Wednesday, June 30, 2004
I just LOVE all the little applications made for the mac. And to know that they're not going to totally screw with your registry or install a bunch of spyware is just awesome!!!
I just installed
Safari Sorter to alphabatize my bookmarks in Safari. But was also told about Firefox's cool
extentions, namely the
Radial Context.
And then I started thinking - Why do I use Safari primarily when there's a few key things (like blogging, uploading photos, etc) that I *have* to use Firefox for?
(p.s. if you're on a PC, you can use Firefox too - in fact you SHOULD!!
Download it here.)
So I got to thinking, well - what do I like about Safari that I think I don't have in Firefox, cuz I'll bet with all these fancy extentions, I can get anything I want! And one thing was I just didn't realize I could make folders for the Bookmark's Bar similar to Safari. That's huge!! And I wanted a quick way to get all my Safari bookmarks over to Firefox - and huzzah! There's *of course* an app created for that, too:
Safari Bookmark ExporterOther cool Firefox Extentions are:
TinyUrl Creator,
Copy Image and more... do you have a favorite?
What I would still like to do is have the great cmd+shift+arrow (like safari) to get through my tabs - how do I do that? AH HA! thanks to
eric: firefox: command+1,2,3,etc. cycles through the tabs
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update: hmm, radial context doesn't seem to be working for me, nor is copy image - are those pc only?
you gotta check
some of these out.
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some unfunny news is that i've been letting my kitty out to roam a bit more here lately. he usually comes back about every 45 minutes to check in. but this morning he's been gone for a long time, and i went downstairs & realized my neighbors had their door open & the door to the garage open, so he may have slipped out front! now those doors are closed and i'm so worried he won't know how to get back. i have to think positively. he's a smart kitty, i'm sure he'll be back any time now!! :/
here kitty kitty kitty!!
2pm update: PHEW!!! The little bugger finally comes home. Jeeshk! Enough to worry me sick!
4:30pm update: By request, a little love to the fuzzy pants. Many of you may have already seen this, but most of you probably haven't.
click to play quicktime movie
It's from when
Kazoobie was a little kitty... he was a little football player catching the pillows in mid air. Granted, he's still a little acrobat - he plays with his mice and bats em around like a little soccer player, and when I come out of the bathroom sometimes he does this crazy flip off the wall like a skater. My cat's awesome!
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Sunday night Rick & I went to see
Fahrenheit 9/11. With a line
spiraling up and around between 2 floors at the Metreon, we participated in the movement that made it a
record breaking opening weekend.
The movie was intense... while I was watching it I had so many emotions, from laughter to sadness, anger to helplessness, and all out astonishment. By the end I honestly felt depressed. However, like many other clapping audience members, I applaud
Michael Moore for speaking up and radically helping people get a small bit of insight into all that's going on in our Federal government.
I know there are a TON of facts and loads of counterpoints that can be made on all sides, but even some of the clear black and white accounts of what happened in the days and weeks after 9/11 are indisputably shady on Bush's part.
I mean - I'm not much of a political person, honestly, but I do know I want the Bush family OUT of the white house. I'm so angry at how he's thrust us into war and how many troops and innocent people have been killed. And mostly, on a UN level, I'm just so sad that the conflict has risen to levels that may never be forgiven. Bush has only made us more enemies, including many of our own citizens.
THERE ARE IDIOTS ALL AROUND YOU
So get this - About 3/4 of the way through the movie the girl sitting next to me had her cell phone ring. So what does she do? Answers iT!! GAAAHH!!!
So she talks quietly for a little while, most obviously NOT about anything pressing, and everyone around us is thinking "you stupid idiot get off your phone". I shot her a look, disapprovingly and in astonishment she would actually think that's ok.
So then what does she do? Starts text messaging! Oh how considerate of you, except your bling bling phone is like a small flashlight and your clickety clacking on it isn't exactly inaudible to the people sitting near you!!! arg.
So I said "Shh" and when she looked at me all bitchy I said as nicely as I could, "Can you please wait till after the movie?"
And her winner boyfriend on the other side of her says "Whad'that bitch say?" (!) And then proceeds to threaten me with, "I'll come over there and SLAP you...".
(!)
At this point I'm thinking, Are you SERIOUS? I'm sitting at a movie that is ALL about getting IDIOTS to wake up and this JERK threatens ME because I am nicely asking HIS *rude* girlfriend to get off her phone in the middle of the movie!!!??
My adrenalin was already pumpin from all the reality checks we're getting in the movie, and I'll bet his was too, but for Christ's sake do you take it out on the person sitting next to you in the theatre!?!? I just gave him a bewildered look, like "is that really necessary" and went on watching the movie. Pretty unbelievable though, huh? Jeeshk!
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If you haven't seen the movie, go see it. It's a good wake up call! Sure, you can take it with a grain of salt as it's certainly meant to be a pretty big Anti-Bush message, but it's clear to see there are facts we don't know about, and Michael Moore has done a lot of research to help us all get closer to realizing what is *really* going on.
I encourage you to get involved with
MoveOn.org (if you aren't already). They actually just sent a message out today regarding tomorrow night's fundraising deadline for the Kerry campaign. Please
use this link to donate now via MoveOn. By using this link, you're also helping send the message that all the amazing work MoveOn.org is doing is really making a difference.
I hope to encourage at least a few of you to donate, if you haven't already... even $25 or $50 will help!! We need to join together to make this change!!
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Encourage
Nader/Green Party voters to join us.
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Also I just heard about this new documentary coming out about Clinton:
The Hunting of the President
Looks pretty interesting. Man! Politics are so dog eat dog!
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Rick & I went for sushi afterwards, bypassing our regular favorite spot since it always has a long wait, and we went to Tokyo Go Go instead.
I was hoping it would be really amazing and we'd have a new favorite spot. I've been there before and liked it, but unfortunately Sunday night I thought everything tasted too salty. Except the "Best Roll" was DELICIOUS.
