In ten years' time, I would like to be living somewhere other than Iowa. I want to be able to go to concerts on a regular basis without having to drive 4hrs and spend more on gas than on tickets. In fact, a key factor of my dream lifestyle is attending concerts as often as humanly possible. I would, of course, like to *give* concerts as well, ideally. Spending 5 out of 7 nights a week immersed in the live music scene would be perfect - the other two nights would be reserved for attending theater.

I want to work a job that doesn't require me to be up at 3am.

I want to be exercising on a regular basis, ideally incorporating yoga classes into the routine.

I hope to have finished my first bachelor's degree and be pursuing either a second, or a master's. I think it would be awesome to eventually secure a BA, a BS, AND a BM. I'll settle for just one master's, though.

I want to be making enough money to eat organic, low-impact, and locally. Either that, or I'd like to magically force the government to either subsidize healthy foods so they're cheaper, or penalize crap so it's prohibitively expensive to make and buy. Or both.

I just want to point out, and perhaps, quite possibly, revel in, the irony of the fact that I went and joined a gym less than a week before having my ingrown toenail cut out. I really want to be good, and not waste money, and feel better, and for all other sorts of various reasons GO TO THE DAMNED GYM... but, a full week later, my damned to is still majorly painful, to the extent that doing half an hour on the elliptical would probably be a fucking stupid idea, heh.

I am the queen of excuses, but even I couldn't have made this one up. Stupid toe.

I still feel like there must be something wrong if it still hurts a week later. I'm nearly out of acetaminophen + codeine! Only 4 pills left... and I haven't been taking the full 3/day that I'm "allowed." IF this doesn't feel better within 2-3days, I may have to go back to the dr... which would suck, as I'm pretty sure they don't take me seriously much of the time. (apparently, everything I complain about is nothing more than a "physical symptom of depression" - which I'm guessing is the new PC term for "hypochondria.")

Having just read this entry from athaena:



The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

( cut for your sanity... )

THE RULES!

1. Put your music playing device on shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag friends who might enjoy doing this here meme.


( While the car warms up, I shall meme. )
Hardly any of these make ANY sense :(

I got a total of 2hrs fitful sleep last night, following the incredible awesomeness that was Hamell on Trial (review here.) I never sleep well when I know the alarm is due to go off soon, because I hateHateHATE alarms, and in fact when I'm on a fairly regular schedule and getting decent amounts of sleep, I'll often wake JUST before my alarm goes off, naturally, and turn it off before I have to hear it.

So anyway, I'm killing time, because I showered last night, and my lunch is made, and I'm not leaving for work for another 1/2hr. In addition to farting around on LJ, this time-killing involves farting around on Wikipedia. I was looking at the list of "Musical groups disestablished in 2008." What a fucking awkward way of phrasing that, eh? Seriously.

Anyway, I learned, or relearned, or was reminded, that Quiet Riot disbanded late last year, because Kevin DuBrow was found dead in November. I can't believe I didn't remember that, assuming I ever knew. All I can say, and you can mock me all you like, is that I'm glad I saw Quiet Riot when I did (sometime in '99 or '00, I can't remember which) because it would've sucked to miss them entirely. They were my favorite band when I was a little kid! My best friend at the time was heavy into INXS herself, and my cousin cartoongoddess, whom we also hung out with a lot, was a hardcore Depeche Mode fan. Funny - hair metal, pop, and post-punk. An interesting combination.

Most of the other bands on the "disestablished" list were acts I'd never heard of. Sad. Apparently someone cared about them enough to write them Wikipedia entries... so it's sad that they broke up, and sadder still that no one cares. Heh.

As contrast, I have heard of exactly ZERO of the acts listed has having been established in 2008... which is more reasonable, I guess... give 'em time to get famous, right? Still I'd like to become more well-versed in modern music. I feel like I should, anyway. It's wrong of me, though, I think, that I have this disturbing rubbernecking desire to cross-reference the "Musical groups established in 2007" list with the "Musical groups disestablished in 2008" list. Isn't it?

