Hey folks! You might not see some posts for a little while, as I'm in the process of switching hosting companies, and might be upgrading to Movable Type shortly thereafter. Please excuse my dust!
don't mess with the toy chicken -- canon powershot G3
It's not even mine - but after an unfortunate accident with its nether-regions resulting in its inability to walk when wound, I guard it with my life. Damned handsy co-workers!
Question: does the image look a tad yellow-heavy to you guys?
Oooh, Leica's got a slick new freaky-retro-stylee 3MP digital camera. Hot.
blue sky + cloud = nice -- canon powershot G3
It's so nice outside today. Snapped this pic while picking up a few cds down at Borders. Why would anyone want to be inside all day today? I am resolved to getting out of the house this weekend and going... somewhere... the beach? the mountains? Who cares! The point is that I need to get the hell outta Dodge before I totally lose it.
Speaking of losing it, I have gone off the deep end. I've been spending money like there's no tomorrow. Bought about 5 DVDs last night, a couple of books, and today I purchased 3 CDs. I have to rein myself in. Whoa there.
I really, really, really, really, REALLY like the song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", as sung by Rufus Wainwright.
easy way to annoy your co-worker -- canon powershot G3
I spend alot of time trying to figure out new and interesting ways to annoy my officemate, Levon. Playing "Invisible Touch" by Genesis seems to do the trick pretty quickly, I've found.
photo friday - skin -- canon powershot G3
Here's my second Photo Friday entry... and this time with the added benefit of actually being posted on Friday! Speaking of Friday - how cool is it that today is Friday? For me it also happens to be payday. It's these simple pleasures that make life worth living...
1. What was the first band you saw in concert? When I was in tenth grade, I went with a school chum to see Bad Religion at the North Hollywood Theater. Unfortunately, the facility was oversold, and so the show was shut down by the fire marshal during the opening band's set. This didn't go over too well with the audience, who essentially tore up the theater, and ended up causing a riot on the streets of North Hollywood - firehoses, police in riot gear and all. And I got to see myself on tv later on that night. The tickets were refunded, thankfully (and amazingly!), and I traded them in for tix to the Circle Jerks.
2. Who is your favorite artist/band now? I'm sort of back into my Radiohead phase right now, what with the internet "release" of some of their new "premixes", cannot wait to hear the new album.
3. What's your favorite song? I don't have a favorite song. Songs tend to stay with me if they trigger a certain mood or memory, and there are far too many of those to name here.
4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be? Well, I do play an instrument, or at least, I used to. I played drums and percussion throughout high school and a bit into college. I was pretty good at it, but sorta got burnt out. However, I have always wanted to know how to play the piano very well, although I lack the discipline it takes to learn.
5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why? Easy. Madonna. I have, strangely, been a fan of hers since I was in the 4th grade. I have always wanted to meet her. I don't exactly know why, I just think it's because I have liked her for so long. Oddly enough, yesterday while getting my morning Toffee Nut Latte at the local Starbucks, I was standing behind someone who sorta gave off a Madonna-vibe (whatever that means). She was with a little girl about Lourdes' age, and drove a black beemer. Who knows. I never did get a good look at her... (sigh).
l.a. subway, tiles, #01 -- canon powershot G3
Went out shooting (photos) last night. Had some fun. Saw some breakdancing.
I'm currently obsessing over my upcoming road trip to Colorado and/or Utah. Some real inspiration has come from PhotoDude's Red Rock Road Trip page. If anyone has any suggestions on any particularly scenic yet non-lethal backcountry roads in those areas, give me a holler.
A few scary things I've come across on the net today:
Telly Savalas singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" at aprilwinchell.com (via boing boing.net)
Tammy Faye Bakker singing "The Devil Is An Old Sly Fox" at empty-handed.com
The Worst and Scariest Video Ever Made (via my boss)
i am always inside -- shot from just inside the doors of my work -- canon powershot G3
I have the sort of job where I'm stuck inside from the morning until after night has fallen. It's not your typical 9 to 5 workplace. I spend my days glued to my desk, on the phone, going through paperwork and doing other miscellaneous scheduling tasks. My general routine is: in the morning, I walk from my house to my car, drive to work, walk from my the parking lot to the office - and vice versa at the end of the day. It's certainly not an environment which yields a wide variety in one's photographic work. "Here's a picture of the mug filled with pens on my desk" - "Oh, and here's a picture of my boss... at his desk!"
And weekends are not much better. I feel that I have a mild case, or am in the early stages of agoraphobia. I just hardly ever leave the house other than to go to work. This is something that I'm trying to change. A few days ago, with a little help from Daylight Savings Time, I was able to shoot on over to the park near my house to take some shots. And tonight, I'm gonna be hanging around in the subway here in Los Angeles to shoot off a few more. At least that's my plan right now. It could change. I very well may find an excuse to ditch that plan and to instead go home and watch My Life As a Dog on DVD. We shall see.
spring flower -- canon powershot G3
...and now for something completely different. This is my first submission to Photo Friday.
my weekend felt grey -- canon powershot G3
It was not a good weekend. An error in obsessively planning something that I wasn't ultimately prepared for shook me to my brittle, over-sensitive core, and broke me down to my normal weekend fare: sleeping my way through the day. I am a sore loser, and I haven't the ability to roll with the punches - I turn into a blubbering, destructive force that speaks without thinking. Red-hot, fiery, bitter words erupt - words that make no sense, and end up hurting and confusing anyone in their path. And then it subsides and all I can do is numb myself with needless sleep.
super-cool schwag!! -- canon powershot G3
We mix the DVD trailers for all of Buena Vista Home Entertainment's (Disney, Miramax, etc.) releases here at Media City Sound (where I work). A few weeks ago, I happened to mention that I had pre-ordered Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors Trilogy (Blue, White & Red) to the client. She kindly offered to snag me a copy for FREE from her suppliers. So I cancelled the pre-order and waited. And waited. On ventures out to various shops, I would inadvertently pass by copies of the DVD set and wonder if I would ever get my promised copy. But I held out, and today, that super-cool client came in bearing the box!! Yay!!
board -- canon powershot G3
This morning's been spent listening to some early versions of the tracks on the as-yet-unreleased Radiohead album (due in June), thanks to Charles, Cup of Chica, and ultimately this site. It has been revealed that these are not final tracks from the album, and I guess the band is not happy that they have been leaked, but I think it will be very interesting to hear how these tracks metamorphose into their final versions.
matt mosh -- canon powershot G3
On Saturday I decided to escape the parallelogrammy walls of my shack to hang out with the family in Simi Valley. I was promised a nighttime viewing through a neighbor's telescope - and that's something I never got to do as a young'un. My brother Matt and I spent the day watching a bootleg copy of LOTR: The Two Towers and playing with the family dog, Nala - just waiting for night to fall. Once it got dark, the brother got a bit too eager and made us wait outside - looking at the stars on his own, excitedly jumping around the front yard, practicing his faux-brand of martial arts.
At 9pm the super-nice new neighbor, Marty, began setting up his rig and pointed it at Saturn. It was amazing. I was able to see the actual "rings" and all. Jupiter was quite a spectacle, also. Clearly, two dark lines were visible on the planet itself, and 5 of its moons were also clearly lined up. Did I mention that it was amazing? I can now cross that off of things to do before I die. It was a great evening. Unfortunately, I got sick the very next day. Nice.
tunnel vision -- canon powershot G3
Ugh. So, I decided that instead of rebuild my site just on my internal computer and upload once everything is just the way I want it, I'd go ahead and change my site little by little, doing tweaks as necessary. I don't like what I've done here. It is different, I suppose, but not necessarily to my liking. Too much blue, I think. The logo doesn't work - well, that's gonna need to be changed, but that's beside the point. I'm so impatient.
