I was being so good about posting frequently, and then I just stopped. I can't believe it's been a week since my last post!!!
What's happened in the last week...hmmm...well, we threw two parties - one for Brett's team at work, and one for some of our other friends. Both were super fun, and well worth the effort of having two parties in one weekend. On Sunday we pigged out on leftovers, did some grocery shopping, and then I started working on an asap website project for a secret requester. It's secret for right now because it involves the birthday of a secret someone ELSE. Working on the website, feeling under the weather (I've just kind of felt...BLAH lately. And I've had really bad insomnia), and catching up on after-party housework has kept me from posting, but I'm going to try to pick it back up.
That being said, I don't really have much to say right now. The kitties are busy chowing down on their evening kibble, Brett's inching home from work on I-5 (he's been on the road for almost 3 hrs - we have a lot of snow and ice right now), his mom hasn't left work yet and might just stay there all night (most people haven't even been able to get out of their PARKING LOT), and apparently there was like, a 50 car pile up at Snoqualmie Pass.
The last time our power went out, I was left with no home phone service (since there was no power for our modem), and my cellphone had one bar. So just incase we lose power during this storm, I've made sure my phone's fully charged.
Other than that, I haven't really been doing much. Last night (because of my insomnia), I fell asleep around 12:45am, but then got up at 5:45am and couldn't fall back asleep, then fell back asleep around noon, and woke up around 2:30pm. Since my sleep has been so yucky I've had really low energy this week, and haven't been very productive. It's CRAZY how important a good night's sleep is. I mean, I guess it makes sense, it just feels weird because I haven't thought about it in so long - ever since I've been at home I just GET 6-8 hours of restful sleep almost every night. It never occurred to me that if my ability to sleep through the night went away for some reason, I would lose the energy to bustle around and get crap done. I ate some food (spinach & mushroom steamed buns), made some phone calls, played with the cats, did some online shopping, and that's pretty much it. Tonight I'm taking meletonin, so hopefully it'll help. Blah.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Quick like a bunny!
I'm busy so I really shouldn't be posting, but I am anyway. We're cleaning out our basement, and purging our closets and toiletries at the same time, and then later today we're going to go run some errands around town (and I'll get to go to Kohl's for the first time ever!), and then if I have time after that I'll practice making sugar flowers for the birthday cake I'm baking on Saturday.
Last weekend went swimmingly. Jon's play was awesomely clever; very Oscar Wilde, with lots of references to The Importance of Being Earnest, which I love. And it included a lot of philosophizing on Dadaism and the meaning/definition of art in general, which I wasn't expecting. It was the first time Dadaism was presented to me as anything less than a valid artistic movement involving talented, artistic people, and it was HILARIOUS. One of the main characters' takes on Dadaism was that it was "art" for artists who weren't talented enough to be "real" artists. Here's my favorite bit:
It was a really, really good play. In addition to the Dadaism debate, we were also entertained with a Wilde-esque romantic mess, discussion of socialism, imperialism, capitalism, etc, and (perhaps most importantly) a communist librarian who stripped down to pasties and panties while dancing around and singing about various political and ideological isms.
So that was Friday. Oh, that, 99 Ranch, and dinner at Souped Up. Where ironically, the soup was the only thing I didn't like. Their mac & cheese is amazing.
Saturday we ran a crap-load of errands and then had a Chinese New Year's Eve "Reunion Dinner" with some of Brett's family (though it wasn't exactly a "reunion," since we see each other all the time), then we all played Balderdash, then everyone but Ali and Corey left around 10pm or so. After that, Scooter (aka Brett) fell asleep in a chair, Corey surfed the net on my computer, and Alison and I got out all of my makeup and skin care stuff and talked about beauty stuff and Sephora for like two hours straight. Then at midnight I opened the windows and doors, popped some fire crackers, scared the crap out of Brett, Ali and I had some pie, and then they went home and I watched lion dances on tv.
Oh, and earlier during cooking Brett started a fire in the kitchen. According to his mom the flames were like two feet high. They put it out with the cover of our wok, which is now black on the inside. Better the wok than the kitchen, though! :) The worst part of it (aside from the mess in Brett's pants) was the burning plastic smell, which we later realized was the bottom of the microwave melting. It's not damaged; the plastic just got a little sticky for a while, but seriously - it COULD'VE been pretty bad. I guess oil got spilled into the burner or something. Oh, and yes, we do have a fire extinguisher, and it's full, and it's right next to the stove. If they felt they really needed it, they could've used that. But it would've been a disgusting mess.
Sunday was the first day of CNY, and we decided not to go to Vancouver since we're so busy, but I forget what all we did...I think we watched part of Mulan, then we went out for a vegetarian feast (which included Buddhist's delight) at Noble Palace, then we watched Mulan 2 (Disney played Asian stuff all day), then we puttered around the house for awhile, and then I took a nap and Brett practiced cello, and we missed most of the Sunday night Fox stuff, which was lame because it was all new, including The Simpsons. :(
This upcoming weekend will probably be pretty similar - Friday night we're having a party for 16 or so of Brett's friends from work, and then Saturday night we're having a party for some of our other friends. Both are potlucks, to cut down on the effort and expense. Sunday I don't think we have plans to do ANYTHING, which will be nice. Maybe we'll watch a little bit of lantern festival business on tv if anything is on, and maybe we'll do something nice for dinner, but that'll probably be it.
Okay, so I guess this post wasn't "quick like a bunny," but I think I still have time to get a lot of stuff done today. Before I go though, I'd like to mention (for those of you who haven't already read about it on "Life of Ai") that Spinshell.tv is now broadcasting videos! I've watched the first episode of "Shoot Me" and I'll be watching the rest later when I have time. I'm also going to check out the rest of their videos as well, because they seem pretty interesting and they're good quality, with good music. Suzy and Maki of Chapter 11 did the theme song for Shoot Me, and I love it. Check it out! :D
Last weekend went swimmingly. Jon's play was awesomely clever; very Oscar Wilde, with lots of references to The Importance of Being Earnest, which I love. And it included a lot of philosophizing on Dadaism and the meaning/definition of art in general, which I wasn't expecting. It was the first time Dadaism was presented to me as anything less than a valid artistic movement involving talented, artistic people, and it was HILARIOUS. One of the main characters' takes on Dadaism was that it was "art" for artists who weren't talented enough to be "real" artists. Here's my favorite bit:
Tzara: Doing the things by which is meant Art is no longer considered the proper concern of the artist. In fact it is frowned upon. Nowadays, an artist is someone who makes art mean the things he does. A man may be an artist by exhibiting his hindquarters. He may be a poet by drawing words out of a hat.
Carr: But that is simply to change the meaning of the word Art.
Tzara: I see I have made myself clear.
Carr: Then you are not actually an artist at all?
Tzara: On the contrary. I have just told you I am.
Carr: But that does not make you an artist. An artist is someone who is gifted in some way that enables him to do something more or less well which can only be done badly or not at all by someone who is not thus gifted. If there is any point in using language at all it is that a word is taken to stand for a particular fact or idea and not for other facts or ideas. I might claim to be able to fly...Lo, I say, I am flying. But you are not propelling yourself about while suspended in the air, someone may point out. Ah no, I reply, that is no longer considered the proper concern of people who can fly. In fact, it is frowned upon. Nowadays, a flyer never leaves the ground and wouldn't know how. I see, says the somewhat baffled interlocutor, so when you say you can fly you are using the word in a purely private sense. I see I have made myself clear, I say. Then, says this chap in some relief, you cannot actually fly after all? On the contrary, I say, I have just told you I can. Don't you see my dear Tristan you are simply asking me to accept that the word Art means whatever you wish it to mean; but I do not accept it.
It was a really, really good play. In addition to the Dadaism debate, we were also entertained with a Wilde-esque romantic mess, discussion of socialism, imperialism, capitalism, etc, and (perhaps most importantly) a communist librarian who stripped down to pasties and panties while dancing around and singing about various political and ideological isms.
So that was Friday. Oh, that, 99 Ranch, and dinner at Souped Up. Where ironically, the soup was the only thing I didn't like. Their mac & cheese is amazing.
Saturday we ran a crap-load of errands and then had a Chinese New Year's Eve "Reunion Dinner" with some of Brett's family (though it wasn't exactly a "reunion," since we see each other all the time), then we all played Balderdash, then everyone but Ali and Corey left around 10pm or so. After that, Scooter (aka Brett) fell asleep in a chair, Corey surfed the net on my computer, and Alison and I got out all of my makeup and skin care stuff and talked about beauty stuff and Sephora for like two hours straight. Then at midnight I opened the windows and doors, popped some fire crackers, scared the crap out of Brett, Ali and I had some pie, and then they went home and I watched lion dances on tv.
