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Thursday, October 30, 2003

 
6:10 PM: [#] [0]

as michael says, "someone spent way too much time on this," but it's too good not to share w/ other zombies: brains4zombies.com

 
3:10 PM: [#] [0]

pumpkin carving did, in fact, happen, and here are the pix to prove it. oh, if i had money to spend or a birthday coming up, i'd sure like another digital camera.... but i'm enjoying the recently brisk weather.

saw party monster w/ sven at cinema 21 last night. something's up w/ the airport and/or tori. dan norton's going to be upgrading packetwarp "soon," which hopefully means after i get back and can make a backup of my home directory. tonight we're all going to see faust, though none of us have any idea what to expect (the review is vague: is it a play? an experiment? what?). tomorrow i visit dan green in centralia (happy halloween, everyone!), and saturday it's sven's 32nd birthday!

and in case you ever wanted to know, according to the "which dr. seuss character are you?" quiz, i am mr. brown:

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

 
7:25 PM: [#] [0]

oh, no! pamela's house burned down in the socal fires! i'm so sad! if i had any heart left in california, it was there. her dogs are fortunately unharmed but everything else is ashes. even worse, this happened to her before not too long ago, and she just finished building her new studio in may. now i'm worried about terrilynn & jenn's parents.

 
1:21 PM: [#] [0]

geck. good morning.

last night michael finally got panther & installed it on nenya. i think he's enjoying it: i'd like it more if the finder wasn't brushed metal, which sven correctly pointed out makes me shudder w/ rage.

texas has a page of last meal requests for its death row inmates.

there might be pumpkin carving tonight: we went to sauvie island to pick them before i went to mount vernon. but it might not happen till after 9 p.m., so we'll see how i'm feeling then (or how anyone else who was up till 7 a.m. is feeling then).

Monday, October 27, 2003

 
1:48 PM: [#] [0]

i started emailing this individually to people i knew, so i might as well just put it up once on the blog: the propoganda remix project.

 
10:36 AM: [#] [0]

for itunes junkies: daily tunes. (thanks, leeann!)

Sunday, October 26, 2003

 
5:37 PM: [#] [0]

rob is writing again! burnellujah!

Friday, October 24, 2003

 
4:16 AM: [#] [0]

still alive but barely. better now that i've eaten. we'll be in mt. vernon tomorrow (today, really) celebrating michael's dad's 70th birthday this weekend.

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

 
5:25 PM: [#] [0]

11 ladybugs hanging out on the window! what's up with that?

 
4:21 PM: [#] [0]

wow! usc (which is now csu-pueblo) just hosted maya angelou this weekend! i'm so very jealous.

 
2:43 PM: [#] [0]

an update to the hushville photo post i mentioned earlier: monica also has a photo there! (thanks, dan!)

 
12:19 PM: [#] [0]

watching the itunes announcement, i had an ironic thought: steve jobs wants to be clear that we're buying the songs in the itunes music store because customers don't want subscriptions. and yet, he insists on a subscription model for .mac. so what does that mean? that we can purchase other people's content, but have to rent access to our own?

 
8:44 AM: [#] [0]

this is actually a legitimate program: free xerox color laser printers. i don't think i would print enough in a month to qualify unless i went back into graphic design, but it's intriguing, anyway, and i'd apply if i could.

 
8:30 AM: [#] [0]

*cue music* hey, look at me! i'm dancing crazy! well, i'm not, but i am awake and up enough to type. go, me!

 
2:47 AM: [#] [0]

ack! it's 2:45 and i told michael to wake me up when he goes to work in the morning. what am i thinking? *totters off to bed*

Monday, October 20, 2003

 
5:17 PM: [#] [0]

this weekend:

veda hille (& the binary dolls, for whom i forgot to bring ear plugs)
rimsky's korsakoffee (yay! finally! my moral imperative has been absolved)
day 1: portland open art studios (cluster w/ hands-on demos, book artist, collage artists w/ own studio out back w/ some calligraphy, biomorphic forms, two lost)
swings (+ learning sign language for "more pain")
naps on the art room floor
thai orchid, which doesn't settle well for either of us
kinko's (open 24 hours, except for the days they aren't)
day 2: portland open art studios (jewish art, ocularist, printmaker)
dinner w/ joe & johanna

it's so hot in the apartment! (just as seattle is getting hit with a huge amount of rain.) i'm sluggish & urgently unmotivated.

