Save me from a villainous imagination

Homecoming

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:56:59 GMT

Just got to my parents' house! Mom came down and picked me up, and I spent the part of the drive from I-84 on with my nose pressed to the window like a puppy, looking at the stars. I never seem to see stars in New Jersey. Too many lights in Red Bank, I guess. This is the first I've seen Orion all year.

Mom says that in the morning I'll be able to see cat-tracks in the snow where Maggie has been pounding it down to make trails. She's under my desk right now clawing my socks and purring.

The house is so clean that I thought I had the wrong place. It smells like lemon-scented cleaner, and my bedroom has NO JUNK in it. I can get to both beds and see the entire carpet! Crazy. And the TV and DVD player I took the lake over the summer are here, so I'm glad I brought Samurai 7 with me.

Merry Christmas, if applicable! If not, enjoy your long weekend.

Combination

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:09:07 GMT

I was just watching a hilarious video, and over the end credits was a song that goes:

First guy: I'm at the Pizza Hut.
Second Guy: Whut?
First: I'm at the Taco Bell.
Second: Whut?
First: I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell!
Second: I'm at the Pizza Hut.
First: Whut?
Second: I'm at the Taco Bell.
First: Whut?
Second: I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell!

There's probably more. I'll keep you posted.

Facebook

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:44:25 GMT

Things are busy! Not right this minute. Right this minute I'm sitting in the living room watching Leverage and messing with a Facebook page. I have Facebook, you guys! I tried to request everyone's friendship, but sometimes the scripts would stop working and I don't know if the requests went through or not. I'll get this figured out.

Dinner last night was so awesome! I'm so, so glad you guys came over. It was wonderful to see you. I'm kind of hoping that there's enough snow to cancel church in the morning, though how I'll find out we're canceled without showing up is a mystery. Probably someone will call me. Or I'll get a Facebook message, which I won't know how to retrieve.

This past week J and I went up to Boston to deliver some of my stuff. It was a nice trip, too many hours in the car, but we had a good time. I got a lot of thinking done, which was awesome. I go back and forth a lot on what I want to do with my future, since all I'm qualified for is engineering but there are so many other things I'd rather do! it's annoying that you have to have a masters' for practically everything, so I have to do something lame for years in order to get the masters' to do something cool. Blah.

Leverage is excellent, you guys. You should check it out. They have a technical consultant who's a professional thief! I am not sure how that works. And I want THAT job. I would be the innocent-looking fake that lures guards away from doors and monitors by asking stupid questions.

Dear New Jersey,

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:12:46 GMT

Please stop toying with my emotions like this. You run hot and cold, hot and cold. You let me apply for benefits, then tell me you're not going to actually let me have them. You refuse to answer my phone calls for weeks at a time, and then you send me the benefit check paperwork, but with a big "NON-NEGOTIABLE" stamped across the check space.

I'm under a lot of pressure to leave you for good, NJ. Help me out here.

NJ Marriage Equality Vote coming up

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:35:45 GMT

My most active social-justice friend emailed me today to say that NJ's State Senate is going to be debating and voting on a marriage quality bill in the next week or so. The new governor, Christie, is opposed to marriage equality and advocacy groups are trying to get it passed before Corzine leaves office.

New York failed to pass their equality bill yesterday, which was a big disappointment. It always is, when these things fail, but I suppose I take it a little more to heart when it's my co-home-state. At least it wasn't left to a popular vote there. Justice is generally unpopular, I think, because fear and stupidity are so much easier to come by, and there's no excuse for the senators who voted against it except for fear and stupidity. Maybe money, I suppose.

I'm feeling discouraged about the chances in NJ also, because we are just as dumb, lazy and fearful as everyone else. But I've emailed Senator Jennifer Beck (R! argh) and I'll be calling her office in the morning.

If you're interested in contacting your senator, you can get their information at Garden State Equality.

A snapshot

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:59:44 GMT

Okay, while I had a lovely weekend and many good things happened, I just have vital thing to share. I cannot take my father ANYWHERE.

