Okay, all you WOW / Star Wars junkies, so who's playing TOR?

Would this convince you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=it-uRytz_zA#

Well, that was a fast 5 months. Where does the time go?

Brief, informative update: I moved to just above the Caltrain station in SF (5th and Berry St.). I moved in with my boyfriend. I am required to play WoW til level 35 (probably goblin hunter). I cooked my first ever Thanksgiving turkey of actual whole turkeyness and failed to eat leftovers. I'm going to Massachusetts for Christmas. I'm turning 29 in January, which is almost 30, but not quite, so I think I'm okay with it.

Anyway.

It's Christmastime, which means that there are lots of lights and pretty-smelling trees. (There are other things too, but it's the trees I care about for the arena of this post.) Every year, I have a debate with at least a few people about the nature of Christmas trees. I generally use an artificial tree that I've had now for 5 years. I buy a new ornament each year in order to fulfill my desire for shiny new Christmas things, and this system works for me. Other people, however, insist that the only 'real' Christmas tree is one that's been chopped down from a forest somewhere.

Now, yes, 'real' Christmas trees smell nice and they generally look prettier than artificial ones. But they're dying, and will be lifeless, brown husks by the end of the Christmas season, fit for only being tossed to the curb or maybe, if you're really lucky, burned in the fireplace. I'm sorry, folks, but somehow my ideas of Christmas and the ideas of death/dying/killing things simply to look pretty just don't really work together.* And there is almost nothing more depressing than seeing a once-beautifully decorated Christmas tree left on the sidewalk like so much garbage, like the memories of that Christmas meant nothing. So my solution is an artificial tree.

Artificial trees are kind of like old friends. You bring them back every year and remember the particular quirks. I like artificial trees because they're just easier -- can't find a good branch to hang that ornament on? Just bend the branches and rearrange them. Ornament too heavy and you're afraid it's going to fall off? Bend the branch around the hook to provide a secure place for it. And no watering, no shedding of needles all over your floor, no having your fingers get poked by needles' sharp ends or hands covered in sap. Aside from the lack of pine fresh scent and occasional breakage of the stand, artificial trees are kind of amazing.

Now, I will admit that every year, I consider buying a real, live tree, potted and all. But then I would have to deal with a tree (an out of season tree!) in my small San Francisco apartment that would much rather be living outside somewhere cooler. I don't have a backyard in which to plant it, and it's not going to be happy living in a pot forever. This whole situation seems unfriendly to both me and the tree.

Happily, I have found a solution that maybe I will implement next year. Did you know that there are companies that rent Christmas trees? Admittedly, at least in San Francisco, these aren't the conifers that you're looking for, but it's kind of a cool idea. See: http://www.sfenvironment.org/greenchristmas/ (as per a Sunset magazine article on being environmental this Christmas: http://www.sunset.com/home/good-gift-wrap-00400000034160/page3.html) Not only do you get a tree for the month, but afterwards, they plant them somewhere else to bring arboreal delight to passersby. Cool, right?

I suspect that proponents of the 'real' Christmas tree will still disagree with my view point. I don't think I care.


This post brought to you by the Small Coalition For No More Dead Christmas Trees.
------
*And no, the Jesus-death-resurrection story and its association with Christmas does not count here. Christmas is a time for family and happiness. Not death.

Oh hai, guyz. I is thinkin' about joining WoW when the new 'spansion comes out.

Whatchoo all be thinkin' about that?

Small black cube of doom!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190367275705#ht_2695wt_907

DUDES, listen up!

Do you like partner dancing? Do you like Steampunk? ( If yes, then continue reading... )

Consider a deck of cards. If you were design a deck of cards, such that a mythological/fantasy beast (or class of beasts) were each a suit, which four creatures would you use and which suits would they correspond to?

My current thoughts are ( under the cut )

Could this week have been any longer? Seriously?

(I was sick for 3 days of it, and I still feel this way.)

Dear specific coworker,

Please stop taking credit for my work. You aren't better than I am at this, just louder.

No love, Inga.

Quote from Nick Hornby's book High Fidelity:

"But I find myself worrying away at that stuff about pop music again, whether I like it because I'm unhappy, or whether I'm unhappy because I like it. [...] I've spent nearly thirty years listening to people singing about broken hearts, and has it helped me any? Has it fuck. So maybe what I said before, about how listening to too many records messes your life up ... maybe there's something in it after all. [...] It seems to be that if you place music (and books, probably, and films, and plays, and anything that makes you feel) at the center of your being, then you can't afford to sort out your love life, start to think of it as the finished product. You've got to pick at it, keep it alive and in turmoil, you've got to pick at it and unravel it until it all comes apart and you're compelled to start all over again. Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as a consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship."

It's been somewhat stuck in my head for this entire week, due perhaps to my awareness of just how much listening to music or reading books changes my mood. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I can shrug off personal responsibility for how I feel onto media that I consume, as it seems a little petulant.

I'm looking for new music, and looking for suggestions from you. I listen to everything generally, but often find speed/hard metal, hard rap, classical, and sitar music hard to listen to. Electronica, game soundtracks, trance, club, folk, rock, hard rock, lighter rap, electropop, europop, country, new age, piano, jazz, jazz singers, various foreign languages are all totally awesome. (My music collection is kind of eclectic.)

Even if you don't think I'll like it, but you're loving it, comment anyway. :)