A Note to the Lunch Thieves

Several weeks ago I blogged about the thieves running rampant, raiding our office kitchen's refrigerator and stealing unsuspecting frozen dinners-- I've been a victim twice, and have commiserated with other folks in the same situation.

In case you've forgotten, you can refresh your memory on that entry here.

Apparently one victim had enough. Yesterday as I ambled into the kitchen for a drink, I saw this hand-written sign posted on the freezer door:



Made me giggle-- "borrowed!" What a euphemism.

In case you can't read it, the sign says "Please replace my Smart One lunch you borrowed" (Smart One is a brand of frozen dinner).

Wonder if it worked... may have to find Alice and ask her one of these days ;-)

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/224000699)

To Chew or Not To Chew

Anyone that knows me knows that Smarties are among my absolute favorite candies. No, not British Smarties (which are like M&Ms)-- American Smarties, which are chalk-like candy wafers-- little more than tangy sugar and color:



This weekend, while shopping at K-Mart for some snacks to enjoy indoors (since it rained all weekend and we couldn't really go anywhere), I came across a bag of "Bubble Gum Smarties":



The bag didn't have any immediate outward indications of what the product actually entailed, so I assumed it was the classic Smarties candy-- just with a bubblegum flavor. After all, it's not unusual to find your favorite classic candy in a variety of flavors (like Skittles), right?

Right. Or so I thought.

Upon settling on the sofa to watch a movie, I opened up a roll and popped a couple of the Smarties into my mouth. Hmm... rather than being hard and brittle and "chalky" like I expected, they were soft and chewy. But they're not the first hard candy to come in soft and chewy form (think Jolly Ranchers and LifeSavers), so no real shock there. And they seemed to dissolve in my mouth okay, so I ate the entire roll. It wasn't until I was finishing up the last wafer in that roll that I realized that it was sticking to my teeth a bit. That made me raise an eyebrow, re-examine the package, and then make a dash for my computer.

A Google search on "bubble gum Smarties" yielded several pages that indeed confirmed what I feared I had done: I had eaten bubblegum.

Including the product page from the official Smarties website itself:http://www.smarties.com/products.html

Sigh... yeah, my tummy's gonna have fun processing that one. Luckily I realized my error after eating only one roll, and not the half-dozen I usually go through in one sitting. Count my blessings, I suppose...


(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/223483682)

Forbidden?

Hmmmm, I wonder if my frequent polling of Grab blogs on my feed reader and the accompanying frequent web traffic attracted the attention of our IT guys. My feeder showed a bunch of red entries on all the Grab blogs, so I figured the blogs were just down, as they've been prone to do in the past. But when I actually checked on the web, I realized that all of the blogs.grab.com domain was filtered out, for I got the following HTTP 403 error:

403 Forbidden
You were denied access because:
Access denied by WebWasher DynaBLocator content category. The requested URL belongs to the following category: Malicious Web Sites.

Right... but I can still access the REST of Grab, just not Grab blogs? WTF?

And now they've caught up to filtering Myspace-- not all of Myspace, mind you, otherwise I wouldn't be able to post this blog entry. I can still access my homepage and I can access blogs-- but I can't view anyone's profiles. The category? "Pornography". And while I concede that there are numerous Myspace profiles out there that fit that category, I was a little displeased to not even be able to access my friends' profiles, or band pages, because of the full-out banning of all the Myspace profiles.

Now how am I supposed to change my Myspace profile music if I can't get to the band's page? Worse yet, how am I suppose to change my layout, etc... if I can't preview my own page to make sure I got it right?

At least I can still blog... for now!

Can you say "GRRRRRR"?

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/221611857)

My New Phone

Earlier this week I added my mom to our T-Mobile family plan, as there have been too many times when she or my dad have found themselves in a situation where they needed a cell phone and had none handy.

I took the opportunity to upgrade my own phone, as I had been using my ancient Samsung r225m for nearly 2.5 years.

I had initially had my heart set on the Samsung t619 flip phone, as it had gotten great reviews and had everything I wanted, plus I thought it was about time to give flip phones a chance after years of using a bar phone.

But alas, the T-Mobile retailer I visited no longer had them in stock, so I looked around and played with their inventory to see what else appealed to me. And there it was: my second choice. The Motorola RAZR. I thought it was much overhyped, and its reviews weren't as stellar as those of the Samsung t619. Still, I figured there HAD to be a reason it's been the best-selling phone for 2 years already.

I gave the store models a test drive and liked it so far. And in the end, I did it. I got myself a RAZR. Not just any RAZR. But one with a cool tattoo designed by one of the artists on "Miami Ink"-- as you can see from the photos, I opted for a dragon tattoo. You can't see it show up too well on the first photo, but you can see the entire dragon in the second photo, where the phone is open.

So far, I'm a happy clam. I love my new phone. It is sleek and sexy and so thin I can do something I've never done before-- put the phone in my pocket and not even feel that it's there. Sure, it's a fingerprint magnet (as so many users have complained about), but I'm pretty fastidious about wiping my phone's screen and keeping it clean anyway, so those habits will serve nicely in keeping my phone in pristine condition.

Here's the snapshots of my newest toy:





(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/216653410)