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[May. 22nd, 2008|10:45 am] |
I'm kind of thinking of just hanging out in Golden Gate Park with a book all afternoon Saturday. It's odd, but I can't really think of anything I want to do in San Francisco besides look at the bridge. Maybe go to a museum...? I don't know.
Oh, also I need to figure out where to eat dinner. |
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[May. 22nd, 2008|10:55 am] |
Warning: I'm about to go back in time and sound like myself at the age of 11, squealing over Jonathan Taylor Thomas. You have been warned.
The new Johnny Depp movie, Public Enemies, where he's playing notorious gangster and bank robber, John Dillinger, is being filmed in the neighborhood surrounding my work. He was shot and killed in the alley behind the Biograph Theater, which backs up to my building (so, we share the Death Alley). The crew and set-builder people (I'm so technical) have been around for about two weeks building fake brick and wood facades over the buildings surrounding the Biograph (Subway, CVS, Qdoba, various restaurants) and adding new store signs. It's just so COOL. Like walking back in time. I've take a few pictures which I haven't gotten around to uploading and am going to try and get more if the crew would just stop telling me to move. HAHA. Anyway, the actual shooting starts today and runs for the next couple of nights and I REALLY WANT TO TRIPLE KISS WITH JOHNNY DEPP AND CHRISTIAN BALE. Billy Crudrup, too, but his character is unlikely to be in these scenes so I doubt he'll be around to makeout with. I've been planning on celebrity stalking BUT they're filming from 11pm-11am. Uncool. I'm not hanging out at work in the middle of the night. Why can't Johnny just like, be at my Starbucks and tell me I am fabulous and we should go to dinner. Nevermind that he has children and that French life partner lady (NOT married, hellllllooooo). I need a little celebrity in my life. Especially hot celebrity. We could drink martinis and laugh and fall in love. And I could live in France and eat baguettes and brie all day while hanging out with my new stepchildren Lily-Rose and Jack. Come on, Johnny, my teeth are SO much better than your current lady's. And, really, great teeth are what matter. To sweeten the deal, Johnny, I'll give you free reign over my eyeliner. Call me. |
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| new album |
[May. 22nd, 2008|11:41 am] |
New Okkervil River Album Due in September
We don't know much just yet, but we do know this: On September 9, Jagjaguwar will issue The Stand Ins, the fifth full-length album from Austin, Texas' Okkervil River. The set is described as a sequel to last year's exquisite The Stage Names LP, which its equally Tinseltown-ready title would allude to. You'll recall that The Stage Names was originally conceived as a double album, as Will Sheff touched on in our interview with him from last summer. Guess this is that, then?
As for Okkervil, they are now officially down one Meiburg, but that's not gonna stop them from touring the heck outta the rest of the year.
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| WHY IS 2008 SUCKING SO MUCH? |
[May. 22nd, 2008|10:06 am] |
Reality Shows
American Idol is bullshit (but you already knew that didn't you?). Carly Smithson and Michael Johns should've been the final two. This season has sucked so bad. In fact, all the talent-based reality shows have been bad this year. Most all of the contestants are either hacks or semi-professionals, and they all have attitude problems. Boo.
Watching last night's Top Chef, all I could think is that they should just put all the judges into a house together and make that into a show. It'd be more entertaining. Padma was sooooooo obviously high last night. Ted was flirting with Anthony Bourdain. And Tom Colicchio looked pretty cute in his scarf. And as per usual, there some dude with a thick accent saying hilarious foreign things.
Anyhow, I hope So You Think You Can Dance? doesn't follow the pattern of suckitude. It is the bestest show ever.
Video Games
Wii Fit hula-hooping is hardcore. My abs hurt. It's actually a pretty decent mechanism for working out with yoga, weight training, aerobics, and balance challenges (which are the most fun). It allows you to track your weight, BMI, and overall progress. You get rewards (earn new games and new levels) for working out for certain periods of time. Still, I can't fathom it being a serious weight-loss tool, though, unless they put our more strenuous games for it.