So, I'm in the process of re-designing my site - if it happens to look weird for the next week or so, you'll understand that it's only temporary!!
Thanks for your patience!!
Got my Canon PowerShot G3 in the mail at work today!!! Below is the very first image I transferred from it. It is of Jeremy, our studio assistant, Jeanne at the reception desk, and Isabella blurring into the frame. Yippee!
I'm considering switching my site's CMS to Movable Type, but it appears a bit daunting from where I'm sitting. Does anyone have any opinions or information or advice they could pass along??
This time last year.
This time last year, I was just leaving work, with the thrill of excitement in the air. I was on my way to the Fashion Center Mall in Sherman Oaks, because I needed to get luggage tags. After that I headed home to finish packing for my trip to London.
This year, the day is winding down. Work is sort of slow right now, so I'm trying to keep myself busy with filing. It's not helping. It's as if this day will never end. Perhaps I can leave early. Perhaps not. I like the word "perhaps", apparently. Ooh, "apparently" is a pretty cool word, too.
The boss brought in some sound clips from Zoolander. I'll play some of those. That will cheer me up. I want to get out of here.
i've had it.
I noticed this morning that my tax refund has been deposited into my bank account... and just in time for the weekend! Thankfully, this will cover my most recent expenditure on a new digital camera.
I've been scanning a lot of weblogs lately, visiting the Photo Friday sites, and generally drooling over different layouts and whatnot. There's been a lot of talk about XML and RSS feeds and syndication - all of which I have absolutely no clue about. But that's okay.
Just recently, a handful of people at work have been coming up to me and talking/asking about web design. I don't work at a web or design firm, and I'm pretty much the only person here with any experience in web design.
Talking with these people is reinforcing some past knowledge (circa 1997) for me, which is great - but it's also reinforcing the fact that I only have but a passable knowledge in HTML, which is sad. With as much as I love the web, I really really want to know more about how to make pages that are truly aesthetically pleasing to me.
So this weekend, with a pocketful of tax-refund cash, I'm gonna go to my local Barnes and Noble bookseller and find me a new book on web design. Back in 1997, when I designed my very first webpage (sadly, archived nowhere), I used Lynda Weinman's Designing Web Graphics 2.0 as my bible, which was incredibly useful as an introduction.
Does anyone have any recommendations while I'm out looking?
color me excited.
I just ordered my Canon Powershot G3 digital camera. Hopefully I will have it by the weekend. Yay!
noah grey's photo-centric weblog, grey expectations is so fantastic, it makes me want to weep.
brave little toaster.
I don't have a meme or anything, but if I did, right towards the top there's be:
1. Julie does not cook. Ever.
And I don't! I do not cook. It seems amazing. As much as I love food, that love is equaled by my laziness, and it is really much easier to purchase food already prepared. The most preparation of food I've done in quite awhile is add milk to cereal. Oooh, two ingredients... wicked! I'll buy the junky fast food, or at most nuke up some microwavable goodies.
But last night was different. Oh yes, last night, I do believe, I cooked.
I cannot be sure, because my definition of "cooking" is probably very twisted from its normal meaning, but I think I actually did it last night. I took store-bought tortillas, pre-grated "mexican" cheese, and those pre-cooked grilled chicken pieces, slapped 'em all together, folded the tortilla and placed it in the toaster oven. Yes, I made me a quesadilla... isn't that great?!?
For sure, it was not great, the tortilla got a bit harder than I would have liked, and the cheese was "lowfat", so the melted cheese was a bit rubbery, but I made it myself, and I couldn't be more pleased. Today, at work, I'm even gonna make me a sandwich... all by myself! I am on a roll (no pun intended, or maybe, yes, the pun was gratuitous).
protect me from what I want.
On my way home last night, I decided to drop by the neighborhood Best Buy to pick up a copy of the DVD for The Ring. And while I was there, I was going to have a look through their digital camera selection to see if I could get a hands-on look at the Canon PowerShot G3.
Alas, they did not have that particular camera in stock, so I wandered over to the DVD section. I picked up my widescreen copy of The Ring, but the shiny boxes of the other DVDs called to me, and I made the mistake of not going straight up to the checkout counter. So I browsed. Aha! The special edition of The Color Purple... fantastic! Oooh, special edition of Memento, I'm going to need to pick that up sooner or later - how about now? Hey look, The Sixth Sense Vista Series Special Edition DVD set. I was always meaning to get that. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Special Extended Edition.... I was going to wait until the trilogy was released in its entirety, but... but.... it's on sale!
And there it stopped. Oh, I was tempted by others - The Osbournes series one has been released. Damn, that's funny stuff. But that, I think, would have proved excessive (nyuk nyuk).
So I go home, pop in The Ring, and select the "Don't Watch This" selection on the menu - it appears to be an much-abbreviated, artsy-fartsy version of the movie. And I couldn't watch more than two minutes of it. The imagery genuinely freaks me out. So I decide to watch The Color Purple instead. Man, it's been years since I've watched this film. And what a great film it is! I think I cried from about the very beginning through to the end. How fantastic was Whoopi Goldberg!?! And Oprah Winfrey is truly, truly one of the most inspiring "people" out there - so obviously full of talent and heart.
Anyways, lord, keep me from Best Buy. I just cannot go there anymore. Too much temptation for a media-material-whore like myself!
What's the big idea?
You know when an idea suddenly pops in your head, and you can immediately sense that it's going to become a reality? I had one of those last night. I was walking out to my car after work. It had been a day spent researching different options for a big trip during some vacation time I have in May. The plan, overall, was that I going to rent an SUV, drive out to Las Vegas to celebrate my brother's 21st birthday for a couple of days, and then venture out to the eastern Utah/Colorado area to go backcountry driving and take some photos... I'd spend 5-6 days doing that, and then drive all the way back to Glendale on Memorial Day.
But it struck me last night that it will be very expensive to rent a truck for a week, plus the cost of lodging in Vegas for a couple of days. Also, with the outrageous, sky's-the-limit gasoline prices of late, one must take the cost of driving around a gas-guzzling SUV a thousand miles or so very seriously.
So I was thinking, maybe I drive my own car out to Vegas, stay a couple of nights, and head back. Relax for a couple of days, and maybe take an abbreviated trip out to Death Valley or Joshua Tree or something, in a weekend rental. And I would only spend about a third of the original estimated cost. Hmmmm....
I'm feeling a bit irrelevant lately. That's why I haven't been posting too much. I don't really have much to add to the blogosphere at this time. I'm considering a re-design, because I'm getting a bit bored of this static pre-fab Blogger tamplate. So, I've been a bit hum-drum these last few weeks. But that's not to say I haven't seen, heard, or read anything that's been super-great and super-inspirational, in some way or another.
I've been obsessing over the BBC show The Office. And one of my new favorite guilty-pleasures is watching The Sweetest Thing (starring Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate) over and over again. I don't own the DVD or anything, but it's on cable practically every day.
On the whole internet side of the coin - Otis Fodder's been hooking it up with his 365 days project. I also came across the Cool and Strange Music Magazine compilation online, and fell in love with the "Cowboy For Jesus" track (who wouldn't?) And I've been shooting over to Rannie's photoblog every day for inspiration. I'm obsessed with photography now. Even as amateurish and unskilled as I am ("now, tell me again, what is an f-stop?"), I do enjoy it. I've got me a new Holga in tow, and as soon as I figure out how to get the film out of the camera, I'm good to go.