Friday, October 17, 2003

 
1:04 PM: [#] [0]

this is annoying because it works:

* make clockwise circles with your right foot.
* while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand.
* has your foot changed direction?

i just spent 20 minutes trying to get this not to work. it even works when i draw the "6" with my left hand, though it's a little easier to resist.

 
11:53 AM: [#] [0]

does anyone else think the lj times (a parody of a newspaper but using real livejournal posts) is as funny as i do? it's like the onion but with confessional blog posts as filler. it's so funny to me that it's not making me laugh because i'm afraid once i'll start i won't be able to stop. maybe it's my former life as a journalist. i guess it would be funnier if it actually linked to the posts rather than itself, but i still think it's funny.

Thursday, October 16, 2003

 
10:17 PM: [#] [0]

the hushville pix are finally up! hooray! at the cocktail party, they got a picture of me in the middle of a deadly sin along w/ some nice folks from new zealand i happened to have been talking to at the time.

if you poke around the portrait studio shots, you can also see me in the background of another photo talking to sonia (she who labeled the chocolate chip pancakes "orgasmic" and overall a very very nice girl from a non-hushville camp i wish i had met earlier in the week) and peter is in the background of another. i think i saw tim lurking at somebody else's camp in one of the broader category of photos. i'm so sad i lost my playa chicken bandana! (though to be fair, i believe that was the night i rode the segway & we were in the faraday cage, so i still came out okay. :)

 
1:41 PM: [#] [0]

hooray! leeann's work can finally be revealed! congratulations, leeann! may this sell a bazillion more ipods.

and boy, do i want one of these: an ipod voice recorder. especially now that my palm is shifting entries unpredictably to the left, there are things i think it would be easier to keep track of in audio form, even if only to transcribe later. i've thought of that for years as a solution for poetry, especially.

 
1:03 AM: [#] [0]

darn. i really wanted to support invisiblog, but it creates ugly urls & is *nix or windows emulation only, and that only if you build it yourself.

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

 
11:06 PM: [#] [0]

after seeing sven was labeled a "protector" on "the ULTIMATE personality test," i took it and it says i'm a "seer":



i saw the thermin documentary last night & attempted to get my old airport working w/ sven's new laptop & aol today. and when i say attempted, i mean unsuccessfully. grrrr.

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

 
5:35 PM: [#] [0]

oh, christ. i forgot about marriage protection week. fuck.
[update 10.16.03: mark morford has a much more eloquent critique of this than i apparently do.]

 
3:53 PM: [#] [0]

according to the "what dead poet are you?" quiz, i'm anne sexton (whee!): you are anne sexton - a sensual, wild person with a taste for adultery. you prey on lesser talents, luring them into your bed and into your poetry. you are the venus fly-trap of confessional poets.

 
12:46 PM: [#] [0]

in other news, john norton has a grandson (so dan norton has a nephew)! and i heard from jan boucher, who has a new permanent job at the v.a.

last night i went to a sort of salon, a discussion group whose first topic was about "human space exploration." i was surprised to find that 8 of the 10-member group thought human space travel was "ridiculous" when there were so many problems to solve here. i can sort of see the point, though i think it's shortsighted (nobody ever thinks there's a "good time" to do something without an immediate return). i wish i had asked this question of brian before i went to the group because he had an long, eloquent response, but i had no idea there was this much resistance to something i take for granted (which is one of the reasons to go do this sort of thing, eh?). we all threw ideas in a hat for the next meeting in november, but i threw in four ideas because i thought we'd be drawing from them for the rest of the year, so of course one of mine was picked: we'll be discussing feminism, which i chose because i don't really know how i feel about it. on the whole, i think i identify more clearly with egalitarianism, but is the spirit of feminism a necessary step to take to get there? any ideas are welcomed.