Bully: Scholarship Edition is weird. Why is Jimmy always kissing random girls? Why is he not kissing Gary? It's a boarding school - there's supposed to be homoeroticism. Oh, according to Wikipedia, Jimmy can kiss certain boys in the original Bully game. |
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| you know i've got spots, mind if i've got stripes, too? |
[May. 22nd, 2008|09:29 am] |
So I *think* *pray* *hope* I have finally finished that damned catalog. The pdf is mailed, the disc is burnt. I am not making any more changes without a lot of pouting. Professional pouting, but pouting nonetheless.
That being said, I still have to be at work today and half of tomorrow. See that thing flying out the window? That's my motivation. Say hi to it for me , won't you?
I want to be at the beach. I will be in less than 36 hours. I have a lot to get done before then. Including:
--E-mailing professors to tell them I won't be in class.
--Finishing online assignments
--Making hummus
--buying booze
--doing laundry
--packing
I want to be in bed right now. I think the knowledge that I'm 36 hours away from a vacation has allowed my body to go into hibernation mode early. Stop that! I still need to be functional for a while! Then I will pump you full of liquor, beer, fried fish and other substances and we will be all good, ok? ok.
I also need to stop losing weight, because it doesn't help the whole "OMG I am so tired" thing. It's not easy right now and I don't know why. I mean, I do know why, but it's not like I'm not good at curbing this shit by now.
It's only 9:30am.
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. |
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[May. 21st, 2008|11:19 pm] |
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Please to take this poll regarding Alice. And the restaurant. |
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| Woah... *that* was vertigo. |
[May. 21st, 2008|10:45 pm] |
| [ | heart :: |
| |  the worse for wear | ] |
So there's this graduation thing happening tomorrow.
I'm not sure quite what it means, me being so... old. I'm a late blooming adult.
All -- like, all -- of my family is here. Some of whom I haven't seen in years. Everyone is the same, but more so. Knowhattamean?
Perhaps it would have been wiser not to have imbibed so much excellent Chardonay. What with the 5am wake-up call. (Uncles are dangerous.)
I hope ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) seagull gets here sooner rather than later. Booze + 8:30am grad =/= good fun times.
***
O JESUS EFFING CHRIST I'M AN ADULT FER REALS YO. |
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| it's for... |
[May. 21st, 2008|02:32 pm] |
"Gio, Mom and Ali. That's it for the labor part," I told Meg when she asked who we plan on having at the birth. "And me," she replied. I'm surprised but apparently she does want to be there and I think that'll be nice. She's really good in serious situations. But now I have 4 people. Too many? In my head I imagine laboring in the birthing pool with just Ali in the room. We'll stock our fridge so the other helpers are fed while they wait. Meg bakes some amazing cookies so I figure that might be her helping-with-the-birth job. She's coming to town soon for a couple weeks before heading to Tanglewood for the summer. In the time she's here, she's throwing us a baby shower. I felt awkward about it at first but now I am so excited and happy to be fully entering BabyLand.
Meanwhile in the small BabyLand aquarium that is my stomach, our little cub has had hiccups lately and I have been having what I think are Braxton Hicks contractions. They give me confidence and make me excited and anxious at the same time. This is really happening.
Other things that are happening:
*days off for Memorial day and then a trip to Florida because I must travel before I get too big to do so. The next few weeks will be short work-weeks and that is good.
*a midwife appointment in just 2 days. Oh how I look forward to them. It's like we finally get to turn the page of this book we're reading (writing?) and I'm always excited for the new information we'll find.
*low back pain, which occasionally leaves me temporarily unable to walk. I bend over and stretch and shortly things are fine, but it's giving the people around me reason to laugh. I'm like a 100 year old woman or somethin'.
That may be all. |
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| the ups and downs. |
[May. 21st, 2008|08:34 am] |
- after all my excitement about google reader, the page no longer loads. everything at the top does, but no content. none. i have no idea what to do.
+ got a very sweet note via facebook from the girl that i shipped a tote bag to, a couple of days ago. that always makes it worth it.
- driving home last night, a rock chipped my windsheild. the winsheild i just replaced a couple months ago. approximate value: $150.
+ while fishing through my trunk to find the windsheild chip fix-it kit, i found the watch that i lost in february. approximate value: $150.
-/+ i guess it's a wash.
