http://www.myspace.com/mandylynnandbrian

Myself singing, Brian playing instruments & some backing vocals. It's a start! By the way, it's an Alanis Morrisette cover. We fully intend on eventually writing our own music, but for now, we're practicing with covers, & we just wanted to hear how it sounded recorded. Took about an hour to record everything.

Really like the newest.  Does anyone think it sounds a little more like the style of The Postal Service than Death Cab though?



Narrow Stairs
Death Cab for Cutie

I realized that I don't think I've ever posted any photos of my little baby sister. I don't even know if I posted that I HAVE a new baby sister, actually.

So, anyways... her name's Isabella & she's 9 months old. She was born on September 24th, 2007. She is the cutest little thing. She loves Brian too, which is so adorable. These photos are from last week;

( Read more... )

I don't remember if I posted this or not, but I got a job at Sewickley hospital. I've been working there for a month now, it's okay. I work in patient registration. The manager thinks I'm great, but... I don't know if it's really the job for me. The good thing is though... as long as I keep impressing the manager & can keep the job & get raises etc... I can go back to school & the hospital will pay for it. Mind you, it would have to be something in the medical field, but still... that's pretty good. & I always did entertain the idea of going to school for something in that field, even back when I was in high school I thought about it a good bit, but I just never went through with it because it's so damn expensive. But if the hospital's going to pay, why the hell not? Haha, obviously I'm not really THAT nonchalant about it, I know this is serious regardless of whether I'm paying for it or not, but still, it's a cool deal. I just wish I had a clue as to what I'd be good at or what I'd like to do.

Brian's been being a real pain in my ass ever since I got this job. But I won't go into that right now, I just needed to say that, haha.

Hmm...not much else is going on. Finally getting bills caught up is nice, but still not having any money after you just got a new job because you're behind on all your bills is not fun. Oh well, by next month we'll be all paid up & can stop worrying about not having extra spending money, which is nice.

Uhm, yeah that's it for now. What's new with you?

Take a look at my other collections.

If you haven't already, please join us at IconBuffet! It's a lot of fun trading icon sets! & they're all free! :)

If you didn't read my post as to what IconBuffet is please click here - IconBuffet!  In that post there are more examples of icons I have as well as a detailed description of what IconBuffet is.  It's free, & so much fun!

Please, if you're going to join (which I highly recommend doing so!), use my referral link by clicking here - Kei on IconBuffet.  Thank you!

Okay, so, I hate that I'm about to make one of those "use my referral & join this site" posts, but I promise it's not a site that's bad like those "Win a free giraffe!!  Just refer ninety friends & pay one trillion dollars to us" sites.

What this is, is an icon site.  Not like livejournal icons, more like those little icons you can use for web design (or anything really, just remember they're smaller).  Here's some examples of some of the icons from the sets I have so far;



So basically it's almost like a little game.  When you join you get 10 "tokens".  & you use these tokens to get free icon sets (usually between 8 & 20 icons but some give you over 60!)  & the number of "tokens" you have to spend on each set depends on what grade the icon is in (Bronze, Silver, Gold, & Diamond).

When you join, you get a free delivery (still have to spend tokens, but the delivery is handed to you, instead of you having to ask for it (more on that later on)).  My advice is to accept the delivery whether you like the icons or not, because you can use this to trade with other users for icons you DO want. 

When you trade, you do not lose your icons. 

You get 10 tokens every month, & you also get a free delivery every month.

Anytime you receive & accept a delivery, you also gain "stamps".  Stamps are used to send other users icon sets (for trade, or if you're just feeling generous).

If you see an icon set you like in the Free Delivery section of the site, you can post on the Blog section (more like a forum than a blog) requesting it.

Everyone there is really, really nice.

Also, they have a point system.  You receive "points" every time you send a set to someone, & you can also receive points when you refer friends (hence the main reason for this post).  Once you reach certain "milestones" with your points, you get more free tokens.

You do not have to download the icon sets that you accept.  They'll stay on your account on the IconBuffet web site until you want to download & use them.  Also, if you download a set, & then accidentally delete it from your computer, it will still be there (always) on your account on the site to redownload anytime.

Edited from original to add;

• This does NOT cost you any money.
• You do NOT have to refer any one else to use this.
• More often than not, the lovely people at IconBuffet will just give you icon sets if you ask for them, without asking for a trade.  The only time they'll ask for a trade is if they see you have a set they don't have & want.  Again, you don't "lose" your icon set if you deliver it to someone else.
• You will be automatically added to my friends list when you join using the below referral link (I know, you're so excited!), which means I can send you any of my icon sets immediately.
• Pay attention to what grade the icon set you want is in.  Bronze sets only cost you 1 token, but Diamond sets cost you 10 tokens.
• Every month the creators of IconBuffet create 4 new icon sets.  They send every user a delivery offer on one of the new sets (it's chosen at random which one you'll get).  This keeps the trades going, as everyone will need the other 3 new sets created each month that they didn't receive a delivery offer for (hopefully that wasn't too confusing).
• The icons come in many, many different formats for Mac & Windows (they do come in GIFs & PNGs so that they can hold their transparency as well).  When you download a set, it will be a zip file.  You do not have to extract all the folders/files.  They're all the same thing, just different formats.  I usually only extract the GIF folder in the Windows file.  It's up to you.

