Hi. I'm Jenn.

Facebook issue?

2009-09-10T12:23:29Z

So, does anyone else have the problem where facebook decides randomly that it is going to shuffle everything on your news feed? Aka, the first post will be from 6 days ago, the next from 4 hours ago, the next from 10 days ago, the next from 20 minutes ago, etc. There doesn't seem to be any reason why it picks certain things and I can't fix it until eventually it fixes itself.

Is there a button I'm hitting or something? Also, when it does this I can no longer use any of my pre-sorted friends groups on the left. Google searching hasn't turned up anything useful.

Thoughts?

Two posts in one day OMG!

2009-08-11T17:52:38Z

I just found out that Second Skin, a movie I screened in Scotland about a year ago, is having a very limited run in theaters and will be coming to Somerville. It is a documentary about online gaming/World of Warcraft addiction/romance/redemtion that follows the ups and downs of 3 groups of gamers and interviews analysts, experts, guilds, etc. I'm definitely going to try and go since I missed the last 20 minutes when I saw it the first time. It's showing this Friday the 14th and next Thursday the 20th. Here is the link to the listings, if you're not in the Boston area it may be showing near you. http://www.secondskinfilm.com/list. Highly reccomended. The DVD also comes out at the end of the month and it looks like it will be available on Netflix soon.

In a nutshell

2009-05-26T04:28:50Z

Hey y'all. I realized it's been a long time since I've made a post of any substance and a number of people are have been asking about outdated info so I figured it best to do a short update.

Work wise i'm in a kinda weird place right now. My last show at New Rep ended about two weeks ago and I'm not going to go back next season. Four years is a long time and New Rep is going through a whole bunch of changes so I think that now is a good time to leave. Right now I'm doing a mix of temping, theater/event management gigs and starting to work on the whole film thing. I'm thinking of taking a coding class this summer so I can have more, you know, skills. Oh and remember that awesome temp job I wrote about where I can work from home? Yeah, they cancelled the program 2 days after I was trained, getting rid of me and the 5 people who has already been doing this job. So much for that. =P Right now life is a bit scary but also exciting as well. We will see how this summer goes. And oh yeah, if anyone has, you know, odd jobs that need doing or something, I'm for hire. Happy to mow lawns, etc. :)

The other big thing is that about a month and a half ago I joined Match.com through some peer pressure from one of my best friends who met her long time S.O. through there. It was a very interesting experience but I'm not sure it's for me. I went out with a few people and, while I had a good time, we didn't really click. It's a whole lot of stress and effort when I can usually tell after 5 minutes of being with someone if we're compatible. I also had one guy email me saying "hey, aren't you that chick who runs the Evil Midnight Bombers?" which was vaguely horrifying. However about 4 days after I joined Match I coincidentally got an email from a friend of a friend I've met a couple times asking if I wanted to go out sometime. That, on the other hand, is going extremely well. He's a skydiver and I spent the weekend at the drop zone meeting his friends. robr, you'd be so proud of me. So we'll see how that goes but I have high hopes. We're going to the Cake concert Wednesday, woot.

It's still weird to make an update without taking about Mystery Hunt. But really, I'm not top upset about that. I've been solving the Enigma recently, which makes me surprisingly happy. I saw Pirates! at the Huntington, which was awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in musical theatre. It's like Johnny Depp meets Pirates of Penzance meets Newsies. For serious.

Alright, I guess that's it from my neck of the woods. Oh and I'm now basically on a normal people schedule so I can actually do things on nights and weekends. That's pretty exciting. Night y'all.

Seriously?

2009-04-08T04:39:13Z

Well, there is a first for everything and about 30 minutes ago I made my first call ever to the US Poison Control Center.

Why, you might ask, did I call poison control?

Because, due to an amazingly poorly timed sneeze, I just sprayed Afrin nasal spray in my eye. You heard me. I sprayed NASAL spray in my EYE.

Sometimes I am astounded that I am still alive.