+ added a cute new tote to the shop:
ren heart tote :: at minorthread.etsy.com
but seriously, if you have any idea how to fix this google reader things, i'll love you forever.
i guess i'll try clearing the chache.
edit: duh, that worked. carry on! |
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[May. 21st, 2008|10:31 am] |
There is so much drama in the LBC our apartment right now and it is all stemming from my codependent roommate and her psycho scumbag boyfriend. Last week he stopped calling her and just went missing for like, three days. She spent the week laying in his bed sobbing because she knew he was off cheating on her for days on end. He calls her on Saturday and breaks up with her (because he couldn't do that beforehand) and I walked into the apartment Saturday afternoon to Katie screaming at him on the phone telling him he can fucking die and he should drive his car into a wall. She spent Saturday-Monday completely drunk and alone in her room, emerging from her room only to make Hot Pockets and chicken nuggets before scampering back into her room to chug more beer and cry. I probably sound totally unsympathetic, but really, this happens way too much and she LETS him treat her like complete shit. Lauren and I have both tried talking to her about how this is a GOOD thing, how he drags her down and the only reason he ever dates her in the first place is because he pays for his drugs/food/gas/whatever. He cheats on her, breaks up with her, realizes he needs drugs/food/gas/whatever and the whole cycle continues. It's lame, pathetic and sad but we THOUGHT that this was the last time. I told her that yeah, break-ups fucking suck. You're gonna be sad, you're gonna miss him, you're gonna cry, but it's not like NO ONE else in the world hasn't gone through the same thing. But she's weak and last night she strolled in the door WITH the scumbag with this sheepish look on her face before closing the door to her room. In disbelief I went to tell Lauren who freaked out because she has been dealing with Katie's shit for years and it's unfair for her to have to watch her former best friend turn into this helpless shell of a person. I really do feel bad for Lauren because she remembers how Katie USED to be: smart, outgoing and funny. I never got to see that side of her, so I'm witnessing all this shit not feeling bad for her at all, thinking that she's really doing this to herself. Anyway, Lauren and I are telling Katie we don't want the scumbag around our apartment anymore. I feel like Katie's disciplinarian parent, but really, I don't need a creepy druggie with a porn addiction hanging out in my apartment. When he's around my apartment turns into a Jerry Springer set... screaming, throwing, punching, vulgarity and talk of all the sluts he's banging on the side. No thanks.
Speaking of Jerry Springer... this would be a way better story if this happened to me, or if I was at least there, but still AMAZING:
Carla: i met jerry springer last night. he is like, 80
Anna: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Anna: kanye AND jerry springer?
Carla: I KNOW!
Anna: where did you meet him?
Carla: I am a celebrity magnet
Anna: HAHAHA
Carla: in the viagra triangle
Anna: obviously.
Carla: some australians we used to work with are in town so we took them to din @ lux bar and we were walking outside to tavern and i was like, "that's jerry springer!" to melissa
Anna: HAHAHA
Carla: and he overheard me, and grabbed my arm and was like, "that's a nice color on you, what's your name?" LOLOL
Anna: ew jerry springer TOUCHED you
Anna: he HIT ON YOU
Anna: JERRY SPRINGER HIT ON YOU
Carla: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA and he's seriously like, 75
Carla: apparently he hits on anything that walks
Anna: SERIOUSLY THIS MAKES MY WEEK
Generated by im2html.
My brother was in the CITAY yesterday taking some placement tests at Columbia and wandering around aimlessly looking for a job (he's dead set on being a bellhop at a hotel because he wants to "look like a toy soldier"). He met me for dinner and then I put him on a bus with specific instructions on where to get off to get to his friend's condo downtown and I told him I seriously felt like Sally Field putting little Forrest on the bus. Only thing missing was Dorothy Harris. |
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[May. 21st, 2008|11:15 am] |
>Keywords:
Hangovers; Alcohol; Drinking; Headaches; Dehydration; Amis, Kingsley; RU-21 |
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| i promised |
[May. 20th, 2008|11:24 pm] |
so here's the thing.
i've missed you, lots! i realized yesterday when i had to bow out of giving my writing group a piece to critique for june for "a dearth of non-navel-gazing scribblings" that i'd fallen out of touch--not just with livejournal but with the word. i love writing! much like i love biking, and i love LIVING, and being engaged, interested, entertained, and constructive.
but the past month or so i've been a little stagnant on many fronts.