Here's a question for you all, part etiquette, part brainstorm:


Say you're invited to Thanksgiving dinner, and the enthusiastic and well-meaning host vehemently insists that you bring nothing. However, you're painfully aware that going to an event like this empty-handed will cause your dear-departed mother to roll over in her grave (not an easy feat, given that she was cremated) AND will lead to feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment.

What do you do?

Currently, my plan is to bring a nice flower arrangement for the table, and a bottle of wine. I'll probably do that regardless of the responses here, but I'm looking for something more. Something different. Something a little less obvious than wine and flowers.

C'mon people! Throw some ideas at me!

It's really funny that this Question of the Day was sponsored by Best Buy - because they give out credit cards like freakin' CANDY, and that's probably the ONLY way I'll be doing any holiday shopping at all this year. So, anyone expecting gifts from me, it'll most likely be a CD... or a DVD... or printer ink...

I'm happy about Obama winning, yadda yadda yadda. Historic day blah blah.


NOW!

WHAT THE FUCK, CALIFORNIA?!?!?!

I am so unutterably annoyed right now. It's like the country took one step forward, and two steps back. How can two - TWO! - states that voted for the Democratic presidential candidate ALSO have voted in initiatives to ban gay marriage?? Oh, and CA. Ugh. This back and forth thing is so damned frustrating!


THIS is what I don't understand about all of these constitutional amendments to define marriage as between a man and a woman:

Marriage, in most - if not all - religions is a *sacrament.* Right? Now, in the U.S., even things that are otherwise illegal are often legal when they are religious sacraments. If I understand it correctly, that is. If Native Americans can smoke peyote sacramentally, and Rastafarians can smoke marijuana in a religious context, then shouldn't it also be protected for anyone who is allowed &/or encouraged by their church to get married, to be able to do so? With absolutely NO secular penalties? Meaning, they should be able to enjoy all secular benefits applied to the term elsewise?

I don't know. I was thinking about that today. I'm no lawyer or anything, but wtf, srsly. You can't amend your damned state constitution to PREVENT people from participating in their religious sacraments (unless people are being ACTUALLY harmed - I'm pretty sure Satanists can't sacrifice babies, hehehe!)

Not one person, at an entire convention supposedly filled with the geekiest of the geeky, seemed to know that I was dressed as a Pastamancer yesterday! Do so few people play Kingdom of Loathing?? (I know that skipperdee was busy with and distracted by all of her various duties in making the Con run smoothly, so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt... ;0) )

Maybe it's not that people don't play the game, but that my costume simply wasn't very good. TONS of people commented on my Grateful Undead shirt, on its lonesome. The proprietor of King Zombie assumed I was a fellow zombie-lover (which, y'know, I am, but still...) Lots of people said "Cool shirt!" but I don't think a one of them meant it in reference to the game.

Perhaps the shirt was too distracting. I should've worn the Star Shirt that I made for James, instead. Hell, I just should've been the Disco Bandit instead, full out! Apparently, in life, as in game, my class choice is sub-optimal ;0)

Overall, though, ICON was an awesome experience, and it was incredibly fun to take Thalia to her first Con ever. I'm only disappointed that I didn't get to meet Tanya Huff. If I had the money for another day pass, I'd totally skip out of church today and drive down for her discussions today (the Aliens: Writing About What You Don't Know one sounds particularly interesting!) She is so awesome, and it's cool that she came to Iowa. I REALLY wanted to go to her Are Vampires the Only Erotic Fantasy Creatures? panel last night, but I didn't think it was really something I should take Thalia too. That, and not getting to jump in on a game of Arkham Horror, were the only downsides to going alone with a six-year-old to a sci-fi con.


**************************************************************************

On a completely different note: I found out yesterday that a fella I knew in college committed suicide last week. I've been crying off and on since I heard about it. We were never as close as I wished we could've been... but he was just such an amazing, wonderful individual. Please keep his loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.

I was charged, recently, with the task of spending some time each day imagining myself in various "dream jobs," a different one each day for a week.

The argument for this was based on a study which claimed to have found that paraplegics were notably happier if they spend some time each day daydreaming about walking.

My initial reaction was, "WTF? Wouldn't that just be depressing?" However, I decided to try it out anyway.

