The Echidna crew presents five things we love and five things we hate this week.

Things We Love:

The way fresh air smells
when the world starts to thaw and the air starts to taste of something other than frost.

Three-day weekends.
I almost didn’t mention this because I know some of the other Echidna folks don’t have Monday off next week, but DAMN am I happy to have the day off.

Helpful, friendly IT people.�
They are invaluable!  

Flip-flops.
It is as close as I can get to not wearing shoes, which I love. Also, I love the first day of Spring when you can finally put them on.

Ringtones.
You can find a ringtone of just about *anything* these days—and thank the stars for it. Doctor Who theme? Piece of cake. The theme fro NHL Tonight, a show that hasn’t aired in five years? Easy-peasey, lemon squeezy. I *love* the interwebs.

Things We Hate:

Lady Gaga.
More specifically, her music videos. My first encounter with one came this week when Ceylon sent around the video for “Just Dance.” Later I decided that I might have enjoyed the song more if I hadn’t heard it while watching the video. It isn’t even creative. Look! A cracked-out party in a crappy house ca. 1982! Look! A scantilly clad blonde writhing around on the floor, and on a couch, and against a wall, and on an inflatable Orca! … OK, actually that last one was something I don’t remember seeing before, but whatever, it actually squicked me out. Also, the lightning bolt thing on her face? Stupid. And what was up with the Furry in the bathroom? Oh, and also? I watched two of her other videos; They were basically the same video in a different setting. She just reminds me of that girl (we all know at least one) who feels she has to act really slutty and obnoxious to get boys to like her.

The Grammys.
Are they in any way relevant to music anymore?

What’s going on in Australia.
Nobody should have to go through that, ever. Ever, ever, ever.

Car repairs.�
Expensive, mystifying, and time-consuming.  BOO.

Crooked Stapling.
How the hell hard is it to make all the edges line up before you staple something together. I get paperwork all the time that looks like it has been put together by a drunken monkey. And because I have OCD, I am compelled to undo all of it and re-staple it.