Monday, February 28, 2005
I heart
Misty... not only for her *hilarious* sarcasm, punchy show reviews and ability to make me giggle with just a look! (Seriously Misty and I have been at a show, in TEARS laughing over something ridiculous more than once. Usually over the loud music I hear her wrong, and what I actually think I heard her say is completely off the wall & hilarious.. lastnight's is still making me laugh out loud!)
I love that I've found a new girlfriend in Misty who loves music, makes me crack up laughing all the time, and who is always giving me those "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" looks (which is usually followed by uncontrollable giggling).
I heart Misty big time for this
super sweet shout out on her (new!) blog. It's all the way at the end, but you should read through her reviews and the whole post, cuz she knows what the hell she is talking about.
Oh and hech hemm, just in case I haven't told you... Misty's [one of the] the bass players in my
band. awww yaaaa, that's right! :p Recently a friend was hearing me talk about Misty and "the band" and all of sudden said, "Wait.... You've got Misty, Jem, Hez and Willo?!" hahaaaa. Yes.. we're all members of The Cool Name Club. Maybe that should be the name of our band. Other ideas I've come up with: Spits Out Licks (which was from Jem's recount about a Dreyer's Ice Cream taster who does that to save the calories), and other ones that are too dumb to list out here. But feel free to give us some ideas!
Also a big thanks to
Jem for being there for me and listening to me go on about Rick here & there. She was closest to us both this last year... and still maintains a friendship with us both. Thanks for being a good listener, Jem, and the best show buddy a girl could ask for!!! xoxoxoxo
Other random stuff:
- I updated my
Netflix Q- If you listen to music all day, sign up on
AudioScrobbler and then add me to your
Network, so I can see what *you* are listening to! :)
- My friend
Sarah is coming back for a visit soon! yay! Recently I updated some of the frames in my house with whatever (actual) photos I had lying around. Not many... I need to do a big
Fotki order. But one of them that I did have, was one of Sarah & I that I love... here's
a photo of the framed photo. :)
Ok.. I'm really going to work now.
Awhile back I worked on a Flash project with a guy who lives in
New Caledonia (which is a French colony in the
South Pacific, in case you didn't know). So, his native language is French, but he can speak/write some broken English, so we were able to communicate.
After we finished up that project, we kept in touch saying hello on IM every once and awhile. He had started a blog, too, but because is it's written entirely in French, I couldn't understand any of it! So I happened to run it through Google's translator and then bookmarked it, thinking I'd try to pop in every once & awhile and get a glimpse into what he's up to over there.
Well, as you can imagine the automatic translator can only do so much, and so what comes out is sooo funny! Check it out:
Hop, the next morning, small dej. Ooops, I did not take small a dej. Could I take a little milk to you? Thank you. Some biscuits? Still thank you...
Once the swallowed last, us here is assembling the "ground of volleyball". Indeed a friend had bought a net of volleyball so that one can be made a "beach volleyball". But the bag of it contained but much more thing makes, as by exmple of the flags to mark the corners... In short!
And I love this one.. it's like some kind of alien wisdom:
Do it, take time. One calm moment, or time will not be counted to you in an environment favourable with relieving. Say me in comment if you succeeded in finding your goals and if they correspond to your current life. If so, you are lucky, if not like the majority of us, keep hope...
Read more of Xavier's life on his blog
here (native French)... or
translated (which is way entertaining).
Lastnight I wrote that (previous post) and took a long hot shower, instead of eating the rest of the pint of ice cream in my fridge :) so thank you therapeutic blog!
Talk about working it out... lastnight my head decided to keep processing this breakup, with yet another crazy dream:
I had gone to Rick's office... and it's unclear what happened in the beginning, but eventually I remember he was really upset... upset to see me there, even though I was doing it for him (that part of the dream coming later). But there was something more, something about him being upset about seeing me a few times recently, and him feeling like it wasn't fair, because he didn't choose to, and it only hurt him to see me. But then I got mad, feeling vulnerable and scolded that I had been caught trying to see him and be around him, so I hit this wall next to us and stormed off crying.
He followed after me and told me he had been wanting to see me, too.. but that it was just too hard. I think at this point he was crying... and so we decided we just better go take care of the paperwork... which was why I was there. We walked to the front office - which felt more like a school than an office building. Lots of overweight chipper office ladies who you could tell had been there for years, and probably had their lunch in tupperware in the lounge.
I was there to sign a document that said we were no longer together. Apparently, his boss said that without me, he could pay him whatever he wanted... so by signing this, he was going to get a huge raise, but it meant us having to say goodbye.
The whole process of making sure we had the right form, and every single line filled out and signed correctly was really emotional for both of us. When Rick instructed the secretary to do something, his voice was shaking and you could tell they were all very sympathetic to our situation and felt our sadness.
After that he walked me out of the building to say goodbye... but when I was leaving they had this odd exit where you had to put a card through. Mine had been updated as saying I was going on 'extended leave', and the lady at the turnstile exclaimed, "Oh! You're going on vacation! How exciting!" And Rick and I just had to go along with it... muster up smiles and nod back at her. However, the card had also rung up that I was going to have to pay her $58.99 to leave... but she liked us and immediately changed it to zero and let me out for free. I don't remember saying goodbye to Rick, I just remember being glad I didn't have to pay that exit fee on top of all of the anguish I'd been through on that visit.
Later that day I went back to his office, to return this paperwork I had found that allowed me to come and visit some day. I remember feeling kind of like I shouldn't go back, but I had found it while cleaning things out and felt like I shouldn't throw it away... and I also wanted to drop it off as a gesture that I wanted to be invited back at some point, and to let him know I wasn't feeling ok with being away forever. But as I dropped it off, the office ladies realized it was the old form (not under the new codes) and that he would have/could have just asked for a new one... making me feel like I shouldn't have gone out there again. But the office ladies were being comforting. I didn't see Rick at all... and when I went to go leave again, I was afraid I would get charged... but I didn't. I don't remember what else happened, but I had gone through the whole traumatic exit/are they going to charge me scenario about 5 times in the dream. At one point realizing I no longer had the "gold card" to come in & out as I pleased. And each time I left, I was more and more weary of ever coming back since it felt like every time I did I didn't feel like I would be able to get out without getting prosecuted.