(For the record, my eye feels pretty ok after 10 minutes of flushing with warm water. I mean, it doesn't feel great, but I don't think any eye would after being open in water for 10 minutes. Also for the record the folks at poison control are very nice and don't laugh at you even if you've done something completely ridiculous.)

*Update - Just woke up. Not blind.

I must have done something good.

2009-04-02T23:56:43Z

Alright, enough with the quoting of Sound of Music. Sorry.

Yesterday the Best Thing Ever happened. As many of you know I have been looking to expand my options professionally, getting into some film work as well as stage managing. This summer I begin my foray into this universe. It has been a very daunting prospect - on the one hand I am excited but on the other hand doing this sort of unstable work is scary. I have never been in the situation where I'm not sure what my next job will be or where I need to be available for very odd sporadic hours. I could temp, but that is strange too because I would want to take all small temp jobs to leave myself available for opportunities that come along. Also in the beginning some of my opportunities might not pay me.

But, as I said, then the Best Thing Ever came along. Last week I was temping at the company I will nickname Disney Land. Yesterday I got a call from my temp agency that the company liked me so much they want me to keep working for them. Well, um, I already have a job (having started rehearsals for my show on Monday). That's ok, they want you to work part time hours. Whenever you have time. From home. And when I went in to get trained this morning I was told that I could work any amount up to 40 hours. How long will these project last? Indefinitely. OMG.

I have instantly, in one short moment, gained stability in an unstable profession. While working on a show I can do 10-15 hours a week to make some extra cash. If I don't get another show or movie right away? I can work 40. I can work three days straight for 12 hours each if I want to and then work a non paying gig. Want to take a class? No problem. Want to go visit my father in California? I can work from there. Want to sit with my cat? Done and done.

Sometimes life is AWESOME.

Behind the times

2009-03-08T03:31:57Z

FYI - MySpace is ridiculously sketchy when you have the "single" box checked.

That is all. Good night and good luck.

Meh

2009-03-01T21:37:41Z

Ever do something, even something small, that you then immediately regret and feel awkward about?

I hate that.

5 things meme

2009-02-22T15:38:09Z

If you comment on this post, I'll list 5 things I associate with you, and you can do the meme too. redcat9 gave me these 5 things.

Being Tall: At 5'11" I fit soundly in the category of "women who are tall". My father, at 6'7", is soundly in the category of "men who are extremely tall". So when I was growing up I was in an environment where my height was only average at best compared to his. I think that this strongly influenced my opinion and demeanor regarding my height. Many people have said that I don't act like a tall girl or they won't really notice I am tall until they stop to think about it. I think that this is because I don't have a self consciousness about my height - I don't slouch to try and seem shorter like many tall women, I wear heels, etc, and most of that I chalk up to growing up with my dad. On the other side my mother is 5'3", so I also don't feel awkward being around people who are shorter than me and I have dated men of all heights. There have been times when height affected my life - back when I was acting it was awkward for me to be taller than a male counterpart. I sometimes have to remind myself I'm tall when I see someone looking at me oddly and wonder why - then realize I'm in 4 inch heels and therefore 6'3". It also affects the way I play sports and other physical activity since my center of gravity is unusual and tall people can have specific health problems. But mostly it's nice to be able to reach things on the top shelf.

Professional Sports: I love 'em! Of the big four my favorite is hockey and, ironically, my least favorite is basketball but I will enjoy any game of any sort that is available for the watching no matter what it is and who is playing. Recently this has been golf, skiing and snowboarding. I certainly have my specific teams I cheer for (Red Sox, Bruins, Flyers, Blazers) but most of all I appreciate good sport - I can quite often be found applauding the other team if I think a play was particularly elegant or a shot was amazing. I also enjoy minor league play because, while I do have players I follow (Chara, Beckett) I don't need to know the players to enjoy the sport. I am obsessed with the Olympics. When they are on I will sit and do nothing but watch for the whole 2 weeks. There is something about that combination of athletic and patriotism that is awesome.

