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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for December 1st - 14th
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12/14/04 Happy birthday to my beloved.
There wasn't supposed to be an entry tonight. I've been in bed already, supposedly down for good, but cannot sleep. This is me trying to tire myself out, unsuccessfully.
Today was Andrew's birthday. Lots of phone messages for him waiting when he got home, many friends and family calling to sing on-and-off-key to celebrate his agedness. He had a train-guy meeting tonight and all 150 members present sang to him as well. He has been sung to well and thoroughly. Believe it.
We will celebrate tomorrow night with dear friends. May, Dan and Noah are in town and will be here for a few days (yay!). Then on the weekend Andrew and I will go out and have a birthday meal at a restaurant of his choice, and I will be able to give him a lovely gift after payday. After reading last night's entry we settled on a sardine and Brussel sprouts pie with a mushroom crust. (Even typing that was difficult, you know.)
It hardly seems fair, however, that on this day I feel like I am the one with the priceless gift. I do love my Andrew.
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Well, I didn't end up getting a lot of sleep last night. That usually happens to me the night before I start a new job. I'm keyed up and tense and can't relax. I think I'll sleep well tonight, though, hence the earlier than usual weblog entry.
My first day went fine. It wasn't that intensive, being a first day and all. I got there on the bus without mishap. I was kind of anxiously looking for my stop, not being able to see off the bus very well due to the filthy windows, but I realized that someone from my training group was on the bus with me and she knew when to disembark so I just followed her and another guy that turned out to be on the bus as well. I'm looking forward to next week when the training moves back to the building we're actually going to be working in. I only have to take one bus to get there and it's dead easy.
Excitingly we're going to be getting paid on friday. This company pays for the week just worked and the week prior to that, so technically every second Friday we get paid for a day we haven't actually worked yet. Then if you miss a day, it just comes off the next paycheque instead. This is very good for us as it means we'll actually be able to buy Christmas gifts for people! Yay!
Oh, and tomorrow is Andrew's birthday! He'll be thirty! I'm thinking of buying him thirty of something to make it special, like thirty timbits or thirty Brussel sprouts or thirty tins of sardines. Wouldn't that be memorable? I think it would.
Anyhow, me = tired so I'm going to go and prepare myself for sweet, sweet sleep so I can wake up awfully early in the morning and take another stressful bus ride. Yeehaw!
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12/12/04 Him name is Honeysuckle Mouse.
Oh, my land, that Andrew Jeanes is some funny! He thought he was really clever this evening and hid the honeysuckle mouse from me on top of the Ikea shelves. He informed me as he made dinner that the reason I couldn't find it was due to there being a fundamental difference between the two of us, one that insured I'd never find it. Well, while he was waxing pompous in the kitchen I got on an Ikea dining room chair and retrieved the mouse from its hiding spot, at which point I was able to run into the kitchen, shake it at him and exclaim that the difference between us is that I am not stupid!
Sweet, sweet victory. It tastes so ... uh ... sweet. Even when it causes Andrew to deal with his defeat through tickling and other invasive practices on my person.
Since the great hard drive trauma of 2004 I've discovered anew how annoying it is to get a new hard drive working to one's personal preferences. I believe that computers should be seen and not heard. I don't like sound effects to go with every button click. I don't like to hear 'tink' or 'donk' or 'blunk' whenever a program has something to tell me. So, I have silenced my computer as best I can. For some reason I left the Windows startup noise intact. I'm not sure why, as it makes my spine crawl. I'm considering putting back the munching noise that the trash can makes when it gets emptied, too. It's quiet, it amuses me and I kind of miss it.
Today we went out and got our Christmas tree! Yay, us! So while we were watching the Survivor reunion after the finale tonight Andrew started putting it together. Oh, yeah: It's fake. The last tree I owned was the same kind and I just knew that Andrew would rock at putting it together because it takes attention to detail and a dose of perfectionism to get it looking right since you basically have to fluff out every branch twig by twig to achieve tree realism. We've discovered that Andrew is a very talented tree fluffer. Yes, he is. :)
We're going to decorate it tomorrow night after I get home from work. Yes, I start my new job in the morning. Eek. I'm nervous, but more about getting there all right on the bus than anything else. The first week we're doing our training at a different location for some reason, and it takes two different buses for me to get there. I technically know how to get there, but we'll see if I screw it up. I'm giving myself plenty of time to do it in, which is why I have to finish this up and get to bed before midnight. Work starts at 8:30 a.m.!
