birthday to my Five Forehead Twin!
xoxo

lizvang @ 2008-04-23T22:02:00

2008-04-24T02:02:33Z

Fuck American Idol.
I'm not watching any more.

Suburban Green Is People

2008-04-21T16:40:05Z

New “green” weblog by one of my very good friends, Billi Jean. She’s a hard-working green Mum, already doing a fantastic job of raising her two children and not living a “normal” consumer hungry life.

Information about which “green” habits really work for families and actually make a positive difference for the environment is scattered, misleading, polluted by advertising and, frankly, trite.

Suburban Green is People is the hopeful and empowered alternative. With good information and a mindful approach, being the solution doesn’t have to be confusing or horrible.

http://suburbangreenispeople.com/blog/

Swim Champ

2008-04-19T00:52:06Z

Nine Inch Conchords

2008-04-17T14:10:28Z

This little musical gem is for all my Flight of the Conchords lovin' friends.

Nine Inch Conchords - Closer to Business Time

Have a fantabulous day!

A Day in the Life of Tech Support

2008-04-16T19:00:14Z

The following video is what it’s like answering the phones from customers.

You can skip through until about 1:40 into the video, but watch the whole thing if you’d like as it’s a funny Saturday Night Live sketch, not so funny though when you are on the receiving end of it.

Reacquainted with the Past

2008-04-16T03:12:13Z

On Thursday, last week, I ran across some old phone numbers I had filed away. One number in particular I was most interested in as it was the number of my oldest friend since childhood.

Jackie and her sister Rachel lived across the street from my sister and I growing up. They moved away only a few short years after my parents moved in but we kept in close contact up until around 1993. Mum babysat Jackie and Rachel those few years and every holiday they were either up at our place after they moved away or we were down at there’s in Milton. March Breaks were especially memorable at their place.

Any way, we lost touch then saw each other again back in 1999 I believe. Then in 2002 she tracked me down through my folks and caught up on the phone but lost contact until this weekend.

I had called her (same number for the WIN!) and she invited me down on Saturday. A few hour visit turned into a two-day visit as we were having too much fun catching up. We even went to her Nanny’s birthday Saturday afternoon and I got to surprise Rachel.

Jackie insisted on seeing Mum so I called Mum and told her to expect some company for dinner Sunday night. Jackie, her husband and their two (adorable) ~~monkeys~~ boys followed me home. It was a great reunion as all of us have so many memories of each other.

I’m hoping that now we’re relatively adults, we can keep in touch properly. I’m elated to have reconnected with the girls.

A Sorry Name for an Angel…

2008-04-14T05:20:37Z

Honestly the creepiest shit I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen a lot of creepy shit in my life as a lover of horror and gore movies but this takes the cake. I’m sure I’ve seen this before when I was younger and it’s not a wonder why I’m not religious despite my highly religious upbringing.

Gah, I have shivers all up my back from even writing this blog entry it creeps me out so much. Enjoy, I guess. /shudder

The 80’s!

2008-04-10T04:41:34Z

Click the photo for a Flickr photoset!

I can’t live without these tunes!

2008-04-09T17:16:13Z

Say you were being exiled to a deserted island (somedays, I wish!) and you were only allowed to take three albums with you plus one album you can make yourself with ten tracks of your favourite, I can’t be truly happy without them, tunes.

What would your three albums be and what ten tracks would be on your “mix tape”?

And yes, the one exiling you is throwing in a discman/mp3 player because he/she is not all that bad! Oh, guess he or she is giving you ample batteries to last your lifetime as well and I suppose a couple of extra headsets just in case yours fall into the water or gets stolen by a sea turtle.

Enemy Number One

2008-04-04T14:46:38Z

My Mum’s dog, Babe, is a protective dog. She’s got a huge attitude problem as she wasn’t trained very well (nor was her master, sorry Mum) but for the most part she’s a good dog despite the fact that she thinks hot shit around here.

This morning, like every other morning, I woke up, went to the bathroom and on my way back to my room, I noticed my parent’s remote control in the hallway next to the puppy, Jack, a bit chewed up. So I picked it up and walked into my Mum’s room. She was awake but still in bed and the dog didn’t look to happy with me being in there. See, if Mum is in the room and you walk in, she gets protective and growly and on your way out, will bark at you like a rabid dog.

So, I’m in there, chatting with my Mum beside her bed, the dog standing guard beside her and as I was trying to put the battery cover back on the remote the dog just lunged for my right arm and bit down. When I screamed, she let go and went back beside my Mum. Everything happened really fast and I think Mum was a bit shocked as she didn’t react except to say to run cold water over the bite area and I went downstairs, wailing.

I think I was (am) crying more for the fact that I don’t understand why Babe would do what she did, considering she knows me but then again, she’s a total doucherocket to my brothers too. I can’t believe my feelings are hurt because of an animal! Who do I think I am? Snow White?

My Mum feels really horrible. Horrible enough to suggest putting the dog down (wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to put down a dog for biting). I told her absolutely not and it’s not the dog’s fault, it’s her training and maybe we should take the dog back to the trainer. She says it would be useless as you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but I beg to differ.

My Tylenol 1’s are starting to kick in and I’m getting a bit spacey.