Oh, and earlier during cooking Brett started a fire in the kitchen. According to his mom the flames were like two feet high. They put it out with the cover of our wok, which is now black on the inside. Better the wok than the kitchen, though! :) The worst part of it (aside from the mess in Brett's pants) was the burning plastic smell, which we later realized was the bottom of the microwave melting. It's not damaged; the plastic just got a little sticky for a while, but seriously - it COULD'VE been pretty bad. I guess oil got spilled into the burner or something. Oh, and yes, we do have a fire extinguisher, and it's full, and it's right next to the stove. If they felt they really needed it, they could've used that. But it would've been a disgusting mess.
Sunday was the first day of CNY, and we decided not to go to Vancouver since we're so busy, but I forget what all we did...I think we watched part of Mulan, then we went out for a vegetarian feast (which included Buddhist's delight) at Noble Palace, then we watched Mulan 2 (Disney played Asian stuff all day), then we puttered around the house for awhile, and then I took a nap and Brett practiced cello, and we missed most of the Sunday night Fox stuff, which was lame because it was all new, including The Simpsons. :(
This upcoming weekend will probably be pretty similar - Friday night we're having a party for 16 or so of Brett's friends from work, and then Saturday night we're having a party for some of our other friends. Both are potlucks, to cut down on the effort and expense. Sunday I don't think we have plans to do ANYTHING, which will be nice. Maybe we'll watch a little bit of lantern festival business on tv if anything is on, and maybe we'll do something nice for dinner, but that'll probably be it.
Okay, so I guess this post wasn't "quick like a bunny," but I think I still have time to get a lot of stuff done today. Before I go though, I'd like to mention (for those of you who haven't already read about it on "Life of Ai") that Spinshell.tv is now broadcasting videos! I've watched the first episode of "Shoot Me" and I'll be watching the rest later when I have time. I'm also going to check out the rest of their videos as well, because they seem pretty interesting and they're good quality, with good music. Suzy and Maki of Chapter 11 did the theme song for Shoot Me, and I love it. Check it out! :D
Monday, February 19, 2007
That "10 Things" Thing...
So Tony, Brett, and Shannon have ALL tagged me for this, but I think that really only Tony should count, since he was first. Here goes:
This will be a pretty long post, since I've used up so many short facts about myself in my "about me" section. Also, I forget who I've told what to, and there are some things I don't really like to talk about that much, so this may be repeat information for some of you. But I'll give it my best shot. :)
1. I've lived a lot of places. Namely: Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Bogalusa, Louisiana; Port Angeles, Washington; Seattle, Washington; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Orange, Texas; Rome, Georgia; Bellingham, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Redmond, Washington; and Marysville, Washington. Some of these stays were pretty short, but all of them have confirmed and re-confirmed two important things to me:
2. I had my first near-death experience at a very young age (four or five, I can't remember which) when I was bitten by a fire ant (ONE fire ant, on my pinky toe), and went into anaphylactic shock. I was a pretty thoughtful kid to begin with (if I do say so myself), so this experience lead to a lot of introspective thoughts on the meaning of life, the randomness and inevitability of death, the purpose of making my bed every gd morning, etc.
It did not help me behave like less of a freak, but I think it did help me open my eyes more to the beauty, tragedy, and tragic beauty of humanity and the world in general. I also think it made me a little bit of a hypochondriac.
3. I touched briefly on my weirdness and thoughtfulness in the last fact-thing, but I'll use them for this one too: for many years of my childhood, my mom made me see a shrink. Well, I guess it would be shrinkS, since there were a good deal of them. I think they started around the time my parents got divorced (she thought I needed professional help because I wasn't as upset as she thought I SHOULD be), and they went on consistently through middle school, with a few visits here and there to different people even while I was in college.
Most of them were utter crap (in my opinion), but a couple of them were okay/good, and I learned some helpful things about myself along the way. The MOST important thing I learned was from the last shrink I saw when I was in middle school. After spending years as a weirdo with my mom reinforcing my feelings of weirdness by not only TELLING me I was a weirdo (among other things), but also dragging me to shrinks all the time (often during school hours), my self esteem wasn't that great. I didn't know why I was weird, I just WAS. And I didn't know why I couldn't be normal, but I COULDN'T. I was an outcast, and I felt like a failure.
But after the umpteen-millionth shrink hadn't been able to tell her exactly what was wrong with me that would cause me to be such a freak, my mom dragged me to *the shrink that would end all shrinks.* Well, until voluntary visits in college anyway.
We had a few normal shrink-type visits where he would ask me questions while I picked at my nail polish and spit out the answers I thought he wanted to hear, then we had a few normal Catherine-type visits where I insulted his intelligence and fashion sense and refused to get out of the car because talking to him was a waste of my time.
Then he brought out the big guns. He asked me if I wanted to do puzzles. I didn't have to talk about school or home or food or anything else predictable and uncomfortable, I JUST had to come in and do puzzles. There were word puzzles, block puzzles, number puzzles, etc. I love puzzles, so I cooperated and actually started enjoying myself. After a few weeks he told me that I'd been taking an IQ test, and that I was retarded.
Syke. Apparently I'm smarter than 98% of you motherfuckers. Actually...if you're reading my blog you're probably smarter than most, so I'm probably only smarter than like...eh...maybe half of you? That sounds about right to me.
I like to waste my intelligence on things like perfect makeup application and complicated plans to scare the crap out of Brett, but knowing that I'm *secretly* brilliant has helped my self esteem a lot. Maybe too much.
4. Okay, I *know* this one will be a shock to most of you. Despite my dirty mind, sailor's vocabulary, occasional flirtatiousness, and small personal bubble, I'm actually a little bit of a prude. In my entire life, including Brett, I've only ever made out with three people. And no, I've not had sex with more people than that. I'm very picky, and very loyal. And though sometimes tv makes me feel like I should've been more slutty when I had the chance, I still think pickiness and loyalty are great things, and I'm proud of myself for not hooking it out to every perv who was interested. Though it's not like I think less of people who do.
5. Most people who know me know I have OCD. A lot of people SAY things like, "ohmygod. haha! I'm like, so OCD!" But it's not really true. I hide it pretty well, but if you're suuuuper observant, you'll notice me doing stuff like touching things through my sleeves, opening doors with my feet or elbows, flipping any and every coin heads up (even if it's a whole cup of them at a time), chewing waaaay too much gum (I go through about a pack and a half of Dentyne Ice Arctic Chill a week), touching light switches just a little too long, straightening things out at just the right angle when I set them down, making sure all the cabinet doors are "all the way" closed before going to bed or leaving the house, etc. Sometimes I'll even set something down, walk away, and come back to set it down "right." I count things, I tap things, I fidget, and I can do some other things that are downright creepy. But again - I think I hide it well, and it doesn't have too much of an impact on my every day life. And I don't take medication, because I don't like being medicated.
6. Ugh...I'm having trouble thinking of things to write here. Number six will beeeeeee...um...I am happily married. Not happily married as in, "I'm not UNhappily married, and I'm not interested in cheating." But HAPPILY married. As in every day I feel lucky, completely in love, and excited to get in as much time as possible with my husband.
We've been together for seven and a half years, married for just over six, and we still don't get sick of each other, we've still never fallen asleep angry with each other, we can still find things to talk about for hours at a time, we still wrestle and snuggle and laugh together every day, we still share all our hopes/dreams/fears, we still get to know each other better every day as we grow and change together, and we're still best friends.
I feel like we're kind of...like, two wholes that make a greater whole or something. Not like two halves, because we were both pretty complete before we got together. But even though we were doing really well before, and neither of us was LOOKING for love at the time, somehow when we started hanging out we were just drawn to each other. Like magnets. Or like two small transformers that fit together to form one large robot. We're Duocons! Yeah!!!
Anyway, aside from the fact that neither one of us was desperate, rebounding, or hugely insecure when we got together, I think the greatest reason that we have such an enjoyable relationship is our friendship. It's like, a REAL friendship.
Like, Brett can stink up the bed, and usually I'll just end up dutch ovening him in his own vile gasses until I collapse in a fit of giggles. And I like looking nice for him, but I don't care if he sees me with greasy hair and no makeup, because I know he still loves me even when I'm at my fugliest, and vice versa. And we both really like making the other person happy, but we're also good at making ourSELVES happy, which I think is important. We're a team, and we feel like a team. It's good stuff.
