Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

First of all, a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has congratulated me and Chaz on our engagement. I'm so amazed at how many people responded and I'm actually really glad you all did because now I have everyone who visits my site in a nice, convenient list. Hit list? Ooh, you decide.

I may sound lighthearted right now...but I'm actually trying not to become overwhelmed with sadness. Today the CEO of my company (which is in web development) brought quite a few of us into the conference room and basically told us that our parent company had just sent him a directive to let go pretty much 85% of his employees. Unfortunately, this included my department (custom design), which is made up of only four people, but still. My manager, two coworkers and I...yeah. I honestly don't know all of the details and I don't really care to.

I am in shock and incredibly sad. This was my first real job and actually the closest thing to my dream job. I was ecstatic to get it back in December and it had everything I had really dreamed of: web-related work, laid back environment, easy going coworkers and a cubicle. Yes, I'm a rare person who loves having one of those.

Overall, I think I'm more sad about leaving my coworkers than anything else. Sure, I'll find a new job...but it probably won't have Kyle, Kerry or Joe there. We won't throw office supplies at each other from across the room or go on our traditional Friday lunch thing. I'll even miss their brotherly teasing...they are all like brothers to me, even Kyle (my manager). Even if we end up hanging out in the future, it won't be like it is now.

In the long run, I'll be ok. There are worse things that could happen and my life isn't over or anything. I'm really thankful for what I have: Chaz, family, friends (you guys!), food, clothes and so much more. Just another life lesson to add to my memories. I'll never forget my first real job and the amazing times I had there.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Have you been babied or rabied lately?! You may want to consult LMAO for the answer.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

The obligatory post. So yes, Chaz proposed to me last night and we are officially engaged! Hurrah! Now, to keep the millions of expected questions at bay I'm going to answer the important ones in this blog post.

The Suspense

Nope, I did not suspect he was going to ask me any time soon. It's always been the plan, so it wasn't a shock that he asked, I had just not thought he had bought the ring yet. We aren't the googly-ga-ga types, so while we both can be romantic we aren't going to jump off a cliff for loooove or anything, if that makes sense.

The Proposal

We were playing with our cats (Cody and Oreo) late last night (around midnight) and he was actually asking me questions about the "way" I would prefer him to propose. I told him that I'd rather it be a private thing and not public, like: "please don't have a waiter bring me a ring in a cake with random strangers clapping in the background".

So a few minutes roll by and he suddenly says "I'm going out to move my car, I'll be right back." Now, since he had been asking me things, I naturally thought to myself "wouldn't it be funny if he proposed right now" but I was so sure he hadn't bought a ring yet. Oh the irony, right? I swept it from my mind after a bit.

He comes back a bit later and says, "Melissa there's something wrong with your computer, you should come see it." I'm all like "whaaaat did you do!" thinking he was going to scare me or some silly joke. I walk into the office and the lights are off. He says "look at your computer!" and I do...and there's a screensaver popped up in those silly 3D letters that spelled out "Will you marry me?". I just kind of toddled over and sat down...and saw the ring sitting in front of the screen. He flipped on the lights, got down on one knee and officially asked me.

The Ring

It's lovely. It's 18 karat white gold with a 1 karat diamond in the center and smaller ones trailing down the front and back. I'm not a jewelry person so I may have gotten that description wrong, but I think that's what Chaz told me!

Adding this to my ring collection now brings the grand total up to...two! My only other one being my high school ring, which I always wear on my right ring finger. So now I look a little silly, I think, with a ring on each ring finger.

The Plans

Um, there are none. Not yet at least. We aren't wanting to get married until he graduates university, which isn't until sometime next year. We aren't picky people and we haven't thought well into our preferences yet. Honestly, the only thing I've ever known that I wanted at my wedding was my dad in his uniform to walk me down the aisle. I've never been the kind of girl to plan years in advance for this kind of thing.