Monday, June 28, 2004
From
James: A tip and trick for downloading music from iTunes
They come down as an MP4 (or AAC) file. Which is fine, BUT, built into the file is a little protection code that tells the Apple gods that specific song can only play on 3 computers. Pain in the butt if for some reason your system can't connect to the Apple store... which is where the Apple MP4 gods live and give access to songs.
SOOOOO......
Once I've downloaded my music from iTunes I do 3 things. 1) make a CD from iTunes on a rewritable CD (that strips out the AAC coding. 2) Rip a new MP3 from the CD. 3) Backup the AAC to a folder and burn it with my next system backup.
Then you can play and share your MP3 with anyone you please! TAKE THAT APPLE GODS!
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Thanks James. I didn't know about that only play on 3 computers thing! Have any of you run into this problem?
OK, FYI I've officially decided to go all yahoo calendar for my music events listings. It's just much easier to update that *one* instead of doing that AND my homepage w/ links, too. I just don't have that much time these days!
So, as you'll see now in the left column there's a link to
the calendar. Again, note that these are only listings from my own bias. Either I am way stoked to see the show, or I've been wanting to see them or I've heard about them and want to make sure they're on my radar should I find myself on a tuesday night wondering what's going on & don't want to scour the 15 different sites I look at. Or a few of them I dont really want to see, but I know other peeps that like similar music as me might want to know about it. So it's a mixture!
I have another little live venue thing I'm creating that will help those of you interested to navigate directly too all the venue's sites I scour. That shouldn't take long to finish up and, as always, I'll post about it when it goes live and it'll be in that left column along with the calendar link.
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There's a few of really incredible shows coming up that I'm SOOOO stoked on!
New Black (oops, this is NOT to be confused with THE New Black - they're two different bands for sure!), The Evening, Camera Obscura, The Gossip, On The Speakers, Rilo Kiley, The Hives w/ Sahara Hotnights, The Clorox Girls, and The Donnas! And the Elephant/Ambulance LTD show... July & August are gonna ROCK!
Super sad news however is I just realized I'm flying out a day earlier than I thought for a family trip. So I'm sadly, sadly, sadly going to miss The Wrens & Jim Yoshii Pile Up @ GAMH. I'm SOOOOOO BUUMMMMED!!!!! *waaaaaah!!!* Do yourself a favor & don't miss that show. Do it for ME! There's a ton of good shows that weekend actually... hmph.
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I'm going camping this weekend! WOOOHOO!!!
Sunday, June 27, 2004
I'm STOKED! I finally played with my new iPod this weekend and I'm totally LOVING it!!!
Hooking it up was the easiest thing, my iTunes automatically updated it with all my music on there and blammo, I have over 2,500 songs on my new iPod. woohoo!!
Now 2,500 songs really isn't that much consindering I only have maybe 100 full albums on my HD. Let the ripping begin!!!!
Turns out iTunes has this super cool setting where you can just tell it to automatically import a CD when you put it in, which is super handy for the hard core ripping session. I've now officially set a huge stack of my favorite CD's (that were actually conveniently all put in my main travel binder by DJ Ricky G for my bday, so that's handy - thanks babe!) and one by one I put them in, I get to even hear a few songs play (since I have it set to play while importing) and then it ejects automatically when it's done - which is perfect cuz it prompts me to put another one in! Awesome. At this rate I just *might* have my collection in there in about a week!!
I also tried out my
Monster iCarPlay FM Transmitter/Charger for the first time today and it works great! I finally figured out how to do it and found a station, and that one only had a teeny static at first and got better, so I kept it there. But then later futzing around with it I think I even found a clearer station. So far so good! I'd really heard some bad reports, but it works and I'm psyched! Talk about a reason to rip aaaall my CD's now, plus I need to clear out some random stuff in there I've had from way back in my Napster downloading days - bad quality and/or just old stuff I'll never care to listen to.
Oh also something I found tonite: I was trying to import a CD that didn't have the track info - and iTunes couldn't find it in the CDDB database... so first after searching I found & tried this small app called
iCDc. This program might be cool for getting all my genre info correct, etc (do any of you use it?) but it couldn't find the track listings for this particular CD that way, so I kept looking around.. and what I found totally did the trick!
Instead of having to search for the song tracks, you can use one of
Doug's Applescript for iTunes:
Get CDDB Track Names. Awesome!
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While I'm talkin music, I'll tell you what we did Saturday night:
First I met Rick,
Jee, Jim and folks over at
Scott's BBQ. If you can believe it I didn't take any photos there! WEIRD! hahaa But it was great fun. A keg of tasty Fat Tire, lots of cool peeps and yummy pork loin. I mean, we're talking TASTY. Lyne showed up later and even my friend
Aaron stopped by, which was cool!
Then Jim, Rick & I headed over to the Hemlock for
The Pony's show my friend Meg had told us about. Jim had heard of them too & had planned to hit them at BoTH on Sunday night, but rallied with us instead. Jim's awesome!
We ran into Missy thereand I think by that time the Fat Tires had caught up with me, so I was having fun talking to her. She's a huge music fan and I'm stoked to talk to her about bands. AND believe it or not, I've finally found someone who's more of a lipstuff addict than I am! She has this sneaky technique, too. I was impressed and couldn't wait to tell Rick who practically tried to have an intervention when he witnessed me needing re-application of my
DCT every 10 minutes at Coachella. Hey, it was 106 in the scorching sun for christ's sake! :)
The Hunches opened for The Pony's and we weren't that into them, and even went so far as to go back out into the bar and sit it out. They were really punk/loud and I thought I'd be into it - but somethin about it just wasn't moving me.
The Pony's were good - I liked em and they kept me movin the whole time! I just downloaded their album off emusic, too, so I'm glad I liked them live and am psyched to listen to their CD some more.