We went to breakfast on Saturday, and it was delicious and very pleasant and I didn't argue with him about the essential nature of gender or whatever, but at the end of the meal he pulled out a comb and COMBED HIS MUSTACHE AT THE TABLE.

Plan your crimes for North Elizabeth

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:50:42 GMT

Their police seem to have a pretty slow response time. Kheara and I are on the train home from visitng Fatesmith and Pirate (yay!) and right after we left Newark one of the conductors asked over the PA for a cop at the next stop.

I love the train PA systems usually. On our way north this afternoon the conductor kicked us off with a spirited "bird bird bird, bird is the word", which totally got me in the mood for train travel. However, on the way home we sat for at least 15 minutes at North Elizabeth (not even a stop for this train!) waiting for a cop to come take away our unruly passengers.

By my calculations that's at least a 25 minute response time, so this may be a great town for committing speedy crimes.Try not to be the vicitm of any, though, help is nearly half an hour away!

In other train news, a lady approached me at the Newark station and gave me a brochure for a weight loss program. "It really works!" she said. Ah, thanks? I thought it was hilarious at the time, but I've been getting more and more paranoid as the night goes on. I suspect she has ruined my Thanksgiving.

Technology, making lives better

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:03:19 GMT

Remember before tabbed browsing? Was that last year? I was thinking about my tiny attention span, and how if a page is taking more than two seconds to load I have to look at something else. Right now I have 6 tabs open: Google Reader, LJ Post, LJ Fandom Secrets, Gmail, YouTube (see below!) and guardian.uk.com. I never have only one tab open anymore, it's always Reader and something.

This morning the romance novel blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books had this as their Friday Video! Amazing. I made Kheara watch two of them before we went to breakfast. You have to listen kind of carefully to this one, the lyrics are fast, but it's worth it.

These guys have several more AutoTune the News segments, and some ads as well. All hilarious!

I forgot that I can't do anything

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:20:41 GMT

After several days in a major city with public transit, I'm feeling EXTRA ANNOYED today with my inability to get around. I need some more blank DVDs to complete my document backup (upgrading the OS as soon as my external hard drive gets here) and I also need to meet with my realtor to sign documents. I was going to ride my bike to the realtor's and then to Staples.

Did I tell the bike story here? My bike seat and post were stolen, and seat posts come in a million sizes that are 0.2-0.5 millimeters apart. I need to take my bike to a shop to get the shaft measured with calipers, since I can't measure tenths of millimeters with any instrument I have. Taking a bike to the bike shop without riding it is tricky! We don't have a rack, and it doesn't fit in the car. An awesomely helpful friend gave me a seat post, but it's a couple of millimeters too big, so at least now I have one parameter. Sigh. So no biking.

It seems like I get less resigned to this, instead of more. Shouldn't I be used to this by now?

I've got a theory!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:31:16 GMT

Yesterday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, and it was awesome. I love museums in general, but my art knowledge was pretty nonexistent until Kheara and I became housemates and I started learning things. The MFA here has wonderful classical art and lots of John Singer Sargent! He's my favorite. I have a favorite painter now, you guys. (He's been my favorite since I went to the Met for my birthday last year.) There are also lots of Buddhas, which I love. What's so compelling about Buddha statues? I don't know what it is. There's no shortage of Christian art, but it doesn't interest me the way Buddhas do. Maybe I'm just burned out on depictions of Christ, since I've been looking at them my whole life.

Anyway, the theory! I asked Kheara what differentiates fine art from art, and she had a real theory, but mine is funnier, so that's what you get. Male nudes. There are female nudes all over everything, all the time, and it is decidedly not fine art most of the time. I only see male nudes in classical art collections. (Actually, we have the same approximate theory that it's traditional classical art, but mine is entitled "Naked men is what makes art fine!" and hers is "the traditional visual arts media of painting and sculpture of naked men." I added that last part.)