GenCon: Ah, GenCon. I went to my first one 4 years ago I believe, where I was working for Lone Shark on the GenCon puzzle hunt. My first year was quite the experience... when I was growing up I didn't really realize I was a nerd because I was in an environment where there weren't many of them. So I didn't grow up playing D&D or much M:TG because there wasn't anyone for me to play with (video games I played on my own and my parents were both into sci-fi books and movies). When I got to MIT I was exposed to many of those things for the first time and loved it - GenCon was totally overwhelming. Here are thousands - thousands! - of people wanting to play games with me. Hell yeah. While at GenCon I tend to spend most of my time in the board game room with an occasional RPG thrown in. I don't have the money for TCGs or Minis (though I wish I did) and I have little to no LARPing experience. I worked for Loneshark for two more years after that one with an increasingly cool subset of people but I couldn't go last year because I was in Scotland. I am looking forward to my first GenCon where I can just game all day/night. GenCon is also important because it is where I got to know redcat9.

Single Sex Education: For those of you that don't know, I went to Baldwin, an all girls school, from 5th grade through 12th grade. I loved it and think it went a long way towards shaping who I am. I was able to focus on school and building strong friendships without worrying about boys or looking too smart in class. I was involved in extra curricular and summer activities that involved boys so I didn't feel like I was unable to deal with the other sex. I would strongly consider sending a daughter to an all girls school. On the other hand I most likely would not send a son to an all boys school. While I think that it is good for women I am not convinced that being in an all male environment during those formative years is a good thing for boys. The men I knew who went to an all-male school were, overall, more arrogant, misogynistic and homophobic than men from co-ed schools. (Of course there are exceptions, I'm not saying they are all like that, etc, it is just my experience overall. I had some good friends from the all-boys school). I am also less enamored with single sex higher education. College is training you for the real world and I knew that I needed to gain more skills and experience dealing with men before entering the workplace. I'm sure Wellesley has plenty of statistics regarding the benefits of an all women's college (especially for those who were from co-ed highschools) and I honestly don't know much about it. I do think it is an unwise choice for someone to go from all girls hs to an all womens college. I choose to join a sorority in college specifically so that I would have an all-female support group if I found myself missing that part of my life. Turns out I spent most of my time at a fraternity - whatever that means.

Flying: Ah, what a tale. I spent my childhood traveling extensively with my family and, beyond the ridiculous pain in my ears on landing, I had no problems with flying. Then in the summer of 1996 TWA Flight 800 went down. Something in my brain snapped. My parents were supposed to fly two weeks later and, at 15 years old, I ran into their bedroom sobbing and begging them not to go because I didn't want them to fly. On my next flight (to the Caribbean I believe) I flipped out. On takeoff I was sobbing so hard, my muscles were all clenched and paralyzed, I hyperventilated and started losing feeling in my fingers and toes which started creeping up my arms and legs. I have never been so horrified in my entire life. For the flight home I took 3 Dramamine and passed out but my fear of flying was born. For the next 8 years I was aerophobic. I missed 6 flights because I couldn't get on the plane. I have twice left the plane after boarding. I was given sedatives which only marginally worked. I have sat 14 hours on a train to and from North Carolina more times than I can count because flying just wasn't an option. It is difficult for me to even explain what it was about flying that terrified me. Eventually I had counseling with Capt. Tom Bunn from www.fearofflying.com. I cannot recommend this program enough. It taught me ways to deal with the fear - everything from knowing what is normal to visualizations to the simple but amazingly powerful advice of visiting the cockpit before the flight. To this day I still try to interact with the pilot before I fly because knowing that there is someone nice, competent and professional in charge of my life calms me down (though once it backfired - trying to get to texas for spring break I met the pilot who was an awful man in a terrible mood who basically said he didn't want me on his plane. Needless to say I didn't get on it.) You will notice that through this paragraph I have been speaking in past tense - I no longer consider myself afraid of flying anymore. I even look out the window sometimes.

LJ, help me out here.

2009-02-16T20:09:08Z

This morning I remembered a movie I saw once, possibly in the late 80s early 90s, and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the movie, any of the people in it or really anything about it. I've been trying to google what could possibly be quotes from the movie but that hasn't worked out, probably because I'm getting them slightly wrong. I've tried imdb keyword searches... Watch, it'll be something obvious and I'll be embarrassed but it's killing me! Here's the plot - do you recognize this movie?