Speaking of kick ass Chicago bands,
New Black is coming!!!! I'm stoked.
Oh! And I sorta updated my
concert calendar on yahoo. I haven't even cross referenced the ones I have on my homepage yet as I sorta updated that and NOT the calendar a while back. But moving forward I think I might go _all_ calendar & stop listing it out on my homepage. It's too time consuming to do them both (even though I like being able to link to the venue and band) I need them all on my calendar anyway - so people just need to use their googling skills :)
Ok, I gotta go to bed, but I have a whole nuther post to write tomorrow to catch up on today... big stuff, but it's late now. NIGHT! :)
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Friday night our friend (who we know through my friend Rebecca)
Jonathan Grubb was showing at
Lola Gallery. We've met Jonathan at a few shows and have been hangin out with his brother Moses here & there so we went out to show our support and have a few drinks.
Jonathan makes these wild creations that are basically stuffed animals turned inside out... and then he does additional stitching or adding parts to them that make them really freaky... some more than others :)
Looking up the show on Friday, to pass the info onto some friends, I realized Jonathan was actually just one of a couple artists in this show "San Francisco Safari". The main artist being Merikay MacKenna who does these amazing stuffed animal creations that are basically like an alternative to taxidermy trophies. Sounds weird, but they're awesome! You can check out her work here:
AnimalHead.com - How to Get a Head Without Hunting
It was great to see all of Jonathan's work and talk to him more about the process. As well I was able to chat w/ Merikay and she was really nice to talk to... she's been doing this for almost 30 years! The cutest thing was that her husband was dressed up in full safari gear and she was wearing zebra stripes. It was kind of a costume party, which will explain some of the (well the
ONE photo) where you can see a couple who arose to the costume occasion with full flair. :) There were a few other fun costumes there, but not many so we didn't feel that out of place.
We had a great time though, as you can see:
view full album
The best part of the night was when we decided to purchase something! My honey bought me a baby giraffe head! :) I'm so excited! Here's what the baby & momma looked like:
All the eyes she makes herself, and most of them - especially on the giraffe, are big and round and have these long eyelashes that make them look so cute and endearing. I have to wait till July 17th to pick him up, but as soon as I get him home I'll take a pic!
Friday, June 25, 2004
FYI I just updated my
business cards page. Nothin big, but if you're paying attention you'll notice they now all have drop shadows, and are reflecting my new phone number (that's really not so new anymore :)
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Lastnight Rick & I went over to a friends for a little dress up (for fun) dinner party. We had a BLAST!! We love it when we meet other cool people who like to have a good time - and have a good time we DID!!! We had some amazingly delicious apps, lots and lots and lots of wine, an incredible melt in your mouth dinner... all to great music and good company! Super fun!
Plus Rick & I hadn't seen eachother in a couple days (ha, yes all it takes is 3 and we're really missing eachother!) and so it was *extra* nice to see my sweetie. And GUESS WHAT?!??!!? He gave met the rest of my birthday present... and guess what it is?!?!!?
A roundtrip ticket to Vegas, Baby, Vegas!!! :) aaaaw yaaa!!! We've been wanting to go for a long time - and I haven't been there in EIGHT years! So I'm stoked!!! xoxox
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Today I've been battling with a font issue. My dang Fireworks won't recognize this Avenir font I've installed - and instead it only has these really odd Avenirs sprinkled in with all the fonts [
screenshot]. All my other programs are seeing it normally (listed with the A's where it should be) but for some reason FW is screwing up. ARG. I've posted something on the Macromedia forums and
James is helping me a little, but overall it's been a major time suck today!! blah!
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SpamSieve update: I emailed with the developer and think I have it working a bit better - Now I just have to train it so it catches more. We'll see if this works, otherwise I'll have to change my email for sure!
Happy Friday everyone!
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Alright, remember how I was telling you about that camera crew that made their way into my little home about
2 months back?
Well, I'll tell you a little bit more, since it's starting to air here & there... I'm on TV!
It's actually a news story, so if you watch the news and you've got some kind of show like "Kurt the CyberGuy" or something, you might just see this 2 minute piece.
They profiled me, my illustration business and my blog, asking me how blogging has helped me personally and professionally. I saw it last week and even though it's weird to see yourself on TV, it all came together pretty good. There's more on there, so you'll just have to wait to catch it for the full scoop!
Pam from LA wrote me & said she saw it, which was cool (thanks Pam!) and my Mom hilariously had a friend call her at like 6:30 in the morning yelling "your daughter's on tv!" and my poor Mom still half asleep fumbled frantically with the remote to get the TV on, but ended up missing it. haha so cute (Mom, I promise I'll get you a copy as soon as I can :) My Mom's so supportive, I love it!
So anyway, I think it probably won't be played very much over the next month or so, so you actually might not see it till like August or something, but when you do please let me know! :)
hmm... i dont know if i'm not doing something right - but because I have several subfolders in my inbox, every time I go to another folder & then come back to the original inbox, it changes all my inbox emails to the spam color - even though I've already added them as good. Does anyone else use this program?
Anyone know of a spam arrest type deal that works w/ imap?
Ok, I just couldn't take it any longer... I get SOOO MUCH SPAM and there are some days (like the last couple) that I literally clear out a good 15 in a row. LAME!
Thing is I've had my email address for a long time, and it's all over my site, comments, forums, etc so spambots have harvested the f* out of it and I get all their lovely porn emails. Not exactly the content I like to wake up to!
I debated changing my email address, which would obviously be the easiest solution - but I'd really rather not... It's such a pain to change it everywhere... So I've decided to just up my spam blocking techniques.
I thought
my host was taking care of it well with
Razor, but lately it's not catching ANY of these - nor are my 30 some filters! - to get them moved to my Add-Spammer folder.