It's weird, because I have no problem looking at female nudes and not being embarrassed, but give me a male portrait and I'll be worried that the other art patrons think I'm a perv. I'm walking around the statue gallery trying not to look at the Fallen Gladiator because I don't want to look like I'm checking out his package. So, in the spirit of art appreciation, I am applying the principle of acquired immunity.

Satyr with Flute and Drnking Horn

Male Nude attributed to Jean Louis Andre Theodore Gericault

John Singer Sargent's Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller

Dioskouroi (Castor & Pollux)

The Barberini Faun. This is what I would hang in my living room if I were awesome enough. My kids would freak right out, I recall them complaining about having to see Ashitaka in a loincloth in Princess Mononoke. He was crossing a river. (We had a teachable moment about female nudity on TV. good times!)

On the go

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:24:54 GMT

I'm in Boston! Laying on the floor of my brother's apartment, admiring Aria's decorating. There aren't books on every surface! It's very pretty, but I feel very far from home. I got my new phone yesterday, and I'm now the proud owner of a Blackberry, which meant that I could spend all day checking my email on the train. It's so much fun. I was up until three last night playing around with it. Texting with the full keyboard is much harder than I expected. I keep hitting keys several times - M N O! and getting OOO. Heh. I see why they call it a Crackberry.

Amtrak is super luxurious compared to NJ Transit. Comfy reclining seats, power outlets, snack car, carpeting. I watched the Saiyuki: Requiem movie, and boy is it terrible. SO TERRIBLE. It suffers from all the problems of the anime series, sucky animation and weird bad voice acting. Gojyo has kind of a lisp and Sanzo delivers everything in the same growly tone. And the plot! The bad guy! TERRIBLE. I like the guy who does Hakkai's voice, he's got that great sarcastic delivery that I always imagine for Hakkai.

Tomorrow I'm going to go do stuff! In Boston! Ride around on the T, explore Cambridge, go to the Aquarium? Stuff.

My sentences are long today

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:28:51 GMT

I bought a suit! I'm hoping I'll need it soon. The first one I chose turned out to fit wonderfully and it looks great, and this is possibly the easiest time I've ever had buying clothes. AND it was on sale! Which leaves me lots of my budget to buy a good raincoat, which will be awesome. I don't have one right now, weirdly. Muscles invited the Orbies to Chik-fil-a lunch at the mall, which happens on a lot of Fridays, so I had a snack beforehand and adventurously took the bus to Eatontown to hang out with the crew. It was not as difficult as I expected, and I'm glad to add another form of public transit to my list. I've always been nervous of buses. They seem unreliable and confusing, but this was fine, and now I feel silly that I've been shying away for a year and a half.

We had a fun mall time, ran into a former student working at Barnes & Noble, and was pursued around the store by The Real T. Sass (accept no imitation!) reading me a romance novel. He was skipping to sex scenes, and I was mortified and running away, but everywhere I turned there was an old lady or some little kids or something. T. Sass tried to explain that old ladies LOVE these books, but.... Also, in my head sometimes he's still the fifteen-year-old punk that gave me all these gray hairs, and hearing him read sex scenes was deeply uncool. Did you guys know there's a Barnes & Noble at the mall now? pretty neat! Now I can get to a bookstore without major challenges.

This morning I had one of those shower epiphanies, the kind where something you know perfectly well suddenly crystalizes, and I found the right words to explain things to myself, and it was fantastic. I felt much clearer in my head than I have for a while, and I hope it'll help me in the next few weeks.

The polls have closed

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:48:24 GMT

We have a Republican governor, apparently. ugh. STOP SUCKING, NEW JERSEY! I'd say "good luck with your schools and roads when he cuts taxes!" but he's only going to cut taxes for rich people. Luckily, we have plenty of them around here.