As a matter of fact, I've come across al ot of cool new blogs (well, new to me), and sometime soon I will get off my lazy behind and put up some new links. Well, that's it for now.
"Extensive consumer testing confirmed for Dr Pepper/Seven Up that people want new and exciting dairy drink products. The new 'milk with attitude' will be available in five distinct flavors: Piña Colada Chaos, Jamocha Frenzy, Berry Mixed Up, Chocolate Caramel Craze and Chocolate Insanity."
All I know is that I never, ever want dairy and excitement to go together... I'm already semi-lactose-intolerant enough.
a lot and not a lot have been happening lately.
I've been basically spending time at home. This weekend I bought a treadmill, but it has yet to be delivered. This was my weekend: (saturday) Drove to Sears, spent 20 minutes looking around, slapped down $650 for a treadmill, left without said treadmill (it will require delivery), bought lunch at Burger King, went home, ate Burger King, stayed home for rest of the weekend, slept, watched lots of television. And that's about it. I spoke briefly over the phone to a friend, and gave some unhelpful DSL instructions to my little brother, but other than that I had pretty much no human contact. I surfed the internet a bit. Again, I watched a LOT of television, including The Others, starring Nicole Kidman (really good, I thought), The Sweetest Thing starring Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate (wow - really, really funny), and the season premiere of Six Feet Under (what the fuck?). I'd say it was a well-rounded weekend. Other than that Burger King, I survived on a couple of bowls of Raisin Bran Crunch (so good). I got up super-early this morning as I was in desperate need of a trip to the laundromat, took a couple of dawn photos with my lomo, and came to work. A personal reminder: no more McD's for breakfast, as it causes profuse stomach acid problems... bad idea to begin with.
thanks to charles for the link
yikes.
in case you didn't know, i've been a huge fan of madonna since i was about 11 years old. so, as a matter of course, i wander through the dozens of madonna fan sites every now and again, just to check in, see what's happening, etc. and i was doing that very thing tonight, when i came across this very scary clip (mp3, 172kb) that i can only hope is a "rough mix" or a gag reel clip featuring a rap section from her new song "american life".
at work right now.
but currently obsessing over lomography - i wish i didn't have to work tomorrow so i could be out taking pictures. is this a sign of things to come for me? is this hobby of photography going to take over my life? i'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my holga. i have about 20 rolls of 100 speed film that's been stashed in my filthy car for some time now. i need to dig through the mess and find them. why didn't i bring my camera to work?
I just bought me my first medium-format camera. It's a Holga. I'm pretty sure I paid too much for it - but oh well - it comes with a nifty-looking book.
Anyone seen that creepy new Got Milk? commercial with that Damien-esque psychic kid going to a birthday party? I'm such a sucker for good television commercials. I went out and bought some milk last night, just because of that ad. Not really - I needed milk, and I also bought some "Cookie Crisp" cereal, if it's anything to ya.
As much as I drool over a well-made ad - I hate hate HATE bad ones - like car commercials featuring songs by Celine Dion or Phil Collins... blech!
My hands are ice-cold right now. It was a rainy day here in generally-sunny Southern California, accompanied by a bit of a cold snap. I think it may have gotten all the way down to 52 degrees(F)!! Brrrrr! And my little space, it has no readily-available heating. Dag-nabit! Perhaps it would help if I curled up in my warm flannel pajamas under my soft faux-down comforter and rubbed my hands against eachother quickly - heat by friction - yeah, that'll work. I just finished watching American Idol - and I'm only passively viewing 24 - can you believe it, I've never really watched this show... maybe there's something better on, like Lofty Ideas on HGTV - hmmmm.... brrrrr.
(links to windows media player file)
songs in my head this morning:
"what is love" - by howard jones
theme song from cheers
"like a virgin" - by madonna
theme song from the world beer games televised special (don't ask)
Okay. How rad would this be??
Silver Spoons / Gimme a Break / Punky Brewster DVD boxed set... or separately, I'll take whatever.
A girl can dream, right?
You know those screensavers that come pre-installed on the newish Macs? There's "Cosmos" and "Abstract" and "Beach", among others? Mac peeps will know what I'm talking about. Well, my question is about the "Forest" selection, specifically. Anyone know how or where Apple retrieved these photos? There are a couple I'd like to know more about.
It's Sunday, it's just after 1pm, and I haven't spoken to anyone this weekend.
My intentions were to scan in all my recently-developed film, but that has been suspended due to my forgetting of the AC adapter for my iBook at work - and I'm far too lazy to either drive to work and get it, or figure out how to make the scanner work on my iMac.
So in the meantime I've been watching tv and playing video games. I'm out of food at the house - which means that sooner or later I'm going to have to journey outside. I have left my cellphone in the car, so if people have been trying to reach me... oh well! I read on Yahoo! that the cruise ship that my brother is a musician on has come down with that weird gastrointestinal disorder. Maybe he has tried to call. Somehow, I doubt it.
Right after I type this, I'm gonna see if I can get a pizza delivered without having to call for one. I think Papa John's pizza out here offers online ordering. I'm not sure why I won't just get dressed and go outside. perhaps it's really nice outside! I wouldn't know. My domicile has only three small windows, and on all of the are closed blinds.
Am I becoming agoraphobic? Nah. I'm just lazy.
Update: I did manage to put some flip-flops on, walk outside, get my cellphone, call and order pizza, return a friend's call, and be polite to the pizza delivery guy. Way more human interaction than I expected today. Yay for me.
9 reasons it was a good day
1. it's friday!!
2. today did not feel as if i worked 30 hours instead of 10 before work was over.
3. even though i had to trek through laurel canyon and hollywood on a friday night - i made it home, sanity intact.
4. got 10 rolls of film from trips to utah, death valley, and up the central california coast developed, and had more than one good shot! (i'll be scanning and uploading this weekend, barring an unanticipated need to sleep all day, both days of the weekend.)
5. found that my lomo can indeed take aesthetically pleasing photos, given the appropriate subject matter.
6. received my replacement copy of the disk for the collector's tin DVD edition of Heathers. decided that this is my second favorite movie of all time.
7. shamelessly ate taco bell for dinner.
8. payday.
9. it could have been a lot worse.
...a public service announcement from lackofstyle.com
Philip Morris Co. has changed their name to Altria in an attempt to make people FORGET that they're the same company that has been rightfully persecuted for hiding tobacco's addictive qualities from the public for years and years... not to mention making billions and billions (in my best Carl Sagan) of dollars by doing so.
But did everyone know that he name Altria was coined from "altus" -- the Latin word for "high"?
Pretty funny! Sorry folks, even your nifty new logo doesn't ease my state of mind about your state of affairs.
there is something to be said for loafing. this weekend was spent hanging out with my 13-year-old brother, playing video games and watching movies and eating and surfing the internet. not much in the way of found material on the internet, but i'd say the highlight of the whole affair was seeing the hugh grant-starrer, about a boy, and playing the fabulous gamecube videogame medal of honor: frontline.
about a boy - i had been anticipating seeing this since it came out. i never got a chance to see it in theatres, so it was added to my netflix queue as soon as it became available on dvd. i'm pleased to say that i enjoyed it far more than i thought i would. i thought hugh grant was a good-deal better in this role that he had been in anything else i have seen him in recently.
medal of honor: frontline – folks, if you don’t have a gaming console (ps2, gamecube, xbox), this game is worth buying one for. it is awesome! it's a first-person-shooter, and takes place during wwii. you play as lieutenant james “jimmy” patterson, a rookie in the war at the beginning of the game in the d-day landing made even more famous in the film saving private ryan. the opening mission level is indeed almost as intense as the spielberg film. you're in one of those landing boats, headed for the wicked-dangerous shore. your boat gets hit, sending you and your fellow soldiers into the surf, and you can see and hear soldiers around you get hit by bullets whirring through the water. you swim up to the shore and are bombarded with gunfire, bomb blasts, and mines all around. the first time I went through the level was so intense. the fear was real, i was on edge, my heart was racing.
later on in the game, when the intensity sort of dies down for a minute or two, the outstanding musical score really comes forward. the score is haunting and really moving, giving you, as the player, the sense that what you’re doing is actually important – even though it’s just a game. it's definitely worth a rental. you know how sometimes you’ll buy a game and never play it because it’s too hard to figure out, or it’s boring, or it runs thin? i don’t think this game is gonna be like that at all. of course, i have only had it for the weekend, so who knows.