I wanted to use
Spam Arrest, but it doesn't work with IMAP. SO... I've downloaded & started using
SpamSieve, which is designed specifically to integrate with OS X Mail. SWEEET. It's tough because I like the Spam Arrest idea a bit better, but this will atleast (as I have it set up) color all spam (better than Mail has been), will activly learn good/bad emails - and then I can still use the Razor Add-Spammer reporting with my host.
Overall it's pretty lame we all have to fight spam so hard. And eventually I'll be changing my email address - but for now I'm hoping this helps me filter it better.
Comments/Suggestions are welcome.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Ok, I uploaded the fun
bday bbq photos!
I was so psyched to hang out with all my friends! My little home is pretty cozy, but I think we managed to fit in maybe 30-50 people inside & out! :) A ton of us were even down in the garden for awhile, too which I thought was so fun cuz I hardly go down there myself!
I was way psyched
my brother, Max & Kyle came up from Santa Cruz. They know how to party somethin fierce :)
Ricky G was SUCH a huge help, all day helping me shop (aww yaa, costco card!), clean up and get everything ready - and even helped clean up big time the next day (thank you baby! xoxo).
I got to see an old roomate of mine,
Sabra, who looks fantastic and I hadn't seen her in so long I practically wanted to glue myself to her all night. Of course I ended up flittering around the party, having the time of my life. It's so awesome to be surrounded by so many people you love! :)
David, Elana, Marissa & Zach stopped by quick and I got to
snuggle those cutie little kidlets for awhile. They were really excited to see me, too which just melts me :) I'm in love with those munchkins!! I was also WAY psyched to see my old coworker and friend,
Gradiva with her sweet lil' boy Jonah. Wow, has he gotten big - and he is just CUTE as can be. He loved all the toys and stuffed animals in my house! :)
I was psyched to see all my girlfriends:
Kat,
Jee,
Jane, Lucia, Rachel and
Sarah. I've got to start getting together with "the girls" more! It was really good to see them, it'd been awhile, since we haven't done our full moon get together in quite some time. Jane probably stayed the latest, giving me a bday gift that only she knows how to give me: Whoo-ee does that girl know how to shake it. I have to stop everytime, it's *too* hot. :)
A few of the Google/
Blogger boys came by, which was cool. I really hadn't hung out with
Eric since
a year ago, but we've IM & emailed a lot since then. And my buddy
Darren showed up for a bit, which was
RAD!
Nancy (who I know from my days at
Care2) & Paul came and partied like rockstars :) and
Scott, Jim and Lyne are ALWAYS making me laugh and having the best time. They're awesome.
Stig left early but then did his classic come back later and
raid the fridge for 2nd's... This boy eats like it's Thanksgiving year round :)
Brian came over with his friend Dave - who quickly realized that my effusive hello was because I was so tipsy I totally mistaked him for someone else. *blush* Sorry Dave!!! I think I tried to babble my way out of that faux pau, but I don't think it helped.
My bestest concert buddies (besides rick)
Jem & Tania showed up & STOKED me with a subscription to
Venus Mag! woohoo! It was great to see them! Lucky for them, they showed up just about right when I started smooching everyone. ha
As the night wore on we danced and partied - several pitchers of margaritas were made and jager shots went down smooth :) and by 1am I really wanted to have us try to hit the bar (for some reason, change of scenery, I guess?). Everyone was nice to oblige the birthday girl & we all troupsed over to the El Rio for one last drink (that none of us really needed :).
Cameron pulled out the irish car bombs right at last call! I wasn't needing anymore at that point, but I did sip on the creamy shot before they took em! mmm baileys!
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The next morning (my actual bday!) Rick & I cleaned up the house and hit breakfast with
Max & Kyle at Boogaloos where I got my favorite: Huevos Rancheros!!
The rest of the day was super chill. Rick & I watched a little Tivo'd
Reno 911 on the couch, ate some dinner and then headed out to a movie: Saved! - which turned into being a double feature and we hopped in to see: Dodgeball
Honestly by the end of the 2nd movie I was so tired I couldn't even muster up a laugh :) I slept GOOOOOOOOD that night!
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Thanks again for all of you who came out to help me celebrate "
29 years and gettin better all the time". As my sweetie friend Lyne says: LUFF YOU MADLY
xoxo
I almost have the photos ready - I just finally downloaded them lastnight! I will upload tonite after BAM and then the gym!! :)
Here's a few fun ones though to tide you over:
me and my favorite little girl, marissa :)
willo gets tagteamed on a birthday smooch
aww yaaa, concert buddies!!! this is tania, ricky g, jem & me, the birthday girl
kat, me & jee! it was great to see these girls, it had been awhile :)
and lastly, the psycho lemon girl. this is one of a few in this "series". i had a lot of lemons! :)
Do you know I don't have ANY chocolate in this house? No ice cream, no cookies. Bout the sweetest thing is gum or mints. But I dont want gum or mints!!
You know what I do have though? Kettle Corn Microwavable Popcorn and some marshmellows from way back when I made Rice Treat Krispies.
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Crap, I almost forgot I have a ton of bottles to take out tomorrow for recycling. Crap! blah.
Well I better go to bed anyway.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Well I haven't even had a chance to play with it yet I've been so swamped with work - but I did take it out of the box and hold it. :) Yay.
Lastnight I used a Amazon GC for a few goodies. The
Monster iCarPlay for listenin to it in my car (hope it works ok, I've heard the bad reviews are exaggerated - so I'll just have to check it out for myself). And I got a
Teskie Roadie for the gym. I like the arm band vs. the belt clip - I'm psyched to have unlimited tunes at the gym!!! Then, if I like the Roadie, I think I'll eventually even buy the
different color face plates. It aggravates me that these are sold separately (and for more $!) especially since I really just want the orange one! But oh well.
Oh & I also got a handy dandy little
headphone jack splitter, that Rick & I have needed on more than one occasion trying to both watch a DVD on 1 laptop on the plane.