Nothing really

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:08:29 GMT

Rainy days are good Warcraft days. I sent today's resumes, and now I'm intermittently playing Warcraft while researching international volunteer opportunities. I was telling J that I want some adventure, and he got me started looking at these. Of course, I have to pay to do it, but still! Six weeks in Australia doing conservation work? AWESOME. It might be just the thing to shake me out of this awful mood. I'm coming up on my one-year anniversary of losing my job, which is an extremely miserable thing to think about. I'm trying not to think about it, but it's weighing on me a lot and I'm feeling even more like a failure than usual.

So, adventure! A real one, not getting the Hallow's End achievement. My adventure in attending a rock show solo has been postponed, since Miyavi got injured in Europe and has put off the US part of the tour. Bummer. i hope it gets rescheduled sometime soon!

Brrr, kind of

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:41:59 GMT

It's not REALLY cold in here. Our heat isn't working again, though the oil company filled the tank yesterday. The incompetence of our oil service is pretty impressive, and I'm glad we're getting some of our heat-related stupidity out of the way earlier in the year. In January I spent a day or two holed up in my room with the space heater waiting for them to come fix whatever was wrong.

The temperature downstairs is 60. That's not really cold, not really, but I'm shivering when I go down there, and I'm putting off washing dishes until later, when I'll turn the oven on to make dinner and pie. We're upstairs with the space heater in the hallway warming Kheara's room at one end and the office at the other. And I keep repeating to myself 60 isn't cold. Later in the year I'll be grateful for 60 in the living room.

A new challenge

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:30:34 GMT

I just bought a ticket to Miyavi's New York show. He's playing in NY, Dallas and Atlanta in the US portion of the tour, so I grabbed the opportunity, since it's not like he comes here often. However, I'm moderately terrified of going to a rock concert by myself! I know I can do it, though. The last test of my "it's awesome to be single" conviction. I can eat at restaurants and go to movies and weddings single! I can go to the Fillmore and see a show.

Wonder what the other fans are going to look like. The man himself is unusual by American rock standards.

Appled out

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:17:52 GMT

Apple Fest was highly successful! And some of you sneaky people left behind your apples, so we had three bags on Saturday night. Fortunately, Kheara thought to take a bag to her parents, so now we only have two bags of apples to dispose of. I have promised pies to two people, so that'll be half a bag.... yikes. It was great to see you all, and it's always so much fun to have the house filled with people.

I sang at church this morning, and eh. I only have to do that when the young adults are away, and today I took some decongestant so I could breathe and ended up drying out my throat, which was a pain. Also, all the songs we did today were written by tenors, so my lower register got a workout. It was weird. I'm always alternately flattered and terrified when I'm invited to sub for music, and one of the usual ladies was there to sing today (there are normally 2, tiny girls with sweet folk voices) and I'm about a foot taller than she is and approximately 400 times louder. How is it that, in a community of accomplished musicians, I'm the only one who's ever had voice lessons?

OH! I had such a good day Friday. Hung out with Booberry in the morning, and then J kindly picked me up and took me back to his place to visit for a while, and Bucket was also there, so I played Rock Band with Bucket and Fearful and got drunk. Awesome fun happy drunk, which I have not been in FOREVER. I have been drinking for stress relief and for sleep aid, but not for fun. It was fantastic. I haven't felt so happy in ages. Then Fatesmith came over and we went to Far East Taste, which is always a healing experience, and wrapped up the night with some Venture Brothers and Supernatural, which is not healing but is still pretty awesome. I'm inviting myself to J's more often.

My nerdly pursuits

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:47:18 GMT

Well, I did not find out about Duo's pants. I did find out that the New York Anime Fest is pretty disorganized, with stuff getting canceled or moved around with no notification or plans to reschedule, and at least two sets of panelists didn't show up. Kudos to Disorganization XIII, they stepped up and took on the panels with no warning or prep time and did a great job!

It's Brewfest in Warcraft, and I'm so bored with it. I'm chasing an achievement that'll give me a lovely violet dragon mount, but it takes a year and I have to get all the holiday achievements in that time. So I HAVE to do all the Brewfest dailies, which means I don't do anything else, because they're in outside Ironforge and it's too much work to go back and forth to my home continent. Boring boring.

