March 2004

Put Me Out of My Misery

I just spent all weekend packing, selling, mailing, cleaning, carrying, crouching, sprinting, answering, staining, painting, and rearranging. Our condo just went on the market and we had to get it ready to show. We worked literally all day Saturday and Sunday plus a lot of work each night the week before. I'm so freakin' sore and tired. I feel like laying my head down on my computer desk and taking a nice long nap, but my boss might take exception to paying me to sleep. Whatever...

Shock Factor

So my 75 eBay auctions brought in a grand total of $1,300!

The largest sale item was the mandolin that I bought at an auction for $50 because I thought it was pretty and would make for a nice decorative item. After 19 bids on eBay the mandolin sold for $205 to a person in Italy. Damn. Suddenly I'm wondering if I have Elvis' long lost mandolin or something. It makes me wonder what it was really worth.

My didge went for $88 to a guy in the UK. My 21 worship cds went for $80.

Have I mentioned that I'm in love with eBay?

Baggage and Grace

Besides leaving behind some of the reminders of negative experiences (see previous post) I've been actively seeking closure in those areas. I've made a list of people against whom I hold grudge, with whom I feel I have unresolved issues/pain , and places which still have some sort of emotional hold over me. I am writing each a letter expressing my frustration and offering my forgiveness. I won't mail these letters. Instead I'll build a bonfire, read a letter aloud, and then throw it into the fire. I've already written several of the letters and it's been amazing. Offering forgiveness as a matter of grace and not because someone has earned it is a tremendously powerful experience. It helps me understand God's grace just a little better.

Pack Your Bags

K and I are moving to Washington. That's right. We are finally leaving our Alaskan homeland. It's very exciting. I'm nervous about all the unknowns, but am much more excited about the adventure.

We've been selling tons of stuff and it's been a very freeing purging experience. I didn't know how good it would feel to let go of stuff that doesn't have a major importance in our lives. I feel very much like we're wiping the slate clean with regards to the small emotional baggage we've picked up over the years. I know our large personal issues will be traveling with us, but it's nice to be able to get away from things like that place I went off the road, that organization that screwed me over, that dream which was lost...

While the first 5-6 years in Fairbanks were very positive, the last 8-9 have had a lot of pain and frustration. Woah, we've been here 14 years. That's a long time. It's definitely time for a change.

Enough is Enough

Just because I was bored I decided to add some more things on eBay. I now have 75 items up for sale. Whose your sell-his-soul-on-eBay daddy?

Magnetic Ramblings

Two weekends ago, Valette and I hung out at McCafferty's Coffee House and played with their magnetic poetry board (they have an awesome set of words). Here are a few of my masterpieces:

in solitary sleep a delicate garden blossoms like myself
slather lotion like a lizard carnival

and my personal favorite:

sorid galoshes stagger beneath a luscious goddess

Three Piece

A lavender plaid suit. How... special. Special and very Alan in Wonderland.

Auction King

I currently have my highest number of auctions on eBay ever. 33 auctions! Now no one can say that I wasn't productive at work this morning...

Upgrade Me

I just found out that I'm definitely getting a new computer at work! Aaaaand... I'm switching over to a PC. It looks like I'll be getting 1gig of RAM and 2+gigs of processor. In addition I'll be getting all the latest versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat. Ooooh yeah. I'll be living the life.

Lord of the Diva

K and I saw Lord of the Dance Monday night. Even though Michael Flatley wasn't present, his ego was there in full force. Seeing this live really made me realize how much this show is about Mr. Flatley and his high opinion of himself. I'm sure that he sees himself as the lord of the dance. It was amusing to see that the bravado Mr. Flately showed in the video was translated into set choreography for those who would try to fill his shoes. The whole "I'm too cool to dance right now so I'm just going to strut around and be better than the other dancers" is quite a unique bit of choreography. Thankfully Mr. Flatley decided that his wanna-bes didn't need to take off their shirts like he did in the video (I'm still scarred from that experience).

Besides the larger-than-life ego, the show was pretty enjoyable. Seeing the amazingly quick foot work and hearing the awesome music was wonderful. My favorite part was the dueling fiddles. Damn, that was impressive. The main male and female leads (the good guys) were awesome dancers. The lighting was also a treat. Now if only I didn't see it in a hockey stadium...

Happy Day

It's K's birthday today. Happy Birthday!

Mommy Rules

"I'm in favor of the death penality for murder, attempted murder, rape...and having sex in the house if you're someone's mother."
– a character in Transmetropolitan #41 by Warren Ellis

Easy Penetration

How's that for a sales pitch?

8" of Pure Ecstasy

I got new and improved speakers for my truck and they finally got installed this weekend. After several weeks of intending to see if I could do it myself, I called Bridger to help me out. Naturally when I say help me out I mean do it all for me. Bridger rocks and now... so do I.

Excuses

"I missed seeing you at church on Sunday."

"Well, you see I was on my way there - I was early in fact - but was attacked by a tidal wave of almond rocca mocha. No, really. I can even corroborate my story."

Sugar Daddy

I made $300 on eBay this week. No lie. I sold a ton of graphic design books, lots of comics, two old game systems, and one GameCube game. All of that left me rolling in the dough. Have I mentioned that I love eBay?