Now I just have some serious ripping of all my CD's to do! woohoo!
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I haven't posted photos yet from this weekend - been too busy to even download them - but there's some CLASSICS!
Monday, June 21, 2004
My birthday weekend was a blast!! Friday night Ricky G took me out for a romantic dinner at this little french restaurant. It was delicious from the wine, to the yummy apps - all the way to our creme brulee desert with a candle on top! :) I hope that wish comes true.
The Monster Drawing Rally was fun and inspiring. Man I've got to start creating more raw art!!! Paint, draw, create! I'm behind this computer working on projects so much - my list of personal creative things to accomplish always gets pushed down the list.
It was great to see the artist's create LIVE. We missed
Jee, but ran into a couple other aquaintences. I chatted with
Sirron Norris, who's work I'm a big fan of. I almost bought one of his, but they were selling really fast. It was good to talk to him, though & hear what he's workin on now. The best was watching him work. Seeing him start with a pencil sketch, and then go over it with just a ball point pen and making it look great. His characters are so cute. If you live in San Francisco, you'll probably recognize some of his murals down in the
mission or in Jay's Cheesesteaks. It's really fun work with surreal twist.
The rest of the night was fun, and we left Rebecca's by about midnight to get a good night's sleep to prepare for our big party night Saturday night. I'll post about that soon - and with photos! but for now I just have to show you the most exciting thing that just got delivered to my door:
wooohoooo!!! Apple was offering free engraving, and I just couldn't resist :) A big thanks to my sweet Momma for getting this for me for my bday! They just sold their house, so she got iPod's for me and my
little sis. yay! I can't wait to start playing around and loading music onto it! You know this thing will hold practically my entire collection of music? 700 CDs! whoa!
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Ok, I've got a busy day, so I'll write/post more later, but just had to report that I had a TERRIFIC birthday weekend!!! :) I'm 29!
Friday, June 18, 2004
Tonite begins my weekend celebration! :) It's going to be soo fun.
My sweetie is taking me out for a nice dinner somewhere (it's a surprise!) and then we're going over to one of my favorite events of aall time: the
Monster Drawing Ralley at Southern Exposure - I am STOKED!!!
Last year
Jee & I went, but got there sorta near the tail end so we didn't see as much as I would have liked. But for the time that I was there I was in HEAVEN walking around watching a ton of incredible artists, a lot of them locals and favorites of mine, draw right there in front of me!!! It was like a dream come true - and now I get to go see it again! YAY!!
So we're hittin dinner early even so that we're sure to see a lot. I hope to even buy a print!
Then it's off to my friend Becca's housewarming party. She is one of my favorite people and she's got a slew of really cool friends. Plus she's been workin hard on fixing up her new place, and she's super crafty - I'm sure it'll be grand!
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BTW lastnight's movie, The Day After Tomorrow, was great!! I mean, it's definitely very hollywood with lines like "I made a promise to him, and I'm going to keep it!" BUT besides that the special effects were AMAZING.. definitely see it on the big screen!
It's WILD to see things happen to these major cities that (let's hope) we'll never ever see in our lifetimes. And you get out of the movie so impacted by what you've seen, you can't help but just feel so grateful it's not happening to you!!
I also thought it was interesting that they didn't have more blood and gore. But although it was unrealistic to not include it, it was refreshing and not necessary to have impact, so I'm glad they spared us that.
Oh and
Jake, listen. If it should not happen to work out with (hottie)
Kirsten, please please please consider marrying me and letting me bear your children.. you are SOO F*ING ADORABLE!!! mmmm!! (that is if nobody has dibs on me yet) Still, come over and we'll talk about it, or just hang out - or hey, why wait to break up with Kirsten - I have a mad crush on her, too - So, invite me over!
Guess who has her FIRST drumming lesson today!??!?!?!?!?!?!
*very excited*
Thursday, June 17, 2004
I love
Biz's name, and I got the full story of
how he got it over lunch today. Very cute.
Check it out - He
snapped a shot of the
YJ ad I was in (his shot is the one in the newest mag to explain the difference) with his phone, but I thought it was funny he spelt my name wrong... it's right there in the photo! hahaa
OK that's all... off to my movie! :)
Awww yaa
Beasties!! They
love the cheese, too.
I've heard mixed reviews on their new album - but I don't care. I'm sure I'm going to love it - Beastie Boys were such a big part of my youth... plus I'm not a cynical, judgmental music lover. Well, only sometimes anyway.
P.S.
Venus Mag rocks. (i thank jemmy for this)
(hahaa, I spell checked - thanks to that
knitpicker enlighted soul who had to point out that I'm such a bad speller and obviously horribly greedy and self centered - OH MY! .... Hech hemm... where was I? Oh ya, so I spell checked, and it changed my P.S. to POOH. Heh, did anyone read it while it was still up? It made me laugh.)
P.S.S. More pointless links:
The F* word. See? It's not bad - it's
just a town! And this one's pretty entertaining: The mystery of
Britney's Honkers.
When you live in the city and say you need to go "down south" it means you're going to the south bay, towards San Jose.
Today I headed down to meet with a client in Sunnyvale - and then had the delightful pleasure of having lunch with the Google/Blogger peeps (
Eric,
Jason,
Biz,
Evan and
Chris, etc) at the 5 star Google cafeteria. (
this outdated site will atleast give you an idea of the gourmet meals being served there FREE on a daily basis)
I had another reason to go by their offices that I won't disclose at this time, but I was psyched to finally get over there for that reason and the food and tour that came with it. Plus I scored an awesome new Blogger T and some of their new stickers. And I got a sneak peak at some great new features coming soon! Yes, that's right people - I heart Blogger.
I couldn't believe the Google grounds - it's like a college campus! Except all the people seem really cool and the food is free! FREE, I TELL YOU! I'm sure after you work there for awhile that excitement wears off, but maaan is it cool the first time. :p
::::::::
It's been gorgeous weather here lately - I hope it holds through the weekend!