However, we have talked about basic honeymoon plans. We loved the Disney cruise we went on a few years ago, so we were thinking maybe a week at Disney World, popping around the different parks and then a week on a cruise! Maybe to Europe instead of the Bahamas this time.

The Aftermath

To be honest, I'm still sort of shell-shocked. Our lives have been pretty routine for the past 6 months, steady jobs/school and all, so it's actually a bit of a challenge to consider our "status" as changed. It doesn't feel like any new level of commitment, as I was already completely committed to him.

We were not (and are still not) in any rush to get married, nor do we want to do it for anyone but ourselves. I refuse to let anyone bully me into choosing something I don't want, as I've seen many others go through crap like that.

But yes, we are happy and in love (oooOoOOooo). As happy as we've always been, really. Also, I really hate being the center of attention...so even though this is a big deal to us, we are still the same Chaz and Melly.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Oh yes, just when you thought you were getting used to the insane changes of version 2.5, the developers are already pushing forward to 2.6! Don't start panicking, thinking you will have to moan and groan through a painful upgrade. It won't be as heavy of an update (or a shocker for people) like 2.5 was.

However, there are a few cool new features:

1. Post Revisions - Easily see a history of changes made to posts/pages.
2. Theme Previews - Yes! The ability to preview a theme before you change it!
3. Disable Remote Publishing - Adding more security by default.
4. Default Gravatars - To display for those who do not have a gravatar. You can do this now but the added feature will be easier on those less experienced with WP.
5. Bulk Plugin Management - Ability to bulk delete, activate and deactivate plugins!
6. Static File Caching - Utilizes Google Gears to caches images and JavaScript so that your browser doesn’t have to download it every time you’re in the admin page.

You can download the beta and try it out. I'm going to be testing out my themes on it as well. They are aiming for a release in mid-July, so be ready!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Today I stopped off at the bookstore and picked up four new books! Well, three are new...one I have read before. I especially enjoy the genres of fantasy and science fiction. If you know of any good reads in those categories, please feel free to suggest!

Here is the list:

1. The Time Traveler's Wife ~ "Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with "Chrono Displacement" disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance..."
2. The Host ~ "A species of altruistic parasites has peacefully assumed control of the minds and bodies of most humans, but feisty Melanie Stryder won't surrender her mind to the alien soul called Wanderer."
3. Wicked 2 ~ "Holy Cathers is not the same person she was almost a year and a half ago. After discovering her connection to an ancient legacy of witches, Holly has accepted her destiny..." (The sequel to Witch & Curse.)
4. Wicked ~ "Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West, is not wicked; nor is she a formally schooled witch. Instead, she's an insecure, unfortunately green Munchkinlander who's willing to take radical steps to unseat the tyrannical Wizard of Oz." (Not related to the previous book.)

The book I've read before is The Time Traveler's Wife and I remember loving it. After recommending it to Jess, I finally caved and bought it for myself. I'm already a 3rd of the way through and it's still as good as I remember.

As you can see, I'm really into a certain type of book, hehe. I love books that swirl you into a different universe and leave you wistful after finishing them. This isn't the only kind of book I like, I also enjoy historical fiction (like The Killer Angels) and non-fiction (like Lionheart) and lots of others. I just read in trends.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Yay, my website has been featured on WeLoveWP!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

If I haven't already convinced you, please join me on Plurk!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Woo, I got my nose pierced! I had wanted it last week but was suffering from an annoying cold. I didn't think it would be very comfy to be sniffling and whatnot while the piercing was trying to heal!

Yes, it hurt. However, the after-shock of the needle is exactly like an ear piercing to be honest. The only part that got to me was when jewelry went in. Nose studs are actually curved at the end of the post (see examples) and it was just how it twisted in that made my eyes water. It is silver so it matches the normal jewelry I wear.

It's been about an hour and it's just a dull sensation now. My body has always reacted fine to piercings, so I wasn't really worried anyway. Overall I have each ear pierced in the lobe twice and in the cartilage on the left ear. My navel is also pierced and then I have a tattoo on my right ankle. I'm up for one more tattoo and then I think I'll be done with body art.

