Just do this. It’s totally awesome.

I’ve been working on downloading all of the songs that you people recommended last week so that I can compile my top five love songs. However, not all of them are available on my music downloading program of choice which is totally legal (*cough*). So I’ve had to resort to my favorite Russian music downloading site where most songs cost about 15 cents each, which is almost out of my price range. Anyway, the best thing about Russian websites is their translations, like this one I just got:

Dear user!

The error occurred
Unknown error occurred! The data about the error are sent to developers.

Possible reasons:
* The preventive works are conducted

Possible solutions:
* try refresh page
* Attempt to visit in another time, possibly page will again become accessible

I’m hoping the RIAA isn’t behind the “preventive works”…

Top Five Reasons I’ve been wanting a dog lately:

1. This website.

2. This breed.

3. Just about every dog on this website.

4. An email from Talia and Alex saying they got a new puppy.

5. This interaction with my dad online today:

me: dad, i’m in a huge dog-wanting phase.
it’s a problem.
Dad: You can’t have one where you liive?
Or your roommate doesn’t want one?
me: mostly i don’t think i’m grown up enough. nor do i think i can afford it
(long pause)
Dad: Slight delay for spilled tea.
That’s HOW you grow up. And you can afford it.
Gotta go work.
Get one.

I’m still in shock. Hope-shock.

I have been completely worthless all day. I woke up late after only a few hours of sleep, went to work with soaking wet hair and no makeup, and couldn’t consume enough coffee (or water) to kick the champagne hangover that nearly killed me. I was so out of it, I was actually worried about being a liability.

So I spent most of my time at work reading about the election online. And thus, today’s Top Five Things I Saw on the Internet Today:

1. The Top U.S. Front Pages

2. Foreign Papers and Their Editorials on the Obama Victory

3. The updated “Palin as President” site. (If you didn’t see this one before the election, you won’t appreciate this nearly as much.)

4. Photos of Reactions Around the World

5. And this excerpt that someone left in a comment on the Oregonian’s website, regarding McCain’s concession speech. They said it was from Joe Boyle, a contributor to reason.com, however I couldn’t find it there:

Classy speech.

John McCain did exactly what John Kerry did. He allowed himself to be jammed into an ill-fitting persona, and thereby surrendered everything that made him an interesting candidate to begin with.

McCain was never a comfortable fit with the thuggish kulturkampfer “Real Americans” who made up the base of his party, nor the low-road campaign that was designed to appeal to them. He couldn’t pull it off effectively – heck, he kept talking down lunatics at his rallies instead of whipping them up. They didn’t accept him as one of their own, and with good reason: he’s not.

John McCain is the sort of person who gives a classy concession speech and calls for unity after he loses, and his supporters are the kind of people who boo when he does that, and he’s the kind of person who shoots them an exasperated look when they boo.

Sort of sums it all up right there.

I heard about NaBloPoMo from my friend Blythe, who is taking part for the second year in a row. National Blog Posting Month is a pretty simple concept, really; just post on your blog everyday for a month. I’ve chosen November because that’s what Blythe is doing and because you can win prizes. And I’m a sucker for free stuff. (Luckily I already blogged yesterday, or I would have already lost my chance at the prizes!).

I’m a little worried that I won’t have anything to say some days, as this happens fairly regularly in my blogging life, so I’m creating a new post type and category called, “Top Five…”, based on High Fidelity, one of my favorite movies. In case you haven’t seen it, John Cusack and Jack Black’s characters make top five lists of everything (i.e. top five most memorable breakups, top five songs about death, top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the ’80s and ’90s, etc.) and then John Cusack ends up naming his record company “Top Five Records.” My plan is to make a top five list of something, anything, on the days I have blogger’s block.

(If you have anything you’d like me to blog about, top five or otherwise, you can also put in a request!)

I’m going to kick off my new invention with a list of the top five websites that make my life better/more fun/a little bit more interesting every day.

1. YouTube. Considering I have a whole blog category based on this website, it’s no surprise it made the list. But really, it’s pretty incredible. I mean, maybe you want to know if Sarah Palin’s ever been tackled by a linebacker after one of her ridiculous statements, or you want to see that video of Philipino prisoners recreating Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Just search and you shall find. You can even hear almost any song you want to by searching for it. Chances are good someone made a music video of it. Best website for workplace procrastination.

2. Etsy. It’s like Saturday Market on the internet! You can shop for something specific, browse, or even look for local sellers.