Tonite is movie night - Day After Tomorrow won out over a few others on our list, only because we want to make sure we see it on the big screen before it goes. We missed it on IMAX unfortunately - and we were going to see Harry Potter on IMAX tonite, but the timing was off. Plus I'm pretty psyched to see this movie. I'm way into how global warming is effecting our environment and I hope this makes people think.
Other movies that I still want to see:
Saved! - this looks HILARIOUS
Mean Girls - two words: Lindsay Lohan (I think Dooce said it best
here, see point #2.)
Harry Potter.. - I've heard this is the best one yet. I love magic!
and lastly some great more artsy/independent type flics I can't wait to see:
Love me if you Dare, Word Wars, Coffee and Cigarettes and Napoleon Dynamite.
So many movies, so little time!! :) Have you guys seen any of these?
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Talking to Rick about the frustration of buying the *perfect gift* for Dad we both agreed that conversely, theres a plethora of gifts you can buy for either one of us! :) But of course it's easier said than done - especially if it's someone you care about and want to make them squeal with delight that you got them the best. gift. ever.
So here's a small wishlist I would write if my birthday just
happen to be around the corner. You know - just in case you're curious:
- Gift certificate to Ambiance. I love this store and don't shop there nearly enough. :)
- Dido for my favorite (albeit kinda pricey) jewelry store: Gallery of Jewels (wow, do I need to offer to redo their site or what? eeks - maybe they'll do a trade with me! :) So if you know me, you'll know I'm a jewelry nut. And lately I'm finding somehow with all my great peices - I need MORE!
- Actually, there's some really cute jewelry on this site too.
- Fantastic, creative, fun sites!! I love most anything off of these great sites: Wishingfish.com, Uncommon Goods (seriously I wish I had a $1000 to spend on this site!), Coolest Shop, and Crackers & Honey. All of these and a few more are on my links page!
- Resubscribe me to my favorite mags: Giant Robot,
HOW mag (I just renewed myself for 2 years), BUST - I'm getting an iPod!! woohooo!! So I need a ton of accessories. I've added a few to my Amazon wishlist, but a gift certificate to the Apple Store would never go to waste with how many little things I want.
- New Cell Phone. Mine is ANCIENT. I know I'm prolly never gonna get this from someone, but hey, it's *my* wishlist! :)
- Music, Books and more. Yes, I've updated my Amazon Wishlist. But really it's rather limiting when there's so many other great sites out there with super cute things! However, props to Amazon for starting a serious wishlist craze. It's obviously the easiest too for strangers who might not have a certain someone's address. (hey! I dont have dooce's or sarah b's and I'd send them gifts if I could!) Granted most sites now will email gift certificates, which is a good way to go about it. Anyway, CD's seem to come to me quite easily, but I always love getting new music - and if giving music brings you joy - who am I to argue? I will tell you there's a few other things on there that aren't CD'S that would bring me just *as much* joy :)
Hech hemm... please note that these are also probably applicable to your favorite girlfriend, mother, sister, etc. I'm here to help!
Along time ago I wrote
a rant about wishlists, and how I wish they were more popular. I'm not trying to be greedy here at all. I just honestly want to curb some of the sensless purchases in this world and save the closets full of hidden and disliked gifts from years past. I mean, I definitely support the creative creators of products in the world and buying what's being sold is how our world goes round... but giving is just as special with a heartfelt hug, fresh baked cookies or a crafty mixed tape or hand painted rock.
Either way, I'm looking forward to celebrating my birthday this weekend with my awesome friends, Rick and my bro... and I even will take in a little art at the
Monster Drawing Rally (which I'm SOOOO excited about) and enjoy a few celebratory glasses of wine. Birthdays are THE BEST! xoxoxo
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
June 20th isn't just my birthday :) It's Father's Day, too!
Finding a gift for Dad can be tough eh? That's why we here at WilloToons are here to help! Here's a few sites that might find that I recommend to help you find that last minute gift for Dad. But before we begin, here's a couple tips:
1. American's think you always have to buy gifts... Horrible isn't it? Well - unless you're on the receiving side, I suppose. What I'm trying to say here is - he'd probably do just fine receiving a funny heartfelt card from you or fax him over sequential faxes writing funny memories you remember from your childhood with him. And don't be afraid to have one of the fax pages be your best cartoon of the event... no matter how bad they are, I'm sure you can make him laugh... or cry.
2. Most anything you get for Dad, he's going to appreciate. Or not - who knows! Don't stress yourself out on the BEST. PRESENT. EVER. Most Dad's have everything already, so it's the thought that counts.
3. Don't feel like it has to be on time. At this point you're really late already - so sure you could pay $20 extra to make sure it arrives on Saturday - but instead pop a card in the mail tomorrow, and let him know it will get there early next week. Fathers Day can be celebrated all year! :)
And now for some linkys:
Remember my tips & celebrate Dad! (or if you're dad's a jerk, send a present to mom! Mom's always need more presents :)
Wednesday we flew into Cleveland, Rick's Dad picked us up from the airport & we drove straight to Geneva and ate at Eddie's Grill. This place has been there since 1950, and it still looks the same. Total throwback burger joint, it's awesome. And... Rick worked there when he was about 14. Aww yaa.
His parents have a house in Geneva, but then also own this nice condo in Geneva on the Lake, which is where Eddie's Grill is. It's like a mini little resort that sits right on Lake Erie. Very quaint and cute. We got to stay in the condo, which was luxurious. A 2 bedroom, 2 bath is a huge place to have all to our selves compared to our little closets here in SF.
