Modest Mouse - Dashboard

This song is exactly what I need to cheer me up. I'm really lovin' it right now. It doesn't hurt that the music video is so trippy, either.

What Would King Lionidis do?

Last week I finally signed up for Aramex's Shop&Ship Service. They sent me:

1 e-mail with my US Shipping Address (Shop&Ship)
1 e-mail with my UK Shipping Address (Shop&Ship)
1 e-mail for the website registration (Aramex)
1 e-mail with both my US, and UK Shipping Address + 2 attachments including restricted items and links to online stores (Employee)

The first thing I did was sign up for a new account with Amazon. You guys would not believe how careful I was when I added in the shipping address. I checked, double-checked, and even triple-checked. Then, I went to Amazon and moved most of the manga from my "wishlist" into the shopping cart. I actually added a bunch of things to the cart, from a couple of different stores (through Amazon). I was still skeptic about the whole thing, and doubted that my things (from the other stores) would actually get here so this was like a "test run".

From the mix, I was looking forward to getting the magic 8-ball the most 'cuz I've been meaning to get one since forever but couldn't seem to find it in any store. I'd already checked out most of the Toy Stores in Kuwait (crappy and noncrappy... actually they're all crap but whatev). I was elated as I clicked on the yellow "Proceed to Checkout" button/tab/whathaveyou.

A few days later, I click on "Where's My Stuff" on Amazon to find that two out of all seven packages have already been shipped and delivered. I was ecstatic! "Holy Hell", I thought, "This was pretty fast!". So, I log on to my account on Aramex, and check to see if both packages are in my mailbox. The mailbox was empty. Weird... So, I go over everything for the millionth time and lo and behold! I'd gotten the mailbox numbers switched. I slumped to the floor, curled into a fetal position, and stuck my thumb in my mouth and started sucking on it... maku shu'3ol? :P

What would King Leonidis do? 7addah!

The last e-mail I received, from the "employee" (who shall remain anonymous, because... kayfy), had both my UK and US address. Somehow the person who sent me the e-mail had gotten everything correctly, except the mailbox numbers. They had switched them around. So I'd gotten my UK mailbox number with my US shipping address (that's the one I'd used to order from Amazon), and I'd gotten my US mailbox number with my UK shipping address. That's why my packages were not in my mailbox.

First thing's first, I changed the wrong mailbox number on my Amazon account. It only made a difference with the last two packages from Amazon for the rest of the packages were already "getting ready to be shipped" meaning, I could not alter the shipping address. I called one of the Aramex offices in Kuwait and got transferred from one Filipina to another, each one angrier than the previous one. They took turns raising their voices at me. I understood that they were frustrated so I counted to three, took a deep breathe, and tried to explain everything as simply as possible (Over the next few days, I would learn to perfect this trick). Somehow, I got through to someone. She understood me, and I understood her! *cue Hallelujah chorus* "You need the tracking number for each shipment." Yes'm.

The next day, one of the orders gets cancelled but the rest of the packages were shipped. I called them (Aramex people) back, with a billion and 1 tabs (I abhor the new version of explorer) open to show the tracking numbers of each package and stuff like that. Who picks up this time? A Lebanese dude whose english is pretty decent. *cue ray of light*

I explain everything all over again. He asks me if I am using my husband's credit card. Without thinking, I innocently blurt out "La`, obooy." I gave him most of the tracking numbers. He tells me that as soon as he find my stuff, he'll give me a call (I was using my personal mobile number for the account, stupid move if your genitalia happens to not be on the outside). I try to explain that he doesn't need to find anything. All he needed to do was to contact the person whose mailbox number I'd accidentally used. Logically, that's where my stuff would be, but he just laughed.

Later on, I get a call from him. He asks me for the tracking numbers again. I had to sign in my amazon account which takes a bit (seperate tabs for each tracking number, loading, etc... = time) Stalling for time, I started muttering randomly, for example, I told him that I'd changed the mailbox number on Amazon but I didn't know which shipments were being shipped to the right address and which were being shipped to the wrong one. As I was giving him the tracking numbers, I accidentally stuttered.

"Sorry.", I laughed nervously. "You're so shy.", he retored. "Excuse me?" "You're so shy, Dana." I paused for a bit then proceeded to give him the rest of the tracking number.

