gl.

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Friday, March 30, 2007

 
5:10 PM: kama kama kama kama kama chameleon... [#] [0]

the go game is so much fun! i was just paid to spend 3 hours in pioneer courthouse square as a "karma chameleon." when i saw a group that looked like it was playing the game, i'd ask to borrow their cell phone. if they let me, then i gave them extra points for a rousing chorus of "singing in the rain." whee!

(see also: the skamania game)

Thursday, March 22, 2007

 
10:38 AM: blow out the candles [#] [0]

happy birthday, blog! that means my resign-iversary is not far behind, and this year all the csusm-iversarys are significant because it will mean been i've been in portland as long as i was in san diego.

to celebrate, we're going to the beach for a few days. :) i traded the stay at a beach house w/ an artist's way client for a few days of studio time. yes!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

 
3:49 AM: starshine [#] [0]

it's late enough when i go for walks now that i can see scorpio rising. the light pole down the block has been fixed, which makes the sky harder to see, but you can't miss scorpio's dazzling companion, jupiter. jupiter outshines even the red heart of the scorpion, antares. and sweet saturn is setting, waltzing in counterpoint to rising jupiter. the dark air is so cold i can see my breath and frost glitters on the cars.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

 
5:32 PM: now and then [#] [0]

the equinox is tonight, offering a moment of balance before racing into the light. remember, there is plenty of time for work *and* play.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

 
3:51 PM: landmarks [#] [0]

first music millenium and now reading frenzy? what's going on?

update mar25: plus coffee people, and now common grounds! as sven says, "this is a year of big changes in some of the main businesses that I love portland for..."

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

 
11:48 PM: pudding & pi [#] [0]

this day has been brought to you by homemade cherry pi & kate bush on endless repeat:

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

 
12:51 PM: downsizing [#] [0]

it must be spring: the hills are alive with the sound of lawnmowers.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

 
1:27 PM: dogs of war [#] [1]

i don't like using violence-based language when describing situations (struggle, fight, war, defeat, victory) or third-person projection ("they" are wrong, "they" don't care), but it feels that every election cycle we're called upon to yet again justify the existence of homosexuals and the validity of abortions and in my frustration it's difficult not to invoke that style.

three awful initiatives are on their way to the 2008 ballot. the first two are from lon mabon & the "oregon citizens alliance," who just can't leave us in peace:

* ip22: "Amends Constitution: Makes Oregon Constitutional Guarantee Of Free Expression Of Opinion Inapplicable To "Conduct" Or Personal Behavior." wow. because we -really- need restrictions on freedom of speech. i'm sure he means to manipulate this if it passes to be used against his favorite hated group, sexual "deviants."

* ip23: "Prohibits Instruction At Public Schools (Including Colleges, Universities) That "Approves," "Endorses" Homosexual, Bisexual, Transgendered Behavior." i wasn't in oregon during amendment 9, but this sounds a lot like it.

the third just makes me cry. i was dead set against measure 43, and this is 10 times worse:
* ip 16: "Amends Constitution: Prohibits Abortion, Harming Fetus, Gives Fetus Rights Of Person; No Exception For Woman's Life, Health." defining the point when a fetus becomes a "distinct human entity” to give it the rights of personhood dangerously trivializes and enslaves the woman carrying the fetus (in addition to reducing -her- personhood rights). so far, no steps have been taken to certify the initiative for circulation, but it's a long wait till 2008. something crazy is bound to happen.

bracing for impact...

Thursday, March 08, 2007

 
2:42 PM: pwned [#] [0]

ugh. hard day.

sven wrote about his experience behind the scenes at coraline in december. that post was republished at vfx planet last week, which got noticed by laika, who wrote the company who hired the photographer who asked sven if he wanted to help her. so even though sven waited until neil gaiman posted about his tour of laika and said nothing identifiable, everyone panicked and sven took his post down. but of course neither of us have any desire to tarnish the reputation of the woman who asked sven to be her assistant, because she knew how much he wanted to be at laika and she was doing him a really lovely favour.

now that we've taken the post down, i've asked vfx planet to do the same. i hope they will be reasonable & understanding about it.

i suppose the silver lining is that it gave me a great deal of motivation to create a decent 404 page.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

 
10:02 PM: advocates all around [#] [0]

when michalemas & i picked up dinner at elephant's deli tonight, two women noticed my "i volunteer for planned parenthood" button! one asked for information about how she could become a volunteer, and another has been involved at the donation & lobby level for years.

tomorrow morning is my first formal patient advocate day by myself. eep! i'm trying to gather news items and ideas for gentle small talk.

update mar08: it went well! it went well! i'm so relieved! i forgot that i can be an alpha if a situation doesn't have one, and in that situation, until the doctor comes in, anyway, i'm the one with the most "authority." of course, i follow the lead of the patient to see what will make them most comfortable, and that seems like a pretty natural role for me to play, too.)

Sunday, March 04, 2007

 
10:51 PM: ecliptic [#] [0]

alas, the lunar eclipse was a bust. i was at a workshop and i sat in a parking lot w/ toby for as long as i could during the dinner hour. by the time the moon emerged from a high wall of clouds, it immediately slipped behind a thinner veil of ragged clouds. at no point did i feel i even saw penumbra, much less umbra or totality. (compare this to the eclipse at discovery lake on my last night at csusm or the eclipse we saw on powell butte).

but i did run across this little gem (pun intended) at wired:
"when asteroids smash into each other, sometimes they do it with anough force to collpase the boundary between the core & mantle. the result is a pallasite: iron & nickle folded around the semiprecious gemstone peridot, frozen in mid-alchemy."

besides the pure poetry of that sentence, i'm especially charmed by this because the peridot is my birthstone, and though i have always disliked it, this makes me feel much more kindly towards it.