Thursday morning, after Rick & I enjoyed making breakfast in the comfy condo, we all hopped in the car & drove down to Columbus. A video of the insane rain storm we hit on the way down will come later. But any of you from the midwest know the kind: Your winshield wipers can't go fast enough to keep the pounding rain off enough to even see! It was fun :)
We arrived at the Franklin Park Conservatory, where Michelle's wedding was being held, just in time for the rehearsal. The Conservatory had the Chihuly glass installations there and it was just amazing!! Really incredible. It was here I got to meet the rest of Rick's family for the first time!
Saturday night we all enjoyed a delicious rehearsal dinner at Braddock's in Grandview. Many, many glasses of wine were had - some really yummy food - and I got to doodle with my new little friend Alex, which was so great!
Friday we all did our various things throughout the day - most of the ladies hit the salon, I stayed back at the hotel & got a little work done - and by 5 we were headed over to begin the evening. It was a very beautiful wedding - the conservatory was a fantastic place to have it! They not only had those incredible glass installations, but they have a butterfly room, too - with tons of butterflies flying around. It was really neat.
We danced the night away - I met lots of family members and friends of the family. It was a blast!
The next day we all went over to the newleyweds house for food and gift opening. Nice & relaxing. All his relatives are so sweet... I felt very welcome and was so honored to be able to share the entire event with their family. Michelle & Ron are now in Hawaii!
Saturday night we drove back to Geneva to spend another night at the condo and catch some of the good ol' GOTL nightlife. Because we'd been grazing all day and then sitting in a car all afternoon (it's a 3 hour drive), I proposed we take a sunset walk before we started our evening.
The sunset on Lake Erie was beautiful... We had a nice walk along the coast to the marina, and then back through some woods. I love how lush the forests are there!
We ate some yummy pizza from (count em) 2! places on the strip (we split 1 at one place and 1 from another to compare)... and then headed back to the condo to clean up & get ready for the evening ahead.
Rick's buddies from HS came over: Jake & Jop (nickname) - and Jop even brought his girlfriend who coincidentally knows my friend Eric! They both grew up in Marietta. Such a small world!
We had a few yummy gin & tonics at the condo & then headed out to the local bar: The Cove where we set out to see SON OF GLAM - a hilarious 80's hair band tribute! haha!!
The highlight of the evening had to have been when I walked up to the stage & asked if they could play anything from
The Darkness - and they did!! Right there on the spot they kicked out "
I Believe in a Thing Called Love" and I thought I was going to LOSE IT with excitement! It was awesome - totally made my night!
We had a BLAST!!! And I quickly took to making it a personal goal to taking as many photos with "the locals" as I could. We're talking MULLETS GALORE! This place hasn't changed since the 80's!! I told this first guy he looked like my brother to get him to take a photo with me. And this middle one here seems to be a Son of Glam fanatic! And of course, the one on the right - me with the lead singer - aaaww yaaaa. Makin friends all over the place!
After we closed down the bar - where by the way they were still graciously serving beers to well around 2:30am! - we headed back to the condo. On the way I had Jake take a photo with this crazy girl on the street - we had a 3 way with Mr. Putt Putt and then went back to the condo where Andi proceded to totally kick all our asses in Texas Hold'Em. Such a rockin night!!! In Ohio even - who knew!?
Sunday morning we slept in and hit breakfast (well by that time they'd only serve us lunch) at Mary's Kitchen. It was gorgeous weather and we luxuriously hung out and chilled in the condo till Rick's parents showed up.
We went & enjoyed Eddie's Grill one last time - which I just realized I forgot to mention how DELICIOUS the chocolate malt was!! We toured downtown Geneva and I got to see his Dad's store... and then the moment I'd been waiting for all weekend: We visited the largest rocking chair ever! My life is complete :)
It was a fantastic weekend and I must admit I'm so relaxed from having some time away! Yay for vacations!
Oh ya - and here's the full photo album (by request, I took these down) from the trip, if yer interested - there's some pretty funny shots from Saturday night!
Monday, June 14, 2004
See what did I tell you? The biggest rocking chair ever made! Man, Ohio has it ALL! :)
We had a blast, but it's good to be home. My kitty was so excited to see me, we've been snuggling like CRAZY!
But unfortunately I gotta go - I have jury duty - bleh! More photos coming soon...
Friday, June 11, 2004
Today's the big day - Michelle (Rick's sister) is getting married!! Soooo exciting. So far I've had a fantastic time meeting his family - they're all sooo great. His Dad is an absolute crack up, and it's so cool meeting his sister and his brothers (who are twins!)
Geneva, Ohio is this small town he's from - and the downtown area is literally 2 blocks long, and it's super quaint... and then they also have a condo down in "Geneva On The Lake" which is this cute little strip of condo's, cabins and a little mini town... About 2 or 3 blocks of mini-golf, arcades, bars, and restaurants > the most popular being the classic "Eddie's Grill", where we ate the first night I arrived. Great photos from there to come later.
Their condo is precious - the lake is, as most of you have figured out by now, Lake Erie. I've never been on any of the great lakes to my knowledge, and had no idea they were this HUGE! It's like the ocean! So the condo has a big balcony that looks out to the lake. We stayed there and made a nice breakfast before coming down here to Columbus for the wedding.
I'm on an expensive Hyatt connection right now so I better go. BYE!
Monday, June 07, 2004
The countdown is on... I've only got 2 days before we take off for the land of the largest rocking chair EVER. MADE. OHIO! Try not to be too jealous alright?
The fun part is I get to meet all of Rick's family! woohoo! I'm not really nervous as much as I am just really looking forward to it! His family seems really cool, plus we're going for his sister's wedding - so we're sure to all be in good "spirits"!
He has brothers that are twins, and his Mom & Dad have been married for 40 years, which is rare these days! I love meeting people's families, so it should be a good time. Plus, I get to meet his friends he grew up with... and the best part is I get to be with my sweetie on vacation for 5 days!