:::::
Alright.. time for coffee.
like a big fat baby, i feel like crying and sobbing.... i don't even have the energy to stomp my feet... i just feel weighted down by sadness. :(
"it's not you, it's me" I wanted to say to the man I met tonite. a man with nice eyes, who is in the front row just like me... he even owns his own business (a great sign in terms of who I'm attracting). a man who was sorta kinda picking me up in a nice way, but quickly got the hint when i didn't - make that, *couldn't* - bring myself to reciprocate.
I don't think I can date for months and months and months from now.
::::
tonite my friend saw me at the show and mentioned she saw rick outside, and asked if he might be waiting for me. "No." I had to reply. But, in the six feet and people shuffling past between us, she felt why... and all she could say back was, "Oh.".
Ya... Oh.... Oh, I see. So much is in that. So much of why...
right that second, it felt like my heart was broken into a thousand little pieces.
::::::
Lastnight I had a dream about Rick. We were on some long hike, or course... where every so many hours we'd find ourselves running into a small little forgotten town. But I was by myself... he was somewhere on the course, but we weren't together. And it was like a treasure hunt of sorts... except I didn't know where I was going... or what I was looking for, but the game was to just keep walking along the path until you found each little town and then figure out what message or next step you could glean from the every day people who lived there.
At some point in the dream, we were standing together on the path. Standing closely, holding each other closely.... kissing passionately and me, telling him over and over how much I love him. Over and over, it's all that would come out, in between our sweet kisses. I knew I shouldn't have been telling him... but I couldn't stop and he didn't mind.. so we just cherished that moment where we were letting ourselves love each other so deeply.
I remember thinking, while I was on the course by myself, that I wanted to find him again. But there were mixed emotions.. not knowing whether I should go looking for him or not... and if I did.. would that mean having to go forward or back where I had already walked.
Pretty interesting....
I miss him terribly. He looks at me like he can't tell me what he's feeling... and I probably look back at him like nothing's wrong.. and everything's fine...when inside me I think I'm yelling at him, "why can't you show me how you feel!!" but of course he can't. neither of us can... we just have to act like everythings fine and keep going.
relationships are stupid. I don't want to be with anyone ever. (not true) I just wish it didn't feel like it's getting harder and harder the longer time goes by. Isn't this supposed to be getting easier? ug.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
OK! I have finally posted all the photos from my awesome show-ho'in week of Noisepop madness!! I'm quite thrilled actually.. this little
on loan SD300 takes some sweet ass point & shoot shots. Well, it's not entirely point & shoot with me behind the wheel... I do mess w/ the ISO & have even found taking it down to -1 stop can help faces with spotlights on them from getting too washed out.. but suffice to say the hot little bugger fits sweetly into my back pocket and THAT is awesome.
| So, without further ado: |
 | Robbers on High St w/ Von Iva @ Cafe Du Nord
Feb 25, 2005
I *LOVE* Robbers on High Street. Humble guys with an awesome sound. Von Iva is entertaining to watch.. she's balls out & it's always surprising she hasn't hurt herself or someone else throughout the duration of her set. :) good times! After the show (it was an early show from 5:30-8), Jem & I went for yummy Marcello's pizza & hit The Flaming Lips Documentary: Fearless Freaks at the Castro Theatre. All Noisepop shows. |
 |
 | Hot Hot Heat w/ Louis XIV @ GAMH
Feb 24, 2005
Louis XIV was HOTT and rockin fun! Hot Hot Heat absolutely blew my mind once again.. making me dance all night, jump up & down and proclaim them as one of my favorite. bands. ever! Hot Hot Heat was one of my favorite bands of 2003 and I love, love, love them... |
|
 | David Byrne w/ The Extra Action Marching Band @ The Fillmore
Feb 23, 2005
This show was INCREDIBLE!!!!! David Byrne is a God of the musical world. I have mad respect for him!! It was great. The crowds are always fantastic too - no stupid 17 yr olds moshing for no reason :) The Extra Action Marching Band came out at the very end, which was a total surprise, considering I think we all thought they either weren't playing with him after all, or that there must just be a few members up there on stage with D. Byrne... but they came out (all 20+ of them) and made some incredible noise with all their fantastic marching band goodness. Then they hopped up on stage w/ my main man, David Byrne, and rocked out a kick ass "Burning Down the House!" - you can watch a small clip of it here (need Quicktime). Note: This show wasn't a part of Noise Pop, it just happened to be booked smack dab in the middle of it. |
|
 | Ted Leo @ GAMH w/ The Herms, The Joggers & Communiqué
Feb 22, 2005
Excellent kick off to a week of Noisepop shows! The Herms were great, The Joggers (despite some attitude) sounded great live! And Communiqué... *sigh* I think I have a huge crush on the lead singer. Don't tell him! :) He got a new haircut or something. I dunno.. but I LOVE THEM! Ted Leo and his phuzzy phreaky Pharmacists didn't disappoint, as usual (I've seen them about 6 times now!). The 17 year olds moshing for no reason DID dissapoint, but the one rabid fan was slightly entertaining. Ted even had to say, "Can we talk about this after the set?" at one point to him, because he was one of those "I need your undivided attention!" kind of freaks. Overall a great night of 4 rockin bands! |
Stay tuned! I still have about 4 shows to hit in the next 2 days!