There are a series of plane crashes that are being investigated, I think. But they can't find any bodies in the wreckage (or something is wrong with the bodies they find?). Turns out that someone is coming from the future and taking the people out of the planes and bringing them to the future so they can... something. Repopulate the Earth? Or some future Earth? The future is a horrible polluted mess but they've come up with a way to fix it somehow all they need is unpolluted humans. One of the women from the future has to smoke cigarettes in the past because the air is too clean. At some point near the end we see... her superiors? People (or just heads?) floating in some sort of liquid barely surviving. I think the goo people might die at the end.

That's possibly the worst description ever but that's all I remember. Anyone?

OMG

2009-02-13T00:37:12Z

I NEED THIS

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20121538

Gack

2009-02-09T02:12:43Z

Does the Jonas Brothers on stage with Stevie Wonder seem fundamentally evil to anyone else?

I dislike...

2008-12-18T00:52:29Z

... when two movies use the same song in a prominent way. For example, the music in the trailer to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Love Actually. Sorry Benjamin, I already have an association with that song. I don't see why a producer would do this - all I do is think of Love Actually when I watch their trailer. That can't be the reaction they're looking for.

YES!!!

2008-12-05T14:54:38Z

Netflix instant watching is available for MAC!!!!

VICTORY IS MINE!!

That was awesome.

2008-11-27T15:58:33Z

Macy's Parade FTW with the ultimate Rickroll. America is neat. =)

Truth

2008-11-27T03:24:02Z

I will purchase anything that is advertised with scrubbing bubbles. They are just so darn cute.

Jenn sucks at being a consumer: Part 2 - HD TV

2008-11-09T18:36:55Z

As I've previously reported, I'm a fairly nervous purchaser of relatively large and/or expensive objects. Some choices are easy - my MacBook for example. But some are much harder. Over a year and a half ago we had Part 1 of this series when I wanted to buy a digital camera (and did, to great success). Now I am looking to purchase an HD TV and I feel helplessly lost.

What I am looking for:

Something in the 30-40" size range. I think?
Pixels? 1080? 720? Wha?
I don't care much about sound.
This set will be used almost exclusively for watching DVDs (probably not HD DVDs) and playing video games. I don't have cable in my room so I need some sort of antenna for getting old school air wave channels.

Anything else? I don't know. Cheap. Cheap is good. Or, at least, as cheap as possible for something like this without sacrificing quality too badly.

Suggestions and advice greatly appreciated.

Internet - Meet Keiko

2008-11-01T13:53:13Z

She is my lovely year and a few months old domestic long hair brown tabby. I got her at the Nevin's Farm MSPCA in Methuen. She really hated the shelter (even though it was very nice) and hasn't stopped purring since she got home. She's very sweet and gentle and I love her to pieces. Apparently she's also married to flaggday and collamalleen's new dog. Ok robr. You're contractually obligated to buy a pet fish and name it Molly. A lizard or other reptile would also work.

Really great birthday!

"How is it possible...

2008-10-17T14:45:07Z

... to not like watching sports?"

That's what I said to my boyfriend's roommate during the bottom of the 8th in what was one of the coolest three innings of baseball that has ever been played. At one point (I believe during Coco's hit) there was legit girlie screaming, though I did apologize afterwards.

But man, that ending right there is what it's all about.

You know what?

2008-10-14T22:28:54Z

I hate both Jean Shaheen AND John Sununu.

GET OFF MY TELEVISION WITH YOUR RIDICULOUS MUD SLINGING CAMPAIGNS! YOU ARE WHAT MAKES POLITICS AWFUL!

I am WesleyJenn and I approve this message.

Three things

2008-10-12T04:20:45Z

Hey Y'all.

I'm sitting here watching the Red Sox and eating raspberries that I picked myself two days ago. Things are good.