Please share your piercings, tattoos, and/or experiences with either! My next tattoo may be a guitar with wings. Fits me nicely I think!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

So yesterday, while driving home from work, I had stopped at a red light. I leisurely glanced over to the next lane and noticed a very beat up old pick-up truck a few cars ahead. What forced me to stare wasn't the mangled driver door or the severely rusted exterior...it was what I saw in the back of the truck.

There was a lady sitting there, leaning up against the cab. She was rather big-boned, but really skinny. The kind of person who is tall but has no body fat at all. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes were dirty. She almost looked homeless. But what caught me so off-guard was how she was acting. I couldn't tell whether she was talking to the driver of the truck (the little window to the cab was open) or to herself. But whatever she was discussing, she was pissed off about it. She flailed her arms about and gestured angrily in all directions, sometimes forcefully pushing back her hair and tossing her head.

This probably would have seemed a bit more normal had not the passenger seat been empty in the truck! So, WTF was she doing in the back?! Was the seat gone? Was she banished by the driver? I never found out because the truck was up too far in front of me. Maybe that's why she was so mad?

The light turned green and traffic started to move...and I was shocked to watch the truck zoom onto the highway with the lady still in the back! Isn't it illegal or something to even have people in the back of a pick-up? I would think at least on a highway it would be. The lady was still flailing about and talking as the truck drove off. I wonder if the driver purposefully drove that direction to shut her up.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

I must say that Plurk has got to be my new favorite social site on the web! For those unaware, Plurk has the same purpose as Twitter does: microblogging or small updates in 140 characters or less. Never mind the weird name.

Honestly, I wasn't sure about Plurk in the beginning. Compared to Twitter, the interface for Plurk is a bit more complicated and you have to play around with it a little while to catch the hang of it. But once you do, let me tell you, it is really addictive!

Updates from those you have friended will pop up on a dynamic timeline, organized by time and day. You scroll horizontally to see older "plurks". You're also alerted to new updates and friend requests in real-time with a little message!

Another nifty thing that makes Plurk unique is the ability to comment (reply) directly on other's "plurks". This allows for some actual "conversations" with other people! While twitter has the "@" to reply to twitterings, the messages can get lost in the stream of updates. You can view your replies and others' replies directly on an individual plurk on the timeline. Pretty cool.

A somewhat controversial feature would be karma. Plurk has wired its service to reward or retract "karma points" from users based upon certain activities. If you plurk regularly and are active you gain points, however if you constantly spam your timeline you lose karma! If someone rejects your friend request you also lose karma. That might seem stupid at first, but it's there so no one goes around trying to friend just anybody or hundreds of people at random or without reason.

I think karma is a nice addition, when not obsessed over, hehe. It adds some fun to the routine updates and moderates the users quite well. The Plurk developers have expressed a want for quality over quantity in articles like their safe plurking guide and FAQ page. Keeps things interesting!

If you want to try it out, then go for it! If you use that link you will automatically be added to my "fans" list and I can friend you easily!

If you are on Plurk, please friend me! Or you can comment with your Plurk profile link on this post. I'm always happy to network and/or make new friends online.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Today is the official release of Firefox 3, the latest update to the best Internet browser on the planet! The shiny new version comes packed with improvements to browsing speed, memory usage, and security. I can't possibly list everything that FF3 will have, but you can read all about it, of course!

I'll quote the short descriptions of what the website says:

• New Features: Firefox 3 sets the innovation bar very high with exciting new features, including one-click bookmarking, the smart location bar and lightning fast performance.
• Security: Keeping you and your personal information safe is our top priority. Firefox 3 includes phishing and malware protection, plus our new instant site ID info.
• Productivity: With features like built-in spell checking, session restore and full zoom, Firefox 3 makes it possible to work faster and more efficiently on the Web.
• Customization: Your taste and needs set you apart from the rest. With Firefox 3 you can choose from over 5,000 add-ons that help you customize your browsing experience.