New Layout, Finally…

2008-04-04T06:15:39Z

After months of procrastinating, I finally sat down and redesigned my website. Not like I had to do much, apart from downloading a new template and tweaking the hell out of it.

Apart from some lame XHTML problems, I’m quite pleased with it.

The Mp3 player has 5 tracks, have a listen!

Firefox browser people...

2008-04-03T16:33:14Z

Just all of a sudden my Flickr badge on my site is gone.

Works fine in IE but in Firefox...nadda.

Can you check in YOUR Firefox browser?
http://lizvang.com/

It's driving me nuts!

Thanks.

Edit: My RickRoll spree has ended. Who knew it would envoke so much animosity?

Cock Blocked by Facebook

2008-04-01T02:42:57Z

Facebook has been cock-blocking me since Saturday. The only reason I’m getting pissed is that Saturday was Earth Hour and I had created the Earth Hour event on Facebook (with over 5 million invited) and I couldn’t even update it.

So I waited. And waited. Waited. Then waited some more. Saturday night I couldn’t get on. All yesterday I couldn’t get on. And all day today I haven’t been able to get on. I kept getting the message:

Sorry, an error has occurred.
We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.

Yeah, right.

I finally got an email back from someone at Facebook who said,

The problems that you are experiencing are probably being caused by your internet browser. I recommend that you install the most recent version of your particular browser. If you continue to have problems, try switching to a different supported browser (Safari and Mozilla Firefox on Macs; Internet Explorer, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox on PCs). I apologize for any inconvenience. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Okay, so the chick that replied doesn’t know I’m not a complete f*cking idiot and sent me some canned bullshit response. I knew I should have told her first that I’ve tried everything under the sun to log in.

So I replied, giving her the spiel that included the fact that I have tried logging in on three separate computers, Firefox and IE (ick) on all three computers, cleared cache, cookies, etc. So no, it’s not the browser, but thanks for trying.

I also included the fact that I had a friend (with no problems logging into their account) in California try to log into my account (he successfully got in but it kept booting him out) and that I logged into someone else’s account from my computer with no problems (only of course clearing the cookies and the cache). I still have not heard back from them.

Funnily enough, after clearing my cache and my cookies (for the millionth time), I was able to go to Facebook, create a new account and browse around for awhile before the whole site crapped out tonight.

*time elapse*

Okay, Facebook back up, logged in with new account and sent yet another email to support. Got crassy to test out logging in from Australia but she couldn’t log into my account either. It wouldn’t piss me off so much if I knew why I couldn’t log in but I’m not getting any answers so it’s going to infuriate me like if I were to start using dial-up again. Nothing more irritating than switching to dial-up after years of broadband!

So now I wait. Again.

There’s no harm in trying…

2008-03-29T02:59:56Z

Originally published at lizvang dot com. You can comment here or there.

Some days, I wish the world would just have it’s major catastrophe already because of something stupid man has done and only those people who were unwilling to change their habits or make a difference were left with nothing and only a handful of those who were positive about making change to tell them, “I told you so!”. I’d want to be one of those “I told you so!” people only to get satisfaction of watching them smug assholes realise (finally) that they were smug assholes.

Make sense? Probably not.

Intolerant at 30

2008-03-28T19:08:12Z

Originally published at lizvang dot com. You can comment here or there.

Okay, so I’m not 30 quite yet (5 months!) but it seems I have built up an intolerance to dairy. Every morning I have a bowl of cereal (100% natural cereal) and some fruit and less than an hour later I have crazy acid reflux.

I switched to Soy Milk and I’m still feeling it. Maybe it’s the cereal itself? It’s driving me nuts ’cause I really, really, really, really (really!) love milk (and chocolate and certain cheeses).

I was off milk for awhile so maybe I just need to build my system back up? Guess I’m going to have to talk to a nutritionist or doctor about it. Quite annoying but I’ll live.

I’ve been reading a lot of food books lately and I’m almost at the level of going “whole foods” only. It’s hard when you’re living with 4 other people and you don’t do most of the grocery shopping, but I’m hoping with the start of summer and a fresh vegetable garden with loads of leafy greens and edibles, I’ll be able to cut out a lot of crap from my diet.

The hard part will be weaning myself off of Diet Coke. Nectar of the aspartame gods!

Bless This!

2008-03-27T02:13:25Z

I wish people would stop with the "God Bless".

Don't write to me for technical support and give me your religious blessings. It's really f*cking arrogant. What if I was a devout Muslim? I would find it offensive that someone was asking God to bless me. Not everyone in the world is a Christian but Christians seem to think (at least 44% of them) that Jesus will be coming again to walk the Earth sometime in the next 50 years. *boggle*

I don't believe in God. I don't believe in Jesus. I don't believe in Heaven or a Hell.

Believe it if you want but I just find the whole thing silly and problematic for our society. Hell, I even don't like singing O'Canada 'cause it has God keep our land glorious and free! Keep your religious beliefs out of my life please. Out of the schools, out of government and out of the general population. If you feel the need to believe a mystical man in the clouds who judges over us and decides whether or not we'll burn in an eternal hell or play harps with angels in the afterlife, then do it in your home and in your church. Please.

And if anyone wants to have a different view on the story of "Jesus" please watch Part I of the following movie: http://zeitgeistmovie.com/ (you can skip ahead the first 14 minutes of trippy hippie weirdness and get to the actual movie).