Photos/events from
the last 10 days prior to Noisepop:
 | Drinks at the LAC w/ Sarah and friends
Feb 19, 2005
Sarah Hatter gathered some peeps for drinks.. and I invited my friends Jim & Lyne. I didn't stay for long, but you can sure has heck bet we took photos in the short time I was there! :) |
 | Monster Drawing Rally @ Southern Exposure (Gallery)
Feb 18, 2005
Jem, Tania, Darren & I hit the rally and got fed (creatively). It was fun! |
 | Fastpass and Hijack the Disco @ Thee Parkside
Feb 17, 2005
2 great local bands! My friend (and client) Oscar plays bass in Fastpass, and I'd also met Mike (guitar) and Tracy (lead vox) before, so it was great to finally see them live! Hijack the Disco played an incredible set that moved us all! I love those boys! Oh, and you can now see (boobalicious) Misty sportin their t-shirt, too! ooh! |
 | Random February Shots
One of me and Kazoobie Fuzzy Pants O'Brien (of course); A shot of my friend and client, Jeff, of DCResource.com (that I designed!), my awesome Sarah Hatter bag that holds my drum sticks and more.... and shots of my 2 framed posters: Pretty Girls Make Graves and Arcade Fire, newly hanging in my living room! |
"Have you got any soul?" a woman asks the next afternoon. That depends, I feel like saying; some days yes, some days no. A few days ago I was right out; now I've got loads, too much, more than I can handle. I wish I could spread it a bit more evenly, I want to tell her, get a better balance, but I can't seem to get it sorted. I can see she wouldn't be interested in my internal stock control problems though, so I simply point to where I keep the soul I have, right by the exit, just next to the blues.
- Nick Hornby, "High Fidelity"
Thanks to my very funny and fantastic internet friend,
Steve The Sneeze for surprising me with *his* favorite book!! YAY!!! I'm already 77 pages in, this poignant paragraph above being where I left off.
I haven't seen the movie since it came out, and I had honestly forgotten how distraught Rob is over his relationships. I know, it's practically the entire plot of the movie, but can you blame me for categorizing it more near "kick ass movies about music freaks" over "movie about relationships"? No.
Needless to say, I'm enjoying the read VERY much. And unlike Steve, who has vowed to never ruin his favorite book by watching the movie, I already have it queued up in Netflix so that I can watch it again after I read the book. :) I also have to admit, I like that Jon Cusack's voice is in my head while reading it... because he's just adorable.
Thanks for the wonderful surprise, Steve! And for the rest of you, you can look forward to me cultivating more top 5 lists.
why is it that when there are only a few more flakes swimming around in the milk, they can be so tricky to get on the spoon? it's like all of a sudden they TRY to dodge it.. "oh shit, here it comes! Run to the other side of the bowl - quick!"
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Ok, change of plans.. Kristin wants our David Byrne served up fresh, and I don't blame her! So we're hittin that tonite instead of Friday... which leaves me open to more Noisepop madness, probably starting with that early show: Robbers on High Street on Friday w/ Jem! Yay!
Lastnight was funtatstic. Starting with Happy Hour at Thee Parkside with my friend Mike, and within 5 minutes of being there, running into a guy I went to HS with! NO WAY! When I walked through the back (to claim my free beer of course) I spotted a fellow that looked strikingly like someone I knew many moons ago... and immediately my breath escaped me and I thought I'd seen a ghost! (a common reaction I often have when I see someone from such a different part of my life, all of a sudden standing smack dab in my current life reality and totally out of context)
So I quickly talked myself out of it and hoped this guy didn't see the insane look on my strange face and I gracefully walked past him to gather my thoughts (and hech hemm, my free beer). After I took a swig, I told my friend Mike all about how I could have sworn that I recognize that guy... etc.. and finally as I told him all about it standing no more than 5 feet away, I had to ask!
I walked over, (and I think I may have even rudely interrupted him & someone talking, but I couldn't keep it in any longer) and asked, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrup, but what's your name?". He replied, "Dan Wolf". OH MY GOD! "Dan, I went to High School with you!" and he said "Willo!" and then we continued with our "oh my god's" "how long have you lived here's". SO COOL TO RUN INTO HIM!!
Dan was a junior when I was a freshman and we were in art class together. :) I was also close, maybe clos(er) with his brother Bas... but overall they're both totally solid guys that I loved knowing in those crazy years. I remembered Dan was always incredibly talented as an artist, so it was no surprise to see a big fat (aka awesome) camera around his neck and to find out he was actually there to shoot Noisepop. aawww yaaa, Dan!
He even has
some of his work in a show that's up at BoTH right now. Very, very cool. What a blast from the past!
Alright, I've run out of time to write any more.. but lastnight was fun, and conveniently enough you can find a recount of the show at my pals,
Misty (brand spankin new blogger!) and
Jem's sites. Adios!
::::
UPDATE:
Noisepop Photos are posted
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
AAAAWWW YAAAAA!!!! I'm so pumped up today because today kicks off a Week In Rock that's sure to please your favorite show ho! Jem & I are show ho cohorts on most every single show this week, except Friday night Kristin and I are going to David Byrne & Jem is probably going to hit Robbers on High Street (who I love, too! But I couldn't pass up seeing David Byrne again... I love him!)
Ok, so here's what I am going to this week:
Tonite: First, Happy Hour at the
Noisepop kick off party at Thee Parkside!
Mike Lin is puttin me on his +1 and I'm sure I'll see a lot of my favorite show goin music freeky geeks there. yay! Then I'm having dinner w/ my pal, Stig at the yummy Thai House Express before headin over to meet Jem and dance our booties off the kick arse bands booked at GAMH:
The Herms,
Communiqué,
The Joggers &
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists!!! I'm stoked on this line up!
Wed: I have BAM.. and so it's my night off... again preparing for more nights-o-rock. :) I might come home & do work, depending upon my workload.. or watch my next movie: Hedwig & the Angry Itch! Can you believe I haven't seen that yet? I am excited. Perfect for my week of rock, too :)
Thurs:
Louis XIV &
Hot Hot Heat at GAMH! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!! Hot Hot Heat was one of my favorite bands of 2003 and I love, love, love them... Stoked to see them again and hear their new stuff.. and to check out The Mall & Louis XIV, who sound great from the tracks I have of theirs so far!