3. Socializr. I’m starting the Socializr revolution. Evite will be a thing of the past. Check it out.

4. Google Reader and Google Alerts. I already use Gmail, Google Calendar, and have a personalized iGoogle homepage, but those are only the beginning. When I first started working at The Foundation, one of my coworkers recommended that I setup a Google alert for our foundation’s name so I could monitor all the internet coverage we get. I liked it so much, I selfishly set one up for my own name, just out of curiosity. It’s pretty cool.
Google Reader helps me stay up on all my blogs without checking each website everyday. I just put the Reader box in my iGoogle homepage and then every time I go to my homepage it tells me who’s updated. Well played, Google.

5. Birthday Alarm. You can either enter all of your friends’ and family’s birthdays manually or email them and have them each do it themselves. Either way, you get reminder emails for their birthdays so you can send them gifts or funny and offensive e-cards on time.

I’m hoping that if you read this blog, and are therefore a friend or family member of mine, you vote. I’m assuming you are registered to vote on November 4. I’m not going to say I don’t care who you vote for, because I do, but it’s none of my business. And if you’re interested in talking to me about your choice or mine, you know where to find me.

However, I do know that there are times when people who think they are registered, in fact, aren’t. Or they forgot to change their address. Or they’ve had their voter registration challenged.

(Side note, that article actually made me sick to my stomach. Within hours of it being posted online, a friend from Montana who now lives in Copenhagen sent it to me, my mom sent it to me, and my aunt wrote me to make sure I wasn’t still registered in Montana and being challenged. The fact that the spokesman for the Secretary of State even said that everyone should return the affidavits signed and notarized “for the benefit of all involved”, even made it worse. Also, I went to high school with Kevin Furey and I’m glad he said exactly what everyone else was thinking and that he was used as the perfect example of why voter challenging is blatant intimidation and attempted disfranchisement. I know there are a lot of assholes in Montana. I know there are lots of assholes everywhere. But I expected more of my home state.)*

Anyway, I’m asking you, as a friend or family member, to do two things.
1. Watch this video.
2. Go to the website and either register to vote if you aren’t, or check to make sure you’re registered at your current address. (You can also request an absentee ballot in case you don’t live in the same silly state I do, where everyone is required to be absent on election day).
The second favor is definitely more important than the first one, but the first is entertaining and makes the title of this post make sense. Plus, I stole the idea from my friend Julie.

You want to know the other thing? I can check to see if you’re registered if you live in Oregon. So you can’t lie and say you are if you aren’t. Creepy, huh? Lies don’t make friends!

*Update on the MT sitch.

My friend Absmers, a.k.a. Monique recently introduced me to this fantastic website. It reminds me so much of my mom it kills me. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“What are you doing getting bitten by mosquitoes?!! You will get MALARIA – and i will have to start worrying about that instead of typhoid. Maybe you have got dengue fever even! Are the drugs working? Are you still alive?”

“In other news I discovered that e-bay shopping is not as simple as it looks. Seems to be a cult or something, I’m wondering if any goods actually change hands. Items appear, disappear and reappear out of nowhere. Is there anything I’m missing. On that note I better check the item I’m “watching” to see how many days they added to my wait this time.”

“We had burglar alarmed fixed and are going to be using it. Call me for code or get arrested entering.”

“I think that all the people who want a relationship for marriage and family should stand on one side of the street and all the people who just want fun relationship only should stand on the other side, no intermixing….and no one would ever be disappointed or confused. It could be a universal rule….like Sneetches with stars or without. Think how much heartache would be avoided.”

“If dinner is not possible – I do understand but will be dissapointed for sure – I will make more cookies and wait on edge of hwy #1 by hwy #36 intersection, I will wait and yous can stop and get cookies for a hug – I saw that you are taking hwy#1 and if you can give me your set off time – I can meet up with, if dinner is not possible before you go then we can do it when your back.”

Moms are great.

It’s hard to come up with things to write about when my days are so insanely boring. Being at this hotel in California is sort of like purgatory. They feed me to keep me alive, but I can’t leave and I have to spend all of my time with the same people. I sleep in a room on the 8th floor, the walk down to the 5th floor (because the elevators are broken) and spend all day in the Hospitality Suite. I eat lunch from a buffet in the atrium and count the minutes until our cookie break at 2 PM. The most exciting part of my day so far has been that our coffee station still had some English Breakfast tea bags left when I got there. I shit you not.

So, I spend all day on my computer, looking for things to entertain me. I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of my favorite websites from this week with you:

1. Elf Yourself. Enjoy.

2. From my cousin Emily in Spain: Dancing turkeys.

3. From Jason, the Scandina-phile: Kiss a Scandinavian. My favorite part is the names it suggests for your Scandinavian. Mine’s named Frøya.

4. Microsoft shuts down Santa for talking dirty.

5. SantaCon 2007 Check out the pictures from last year.

And I’m spent. If anyone has anything else I could do to kill time, let me know. And now, back to my tea.