Driving home last night, I listened to the KPCC broadcast of the NPR program Marketplace with David Brancoccio. The broadcast was the third part in their "A Child's Work" Series, and featured the stories of young children forced into soldierhood from the West African town of Sierra Leone, a site which is still recovering from an 8-year civil war. These were children, boys and girls alike, abducted from their families, or orphaned by the war, forced to take up arms and travel into the most dangerous of combat situations. They were often mutilated and drugged into submission, girls were also used as sex slaves. They were also involved in some of the most brutal killings and woundings in the war.
The brutality of the commanders responsible for choosing, abducting and physically, sexually, and emotionally torturing these children are deserving of the most serious punishments available. These children are now somewhat grown, and many of them are not able to return to their homes, either because there homes are no longer there, or their families and townfolk are terrified by them. Their stories were compelling, heart-breaking, and terribly frightening.
I'll admit, I knew nothing of the atrocities and brutal fighting going on in the region. It wasn't something I paid attention to. Even right now, I couldn't tell you exactly when this civil war happened, or what the repercussions have been since, but the stories are intriguing, and I will be giving them another listen. You should give the program a listen for yourselves.
You'll all notice that I got rid of those lame-ass pics of me in the sidebar and replaced it with an "Image of the Moment". This is something new I'm trying. Putting up miniDV captures or photo scans of an image I've taken that I find particulary appealing... AT THE MOMENT.
It in no way reflects what I'm seeing at the moment, or where I've been recently, or even how I'm feeling. It's just a show-and-tell sort of bit. It just got too hard having to look at my own triple-faced-madness everytime I loaded up the page.
I'm so bored.
Things are so boring for me right now.
Monday night, I read Michael Crichton's Prey (see link to your left), in it's entirety in one sitting. Yesterday, after work, I passively watched FOX's premiere night for the second season of American Idol. I also spent about 35 minutes being really mad at George W. Bush and the whole Republican-heavy federal government after reading an entry in the Moby Log.
Over the weekend, I watched about 7-8 of the 20 or so DVD's I've recently purchased. Nothing else. Just that.
OH! And I went to the laundromat at 6am this morning. No one else was there. I walked laps around the empty room, needing desperately to do some sort of exercise.
Work, eat, sleep. Work, eat, sleep. I've fallen into that old cycle again. Bah.
This weekend looks promising however. Going to be hanging out with my brothers. Maybe seeing a movie or two. There are so many good movies out there to see right now, I'm almost paralyzed with indecision about what to see first.
I also think I'm finally going to get the film from my Death Valley and Central California excursions processed this weekend. I've promised a friend she could see the shots next week, and I try to keep my promises. Mostly.
Okay, back to the daily grind of boring work.
in case you didn't already know...
North Shore (starring Matt Adler and Nia Peeples), one of the best movies of the 1980's, has recently come out on DVD, complete with bonus features including an alternate ending, and current interviews with the actors. You'd all better go out and get it! I'll even make it easy for you, here's a link to purchase it now!
whew!
I've been a very, very naughty girl. I have, especially lately, the tendency to, shall I say, overextend myself financially. In the couple of weeks since Christmas, I've been on a bit of a spending spree. I figure, hey, the economy's in a slump - it's my job as an American Citizen to help us get back to where we belong!!
I have purchased roughly, oh, 20 DVDs from Amazon, and yet neglected to balance it out with my income. Oh dear! I caught a frightful surprise today. Upon checking my bank receipt after an ATM withdrawal, I found an extremely low number to be my remaining balance. Yikes! So, I returned home, and checked my account online, to find that, yes, that indeed was my balance, but that a semi-large cable/internet bill payment had not yet cleared - and, more heartstoppingly, my credit card balance was no longer included in my statement.
What happened to my credit card?!? Had that been shut off? Had they closed the account??!?? A sinking feeling took me over, and, after some deep breathing and stress-relieving eating, I called the bank, only to find that a minor glitch had neglected to show my credit card via online banking. That's where the "whew!" comes in.
Alas, I still have to overcome that overexpenditure, but I can rough that. My credit card (thank god!) will serve as an overdraft protection device. But the post-holiday spending extravaganza will now come to an abrupt, bittersweet end.
I had the weirdest series of dreams last night. Very, very odd. I won't go into detail for all of your sake's, but it was the first time I remember dreaming in color. I may have dreamt in color in the past, I won't deny the possibility, but this was the first time I actually remember vividly the colors in my dreams.
I so adore my dreams. I really value them, I think that dreaming is such a great gift. I once was on some medication that seriously affected my ability to dream, or to remember my dreams, and that was the deciding factor in me no longer taking it. Some dreams stay with me for a really long time. Some dreams I may have confused and now believe to be actual events from when I was a very young child.
But, boy, was this one a doozy! And I'm totally perplexed by its imagery. If anyone has a special interest or knowledge of dream interpretation, drop me a line.
LA Weekly has an amusing online feature this week. It has reprinted articles that appeared in a 1979 edition of the weekly Los Angeles-based publication that highlighted what Los Angeles would be like in the year 2002.
Particularly entertaining are the predictions held in the Dominic Sicilia piece, Los Angeles: June 2002. Some predictions made were that America would achieve zero-population growth, record companies would own rights to distribute legalized marijuana, and that large entertainment conglomerates would be persuaded to invest heavily into colleges and universities (yeah, right!). Some of the predictions, however, are eerily on the mark. It's definitely worth a read.
I spent most of yesterday watching VH1's very excellent marathon of their new special I Love the 80s - that is, when I wasn't going off on needless rants against hapless smokers. Can I say how much I love this series? I tuned in right around the middle of 1982 and stayed put until the end of 1986. What a warm fuzzy feeling I got inside when B-list celebrities were waxing poetic about E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (only the best movie ever made), the winning smile of West Virginian super-gymnast and gold-medalist Mary Lou Retton, or those wonderfully soft stuffed animals with a message of peace and love on their tummies known as the Care Bears!! Okay, so maybe they weren't really digging the Care Bears - but Care Bears rock, and I don't care if Henry Rollins doesn't agree with me!
As if I weren't a sucker for 80's nostalgia enough, I popped on the VH1 website when the 1987 episode rolled around (and really, after 1986, the decade really went downhill... except for the movie Heathers [1989], and the birth of The Simpsons and 21 Jump Street [both in 1987]). So, I was on the website, and they have a Retro Candy Flipbook photo gallery on there. And wouldn't you believe it, they had WhistlePops on there - WhistlePops! Man, I loved those things. It's candy, and can be used as a noisemaker - what's not to love?
Anyways... please oh please oh please let VH1 release this series on DVD (preferably as a boxed set, because I don't want to have to purchase a bunch of years separately)!
