October 2004

The Latest Breaking News

Well, no transvestites for me. I just didn't have the energy for all that madness. On the up side I think my cold is starting to dry up. Now we've hit the lovely coughing stage. Hopefully I'll be back to full strength for my thrilling 12 hour day on Monday.

Virgin Initiation

I have plans to go see the Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight at the local theatre with some friends. I'm a virgin to the whole thing, but I hear it's a blast and apparently Homer really gets into it. There's even a virgin guide so I can prepare myself properly for the experience. Here's hoping my cold goes away by tonight so I can join in the party of rice throwing, transvestite wearing, actor mocking, and generally chaotic crowd that has defined this otherwise pathetic cult classic.

Leaking

I've caught the cold that's been going around the office. On one hand I hope that I'm too sick to work on Monday and Tuesday, one the other, I'm pretty sure that I'll be forced to work even if I'm deathly ill. Gotta love a job that values it's employees; slave labor, after all, is a valuable commodity.

Rolling In It

I gleaned $450 from my eBay auctions. Sa-weet.

Tweedly Dee

I'm waiting for the "editor" to do spell check on the paper before I can finish making the edits I've been given. So I'm sitting at another computer passing the time...

Artists Anonymous

Jennifer - my new friend and co-worker - and I decided to start an artist accountability group. She's a writer and I'm a songwriter and digital artist. We both have troubles disciplining ourselves to create even though we love to do it. We are going to start meeting weekly with the expectation of having to show something at each meeting. It can be an improvement or addition to previously discussed works or something completely new. Then we'll give each other input on the work. We are going to put an ad in the newspaper inviting other artists of all mediums to join us. Hopefully we can get a few different types of artists to participate so we can broaden the perspectives and have great diversity. This is something we've both been wanting and needing for quite some time. We're excited to be able to finally do it.

Socks and Ice Cream

Tomorrow I drive 1.5 hours to Soldotna. Why? Socks and ice cream.

Instant Social Life

I seem to have developed a social life overnight. Last Saturday I went to a concert and out to dinner with some friends. Wednesday I went to a movie with some other friends then we went to karaoke night at a local bar. I didn't get home until after midnight. Tonight I saw a movie with the same friends from Wednesday and Saturday night we are going to go see a band play. I'm making friends at the local Subway, at my favorite coffee shop, and at the movie theatre. It seems that once I finally decided to stop stressing about finding stuff to do and making friends, God decided to drop it in my lap. His love for me still astounds me. Go God.

Heck Yes

I saw Napoleon Dynamite again last night with some friends. We laughed our asses off the entire movie. It was so freakin' good that we're going again tonight. What am I going to do afterwards? Whatever I want, gosh!

Mask of Light

For some reason I've been drawn towards the movie Bionicle: Mask of Light for sometime now. I was pretty sure it would suck, but I wanted to see it. For a movie made to promote a line of Lego toys, I was pretty impressed. The cgi was superb and the story was very interesting. Looking at pictures of the Lego characters, I assumed the movie would be a high tech story about robots with lasers who save the day or some such crap. Instead the creators actually made these characters and the story very organic. It was a sweet choice to help ground and give life to these figures. I'm pretty sure this review is already waaay too long for what most people would see as a throw away movie, but I was just so pleasantly surprised that I felt the urge to share. I've sated that urge. Time to move on.

eBay Whore

Well, I could only avoid eBay for so long. I'm back and have 34 auction lots listed for sale. I'm selling mostly comics, but also some software, games, etc. The items been listed for about 16 hours and I already have 23 bids totalling $75. The auctions don't end until next Tuesday so I'm looking at making a pretty penny on this one. This eBay selling thing totally plays to my organizational, money hungering and clutter-purging sides. It makes me all giddy inside.