7. My love of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films has lead to many freaky apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic dreams over the years. And let me tell you something - zombies may not be that scary on the big screen (at least to me), but when you're stuck in a dream with them and they're trying to get into your house, it's no fun. Especially since with these types of dreams I can often end up picking up where I left off the next time I fall asleep. But despite all those long nights spent fearing my impending dreams, I still think zombie movies are worth it.
8. Jesus Christ, I can't believe I still have three things left to write about. I just turned to Brett and said, "Quick, if someone asked you to tell them something about me, what would you say?!?"
Brett: Something they don't already know?
Me: Yeah. Like if Shannon were to say, "tell me something I don't already know about Cat."
Brett" Um...that you're pro-level at Wii Bowling?
It's weak, but I'll use it. I'm pro-level at Wii bowling and golf. But I hate Wii boxing. I also dislike most "real" sports. Including poker, which I'm counting as a sport because of it's presence on ESPN.
I'm also not a big (or even a small) gambler. I've never been to Vegas (and if I went it'd be for the high-class nekkie shows, not for the gambling), and I've never even been in a real casino, even though we have a pretty nice one on the res, which is just across the freeway from my house.
9. Even though I'm all reformed into a nice, pink-apron-wearing housewife now, I'd still like a couple more piercings and/or tattoos. I'm not *exactly* sure what I want done as far as tattoos go, but I know I at least want something that runs down my spine. From C7 all the way down to my sacrum. I don't know where else I'd want to be tattooed - maybe just under my hairline on my neck, or on my shoulder blade or something. As for the piercings, I think I just want a rook piercing in each ear, and I'll probably leave it at that. I'm not big on facial piercings on girls, and I've known a few people with more "intimate" piercings and they've rarely sounded (or looked) that impressive. Not to mention the potential problems people sometimes run into...yikes!
I like the look of clavicle and nape piercings on girls, but I talked to a professional body artist about them once, and she had enough negative things to say about the risks involved to turn me away from them for good.
Also, I don't think I'd want anything else that wouldn't be easily covered by my hair or clothes. I've had my little wrist tattoo for...crap...about 14 years now, and *I'm* used to it, but a lot of other people aren't. And sometimes I forget that it's there and then I'll see it in a photo or something and think, "Wow. That looks not-classy."
Because my appreciation for body modification notwithstanding, I don't think I've ever seen a tattoo or piercing and thought that it made someone look more classy. Not that they don't look GOOD a lot of the time; they just don't usually scream elegance.
Here's a body modification story that will have my parents running for the hills (hi dad!): once upon a time, way back when my mom was selling real estate for a living, she worked in an office with a guy named Patrick. I don't remember how old he was...maybe in his late twenties? My impression of him at the time was that he was a grown up, but not like, a GROWN UP grown up. Despite his career in real estate and his clean-cut, suit-and-tie exterior, Patrick was a die-hard rocker. He even claimed to be friends with famous rockers. And I think he may have actually been telling the truth, because I know he hung out with the guys from GnR; I ran into him once while he was hanging out with Slash. Then again, I did scalp Nirvana tickets to him once. You'd think that if he was so hardcore he'd already have gotten the tickets on his own. Maybe not though...by the time Kurt offed himself I think a lot of people were getting tired of them, and the tickets I sold him were for what ended up being his last Seattle concert.
But I digress. My point was that, even though he looked clean cut, he was not. It was the ultimate bad boy image: "I'm so bad that I can actually pull off looking good." It was a new concept to my young, pink-haired, fishnet-stockinged self, and it was one that I liked. My fascination with his dichotomous image was fueled even more when I saw him shirtless (NOTHING happened) - he was covered in tattoos, and even had a couple of piercings (I think you know where). From that moment on, I was hooked on that concept.
I think in part it's because (oh, I'm totally using this for number ten)...
10. I'm a die-hard Gemini. There exists within me a duality that can probably only be understood by crazy people, and other Geminis. I like blood and guts, but I like romance. I like snakes and spiders, but I like kittens and puppies. Sephora and Stephen King. Art and science. Baking bread and painting monsters. Photographing flowers and carrion...you get the picture.
Meeting Patrick helped me realize the true pink goth that was lurking inside of me: I may posses the *ability* to run down the street in 6" platform heels and the *bravery* to shave off half my hair, but dammit, I still want to look cute. And I LIKE wearing knit tops and flipping out my hair.
Whew! On that note...I'M DONE. I think I've royally butchered the whole "10 Things" thing with my rambling thoughts and gross verbosity, but whatevs. Maybe this can serve as a test to see who actually reads my posts, no matter how long they are.
The six people I'm tagging (who may or may not end up reading this far into the post) are: Aaron, Ai, Alison, Amy, Dan, and Jon. I picked them because they're the top six people on my blogroll who haven't already been tagged. So happy posting, friends! :)
The game: Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs!
This will be a pretty long post, since I've used up so many short facts about myself in my "about me" section. Also, I forget who I've told what to, and there are some things I don't really like to talk about that much, so this may be repeat information for some of you. But I'll give it my best shot. :)
1. I've lived a lot of places. Namely: Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Bogalusa, Louisiana; Port Angeles, Washington; Seattle, Washington; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Orange, Texas; Rome, Georgia; Bellingham, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Redmond, Washington; and Marysville, Washington. Some of these stays were pretty short, but all of them have confirmed and re-confirmed two important things to me:
a) Everyone is different.
b) Everyone is basically the same.
2. I had my first near-death experience at a very young age (four or five, I can't remember which) when I was bitten by a fire ant (ONE fire ant, on my pinky toe), and went into anaphylactic shock. I was a pretty thoughtful kid to begin with (if I do say so myself), so this experience lead to a lot of introspective thoughts on the meaning of life, the randomness and inevitability of death, the purpose of making my bed every gd morning, etc.
It did not help me behave like less of a freak, but I think it did help me open my eyes more to the beauty, tragedy, and tragic beauty of humanity and the world in general. I also think it made me a little bit of a hypochondriac.
3. I touched briefly on my weirdness and thoughtfulness in the last fact-thing, but I'll use them for this one too: for many years of my childhood, my mom made me see a shrink. Well, I guess it would be shrinkS, since there were a good deal of them. I think they started around the time my parents got divorced (she thought I needed professional help because I wasn't as upset as she thought I SHOULD be), and they went on consistently through middle school, with a few visits here and there to different people even while I was in college.
Most of them were utter crap (in my opinion), but a couple of them were okay/good, and I learned some helpful things about myself along the way. The MOST important thing I learned was from the last shrink I saw when I was in middle school. After spending years as a weirdo with my mom reinforcing my feelings of weirdness by not only TELLING me I was a weirdo (among other things), but also dragging me to shrinks all the time (often during school hours), my self esteem wasn't that great. I didn't know why I was weird, I just WAS. And I didn't know why I couldn't be normal, but I COULDN'T. I was an outcast, and I felt like a failure.
But after the umpteen-millionth shrink hadn't been able to tell her exactly what was wrong with me that would cause me to be such a freak, my mom dragged me to *the shrink that would end all shrinks.* Well, until voluntary visits in college anyway.
We had a few normal shrink-type visits where he would ask me questions while I picked at my nail polish and spit out the answers I thought he wanted to hear, then we had a few normal Catherine-type visits where I insulted his intelligence and fashion sense and refused to get out of the car because talking to him was a waste of my time.
Then he brought out the big guns. He asked me if I wanted to do puzzles. I didn't have to talk about school or home or food or anything else predictable and uncomfortable, I JUST had to come in and do puzzles. There were word puzzles, block puzzles, number puzzles, etc. I love puzzles, so I cooperated and actually started enjoying myself. After a few weeks he told me that I'd been taking an IQ test, and that I was retarded.
Syke. Apparently I'm smarter than 98% of you motherfuckers. Actually...if you're reading my blog you're probably smarter than most, so I'm probably only smarter than like...eh...maybe half of you? That sounds about right to me.
I like to waste my intelligence on things like perfect makeup application and complicated plans to scare the crap out of Brett, but knowing that I'm *secretly* brilliant has helped my self esteem a lot. Maybe too much.
4. Okay, I *know* this one will be a shock to most of you. Despite my dirty mind, sailor's vocabulary, occasional flirtatiousness, and small personal bubble, I'm actually a little bit of a prude. In my entire life, including Brett, I've only ever made out with three people. And no, I've not had sex with more people than that. I'm very picky, and very loyal. And though sometimes tv makes me feel like I should've been more slutty when I had the chance, I still think pickiness and loyalty are great things, and I'm proud of myself for not hooking it out to every perv who was interested. Though it's not like I think less of people who do.