The community over at SpreadFirefox.com is hosting a "Download Day 2008" event to attempt to break a world record for the most software downloads in 24 hours! You can pledge to download it when it is officially open at 10am PDT (or 1pm EST, which is my time). Almost 2 million people have pledged so far! Get going!

UPDATE @ 2pm

Poor Mozilla and their kaboomed servers. I'm hearing a lot of flak from several blogs and news sites saying they should have prepared better for the millions of people that were obviously going to access the site at the same time to get the release. What I find interesting is the fact that I just refreshed the download page and it actually loaded enough for me to click on a link that took me to...Firefox 2!

Oh well. It's only to be expected that this happened of course! As for the slow comeback of the Mozilla websites: like I said on Snark, I guess Mozilla is still trying to get all their duckies in a row.

EDIT: Aha! Mozilla has blogged about their servers crashing and stated that the event will "officially commence once the site goes live". Here's hoping!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

One healthy immunity system to go, please. I've been sick since coming back from my mini-holiday and I am so tired of it! It's some kind of sinus cold and it's been hovering at the stage where it isn't bad enough to make me truly miserable but it hangs on annoyingly in the background.

I never really get sick either. Maybe five or so times a year. My mom will always swear that it's because she breastfed me as a baby, TMI, which resulted in my normally healthy immune system. While I don't doubt that's a fact, it still doesn't make the experience any better when I catch something. Because when I do...it is killer! No joke, it's always some weird virus that leaves me rolling around in agony, buried in tissues and guzzling orange juice.

However, this is one of those rare occasions that my sickness is just chillin' in the background. Like a ho' on the street. A dirty little ho' of a cold. It pesters me constantly and demands my time! It doesn't seem to understand the meaning of GTFO. These small colds also make me act a little silly and say weird things, as you probably have noticed.

So, a remedy! Right now I am trying out something I never have before: Zicam! Normally I just take whatever random sinus/cold medicine is in the cabinet. But my coworkers rave about it (and sternly threaten me to at least try to not spread this around) so I went out and got a box of the "Cold Remedy" gel swabs. You pop out one swab at a time and swipe the inside of your nose with the gel and that's it. Seems to be working alright so far. It has "lessened the severity" for sure, but this whole chillin' thing is annoying.

I wanted to be better by the weekend because...I want to get my nose pierced! Yes and a second tattoo. Hopefully that doesn't shock anyone. I don't describe my current piercings and tattoo in any pages on my site, although I probably should. But I would hate to get my nose pierced and then be in pain every time I sneezed.

If I'm feeling better by tomorrow then I will go and get it done. The tattoo I might hold off on, because although I know what I want to get I just don't know where I want it to go yet. But I've been thinking about the nose piercing for a year or two and figure I'd better do it now while I am still young and "free".

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

This has got to be one of the coolest photo manipulation techniques I have ever seen! Needs to be added to Photoshop!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

This past weekend Chaz and I, and our good friends Greg and Jess, took a fun mini-holiday to Cedar Point! It is a theme park located in Sandusky, Ohio, right on the edge of Lake Eerie! The park itself was built on a peninsula, but is not crammed together at all. It literally has some of the best coasters I've ever been on!

Cedar Point is a 364-acre amusement park/resort that is home to the most rides (75) and roller coasters (17) on Earth. With a history dating back to 1870, Cedar Point is the second oldest amusement park in North America. ~ CedarPoint.com

The hotel we stayed at, Castaway Bay, was massive and less than a mile away from the park! It also boasted its own indoor water park that we definitely took advantage of, hehe. You had to buy tickets for it, but once inside we rode the water slides, jumped around in the wave pool and then chilled out in the large 50-person hot tub! Very relaxing after a day of walking.