Last night, as I lay in bed anticipating sleep, I started imagining my first "dream job" - theoretical mathematician. It started out nice enough: lots of lovely images of long nights spent at white boards. However, my mind then did that THING it does, where it just can't let a good thing be. It was all downhill from there, no matter how I tried to spin it - lots of terrifying thoughts of how I'd have to be attached to a university, so I'd have to be a professor, and even if I could arrange it so that I ONLY taught classes relating to algebra (my favorite subject, at any difficulty level) I still would have to *teach,* which is something that terrifies me and that (not coincidentally, I'm sure) I'm rather terrible at. Not to mention the fear that I'd alienate all of my friends and family, and encourage rather than challenge my social phobias.

Sigh. Sometimes I can't tell whether I'm pragmatic, or cynical, or some warped and twisted combination of the two. I'm willing to keep giving this thing a try, really I am... but I just have no faith in my skills at "playing pretend." There's no reason to believe that any of my other "dream jobs" will fare any better. In fact, I would imagine that the most I would gain from this exercise is a sense of resignation towards my own life, since no "dream" job would ever be all it's cracked up to be. Not a bad lesson to learn, I suppose, but certainly not the increased sense of vicarious joy which I was promised, heh.

For all that I daydream a lot, it tends, I suppose, to be rather negative. I tend to like thinking about all of the bad things that could possibly happen, so I'm never unpleasantly surprised. I also don't like imagining good things, because then I could be disappointed. Pretty fucked up, huh?

Fun interactivity, via ellen_datlow:

Palin as President

It is important to mark the passing of years. They are the longest spans of time over which we have any sort of control. The next higher standard measurement, the decade, is next to meaningless - after all, we see, what, 8 or 9 of them in our lifetime, if we're lucky? You can't make plans by the decade, really. You waste a lot of time if you wait to see what the next decade will bring. Years, however, are powerful and empowering.

Still, typical New Year's celebrations are overblown and commercial. The placement of months on our calendar is in itself arbitrary. Other cultures - Jewish, Chinese - have their own "new year" that's just as valid as our Western, Roman-inspired mishmash. Resolutions made in the dead of winter, in the depths of depression, melt away with the snow and serve no purpose but to increase disillusionment.

Birthdays! Now *that's* the way to go about recognizing and celebrating the passage of years! Another year seen by our own eyes, experienced by our own senses. Another year we have ahead to plan for, and to encapsulate all of our excitement and trepidation. A true year, more or less (sadly, without taking into account the 1/4 day differential) - not a year reliant on nonsensical names and numbers that no longer even match (September? Really? The seventh month, is it?)



Happy Birthday to starcrossedlady!!!! I'm glad our seasons spin 'round together :)



This has been an awesome birthday for me.

James, of course, gave me my presents a while ago. He gave me the Amanda Palmer solo CD, Who Killed Amanda Palmer - WHICH IS AWESOME! People keep saying that it's "overproduced," but they must be on crack because Ben Folds is a brilliant producer. Silly fools won't accept Has Been as conclusive evidence. Sigh. Anyway, James gave me the CD early, because he wanted to make sure I didn't get it myself :)

James also got me tickets to see Sunset Rubdown, which we picked up well before my birthday, obviously. That concert is Thursday, and OH MY GOD I am so excited. Spencer Krug WILL be smuggling me back to Canada with him. I decree it, and everything I say on my birthday is FACT.

The rest of my haul, so far:


This was from James' mom, Barb. AWESOME!!! As my friend Dave said, "That gift really benefits everybody!"



This was from my friends Jim & Val. Oh my God it's the coolest thing ever.


I also got a card from jakeit, and my aunt told me via email that a box from her is on its way.

Birthdays RULE. I don't care if I'm too old to get this excited. FUCKIT!! Birthdays rule.


OH! and my gift to myself? Copious baking :D I made: tiramisu for my friend Dave, who's party was joint with mine (his birthday was the 24th;) cupcakes to take into work; mini cupcakes to take to the preschoolers I teach at church; coffee cakes to bring to Angel Food distribution yesterday morning; AND (last but not least) MORE cupcakes to bring out to Hamburger Mary's tonight, when I meet up with some people for drinks. I LOVE baking, and my birthday is the PERFECT opportunity to accost people with unaskedfor sweets :)

He's starting to get seem a lot sexier, now that his wife's social activism streak is rubbing off on him:

"Brad Pitt donates $100,000 to support same-sex marriage"

This is my pet peeve for the day:

Faux Suffixes

I am getting bloody well sick and tired of every political scandal being referred to as "_______gate," and of every summer festival being termed "________stock."