5. Most people who know me know I have OCD. A lot of people SAY things like, "ohmygod. haha! I'm like, so OCD!" But it's not really true. I hide it pretty well, but if you're suuuuper observant, you'll notice me doing stuff like touching things through my sleeves, opening doors with my feet or elbows, flipping any and every coin heads up (even if it's a whole cup of them at a time), chewing waaaay too much gum (I go through about a pack and a half of Dentyne Ice Arctic Chill a week), touching light switches just a little too long, straightening things out at just the right angle when I set them down, making sure all the cabinet doors are "all the way" closed before going to bed or leaving the house, etc. Sometimes I'll even set something down, walk away, and come back to set it down "right." I count things, I tap things, I fidget, and I can do some other things that are downright creepy. But again - I think I hide it well, and it doesn't have too much of an impact on my every day life. And I don't take medication, because I don't like being medicated.
6. Ugh...I'm having trouble thinking of things to write here. Number six will beeeeeee...um...I am happily married. Not happily married as in, "I'm not UNhappily married, and I'm not interested in cheating." But HAPPILY married. As in every day I feel lucky, completely in love, and excited to get in as much time as possible with my husband.
We've been together for seven and a half years, married for just over six, and we still don't get sick of each other, we've still never fallen asleep angry with each other, we can still find things to talk about for hours at a time, we still wrestle and snuggle and laugh together every day, we still share all our hopes/dreams/fears, we still get to know each other better every day as we grow and change together, and we're still best friends.
I feel like we're kind of...like, two wholes that make a greater whole or something. Not like two halves, because we were both pretty complete before we got together. But even though we were doing really well before, and neither of us was LOOKING for love at the time, somehow when we started hanging out we were just drawn to each other. Like magnets. Or like two small transformers that fit together to form one large robot. We're Duocons! Yeah!!!
Anyway, aside from the fact that neither one of us was desperate, rebounding, or hugely insecure when we got together, I think the greatest reason that we have such an enjoyable relationship is our friendship. It's like, a REAL friendship.
Like, Brett can stink up the bed, and usually I'll just end up dutch ovening him in his own vile gasses until I collapse in a fit of giggles. And I like looking nice for him, but I don't care if he sees me with greasy hair and no makeup, because I know he still loves me even when I'm at my fugliest, and vice versa. And we both really like making the other person happy, but we're also good at making ourSELVES happy, which I think is important. We're a team, and we feel like a team. It's good stuff.
7. My love of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films has lead to many freaky apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic dreams over the years. And let me tell you something - zombies may not be that scary on the big screen (at least to me), but when you're stuck in a dream with them and they're trying to get into your house, it's no fun. Especially since with these types of dreams I can often end up picking up where I left off the next time I fall asleep. But despite all those long nights spent fearing my impending dreams, I still think zombie movies are worth it.
8. Jesus Christ, I can't believe I still have three things left to write about. I just turned to Brett and said, "Quick, if someone asked you to tell them something about me, what would you say?!?"
Brett: Something they don't already know?
Me: Yeah. Like if Shannon were to say, "tell me something I don't already know about Cat."
Brett" Um...that you're pro-level at Wii Bowling?
It's weak, but I'll use it. I'm pro-level at Wii bowling and golf. But I hate Wii boxing. I also dislike most "real" sports. Including poker, which I'm counting as a sport because of it's presence on ESPN.
I'm also not a big (or even a small) gambler. I've never been to Vegas (and if I went it'd be for the high-class nekkie shows, not for the gambling), and I've never even been in a real casino, even though we have a pretty nice one on the res, which is just across the freeway from my house.
9. Even though I'm all reformed into a nice, pink-apron-wearing housewife now, I'd still like a couple more piercings and/or tattoos. I'm not *exactly* sure what I want done as far as tattoos go, but I know I at least want something that runs down my spine. From C7 all the way down to my sacrum. I don't know where else I'd want to be tattooed - maybe just under my hairline on my neck, or on my shoulder blade or something. As for the piercings, I think I just want a rook piercing in each ear, and I'll probably leave it at that. I'm not big on facial piercings on girls, and I've known a few people with more "intimate" piercings and they've rarely sounded (or looked) that impressive. Not to mention the potential problems people sometimes run into...yikes!
I like the look of clavicle and nape piercings on girls, but I talked to a professional body artist about them once, and she had enough negative things to say about the risks involved to turn me away from them for good.
Also, I don't think I'd want anything else that wouldn't be easily covered by my hair or clothes. I've had my little wrist tattoo for...crap...about 14 years now, and *I'm* used to it, but a lot of other people aren't. And sometimes I forget that it's there and then I'll see it in a photo or something and think, "Wow. That looks not-classy."
Because my appreciation for body modification notwithstanding, I don't think I've ever seen a tattoo or piercing and thought that it made someone look more classy. Not that they don't look GOOD a lot of the time; they just don't usually scream elegance.
Here's a body modification story that will have my parents running for the hills (hi dad!): once upon a time, way back when my mom was selling real estate for a living, she worked in an office with a guy named Patrick. I don't remember how old he was...maybe in his late twenties? My impression of him at the time was that he was a grown up, but not like, a GROWN UP grown up. Despite his career in real estate and his clean-cut, suit-and-tie exterior, Patrick was a die-hard rocker. He even claimed to be friends with famous rockers. And I think he may have actually been telling the truth, because I know he hung out with the guys from GnR; I ran into him once while he was hanging out with Slash. Then again, I did scalp Nirvana tickets to him once. You'd think that if he was so hardcore he'd already have gotten the tickets on his own. Maybe not though...by the time Kurt offed himself I think a lot of people were getting tired of them, and the tickets I sold him were for what ended up being his last Seattle concert.
But I digress. My point was that, even though he looked clean cut, he was not. It was the ultimate bad boy image: "I'm so bad that I can actually pull off looking good." It was a new concept to my young, pink-haired, fishnet-stockinged self, and it was one that I liked. My fascination with his dichotomous image was fueled even more when I saw him shirtless (NOTHING happened) - he was covered in tattoos, and even had a couple of piercings (I think you know where). From that moment on, I was hooked on that concept.
I think in part it's because (oh, I'm totally using this for number ten)...
10. I'm a die-hard Gemini. There exists within me a duality that can probably only be understood by crazy people, and other Geminis. I like blood and guts, but I like romance. I like snakes and spiders, but I like kittens and puppies. Sephora and Stephen King. Art and science. Baking bread and painting monsters. Photographing flowers and carrion...you get the picture.
Meeting Patrick helped me realize the true pink goth that was lurking inside of me: I may posses the *ability* to run down the street in 6" platform heels and the *bravery* to shave off half my hair, but dammit, I still want to look cute. And I LIKE wearing knit tops and flipping out my hair.
Whew! On that note...I'M DONE. I think I've royally butchered the whole "10 Things" thing with my rambling thoughts and gross verbosity, but whatevs. Maybe this can serve as a test to see who actually reads my posts, no matter how long they are.
The six people I'm tagging (who may or may not end up reading this far into the post) are: Aaron, Ai, Alison, Amy, Dan, and Jon. I picked them because they're the top six people on my blogroll who haven't already been tagged. So happy posting, friends! :)
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Je vous verrai dans l'enfer, pomme de terre putréfiée.
Translation: I'll see you in hell, rotten potato.
Suggested usage: Every time someone serves Brett food containing potatoes. He emailed me this sentence a short while ago, so I hope he plans on putting it to good use now that he knows it. Pommes de terre putréfiées, he does hate you so. If you're not rotten going in, you're sure as hell rotten coming out. That's fo' SHO'!
In other news, we had a very nice VD. (That's Shannon for "Valentine's Day.") I didn't do much (marinated the steak for dinner and did some chores around the house), but Brett made our dinner all by himself and then gave me a nice long massage. Note to those of you who may have forgotten (or didn't know): Brett went to massage school, and we have two very comfortable massage tables in our house, complete with face-hole bits for that ultra-relaxed, non-smush-faced feeling. It was a very nice massage. :D
I slept in latelatelate today though, and I still have a lot to do to get ready for CNY, so this is it for posts until *maybe* Friday. On Friday we're going to try to make a quick CNY supply stop at 99 Ranch on our way to see Jon in Travesties with Shannon, and then Saturday we're going to Costco, Target, possibly Home Depot, Banana Republic, L'Occitane, probably Fred Meyer, and then getting haircuts before hosting a family dinner party (with Brett's family) at our house that starts at 4pm. So I pretty much just have tonight and Friday morning to do any last-minute prep for the party, and for CNY in general (there are a lot of kooky superstitions about the lunar new year, which you can read about here, or here).
