I have a friend. Well...an acquaintance really, whose Facebook photo makes her look like a witch.

Literally...it looks like she's wearing a cape and pointy hat. It's not even a costume; just a weird outfit + bad angle, but she loves it.

She seems to think she looks good in this photo, though. I keep waiting for her to change it, but it's the only photo she's posted and I suspect it won't be coming down any time soon. The odd thing is that the more I look at the photo (I can't look away!), the more I remember that I never really liked her that much in the first place. I only accepted her "friendship" because I remembered her and wanted to see what she was up to, but now my curiosity has been satisfied and I wish there was a way to stop the photo from popping up all the time.

I'm seriously considering de-friending her. Anything so long as I don't have to look at the creepy witch photo on my "feed" ever again...

Labels: Internet, Ugh

Because last night I asked myself, "what could I possibly do on the Internet to waste even more time?"

Sent from My Dell Desktop now has her very own MySpace page!! The profile is still a work in progress (it's a little too dark and brooding right now), but it's ready to be revealed. Now all I need is a few friends...

A virtual profile for my virtual blog--you all knew it was just a matter of time...

Labels: Internet, Nerdiness, parties

NY Times finally catches on...

(Now I have two years worth of archives to catch up on.)

Labels: Internet, New York, news

As one who often gets a little too caught up in all things virtual, I found this little Second Life satire, which was sent to me by a certain robot blogger, to be particularly amusing.

And to answer that question: Yes, I Second Life...

Labels: Internet, Nerdiness, techy

On Christmas Eve I suffered a massive hard drive crash in which I lost pretty much everything that I've either written, designed, photographed, or listened to over the past two years. Two years of creative work gone in a flash. That damn blue screen of death struck again.

Miserable, I called my friend to share the news and then dove into my bed in a fit of tears where I remained for most of the day until my parents forced me to shower, get dressed, and join them for Christmas Eve dinner. Massive amounts of tequila were consumed and helped ease the pain--if only temporarily--but on Christmas morning I was once again faced with the reality of my lost work.

Before you ask, no, I didn't back up. Stupid and cocky, I know. I of all people should know better. Especially since I suffered a similar crash about 4 or 5 years ago. Dell wasn't very sympathetic. "It's gone," the tech support guy told me. "We'll send you a new one. Did you have important files on it?" "Um yes, of course..." I replied. He suggested that I keep the old drive and take it to a local technician in order to recover some of the data.

I spent most of the holiday season cursing Dell and their lousy computers. In two years I've gone through two adaptors, three motherboards, two keyboards, and now two hard drives. Oh, and my cd/dvd drive is starting to make weird clicking noises and smells a little bit like a Fourth of July hotdog when I try to run programs. The irony is that this computer is pretty fantastic--when it works. But it rarely works. And I am also the first to admit that Dell has spectacular technical support. I just wish their products didn't force me to keep the support number on speed dial.

I'll be ordering a new laptop for work soon. I had the choice of anything that I want and I decided to go with a Mac. A MacBook Pro to be exact. As the office "tech expert" (their words, not mine) I've also been charged with the task of purchasing computers for several other members of our staff. They need PCs, but needless to say, they will not be getting Dells.

The point of this post, however, isn't about my crappy Dell laptop. It's about my amazing customer service experience with Apple. Naturally, when my drive crashed I lost my entire iTunes library. Thousands of songs, gone in an instant, including several hundred that I purchased and not...ahem, "shared." I was trying to figure out if there was a way to recover some of these songs so I spent some time Googling and discovered a few Mac forum posts from users who had e-mailed AppleCare and gotten permission to redownload their purchase history free of charge. Intrigued, I went to the iTunes customer service website and filled out the e-mail form with the following query:

Hello,

My hard drive crashed a few days ago and I lost my entire iTunes library (along with pretty much everything I've written over the past two years--ugh). I didn't back up and so I have no way to recover my files. I was looking around online and saw that Apple has allowed other customers to redownload their purchase history when they suffer a crash like this. It would be so great if you could allow me the same concession. I'd love it if I could at least have some of my music back...Thanks so much for your help and attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Alejandra

Within hours, I received an e-mail back:

Dear Alejandra,

I understand that you recently lost all the music in your iTunes library due to hard drive failure. I'm sorry to hear the titles you purchased (along with your writings) from the iTunes Store with account "XXXX" were lost. I know how frustrating that can be, fortunately however, I have reposted your entire purchase order history back to your account for your and Apple will let you re-download (at no charge) all the titles you purchased on this account that are still available.

Please note that you may download your iTunes Store purchases only once, so this is a one-time exception and this option will no longer be available to you in the future.) Your purchases are now available in your account. Check out the steps below to initiate the download:

This was followed with steps to download, along with explanations of how to back up my songs (Ok, I get it. I will back up this year.) There were quite a few songs and it took a while to download, but now I'm back up and running. I figured it would be good to share in case some of you out there suffer (or have suffered) similar crashes.

I'm now tackling the task of hard drive data recovery. Stay tuned for details.