Friday:
David Byrne w/ my pal, Kristin! and
The Extra Action Marching Band is opening, which will be cool to see on Fillmore's stage..
We saw them at the Eagle once, and they're so fun! Lots of instruments and crazy people... Big sound! Hott ladies! woohoo! Also, prior to the show, I'm going to try have Kristin & I hit the
JPG Magazine opening night/launch party at Reverie Cafe.
Saturday Afternoon:
Joanna Newsom + more at Swedish Hall - then in between, we're going to hop over to the
Lola Gallery and see
Sirron Norris and
Merikay MacKenna's Animal Heads will be there
again, too! Then off to our Sat Evening show:
Damon & Naomi &
Vetiver at BoTH
Sunday Afternoon: (I might hit, depending on work and tiredness level)
The Thermals &
Helio Sequence at BoTH - Sun Evening:
The Walkmen!! who I am so excited to finally see live! and
Film School, too - woohoo!
Don't forget you can find most all the show info (at least the ones I was interested in :) on
my show calendar. Or you can use the venue links to navigate to the individual venues & see all their shows!
If you're a big ol' Noisepop geek, like my fantastic friend Misty xoxoxo!!, you'll make and distribute an
Excel sheet of all the shows. Damn, I knew I loved that girl for some reason. :)
Ted & Misty were also the providers of the fabulous spreadsheet/timetables for last year's
Coachella. *sniff* I'm surrounded by music lovers as hard core as me and it absolutely warms my little music loving heart!!!
So let the fun begin! wooohooooo!!! Hope to see you at a show!!!
::::
UPDATE:
Noisepop Photos are posted
umm, why am I getting so bad on reporting on things I've done? well, I'm frickin busy! that's prolly why. anyway - things i've done recently... in short:
UPDATE: Photos are posted from all these events!! See this post:
my busy life... in pictures
- last thurs: this show at the parkside. ROCKED! great to see Fastpass, and my client/friend Oscar kick some ass on the bass. (don't rhyme that, although I know you're tempted too.. it doesn't work!) and then extra fantastic to see Hijack the Disco play again and then meet/chat it up with all them afterwards. I have gotten to know Mike's (one of the lead singers) brother, Taylor but still hadn't met all the Hijack boys formally yet... so that was cool! And they sounded GREAT and put on a rockin show that reaffirmed for me even more how far these guys will go. Their drummer Trevor absolutely rocks on the drums, and even pulled out a kick ass whistle blow that made me look back at Misty and mouth, "I am SO getting a whistle!". I knew a ton of ppl there, some other clients I work with (at the same company Oscar works at) were there suporting him too, which was awesome... and my friend Jim even stopped by later to catch the last set. Overall, I was so stoked to be out at a show, drinking beers & being surrounded by other music loving friends = it's what I do best!
- last friday: happy hour at the hush hush w/ jem, tania, misty, ted, heather, colin and more! Then Jem, Tania & I left and met Darren over at Southern Exposure's Monster Drawing Rally - which was awesome!! My 3rd year in a row going to this thing & it is like FOOD FOR MY CREATIVE APPETITE! I love it and loved being there with my pals. I snapped a bunch of pics, but have I uploaded them yet? no! but Darren posted about it on his blog.. but he doesn't have post pages up for me to easily link to the post.. hech hemm, Darren!
- saturday: I tried to work.. but I dunno.. I didn't get as much as I would have liked done.. and then went over to Rebecca's house to say Bon Voyage to her, as she's going to work in Singapore for a few months. *weep* My gym buddy!!!!!!! Super sad, but she'll have a neat experience, and so that'll be cool. The BEST part about going to see her was she gave me this scarf she's been making me for a long time and it's SOOOO incredible!! Once again, I have photos - but they're not up yet. But just wait till you see! Then I went over & met Sarah Hatter, Lyne & Jim at the LAC. Buzz was there, and shortly after MJ showed up, and then a little later Lucia & Jane, too! But by that time I had to skat.. I wasn't even drinking, and I had to run one last errand before 10pm and then coming home to cuddle up with a movie. :) I have been taking REALLY good care of myself, so as to be sure I'm all healed up for this week of ROCK! (post coming soon about that)
- Oh and the movie I watched: Maria Full of Grace. SO GOOD. Intense, yes, but no reason to not watch it. It's a fantastic drama... and way more about this girl's life in Columbia and the experience than it is about drugs. Anyway I recommend it. Also it's great because these girls had never acted, and this movie has risen up out of film festivals and gotten attention and recognition all over the globe. Which is cool! Not to mention it's helped heighten awareness of the dangers for desperate youths in Columbia considering becoming a drug mule, and has even had reports of people changing their minds due to seeing this movie.
- sunday: I actually worked my arse off on Sunday. :) wahoo! Caught up on lots of stuff and then got myself in bed by 11:45 (again on plan to totally rest up for week of ROCK!)
- monday: work, work & more work! yay! hahhaa.. seriously, things are heatin up around here & I have a ton of work on my plate. Hence why I'm behind on the posting and stuff. But I will say it's good! I'm really excited about the projects coming up.
- Later lastnight, because I just couldn't work any. more. I watched a movie at 10... The Village. Everyone has panned this flick.. but I actually thought it was REALLY cool! Great twists and overall a very clever plot. I dunno why everyone panned it.. I really liked it. I knew I would and shouldn't listen to reviewers. I was also nervous I'd be too scared to sleep afterwards (cuz I'm a big scaredy cat about scary flicks), but I totally wasn't. It'll make you on edge and feel fear a little.. but overall you're not totally freaked like some other scary movies where you think at any minute the boogie man is going to bust through the door and kill you. Not that I would know that feeling, because I don't rent those movies for exactly that reason! hahaha
Today is a very exciting day that I will post about next!!