I'd better get crackin, but before I do, I'll leave you with this:
This "Wiij" is so nerded that I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or "get up and get down." I'm in a good mood though, so I'll choose to "get up and get down." Woo Wii! :D
Suggested usage: Every time someone serves Brett food containing potatoes. He emailed me this sentence a short while ago, so I hope he plans on putting it to good use now that he knows it. Pommes de terre putréfiées, he does hate you so. If you're not rotten going in, you're sure as hell rotten coming out. That's fo' SHO'!
In other news, we had a very nice VD. (That's Shannon for "Valentine's Day.") I didn't do much (marinated the steak for dinner and did some chores around the house), but Brett made our dinner all by himself and then gave me a nice long massage. Note to those of you who may have forgotten (or didn't know): Brett went to massage school, and we have two very comfortable massage tables in our house, complete with face-hole bits for that ultra-relaxed, non-smush-faced feeling. It was a very nice massage. :D
I slept in latelatelate today though, and I still have a lot to do to get ready for CNY, so this is it for posts until *maybe* Friday. On Friday we're going to try to make a quick CNY supply stop at 99 Ranch on our way to see Jon in Travesties with Shannon, and then Saturday we're going to Costco, Target, possibly Home Depot, Banana Republic, L'Occitane, probably Fred Meyer, and then getting haircuts before hosting a family dinner party (with Brett's family) at our house that starts at 4pm. So I pretty much just have tonight and Friday morning to do any last-minute prep for the party, and for CNY in general (there are a lot of kooky superstitions about the lunar new year, which you can read about here, or here).
I'd better get crackin, but before I do, I'll leave you with this:
This "Wiij" is so nerded that I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or "get up and get down." I'm in a good mood though, so I'll choose to "get up and get down." Woo Wii! :D
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Yay!
Brett's home!!! ♥
AND he brought me a surprise from New Peking (the restaurant he ate at) - so much for my whole, "we stick to the menu" thing, but still...woohoo!
AND I just remembered that House is on tonight! Woohoo again!
And when Brett brought in the mail, we had Fred Meyer rewards, AND Lady in the Water from Netflix! Woohoo again again!!! :D
AND he brought me a surprise from New Peking (the restaurant he ate at) - so much for my whole, "we stick to the menu" thing, but still...woohoo!
AND I just remembered that House is on tonight! Woohoo again!
And when Brett brought in the mail, we had Fred Meyer rewards, AND Lady in the Water from Netflix! Woohoo again again!!! :D
Boo.
There was a horrible accident on the freeway just south of our exit this afternoon, so Brett isn't going to be home until late. Since the northbound freeway is closed, he's been trying surface roads for about an hour (along with half a million other people) and hasn't had any luck, so he'll be eating dinner in north Everett tonight. Which isn't a big deal I guess, since tonight is just pasta & salad - it's not like I've been baking or cooking for hours or something. I hope we don't know the jeep person, and I hope the bus person is okay.
There are several fatalities a year in our town from people crossing over from one side of the freeway to the other and crashing into oncoming traffic, and they always baffle me. How can you lose THAT MUCH control of your vehicle? I mean, I'd understand if it were a fluke thing once every few years where someone's axle breaks, or they hit an ice patch or SOMETHING, but these accidents usually seem to happen in/near spring and summer, and usually do NOT involve mechanical failure. Maybe people are just dumb...I don't know. But it's really sad.
Anyway, you're probably wondering (or not) why I didn't post anything on Friday or Monday. I don't really have a good reason, except that we've been doing some things around the house (decorating, painting, etc) so I've been busy and tired. We painted our guest bathroom a color that Benjamin Moore calls "Mystic Gold," I call "caramel," and Brett calls "baby diarrhea." But despite the name he chose for it, Brett still loves the way it looks. It matches perfectly with the pale peach colored tiles, the funky cream/tan/pale pink floor, and the dark wood. Oh, and the classy gold-toned faux-marble countertop. I'm thinking of doing a flickr set sometime soon that's just pics from around our house, so stay tuned. If I do, I'll put up a pic of the bathroom.
I'm also thinking of changing up the colors of my blog again, but since I'm almost too busy to even post, I'm trying not to think about it just yet.
Oh! In bizarre, karmic news...remember the neighbors I wrote about that cut down all their trees? We found out that they're also harassing the county to try and get the trees in our median cut down too. So far the county's done a nice job of ignoring them, but some of the other neighbors put up a stink about their anti-tree mentality, and you know what Mr. I Hate Trees said? "You worry about your trees, and let ME deal with these." Referring, of course, to the trees in the MEDIAN, that belong to the WHOLE COUNTY, not just to him. So anyway, the karma part. So after all this blahblahblah neighborhood hullabaloo that they've caused, these new neighbors had some sort of emergency at their house a few days ago. There were two ambulances; one left empty, and the other didn't, but we didn't see who they took.
No one's been home at their house night or day ever since, except for a car that was there for a short while this morning, but it wasn't one of their normal cars. Their stupid 10,000 watt porch light hasn't even been on. I feel badly for their family and all (especially if one of them died or something), but I don't think I'm going to try to get involved. If someone comes over and asks for help with something I'll say yes, but I'm not going to offer. It's not like we're buddy-buddy with them or anything.
What else happened this weekend...hmmm...I feel bad, but I really don't remember. I think we did SOMETHING on Friday, but I can't remember what. If we hung out with someone, it was awesome though. Clearly a night to remember.
Saturday I think we painted, but I don't remember what else we did. Oh! I know. We have a whole bunch of photo frames for the wall, so we picked photos for them. And Brett's mom brought over a dresser that she didn't want, and I LOVE it - it belongs only to me (Brett already has a dresser), and now I have a place to put my clothes other than in my closet or in a plastic storage tub.
I didn't have any scented drawer liners (I like it when my stuff smells good), so I just sprayed each drawer with a little Pink Jasmine, and now the whole thing smells delicious. I think that fragrance smells like stale poop when it dries down on my skin, but as a drawer scent it's AMAZING.
Sunday we tidied up around the house a little, then painted again, then went to Brett's parents' house for dinner (pot roast, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and roasted veggies), and then went shopping for new linens & accessories for the guest bathroom. No luck in that department though - the only color we found that was close to what we wanted was out of our price range. Then we went grocery shopping and were in a super big rush because we got to the store at about 7:45, and the Simpsons was on at 8:00 and it was NEW!!! So we hurried around the store like crazy people and bought (using a pre-made grocery list):
penne pasta
light alfredo sauce
greens
steak
brussels sprouts
fresh sausages
squash
lamb
indian food packets
grapefruit
other fruit
yogurt for Brett
yogurt for Cat
milk
gallon of water
kashi bars
We also bought a couple of doughnuts and a bbq buritto (neither of which were on the list), AND I cut my hand on one of the new foil tops on my soy yogs, AND it bled all over the place, and we were STILL finished at the u-scan by 7:55. It definitely helped that everything but the pasta & sauce was located in the produce/organic section, but I think we can still be sufficiently impressed with ourselves. Fred Meyer is only about eight blocks south of our house, so we still made it home in time for me to wash, treat, and bandage my cut before the Simpsons started. Woohoo!
The grocery list thing has been working reeeally well for us lately - some of you may know that at first we had some problems with someone (I won't mention who) changing his mind at the last minute and deciding he DIDN'T want to eat what I'd planned for dinner, or the same someone buying waaay too much food for lunch and letting some of it go bad. We also had issues with forgetting to buy things and having to still go back later in the week, or going out to eat even though we had food at home, etc.
But for the past several weeks we've been able to successfully make it through with only ONE trip for groceries each week. And we've stuck to our planned menu every night (except for a couple of nights like this, where something unexpected has come up), and we've both had enough food for breakfast and lunch, and we're keeping our spending down, and hardly anything's gone bad.
This week we spent just over $54, and our dinner menu is/was:
Monday - indian food wraps w/ lamb & feta (we already had the tortillas & feta)
Tuesday - penne pasta w/ alfredo sauce & mixed green salad
Wednesday - steak, brussels sprouts, & wild rice (we already had the rice)
Thursday - tomato squash soup & grilled cheese sammies (the soup was frozen after we made it from scratch a few weeks ago, and we already have the bread & cheese for sammies)
Friday - grilled sausages (on hoagie rolls baked from scratch), grilled squash, and grilled asparagus (which we already had)
On that note, I think I'll go eat my lonely bowl of pasta, because I'm friggin starving.