Recently my life has consisted of three main components - work, mystery hunt and boyfriend. Trying to juggle these three things has been an interesting challenge and basically all other parts of my life have been non-existent (WoW, friends, LJ, even bubble tea), with the possible exception of an occasional Sox game (wild pitch! woot!). In an ideal world there would be more boyfriend... no work... and I would get paid for mystery hunt. If someone could hook that up I'd appreciate it.

My hope that hunt constructing would take up less of my life this time has proven to not be possible and, once again, I'm only able to construct a few puzzles of my own. I'm in charge of more than I had been planning but there's nothing to be done about that. Regardless, it goes well and I adore my team. One of these days I need to win a hunt where I can just write my own stuff and someone else can run things. One of these days.

I just finished off the last of my raspberries which sure were tasty. Mike and I went to a farm in Danvers a couple days ago to do the whole "Fall" thing. There were pumpkin patches, a corn maze, apple cider and all that good stuff. It was quite lovely actually, even if we did have to get up early to go before my rehearsal. I'd never picked raspberries before and it was really cool - I thought of cooking something with them but just ended up eating them all. Not terribly sad about that.

I took a break this evening to watch the Sox and work on a sewing project I've been contemplating. I recently bought this pair of jeans that I thought I liked but, after a couple wearings, decided that the waist was too high (I HATE that). So tonight I took apart the waistband, added bits on either side, moved it down an inch or two and reconstructed/reattached the waistband. Haven't tried them on yet but they look good and I feel all accomplished for getting something done that isn't hunt, boyfriend of work related.

In the grand scheme of things, I really love hunt, work and boyfriend. So, as far as lives go, I'm pretty happy right now. If someone could only explain those extremely odd Volkswagon commercials to me that would be awesome. Because Brooke Shields is freaking me out.

I was wrong.

2008-09-03T02:10:12Z

My new nextdoor neighbors don't blast Pink Floyd at 10pm.

They invite friends over and blast/scream while playing Grand Theft Auto at 10pm. Yes, I can tell it's GTA through the wall.

Oh goodie.

Did you know...

2008-09-02T01:55:17Z

your Netflix queue is limited to 500 movies?

I didn't.

Sometimes things go well.

2008-08-31T03:44:53Z

Phew.

For the last two hours I've been wrestling with a dillema. I live in a duplex and the neighbors next door moved out this morning. I came home to find someone blasting music in the room that shares a wall with mine. Odd. In over 2 years of living here I have never heard anything through that wall. It must be really loud. I went outside and heard it blasting from out there too.

Great. I have a new neighbor who likes to play extremely loud Pink Floyd at 11pm. In my head my life as I know it turns into a long drawn out battle with this dude cause, not only do I not want to listen to his blasted music at 11pm, I don't want to listen to it AT ALL. And now I have to go over there and ask him to please turn it down/off. Not a great way to meet your new neighbors.

In order for this guy to hear me it takes knocking very loudly 6 times, ringing the doorbell many times then finally giving up, trying the knob, going into the house and yelling at the top of my lungs.

Turns out he's just a guy who's been hired to repaint the room. And he's really very sorry. And can I please not tell the landlord?

Crisis averted.

A Puzzle for you!

2008-08-29T00:00:55Z

I know I have seen this before, but I have a feeling that many of you out there might jsut be able to answer this question for me quite quickly.

Is it possible to draw over all of the black lines in the below diagram without repeating over any lines? If you add one of the red lines? If you add both of the red lines?

Honestly I haven't spent any time on this, it's a question for work. I don't have time tonight and I'm jet lagged like crazy anyway. If one of you crazy WPC folks can look at this and tell me in 2 seconds that would be awesome. :)

I know it's a torture method but...

2008-08-24T09:58:12Z

What science fiction/fantasy movie/tvshow features an oubliette?

Or, at least, the word oubliette? I saw a comedian the other night who was talking about the actual killing method of death by oubliette (basically putting someone or many someones in a room and the leaving them there till they die. The word comes from the french verb oublier - to forget). But in my head I can hear lines, from a movie I think, about an oubliette - possibly an adult man trying to scare a young girl. My first instinct is Labyrinth... maybe Neverending Story? Or maybe I'm just wrong. Anyone?