GODDAMN!

When will people cease being such unoriginal bastards?

If this continues to happen without surcease, I may just have to dedicate my life to inventing a time machine, and convincing concert organizers to use nearby Acra, NY instead - that'd be hard to turn into a suffix! Then I'll move on to talking Nixon's buddies into checking into the Topaz instead. Yeah. Let's just see the pundits try to bitch about Monicapaz or trooperpaz!

"McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told Washington Post editors Tuesday that issues will have an impact on undecided voters but will not be conclusive.

“This election is not about issues,” Davis said. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”"



WOW. I mean, just... wow. Even if a statement like this holds some truth, given the partisan nature of the average American voter, and given the stupidity of people, in general... doesn't someone have to be a certain heretofore unheard of level of idiotic to actually be quoted saying this?

It's like McCain is going for the sympathy vote: "Look at me, I have an unvetted inexperienced running mate AND an idiotic word-vomiting campaign manager! Feel sorry for me, and express your sympathy at the polls! Obama only got as far as he has by being charismatic and having good advisers! The presidency is MORE than just... awwwww, fuck."

...no, that's not a promise, just a fact. This is, in fact, one more meme... which is not to say that it's one *last* meme. Sorry, folks! If you want to talk about something serious, I can make a post regarding my conflicted feelings about the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Y'know, if I haven't totally missed my window. I think speaking about that would be almost redundant at this point. Sigh.

ANYWAYYYYYY...

Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along. The ones chosen for me are the following.

akiralux requested info on the following:

Music: ...is my life. Really, come on. What else is worth ANYthing in this world?! I sing when I'm happy. I sing when... well, that's TMI for most folks. I sing to share my feelings. I have music I listen to when I'm down. I have excited music. I have cleaning music. You're probably all very surprised that I do not yet own an iPod. In point of fact, I'm a bit of a luddite (baliset, at least, will correct me if I'm misusing that term... but see this comic for details!) when it comes to music. It took me a looooong time to even get used to iTunes! LPs kick ass. Ultimately, there is no situation that can't be solved or made better by the "right" song.

Harley Quinn: see icon ;0) Harley Quinn, aka Harlene Quinzelle, is the off-again, on-again girlfriend of Batman's nemesis the Joker. She was originally his shrink (although she only got her PhD by "manipulating" - *coughcough* - her professors) but she fell for him, and joined him in his life of crime. She is the FIRST CHARACTER (if not only - I've been out of the loop for a while, heh) to make the leap from the television cartoon (Batman: the Animated Series, the best cartoon EVAAARRRR!!!) to the in-print continuity. That makes her all kinds of kickass. It's rare for comic books to broaden canon in that way. Also, my first tattoo was an image of HQ, on my right thigh. It's dead sexy. She's dead sexy :)

Pirates: PIRATES! Way better than ninjas. Waaaaaaay better. I've been into pirates since I was a little kid. Disney's Treasure Island is one of the best movies ever (so says my 8-yr-old self.) Pirates of the Caribbean was the most awesome theme park ride, before it was a mediocre film franchise that abused the career of poor, talented Johnny Depp. PLUS the captains were democratically elected, and never took more than twice the share of any one of their sailors. It really was a better life for anyone who wanted to be a sailor; the Royal Navies of the time were utter shit. John Rackham was so damn cool.

Folk Instruments: This is something I want to learn more about. I'm definitely a singer (see: Music) but even though I have less than no talent as an instrumentalist, I'm fascinated by the instruments commonly used in folk music, from all cultures. Particularly, there is this flute-like instrument used in Chinese folk music, that sounds almost identical to an Irish flute (the similarities between traditional Celtic and Asian musics are something that I really, really want to study further.) I'm also obsessed with the mandolin. It's my favorite instrument ever, and as much as I love folk music, I also really dig mandolins used in pop settings (i.e., Toad the Wet Sprocket, a favorite of mine as a teen.)