Boy, do I love the Sharpeworld website! It's always good for several really nifty links to the world of the weird and nostalgic at any given moment. Much more than I can say for my own interminable work in progress. Yesterday, I found on the site a link to Otis Fodder's new project "365 days" - which will feature a new mp3 from his very wide collection of rare and offbeat material every day. What an opportunity for an enthusiast to come across a few real gems! Anyhow, that's it for now.
So, I've been spending my time over the holidays at my dad's house. My little brothers are out of town, so I sort of want to keep the old man company. Plus, it's sort of comforting to have someone cook me dinner every night!
But Dad smokes. By god, he smokes like a god-damned chimney! And as I type this I can hear him hacking up one or both of his heavily-blackened lungs. Oh, there goes his gag reflex again! Scary, vomitous sounds are coming out of the kitchen. Every night, his loud snores are only abbreviated by his rasping, and gasping, and wet-sounding coughing throughout the night. And yet, he continues to smoke. My father may or may not get lung cancer from his lifetime of smoking. Who knows. But god-damn, doesn't he get sick of coughing all of the time? Jesus Christ, it's like having a TB patient in the house 24/7!
I understand that it's an addiction. That's all well and good. The guy's 62 years old. When he started smoking doctors and movie stars were advertising smoking's high points. I don't want to come off as preachy, BUT (here comes the part when I get all preachy)... why the hell do people start smoking nowadays? I tried to smoke once. Couldn't do it. When Clinton was lambasted for his comment about not inhaling, I completely understood what he meant. There's something averse to the whole breathing thing inherent in that whole smoking thing, and I just don't get it. Yesterday, while waiting in line for the movie About Schmidt (very good, btw), a man in line asked an older woman, in no polite fashion, to leave the line and go smoke elsewhere. I was like, "Yeah!", on the inside. But on the outside, I just continued to stare out into some unfocused horizon.
I hate being subjected to other people's fucking cigarette smoke. And I guess smokers will just never get this. Your smoke may seem all nice and warm and breezy to you, but for the exposed non-smoker, it's as if you're in a burning building. Well, maybe not that bad, but it's really uncomfortable, and even more than that, on a regular basis can lead to fucking lung cancer for the unassuming second-hand smoker. I know that all of my younger brothers have been diagnosed with asthma, and I have chronic bronchitis, which may stem from prolonged exposure to the second-hand smoke from my father. I say make the shit illegal... who's with me?!? No one? Oh yeah, I forgot... being anti-smoking isn't cool. Nevermind. I really didn't mean to get off on a rant, really I didn't!
pussy cow
As a child growing up in Southern California, and being a child of the 80's, I was bombarded with commercials, both from television and local radio. I was known, I've been told, for memorizing the jingles to more than my fair share of ads. An advertising coupe that was undoubtedly embedded into my psyche was the one brought about by "Cal Worthington and his dog, Spot"!
The problem with his ads was not me knowing that, if I ever needed a car or truck, I'd "go see Cal". I suppose I understood that in a way, but what I heard in those ads was, "If you need a car or truck, pussy cow!" Sure, it was weird, in retrospect, that I, for years, believed these to be the true lyrics to this famous jingle, but at the time (from about age 4 through, oh, I think it only dawned on me a few years ago that it wasn't "pussy cow"), it seemed perfectly logical.
Cal always had various types of odd animals in his commercials - bears, I think there was a tiger in there once, etc. - so it seemed fair that maybe there was a freakish "pussy cow" - some sort of large cat/bovine hybrid that he got from some traveling circus... in any case, some child-like part of me probably died upon learning that the true lyric was "go see Cal", and not my fond remembrance of it. Oh well.
Y'all feel free to check out an archive of some of the old Cal Worthington spots down over here. Thanks to Sharpeworld.com for the memory jarring, and the link.
vive le résolution!
For the imminent new year, one of my resolutions is to learn the french language. Not to read it, understand it when spoken, or even speak it well, just to be able to say stuff in french - you know, to sound cool and stuff? My plan is to buy one of them audio books on cd from, like, Barnes and Noble, pop it in the cd player in my car, and start learnin' me some french!
Anyone try any of those cd's before? Anyone have a preference on them? Is there an especially entertaining one any of you know of, like someone with a really annoying, nasally accent? Thanks.
wow!
I came across this on the Yahoo! news site. It's an image of a man looking at a sculpture on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia. I think the art piece is fantastic. It apparently is in the likeness of the sleeping artist, who remains nameless only because I have not found his name yet.
1:08pm - FOUND IT! The artist's name is Ron Mueck, and he's a London-based professional model-maker who worked on the film Labyrinth, among others. His sculpture will be on display at the MCA until March 2, 2003.
Now, as an "adult", when offerred "those" pamphlets, I politely say "No Thank You" and move along quickly, trying not to make eye contact. But I remember the entertainment of those pamphlets, and now, in the safety of my own heathen home, I can peruse them at my leisure. A personal favorite is "Dark Dungeons", whose summary reads: "Debbie thought playing Dungeons and Dragons was fun...until it destroyed her friend!"
Much thanks to Davezilla.com for the link
Okay. Now, I know you've all heard alot of cheesy Christmas music by now - but this song takes the cake. You're gonna need RealPlayer. This one is worth it - I had everyone in my office in tears for about three minutes.
I'm having one of those days today. I just feel uncomfortable - clumsy, and large. Ugh. I don't want to walk around because that feels weird. Sitting at my desk at the office is also, well, weird. I'm not sick, I'm not in any physical pain, and I don't think I'm coming down with anything, I just feel, well, not of myself today.
Maybe it's the season. I love Christmas-time, but this year my brothers are going to Michigan, and I've just been informed we're having a "gift-exchange" tomorrow night. Sort of short-notice, but I love shopping, so that's no big deal. But I'm not gonna be able to hang out with the bros over the holidays, and that kinda sucks. Christmas morning isn't gonna be the same - it'll be the first one without waking at the crack of dawn (8am-ish in the family household), with the glee of watching everyone open their presents. Also, I'm gonna be working both weeks of the holiday break with just the 25th and the 1st off, and I'm a little bummed about that.
But anyways, on the brighter side of things - last night was the work xmas party, followed by an 11pm group screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. AWESOME. I'm certainly not one to give movie endings or story archs away (tee hee), but for me, the BESTEST part of the film was Gollum/Smeagol. Amazing all around. Y'all should shut off yer computers and run out to the nearest cineplex to see it.... now... GO!
I went and saw a movie last night, which means I actually got OUT of the house to do something other than go to work. Yay for me. I saw Solaris, starring George Clooney, Jeremy Davies, as well as a couple other actors I'd never heard of before. It was nice. It was one of those relaxing movies, like "Jesus' Son", or some.. other... relaxing movie. It wasn't terribly mind-consuming. It touched on a few metaphysical issues, like what it is to be alive, or whatever - but didn't really bog the viewer down in them. I enjoyed the pace. Slow. I enjoyed the editing, alot, though. They didn't play into the stereotypical "whatever's on-screen is what you'll hear" method.
Anyhow, so before the splendid film, I went and grabbed myself a Grande Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks, along with a, what is it called?, cranberry surprise bar, or luscious cranberry ecstasy bar, or something like that. I found out the hard way that the topping wasn't delicious frosting, but, like a cheesecake-type cheese - YUK! - I am not a cheesecake person - too rich for my taste. The Peppermint Mocha was exactly what it claimed to be - a mocha - with more than a hint of peppermint in it... I'm all about the seasonal coffee beverages. The next one I'll be trying is the Gingerbread Latte... mmmm... I love Christmas!