Labels: Grief caused by Dell notebooks, Internet, Mac, music, techy

I don't usually like to poke fun at my readers, but occasionally I'll come across a search term so odd that I can't help but share. This morning, as I went over my site stats, I came across someone who found my blog while running a Google search for the phrase:

"I love living alone with my teddy bears."

At least she (he?) knows what she (he?) loves... And that there is way more than some of us can say.

Labels: Internet

Inspired by the brilliance that is my virtual friend Mike’s web log, I’ve decided to create my own Google Resume. A Google Resume is essentially what my potential employers would find out about “my” history if they were to search for my name on Google.

[Please note that I omitted all actual references to me as they were boring and really only revealed that I like to write, I frequent nerdy web forums, I participate in a couple multi-player alternate reality and role-playing games, and am available for babysitting on nights and weekends (Se Habla Espanol) (E Italiano).]

Education

-In June 2001, when I was a university student in Santiago, Chile, I posted an open notice on the International Jesuit Alumni Society indicating that I was interested in studying abroad during something called “pregrade” and looking for a “friend in Europe with an e-mail address.” I apparently don’t have very high standards when it comes to new friends. Especially European ones…

-I graduated from Chaffey High School in 2001 and am currently attending UC Riverside.

Hobbies and Extra-Curricular Activities

- For the past year I’ve dedicated myself to the art of photography. I photograph mostly cats and shadows, and occasionally I’ll combine the two (as demonstrated in my series “Cat Shadows”). I find cats and shadows mysterious and suggestive…much like myself. I’m very deep and brooding. I probably like to hang out in cafes.

-An active member of the San Pasqual High School chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions, or SADD, I participated in a march to City Hall on Wednesday. I’m trying to motivate other kids to make good decisions and stay away from drugs. I have very few friends and am rarely invited to the “cool” parties.

-I have been modeling since the age of 10 and recently appeared on the cover of the book, titled: “How to Realize your True Beauty in just Ten Easy Minutes of Make-Up Application.” I am currently writing my own book, titled: “Why is the Title of this Book so Freaking Long?”

Honors and Publications

-Between 1983 and 1990, I represented Chile at the Ibero American Championships, a biennial track and field event for "Spain, Portugal, and Spanish or Portuguese speaking nations in the Americas." During this time I won 3 silver medals and 2 gold medals in the 1500 meter dash. Sometimes, I like to wear them all at the same time for added “bling” factor as I roam the streets of my native Chile.

-In early 2006, I published a paper titled, “Medicinal chemistry applied to a synthetic protein: Development of highly potent HIV entry inhibitors.” I’m fairly certain that nobody actually ever read it.

International Experience

-I was born 19 years ago in Lima, Peru.

-On November 26, 1979, when I was still a minor, I was hospitalized in Venezuela with serious lesions and other grave injuries, the cause of which remain unknown.

-I am an actress, director, and acting coach at the Espacio Pata de Ganso in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have starred in a number of theater productions including Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Antigone. (Espacio Pata de Ganso means “Goose Leg Theater” in Spanish.)

Family Connections and Background

-When I was 14, my wealthy, traditional Mexican parents hired a very non-traditional Colombian drag queen to choreograph my Quinceanera and teach my baggy-pant-wearing friends how to waltz. He encouraged me to act “feminine,” with such helpful tips as “spit out that gum” and “stick your tits out.”

-I am the daughter of the first female Chief Justice of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court.


Overall, I'd say that according to Google I'm a pretty good hire. I'm beautiful, athletic, artistic, and socially conscious. I have a mind for science, a strong command of the Spanish language, and my parents are pretty well-connected. Oh...and I'm drug free!

What does your Google Resume reveal about you?

Labels: Internet, Nerdiness

This week, Wired announced a call for nominees for their 2006 10 Sexiest Geeks of the Year feature. I must admit that since I saw the 2005 list last December, it's become my secret wish to someday be named among those lucky few...

Last years list included brainy model Elyse Sewell (forever my favorite Top Model contestant), Gawker's Nick Denton, and the very cute Chris Mooney, who I actually met and chatted with at a bar in DC last year without even realizing that I was in the presence of official sexy geekness. Other winners included Jessa Crispin of Bookslut, Judge John Jones III, and the disconcertingly handsome neuroeconomist, Paul Zak (my gpa would probably have been about 3 times what it is if GW had hired a few sexy profs like him).

Now it's evident that with exception of Miss Sewell and Professor Zak, the majority of these are not your typical magazine cover sexy types. The genius of the Wired Sexy Geek list is that the winners are recognized for the sexiness of their dorky talents, accomplishments, and personalities. As one who is just as easily turned on by a perfectly punctuated sentence as by a warm breath on my neck (whisper that well-crafted sentence in my ear and I'm putty), I find a list like this significantly more intriguing than the usual People Magazine-esque lineup.

So I've started thinking about who I'd nominate...

The first person who came to mind is my long-time pundit crush, Tucker Carlson. I've been completely smitten with his snarky conservative dorkiness since high school. When CNN started filming Crossfire on the GW campus I became his number one stalker, hanging around the School of Media and Public Affairs in the hopes of catching a glimpse of his bowtied nerdiness. The one time that I did catch him, I squealed a squeal so unearthly that I freaked the poor man out and sent him running for the parking garage.

