(no subject)

So I was still eating off of paper plates and I figured I had to do something about it. I was looking for something fairly specific in dinnerware -- plain white, with a single, understated black line around the edge. After going through shops from WalMart to Macy's, I the only match I found was some Waterford china for which I did not want to fork over the cash (I'm actually saving for a major, major purchase coming up, the subject of which will be a future post). I was also looking for something I could buy by the piece, for the same "saving" reasons -- I can buy more when I need to.

I end up at Crate and Barrel and found exactly what I was looking for:


Nice, not a wallet breaker, and can be bought by the piece.

While I was shopping, the in-store music was a very lively big band mix, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington -- all the classics. I asked the clerk which CD they were playing. Alas, she said it was a CD that Crate and Barrel corporate sent to all their stores. Some sort of roll-your-own in-store thing only.

I headed home, spent all night on BearShare, now I got my own Big Band Greatest Hits. I'm still hunting a few down, but I'm currently enjoying a cold vodka martini, listening to the compressed digital incarnations of original, scratchy tunes.

(no subject)

I have been using Netscape 6.0 for three days now. I have used it enough, in enough situations that I can honestly say, after considering the evidence, that I hate it greatly.

In other news, I am re-installing the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 compiler. It is lying to me and saying that Microsoft Internet Exploder, a freaking web browser fergodsakes, is an essential piece of a C++ compiler (something they left out of my college engineering courses, I guess) and must be installed to continue with the installation. It refuses to let me go on without installing it. I'm blaming plural.