What else? Oh, Far From Heaven is getting alot of acclaim nowadays, what with all the regional film critics associations dishing out their year's best lists. I couldn't be happier. That movie was really swell, and I'm really pleased that Todd Haynes finally made a watchable film. We all knew he had it in him!
Ugh. The news about President Bush becomes more and more annoying to me every day. Now I come across this news item. He wants to cut $300 million in financial aid for citizens of the U.S. who may otherwise freeze to death without it to fund his needless war in Iraq which more and more reeks of personal vengeance?? Wow. It just leaves a horrible, horrible taste in my mouth.
Happy holidays!
Here's another miniDV capture from my trek up the California coastline...
These pictures are FABULOUS! It must be so amazing to be an astronaut, orbiting high above the earth, being able to watch the earth like this. Go checkout this site for many more fascinating images.
Here's a sneak peek at an image from a selection of miniDV captures that will soon be appearing in the photos and road trip portions of my site. It's a shot taken at sunset of November 30, 2002, on the central California coast - just a hop, skip and jump north of Piedras Blancas.
That was last Saturday... I was staying at my father's house in Simi Valley, CA, and, after two days of doing nothing but eating, watching bad television and playing computer games, I had to get out and do something. So I quickly decided that right then was the time to take my fairly-annual road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway to my favorite spot on earth - a turnout off Hwy 1 that has a panoramic view of ocean, with no sound but the random passing car in the distance and the gentle rumble of the sea far below (geez - how's that for a run-on sentence!).
Photos do not do this spot justice. This miniDV frame capture was taken just south of "the spot". More images will follow.
Boy, I suck! No posts in a long-ass time. I am so lazy. Lots been going on. Just took an impromptu trip to see the ELEPHANT SEALS in Central Cali over the weekend. Still recovering from the insane drive. I'll post some miniDV captures a bit later when I get home...
Remind me to tell ya'll about my surreal visit to Six Flags Magic Mountain that happened last week... supa dupa weird.
a true patriot...?
Wow. Today I had not one, but two opportunities to be a good citizen.
First off, there was a blood drive over at my work today - I swear I woulda given blood... really.. only I've been sick, so I couldn't.... And, as most of us know, it of course was election day here in the U.S. I happily left work early (tee hee) to join the masses in celebrating the power of the proverbial people in a democratic society... right? There were masses, weren't there?
Oh yeah, I forgot. Voting is too hard! It's a pain in the ass, or perhaps, it doesn't matter anyway... boo hoo! What a load of bollocks! Get with it people! It always amazes me the number of people who don't vote. And for no good reason! It's not like they didn't have enough time, or they were clueless about it... it just wasn't on their lists of things to do. Really. How many of you went out and actually voted today? And if not, why the hell not?!? The worst excuses follow: a) "it really doesn't matter, my vote won't count anyway" (lame); b) "I don't know anything about the candidates or issues" - okay, then take a half hour out of your fucking Must-See-TV Thursday night and read over your fucking sample ballot... the establishment was nice enough to send it to your house! And if you're still confused about a certain seat or bill, skip it. It's not a test - you're not going to get a wrong answer!
I was at the local polling place tonight, and I heard something that was great, but still in a way, a let down. According to the current tallies, the voters in my home precinct were at a 47% turnout (including the current tally of absentee ballots)... which, apparently, is great! That's not 47% of the people actually living in the neighborhood, that's just 47% of the already-registered voters. What happened to the other 53% of people? And this is apparently a high number!!??!! It's crazy, and it's just befuddling, looking at the history of this country and how hard people fought for their freedoms to be able to have a say in who represents them...
And it's really crazy how many younger people can so eloquently rant about their disaffection for the status quo, and yet they admittedly refuse to vote, or forget to vote, or don't take the very simple effort to vote. You can't wield the power unless you use the tools... voting is perhaps our most potent one... if we ever actually got out there and did it. End of rant.
Iris was last night's Netflix viewing for me - I queued that up because I'm a big fan of Kate Winslet, and I hadn't a chance to see it in theaters. Imagine my surprise when the best part of the film wasn't Kate, but the performances by the great Dame Judi Densch and the fabulous Jim Broadbent. What fantastically-heartbreaking performances they gave in this wrenching telling of the loss of cognizance of esteemed writer Iris Murdoch! (Did I use enough adjectives in that last sentence?) Everytime director Richard Eyre closely-framed the eyes on one of those two, my own welled up with tears - it was almost too much. Very sad... and still I highly recommend it.
Here's an interview with Bjork.
Family Tree due for release next Tuesday... yay! There's $50 out the window.
Ooooh... it's not boding well in court for poor Winona, whose 31st birthday is today. Preparing for a role? Director made her? Well, that does sound plausible. From her recent film-role history, seems as if she might be hard up for a good casting.
Well, not really... but I wanted one first! Dag nabbit, why does she always have to beat me to the punch? When I was 9, I just knew the slutty-punk-bride look was gonna "make it big", and then, before I knew it, she was rolling on the floor of the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards... and that was totally gonna be my 4th-grade schtick!
And now she's gone and gotten herself a MiniCooper, the car I had planned for myself. Of course, I would never have made the fashion mistake of wearing a zipped-up designer jacket with my own name embroidered on it... sheesh. Come on, Madonna... stop stealing my ideas!
My boss and I have been playing a couple games of Rock Paper Scissors via ICQ, just to pass some time on this uniquely quiet Friday afternoon. AND I'VE BEAT HIM EVERY TIME! WOO HOO! Well, to be fair, there was one draw, but otherwise, it's all me. We did this several weeks ago, as well, to determine who had to call a particular client. I won. He said, "Two out of three"... I won those, too. And I still had to call the client.
Newsweek is publishing an article this week to hype the November 4th release of a newly published collection of Kurt Cobain's private journals, printed lyrics, and other random scribblings, imaginitively entitled Journals. I was a pretty hardcore fan when he died, and delved deeper into the fandom for up to a couple years after his death - trying to get my hands on any recordings, reading every article printed, purchasing the Rolling Stone commemorative book, learning all the songs on guitar (I already knew them all on the drums). The MTV Unplugged album was on heavy rotation on my cd player for about 2 years straight.
Kurt Cobain became something so far removed from a human being for me. As a fan, I made excuses for his flaws, his humanity, and put him up on a pedestal. I aspired towards his talents.
And then it subsided. The MTV Unplugged album is still, come to think of it, in my Top 5 Albums, but I haven't listened to it in at least a year. And I'm not a fixture on the fansites and message boards - I don't even know where to find them. The posters on the walls have long since come down, and the magazines and books have been stashed away. The Cobain-designed Fender Jag-Stang guitar has been safely stored in the closet, I might sell it, if I ever needed the money (where once I wouldn't dream of ever parting with it). And I don't believe I'll be purchasing this issue of Newsweek, or the book it's hyping - not because I have some strong disagreement with the ethics involved in printing someone's private journals, nor because I've become frugal in my advancing age (that is definitely not the case!)... I'm not really sure why, come to think of it.
Very humorous film review blurb from IMDB via six different ways...
To say the acting is "bad" is an insult to truly bad acting. The lighting, writing, sound, and camera work make my dad's Super 8 home movies look good. If you were to turn it on in the middle of the film, you would think you were watching a home video. Made by a child. In a coma.
I don't remember which site I scored this link off of, but it's damn funny!
Tonight, I'm pondering going to see the new Guy Ritchie/Madonna movie Swept Away, but I'm afraid... You see, I've been a Madonna fan since I was 10 years old. Even when I was listening to GBH and Minor Threat, my allegiance to Madonna did not falter. That was until I made the mistake of seeing Body of Evidence. Wow. That was one bad movie. And, combined with the release of her "Sex" book, and her not-that-great album Erotica, I was so underwhelmed by her whole scene, I just sort of lost interest. Not completely, but it was touch-and-go there for awhile. But then the aptly named Ray of Light album was released, and all was well again.