There are several fatalities a year in our town from people crossing over from one side of the freeway to the other and crashing into oncoming traffic, and they always baffle me. How can you lose THAT MUCH control of your vehicle? I mean, I'd understand if it were a fluke thing once every few years where someone's axle breaks, or they hit an ice patch or SOMETHING, but these accidents usually seem to happen in/near spring and summer, and usually do NOT involve mechanical failure. Maybe people are just dumb...I don't know. But it's really sad.
Anyway, you're probably wondering (or not) why I didn't post anything on Friday or Monday. I don't really have a good reason, except that we've been doing some things around the house (decorating, painting, etc) so I've been busy and tired. We painted our guest bathroom a color that Benjamin Moore calls "Mystic Gold," I call "caramel," and Brett calls "baby diarrhea." But despite the name he chose for it, Brett still loves the way it looks. It matches perfectly with the pale peach colored tiles, the funky cream/tan/pale pink floor, and the dark wood. Oh, and the classy gold-toned faux-marble countertop. I'm thinking of doing a flickr set sometime soon that's just pics from around our house, so stay tuned. If I do, I'll put up a pic of the bathroom.
I'm also thinking of changing up the colors of my blog again, but since I'm almost too busy to even post, I'm trying not to think about it just yet.
Oh! In bizarre, karmic news...remember the neighbors I wrote about that cut down all their trees? We found out that they're also harassing the county to try and get the trees in our median cut down too. So far the county's done a nice job of ignoring them, but some of the other neighbors put up a stink about their anti-tree mentality, and you know what Mr. I Hate Trees said? "You worry about your trees, and let ME deal with these." Referring, of course, to the trees in the MEDIAN, that belong to the WHOLE COUNTY, not just to him. So anyway, the karma part. So after all this blahblahblah neighborhood hullabaloo that they've caused, these new neighbors had some sort of emergency at their house a few days ago. There were two ambulances; one left empty, and the other didn't, but we didn't see who they took.
No one's been home at their house night or day ever since, except for a car that was there for a short while this morning, but it wasn't one of their normal cars. Their stupid 10,000 watt porch light hasn't even been on. I feel badly for their family and all (especially if one of them died or something), but I don't think I'm going to try to get involved. If someone comes over and asks for help with something I'll say yes, but I'm not going to offer. It's not like we're buddy-buddy with them or anything.
What else happened this weekend...hmmm...I feel bad, but I really don't remember. I think we did SOMETHING on Friday, but I can't remember what. If we hung out with someone, it was awesome though. Clearly a night to remember.
Saturday I think we painted, but I don't remember what else we did. Oh! I know. We have a whole bunch of photo frames for the wall, so we picked photos for them. And Brett's mom brought over a dresser that she didn't want, and I LOVE it - it belongs only to me (Brett already has a dresser), and now I have a place to put my clothes other than in my closet or in a plastic storage tub.
I didn't have any scented drawer liners (I like it when my stuff smells good), so I just sprayed each drawer with a little Pink Jasmine, and now the whole thing smells delicious. I think that fragrance smells like stale poop when it dries down on my skin, but as a drawer scent it's AMAZING.
Sunday we tidied up around the house a little, then painted again, then went to Brett's parents' house for dinner (pot roast, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and roasted veggies), and then went shopping for new linens & accessories for the guest bathroom. No luck in that department though - the only color we found that was close to what we wanted was out of our price range. Then we went grocery shopping and were in a super big rush because we got to the store at about 7:45, and the Simpsons was on at 8:00 and it was NEW!!! So we hurried around the store like crazy people and bought (using a pre-made grocery list):
penne pasta
light alfredo sauce
greens
steak
brussels sprouts
fresh sausages
squash
lamb
indian food packets
grapefruit
other fruit
yogurt for Brett
yogurt for Cat
milk
gallon of water
kashi bars
We also bought a couple of doughnuts and a bbq buritto (neither of which were on the list), AND I cut my hand on one of the new foil tops on my soy yogs, AND it bled all over the place, and we were STILL finished at the u-scan by 7:55. It definitely helped that everything but the pasta & sauce was located in the produce/organic section, but I think we can still be sufficiently impressed with ourselves. Fred Meyer is only about eight blocks south of our house, so we still made it home in time for me to wash, treat, and bandage my cut before the Simpsons started. Woohoo!
The grocery list thing has been working reeeally well for us lately - some of you may know that at first we had some problems with someone (I won't mention who) changing his mind at the last minute and deciding he DIDN'T want to eat what I'd planned for dinner, or the same someone buying waaay too much food for lunch and letting some of it go bad. We also had issues with forgetting to buy things and having to still go back later in the week, or going out to eat even though we had food at home, etc.
But for the past several weeks we've been able to successfully make it through with only ONE trip for groceries each week. And we've stuck to our planned menu every night (except for a couple of nights like this, where something unexpected has come up), and we've both had enough food for breakfast and lunch, and we're keeping our spending down, and hardly anything's gone bad.
This week we spent just over $54, and our dinner menu is/was:
Monday - indian food wraps w/ lamb & feta (we already had the tortillas & feta)
Tuesday - penne pasta w/ alfredo sauce & mixed green salad
Wednesday - steak, brussels sprouts, & wild rice (we already had the rice)
Thursday - tomato squash soup & grilled cheese sammies (the soup was frozen after we made it from scratch a few weeks ago, and we already have the bread & cheese for sammies)
Friday - grilled sausages (on hoagie rolls baked from scratch), grilled squash, and grilled asparagus (which we already had)
On that note, I think I'll go eat my lonely bowl of pasta, because I'm friggin starving.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Holy Crap!!!
Anna Nicole Smith just died. And I'm sure people will make jokes (especially since it was probably drug related), but I think it's really sad. She may have been a basket case, but she seemed like a sweet basket case, and there are a lot of people out there who loved her and will feel her loss. :(
Please note...
For those of you who checked my blog this morning and saw no post for Wednesday, and are confused to see a Wednesday post now that it's Thursday afternoon, do not fear. Your computer is not playing mind games with you, and your ISP is not caching websites and showing you the old version like AOL did back in the day. (does AOL still do that? I hate AOL.)
Blogger was just messed up last night, and it let me write a post, but wouldn't let me publish it. So I gave up, went to bed, and tried it again today and it worked fine.
Also, I watched Top Design last night, and it was a lot better than last week, but Erik's stupid pirate ship room shouldn't have won. It looked too over the top, like it was set design, not interior design. And I bet if that kid REALLY had to live in that room, he'd be sick of it in less than a month. After all, his fixation with Pirates of the Caribbean can only last so long. Or worse, he'd never get sick of it, and he'd end up being the kind of adult who has a super tacky theme house and ends up on one of those HGTV "check out these freaks!" specials.
I totally think John deserved to go home, because 1) even if he HAD finished his design it wouldn't have been that great, and 2) he DIDN'T finish his design. It wasn't even like, "yeah, I would've done this extra bit of blahblahblah but I ran out of time." It was, "yeah, if I had more money than everyone else was allotted, or more time than everyone else was allotted, I would've PUT IN A FRIGGING FLOOR."
One of my biggest pet peeves about art school was how sooo many kids thought the deadline either shouldn't apply to them, or that it was an "ish" sort of date. You know, like, "our pieces will be on display in the gallery from April 9th to the 15th, so make sure you have yours set up on the evening of the 8th(ish)." There were a few projects where almost half the class showed up ON the due date wanting more time.
Like, I can understand talking to the professor a few days in advance and asking for an extension if a large number of people aren't going to be done, or if maybe you personally have had some unusual circumstances that have resulted in your project being put on hold. Or maybe not feeling like your work was FINISHED, but at least having it pulled together enough to APPEAR complete to someone else. I think most of us fuss with little details right up until the end.
But a deadline is a deadline is a deadline, and if you can see that most everyone else is going to finish on time, and you haven't been homeless, in the hospital, or attending someone's funeral, you should probably get your shit together and well..."make it work." And John sure as HELL didn't do that. That room looked like a crap hole.