Sunday, February 20, 2005
WOOHOOO!! FINALLY I got Safari running faster!! Thanks to
this post!
Within Safari's preferences, choose "AutoFill," and then hit "Edit" next to "Other forms." This is where Safari stores every field in a form that has ever been filled out in Safari, other than logins and passwords. I hit "Remove All," and Safari was instantly accelerated.
As soon as I dumped all the form info, no more spinny ball! YAY!! Recently this had become a bit more of an urgent matter due to some of the stock photography sites I visit not working on Firefox yet. I'm so relieved!
"E-mail could be a kind of intermittent relief from having to think about things that are not really that enjoyable, but when it becomes a habit so you can't do without it, then it becomes the tail that wags the dog, and it's a problem." [
read more]
link from
43folders.com
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Anyone who knows me well, knows I absolutely despise cigarettes. I feel like making t-shirts that say [front] At first I thought you were hott... [back] but then I saw your nasty cigarette. BLECH! Or something like that. Anyway, that's how I feel a lot of the time... I'll see some guy I think is attractive, then I'll see him next with a cigarette and I gag.
Anyway... let
this news story remind all you smokers that it's not only disgusting, smelly, life threatening, but also dangerous to EVERYONE AROUND YOU! But you knew that & you keep reachin for another one. I think my feelings can best be expressed by quoting Mr. T here when he says, "I Pity the Fool".
I also hate it how you throw your butt's on the ground, thinking someone is actually just supposed to go around picking up your trash.
The World Is Not Your Trashcan. If you're a smoker, please think twice about this and
stop littering our streets with your bad habit.
It's not only funded by
big evil corporations, but it's a
bad example for our kids and I personally have 2 close friends who have lost their family members to lung cancer. Smoking is so "cool"! (ugg)
Stop making excuses and just
quit! :)
/end rant
I have these
books on my wishlist, do any of you have one of em on your bookshelf you can share with me? And/or have any of you read any of these & recommend them? Or have another you recommend I pick up?
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Lastnight at the studio with the girls was so fun! I got the red kit which was way better than the black one I rented a few weeks ago. The snare sounded great and I even got there before the girls so I was practically all set up by the time they came in! Misty even gave us Valentines.. Chocolates w/ Carmel... YUMM!! And then she laughed at me because when I held up the "treats" I had brought, one of them was Ricolah Honey Herb throat drops. hahaa... can you tell I've been sick for a few weeks? :p I love these things though, and for a late night of laughing and talking and bangin on the drums, they actually were a perfect (and long lasting!) treat. :)
So, we worked on
Monkey Gone to Heaven by the Pixies over & over lastnight... and we actually got WAY better from the first time we played it to how we sounded by the end of practice! Which is SO cool!!! Keep in mind for all you experienced musicians out there, this now counts the 2nd. time. EVER. I have played with other people in my life and it is rocking my world!!! It's so amazing to make music with other people... and have all us girls discussing the song, discussing where each of us comes in, trying new things out with their singing, etc. So neat! :)
Misty & Hez had played this song with their friend before, so they were able to help tell me where some parts come in (the beginning and then fill that comes in, in a few parts of the song: tom + floor tom beat for 3, then snare + floor tom, then crash symbol on the 1) and by the end of the night I had it!! Although by the end of the night I was also kinda sore! haha! Playing music is hard work! Not to mention staying focused on all the things to remember within a song.. on the last time through my body practically gave out.. Misty looked at me like "what is happening?!" But I couldn't control it, I was short circuiting! :p I have mad respect for these musicians who play really really long sets... and I'm sure I'll strengthen my rock muscles with enough practice! :)
Before going lastnight a few of us were really feeling tired.. and a movie was sounding DAMN good... but I knew as soon as we got in there we would be lovin' it - and we did. We were all totally pumped by the end, and had a great time. I can't wait to get back in there & play some more!
p.s. No pics or vids this time, but I will next time!
DCResource just posted a press release about the release of the
two new *awesome* Canon Elph's hittin the shelves! I'm really stoked on the SD500... (but I gotta see how much bulkier it is than the SD400), but it looks amazing, so I'm sure I can handle the extra .2" and go for it anyway. :)
These cameras have this cool new feature that's not been seen before:
"New My Color feature gives you "virtual" color filters and also allows you to swap one color for another, without ever touching a computer..... Now even the most casual picture-taker can easily opt for verdant valleys of greener greens, juicy apples of redder red, skies and seas of bluer- blue and even add or reduce a little tan to the skin tone as they are shooting. Whether the desired effect is to make the color “more real” or surreal, these digital dynamos are capable of capturing and saving both the original still image and the enhanced color versions as separate files on the camera’s SD Memory Card."
SWEET!!
And the "14% better battery life" + "50% better flash range" - AWESOME!!
There are may things I'm excited about on these cameras. Don't worry - I will post another link here when they're up for sale. I'm a fan! :)
Release dates & prices are waaay at the bottom of the page, so in case you're looking for it - here: The PowerShot SD400 Digital ELPH Camera will be available in April and the PowerShot SD500 Digital ELPH will be available in March for estimated street prices of $399.99*, and $499.99* respectively.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
I love spam email subject lines... I mean, that's a good one! Maybe I'll use that on my next singles profile. What is round & deliciously innocent on me? My face? My arse? My eyeball? eeww, you want to eat my eyeball!?!?
::::
Today my kitty is STOKED it's not raining. Today I am making myself a pizza for lunch. Today I slept in because I was up late working on a deadline. Today I talked to my ex, and it was nice to hear his voice. Today I swapped "who's your therapist?" emails with 4 girlfriends, and as one of them put it "this is so 2005". Today I'm wearing my Paul Frank pajamas. Tonite I have BAM... and then later tonite I will be going to the rehearsal space to play with my rockstar girlfriends
again! woohoo! We'll be playing "Monkey Gone to Heaven" and "Hey Ya"... and I practiced both with my drum teacher yesterday. I'm also excited to show off that I can play the beat to "George of the Jungle". That's right.. rock stardom here I come!!