And now the frightening-looking Swept Away is out in theaters. I'll have to admit, I've been "swept away" by the less than positive film reviews. I'm afraid I'm going to see the movie and be so offended by the performance that I would shut down my fandom yet again. This has been compounded by the fact that I've seen the original, and the role is quite a task. Arghhh... I'm battling this out right now. To see or not to see, that is the question.
I have to see it... who am I kidding? So what if it's bad?!? I actually quite liked Shanghai Surprise (yeah, when you were 13, julie!!). Ugh. Decisions, decisions. Okay, well, I'm going to see it. There's no stopping me now. I'll report on it tomorrow, or when I recover, whichever is later.
a hurried attempt at a film review...
hedwig and the angry inch
viewed oct 22, 2002
dvd
My new Netflix account, I can foresee, is going to get alot of use. This is the first DVD I've culled from their 12,000 DVD selection, and all I can say is, I just might want to cancel my cable subscription, because I can see myself just watching DVDs every night for the rest of my life... NOT!
But Hedwig and the Angry Inch was a great first selection. I've never been one for musical comedy, but I found this screen adaptation to be a fantastic delight. John Cameron Mitchell's Hansel/Hedwig was truly inspired (gag). I cannot write this anymore. The movie was cool - it was funny - and I'd watch it again. I was especially moved by the part at the "Menses Fair", where Hedwig starts his schtick, and the lone gothic chick in the space where an audience should be lights up with a brilliant smile. Yes, I said "chick" - I'm a girl...I'm allowed, all you "chick"-snobs out there (you know who you are).
So yeah, good movie, right amount of heart+right amount of gag (funny gag) = I would watch again... although I can say that about alot of films I really shouldn't watch twice, like the Tracey Gold movie The Perfect Daughter - which is seemingly always on the Lifetime Movie Network (and I just can't help myself, I love those Tracey Gold movies!).
I'm such a loser. I have all this fun, exciting stuff to share, like going to Death Valley, all the neat movies I've seen lately, and my new-found addiction to KFC Zinger sandwiches... and I don't even find the time to post! Whatever. I suck.
I apologize... not much time to write lately - alot been going on.
My brother James' new band just signed a record deal with Sony/Columbia on System of a Down's lead singer's new label! I couldn't be more excited for him!
Work=A OK
Purchase of new Apple iBook is imminent. Come on, somebody, ANYbody... talk me out of it!
Saw an amazing documentary called One Day In September late last night about the terrorist kidnappings at the 1972 Munich Olympics. I was amazed at how incompetent the German police/goverment were in addressing the kidnapping and later killing of the 11 Israeli athletes. Shocking. Every attempt they made was skirted by ignorance and misappropriation of their limited forces. My reaction to it/them/overall was "What assholes!"
Madonna still beats Britney Spears!!
thanks to six different ways for the link!
I'd better do the Friday Five before I run out of time...
Short and Sweet...
1. What size shoe do you wear? Between 6.5 and 7 in women's, depending on the shoe.
2. How many pairs of shoes do you own? I currently have 5 pairs of shoes, but only wear 2 pair regularly.
3. What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)? I love sneakers. Why would anyone wear high heels willingly? Call me a tomboy, but I never got that.
4. Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite? I have a pair of Vans that have just recently been retired that were so comfy I could sleep with them on.
5. What's the most you've spent on one pair of shoes? Back in high school, I believe I spent about $130 for a pair of DocMarten's boots.
I have been listening to an awful lot (well, not awful, but a good deal) of public radio recently, and been hearing many well-spoken commentators and various stories of interesting subject. Here in L.A., the NPR (National Public Radio) affiliate is KPCC (who, right now, is doing their pledge drive-o-rama). That's pretty much where my radio is dialed to on the road home everyday.
A few weeks ago, I was sucked into a fantastic Mira Nair-reading of the short story "This Blessed House" from Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri which aired on This American Life. This story is so great, that independently, a friend of mine emailed me the same link to the read, saying how funny it was.
And the other night I amusedly listened to Geoffrey Nunberg, Stanford professor, briefly comment on the humorous pronounciation of the word "nuclear" as "nucular" by people who really should know better, which aired on the program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross", another great program from NPR.
I always feel so "academic" after listening to public radio... Lotsa good stuff to listen to out there, people!
Okay, so it's been a couple days since I've last posted. I apologize sincerely. The fact is, I haven't really had anything interesting to share (like always). Well, that's not necessarily true. I've been busy with and tired-out by work, but three distinct things have gotten me and the officemates through this nightmare week. Those three things are this, this, and this. If they bring you half as much joviality as it did to this office, you're bound for a good day... oh, did I forget to mention that it's PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME??
Ugh.
This morning has not begun well. Awakened by a wrong number caller, which I suppose was a blessing in disguise since my alarm didn't go off... again. Left the house without my lunch and the work orders for work that I neglected to finish anyway. Once at work, I had some Gatorade at my side. I usually give it a little shake before taking a sip. Went to shake, that familiar shaking sound changed a split-second after, and a feeling of wetness caused me to squeal a bit, realizing the top was not on the drink container! Gatorade all over the place - my keyboard, my shirt, my pants, the floor, my desk, some extra work orders, a mess of post-its. Perhaps I should just go home and start again...
don't these people have jobs to get back to? My favorite: man being eaten by bottom file cabinet.
...don't we?
link provided by Mark... thanks Mark (I think)
1. What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind? Sleeping, definitely. Sometimes, just to get out of work-mode, I'll come home Friday night, go right to sleep, and not get out of bed until late afternoon the next day. That's the A-#1 way for me to relax... Basic sloth is truly what I'm looking for as a means to relaxation - even the idea of sitting doing nothing can be relaxing for me. I wouldn't really say I "meditiate" or anything, but sitting in bed doing nothing is sort of the closest thing to it for me.
2. What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands? I drop my keys near my tv and run to the bathroom, cuz I always seem to have an urgent need to go as I'm walking to my doorstep.
3. What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells? Honeydew in spring, vanilla in summer, and pumpkin pie in fall (all from illuminations) - I don't know that they're necessarily aromatherapeutic.
4. Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself? Hanging out by myself - I do enjoy my time spent alone... hanging out is active time for me.
5. What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don't? I can really unwind playing video games, surfing the net, and other fare that diverts my attention from the seemingly-always-stressful work.
Ever wanna sing along to your favorite tune from Grease 2? Or, do you just really want to know what the words were from that Kenny Loggins song featured in the volleyball scene in Top Gun? Well, my friend, you are in luck.
The U.S. is going to war with Iraq, Israel has laid siege on Arafat's compound, and Courtney Love has the airwaves for 24 hours on MTV2... this could in fact be the apocalypse.
I keep having these dreams involving my bed: me, sitting next to my bed, on a floor, looking out a big window.... or, my bed in the middle of a huge room, deciding where to move it.
I could try to get all Freudian and try to pull some deeper analysis out of it, but the fact of the matter is, I'm tired of the space I currently use as a "home". I've been thinking of moving my bed around to possibly make it more spacious, but that just isn't going to work. I've been here for six years now, and I just can't take it anymore! It's too small! Or rather, I have too much stuff. It just doesn't all fit anymore. And I know I should move into a larger space.. but I'm just too cheap. The $450/month rent has spoiled me. I cannot imagine paying, like, $800/month... it seems so extravagant - and it wouldn't allow me to buy all the meaningless shit I purchase from week to week. I've come to a priorities crossroads here people... a fork-in-the-proverbial-road.