there's good news--the job is treating me well, though i am not overachieving. the life is treating me well--summer has arrived in portland, and unlike texas, summer is not miserable. it's days without rain, and with sunny wonderful "do i really need sunscreen? no." it's scantily clad beautiful people, fresh scents, and everything still green and happy. it's me sitting on the balcony drinking a beer with my cat as the flautist and fiddlist who have taken up roost in front of the trader joe's across the street compete for the spare change of passersby. a free concert from the comfort of my own perch overlooking glisan street? hell yeah. oh, and there's a lovely lady in my life who keeps me hopping and happy and is now prepped to start biking with me--convenient, what with the whole pedalpalooza thing coming up...that means INTENSE BIKE FUN WITH GIRLFRIEND INCLUDED! yay!
in other news of engagement, i successfully hosted the first portland ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) nucleartacos event, with an attendance of over 20. some people regretted their attendance the next morning, including myself. that's how i spell success! i'll be doing at least one more, and many more, if people keep coming. so that's good.
strange, i've gotten into yelp lately. mostly, i keep telling myself, as a way to keep track of the zillion-and-one eateries that i've visited and as a method for finding the next target...which is a trivial operation here in portland, (which is almost as foodie as austin)--anyway, be a good social-networky sheep and friend me up: http://fool.yelp.com
oh, and i got to participate in the first oregon primary in years that's mattered. that was kinda neat. and my guy got elected for mayor, too, even if we lost on the city council.
but the bad news is that i went up a pants size, started feeling my knees hitting my belly while i bike, and despite the epic rides and the occasional crosstown jaunt to do a thing (such as playing ultimate frisbee...probably the funnest team sport i've ever participated in besides drinking. especially because it includes drinking!)...i'm not riding enough. i'm not eating less and i'm not getting fat or anything...but i'm not feeling my oats (whatever that means) either. so, in lieu of cutting out my drinking, i'm trying to ride more. and in lack of motivation (what, the perfect weather and 4 hours of daylight after i get off work aren't enough?) to ride, i promised myself the following:
i will either ride or write every day.
i think you will be the beneficiaries. you and my waistline.
happy trails, friends. austinites, the time is ripe to visit me. escape the wet heat and come to the lush verdant northwet, which is not so much wet at the moment. but always green. and accommodating. and hot means 90 degrees.
i love you! |
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| music. is. love. |
[May. 20th, 2008|10:27 pm] |
I've been playing a lot of new music lately. Sight reading random stuff. I have so many music books these days! I've gotten a lot better at sight reading, and I've expanded my interest in and ability with styles of music... it's exciting :)
I've also been downloading a lot of classical music on Amazon.com. I need to watch it--it seems so cheap, a dollar here and a dollar there, but it's adding up! But it's awesome to have more stuff to listen to.
Today when I was driving back from teaching lessons I had a really big smile on my face, and I actually said aloud to myself "This is so awesome--I can't believe this is my job!!". |
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| i'm not lost, i'm not lost, just undiscovered |
[May. 21st, 2008|12:50 am] |
PASSE_SIMPLE HOW AM I GOING TO GET MORE THAN AN HOUR OF SLEEP TONIGHT?! |
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[May. 20th, 2008|08:15 pm] |
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hey dudes, guess what? i'm going on a vacation! a real adult vacation. carlos and i are spending memorial day weekend in beautiful seattle washington. this is the first time i've had a proper vacation since 1997! we have some stuff planned, but we are open for suggestions, especially as far as food goes. salumi is closed weekends so don't even go there. tell us where to go and what to do and WHAT TO EAT (for cheapz). |
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[May. 20th, 2008|07:48 pm] |
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It's been busy. Allergic to dust disturbed by moving inside and everything outside especially pollen and dust. Finally gave in and took Claritin tonight--we'll see how tomorrow goes. Pretty much packed. Lots of cleaning to do. Zack is working way harder than me except I earned $50 going out and doing data entry today. Also I know when I'm getting home from the trip--flying into New York July 28th and immediately getting on a plane to Portland, arriving 11pm-ish. I can already tell that unpacking's going to be a little horrendous. I've been doing less sorting and more stuffing on this end of it. Um what else. Not really sure about anything. Really really need to figure out what I'm doing in between Israel and Romania, but that's pretty much the only thing left to figure out. I have a charger for my iPod and flash cards and batteries for my camera. |
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[May. 20th, 2008|02:22 pm] |
I'm feeling really post-y lately and it had absolutely nothing to do with my having anything useful to say (because I don't) and absolutely everything to do with the fact that I've been sitting at my desk all day counting dead cells to live cells in chicken midbrain images on photoshop. And I want to kill myself.