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12/11/04 You will make fun of me. I know it.
Hee hee hee! I found something funny that I have to share with all y'all. I'll Find My Frog is sooooo funny. At first you might be like, "Yeah? So?" But it goes on and gets funnier just because ... well ... you have to experience it. Do it. Love it like I do. And don't blame me if you find yourself saying, "I'll find my frog. Who took my frog? Who found my frog?" randomly in the middle of conversations.
Oh, my. Silly is good. If you don't think so, you're in need of severe lightening up, my friend.
Marcus, my Marcus friend, called tonight to say howdy and goodbye before he heads off to Cuba to make beautiful music for a while. He was also calling to inform us that he wants to crash with us during Post-Christmas Christmas. If you don't know what Post-Christmas Christmas is, it's basically the Christmas get-together that a crazy bunch of people I call my friends have every year. They have it post-Christmas, hence the name. Andrew and I went to it last year in a desperate come-hell-or-high-water (or messy highway death) manoeuvre which involved driving to Ottawa from Toronto in the evening, spending a few hours there, then driving back to Toronto the same night. It was scary, but did reveal to me the fun that is Post-Christmas Christmas.
This year I do have to work the next day, but not until one in the afternoon so at least I'll be able to sleep in a wee bit and recover.
Speaking of parties, the party today at Andrew's grandparent's place was very nice. It was crowded and full of good food and drink. I did manage to avoid drinking any wine at all, sticking to apple juice in a wine glass so that I wasn't too obvious. Last year I was warmly welcomed but my status was still merely 'girlfriend'. This year, however, I'm 'fiancee and hope for the continuation of the family name', so my stock seemed to rise a bit with people who actually recall meeting me the first time. I was lost when it came to names, although I did remember quite a few faces.
So, I haven't talked hair in quite a while and figure that ridicule levels have sunk low enough that I can whip all you haters back into a frenzy. I found the perfect metal comb. Some might recall that I was on a quest to get a bunch of wondrous combs. I recieved as gifts a lovely collection of combs including two beautiful seamless ones, a Victorian wooden one and a gorgeous horn comb in the shape of a sunfish. Well, the only one I'm missing is a metal comb, and I found the one I'm going to buy when the paycheques have been rolling in for a while. The thing is ... it's a dog comb. Seriously, a poodle grooming comb called The Fabulous De-Matting Comb. But that's how you know it's good quality! People who show their dogs are obsessive about grooming accessories! So I know it's good enough for my hair. Just read the description and drool along with me, making sure to replace the words 'mats' and 'matting' with 'tangles' and 'tangling':
The Fabulous De-Matting Comb might just be the very last de-matting tool that you ever buy. Best of all, you'll obliterate mats while minimizing damage to the coat. This new and fabulous comb has pins evenly spaced and is constructed from the most durable rust resistant steel available. The handle is made from brass and nickel and the entire comb is chrome plated. The handle is .5 inches wide and the comb is six inches in length. The ends and the 2 inch long pins are very round and smooth. The Amazing De-Matting Comb helps you divide and conquer the most stubborn mats.
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12/10/04 This is a half-assed entry.
Well, I said to Andrew that I didn't feel like writing a blog entry tonight, but then felt kind of bad about it. So we agreed that I could just write a half-assed entry and see how that went. As a result, here it is. The half-assed entry.
We're going to Andrew's grandparent's place tomorrow for their annual Christmas party. It'll be a mix and mingle type thing with lots of wine, I'm sure. Wine which I will try my hardest to avoid drinking since I'm totally off the wine since a bottle of white attacked me out of nowhere a few months ago. Seriously, that stuff is dangerous. You can't trust it.
