Would you rather apple cider or egg nog?

I say apple cider.  I tried candy cane egg nog recently and it wasn’t really that tremendous either.

How does

Katy Hudson become the Katy Perry of mainstream “award” material?

In some ways, it breaks my heart.

Recently I have been thinking about what the definition of “semi-formal” is.  It seems particularly broad, but no one wants to actually say that.

For many guys, semi-formal is putting on a collared shirt, tucking in that shirt and wearing nice slacks and belt and non-running shoes.

For some girls, semi-formal is breaking out the bridesmaid dress they purchased for a previous wedding and totally going all the way.  This observation amuses me and yet it’s the truth!

For some guys, semi-formal is not wearing jeans, not wearing their soccer cleats, and doing something to their hair for once (for these guys, the tousled look is not attractive).

For some girls, semi-formal is just putting on a skirt because they usually wear pants or jeans everywhere else.  Semi-formal would be “Christmas service at church” clothing.

What is your definition!?  For me I enjoy breaking out my vest for such occasions because I don’t feel right wearing a shirt and tie without anything to go over it like a jacket.  But then I look like a waiter with that vest sometimes too haha..

This year’s Eastern Winter Conference New Year’s Eve party theme is “The Rootin’ Tootin’ West” aka. Western/Cowboy.  I am on a costume brainstorming binge right now.  I just worked all day (slowly and inefficiently but worked nonetheless) and now I’m tired, my brain’s fried, and I just got a caffe mocha from Starbucks because I needed fresh air and to be around some people.  Unfortunately Starbucks on Bank and Third closes at 11pm.  I just got the mocha and now it may influence what I think.  This is perfect for brainstorming.

Here we go, suggested costumes for The Rootin’ Tootin’ West:

- a horseshoe , or set of horseshoes
- horse, or herd of horses
- John Wayne
- Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke or whatever spaghetti western you choose)
- cactus
- Mexican gaucho or Mexican refugee (like in Zorro)
- tumbleweed
- cow, or herd of cattle
- cowboy, cowgirl (easy to do)
- Dixie Chick (wow, this one could be pretty sweet)
- Carrie Underwood (diggin her nails into someone’s leather seats)
- a pickup truck (preferably an F-150 or a Silverado)
- Lone Star State flag
- country fiddler (maybe like that violin player with Rascal Flatts)
- Will Smith as Wild Wild West
- a grain silo (that would be sick!!!!)
- a head of wheat
- vegetables (oh like a Veggietales costume!!! straight from the farm yo)
- John Deere tractor
- a Guelph Aggie
- Trucker (oh sweet… that would be so easy and yet so mid-West)
- Farmer with farmer tan hahaa
- a chuckwagon
- a BARREL!!!!  with beer spilling out from gunshots!!
- someone will definitely show up with a lasso trying to rope some people dressed as animals
- Dukes of Hazzard car (is this Western even….. it feels so in my head)
- oil drill rig
- Saddledome of sorts….. not sure if this could be possible, it would just look like a saddle eh
- a giant spur
- a BUFFALO hahahah
- a fence!!  a whole bunch of people could be fences and corral people in

There that’s my list.  I’m starting to stop thinking.  Objects are always funner to think about.  Because you know that so many people will show up as a person or character, but the objects are harder to do and they bring a lotta laughs.  That’s why I think up objects.  But there are so many Western people characters that could be done.

What should I dress up as?  I have no idea.  Give me your thoughts.  I want to do something EPIC but I don’t want to spend EPIC time making it.

So, my Macbook is in service.  What happened?  The keyboard doesn’t work.  I had to use an external keyboard and mouse for two days.  I realized that it was basically no longer a laptop so it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I took it to a place where they service Macs.  The other one that I had been hinging on going to was only open weekdays… and I could never find a time to go.  This one is open on Saturdays so I summoned up the courage to go.  I met a Christian dude behind the counter and it was a pleasant conversation, even as he asked for my password and I told him it was a Bible Scripture reference and he asked me what verse it is.  Thankfully, I know most of it!  This is one great benefit to using Bible Scripture as passwords!  You get to memorize Scripture and yet it could be anything!  Good luck cracking that password.

The iService guy said it would take a week.  This is the longest separation I’ve had from my MacBook Pro since purchasing it in January.  I felt torn.

One big thing is that being computerless (and already TV-less) I feel very alone.  Facebook, Google Talk are actually methods of community (even if they are not great replacements) and so I’m so attached to them it’s hard to pull away.

It’s hard to be without a computer also because so much of my work depends on it.  All my communication with co-workers around the country is based on email.  Even though most of my work is now online through email and Google Docs and online forums, I still need a way to access it all!!

Fortunately, one of my student friends was very gracious and lended me his laptop.  It is old school, I tell ya.  Even the PC that I built during high school was more stacked than this laptop.  294 Mhz processor?  My goodness, that was from way back when we used floppy disks yo.  Back when we spelled disks with a “k”.  Not a “c”.  But having this laptop is still a tremendous blessing, it enables me to actually do necessary work.

I was so tempted in my desperation at one point that I considered buying another MacBook or a Mac mini as a second computer.  I foresee a desktop Mac as a secondary option in the future, I just don’t know when it’ll be…. and whether I can afford it.  But being so tethered to the online world means I can’t really pause for service  here and there…

Crazy eh?  What kind of world do we live in……