::::
Today I also read
a beautiful post from a very sweet boy. Eric's damn close in terms of what I want in a man... and I feel like it is a GREAT sign that I'm attracting these traits in potential suitors:
- Geekily fantastic. Eric blows me away in the fabulously geeky realm.. and that is HOTT. :) I should be sooo lucky!
- Master communicators. Having someone that not only is able to communicate openly and honestly with others, but with themselves is hard to find. I feel like it is absolutely wonderful that I am attracting this in the people around me.
- Eric's a cat lover! (and not deathly allergic) yay!
There is a lot more I could say about Eric, and how wonderful he is. (Please do not ask me the reasons why, in the face of it seeming so right, I have declined. I trust you all will trust and understand that I know what's best for me.) No doubt he will make an amazing partner for a very lucky girl. I told him that today... and that I already miss our friendship, as we IM all the time about mac stuff and blogging stuff (you know, geek talk :). But I understand this time he needs to take.
Man, life and emotions can be so tricky! But honestly I feel fortunate to have such clarity within myself to know what feels right in my heart. I wish that for everyone.
Ok pizza's ready!
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
OMG!! I just finished ripping the VERY. LAST. CD.!!! I am *so* excited!! Finally after months (8 to be exact), I can officially say I've ripped my entire CD collection!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!
I now officially have 69.36GB on
FattyGigger!! Of which, I have selected 55GB *worthy* of being on my phatty 60GB iPod! awww yaaaa :)
I chose to rip everything I have, and through it all I ripped a lot of stuff I really don't care about & don't think I'll ever put on my iPod.. but I *love* the idea that everything I own (for the most part, since there were a few CD's my drive wouldn't read, or didn't have the track listings and it wasn't worth me figuring it out) documented in my iTunes library! So now, not only can I tell you if I own an artist, I can tell you with the click of a button, what albums I own... and listen to them in an instant! SWEEEEEEET. :)
::::::
Speaking of music... I'm hitting a show this Thursday night at
Thee Parkside. There are 3 local bands playing that are worth checking out:
HIJACK THE DISCOI've seen Hijack the Disco once before - after having their mp3's in rotation for awhile and loving their sound, they were really fun to see live. And turns out I know a guy who's brother & roommate is in the band! (It's a small world after all!) A few of their songs have been compared to Pinback, but they've got a great sound and energy all their own worth checking out!
FASTPASSI have met most of this band... nice, nice guys... and one of them is even a client of mine (at his day job)! :p But besides all that,
their tracks sound good and they're a band that's been getting talked about more & more... I'm looking forward to finally seeing them live!!
HUT DWELLERSI've only heard about the Hut Dwellers so far... but all good things: One friend said they remind him of Minutemen, Firehose, Oneida. Another friend said, "they remind me of one of the house bands you'd see in a party scene of a russ meyer film. which is not only a compliment, but awesome." hahaa. I've met one of their members briefly and I've heard they're all really nice guys. On top of all that, their tracks sound good on their site, so I am looking forward to checking them out! (you can download their whole album off their site!)
Downloading note: If you're a
Firefox user, I highly recommend
DownThemAll! Set up your own filter and call it music, and only look for .mp3's on a page... makes it super easy! :)
2/17, 9PM (I'll probably be there shortly after, as I'm wanting to see all 3 bands play!) and only $5!
Come join me for a beer and Support Local Music!! :)
Monday, February 14, 2005
As much as this might be a Hallmark inspired holiday, I have to say that I think it's wonderful there is a whole day dedicated to celebrating LOVE!!! Love is such a truly magical and miraculous feeling.. and it doesn't have to be about having a significant other to make you whole - no way jose! - it's about loving yourself, loving life, loving the people around you who give to you and make your day brighter in any way shape or form. Celebrating the love that is within a family... both near and far.
Eat something sweet and remember how loved YOU are, give a stranger a smile, hug someone you care about but for some reason have never hugged! Spread the love today!
Send an e-card!! I made this back when
I worked at Care2.com :)
Or send a cute card from a site I've fallen in love with today:
HipsterCards, thanks to my friend
Lucia sending me one! xoxo
Thank you for all of you reading who send me your love & support! Have someone give you a hug and close your eyes and pretend it's from me! (remember, I give *really* good hugs, so if the first one isn't good, keep hugging people till it feels right)
Sunday, February 13, 2005
I am editing my blog template today -
so things might be wacky for a few hours.... sorry! All done & working great!!!
:::
Updated: My friend
Eric & I *geeked out* today and it was SOOO GREAT!! Where do I begin?!?!?
Well, first I left my house first thing this morning and headed down to his place, which in itself is incredible. He lives in this sweet little place in the woods!!!! It was like a breath of fresh air to me to be surrounded by that much green, lush, foresty goodness! And he lives smack dab in the middle of it all the time! Truly gorgeous and rejuvenating.
Eric's darling friend
Chrisann was over when I arrived and joined us for breakfast at the famous
Alice's Restaurant! We all had a very yummy meal in a cozy little cabin type feel of their back dining room.. eating off of what are barely sturdier than paper plates, with Classic Rock playing in the background, and a stream of bikers coming into dine. Awesome. I had the really yummy "Alice's Omelet" which I highly recommend - but next time, I'm definitely trying the Huevos, as Eric got it & it looks amazing.
I had a great time meeting Chrisann. Talk about no coincidences, turns out she spent several years of her life doing wall painting and murals for individuals and health institutions like the Ronald McDonald House, etc.. so we had a LOT to talk about!!! She gave me some great ideas, advice and some serious food for thought on the more psychological/spiritual side of imagery for children. Really neat.