Would another person have hung up? Was it that inappropriate or was I making a big deal out of nothing? Okay. I'm not exactly the go-to person on social protocol in Kuwait but even I thought that was weird.

Next day, I call and pray to God, that a Filipina will pick up. A Filipina does pick up. I explain the situation. She's extremely helpful. She checks the wrong mailbox number (that I used in the first place) and tells me that it belongs to a female, and that two of my packages are already in her mailbox. She says that she'll notify them, and lets me know that my stuff will be moved into the correct mailbox (mine).

Amazon Shipment 1 (correct address) = not yet shipped
Amazon Shipment 2 (correct address) = already in my mailbox
Amazon Shipment 3 (wrong address) = supposedly being moved into my mailbox
Sephora Shipment (wrong address) = supposedly being moved into my mailbox
Michael Kors Leather Sandals Shipment (wrong address) = already in my mailbox
Newport News Catalog Shipment (wrong address) = cancelled for some reason.
The Purple Store shipment (wrong address) = lost to me forever because they used U.S. First Class Mail which does not provide a tracking number and I can't get my stuff unless I give them a tracking number.

I know it's my fault... sorta but still malaayt. I am an introvert. I do not like dealing with people. I'm sick of this.

**Update**

I've recieved all of my stuff, including the purple bracelet (which I thought was lost to me forever) W00tage! :)

Drive

(From the left: Emma Stone, Dylan Baker, Kevin Alejandro, J.D. Pardo, Charles Martin Smith, Melanie Lynskey, Riley Smith, Mircea Monroe, Kristin Lehman, Nathan Fillion, Rochelle Aytes, Taryn Manning)

A couple years ago, my older bro told me about this tv show about a group of people whose plane crashes, and maroons them on this island where a lotta weird stuff happens. Then he did the whole network sharing thing, and I copied and pasted the episodes from his pc onto mine. Who knew it would grow into this whole phenomenon?

Later on he told me about this other tv show about this guy who breaks into Prison trying to save his older bro from deathrow. Again, copy, paste. Again, everyone really gets into that tv show. After that, I thought "Hey, I should listen to my older bro more often". So when he encouraged me to get into yet another tv show about a race whose planet(s) are invaded by a bunch of "toasters" forcing them to flee and find "Earth", I thought "I'll give it a try, even though it's sci-fi". After getting into it, I found that Showtime was showing all of the above, and then some, which was pretty cool.

This past summer, he showed me the "Heroes" pilot episode, and as before, I got hooked. The show got pretty popular, pretty quick. A couple of days ago, he told me to watch this new show called "Drive" so I copied and pasted all 3 episodes.

"DRIVE is an action-fueled drama following a diverse group of Americans competing for their lives (or the lives of their loved ones) in an illegal, underground cross-country road race. Some of them have been coerced into joining “The Race”; others have sought out The Race themselves, hearing rumors of the $32-million prize. Each has a reason to compete. And each must win."

The whole mystery thing (which I adore) +50 points

Nathan Fillion's smart-alec quips. +50 points

Messed up version of Uma Thurman (Kristen Lehman). -20 points

The couple on the motorcyle (you'll get it when you watch the show). +100 points

The minivan racing against the other cars. +50 points

All the racings scenes, or sequences, or whathaveyou (with more to look forward to). +50 points

Riley Smith (I'm into skinny guys). +100 points

Kevin Alejandro (Rajaal (not to be confused with rayal which is basically your average joe), Zilim, and other variations of Alpha Male) +100 points

Taryn Manning. ?

All in all, pretty decent show.

I <3 Geek

I was going to the co-op for my monthly magazine fix when I came upon this gem. The picture you're lookin' at is actually the cover of the first issue. The one I found, was the second issue with Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) on the cover. I just grabbed it, and it added it to the pile thinkin' it might be interesting as opposed to the usual plethora of fashion magazines (which were getting quite ho-hum) that I flip through. Back at home, I could not believe my luck, to have stumbled upon Geek magazine, just like that, aaaaand it was a new magazine to boot.