An Evening with the Monks

Last night the Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery came to town. I went with a few of my co-workers. It was... interesting. Since they were doing religious rituals, which isn't really a performing art, it wasn't as engaging as I had hoped. I had hoped they would do more of a performance oriented thing based on the Tibetan and buddist cultures. Several of the selections were the monks standing in a line, doing their weird chant and banging a few instruments together. There were some very animated and visually exciting rituals including a 15 foot snow lion costume and a very lively debate. Those were great to see. Also, their robes and costumes were brilliantly and beautifully colored.

An amusing association from the evening:
The Dance of the Rainbow Space Travelers - This makes me think of a tv show with the opening sequence, "...on it's mission to explore new worlds and new furniture arrangements. To boldly go where no queen has gone before."

A disturbing tidbit of knowledge from the evening:
The monks chant in multi-phonic tones, meaning one monk can produce two different tones when they sing. When they sing it sounds a lot like a didgeridoo. The disturbing part is that they practice to achieve this skill to the point that their throats bleed. They continue practicing until the bleeding stops and they are able to produce multiple tones. Listening to this freaky form of chanting made my throat hurt.

7 Year Itch

Apparently the "7 year itch" wives tale is true. My counselor said that people tend to make major changes in their interests, priorities, desires, etc. in 7 year cycles. She said that divorces most commonly happen after 7, 14, 21, 28... years. My wife and I seperated after 14 years (when you count over a year of dating) so the cycle theory fits in our case. And about 7 years ago was the other major turmoil in our relationship that almost split us up. This cycle thing is way freaky. I'm not sure how true it really is, but my independent self is having a hard time accepting that there are these external life patterns, out of my control, that have a major influence on my decisions.

Intellectual Thought of the Week

Is captitalism really founded on disapointment?
"...if the product delivered its promise, you would stop buying other products - why go on spending money once realization is attained? - and thus cause the collapse of Capitalism. Money can only circulate freely in a realm of continual disappointment - the reproduction of scarcity is the production of wealth." –Hakim Bey, from For and Against Intrepretation (emphasis added)

// my personal research assistant: steven //

Scare Away Those Blues

This light helmet is supposed to help with depression. I'm sure it works. I mean, who'd wanna get depressed with that to look forward to.

There is even more innovative technology where that came from.

The Walking Forehead

Dude. Mr. Forehead just paid us a visit. This guy has the largest forehead I've ever seen; it's like Mt. Everest. His forehead is nearly the same height as the rest of his face and his face is rectangular so the forehead doesn't even taper off at the top. It's just damn huge. He's like the walking forehead. Worst of all he always has his hair up and away from his enormous gourd. Today it was pulled back in a ponytail adding the lovely title of "forehead pimp" to my impression of him. The man is so desperately in need of some bangs; some reeeeally long bangs.

Confirmed

De-Lovely is breath-taking, even a second time. I wonder if a third time will be the same...

Male Boobies by Choice

Don't know what to get for the man who has everything? Give him gynecomastia through an elective medical procedure.

Deadlines Smeadlines

Well, it's now official: we have absolutely no freakin' deadlines for advertising in the paper. I was of the understanding that camera-ready ads could still be added on Tuesday, the day before publication, but that ads wouldn't be designed on Tuesday. Silly me for believing such a simple tale. Forget that the actual "deadline" is Friday at 5pm and forget the fact that the paper is due at the printers by 2pm on Tuesday.

I accepted an ad today that involved simple layout and sized it according to one filler I knew I could easily remove, even though the customer wanted it to be a 1/4 page ad (which is a damn lot of space to reorganize). Since the paper is already completely laid out and it is several days past deadline I thought I was doing a tremendous service to the customer by getting his ad in at all. I also thought I had found a brilliant way to do it without having to re-layout the paper.

When my boss arrived she had a fit about us turning away a large ad. She said that we never, ever, in our wildest dreams turn away an ad no matter what time it is. In fact, she's told me that if an ad comes in after the finalized paper has been submitted to the printers... we stop the presses and re-layout stuff to fit in that ad.

I've never worked in such a money hungry environment. I can't say that greed makes for a very pleasant aura. It's kinda sticky.