Please join!!!  :)

IconBuffet

This is the strangest thing I've ever seen.

I think I said in an earlier entry that Best Buy was supposed to call me within a day or two of my interview (which was one week ago from today) to let me know - either way - what they'd decided to offer me, if anything.  I was interviewing for a management position, & it really would've been great to get that kind of a job.  But, they never called.  So today, I called them.  This is the answer I got;

I talked to the head manager &...basically I think we're gonna keep looking around.  But I appreciate you calling back.

Nice, huh?  Whatever.  I thought that interview went really well.  I mean, when I walked in, he said, "My interviews never go for longer than 15 minutes, so don't worry, this will be quick."  It ended up I was in there for over 45 minutes because we got along pretty well & had a lot of things in common media wise.  So what the fuck went wrong?  How do you go from the head manager really liking you & thinking you're management material, & the floor manager really getting along well with you & chatting you up, suddenly to "we're going to keep looking for someone else"??

To be honest, I think it was my last employer.  I think Best Buy called Coventry to verify my employment & Coventry said something not-so-nice about me.  Now, I've been told over & over that that's virtually impossible.  That there's so many laws now protecting people that employers basically can't give a past employee a bad rep.  But, I'm convinced that's what happened.  So now what?  If that IS what happened... I'm fucked, because any job I try to get is going to call them & then not hire me because Coventry are assholes.

& really, I can't not put Coventry on my applications/resumes because I worked there for the last 3 years.  If I try to apply for a job & leave the last 3 years off my resume they won't even consider me.  Ugh.

I guess I should've asked the guy at Best Buy why they didn't want to hire me...but I was so shocked & upset I just kind of went, "Oh, okay thanks, Nick.  Bye."

Anyway, I have to call Sewickley Hospital tomorrow.  Hopefully something good will come out of that.  But I'm not very optimistic now.  I see flipping burgers at some shitty fast food joint in my immediate future.

Brian's mum lent us the money to pay the gas bill yesterday, so at least that won't get shut off & we won't have to pay over $400 to get it turned back on.

Our cell phone's will probably get shut off pretty soon though.  Which is really bad because how am I supposed to get call back's on applications if I don't have a phone?  Not to mention the 50+ applications I've already put in places... if they get an opening & try to call, I'm shit out of luck.  I thought about giving out my mum's phone number, just until we can get our phone situation sorted, but all those applications I've already submitted have pretty much gone to waste if I do that.  Basically, employers hang on to your applications for 60 - 90 days, if you try to submit another application (in other words, if I tried to submit a corrected application with a different phone number) they just throw it away.  They only look at your first submitted application, until it's been 60 - 90 days since you've submitted.  Then you can submit again.  Unfortunately I can't wait 60 - 90 days.  So yeah, fucked again.

The shitty thing is, we have a 2 year contract with Verizon.  & we just started that contract in November of 2007, so we haven't even been with them a year yet.  Verizon is so expensive it's ridiculous.  We pay anywhere from $150 - $200 a month for two phone lines.  This month's payment was $207 & was due on the 8th.  Can't afford that, so they'll probably shut them off within the next week or so.  At that point we have two options... pay the $207 plus $35 PER PHONE to get them turned back on.  Or, pay the $207 plus $175 PER PHONE to terminate the contract early.  Honestly, even though it's absolutely fucking ridiculous that you have to pay that much to terminate the contract early, I think we'd be better off in the long run to do it that way.  I was looking at Cricket's web site... we can get two phone lines for a total of $65 a month with unlimited calling anytime & unlimited pic/text messaging.  Then only downfall is we wouldn't be able to use the phones we have now, we'd have to buy new ones from Cricket.  The cheapest phone they have is $50.  So that's $165 (plus I think there's a $15 activation fee per phone) we'd have to come up with before we could do that.  The good news is you can use your old phone number...so I wouldn't have to worry about changing the number on my applications/resumes.  But I have to wonder if Verizon would allow that if we still owe them money when we try to switch over to Cricket.  I don't know if they can put a hold on your number or not.

But... regardless... it would still be saving us money to pay the early terminations fees & switch to Cricket.  I mean, we'd be saving around $135 a month.

Man, thing's are really shitty right now.  The End.