Cedar Point itself was one of the best theme parks I've ever been to! As I mentioned before, although it's located on a rather small peninsula of land on Lake Eerie, it is hardly claustrophobic. It's limitations actually allow for it to have a really unique layout. Most of the rollercoasters are built spread out across the area and over several smaller rides! So, while riding a coaster, you are really "going somewhere" instead of just rolling back and forth in a twisty jumble like average coasters.

My favorite coasters in order: Maverick, Millennium Force, Raptor, and Magnum XL-200! If you ever go to the park, make sure you ride those four at least! Also, Chaz and Greg will swear up and down that Top Thrill Dragster is the best ride in the park, so don't forget that one. The only reason I didn't ride it was because Jess and I both weren't feeling all that great so we decided to just hang back and watch. I got an awesome video of the guys on the ride though!

Overall, we had a blast! I highly recommend the park to anyone who loves thrilling rollercoasters! I'd also recommend you try to stay at one of the hotels located inside the park because they all have beach access to the lake. We'll probably do that if we go again. Cedar Point also has a water park that has gotten rave reviews as well. Didn't have time for that, but definitely for next time!

Check out all my photos of the trip! There are also four videos as well: two from a bike show, one of this creepy clown game, and one of the Dragster ride. Bottom line, Cedar Point is awesome and I definitely needed the vacation.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Of the many forwards my mom sends me, there are actually a few interesting ones that slip through, one of which was in my inbox this morning. It showcased a series of amazing photos of striped icebergs in Antarctica! I'd never actually heard of this phenomenon, but the effects are quite cool:

Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with meltwater and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form. When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe. Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.

After doing a quick search I discovered an article from DailyMail that contained a few more amazing striped iceberg pictures. They also cited the man who photographed them: a Norwegian sailor named Oyvind Tangen who was traveling on a research vessel in the area.

The sailors thought that the icebergs looked like mint humbugs.

The article also has a photo of the "mint humbug" candy, which is striped as well and really does resemble the iceberg in a way! Of all the pictures in the article, my favorite is the one in this post.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

If I normally comment on your website, please check your spam queue! I believe my information is being universally blocked by Akismet and until the developers remove me from the "blacklist" all of my comments on your websites will be marked as spam. I'm not spamming, I promise! I believe my comments to be much more interesting than the lame crap that spam bots seem to be posting lately. Please don't delete me!

If you notice that your comments on websites are being "swallowed" without even a notice of some type saying it is "awaiting moderation", then send a message to Akismet with your information and you should be unblocked soon. I just contacted them a few minutes ago, so we'll see how it goes for me.

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

There seems to be several people discussing spam prevention lately. While Akismet has always worked for me pretty well I still hear about (and experience) its hiccups now and then. For example, I've been tossed in the spam queue by Akismet recently on at least three websites I normally comment on. Maybe it doesn't like how often I comment? Heh!

I have it set in the "Discussion" settings on my Wordpress installation to only allow comments for those who have had a previously approved comment. This means every other comment will always be kicked into the moderation queue. While this works well (you, the visitor, never see any spam) I still get a few hundred spam bot comments and pingbacks every day or so that I have to delete.

Until I quit procrastinating and find some plugin or better solution to block spam completely, I've decided to showcase (and respond to) a few of the more interesting spam comments I've received just in the past few days:

I praise God for answering my prayers. I thank God for this website.

Obsession. This is my master plan of course. Then will come the t-shirts, mass merchandising, Melissa action figures with little angel wings and guitars that strum real music! Ah yes, world domination one dollar bill at a time...

I have always wanted a compendium of novena prayers. Thank you for sharing all these prayers with us. It brings joy and happiness to everyone. I know, I do feel that way.

No problem. Next week I will be offering up a compendium of voodoo prayers to bring pain and misery onto the world. I bet that will be even more riveting than the joy and happiness!

Try ***** Enlarge Patch and she will start stammering when she sees your *****. All her plans will be disconcerted when she sees your new **** given you by ***** Enlarge Patch.