On the way back to Eric's we stopped off to look at this amazing old Methuselah redwood tree [
info]. How old? Oh, just 1800 YEARS OLD!!! How neat is that? It's HUGE.
There's a great story [
link] behind the Methuselah trees around San Francisco and how they were used to rebuild the city after the fires long ago. Why this one was never cut down is a mystery, but it's beautiful and I was so glad Eric took us there today to see it. I took some photos today, but there's no way to capture how magnificent it is. Plus, today it was really foggy and just made for such a neat experience stepping into the damp woods to see this large, mossy, ancient grandfather of the forest. But I did have fun taking photos of the moss. Moss is so cool.
::::::
So, finally after our relaxing breakfast and trek to see a big huge beautiful tree in the misty woods - we were ready to geek out!
See, Eric works at
Blogger... and I, being the long time, loyal user of Blogger :) :) have needed some serious help fixing up my blog since they implemented a bunch of crafty new tags and features. Thanks
CW!! I have for a long time had this hacked up php include thing happening on my blog... and really needed to get post pages working (which makes it so that when you want to use a permalink to one of my posts - which is the link on the time stamp fyi - it now goes to it's VERY OWN PAGE!!!)... and now on those post pages, you can see the titles of my last 10 posts and everything! VERY COOL!!!
And yes, ladies & gentleman.... a redesign is in the works!!! This has gotten me totally pumped and now I can hardly wait to get on the redesign. Of course all of a sudden I'm slammed and the next 2 days I will actually hardly be on IM I have to put my head down & finish something up for a Wednesday deadline.... but maybe I'll have some time near the end of the week. Anyway - LOTS of great things now work due to Eric helping me fix things up today. Now you can see the little orange beacon RSS thingy on the Firefox window, and the meta data is all goooood. It's all good!! woohooo!
Oh! And HUGE props to the
BAM tech wizard David who was on IM and I knew he'd be able to help me figure out how to make all my old permalink url's forward to the new /archive/ directory. That kid is still in high school and absolutely SLAYS me with his coding ability. I was soooo grateful for his time today xoxoox Thank you David!!! David has no bio on BAM, or I'd link to it - he's the tech/coder behind the scenes... but him & Danny also have done a ton of work on a very cool thing called:
Gerpok. Check it out.
OK - so to top it all off, I have to spill that Eric gave me a Valentine's gift!! Holy moly!! I was completely surprised, and totally delighted because it's the yummiest sweetie treat from this awesome new bakery called
Gâteau et Ganache. And if there is a girl in your life (or guy) lucky enough to receive some sweets from you... I have to personally recommend their 2 very first products launched for this Valentine's Day: The Raspberry Sweethearts and the Strawberry Marshmallows. YUMM!!!! Eric had me blushing... what a total surprise. :) Thank you!!! xoxoxoxox
What a day. Ok... so now I must go to bed... but you can see
more photos of the day here. Oh! And please let me know if you see any wierdness on the site... be my eyes, people! :)
flight o fancySee more in my Album:
Shots of the City
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Yay! Mike just sent over photos of the room all put together with the wall paintings hung! I think it looks great! All weekend they worked so hard, buying new shelves and painting them and putting them up, so this is the first I've seen it all put together with both paintings and everything. So cool! :)
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
I had sooo much fun painting over the weekend! Little 8 week old Connor is so cute and his parents, Jenn & Mike (and Mike's parents were in town, too!) were so great to be around all weekend! I even got a yummy home cooked meal on Saturday night!
I had a great time mixing the paint, often mixing for awhile before getting the color where I wanted it and then once I did loving it even more once it hit the canvas. It was great! I had my little iPod and Altec Lansing Speakers keeping me company - which was SOO excellent. I was singing and having the best time in my own little painting jungle animals world.
I normally paint right on the walls, but they're renting - so they asked if I could do it on canvas. So I bought this big roll of canvas that we cut into 2 separate canvas' and then for mounting they bought rods to hang on the top & bottom, like a scroll. The monkey's go over the crib, so the pink monkey is looking lovingly at the baby sleeping. :)
Another wall they have in room is a big long diagonal wall, that they can't do much with really, so I painted a big giraffe on the 2nd canvas to take up the entire wall!
They are thrilled with the results, and so am I... painting is so different from the web where you can keep making changes (undo, undo!)... So it's quite zen to make decisions painting and have it be relatively permanent. It's exciting really! I had fun and I can't wait to paint some more!
Here's a whole
album of where I painted, and some more shots of the blank canvas' and finished work.
UPDATE: See next post with
photos of the paintings hung in the nursery!
Friday, February 04, 2005
Lately I've been so hungry for cooooooookies!!! Or brownie mix (of which I've been deliciously satiating with B&J's Brownie Batter ice cream - yumm!) or any nibbly sugary treat. I never used to crave sugar, because I simply wasn't in the habit of eating it... and well, here lately I've eaten some sweets here & there and I'm back on the addiction. So every afternoon I'm wishing my pantry was stocked with a big bag of cookies or *some* chocolately tasty treat, and it's a good thing it's NOT! :)
Speaking of "designer chocolates",
check these out!
Lastnight
Tania, Jem & I went for sushi in Japantown and then afterwards got ourselves a delicious treat. Instead of ice cream, since I'd been having sinful bites of the brownie batter at home, I went straight for the Chocolate Mousse cake. mmmmmmm! Jem shared it with me, and it was really good.
Then Jem & I went & saw
Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events. I LOVED IT!!!!!! I have never read any of the books (I know, *gasp!* I will go pick some up now), so it was a whole new story and experience and I really loved it. The closing credits especially!! They were practically worth the whole movie themselves, as I was completely mesmerized, intrigued and inspired by every detail of them. I also wondered if the same composers who did some of the music for those closing credits also worked on the Six Feet Under theme? It'd be cool to find that out.