 
11:17 AM: [#] [0]

well, heck. i was going to write a detailed entry about the films i saw at the h.p. lovecraft film festival, but i don't even know where to begin and here it is tuesday already. i lived at the hollywood theatre for three days and four nights subsisting on popcorn, soda, candy and very little sleep. of course none of the films were really good (kudos to "cutethulu," "the dreamquest of unknown kaddath," and "the eldritch influence;" honorable mention to "dark heritage" just because of philip & sven), but that wasn't the point. it was just good to be immersed in a different environment.

michael came for two nights and ended up with two cds from the h.p. lovecraft historical society. philip & john were there all four nights, as was sven, who bought everything from land of the blind, both cds from the historical society and lots of other emphemera. i "helped" sven film on the last day before the theatre opened: he has an idea for a short film and i just followed him around and scowled at people who got too close.

there was a q&a about "cool air" and after hearing the story of how the director met the lead actor twice, i asked a blunt but embarassing question about how much money the lead actor was worth (to which the director replied, "you're a pretty girl, but that's none of your damned business."). too bad. apparently the whole film cost $35,000 and i wanted to know what chunk of that was paid to the lead actor, especially since the director had talked about how many favors he had to call in and how so many people worked such long hours for free and for "the love of the art." in general, there seems to be a huge disconnect between wanting people to do things "for the art" and wanting them to be paid. i remember an old mentor used to make sure i got paid for things i would have done for free because he felt strongly that that was what one should get paid for. but to have such an imbalance between all those people who worked for free and the man who probably got paid at least $5000 makes me uncomfortable.

between the time spent at the film festival and the lovecraft adaptations i saw in seattle w/ dan, i think my brian is pleasantly full. i'm done for a while. it will trickle away until next october and then i'll be ready for another (unless we end up doing a "scary solstice" caroling party in december.... hmmm....).

Friday, October 10, 2003

 
11:04 AM: [#] [0]

aiieee! dan now has a blog! this explosion of new blogs to keep track of has finally prompted me to keep a list of links here so i don't forget to check anyone. :)

 
9:54 AM: [#] [0]

wow. the reed college alumni magazine (simply called "reed" -- so understated, so tres chic) has an amazing series of articles about calligraphy. i shouldn't be surprised since lloyd reynolds was there, but the sheer volume & depth here does surprise me, actually. [update 10.12.03: chas clifton, a reed alumnus, regretfully notes that they no longer teach calligraphy at reed, and suggests this series of articles is designed to increase donations for nostalgia-induced alumni.]

Thursday, October 09, 2003

 
3:58 PM: [#] [0]

sven's laptop is here! it's here! what follows is entirely stream of consciousness and probably not interesting to most people on the planet:

kudos to the apple packaging. matte, not gloss! dented corner, but heaps of styrofoam. checking the label: is this what i ordered? backlight contains mercury. here's the manual. here's a cord, more cords & a disk. alex sings the processional. it's in its plastic fabric sheet thing. important: please read apple licensing ... blah blah blah. whatever. breaking the seal: i should name it the necronomicon (to honor hp lovecraft festival starting today!). it's cold. (and dry, just like he likes his women). pushed the button to open it. another piece of fabric. merrow. hubba hubba. auughhh! auughh! things appearing on screen! full sized keyboard. startup time. oh, it's going to ask me questions & shit now. welcome. vilkomen! the porn soundtrack starts. i don't want to register, don't want that either, u.s., continue, doink. u.s. kb layout. continue. we're going to try skipping this screen. you haven't put in all the required information. shame on me! alex helps him spell his name. more required info. os x account setup. what kind of pretty picture will i use for myself? hey, that's the picture of lightning i used in my video, isn't it? the dragonfly? no, the swirlies in zen garden. "my mind is a spiral dream." earthlink is the best service provider for your mac: well shut yo mouth! time zone. cupertino. where's that? they sent me a computer with the wrong time! what time is it, anyway? oh, it's in army time. it crashed! the big dock. and there's my hard drive. mail and ichat safari sherlock ical, which carl keeps saying good things about. the new & improved itunes. iphoto, yay! msoffice 10: hot diggity fuck! please tell me this isn't an evaluation. ergh. special 30 days. no, i don't want that as my default browser, thank you. i don't want to register. even when you open a new document it says "word test drive" in ghostly lettering on the page. how alien is this? this is... no let's go for something classical: watson, come here, i need you. it knows watson's not mispelled. yes, i'm still in the stone ages: i have to hammer out my letters with a rock. they keep asking, would you like to register for fire but i keep saying no. can i try saving it? okay. where did it go? use sherlock. home documents? nothing funky except not saving it on the desktop like i told them to. okay, let's go to itunes. yes, yes, i agree to all this. based on your answers to a few questions... internet streams: oh, why not. no, ask me before connecting for album info. what's aac? i think i'll add them myself later. moving right along. do you want to go to the itunes music store now? no. in carl's version, you had a little picture. i think i'm going to get used to the fingerpad. in the smaller version i kept opening applications w/ the palm of my hand. alex asks: rollerball option? does anyone want me to open something for the first time just to hear me say, ooo! iphoto. oo, music: minuet in g. iphoto looks cool but i'll have to put things in the machine. that's crazy. alex wants to take digital pix, but battery is dead. oo, ical! there it is. months, yes, it is a happy sven thing! i'm such a calendar person. oo, oh! they fast forward to the last month! it's a time machine! backwards: you've got another week to work on it! info! and searches! that would be handy! drag people to events & invite them! post it bit: what's that mean? that can't be the people; the people have to be the people! oh, todo items! isn't that handy! this is my new best friend. alex compares it to her treo. i haven't gotten used to pda: it only means on thing. it's my grandmother's 86th birthday today: i should call her. microsoft bill gates worships cthulu; how else could he be so powerful? why does bill have to share the same religion as me? i am going to put my hands over the speakers and and... and... and.... and! well, the screen went dim. shows alex backlighting. she's put me under the covers. function keys to adjust the backlights. this is so cool. i'm just overwhelmed. oh, yeah, i've got the superdrive. i can burn dvds, babe. dude. very cool. kind of weird how they have the numeric keypad intergrated into the keyboard. what happens when i push this button? you weren't attached to paraguay, were you? i pushed it and i don't know what it did. i'm going to duct tape this to my chest. or like in snowcrash, become a gargoyle. what's its name what's its name what's its name?

 
1:18 PM: [#] [0]

random notes:

* the award ceremony that madeleine albright spoke at tuesday night was much better than i anticipated, and i say that from the perspective of someone who doesn't do well at functions like these. small talk is hard for me, and i often find creative ways of filling time, especially during the "reception" part of the program. but the other folks at the table were interesting & admittiing i was a calligrapher got me lots of questions. plus, of course, we all had higher ed as a common topic, i suppose. but apparently psu folk were a minority: the dinner was actually targeted as a fundraiser dinner costing $200/plate. yeesh. the food -was- good and the entertainment was fairly novel for an awards dinner, and madeleine albright was even funny at points, but $200/plate? i say again, yeesh.