The word "disconcerted" probably isn't a good one to pick, as it makes it seem like the results from this "patch" will more confuse the hell out of someone instead of impressing them. Disconcerted: "to throw into disorder or confusion". Yeah, doesn't sound appealing. So, thx but no thx.

Your guestbook is example of middle-class guestbooks. Congratulation! I?ll show your site and guestbook to my friends.

Well, you're not invited to my birthday party!!!! How dare you say my guestbook is middle-class, yo' mama is middle-class!! I would totally kill...wait, I don't even have a guestbook so why do I care.

Great site. Keep doing. If you have to do it, you might as well do it right.

Are you saying I don't do it right or that I don't have to? Or if I do do it then I have to do it right or not do it at all? Um...what are we doing?

Sordz ogevdpqz fcak yxtpbd dycfv dfopqt tqgojxsei.

Crap, sorry. I haven't watched enough X-Files to learn a complete alien language. Could you repeat that more slowly? Or just draw a picture, I'm good with pictures.

Those are just a few of the over 200 spam comments I deleted earlier. Along with these interesting quips they were also riddled with spam links, of course. I just think it's funny how most are starting the comment with "hi nice site" or "great infos, plz click this", as if I'm stupid enough to think they are complimenting me for something. Oh oh, they said my site is nice so that totally means I should approve the comment so every1 noez it! Psh. Not giving in.

Blog spam goes hand-in-hand with sploggers and money email scams (bottom paragraph), which are both equally annoying and pointless. Once I stop being lazy I will get around to better fighting this "black plague" of the Internet!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

I often wonder about whether the dreams we have as kids are actually our true goals in life. Particularly, the things we said we wanted to grow up to be. Are our young interests actually early signs of what will make us truly happy later in life? It's an interesting thought.

When I was a kid, I worshiped the "kid star" talent shows. I remember the feeling I would get when I watched them on TV, the strong mixture of jealousy and longing. I wanted to be on that stage and I wanted to sing my heart out in front of an audience and reach them with my voice. Yes...I wanted to be a singer.

How cliché, right? Every little girl wants to be a singer at some point, heh. But seriously...I dreamed of it. Every night after dinner, when I was around 8 years old, I'd go outside and climb to the top of my swing set. The sun would be setting and the sky would be streaked with orange and pink. I would close my eyes and usually dedicate my songs to someone in my family or a friend or something. Then I'd sing at the top of my lungs and imagine myself in a musical.

When I went to summer camp, I'd sing the same song every year in the talent show. My favorite song to perform was "Somewhere Out There" from the Disney movie An American Tail. Any other time I'd be singing something from Annie (my favorite movie as a kid) or some other musical: Marry Poppins, Hello Dolly, Wizard of Oz, etc. I loved singing show tunes especially, because I could imagine myself in the movie scenes.

However, with my family being military, I think we traveled around too much for me to ever get any solid foundation into that dream. I was able to be in a couple school plays, but never musicals because we'd move too soon for me to get involved. Same thing with music and voice lessons. It's one of those things that I think I was always sad about, but you get used to it you know? Learn to live without it after a while.

My love for making music did inspire me to pick up the guitar when I was 13, mostly to play church songs at the time. Over time, up until the early years of college, I became almost inseparable with my guitar. Thus, one of the meanings for my website's domain name. I composed over 30 songs, one of which I actually recorded roughly on my computer a few years ago. I still have it, but I want to figure out how to copyright it somehow before I "release" it on the web for the public to hear.

I've never stopped wanting to reach people with music, although now it's rather a nice thought in the back of my head instead of the raging passion for it I had when I was younger. Although sometimes I think about what could have been if I pursued my dream when I was a kid. Actually, this does remind me of one memory I have that I will never, ever forget...

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

Today Wordpress is celebrating it's 5th birthday! Here's to many more years of greatness!

Originally published at GuitarAngel.net. Please leave any comments there.

If you haven't been to LMAO lately, there are lots of new convos to laugh at!