You Suck

Let's just say, for example, that I was talking to my mom and she was telling me a difficult truth that I didn't want to hear. And let's say, for the sake of argument, that I responded with "you suck." I might find that an amusing thing to tell my mother. My mother, on the other hand, might find that slightly offensive, quite jarring and not nearly as funny as I might have hoped. While she isn't clueless about what I really intended (cause she's a pretty hip momma) she did say she never expected to be told that by one of her children. Note to self: cynical, defensive, genX banter is not appreciated my your mother.

De-Lovely

I just had one of those completely moved, left speechless experiences at a movie. I saw De-Lovely, a movie about Cole Porter's life. It was utterly amazing. It was done as a musical with brilliant performances by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. Everything about the film was well executed and the fun, but melancholy story was just what I needed this evening. I sobbed for nearly 15 minutes toward the end of the film. Hella theraputic if you ask me. Since I get to see movies for free I plan to see this one again before the week is up. I don't know if it was one of those 'right place, right time' kind of things or if the movie was just that good. Either way, it blew me away. I'm so glad I saw this movie.

End of Summer

I'm totally in love with the new wallpaper I just downloaded from deviantART by Daniela.

Giddy

Today is actually a slow day at work. Yay! There's a first for everything. I've spent most of my morning surfing the internet. The internet... oh how I've missed you. With all this free time I'm feeling a bit giddy. Of course, I'd never let my boss know that things were a bit slow cause she'd freak and double my work load. Still, it's a good day that I can goof off at work. I'm happy.

Colorstrology

For those either wooed by astrology or fascinated by color, colorstrology is a fun, nicely designed site (sponsored by Pantone) that you are sure to enjoy. My color is Fiery Red (Pantone 18-1664).

So Exciting!!!!!!!!!

Sit down and listen up. This in an intervention. I'm here to tell the world, specifically advertisers, that you are sadly abusing exclamation marks. A little in moderation is good, but when used in excess they turn into a meaningless cry for help. I can't hear what you are saying over the shrill scream of your addiction. You substitute exclamation points for more healthy activities such as good writing and good design. This is a serious addiction which will only lead you down a road of pushing people away and desensitizing them to your message. First, you need to admit you have a problem. Second, you need to stop using so many exclamation points. Actually... do the second step first. I don't really care about the first one.

There's an excellent article on this wide-spread addiction at GreenvilleOnline.com.

"It's shaped like a bludgeoning device," says Doug Fisher, a University of South Carolina communications professor. "I think sometimes that's what people are trying to do, bludgeon you into paying attention, but too many of them knock you senseless, and you don't pay attention at all."
"...if you use too many, it's like crying wolf." –Roz Canty

"If you have to use punctuation or some other gimmick to convey that feeling, then it suggests that there's something wrong with what you've written," says Melinda Menzer, a Furman University English professor.

"Exclamation points are like laughing at your own joke." –F. Scott Fitzgerald

Defense Systems Activate

In a statement of rebellion and anger toward my boss, I declared that Friday was punk rock day at work. No one else apparently got the memo (perhaps because it originated in my head the night before).

Hm. Apparently no amount of hair glue, jewelry or black clothing is going to make me look bad ass. You don't want to meet me in a back alley cause I might redecorate your bathroom.

Hypercube

Cube 2 was basically a remake of Cube, but with higher level math and lower level effects. I'm sure the producers were like, "let's just make the same exact film but with worse characters, much less interesting problem solving, and a pathetic ending. It's brilliant!"

My Babies

I miss my kids. I am absolutely confident that they are better off with their mom, but I still miss them. Here they are in need of a haircut. Sadly, these seem to be the only pics I have of them.

It's a Beautiful Thing

The new and improved site is up and running. It looks suprisingly like the old site, but believe you me, what's under the hood is a whole lot sweeter. Thanks Valette for the quick work. "You totally rock and I don't care who knows it."