Russian Literature: Heh. I feel guilty listing this, as I've never read any Nabokov or even Tolstoy, but Dostoyevsky is my favorite author, and I'm also more than a little fond of Bulgakov. I want to read more Russians, esp modern works. I seem to enjoy the style of humor.

William & Mary: Heh. Sad. My erstwhile alma mater. I'll never think of any other school as my alma mater, even though I can't rightly claim W&M as such, since I never graduated. Maybe someday, I'll go back and finish a degree there. Or, maybe, I'll get lucky & get famous like Jon Stewart, and they'll award me something honorary. Heh. I always state with pride that I didn't graduate from the same college that Jon Stewart and Thomas Jefferson didn't graduate from :)

Rush: \m/!!! Yeah!! My favorite band. I'm kind of obsessed. No one understands; all of my friends just sort of smile & nod when I talk about Rush. I can never seem to find other Rush fans to be friends with, which is really depressing, because it's not just a matter of taste, it's a lifestyle ;0) By the way, don't talk to me about Tom Sawyer! You know that Kids in the Hall sketch where Kevin McDonald goes into the record store looking for a Doors record, and Bruce McCulloch is the snotty record store clerk who informs him that once he is a "Doors fan," Love Her Madly is the only Doors record he WON'T like? Yeah. That's how it is with Rush fans and Tom Sawyer. Stop playing that shit, "modern rock" radio stations!! Stop it now!!!

Thalia's first day of first grade is today! She's in a new school, because she went to this weird kindergarten that had all of the kindergarteners that would go to 4 or 5 different elementary schools on this side of town. I don't get it, but whatever. She still knows a LOT of the kids; one or two of her closest friends from K are in her class (one boy seemed REALLY reluctant to leave his dad this morning, and I think it helped that T was there.) Her teacher seems nice enough; she's new at the school.

I know I've talked about Johnson School of the Arts before. I am very excited about it! The idea of an "arts-infused curriculum" is perfect for our family. Everything is interdisciplinary; if they're learning about ancient Rome in Social Studies, they're studying busts and frescoes in art class. She's also really psyched to join the Chess Club :) They have a "looping" program for teaching, meaning that kids stay with the exact same class and teacher through 1st and 2nd grades, then they get a new teacher for 3rd grade, then they get another new teacher who stays with them for 4th and 5th grades (6th is jr high around here!) I like that idea. It allows parents, students, and teachers to all get to know one another better.

( Here are some photos of my little girl's first day of elementary school! )


I have to say I was really irritated at the amount of stuff I had to buy for her to bring. Notebooks and pencils and folders, I can understand (although I hate that they have to be certain kinds, certain colors) - but having to provide tissues? Hand sanitizer? Dry erase markers?! Now, I've bitched about the consumable materials fee myself, since this is a damned public school... but if they're going to charge us $24 ANYWAY, then why the hell not just double it, and buy all that crap at bulk rates, saving *everyone* money?! I guess that makes too much sense. Oh, and I guess also people (ie, the general public) are more likely to donate *school supplies* for kids, than donate *money for school supplies.* Sigh.
</rant>

I've been such a meme-whore lately. I hope you all forgive me. Really, I don't want to talk about my life right now. Sorry :(

Yoinked from akiralux:

( Urban Dictionary Meme )

openmindedmale's fault!! ;-)

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list ten things you LOVE that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own. openmindedmale fed me an "M."

Who wants to bite?



1. Music. It's kinda my life.
2. Mental Masturbation. Also known as "thinking too much."
3. Microbrews. Now I'm thirsty, damn you!
4. Mudhoney.
5. Mitchell, Joni.
6. Merritt, Stephin. and all associated projects, of course - I won't use another slot for Magnetic Fields, The. ;-)
7. Mountains. Sigh. I miss the mountains, yo.
8. Magritte, Rene. I'm still pondering the wisdom of a tattoo of a pipe with "Ceci n'est pas un tatouage" under it.
9. Mattar Paneer. Great, now I'm hungry, too...
10.Math. Along with music, the other slice of bread in my braingasm sandwich.