So, I took a break to read the news. I managed to forget, despite the media onslaught, that the R. Kelly trial started today and read a couple articles about that, including one that described all the jurors in really hilarious ways: Bush Hater: wears "impeach Bush" button on backpack; The Christian: Only knows Kelly for he song "I Believe I Can Fly"; The College Graduate: prior convictions for marijuana possession and underage drinking. My roommate, Lauren, was summoned for jury duty recently and I'm really disappointed she's not on the R. Kelly trial. I mean, sure, you get paid like, seventeen bones A DAY... but man, maybe it would be worth it to see a video of R. Kelly peeing on someone. (I swear, I have a strange premonition that I'm going to get some hate mail from people being like OMG CHILD PORNOGRAPHY IS NOT A LAUGHING MATTER. And it's not. But I'm still going to make fun of R. Kelly.) ANYWAY, one of the articles was all "Kelly won a Grammy for his "I Believe I Can Fly" and other works such as "Ignition" and "Trapped in the Closet". And I thought, "Trapped in the Closet"?... I don't know what that is...? So I youtubed it. And I've spent pretty much my entire day watching all twenty-two chapters. And, so you don't have to do the same (though I'm not suggesting you don't, it kept me mildly entertained!), here is the five sentence synopsis Carol asked me for when I was finished watching:
Sylvester cheats on his wife, Gwendolyn, with her friend, Kathy, who's pastor husband, Rufus, is having sex on the down low with Chuck. Gwendolyn's also cheating on Sylvester with James, a policeman married to a fat redneck named Bridget, who is cheating with and pregnant by a midget stripper named Big Man. The nosy neighbors spy on the pastor when he's on the phone and realize his gay lover, Chuck, is in the hospital
with "the package" and soon everyone realizes that they, too, probably have "the package" because R. Kelly and his friends are a bunch of whores. That's the main plot line, but then there is also Gwendolyn's brother, Twan, who just got out of jail and is trying to get back at the "bitches" who set him up and caused him to go to The House, only one of those "bitches" was pregnant with his child at the time and now he sorta wants to reconcile and be a man. But it's too late because she's a lesbian with the other "bitch" who set him up.
(There are also some mobsters and a pimp, though they aren't really a major part of the story. I have a feeling they're in there to set up any future plot lines if Mr. Kelly decides he wants to CONTINUE ON with more chapters.)
Now I'm listening to "I Believe I Can Fly" (and having flashbacks to my 8th grade graduation where we sang that. And "Lean on Me". And we swayed. And clapped. And laughed when we said we'd carry someone's load.) and wishing this week would just be over already. |
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[May. 20th, 2008|12:06 pm] |
just spent an hour in the car outside work, filling out my ballot at the last minute.
its the first time i've ever been excited about a primary.
weird. |
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| if you call, I will answer |
[May. 20th, 2008|09:58 am] |
Dear Nature,
Pick a season. For serious.
Chillingly yours,
Casey
Dear Federal Government,
Thanks for deferring my loans even though I'm only part time. You get a muffin basket.
Love and blueberries,
Casey
Dear Strawberries,
You are yummy. I enjoy eating you.
Nom Nom Nom,
Casey
Dear Car,
Please don't die. I need you. I'm sorry that Mark broke your door and that I can't afford to get you serviced. Please hold on. I promise once I have money we'll get you some shiny new parts.
Your driver,
Casey
Dear co-workers,
Repeat after me: Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Got it? Good.
Your art department slave,
Casey
Dear specific co-worker,
My name is not any of the following: Jerk, Girlie, Dork, Nerd.
Many thanks,
Casey
Dear Iorek,
Please eat your pellets and your alfapha, you can't just eat the lettuce and the treats. You need vitamins. And to not have piggy digestion problems. Eat the damn pellets and stop hiding them under your bowl like I'm not going to notice.