As for what I thought of the other designs (you wanted to hear about that, right?), I thought some of them were pretty cool. Here's what I have to say about each one (you can go to BRAVOtv's Rate The Room to see photos for reference if you want:
Andrea: Murphy bed good, vanilla color palette bad. A murphy bed in a kid's room is a great idea, because they can shove it out of the way when they're in there playing with their friends. It's like a bedroom, play room, and like...dance studio all in one. Good times. But the colors looked sooo boring. Initially I was going to say they were too mature, but I've kind of decided that they're just too boring. Even for a grownup. Blah. Even Martha Stewart would've had SOMETHING in that room that made a bold color statement. Maybe some kind of cool mural above the bed that was hidden away when the bed was up? I don't know - something.
Carisa: Stupid. Having all the furniture stuck together in one immobile clump is stupid, sharp edges right next to swinging ropes is stupid, a platform that kids would want to swing to and jump on (the desk) with no support underneath it is stupid. The faux plastic "jungle" plants on the headboard were tacky, and the red walls were somehow too loud and too plain at the same time.
Elizabeth: Colors: super cool. Perfect. Soccer theme: fun and adorable. Buckets: stupid as hell. SO pointless. Also, the carpet should've been wall-to-wall, because I bet if the kids tried to kick a ball around on that rug it would bunch up and slide around.
Felicia: I loved it. Sure it looks a little monkish, but whatevs - some people like that. If the kid plays chess, he's probably academic. He might like that the furniture looks like it belongs in a study. And I like brown; a lot of people do. And there's the checkered pattern on the wall, and the outline of the bike...maybe that's enough whimsy for him. I bet Brett would've LOVED this room. I kind of bet he'd still love this room...
Goil: I ♥ Goil. His room was the shit. True, the bed just mysteriously disappears into a wall that's apparently 6' thick, but other than that, I could only see minor flaws. The cubby was clearly for storage, so the judge who complained about it's inability to successfully hide someone was retarded. But that giant clear glass vase should've been a giant clear plastic chair, and the bell pepper? I don't know what that was about. It should've been some kind of cool looking toy.
Matt: Those lights felt like they belonged in a garage to me. And if she's a glamour girl, where the crap is her mirror? A canvas with the word "Meow" scratched on it does not a beauty queen make. He should've just gotten some of those little round vanity lights, put them around a great big mirror over her little vanity, painted the walls a REAL pink (instead of the "pink" color that he picked), and voila! Hollywood.
Michael: I reeeally didn't think this room deserved all the crap it got. If you replaced all the touches of pale pink with hot pink, and you covered that chair in a different color (maybe white, or spring green?) this room would be adorable.
Ryan: The only thing I hated about this room was the saw blade he had running around the perimeter of her bed. I think he meant it as a place for her cat to walk or something, but it was horrible. Even as an adult I'd hurt myself on that getting in and out of bed, but as a kid, she'd probably be waiving goodbye to scar-free calves in less than a week. That being said, I thought the rest of the room was super cool. She loves her cat; let her have the cat stuff. It's cute. Stop hatin' on cats. She would need a place for her paints and brushes by the canvas though. Or at the very least a little place for a jar of water or turpentine. Are kids allowed to use turpentine?
So anyway, there's my not-so-brief and not-so-humble critique. Not that I think I could've done better than any one of those people, given their budgets and time allotments. Even John. But if you had to be more talented than an artist to critique their work, most (if not all) art critics would be out of a job.
See ya later, geekerators!
Blogger was just messed up last night, and it let me write a post, but wouldn't let me publish it. So I gave up, went to bed, and tried it again today and it worked fine.
Also, I watched Top Design last night, and it was a lot better than last week, but Erik's stupid pirate ship room shouldn't have won. It looked too over the top, like it was set design, not interior design. And I bet if that kid REALLY had to live in that room, he'd be sick of it in less than a month. After all, his fixation with Pirates of the Caribbean can only last so long. Or worse, he'd never get sick of it, and he'd end up being the kind of adult who has a super tacky theme house and ends up on one of those HGTV "check out these freaks!" specials.
I totally think John deserved to go home, because 1) even if he HAD finished his design it wouldn't have been that great, and 2) he DIDN'T finish his design. It wasn't even like, "yeah, I would've done this extra bit of blahblahblah but I ran out of time." It was, "yeah, if I had more money than everyone else was allotted, or more time than everyone else was allotted, I would've PUT IN A FRIGGING FLOOR."
One of my biggest pet peeves about art school was how sooo many kids thought the deadline either shouldn't apply to them, or that it was an "ish" sort of date. You know, like, "our pieces will be on display in the gallery from April 9th to the 15th, so make sure you have yours set up on the evening of the 8th(ish)." There were a few projects where almost half the class showed up ON the due date wanting more time.
Like, I can understand talking to the professor a few days in advance and asking for an extension if a large number of people aren't going to be done, or if maybe you personally have had some unusual circumstances that have resulted in your project being put on hold. Or maybe not feeling like your work was FINISHED, but at least having it pulled together enough to APPEAR complete to someone else. I think most of us fuss with little details right up until the end.
But a deadline is a deadline is a deadline, and if you can see that most everyone else is going to finish on time, and you haven't been homeless, in the hospital, or attending someone's funeral, you should probably get your shit together and well..."make it work." And John sure as HELL didn't do that. That room looked like a crap hole.
As for what I thought of the other designs (you wanted to hear about that, right?), I thought some of them were pretty cool. Here's what I have to say about each one (you can go to BRAVOtv's Rate The Room to see photos for reference if you want:
Andrea: Murphy bed good, vanilla color palette bad. A murphy bed in a kid's room is a great idea, because they can shove it out of the way when they're in there playing with their friends. It's like a bedroom, play room, and like...dance studio all in one. Good times. But the colors looked sooo boring. Initially I was going to say they were too mature, but I've kind of decided that they're just too boring. Even for a grownup. Blah. Even Martha Stewart would've had SOMETHING in that room that made a bold color statement. Maybe some kind of cool mural above the bed that was hidden away when the bed was up? I don't know - something.
Carisa: Stupid. Having all the furniture stuck together in one immobile clump is stupid, sharp edges right next to swinging ropes is stupid, a platform that kids would want to swing to and jump on (the desk) with no support underneath it is stupid. The faux plastic "jungle" plants on the headboard were tacky, and the red walls were somehow too loud and too plain at the same time.
Elizabeth: Colors: super cool. Perfect. Soccer theme: fun and adorable. Buckets: stupid as hell. SO pointless. Also, the carpet should've been wall-to-wall, because I bet if the kids tried to kick a ball around on that rug it would bunch up and slide around.
Felicia: I loved it. Sure it looks a little monkish, but whatevs - some people like that. If the kid plays chess, he's probably academic. He might like that the furniture looks like it belongs in a study. And I like brown; a lot of people do. And there's the checkered pattern on the wall, and the outline of the bike...maybe that's enough whimsy for him. I bet Brett would've LOVED this room. I kind of bet he'd still love this room...
Goil: I ♥ Goil. His room was the shit. True, the bed just mysteriously disappears into a wall that's apparently 6' thick, but other than that, I could only see minor flaws. The cubby was clearly for storage, so the judge who complained about it's inability to successfully hide someone was retarded. But that giant clear glass vase should've been a giant clear plastic chair, and the bell pepper? I don't know what that was about. It should've been some kind of cool looking toy.
Matt: Those lights felt like they belonged in a garage to me. And if she's a glamour girl, where the crap is her mirror? A canvas with the word "Meow" scratched on it does not a beauty queen make. He should've just gotten some of those little round vanity lights, put them around a great big mirror over her little vanity, painted the walls a REAL pink (instead of the "pink" color that he picked), and voila! Hollywood.
Michael: I reeeally didn't think this room deserved all the crap it got. If you replaced all the touches of pale pink with hot pink, and you covered that chair in a different color (maybe white, or spring green?) this room would be adorable.
Ryan: The only thing I hated about this room was the saw blade he had running around the perimeter of her bed. I think he meant it as a place for her cat to walk or something, but it was horrible. Even as an adult I'd hurt myself on that getting in and out of bed, but as a kid, she'd probably be waiving goodbye to scar-free calves in less than a week. That being said, I thought the rest of the room was super cool. She loves her cat; let her have the cat stuff. It's cute. Stop hatin' on cats. She would need a place for her paints and brushes by the canvas though. Or at the very least a little place for a jar of water or turpentine. Are kids allowed to use turpentine?
So anyway, there's my not-so-brief and not-so-humble critique. Not that I think I could've done better than any one of those people, given their budgets and time allotments. Even John. But if you had to be more talented than an artist to critique their work, most (if not all) art critics would be out of a job.
See ya later, geekerators!