Also, I'm reading Lord of the Rings along with half my leadership team. We all started together on Bilbo's birthday last week, and I'm reading other books along with it because being unemployed gives me a really unfair advantage. About time that was good for something.

Soon it'll be a year that I've been out of work. Ugh.

Things I can cross off my list

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:22:37 GMT

1. a job in NY. Getting up at 4:30 am for the train is just not for me, and I feel no urge to actually live there.
2. a career in childcare of any kind. possibly including parenting!

I spent the last two weeks babysitting Pirate's classmate's daughter. She's in many ways a charming child, but SO VERY TWO, OMG. I have always thought of myself as someone who loves kids, and I've always enjoyed babysitting, but after the third screaming tantrum in half an hour I was beat. I wonder how anyone lives through their child's twos, and I'm now really worried that I'm going to be a terrible parent.

Oh, well! It's over, and I got to hang out with Kheara's niece yesterday and my friend's three-year old today, and they were perfect angels, so I am happy with the concept of kids again. I was a little worried I'd be punting toddlers down the aisles at church or something. Also, it was very awesome getting to slumber party at Pirate's! she fed me dinner and made me iced coffee and even washed my jeans, because I happened to be there on laundry night. I think I'm just going to keep showing up on Tuesdays and having nachos. I've got a plan, and it's as hot! as my pants!

This coming weekend is the NY Anime Fest. I'm going to see the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (and the rest of the franchise) and maybe get some answer. What is up with Duo's pants?!

SuperDinoGatorCroc

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:31:32 GMT

This morning I went to Lowes! It was fun. I wish I were more motivated to build stuff, because I really enjoy it, and I'm in need of bookshelves big time. I'm just SO disinclined to do anything, since there's no good reason to do anything today as opposed to tomorrow or the day after. Which reminds me, I should do laundry.

Anyway, Lowe's! Little Beard and Muscles and I got a pile of PVC pipes and fittings and built a prototype of a backdrop frame for Orb. The room we're meeting in this year has painful, horrible acoustics, so when it's full of screaming teenagers it's even worse than a normal room full of screaming teenagers. Muscles wanted to try building backdrops, which we can cover with acoustical tile or cork or something, and then hang fabric over them and decorate. We put together a 7'x 10' that's pretty sturdy. I feel hopeful. Maybe I won't come home with a killer headache every week this year.

We're watching some seriously terrible SciFi movies! Or SyFy. Such a stupid change. I miss their pretty commercials. OMG, I hate everyone in Supergator. SO MUCH. I hope they all die, and soon. Before this we watched DinoCroc, which looked like a T-Rex with webbed feet, not too impressive. At least most of the horrible cast died! Which they deserve, for not calling for help with their giant dinocroc problem. SyFy shouldn't be showing these movies back to back, because they seem to have used the same CGI creature for both.

Naruto's cloning trick is REAL

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:37:10 GMT

This has been a busy week - my brother and sister-in-law visited us for a few days, and then my mom and her friend came and collected me and we went to Baltimore for Otakon! To clarify, they didn't go to Otakon, they went to the aquarium, and a boot shop, and a rodeo, and out to dinner a lot. They're having a lovely mini-vacation. I have had an excellent convention!

I went to a bunch of panels, which were all awesome except for the Philosophy of Bleach, which was really not about philosophy or Bleach, and got shut down early by a staff member because of asshattery on the part of the panel. Lame. However, everything else was excellent and informative, and I loved volunteering and am looking forward to doing it again, and as soon as I get home tomorrow I'll probably post an unnecessarily long and detailed recap of the weekend. It was great! My only regret is not having enough time to shop, I got hung up on one of my volunteer shifts and never made it back to the dealers' room. Probably just as well, I would have bought the Saiyuki anime. That series is stupidly expensive! $100 for the first season, in most places, where Full Metal Alchemist is around $80. WTF, world. The Saiyuki anime SUCKS bigtime, and FMA is a really high-quality show. I'm always plagued by this urge for Saiyuki, every time I'm in an anime retail situation. It's the cover art! Sanzo is so pretty, and so awesome in the books.