Your mommy,
Casey |
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| [this strange little island] |
[May. 20th, 2008|01:49 pm] |
With the amount of time I lose every day to looking at places to live in Austin, I could have written another novel in the past two weeks. It's too early, obviously- we are not in a position to sign a lease on a place for June and leave it empty for three months or anything. Some pre-lease options are available, but I doubt we're going to go that route, as it isn't terribly efficient. No, I'm not looking for a place to live because I'm trying to accomplish anything. I'm doing it because, when you live in a box like this one, fantasizing about the amount of space you might have when you live in Texas is like pornography.
 
 
 This is where we live now. Since Kat's placement is only two days a week until June, we're both home an average of four days a week. Accordingly, we hate one another. I'm not really at liberty to quote Virginia Wolfe all that freely, but I think I get what she was talking about with a room of one's own.
The sky's curious over this quixotic little island today; out the bedroom window (which is huge- the giant windows are this apartment's best feature) there are grey clouds that threaten- well, drizzle, not real rain. From the other room, the sky's blue and one could almost believe that it's springtime. It'll switch in a few minutes, I'm sure, and I'll go sit on the bed and browse the chronicle's housing listings and Austin Craigslist from in there. It needn't be so bad. By the time August 23 rolls around, in 95 days (2,280 hours), I expect I'll be quite attached to this place, will find myself utterly perplexed when trying to figure out what a person is supposed to do with the other room of a place when they're not in it. In the meantime, there's a house on North Guadalupe with 1,300 square feet just a bit outside our price range, that's available August 15th. Maybe I'll drop them an email and see if they're willing to come down any. Do they do that in America? I can't even remember anymore. |
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| Season Finale Roundup |
[May. 19th, 2008|11:45 pm] |
1. ( HIMYM )
2. ( Gossip Girl )
3. ( BONEZ )
Between last Thursday and tonight, THIS HAS BEEN AN EXHAUSTING BATCH OF SEASON FINALES. Time for a tv break, I think. |
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| don't you hate CAPTCHA sometimes? |
[May. 19th, 2008|09:27 pm] |
like, what the fuck am i gonna do with that?
can ANYONE read that?
i hate everything... |
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| SOME RECENT SNL HIGHLIGHTS |
[May. 19th, 2008|02:06 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | snl | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | 78712 | ] |
| [ | heart :: |
| |  bored, obviously | ] |
I feel like I post every other week about how hit-or-miss Saturday Night Live is. Sorry for the redundancy, but here are some hits.
( Hardee har har ) |
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| HALP! |
[May. 19th, 2008|08:53 am] |
WHAT ARE SOME GOOD COVER SONGS?
I'm taking recommendations for anything, but I'm really interested in the following:
- Good hip hop covers. By which I mean hip hop tracks that are cover of other songs (as opposed to songs that are covers of hip hop tracks). I'll also take any recs for hip hop tracks that heavily sample a well-known pop song or are mashed up with a well-known song. An example of the former would be Sean Kingston's 'Beautiful Girls' which makes not-so-subtle use of 'Stand By Me'. An example of the latter would be anything off the Grey Album.
- Cover songs that encourage fast, fun dancing. My fiance and I have already amassed a good collection of hipster covers and other songs that are made for slow dancing or medium grooving, so I'm focusing on covers that get the heart rate up.
If you know any awesome remixes, I'll take those, too.
I'm asking for cover songs for our wedding reception, so please avoid recommending songs with heavy swearing or sex talk so as to avoid offending the old people or corrupting the young ones. ;)
Thanks in advance.
( Meanwhile... ) |
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| It's 16 miles to the promised land, and I promise you, I'm doing the best I can |
[May. 19th, 2008|09:22 am] |
I'm leaving for pappy's beach house in 4 days. I am not going to class on Saturday. Fuck that noise. I need the beach house and I need it for the full weekend. It's worth losing 3 points. Damn the man, save the empire.
I am a tired panda.
Moderately disillusioned with the state of my education. Not so much the classes, but the majority of the people in said classes. It's hard enough to dig up motivation to get up for 8 hours of class beginning at 8 on a Saturday morning (immediately following a 52 hour workweek), but it doesn't get any easier when the other students won't stop their bitching and whining and anxiety ridden outbursts and just shut up and LISTEN, so that we can just all get through this. If you think I'm just being whiny, please, come down to my class and find out for yourself. It's like torture. No, we cannot take a break, we've only been here for 45 minutes, yes there will be homework, if you would shut up and listen you would hear what the homework is, stop eating/selling things/holding entire unrelated conversations in class. kthnx.