Next on my list would be Peter Rojas, the hipstery cool co-founder and editor-in-chief of Engadget. Check out his personal site here--his CV alone makes me a drool.

I've always been a fan of CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has a weird way of making even the deadliest epidemics seem kind of fun and sexy.

These are the first three that come to mind, but I imagine I will continue to update this list as I think of it. I will also track the progress of the Wired contest and will keep you posted on all latest developments. Just because I'm that kind of a girl... ;)

Labels: Internet, Magazines, Nerdiness, tv

I have such a fierce love-hate thing going with MySpace right now. It’s seriously to the point where some might even consider it clinical. If I were to wake up tomorrow morning and learn that my access to MySpace has been shut down due to reasons of national security, I would probably breathe a massive sigh of relief. But as it is, I can’t look away. It’s like that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine couldn’t stop smelling the stinky pencil. That’s what MySpace is, a giant stinky pencil and I just can’t stop sniffing it.

"It's not reality," said Vane as she yanked the laptop from my hands last night. "It's an alter-ego. " We were spending the night in because I was cranky and sick, and suffering from a weird allergic reaction to an Aleve I'd taken the night before. I reread a comment Sara had left on my page a few days earlier. Something about "This is Alejandra...always sexy." I looked down at my weird blue t-shirt and decidedly un-sexy splotchy hives and laughed. I know it's all fake, but it still has the ability to infuriate me like nothing else...

With the exception of a few comment exchanges between my close friends or brother, I very rarely sign off of it feeling good. I hate the bathtub html, the cut and paste CSS, the slideshows going in 6 different directions, the glittery kisses, the animated gifs, the cascading hearts. I get so annoyed by those little quizzes that tell you what kind of a kisser you are or what kind of underwear you would be if you were a pair of underwear. I can’t stand those little tiny squares in neon colors that say things like “I’m a Bitch, deal with it” and “You know you love me.” I do not love you and I do not wish my girlfriend was hot like you. All the girls have very honest hips on MySpace and they’re all bringing sexy back. I’m not sure where sexy went in the first place, but it’s back…with a vengeance. And apparently, it loves the color pink.

This morning, as I browsed through my “friends,” I came across the profile of a girl I knew in high school. She and I were never very close then, but she was always very sweet and we hung out a couple times. I’ve looked at her profile a time or two and it always seemed to be dedicated entirely to her relationship with her boyfriend. What caught my eye this time was the main photo. I wish I could have posted the photo here, but even I have more tact than that. So instead I’ve used my stellar graphic design skills to recreate the image here:

In case you can’t tell from my expert rendition, it’s a professional Sears Portrait Studio type-photograph of her and her boyfriend kissing. They are both dressed up and standing in front of a backdrop resembling a fake sky. She is holding what appears to be a plastic rose in her hand. I clicked on the profile and found a collection of these pictures in various poses. I checked to see if she was engaged, surmising that this would be the only time when a couple might possibly feel compelled to take these types of photos. Upon finding that she was not, I was left puzzled. I sat there, clicking around as I sipped my tea, wondering under what possible circumstances would a girl actually be able to convince her boyfriend to shower, shave, dress up, and join her for an afternoon of glamour shots at the local mall. What kind of a guy would even allow this? I then moved on to the even more important question of why would you even want such a collection of photos? I realized quickly enough that the answer is obvious: to post them on MySpace.

And that’s when I started to realize what it is that I hate so much about it. It’s high school all over again. And not the nerdy parts that I loved (like quiz bowl matches, English class, or the newspaper), but the parts that I hated—the pep rallies, the fights over who wore whose football jersey, gossip in the lunch room, notes on lockers. It’s the girls BFF Vanessa, Sara, and I couldn’t stand. The ones who lined their lips with brown eyeliner and screamed things like “Bitch I fuckin’ love you” as they ran down the hallway. The ones who fake-and-baked and rented Hummers for prom.

Now don't get me wrong. There are things that I enjoy about it. I like that I have been able to reconnect with a few of my cousins and older friends that I hadn't heard from in a while. And I love that you can download free songs and videos from the music section (especially now that iTunes felt the need to up its prices). And there are a few very clever people out there with nicely designed pages and well-written blogs that I like to visit regularly. But most of the time it just feels like I've wandered into a contest meant to show how sexy you can be and how cool your friends are and how much fun, fun, fun we’re all having.

The surreptitiousness of it also gets to me. There are times when I get comments from friends on my page and it doesn’t seem that they are really there for me, but rather for the benefit of others. I’ve actually had friends admit to me that they posted a comment on my page so that “X would read it” or “Y would notice me.” It just all seems so immature and petty and silly, and yet the thing that I hate most is the way that I find myself getting pulled into it too.

At age fifteen I managed to deftly avoid these things. But here I am, nearly 10 years later, and I’m suddenly finding myself quickly drowning in this pixelated maelstrom.

Labels: friends, Internet