Oh, I remember what I wanted to mention. I forgot about it last night, but since I'm so fresh out of ideas tonight it's come back to me out of necessity. I chose this article because I love the headline: Shock as docs say laptops stop tots. Now, I think I've witnessed a couple of our friends (not naming any names, of course) holding their laptops on their laps. I'm not terribly concerned about Jen in this instance. Or May. Ahem. Anyhow, my favourite quote from the article was this: "Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens, two of the world's leading laptop makers, were both unable to comment on the study at the time of writing. UK-based Acer, though, was more forthcoming. "I have been using laptop computers ever since their inception and have three very healthy children and hope to have many more," said Paul Cook, managing director of Acer UK."
So, for all you male laptop users who are experiencing dubiety on the matter, there's your proof. Laptops aren't really for your lap.
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Well, Andrew's romance from way back in the day came to visit and a truly lovely time was had by all. She brought flowers! Adorable, lovely flowers! I was thrilled to receive them, but realized immediately that we don't have anything even resembling a vase around. I was concerned about what to put them in until Andrew picked up an empty vodka bottle and suggested using that. So, here is our classy flower arrangement for your viewing pleasure. Tee hee. And no, I didn't drink that whole bottle of vodka myself. I think Andrew got it from Pez and Skye when they moved and couldn't take all their booze with them. It was nearly empty when we got it, I swear.
A little card came with the flowers that informs: How to Care for Your FLOWER ARRANGEMENT. The capitalizations are all theirs, not mine. It's all very good advice, especially the bit at the very top which reads: Ornamental Product - NOT EDIBLE. Phew! I'm so glad I was warned not to eat the daisies!
So, we decided to immediately get some supper, as none of us had eaten a meal in quite a while. It was decided that we'd again visit The Works, where I went with the boring this time and had myself what they call a Ho-Hum #2, which is a cheeseburger with bacon. Still delicious, as they really do serve good burgers. Andrew went with the same thing he'd had the time before, called the Teriyaki Melt which inexplicably has mushrooms on it. Ugh.
After this we went to Bridgehead for some hot organic beverages, then headed back here to our place where the chat went on until after midnight. My computer has also been acting up (because it hates me, I've decided) and hasn't made it particularly easy for me to write my weblog this fine night, so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead and save this thing before I crash or freeze yet again.
Before I do, though, I have to say that I am obsessed with the T.V. show Lost and it's all Marcus' fault. I'm not even kidding. I'm obsessed, and it's a problem. Thanks, Marcus!
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12/08/04 No need to call the Humane Society.
Tonight we watched Halo as he had himself a refreshing cold beverage out of the toilet bowl. He does this all the time, no matter if there's fresh water available to him in his giant red water dish or not. Because he gets easily dehydrated and I want to keep vet visits to a minimum I have no problem with him drinking out of the toilet, although it disturbs Andrew and he'll often leave the lid down, at which point I holler at him and put it back up. So anyhow, I'd wondered the other day about what would happen if he ever fell in, and Andrew brought the subject back up tonight. I first hypothesized that Halo would swim, then said nah, he'd probably jump out and run around all soaking wet and pissed off. Envisioning this I tried to think of what my first reaction would be, and I realized that it would be to grab Andrew's towel and dry the kitty off.
Andrew thought this was bad for some reason. He then informed me that he would wind the towel up and snap me with it. So the moral of the story is ... well ... there's no real moral, but the result of the story is that Andrew and I are both evil people that do bad things to others.
Speaking of which, tomorrow night we're having an ex-flame of Andrew's over for a visit. O.K., O.K., she's not an ex-flame. She's just someone he had major smoochies with once in a public place when he was fifteen. Still, as Alannah points out, that's even worse than being an old flame! It's naughty, illicit, scandalous sort of history! I'm just the boring old woman he met online and shacked up with within three months ... well ... O.K., so I'm scandalous too. But still! I have a point. A good one.
Sigh. I'm tired of winter. Is it over yet? Crap, Andrew just said it isn't even winter yet. I need to get a winter jacket, I guess. And some better winter footwear. If I want to go tobogganing this winter I need the gear.