Like I said, Beach House. Now.
I still need to finish this 23 page catalog of doom. I also need to do a lot of things before the beach house. Laundry, cleaning Iorek's cage, making hummus, and packing chief among those things.
Yes, I make hummus. It's about the only thing I know how to make. Coconut mango curry hummus. It's the shit.
Oh, and yes, I'm losing a fair amount of weight and am not entirely happy about it. I don't know how much (I don't own a scale, for obvious reasons, and I stopped getting weighed at the doctor about 2 years ago), but I know my clothes are now all too big. I'm wearing jeans I haven't fit into for 2 years. I'm just not fucking hungry. Oh well, I'll get all my calories from beer this weekend.
I am a whiny panda, too.
all right, I should get to work now.
-4 days. |
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| [save changes] |
[May. 19th, 2008|01:02 pm] |
I just edited my Facebook profile so the political views section reads anarcho-socialist. Which is a silly thing to bother specifying on a Facebook profile, but what the hell? I also updated my religious views section to read chicago bears. I am large; I contain silly multitudes.
I used to write extensively on the notion that the personal is political. If you saw me on stage between 2004-2006, that was probably the main theme of my show. It's true, of course- what else would it be? The point of politics is to realize your vision of a finer world. There are grand discrepencies as to what that might be, but in the end, that's the point. If you want the world to be better, then you want better things for the people in it. And if that's what you want, then your goal, ultimately, is personal.
The flipside to this idea is that the political is personal. It works both ways- the grand ideas stem from a desire for a better world, and the worlds we inhabit shape our political views.
You have to smirk when you say anarcho-socialist, because it just sounds goofy. Doesn't it? But that's only when you view the political as theoretical- just like theories fall apart when put into practice, practical applications lose their shine when you try to extrapolate theories from them.
In Chicago, two years ago, I belonged to an anarchist collective. No one involved would have ever thought about it in those terms. Ever. Ever-ever. It was small- at any given time, maybe a half-dozen of us. Of those, I was the only one who hadn't voted for George Bush in 2004.
I've seen a lot of anarchist collectives in my time. Some of them are functional and made up of dedicated people devoted to living their theory and some of them are not; some of them are full of people who in-fight and back-bite even when their politics tell them that it's against the point. For every 1919 Hemphill or Iron Rail Collective that functions because a small group of people really believe in what they're doing and understand the hard work involved, there are countless well-intentioned community spaces I've seen throughout America that lasted three months and ended in broken friendships. I don't want to play my collective is better than yours, but it was exceptionally functional.
It worked mostly because there were no politics involved. It was me and Bush-voting Midwestern white men with mustaches and their radios set to 560 AM radio. If we ever got on the subject of politics, we mostly just kept our mouths shut while the others talked so as to not disturb the peace.
We were a moving company, sort of. Like I said- more of a collective, really. We had a very specific agenda and accomplished it collectively. Each of us- me, Dave, Bob, Jeff, sometimes Christian and Omar- placed ads on Craigslist offering our services as movers. We set the same rates, which worked out pretty well- one of us could have dropped it by 20% and grabbed some extra work, but we found that the nature of the work meant that cooperation was more efficient than competition. Since many moving jobs require more than one person, we would frequently call each other up to collaborate on bigger moves. Dave was the best at advertising and maintaining a reference list, so he probably got the most work, but we all traded jobs with one another. If I found myself double-booked on a Saturday, I could call Bob or Jeff or Dave and ask them to take one off my hands. Since we all kept the same rates, the customer hardly even noticed. And whenever a job required an extra person, the rate just doubled. Which meant that I got paid the same for a job that Dave booked or one that I had taken under my own name. This meant that the incentive was exactly the same to do as good a job for one of Dave's customers as one of mine.