The magazine covered everything ranging from "Playstation 3 vs Wii vs some crappy japanese console" to the "Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Player Battle". One section was actually called "JapanCultureGoNow" and had reviews and previews of Anime and Live Action Shows from... you guessed it, Japan! Another section called "Scope" had short articles on random news such as "The Lucy Show" which was about Lucy, the hominid fossil, going on tour around the US of A or "The Amazing Randi Hates your "Theory" which basically, is all about this dude who is offering one million dollars to anyone who can provide objective proof of the paranormal. "Frag at the Speed of Light", "Hoary Hardware", "Monkey See, Monkey Post" are some of the other articles (self-explanatory titles).

Another section called "Junk" featured adorable Star Wars Mimobots USB Flash Drives, Tetris Shelving, Lego Ice Cube Try, and Figures (Macross, Legolas, Alien, Shadow Trooper, Saw Jigsaw Puppet, and McFarlane John Locke) and more. Yet another section called "Campus" or "College" had an article titled "World of Whining", and it was about World of Warcraft (WoW). The Art section featured Amanda Visell, an artist inspired by older Disney, and Jenny Windler, an artist who uses office materials to make jewelry. The Style section featured a bunch of models doing the robot whilst wearing t-shirts that read stuff like "Goonies Never Say Die" (Hot Topic) The Comics section had a review on the hardcore graphic novel by Alan Moore, "Lost Girls". They also mentioned Zombies: Feast! They had a Music Section, Rants Section, and a Progeek Section as well.

They had the usual reviews of stuff like Movies: Pan's Labryninth, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Turistastas, and more. Dvds: MCX Season 1, Dungeons & Dragons Complete Series. Games: Call of Duty 3, Guitar Hero II, Eragon, Sneak King, and F.E.A.R. Then they had the reviews of the not-so-usual, aptly named Random, which included reviews of Winter Oreos, Parade Cotton Candy, Mentos Sours, Big League Chew, Vault, Powerbar Gel, Winters of Dune (Book), Faithless (CD), Cordelia Chase (from Angel) 12" Figure (Toy).

They also had a Fantasy Star Trek XI: The Prequel cast with Leonoardo DiCaprio as Kirk, Tobias Menzies (Brutus from the series Rome) as Spock, and Daniel Dae Kim (Korean dude from "Angel" and "Lost") to name a few. There was a shorter article on the"Star Trek Auction" and finally a side bar interview with William Shatner.

The best part of Geek magazine was "The Big List" which featured "100 things that rule" which included future Hiro's goatee from "Heroes" as number 13 on the list, Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica Podcasts as number 14, On the Art of Cinema: April 11, 1973 by Kim Jon IL (found on Amazon.com) as number 37, The Directv Commerical with Shatner playing Kirk again (found on Youtube.com) as number 46, Evil Dead: The Musical as number 67, and The Air Supply Song from Slither as number 68, to name a few. The "Short List" part I featured the best little people in genre films included Jawas (Star Wars), Oompa Loompas (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1971), Gimli, Son of Gloin (Lord of the Rings), Ughnaughts (Star Wars), Samwise Gamgee (Lord of the Rings), Gremlins (Gremlins), Willow Ufgood (Willow), and Yoda (Star Wars, Original Trilogy). The "Short List" part II featured the worst little people in the genre films included Ewoks (Star Wars), Mini-mi (Austin Powers), Leprechaun (Leprechaun), Oompa Loompa (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005), The Penguin (Batman), Ghoulies (Ghoulies), Yoda (Star Wars, Prequels), and Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars).

I fell in love with Geek, seriously. This magazine is awesome! Usually, with every other rag, I skip a couple of pages, skim through a few others but with Geek, I read the whole thing enraptured by the content. Hell, even the adverts were hella' cool! Yes, reading this magazine made me revert into a 14 year old girl again that actually uses the words hella' cool but in my defense, I am weak against Geek Magazine (forgot to mention that they don't take themselves seriously).

Apart from them mentioning Ewoks on the bad "short list" every other thing they've covered was awesome! Notice that the movies they chose to review weren't mainstream. As an added bonus, they mentioned Zombies, and Anime. Then there was the toys and figures (collectibles, if you will). Every feature, every article, everything, I could totally relate to! I mean who doesn't remember watching Takashi's Castle (with that horrid arabic dub) as a child? Who doesn't remember watching Dungeons & Dragons the cartoon as a kid... ok nevermind it's not everyone's cup of tea... but still. This stuff is awesome! Can't wait for their next issue.

Now I'm going to go and pour over my wonderful new find while squealing happily over every other page :)