How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation

I have to admit, on one level, it's been kinda nice not having a job. The whole "do whatever, whenever" thing . . . very nice. I haven't had such a (relatively) responsibility free summer since the summer before my senior year of high school. It's sort of cool to have one again. That said, I'd certainly rather have a job and the money that goes with it. The last couple of weeks have been really nice though, because Luke is only working at Convergys now, instead of there and KMart. It was the strangest thing - as soon as he changed his availability at KMart in order to add Convergys, the number of hours KMart was scheduling him for jumped. I'm not sure, but they might have even doubled. That was an interesting failed experiment. Anyway, he's still in training, and works from 3-10, which means we get practically the whole day together - yay for less boredom!! But still, those seven hours can get pretty long. And even though I can read for hours on end, sometimes you just have to come up for air, you know? Lucky for me, I've discovered a few ways to fill the time.

For one thing, Saturday we decided to splurge a little, and bought a used Nintendo 64 and MarioKart. Kind of phenominal, I gotta say, because that is the only video game I've ever been able to pretend to be good at. (On the other hand, I can kick your trash at the original Oregon Trail, or pretty much any other computer game from that era . . . so I guess I wasn't too deprived, lol.) We only have two controllers right now, and our TV is so small it would probably be a bad idea for more than two people to try to play at a time, but if anyone is itching for some mindless time wasting . . . we have MarioKart!! :-)

And secondly (probably my favorite) I absolutely loved this article on slate when I found it at the beginning of the month. I followed a bunch of the links in it, and followed a few on those sites, and so on until now I have a nice little bookmark folder full of highly entertaining websites I can kill time on while I wait for my Sorority Life energy to replenish. Anyway, I thought I'd post a few of the best - here's hoping you get a laugh out of at least one or two.

1) Cake Wrecks - K, so I mentioned this one before, but holy crap it's awesome. Some of these cakes are just so . . . frightening . . . and hysterical . . .

2) Facebook Stupidity Mockeries - Three-for-One!! I'll admit, I've probably had some dumb status updates and such, but the things people will say when they're "anonymous" will never cease to amaze me. Also, I like to think that even if I had never found these, I still wouldn't ever take a picture of my kid's poop and put it on facebook. Just . . . eewwww. Also, be warned: as I mentioned before on facebook, if you post something that makes me laugh and/or think of one of these sites, I will submit you. I only ask that you do the same for me. We'll all keep each other facebook appropriate! (Warning for those who care: obviously all of these sites have a bit of non-Utah language peppered in, but these three are a bit more excesive at times.)

3) Awkward Family Photos - So funny . . . so awkward . . . so perfect. I'm tempted to get some of my family's old pics and submit them. I just might have to head over to Tremonton this weekend while Mom and Dad are in Silver to go through a few. (don't tell, Grandma!)

4) Stuff White People Like - Ok, I'd heard of this one before slate, but I had no idea what a gem it is. And so pathetically true! I was totally wanting to start a "stuff Mormons like" blog . . . yeah, somebody beat me to it. Grrr. There really is no such thing as original thought left in the world. That said, I'm thinking I might have to do a "stuff the Garlocks like" series (a la Because I Have No Shame) every now and again about stuff we like off of either blog. See, we can be cliche too! Take that, idea-havers-first!! Besides, no one should take themselves seriously all the time.

5) Engrish - Okay, Luke actually introduced me to this one, back when we were still in Orlando. And he had to explain it to me. So you know how it's "cool" to get a tatto or wall art or something in Asian characters, and most of the time people with said tattoo/wall art don't actually know what it means, or think it says something other than what it says? Turns out the same thing is true in Asia with English. Some of these are t-shirts with weird phrases on them like that, some are just mis-translations. All are pretty dang funny. (warning for those who care again - a lot of them are accidental innuendos.)

6) Overheard in the Office (and it's counterparts) - I actually stumbled across the New York site a couple of years ago and forgot about it, and in the meantime four other companion sites sprang up . . . score!! Again, the things people say will never cease to amuse me. Some aren't that funny, and some a really . . . inappropriate, for lack of a better word, but some are real gems! (Warning again - heavy language with these ones, and deliberate innendo.)

7) Grammar Nazis - Two blogs after my own heart!! BEcause seriously, these are two of my biggest pet peeves . . . I mean, come one people! Is it really that hard to write intelligently?! I actually know of two places here in Logan with signs up that I need to get pictures of for the apostrophe site.

8) Fail - I'm assuming you're already familiar with the meme . . . I think this is the start of it. Whether it is or not - hys. Ter. Ical. And some of the pictures . . . I really want to know how things like that happen in the first place!!

9) Listverse - This one is just cool. And talk about a genius idea, capitalizing on people's love of lists! I'm still working on going through this one to read all the lists that catch my eye. There are some really cool useless factoids waiting here. Who's up for some Trivial Pursuit?

10) This is Why You're Fat - Okay, I mentioned this one in my last blog, so this is more just to round of the list to an even ten. I've got a few more, but they're really not as great. All a similar concept though - absurd pictures relating to a particular topic like passive-aggresive notes or really bad pics used in realty listings and such. Let me know if you want the links and I'll post more!

So . . . yeah. I'm keeping myself occupied these days. Now if I could just figure out how to make money by reading blogs . . .

P. ost S. cript
I don't remember how we found this one, but I love it. They make t-shirts of it. Oh, how I want one!!