Wow.  Well... went down to Pittsburgh to see Portugal. the Man.  Tickets said doors opened at 7pm.  Ticketmaster's web site said 7pm.  Minus the Bear's web site said 7pm.  Portugal. the Man's web site said they went on at 8pm.  Diesel (the venue) site said 7pm.  Every single one of those sites said that there were 3 bands, & Portugal. the Man went on second.  WRONG

We got there at about 7:15.  The first band (or what we THOUGHT was the first band) was just setting up.  They were terrible.  Can't remember the name... The Big Sleep, maybe?  I don't know.  Anyways, after they were done, we waited for Portugal. the Man to come on.  But low & behold, Portugal. the Man were not the band that walked on stage.  It was Minus the Bear.  So we thought... well... maybe they switched the line up & Portugal. the Man was on last?  WRONG

Apparently EVERY FUCKING SITE had the time wrong...including the time printed RIGHT ON THE TICKETS.  The show actually started at 6:30pm, & Portugal. the Man was on first, not second.  So they went on at 6:30 & basically played to an empty venue because there was no one there yet. 

WTF.

I'm e-mailing/calling Diesel tomorrow & demanding my money back.  $19 a ticket to see two bands I don't even know?  No way.  & the "first" band was so fucking shitty it was unbelievable.  Minus the Bear was pretty good, but still, I wasn't there to see them.  & from the crowd's response, none of them were there to see them either.  They were all chanting "Portugal. the Man!" over & over after Minus the Bear was over.

Ugh, so pissed off.

Going to the Portugal. the Man show tonight!!!  So excited.  Minus the Bear is headlining, I just today got the chance to listen to them.  I really like them.  We really can't afford to go to this show... the tickets were $19 a piece.  With me not working right now, money's pretty tight.  In fact, we just got a shut-off notice from the gas company.  It's starting to scare me.  Luckily my mother is helping by lending us some money but... I don't know.  I submitted at least 50 applications + resumes in the last 2 - 3 weeks.  I could've been hired at Walgreens as a Photo Tech in their photo lab but they only wanted to pay me $7.15 per hour (minimum wage) & they only guarantee 30 hours a week (as opposed to the standard 40 hours for full time).  I was going to take the job anyway, just to have at least some money coming in until I can find something better... but they wanted a drug test, which is fine, but you can't just go anywhere for the test, they have one place you have to go & this place has extremely odd hours.  Unfortunately my car is completely illegal right now (which up until now wasn't a problem because I couldn't drive anyway) because we didn't have the money to get the registration renewed or to get inspection & emissions on it.  So, I couldn't drive myself to the drug testing place & because of their odd hours I couldn't find a ride.  Anyways, ended up they hired someone else because they were short staffed & couldn't wait another 3 days for me to get the drug test done (plus, they probably thought I was a druggie & was just putting off the test so I would pass...haha).

My mum lent me the money to get my auto insurance reinstated ($90.13), & she's going to lend me the money to get my registration renewed ($45).  The inspection & emissions is going to cost around $65 which she's also lending me.  & I might need her to lend me money for the gas bill if we can't come up with it before the 16th ($166).  It sucks.

I did have an interview at Best Buy on Monday... they said they wanted to hire me for a management position, which would be awesome, but they also said it might be a couple months before they can hire me (not awesome).  Also, they said they'd call within a day or two from the interview to let me know either way, & I never heard from them.  Also not awesome.  I thought the interview went well... now I'm not so sure.  :(

Target also called me for an RX Tech position in their pharmacy...but they only wanted to give me 8 hours a week at $7.75 per hour.  Can't do that.  It wouldn't even make sense to drive there for that kind of money.  What is with these employers & their low wages with equally ridiculously low hours??  Ugh.

The only other call I got was from Sewickley Hospital for an application I put in for medical billing.  I called the girl back but she's out of the office today, so I left her a message to call me when she gets back in on Monday.  However, I fear it's going to be the same bullshit...from what I've heard this hospital works everyone in their office part time with very low hours.  *sigh*  Well...we'll see.

I got a ton of calls from staffing agencies...but every one of them wanted me to work customer service at inbound/outbound call centers.  That's half the reason I started having the problems I did with my old job, & my entire family basically begged me not to go back to that type of environment for those reasons...so that gets me nowhere too.

Blah... anyways, so, because of all of the above, I told Brian we probably shouldn't go to the show tonight, because we really shouldn't be spending almost $40 that we really don't have.  That didn't go over well.  We almost literally got into an arguement about it.  He doesn't even really like these bands we're going to see but he knows I love Portugal. the Man & they've been my favorite band for 3 years now.  He wouldn't take no for an answer, & bought the tickets today.  So I guess we're going.

I took a walk today.  Just a short one, down to the store.  But it was nice to get out & take a little walk by myself.  I should probably do it more often.