Hypothetically Speaking

When one decides not to go to a some unknown Christian event on campus where an acquaintance is playing, and later one decides to go to a particular Christian event on campus that was advertised where one teaches piano... wouldn't you think that one might consider that these are actually one in the same event? You would think. One might have not been so smart and might have actually ended up at said event. One might have actually sat down and pointed out the formerly mentioned acquaintance before common sense caught up and slammed one upside the head. You know, hypothetically speaking.

Context

"Will you touch this? Go on, touch it. No, touch it on the tip. Rub it with your fingers."

Not the kind of thing you expect to hear from your sister in a dark car...

Planning

My plans for tonight are somewhat less than firm. In fact, the "plans" consist of several things which I know I won't actually do and hope to find really good excuses to avoid. So perhaps instead of saying I have plans, we should just say that I have good intentions.

Drowned World

K and I watched Madonna: The Drowned World Tour 2001 last night. Damn. I've never seen so much show on one dvd. The two hour concert included a contortionist, naked men suspended from the ceiling by their feet, a fight sequence on wires, a mechanical bull, ballet dancing, hentai (cartoon porn), and seriously, there was a whole lot more.

While the show was very overwhelming, I was amazed at the level and diversity of art in the show. The most artistic dancing, lighting, video, sets, etc. It was an awesome display of so many different disciplines. Sadly, the music wasn't quite to the level of the rest of the show. All the dancing, acting, jumping, humping... made it difficult for Madonna to sing at her usual amazing level. Also, the show had some slight remixes of sounds that I didn't like. Mostly I really didn't like what they were doing with the background vocals. They really muddied up some of the songs and distracted from others. I do love where Madonna's voice has come to after so many years of singing. Her low, rich vocals are haunting.

Many of the songs in this concert were very dark, painful songs which I found both disturbing and appealing. Madonna definitely had some strong statements to make in this concert. One song features her singing Nobody's Perfect while being abused by a samurai. The samurai part fit much better than you'd imagine, but seeing her treated that way was horrible. She quickly followed up that song with her wire-work fight sequence where she fights back and eventually kills the abuser. Very powerful statement. The show had many such threads of deep, painful statements. For the courage to go there and the brilliance to very cleary convey those messages I have to applaud Madonna and her design crew.

Overall I'm very glad to have seen the video and all that it showcased. It wasn't the most enjoyable performance by Madonna, but on an artistic showcasing level it was brilliant.

Harry Potter Porn

This guy was busted for what is called typosquatting - using domain names based on popular references (such as Harry Potter) to trick people into visiting porn sites. I didn't know about the new Truth in Domain Names Act, but I think it's awesome.

Hard Work

The taxing work of being a diva is highly under-appreciated. It takes tremendous stamina just to be better than everyone. All the whining, preening, judging... and the gestures; the gestures alone are enough to exhaust even the heartiest soul. <sigh> It's a thankless job.

When God Speaks

God speaks to me in a surfer accent.

And then I was like, "dude, claiming that Sarah was your sister was a totally unrighteous thing to do."

Company Motto

"Charge the customer as much as possible."

I just heard these words from the owner. It's a nice motto. I think I should put it on all our publicity...

Buffy Complete

I just finished watching the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Since I got started with the 7 season series about 4 years late, I'm pretty pleased to have finally finished it. I'm only a year behind. Not too bad.

What's funny about me watching this series is that I had absolutely no interest in it. In fact I had pre-judged it as a stupid show as I had deemed anyone who watched it. I recorded an episode for Beth and decided I'd watch it to see why she liked it (since she generally doesn't like trash). I wasn't blown away by the episode (from the first season), but I was intrigued so I started watching more. Pretty soon I was completely drawn into the lives of Buffy, Willow, and Xander. I quickly grew to love the quirky dialogue and the characters that didn't take themselves seriously. After season one I was really impressed with the excellent writers on the show and the larger storylines that weaved throughout the seasons. I really feel that the writers, via Joss Whedon's direction, demonstrated a higher quality of writing than I've ever seen on television.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a character show. Sure it's a character show about humor and the supernatural, but it's still completely about the characters and their relationships together. It's the awesome character development that hooked me on this series and held me through 7 seasons.

I had been curious to see how the final season ended. I was very impressed with the overall story that dominated the last season, but was left wanting when it came to actually saying goodbye. The last episode essentially frees Buffy from the immense burden of having to protect the entire world. A very good reason for saying that the show needed to end: she's not the slayer anymore. She's just one of many. What made me sad is that there were no sappy "you've meant so much to me" or "I'm sorry I've been a diva slayer" type of stuff between the characters. For being a show so much about it's characters, I had hoped that the last few scenes would give us more of a closure between them. There wasn't even a mourning for those characters that were killed in the final battle. I guess, as a faithful audience member, I wanted more of a chance to say goodbye and to grieve the show's passing.

Overall I have to say that Joss Whedon is an amazing writer, one of my favorites. I will definitely read/watch anything that's he's created or written. I guess that means that I now have to get caught up on my Angel episodes. Only two and a half seasons to go...

Movin', Movin', Movin'

So K and I are serious considering moving out of Alaska. When I say "serious considering" I actually mean that we are making plans and almost out the door. So, you know, seriously considering. We're planning to move to Washington, near K's parents. It'll be an interesting adventure since we've never lived outside of Alaska. While we have a lot to do before we would be able to move the possibility of moving soon seems to keep increasing. We've even found some jobs that we'd like to apply for. This is so weird. Just the first of this year we had absolutely no intention of moving. Two weeks ago it was just a slight possiblity. Now we are making plans. At this rate we could be in Washington by May. Yikes!