:::: in other news:
I'm ripping CD's like a mad woman! I'm already through L, and moving forward with lightening speed. I'm motivated because I know I have so many great CD's in S & T :)
Also - tomorrow I have a
baby wall to paint! But this one I have to do on canvas (which we'll wrap/hang around poles like a scroll to hang), so today I'll be calling around to research canvas prices and then go pick up some paint and brushes. It's a jungle theme, so all day tomorrow you can just imagine me painting vines, and monkeys and giraffes! :) What a great way to spend the day, huh?
Thursday, February 03, 2005
I was so into this show as a (latchkey) kid. I want this
T-shirt and this
Doozer doll!
I signed up for this
free iPods offer a bit ago and completed the free offer. I did the Blockbuster trial - pretty painless since all I had to do was sign up & get (free) movies sent to me that I'd been wanting to see and then cancel before they charged me at the end of the free trial. I saw some great DVD's for free!
So anyway, I had signed up, passed the link on to a few people, watched my free DVD's and then kinda forgot about it. But this morning, I was going through my inbox & saw my initial email from them & thought I'd check my account status. Turns out I have 4 people signed up under me! All I need is 5 total to sign up & complete the offers, and I already have 2 completed, so depending on what those other 2 who signed up do, I basically only need 3 more people to sign up & complete an offer and I get a free iPod!
Will you
please sign up & complete the offer and help me get one? Then, if you pass it around to a few peeps, you too could get a free iPod! :) THANKS!
note: I will update this page as soon as I get enough and then direct you to a place where you can find other people who need to rack up more signups so we're sure to be effectively helping everyone out.
update: If you're serious about getting a free iPod, you may even want to stay on your trial offer through the time that it charges you for a month... because it seems as if only if they get some money out of you do they officially report back to free iPods and credit you as fullfiling the offer. I just realized my completed offer wasn't reflecting and wrote into them to change that I had! And it says something like "we offer these to you for people who are seriously interested, not who just cancel right away, blah blah blah" - but that's stupid because all it says is you have to "participate in one of the offers", so you should always get the credit for doing so! So anyway - 1 month charge on most of these is only $9-$20 and for a free iPod, that's nothin. The good news is, I do know people who have gotten their free iPod, so it works if you just jump through the small, little, round hoops. :) And I'm soo close!!! It's worth a shot, and in all reality you do get to try something out - and maybe you'll like it! Thanks for trying it for me, if you do!
I have created a more complete resource for you show-goers in the bay area, and music lovers alike! Now, when you click on
my music/event calendar, you will get a top frame where you can click to all the SF venues and lists that I use to create *my* calendar!
Plus there's quick links to some of the better mp3 blogs and music review sites, too!
ENJOY!
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
and I didn't even have to write the book!
You're Not That into Him Either: Raise Your Standards and Reach for the Love You Deserve
awesome! my sentiments exactly. Too many women stick with something that's not right. Men, too! Learn how to be honest with yourself and don't settle for less.
Oh and for the men out there... hech hemm:
She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman. Then again, if you were really a "thinking man" you'd have already studied up on this ten-fold.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
I *love*
Netflix! But funnily enough - I've never had my own account! Matt had one, and then Rick had one... so up until now, I just rented DVD's vicariously through their Queue's.
But, recently I saw Netflix's free trial offer and thought, well at least I could get some movies for a few weeks for free! But of course as soon as I started clicking around, and adding more and more to my queue, I soon realized I absolutely MUST have my own membership. :)
Netflix makes it really easy to accomplish the mission to (read in booming announcer voice) "See All The Movies You Have Ever Wanted To See!", and even has messages at the top of every page rooting you on with "Keep Going!" "Add More, you're doing great!", etc. (I'm paraphrasing, but if you have a membership, you know what I'm talking about. :) Their site really is quite brilliant... kinda like Amazon with it's smarty "if you like this, you'll love this" engine.
So after signing up earlier in the week, and making sure I had everything on there I'd had in my immediate want list, I emailed Rick to have him send me a snapshot of his Q, since a lot of my wants were on there. And now, I've got more movies than I think I'll be able to get through in like 2 years!! Which honestly, excites me greatly. hahaha
Here I thought I was going to do the 2 movies at a time/4 a month plan - since I hardly watch TV/movies as it is... but now I'm feeling like I might try to tackle getting through a lot of these and just got for it w/ the unlimited plan. There's so many great movies out there! Well, and let me add there's so many bad movies that you just can't help but watch. :) Which might be a nice disclaimer for this link:
A peek into my Netflix Queue.
I've even added a few more after I exported that tonite! hahaa Also, I have yet to rearrange them now that I've added so many new ones tonite - but I'm really excited to catch up on a lot of these movies I missed in the theaters, some I loved and want to see again, thought-provoking documentaries and spooky thrillers!
I'm even going to start inviting over friends for movie nights w/ popcorn! yay!! Especially for the scary ones because I'm a total baby about scary movies. As you can see I hardly have very many on there as it is, because with my active imagination it doesn't take much for me to be lying awake in bed freaking out all night! Yup, I will definitely need someone else here for those! :)
p.s. If you have a Netflix account, and you're logged in - you can go to any of the movie's linked on my Q page & add it to your Q, too!
p.s.s. If you're a mac user - get
Netflix Freak!
Ok, so this might be TMI.. but I often take showers at night. Either to warm up, or because I've been working at home all day in my jammies (shh!) and want to feel nice & clean before crawling into bed. But, because I have such long hair and don't want to get it all wet before bed, I don a lovely shower cap!
So, I've just been using whatever free ones I get at hotels (clear, light, plastic) but recently I've been thinking, "There has GOT to be some designer shower caps out there.. since no doubt I'm not the only girl that takes a shower and doesn't want her hair to get wet"... and low & behold ladies, there IS!
Of course the goal is to somehow make it more fun, stylish and maybe even sexy? Then again, it is the *only* item of clothing on, so I suppose eyes won't be on the cap. ;)
Here's some good ones I found:
