Well, my Sony headphones broke this morning. Just snapped right off. Therefore on my way home tonight I was subjected to my personal version of hell, sitting across from another ferry passenger who decided to consume potato chips very loudly, chewing with her mouth open like an animal.

I was trying to read. All I could hear was crunch crunch crunch and crinkle plastic bag. Then a toddler in a nearby stroller began to emit piercing shrieks for no particular reason. His mother just laughed; how adorable!

I moved to another seat, amongst quiet, reading adults. Except after I’d sat down and opened my book I realized I was now across from a woman devouring a bag of popcorn.

Sometimes my life reminds me of Larry David’s on “Curb.” Except of course he would react in a much different way.

Anyhoo, this morning while dressing I contemplated my underwear, some of it five or six years old. I thought about throwing away the stretched-out cotton panties purchased at a discount from Gapbody, and replacing with brand new white bikinis. Like a dozen of them. Any of you ladies have a brand you like? All I can think of is Calvin Klein, and then Hanky Panky thongs, but I don’t need more of those. So. Fave underoos?

Ugh those hombows were pretty good but I should have ordered one instead of two. They were bigger than I’d thought they’d be. That’s what she said.

Yesterday I spent a couple minutes clicking around the redesigned MAC site. Mainly I wanted to check out a couple eye shadow colors, but also I’d heard about this big redesign and wanted to see it for myself. I did not see the previous version.

On first glance, it *looks* cool, but I soon realized what a mess it truly is. First of all, they decided to go with a very dated mostly Flash model. Goddamn I wish these stupid non-techie companies would realize no one gives a shit about Flash. We want clean design, we want intuitive user interface, and we want it to be fast. This web site has only one of these elements, and it’s still not that great because having an all-black background everywhere may fit with your black branding, but it is fucking unreadable.

So anyway, there are many UI problems but I’ll focus on the two worst. First, the so-called search. I was looking for a specific color. I typed the name of the shadow into the search box. The thing spun around for quite some time. Then it said that the search returned “no results”. Upon further investigation, I saw that they did have my color, it was just out of stock. But, still viewable on the product page. Why not display a search result, then? I still won’t be able to add it to my bag, but I could add to favorites, for when it does become available again.

This brings me to the other huge problem. MAC has dozens of colors in their palette of eye shadows. When I got to the eye shadow product page, still looking for the color I wanted, I was faced with a grid of teeny 10 x 10 pixel thumbnails, not labeled at all until you mouse over them, at which point the hero shot below brings up a color-corrected swatch of pigmented powder. Who the hell has time to mouse over 126 tiny squares in the hopes of finding what they want? There was no alternate given to look at a text list or dropdown menu. FAIL. It took a stupidly long time to find the one I wanted.

It looks like the designers at this website spent all their time focusing on cute Flash toys like a color picker that is essentially useless, instead of developing a smart, bug-free user interface. I’ll stick with Nordstrom if I decide to buy from this brand.

The positives I found on this site: they have set up a program where if you have a number of used MAC makeup containers, you can send them back to the company where they will be reused/recycled, and they give you a free lipstick in return. Brilliant idea. Of course I can’t imagine a situation where I would burn through five eyeshadow pots, but hey, I know there are girls out there that do.

Also the photography is good — I dislike makeup swatches that are clearly from the photoshop color picker. I want a real photo of the color whenever possible, and the texture too, and if it has any shimmer or glitter.

The site also has a few instructional videos that demonstrate on a model how to do certain makeup techniques. This can all be found on youtube, also, but still, they tried. Again, I think they sacrificed good UI for a neat-o feature, but whatever.

Thus endeth my review. Now to drink a coffee.

I only did 30 minutes of Wii Fit but that included ten pushups interspersed with ten half-planks. My shoulders are sad now.

I made a big salad for dinner. Canned beets aren’t so bad.

I watched a replay of a Mariners game from July of 99. I miss baseball.

I cleaned our bathroom, both sinks. Ever since I added three soft bright CFLs, I’ve noticed how dusty the countertop was. Ew.

I played with Kona and began teaching her how to catch a ball in her mouth. She succeeded three times, so smart. Part of training her was to demonstrate catching the ball myself. She watched what I was doing and somehow knew to mimic me. No I did not catch it in my mouth.

I haven’t been blogging much, or writing in general. I think I’ve been in a funk. I blame winter. I can’t even fathom my despair if somehow Obama hadn’t been elected. Fortunately he was, and good for all of us.

Anyway, I am going to make an effort to write here, mainly for the pleasure I take in keeping a record of my random thoughts. Thanks to anyone who reads it.

So let’s start with what’s been on my mind. I woke up very early this morning from a dream that I was lost as I tried to make my ferry. I had parked my car somewhere and was now riding a bike, using my sense of direction to locate the water. I thought I would miss my boat. I got there, but I was frustrated and forgot where my car was. I tried to call Brian on my cellphone. I woke up and it was 5:30, the radio was on.

Kona stretched and came to my side to lick my hand and do her little whine. I petted her soft head; she had her bath last night. She’s the kind of dog who allows us to bathe her, stands submissively in the tub with a sad look on her face. When she is all towel dried and has been released from the bathroom, she then sprints around the house like a maniac for about 20 minutes. I don’t understand, but it’s funny.

I got up at six and fed the animals, poured coffee into two cups, and prepared a bowl of cereal. When I was done eating, I spent about 20 minutes washing up and putting on makeup.

morning routine; skip if you’re a dude

Updating just to show off my lovely new icon.

Also I found $20 on the ground today yay me.

Results 1 – 10 of about 17,300 for “long national nightmare” +”George W. Bush”. (0.19 seconds)

Way way back in the Year 2000 it was hard to fathom that this day would finally arrive.