But you know what? I'm just gonna end up sticking around probably... it takes too much effort and much, too much in the way of decision-making for my taste. Nawww, I'll just stay here dreaming about a larger apartment, complaining to whomever will listen.
FRIDAY FIVE...
1. Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people? Yes and no. My brothers will tell you I call too often to check up on them - though my grandparents will say I don't call enough. As for friends, I have a tendency to over-communicate with them - sometimes to the point of being a bore.
2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why? I use email and phone about half-and-half. I prefer email, because it gives me the opportunity to come off as more clever (I'm a better writer than I am a speaker - so that should tell you how bad a talker I am...) I like the concept of actual "snail"-mail, but I almost never put it into practice.
3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? I use ICQ at work, and use it practically every five minutes (I just got interrupted by another one right there). I use Apple's very cool IM program iChat at home, but don't have too many buddies on that list - and use AIM on the work computer occassionally, for that same group of people.
4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? I don't have many close friends, but "they all" live relatively close.
5. Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"? "Out of sight, out of mind" is definitely the case for me. As I get older, I have less patience for those who don't bother to call or email.
12:29pm
...a prospective client was just introduced to me, and her handshake nearly took my arm off!
3:52pm
...my comments are down.. i know... (not that anyone cares)... they'll be back up sometime over the weekend...
I have found it!
I remember sitting in a movie theater in Westlake watching the wonderful Peter Weir film Fearless and being totally destoyed by the climactic scene in which Jeff Bridges and the fantastic Rosie Perez re-live their traumatic plane crash through a jarring attempt at self-destruction.
And I remember watching the so-so film Basquiat for the first time at home, and during the movie's final breath, hearing a familiar music sequence... but not being able to place it. I sat anxiously through the film's full list of credits, waiting for the final music credits... and not being able to read the text on the television screen. After a brief search on the internet, I gave up.
So, Basquiat was on again tonight, and I sat up and watched the movie in its entirety... waiting for those credits. Again, nothing visible... except for the flicker of the word "Verdi" on the screen.
After about an hour of internet searching, I found that the piece was not from Verdi's Il Trovatore, as I had thought, but from a modern composer named Henryck Gørecki... his Symphony No.3, Opus 36 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" is what I've been wondering about and longing to hear again for all these years. And now I've found it... what joy!
saturday... boring... have to drive out to simi... have to fix the 'lil bro's comp or dammit, just buy him a new one... have to do my laundry... have to avoid ethical disagreements with dad... have to figure out something to do so my weekend isn't as boring as it's starting out... why are no network/cable channels airing "saturday the 14th"... hello?... come on... it is saturday the 14th already people... i want to have dinner at don cuco's... went last weekend with david and it totally rocked... i need diversion... i'm so happy it's saturday and not monday... i'm so happy it's saturday and not monday... okay already.
Hot Damn! Way to go, Millie!
I finally got my lame website a link on a bigger and better blog!!
Yay!
While I have to take aim at some of Millie's "likes" (Woody Allen, The Who, cigarettes... and Kevin Corrigan?? - oh wait, I always get him confused with Keith Coogan... nevermind), and certainly disagree with her "dislikes" (come on, possums are so cuuuute!!), I most certainly cannot disagree with most of what she likes: sleeping, free stuff, David Sedaris, clean design, taking pics, ample mass transportation, and FREE STUFF!! I am kinda new to this community of webloggers, but I finally feel like I'm "in"...
Woo hoo!, ain't being acknowledged by the popular kids a blast?
Portrait of a Father-Daughter Relationship...
dad: Hello?
me: Am I speaking to the senior-citizen of the house?
dad: What?
me: Am-I-speaking-to-the-senior-citizen-of-the-house?
dad: Oh, it's you.
me: So what's going on?
dad: Ohhh, nothing.
me: I'm just calling to say "Happy Birthday".
dad: Okay.... well, thanks...
me: Are you doing anything tonight to celebrate?
dad: No, not really. Just making some chili dogs.
me: Sounds like a blast... well, I can't make it out there tonight. I'm working late, but I'm coming out there tomorrow...
dad: Wha?
me: I said I'll be cruising out there tomorrow.
dad: Oh, okay.. well, I'll see you tomorrow.
me: Okay then, well have a happy birthday!
dad: Okay bye... (click)
It's About That Time....
1. What was/is your favorite subject in school? Why? In my college studies, I'd have to say Physical Anthropology, because it really brought out my inner science geek. All that discussion about evolution and genetics and primates was fascinating. In high school and junior high, it was music. Music was my identity during this time and probably was what got me through high school in one piece.
2. Who was your favorite teacher? Why? Mr. Myers, senior year AP English teacher. He was a really tall guy whose hair was slicked back a'la Pat Riley and wore suits to work everyday and always wore socks that complemented the tie he was wearing. He was a fun, yet serious instructor who, for me, made literature interesting and enjoyable. It was the first time I went an entire year without a missing or late book report!
3. What is your favorite memory of school? My favorite school memory was actually something I wasn't even there to witness first hand... It happened in my senior year, on "senior ditch day". I took the bait on this unofficial school-holiday and hung out with some other band kids at a friend's house. This was the day, unbeknownst to me, that my fave teacher, Mr. Myers, decided to hand back our largest assignment of the year - graded, for us to review.
The assignment was this: choose three works by a single author and write a 15-20 page paper on those works. But he explained that he wanted us to get creative with the papers. So after much back-and-forth and indecision on my part, I chose to do mine in screenplay format, on my fave author of the moment, J.D. Salinger. I hand-typed it in one long night on an old typewriter and handed it in early, hoping for bonus credit. The outlandish-plot of this screenplay was that, because our teacher won some contest for teacher of the year (me=kiss ass), our class won the prize of a visit from J.D. Salinger himself to discuss his works. Highly unlikely, I know, but I had to come up with something!!
Anyhow, I really didn't have much to say in the analysis of those books, so I relied upon fictionalized interactions between my classmates, using their highly-stereotyped personalities as fodder for more pages of dialogue. I tried to have everyone in the class represented in the script somehow, I guess somehow relating that I had an understanding of who they really were, and trying to add some sort of heightened-reality to the "story". I tried to show everyone in as bright a light as possible, and was only humorously-scathing in my treatment of personal friends - thinking that maybe they'd get a kick out of it later.
I guess I really had no idea how much Mr. Myers was going to enjoy my paper. Sure, I wanted him to, but I wasn't sure if I had gone too far in the format of the paper, and not gone far enough in its content.
I guess he liked it.
After passing out other's papers, he, in my absence, READ MY "SCRIPT" ALOUD TO THE CLASS!! I didn't hear about this until after school had let out, and a classmate dropped by the house where I was "hanging out" and shared the news. I could not believe it. At first, I was pleased to hear that the teacher enoyed it - then I was struck by a feeling of violation by his public reading.. I had never written this with the intention of others reading or, for goodness-sake, hearing it! Needless to say, I was a little anxious about the next class meeting... but I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of thinking my paper was crap, everyone seemed to have enjoyed it and thought it was clever. Relief! And the paper came back to me with an "A" followed by about 10 plusses, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, that paper was forever lost the very next year to flood damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake... oh well!
4. What was your favorite recess game? Handball. Highly interactive game involving lining up and taking your turn - very hard to be shunned.
5. What did you hate most about school? Homework. I was and continue to be terribly lazy, and I was always failing to do my homework... I always found it either boring or too hard. It took me until my senior year of high school to realize the value of homework and studying.
sunset view from car