There had been other people with Craigslist moving companies that I had worked with from time to time. It's not a hard business to get into- basically you just need to be able to lift things and the ability to rent a U-Haul. And you can find people to work for you at any rate- if you charge twenty-five dollars an hour per worker, you can find someone to do the job for fifteen and pocket the extra ten. During the summer, when there's forty or fifty hours of work a week available to anyone who wants it, you can make an extra five hundred dollars a week and still pay someone three times the minimum wage. But the people who pocketed a portion of the helper's rate rarely stayed in the business long. I suspect that it had something to do with the fact that it's hard to find good help in a hierarchical system- when one person is making more money than another for more or less the same amount of labor, people start to resent it. Any of us could have made a little bit of extra money on small jobs by hiring outside our circle- when you post an ad offering to pay two digits an hour for labor, you get about forty replies for each hour the ad's online. But we didn't. Not because we all loved each other, but because it was inefficient. Competing with one another meant that we did a poorer job for our customers, got less work, and made less money. Cooperating meant that I made enough money for Kat to take the summer off and I still only had to work twenty hours a week.
And I get that anarcho-socialism (those italics are the smirk) doesn't work when it's implemented with an iron fist. But that's ideology. None of us ever thought in terms anarchy and socialism was a dirty word among most of the people involved. In practice, things work much differently. |
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[May. 19th, 2008|12:55 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | graduation | ] |
| [ | heart :: |
| |  determined | ] |
| [ | song :: |
| | In my mind: Rilo Kiley - Picture of Success | ] |
Yesterday was a flurry of graduation fury. In fact, the last four days have been a blur of rushed finals preparations, cleaning, packing, goodbyes and goodbye parties, cheap black gowns and a palpable sense of inadequacy, long drives and hotel stays.
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| hey, whoa! |
[May. 18th, 2008|07:13 pm] |
| [ | song :: |
| | My Morning Jacket - Lay Low | ] |
so i just dropped by google reader to check it out, and see if it might help me keep track of the blogs i'd like to follow... i get to the page, only to be greated by an introductory video from my old pal, chris wetherell. how funny!
why yes, chris, i think i'll try your application. thanks! |
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| she keeps my heart in a jar on her nightstand |
[May. 18th, 2008|07:34 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | song :: |
| | jason mraz - coyotes | ] |
LETTER MEME
- comment and i'll give you a letter.
- you'll then have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter.
- you may choose to do it at your journal or leave a comment here.
- afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.
new_evolution gave me 'v'.
* victoria asher. aka vicky t. aka hottest girl in bandom. aka om nom nom.
* victory! i love winning.
* vacuuming, though i don't love it so much that i don't look forward to getting rid of carpeting in my home.
* violet baudelaire.
* vino rouge (two buck chuck merlot)
* "viva la cobra!"
* "vampires will never hurt you," my chemical romance.
* "vicious world," rufus wainwright.
* vined flowers (foxglove, honeysuckle, wisteria, and such)
* viggo mortensen. (guh, guh, guuuuh)
* spencer james smith, v! THE FIFTH!!
~
i'm pretty sleepy, but i had a delicious dinner with my mom, and now i've got a beer. things are pretty good. |
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| two years later |
[May. 18th, 2008|10:01 pm] |
pull the livejournal out of the closet,
brush the dust off,
scan the old pages,
see memories of a self,
my self,
some time ago,
two years or so...
where was i then and where have i been?
everywhere and anywhere, nowhere and in between.
typing this now from a french keyboard
staying at a squatted house in lyon.
leaving for paris tomorrow.
coming to the end
of a five month european adventure...
this page feels so unfamiliar and foreign.
to think it used to hold so much of my attention.
but i think i prefer the pages of paper
and a real pen between my finger tips.
that draws the words out of me.
draws them out and soaks them up as they spill
pouring over the table and dripping off onto the floor.
wet words. tear stains on the pages
and laughter scars on my face.
i suppose it's unnecessary to say that a lot has happened since the last time i wrote here. obviously. you can't walk the road for two years and not pass amazing sights. can't keep moving with out learning new moves, finding new paths, through love through life...
baby steps. i keep taking baby steps.
and breathing.
i am a ninja in training.
my biggest lesson
is to ride the inhale and the exhale.
be present and unattached.
laugh in the moment at myself.
and live the myths.
the are already written,
play them out.
rumi says: let the beauty we love be what we do. there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
i am overwhelmed and in love.
with what?
with life. |
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tired
accomplished
sore
amused