yes, madeleine albright is an excellent speaker: very clear, candid, funny at times, and direct. unfortunately, and perhaps expectedly, she veered into "america is doing the right thing" defense which made me cringe almost the whole time, even though she admitted she seriously questioned the timing of the invasion. the best part was after the speech: she said she would take some questions, "and unlike when i was the secretary of state, i can probably actually answer them." the first was about whether tony blair's situation would resolve badly for him. i really like tony blair and i feel awful for him about this whole weapons of mass destruction snipe hunt. madeleine expressed some regret for his situation and the fact that we might lose a "valuable interpreter" for u.s. policy in europe. *cringe, cringe* the last question was about her involvement in rwanda: her answer was insightful because it talked about the lack of enough coherent intelligence to signal the urgency of the situation. and i'm thinking, boy. our intelligence gets us into all sorts of trouble. perhaps we need to decentrallize or otherwise rename the CIA.

btw, i hope nobody got the impression it was just going to me & michael & madeleine at a little table talking about movies & global policy... :)

* yesterday was john's thirty-fifth birthday! we had intended to go to lauro kitchen, but the wait was an hour, so we went to kappuya instead. and then to pix, of course, since it was right across the street. :) alex joined us for dessert only.

* i can't believe the california recall election. i can't believe arnold schwarzenegger won. it brought the perfectly good mood i had going to a screeching halt. i sat for a few moments rocking myself & muttering: "i'm so glad i don't live there anymore; i'm so glad i don't live there anymore; i'm so glad i don't live there anymore...." not that it won't affect me, mind you, and not that the precedent that it sets isn't unsettling. grrrrr.

* last night the moon was so bright and the night was so clear and crisp i had to go for a walk: kick apples, smell the leaves, and watch the moon turn everything blue and milk. so sven & i walked part of the springwater corridor trail. yum. we're still reading a chapter a day from a night in the lonesome october, and after several years of estrangement, i'm beginning to be able to love this month again.

* it's official: jeff & kristin are going to have a boy! eeeeeee!

* i met w/ david zuttermeister today to thank him for telling me to go to burning man. he's planning on going to asia by the end of the year, for an indeterminate amount of time. yowza. go, david! there was lightning & thunder while we were there and the power went out once briefly and then again for about a minute.

* tonight begins the hp lovecraft film festival.

* it looks like philip's blog is vastly more evil than mine. what's up with that? i'm only 27% evil. bah! oh, wait, apparently he has an evil amsterdam story. but how would the gematriculator know about that if it isn't in his blog? oh, very curious indeed.

* sven's new laptop could come at any minute. any minute! was that the airborne express truck? :D

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

 
1:20 PM: [#] [0]

it looks like i missed linking to michael's new blog (reading, gaming, listening & viewing) and philip's blog (philip's books & lists, which is what prompted michael to create his). sorry, guys!

 
12:23 PM: [#] [0]

last night philip & i went to alex's to watch spirited away. a delightful movie, though i did end up breaking the butterfly chair. we tried using using the english dub and running the subtitles at the same time, but they were just different enough that it became distracting.

today i actually got to see the building washers/painters as they glided past the window. we smiled at each other and i was glad i was dressed.

tonight michael & i will go to a dinner w/ madeleine albright. this is one of the advantages of dating the coolest librarian you know.

the "free nw" group has vanished in a huff: the moderator felt he was doing all the work but i thought his standards were too high for a group which had just started out, especially since portland freecycle started at just about the same time. his focus was also much broader, which i think ironically limited its appeal.

Monday, October 06, 2003

 
2:00 PM: [#] [0]

i think this is my absolute best packetwarp referer ever: a search for "better ways to use gretchin" leads to my resume. :) i'm sure that's not what that person was looking for at all.

some urls:
"some days we are ravens, other days, frogs."
and
found: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, doodles- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life.

they're painting the building, so ropes & platforms are swinging outside the window. had a lovely time in seattle visiting steve, cindy, brian, dan & rachel. i saw some one-act plays, the soviet rocket on fremont, the troll under the bridge, snoqualmie falls, a michael-centric tour of the university of washington, and a mini burning man reunion (get the green lake brunch at the blue star! yowza!).

have i mentioned lately how much i missed fall in california? here i am already delighting in the colors and the smells and the piles to shuffle through, and it's just barely begun.