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12/07/04 Oor Wullie could kick Tintin's pansy ass.
Ah, who didn't read Tintin growing up? I know I did, plus Asterix and Obelix. Of course, being Scottish I was lucky and also got to read Oor Wullie and The Broons, but the point here is Tintin. I found a fascinating article on that creepy little dude today and Andrew said I had to share it here. Please read it and be enlightened. Agelessness is a common phenomenon among the cartoon folk, I realize, but Tintin is also indestructible while being uncommonly dumb. Bad combination, if you ask me. Poor Snowy has his paws full babysitting that guy.
So, today was an awful day, weather-wise. Freezing rain, coats of ice, coldness, wetness, ickiness abounding. Andrew and I chose not to subject ourselves to it at all, which I think was quite wise of us. Andrew had a lot of resting and working to do, both important ingredients for a quality essay. I considered going for a walk to the store or something briefly this afternoon but when I went to check the mail I looked out the front doors and thought better of it.
I spent some time today looking around online for a really nice and shiny calendar program that's also cheap as free. I really want the free, but I want it to be great, too. That's not asking too much, is it? So I download something that says it's freeware and run it only to find that it's horribly crippled by being a limited edition and the way to fix it is to shell out lots of cash for the full-featured thingamabob. Bah. I used to have a perfectly good piece of calendar software somewhere, but now that I actually want and need it it's nowhere to be found. For now I'm using a so-so one that I downloaded, but it's not pretty and it doesn't sit on my desktop for me to glance at breezily. No, I have to drag the pointer all the way down to the system tray and click on an icon. I'm tired just thinking about it.
Anyhow, that's about it for trauma today, I guess. I know that some people link directly to my site from their bookmarks and thus miss out on seeing the picture on my index page. So for those who haven't seen it, I have an entirely too cute detail from a picture of Halo sleeping the sleep of a baby bunny there. Look upon his cuteness in all its glory.
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So. Today was the day of the orientation for my new job. For some reason I was fairly panic-stricken about the whole thing over the weekend. I knew that yeah, it's just an orientation meeting. Nothing major was going to happen, no tests, no drills, no sudden movements. But for whatever reason I was wound up about it. Today arrived, however, and I was suddenly calm. I don't know why, but I'm glad.
Anyhow, things went pretty much as I expected they would. I got there on the bus just fine, and was early enough to wander around the mall for about ten minutes and figure out where things were for future reference (like, where the hair toys are in Zellers, that sort of thing). Then I headed over to the big glass building that I now call my place of employment. It was funny to walk into the lobby where my training class was supposed to meet. A bunch of people stood around uncomfortably, not talking to each other or looking at each other. I joined them, figuring this was my group, and stood silently staring at the elevator lights, the floor, anything inanimate. Every now and again someone would come out of the elevator, see us and say, "Oh, you must be the group having orientation tonight. You're so quiet!" We would all nod at this and the person would go outside, leaving us still silently standing and staring.
Finally a training guy came and got us, commenting, "Wow, you guys are a quiet bunch!" We were just glad to be going somewhere. He led us to a room where we all sat down at a bunch of tables set up in a horseshoe shape and the training guy left. We sat there. Silently. Staring at the tabletop, the whiteboard, the stats monitor ... anything. By now it was a painful silence, at least for me. I wanted to say something, anything to break the horrible, awkward quiet. It was stronger than I was, though, and prevailed.
Finally, finally the HR guy came and rescued us from the agony. "I can't believe how quiet you all are!" He hopped right into his job, which was to go around the table and check our paperwork one by one. He said to feel free to chat amongst ourselves as he did so. Hah! I decided to ask the woman beside me if she'd ever worked at a call center before. I was sorry I had when it turned out she was from Cornwall and had worked for the sister company of the one that I'd worked for in Kingston. She knew a lot of the higher-ups that I had, but she was the most humourless, crabby person I've ever met and didn't want to dish any dirt at all about the company. Hmph.