So I'm scurrying to wrap up a few last work things before I go - so not sure I'll be posting much. But the macalicious (my powerbook) is coming along for the trip, so maybe I'll have time to post while I'm there.
Have a great week!
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Although I haven't posted photos in awhile, I've still been snapping TONS of photos as per usual :)
I finally took time this weekend to download them, edit & upload - So there's
4 new albums up!
Photos from my hike up Bernal Hill, Rick & I hiking Tennessee Valley and then hittin tasty Joe's Tacos. Photos from my Mom's visit & some of Kazoobie and then a ton from SHOWS!!! About 8 or so different nights we went out & saw shows, including: Sleater Kinney, Frog Eyes, Trans Am, Lower 48, Replicator, The Shins, Harold Ray Live in Concert, Extra Action Marching Band and Franz Ferdinand!
Here's a few favs:
5/28/04: rick, willo, becca & moses at trans am show
kazoobie fuzzy pants o'brien
5/31/04: willo & rick lying on a rock at tennesee valley beach
5/30/04: ricky g & moses at edinburg castle
5/30/04: playing pool at edinburg castle
5/30/04: Conan (of Replicator) and I after their set
6/2/04: Sunset over Twin Peaks
6/3/04: Harold Ray Live in Concert
Saturday, June 05, 2004
FYI: I, like the uber cat fanatic geek kitty momma that I am, just updated
Kazoobie's homepage. Nothing special, just links to posts I've written about him/that have photos.. :)
And while we're on the topic, you must check out some of these
great links to funny kitty sites, movies, etc.
ESPECIALLY:
Cat with Hands - this movie is awesome!!
Aaron, let me know if you read this cuz I wanted to send it to you especially. Great little short, eh!?
And be sure to check out
Sleepy Kittens.
Oh & have you seen that site with
designer furniture for pets? I want to buy Kazoobie
this one (uh, if it weren't $375!!!).
Friday, June 04, 2004
Lastnight we hit yet another
Mission Creek Music Festival event, this time at the Eagle Tavern.
We had a yummy dinner first a block away at Manora Thai and then cruised over to the show. We missed Conspiracy of Beards - but
Ceasura was great. My friend Lyne joined us who we hadn't seen in forever - so we drank beers and caught up with her on the outside patio (under heat lamps) for pretty much all of Condor (sucks I missed watching the chic drummer!). And then, for the first time ever, we got a taste of
Harold Ray Live in Concert and it was AWESOME!!!! The lead singer is like a white James Brown - and the piano player was hilarious, dancing and moving his little (seemingly) toy piano to & fro, and even on top of him at one point! We had SUCH a great time shakin it!
Next up:
Extra Action Marching BandOh my gawd!!! Too insane for words! Soon after Harold Ray Live in Concert ended, before we knew it we were stampeded and surrounded by this eclectic 20 piece marching band of madness. Drums, horns, a man with a megaphone - you name it! Oh! AND flapper style sexy cheerleeding girls!! woohoo!! It all made SUCH a BIG SOUND!!!! It was SOOO MUCH FUN!!!!
It was my first time at the
Eagle Tavern, too (not surprisingly, since it's a gay biker bar) but WOW! what a kick ass bar! 3 actual bars, a stage, a great outdoor area with heatlamps and firepits and benches.. I love this place!
What's funny though, is you actually have to walk across the stage to use the restroom! I think I even had strange dreams lastnight after that trauma... something about not having a lock on the door and having everyone waiting outside... (oh ya, not only do you have to walk across the stage - there's no lock on the door!) Leave it to a gay bar to not have a lock on the bathroom door, and apparently in the men's room there's a mirror positioned "just right" to take a peak at everyone else. HA!
Anyway - GOOD TIMES!! You MUST go check out these bands - We snapped some great photos (that I will post SOME DAY!) but no photo will do justice to the experience, it was awesome.
Fever for the :: F :: I :: V :: E :: R ::
1. Scoring 3 tickets to
Franz Ferdinand tonite for Jem, Rick & I - I'm SOOO PSYCHED!!!!!
2. Last Sunday night, getting *REPLICATED* by Conan (of
Replicator) at the noise rock show at the
Edinburg Castle. (photos to come to verify) Conan is GREAT! I really dig his voice, and their CD is awesome. He rocks it up something fierce live, too - Such a fun show! Not to mention Ricky G & I's stellar games of pool. We're SHARKS!
3.
The Shins at the Warfield on Tuesday night - a last minute surprise... I was all *effected* seeing them at the Fillmore last fall, having seen James Mercer for the first time solo several months previously I wasn't prepared to "share" him with so many other people. HA. So this Warfield show I was more "prepared to share" and it's kick ass to see them knowing so many of their songs both on the old & new album. Most of their first album was in my MP3 player as I hiked up the hill in back of my house several times a week last summer, so it holds a very dear spot with me - I heart James Mercer!
4. Insert some other ridiculously happy item of note. I don't want to gag you all out too much - I know I'm really really f*in happy ... So you can even make this one terrible or something to balance it out. It's like a WILD CARD!
5. Did I mention the scoring Franz Ferdinand tickets?
Happy Friday All!!
Thursday, June 03, 2004
I am loving working on a Flash project right now... it's for a professional Photographer, redoing a site someone else started... So I'm cleaning up the file, adding some fancy actionscript, revising the navigation, adding preloaders and new sections, etc.
So, I'm loving working in Flash.. but I am *hating* Flash MX04 right now. GRRR!!! If it crashes one more time I'm gonna scream! Oh wait, I'm already screaming... and I'm already making boxing motions towards my monitor. My kitty doesn't know what to make of it!
Thank goodness the chillmaster
Bart D. is singin in the background to sooth my working furor.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Often when you get a massage, you're nude and under a sheet, but how bout a massage therapist that prefers to massage you while THEY'RE nude? eeeww!
I guess that's called being a "naturist". oy...
p.s. could that font get any bigger?