Does anyone know if you can get in trouble for renewing your vehicle registration with an old address?  We moved back in November (same state, same county), & I changed my address for my license, but didn't realize that that doesn't carry over to vehicle registration.  So now the dmv has my old address still... I can renew the registration online but I can't change the address because the online section of the site that does that has been "temporarily unavailable" for 5 days now.  I e-mailed them but they never got back to me (surprise, surprise!)  They have a form you can mail in to change the address, & I was wondering if I could just renew the registration online with the old address & mail the change of address form in... Also, I wasn't sure if they would say anything at the garage when I get my inspection done if I have a different address on my registration than on my insurance & license.  Anyone?

I love these two geeks. Why, I don't know, but I do.

Have you heard the news that you're dead?
No one ever had much nice to say
I think they never liked you anyway!

Shut up.

It's been a really, really long time, hasn't it?

So much to tell, but I don't think I will right now.

I moved out of my mothers house. Moved in with my boyfriend. We've been dating a little over a year now (as of January 27th, to be exact). He lived with his mother too, up until November when we both decided it was time for us to get a place.

Currently I'm on short term disability, for reasons that my close friends already know, & I may venture into details some other time.

Suffice to say I'm not doing well at the moment, yet all is well around me. Why else would I suddenly update?

I got a new car! Well, it's not new, new. It's a 2002. This isn't my actual car but it's one exactly like it, same colour & everything. I like it, it'll do. :)





Mitsubishi Lancer

I don't feel like talking about my life right now, so you get my current play-list instead;

The Vines (all albums)
Jet (Get Born only)
Hard-Fi
Gorillaz (Demon Days)
Hot Hot Heat (all)
The Raconteurs
a couple White Stripes songs
&...as always... Portugal. the Man

Hard-Fi impresses me more & more every time I hear them.

I guess I should've posted this sooner, but I haven't felt like doing much on the comp lately.

I went to the Portugal. the Man show on Thanksgiving Eve. it was great, but a little uncomfortable because I was there by myself. I'm not used to going to shows alone, but it was definitely worth it & the band was absolutely amazing. I hope they come back soon. I'd love to see them do more of the CD.

In other news, thanks to hearing a cover of Mack the Knife by Clay Aiken, I'm on a Bobby Darin kick again. While at the mall with my brother last night I finally bought the movie Beyond the Sea. I haven't seen it since I rented it when it first came out. It's good to finally own it. It's such a fantastic movie.

To my Pittsburgh friends - I know most of you probably don't listen to that type of music at all, but if you know of anywhere in the city or around the city that has lounge-type supper club kind of restaurants, I'd greatly appreciate the information. Just the type of fancier restaurants that have a singer that sings the Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, type music. My father said he knows that the restaurants Piccolo Mondo & Tambellini's used to have them, but I was looking at their web sites & can't seem to find anything about singers, so I don't know that they do it anymore.

Anyhow, just wanted to give a quick update. Not a whole lot going on. Hope you're all doing great. :)

I bought the Punchline CD "37 Everywhere" right around the time it first came out. Just tonight, I finally got around to taking off the plastic, popping it in the CD player & giving it a listen. I kept telling myself I just didn't feel like listening to that kind of music, but every time I walked into my room I'd remember that it was in a plastic bag underneath my bed. Not so out of sight out of mind, so I guess I should fess up that the real reason I hadn't listened to it yet was actually because I was afraid I wouldn't like it. Admittedly, I haven't even really listened to my old Punchline CDs in quite some time. But for a very long time, they were one of my favorite bands, & I loved every single song they put out there. So the thought that I may not like this new CD just wasn't something I was entirely ready for. I take the music I listen to & the bands that make it seriously (obviously), & unfortunately my fear wasn't wrong.

I won't say I hated it. A couple of the songs I can tolerate, there's even one or two I can honestly say I like. But I definitely don't love it.

Punchline have come a long way, there's no denying that. If you listen to each of their CDs, you'll hear a big difference from one to the next. They were just kids when they started, & they basically grew up during these releases & it shows, for the most part. & understandably, this CD was going to be no exception, especially seeing as there was a change of lineup in the band. But I don't feel it was the lineup switch that affected this CD. I just think they all went in a slightly different direction, & unfortunately it wasn't a direction that I favor.

It's sad to think that I may not be able to go to another Punchline show & truly enjoy it the way I used to (with the exception of one or two songs they'll throw into the set list from the old CDs). But that's how it goes. It was fun while it lasted, & who knows, maybe I'll love the next CD. Here's to hoping.

Well, I got my iBook today, & I love it, but it's definitely going to take some getting used to. I've used macs before but not frequently enough (apparently) & I've never owned one. There's so much stuff on here that I have no idea what to do with yet.