Once the paperwork was all taken care of the trainer did a presentation about the job, about how great it was to work there, about how great we all were to have been hired and about how great it is to be told once a month ways to improve your job performance. I can hardly wait! When he was done another trainer handed out some bingo sheets and we played People Bingo. It's a 'getting to know you' game where you have to run around the room and collect names of people who fit certain categories. One square was 'grew up on the west coast', another was 'is afraid of heights' and so on. You couldn't sign a person's sheet more than once and you had to have two complete rows to win. Well, guess what? I WON! W00t! I kicked Teh @zz of People Bingo and got a hideous coffee mug-like thing for my efforts. When they'd said 'prizes' I envisioned something a bit more grandiose, but whatever.
Then we were done. I managed to find my way home with some help from a nice guy in my training class who was taking the same bus. I would not have known which stop was mine if he hadn't been along to point it out.
So that's it. I start work officially on Monday and will be in training for six weeks. Thankfully the holidays fall in such a way that I get good holiday hours (meaning I don't work over Christmas or New Year's) and we might even be getting one pay before Christmas. Nice!
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12/05/04 Baby, I'll still love you when you're dead and mounted on the wall.
No Christmas tree today. Andrew just had too much on his plate for it, so we'll definitely have to try to get one this week. It gives me more time to make a special ornament for our first tree together, anyhow, so it's all for the good. We didn't have a tree last year. Our old place was just too small and cramped to make room for one.
I was surfing around today and found a link someone had posted to something highly disturbing. The entire thing reads like a joke, but I couldn't find anything that said in fine print, "Ha ha, just joking, if you believed it you're a moron!" So check it out if you want to, but be warned that it's ... icky. For those who want to be warned before willy-nilly clicking on links, it's an article about a company that freeze-dries or preserves through taxidermy the corpses of your dearly departed loved ones. Now, seeing as how the article was written on October 28th, I can't help but think that it was only done so as a sort of Halloween prank. The pictures have a 'photoshop' posed feel to them, and the name of the restaurant owner from Ottawa only came up in Google once: in the same article that named him. Also, the part where Granny's leg rots off in the backyard and the posable young boy just stretched the limits of even my gullibility.
I wouldn't even get Halo freeze dried, and they really are doing that with people's pets here in North America.
Oh, speaking of Halo, I do happen to have a recent picture of him that I'd kind of forgotten about. Some of you may recall how I thought it was sad that his favourite toy was always his ratty felt fish that was technically a broken toy. I mean, we can afford to get him better toys than that. So I have been, in the hopes that he'll move on to something a bit more classy. Finally, he has. Check him out playing with his honeysuckle mouse that has, as illustrated in this picture, stolen his affections away from the ex-catnip fish. He doesn't look very active in this shot, but he's playing with the tail which is his favourite part of the mouse. It's excitingly yellow and tail-like. When he was finished playing he took a break beside it so he could spend more quality time with it.
So, tomorrow is my orientation for the new job. I have to take the bus there all by my lonesome. Here's hoping I don't get lost (which would be hard since the bus I'll be taking goes straight to the mall across the street from it).
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12/04/04 I know! I'll make a tree out of paper mache!
Andrew had a pot luck thingamajig to go to today so I threw together a batch of Skor bar dessert thingies for him to take. Apparently there were more desserts than anything else, but they went over fairly well and he only brought a few back home. That's the problem with pot luck. Sometimes you're just not that lucky. I remember some pretty nasty church pot lucks growing up. *shudder*
Anyhow, when he got home he asked if I was still interested in going out to get a Christmas tree. We'd sort of planned to do that today, and our plan involved going to the Glebe Home Hardware to get one. We're going with a fake one, obviously. So, I got ready and off we went into the snowy night. When we arrived a nice saleslady pointed us in the direction we needed to go and we headed that way, only to discover that the tallest tree they had was only four feet tall. Four feet tall? Who wants a dinky little tree like that? I mean, if we were buying Halo his own tree I'd say maybe, but since we're not ... no. Oh, Glebe Home Hardware. How could you let us down like this? Near Christmas?
