High-functioning insomniac, with "high-functioning" in quotation marks

I couldn't sleep at 6 this morning--because who's asleep at 6? CHUMPS!--so I logically got up and finished all my Christmas shopping on the Internets. I'm going to my parents' in Tacoma for Christmas, so I have had no less than 14 parcels shipped there. I'm going to get there, and then I'm going to get to open SO MANY PACKAGES. And wrap them! Sometimes I think my fascination with mail, and the postal system, leads to overspending and bad life choices (example: working at not one but two dumb Canada Post outlets. Although I did develop the awesome ability to hold an envelope in my hand and guess its weight to within 10 grams). Nonetheless, my obsessions are your learning opportunity, so, the Christmas-shopping sum-up:

• Best shipping rates and speeds: Amazon, as always. Part of the reason they own the internets is that they know how to do this stuff.
  
• Worst shipping speed: art.com. I just got a confirmation email from them letting me know that my purchase will ship on Dec. 25th. And of course there was no indication of this when I ordered it. I hope you're happy, art.com! My dad might cry!
  
• Weirdest shipping rate/speed combination: thinkgeek. Their shipping is fast like a ninja but costs a small fortune, even within the US. Although to be fair I did buy something big and weird.
  
• Best shopping cart interface: etsy. I love a million things about etsy, and of course craft is #1 of those things, but their site is also really well-designed and intuitive. Having different shipping and billing addresses is a hassle with some sites, but etsy handles it in stride. Etsy is like, "oh, what's that? You want to ship your stuff somewhere else? That's totally fine, dude."

Anyone want a Christmas card, or a handmade iPod/cellphone cozy? I will send you one, and I am not even kidding. I need something to keep me occupied between now and Dec. 22nd.

love of mine...

I disappeared for a little while there, Internet. Sorry. I've been wrapped up in a new job. Fortunately, said new job ends this week, so really, you have not lost me for long. My blog is not the only thing that has been neglected. Facebook, my daily blog reads, and my plants (unwatered) feel your pain.

I was excited about everything, yesterday. I got a book to review and a design magazine I didn't subscribe to in the mail. (Who bought me the subscription to Dwell? Contact me for cookies.) But tonight I feel tired, and I got student loan documents in the mail, and I don't have appropriate change for coffee tomorrow, and what then, Internet? WHAT THEN? (I made tea at work today, but I hate tea. I hate how it's too hot for 15 minutes and then lukewarm for 2 hours. I hate how it doesn't have caffeine [or at least mine doesn't], and how it doesn't taste like chocolate [like my coffee always does]. I always end up dumping half of it out. Actually, the only thing I like about tea is the smell, which is why I sometimes make mandarin green tea at home just to let the smell fill my apartment.)

Also, I watched An Inconvenient Truth tonight with James. I enjoyed it, I guess, but it's discouraging. As much as I want to like Al Gore, I can't trust him--so much of this movie is just spin (the personal stuff, mostly, not the science, lest I arouse the fury of my fellow bleeding-heart liberal environmentalist compatriots). I honestly believe that the human race will wipe itself out, and I honestly think, sometimes, it would be better for the planet if we did it sooner rather than later. I'm not kidding. These thoughts occur to me, and I don't even feel bad about them. In fact, given my affection for end-of-the-world scenarios, I would say this constitutes the danger that Walter Benjamin warned us about, when "humankind's 'self-alienation reaches such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order." That doesn't mean we should do nothing--I certainly am not advocating that--but it does make it depressing, sometimes, to do something, anything. So in addition to the coffee-change problem, and the student-loan problem, I have the carbon-footprint-problem.

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Currently listening to: Regina Spektor - Fidelity
via FoxyTunes

Like intrigue, only boring

Jocelyn: Hi, I have a package waiting there for me to pick up... can you tell me who it's from?
Woman at the post office: I'm sorry, we actually can't give that information out over the phone.
Jocelyn: OK, well, can you just tell me whether it is from Amazon?
WATPO: Just a moment... [comes back] your suspicions are correct.

things that make me happy today: burt's bees pomegranate lip balm, friday (and Meghan making out with friday), going out to the bar three weeknights in a row, getting things in the mail from etsy every day, the prospect of the farmer's market tomorrow

things that make my unhappy today: stores that have a pseudo-canadian version of their online store (with a .ca domain name) but when you go to check out, they want to charge you in American dollars and send your order from the United States--via some bizarre non-USPS priority mail that will mean paying a bundle in taxes and fees at the border. DON'T TRY TO TRICK ME! I've been down that road before.