There were some truly amazing cosplays, and a mind-boggling number of people who bought just bought coats (Soul Society Captains, those cloud coats from Naruto, or the Organization XII leather) and were lazy and lame. I fell in love with another terrific Axel, who I'm pretty sure was a boy this time. I'm so tired of Bleach and Naruto dudes, though.

omg shoez.

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:51:18 GMT

I'm at Zebu today. it took entirely too long to decide where I was going to work today, and I finally settled on the library and put on jeans because the library is an icebox,and then I passed Zebu and thought about iced coffee, and here I am. Their iced coffee is delicious, but expensive. I guess I"m really paying for the internet access, and possibly for the TV showing Michael Jackson's memorial. Lots of people on TV look vaguely familiar! Would Brooke Shields be at the memorial?

Have I been whining about shoes to you lately? It's been a serious aggravation, since I don't have any summer shoes that I can walk a reasonable distance in, and it's summer. I hate wearing shorts in public on principle, and it's even worse if I have to also wear socks and sneakers. Ugh. Yesterday Kheara heroically sacrificed her afternoon and sanity to take me to the outlet center in Tinton Falls and try on everything at the Bass outlet. It was excellent! The outlet center is pretty good, as these places go, though finding it was a challenge. The navigational problems were completely my fault, though, I should have checked an ACTUAL map instead of just the little sketch on the webpage, and also I should not have unaccountably forgotten where 66 connects. Whoops! Kheara was a trooper, though. We got lots of shoes at Bass. (me: "we're going to have matching shoes! It's okay. I'll write a C on mine." Kheara: ".....") (I was kidding! I know that wouldn't work.)

And now that I have nice summer shoes, I want to go back to the Puma outlet and get sneakers.

I contemplate Facebook

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:44:00 GMT

I was away this weekend visiting some college friends in Buffalo. It was great - beautiful weather (in Buffalo, how often does that happen?) and I had a great time. I was getting caught up with my host's last few months, since we haven't talked much, and he pointed out that I'd already know if I would stop being such a snob about Facebook.

So I've been thinking about it, way more than a social networking site requires, but decided to stick with my current strategy. It would be very handy to be able to keep up with my far-away friends and family, but I suspect it would get swallowed up by the kids and by people I should be keeping in touch with properly anyway! Also, I'm not a fan of people uploading pictures and tagging me, because I hate pictures of myself.

Heh, what I really want is for everyone I care about to have a LiveJournal. That would be ideal! I could keep up without having to email everyone individually, which is what I SHOULD really be doing, and I wouldn't have to deal with loads of applications and stuff. Lazy!

Musgy & Maggie

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:32:45 GMT

My dad got kittens for his birthday! THAT is an awesome birthday gift, one that I could not receive, because Morgan would have a stroke. She's still mad that we got Eva, and that was about eight months ago. She can really hold a grudge!

It's been a long time since I've made my bed with a kitten hanging off my pant leg, hee! But little Mugsy weighs nothing, if it weren't for the teeth I'd barely notice. Later when I get home and get my camera cord I'll post a picture.

What's our vector, Victor?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:01:35 GMT

Kheara and I are watching Airplane! I was having an annoying morning, struggling with stupid stuff - unemployment not letting me log in, weird phishing email from Blizzard which turned out to be real, on hold with stupid Countrywide so I could update my financial info ("still unemployed! still broke! I hate you people.") dead cell phone - and Kheara suggested pizza and tv. Brilliant!

Man, I love Airplane. I'm watching it saying "I can't believe my parents let me watch this!" I know I didn't get any of the jokes when I was little, but still. Yikes.

Yesterday J and I went to the Met and checked out the Egyptian and Asian departments. I always get stuck in Chinese art and fail to move on. Next time! We also caught up with Pirate and got fantastic empanadas. Excellent Wednesday.