So no tree for us today. We're going to attempt to get one tomorrow (perhaps) at Canadian Tire and if we can't, then we'll work something out before Christmas. Definitely. We did get our Christmas cards from The Papery and we're both pretty pleased with them. I thought it was going to be a bit of an arduous process, since Andrew is somewhat ... ah ... discerning about greeting cards. He had birthday cards to buy also so while he chose those I went off and looked at the Christmas cards, picking some that I thought he'd be pleased with and some that I was pleased with. In the end he agreed to them right away, surprising me pleasantly, so the whole thing was painless and easy.
Then we came home and had pizza and passed a quiet and pleasant evening, although Andrew is somewhat burdened with schoolwork at present. Soon, though, his burdens will be eased and mine will descend upon me heavily come December 13th. Ah, work. Hey, at least I'll be forced to keep a sensible sleep schedule!
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12/03/04 Pho Tai for the soul.
I like getting new things. So, it was rather exciting to me today to open a new bank account. Even more exciting is the fact that I opened a President's Choice bank account! Yeehaw! I get all kinds of PC points when I do banking stuff, and because I opened it as the account that my pay will be deposited into I get whole bunches of them. Yay. I'll have to do all my shopping at Loblaws, now. It's also a no-fee account, which is especially nice.
I'm on the cusp of getting over this cold, in that weird place between wanting to do all the things one does when one is healthy and knowing that one's body isn't quite up to it yet. Tonight, though, we decided once and for all to go to New Mee Fung and eat the pho. On the way there we tried to see if Colin and Jen wanted to join us, but they had other plans for the evening. It's just as well, because the pho and cold rolls (and bubble tea) seriously kicked my stomach's butt (tee hee). I haven't been eating much lately, so my ability to consume ridiculous portions of soup wasn't at its peak. Pho is always a daunting prospect even when I'm at my most voracious. What I could eat was delicious as always, so at least I enjoyed it.
Sadly, I am once more having digital camera difficulties. The camera that Jen loaned me (and I'm wondering if she wants back anytime soon, since I've had it forEVER) has again seemed to decide it dislikes Windows. It works perfectly on Andrew's machine, just not mine. Boo hoo for me and you, weblog readers, because it does mean fewer pictures of Halo and his cat toys, or Halo standing, or Halo lying down, or Halo being just the best cat on earth. Sad, isn't it? I could upload them to Andrew's computer and email them to myself, but frankly that's a pain in the tushie because iPhoto is crap and even if there are other Mac options I don't have the patience to seek them out. I'll fiddle with the drivers and see what happens.
Maybe with my new job happening soon I'll be able to afford to buy my own camera at some point. Or, better yet, a small white computer of my very own.
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12/01/04 I can breathe clearly now ...
Oh, December thinks it's soooo clever! Dumping stupid snow on us on the first of the month, as if to say, "Gotcha, suckers!" Well, I will take a page from Jen's weblog and say what I'd like to say to December in sign language so as to not upset the kids out there who might be reading this. Grumble, mutter, mumble snow.
Ah, well. I went out for a bit of a walk despite not being thrilled with physical evidence of winter and managed to work up some slight enthusiasm, I suppose. I haven't been out of the house much since the onset of this cold and figured some outside air would do me good. It was delightful to breathe the cold air, admire the white ground in the park, feel the crunch of sidewalk salt beneath my boots. Ah, winter.
I still have my dang cold, yes. I am on the mend, though, and hope to be totally over it by Monday, which is the night of my orientation for the new job. It looks like it's going to be a night of paperwork involving tax stuff, paycheque stuff and various other 'sign by the X' sorts of fun. I'm glad that I'm training with a big group of people. It's going to remind me of the halcyon days of my prior job, when everyone was new and clueless and we all just kind of learned the ropes at the same time. It's much nicer than being the only new person that everyone peeks at.
Getting back to the cold: I do think it's funny that I never think to use nasal spray until around day three of my illness, for some reason. It's the best invention in the world, and I seem to only realize when I'm at my most miserable that there might be some sort of relief out there. Oh, Dristan, how I love thee. And Neo Citran, of course. Drugs aren't always bad, you know.
I made another hairstick. Lookie:
This is not a good picture of it. It kind of looks like that. But nicer.
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