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Jesus Camp
Holy crap. Brett and I just watched the movie Jesus Camp, and now I'm SAVED. It was an amazing experience. Amazingly...CREEPY. It was about evangelical (specifically pentecostal) Christians, and focuses mainly on their creepy kids and the creepy militant, conservative Christian extremist rhetoric they've been indoctrinated with.
We have a few friends who are Christian, and I don't have a problem with them loving Jesus or believing in the bible. But they are NOTHING like the freaks in this movie. At least, I hope they're not. They're not freaky in front of us, anyway.
These people had me transfixed - we watched the whole documentary straight through, then all the deleted scenes, and then the commentary. Brett usually doesn't like to watch special features, but even HE paid attention to a lot of it. Here's a tasty quote from one of the sermons given at Jesus Camp (to an audience of children):
"Warlocks are enemies of God, and I don't care what kind of hero they are, had it been in the old testament, Harry Potter would've been put to DEATH!"
Then the same preacher lady goes on to talk about how some of the children there at camp are phonies because when they go to school they "talk dirty just like all the other kids." They don't want any PHONIES at THEIR camp, so she makes them wash their hands with the water from her friggin Aquafina and repent. The next few shots are of a woman screaming some sort of wordless chant into a microphone as children sob and fall to the ground, minds heavy with the guilt of all their horrible pre-adolescent sins.
They also teach the children how to speak in tongues, proselytize, laugh at science, and pray at the feet of a cardboard G W Bush cutout. Pray. At the feet. Of a cardboard. G W Bush. Cutout. Because he's like, doing God's work, so he needs their prayers.
I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in hating middle America just a little bit more, or to anyone who needs a fresh injection of motivation towards liberalism. I myself needed neither the extra hate nor the extra liberal motivation, but after seeing Jesus Camp, my cup runneth over with both.
Praise be to the Catholics who made this film.
Amen.
We have a few friends who are Christian, and I don't have a problem with them loving Jesus or believing in the bible. But they are NOTHING like the freaks in this movie. At least, I hope they're not. They're not freaky in front of us, anyway.
These people had me transfixed - we watched the whole documentary straight through, then all the deleted scenes, and then the commentary. Brett usually doesn't like to watch special features, but even HE paid attention to a lot of it. Here's a tasty quote from one of the sermons given at Jesus Camp (to an audience of children):
"Warlocks are enemies of God, and I don't care what kind of hero they are, had it been in the old testament, Harry Potter would've been put to DEATH!"
Then the same preacher lady goes on to talk about how some of the children there at camp are phonies because when they go to school they "talk dirty just like all the other kids." They don't want any PHONIES at THEIR camp, so she makes them wash their hands with the water from her friggin Aquafina and repent. The next few shots are of a woman screaming some sort of wordless chant into a microphone as children sob and fall to the ground, minds heavy with the guilt of all their horrible pre-adolescent sins.
They also teach the children how to speak in tongues, proselytize, laugh at science, and pray at the feet of a cardboard G W Bush cutout. Pray. At the feet. Of a cardboard. G W Bush. Cutout. Because he's like, doing God's work, so he needs their prayers.
I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in hating middle America just a little bit more, or to anyone who needs a fresh injection of motivation towards liberalism. I myself needed neither the extra hate nor the extra liberal motivation, but after seeing Jesus Camp, my cup runneth over with both.
Praise be to the Catholics who made this film.
Amen.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
illness and chemical muses
When I was an art student, some of the kids in my classes resorted to drugs for inspiration when they were stuck on a project. Their work usually ended up looking pretty great - much better than the crap I tossed out when *I* was uninspired. But I always felt a little disappointed in someone's work when I found out that the idea came to them during an acid trip, or through some other form of chemical, artificial enlightenment. I felt like it was false; like a hollow cheat without any REAL substance behind it.
I think I read once that TMNT were thought up by a group of drunk guys hanging out and eating pizza. And I've noticed over the years that many great ideas for things are claimed to have been thought up "while having some drinks with friends."
I'm not a huge fan of getting drunk (let alone stoned, fried, etc), but one of my art professors pointed out once that he thought I did my best work while I was sick. Every time I came into class complaining about how I'd suffered through the project with a fever and chills, I ended up with an A. Not out of pity, but because my work was actually REALLY GOOD.
I was listening to an audio book and doing sudoku the other day and thinking about how funny it is that I'm always trying to do two (or more) things at once, when I had a little epiphany. My work was better when I was sick because I didn't have the energy to be distracted. It took everything I had just to finish my piece; there was no way I could give any of my attention away to a movie, day dream, phone call, or visiting friend. It was just me, and whatever I happened to be working on.
I imagine that someone who's inebriated would be in a similar situation. Couple that with a creative mind and/or a few vivid hallucinations, and BAM! You have some excellent art work.
I still kind of feel like doing acid or another form of hallucinogen is cheating, at least a little, because you should be learning to tap into that creativity WITHOUT forcing it chemically. But even though I'm not that interested in getting wasted (even for art's sake), at least now I've come to the realization that art created by way of MJ, LSD, PCP, MDMA, or even PBR is still art. It's still coming from inside the artist, just like my art comes from me when I slow down enough to give it time to come out. I mean, not EVERY drug-addled hooligan can produce successful works of art - it takes a very special kind of drug-addled hooligan for that. It takes a drug-addled artist.
Please don't misunderstand this to mean that I'm condoning this sort of creatively-dependent self-medication; all I'm saying is that I've decided to make a conscious effort to not dismiss the work of drug users as artificial, merely because it was created using a tool that I find unhealthy. That doesn't mean I'll want to be like, BFF with them, but if art is good, it's good.
I think I read once that TMNT were thought up by a group of drunk guys hanging out and eating pizza. And I've noticed over the years that many great ideas for things are claimed to have been thought up "while having some drinks with friends."
I'm not a huge fan of getting drunk (let alone stoned, fried, etc), but one of my art professors pointed out once that he thought I did my best work while I was sick. Every time I came into class complaining about how I'd suffered through the project with a fever and chills, I ended up with an A. Not out of pity, but because my work was actually REALLY GOOD.
I was listening to an audio book and doing sudoku the other day and thinking about how funny it is that I'm always trying to do two (or more) things at once, when I had a little epiphany. My work was better when I was sick because I didn't have the energy to be distracted. It took everything I had just to finish my piece; there was no way I could give any of my attention away to a movie, day dream, phone call, or visiting friend. It was just me, and whatever I happened to be working on.
I imagine that someone who's inebriated would be in a similar situation. Couple that with a creative mind and/or a few vivid hallucinations, and BAM! You have some excellent art work.
I still kind of feel like doing acid or another form of hallucinogen is cheating, at least a little, because you should be learning to tap into that creativity WITHOUT forcing it chemically. But even though I'm not that interested in getting wasted (even for art's sake), at least now I've come to the realization that art created by way of MJ, LSD, PCP, MDMA, or even PBR is still art. It's still coming from inside the artist, just like my art comes from me when I slow down enough to give it time to come out. I mean, not EVERY drug-addled hooligan can produce successful works of art - it takes a very special kind of drug-addled hooligan for that. It takes a drug-addled artist.
Please don't misunderstand this to mean that I'm condoning this sort of creatively-dependent self-medication; all I'm saying is that I've decided to make a conscious effort to not dismiss the work of drug users as artificial, merely because it was created using a tool that I find unhealthy. That doesn't mean I'll want to be like, BFF with them, but if art is good, it's good.
Friday, February 02, 2007
This post is a list...
of my favorite podcasts. The links and show descriptions are all taken from iTunes rather than from their individual homepages, because I'm too lazy to bother pulling up each separate site. I subscribe to all of my podcasts through iTunes though, and it's always worked great for me.
I love audio podcasts because I have a reeeeally hard time sitting still long enough to read (I *might* get through one or two magazines a month, and one or two books a year), and I also have a hard time sitting still in front of the tv for more than one or two shows a day.
I'm less of a fan of video podcasts (if I don't want to stare at the tv all afternoon, why would I want to stare at an even smaller screen all afternoon?), but they definitely have their place too. I like that most of them are super short and to the point, and if they contain information I decide I don't need, I just click ahead to the next one - no waiting through commercials and less interesting stories. I also like that there is information available in video podcast form that I may not even be able to find on television.
Also, since podcasts are free and many of the ones I listen to publish new episodes at least once a week, they provide a great FREE source of entertainment. Woo!
My top 15 favorite podcasts, in alphabetic order since I didn't feel like ranking them:
60-Second Science (audio)
"Leading science journalists provide a daily minute of commentary on some of the most interesting developments in the world of science. For a full-length, weekly podcast you can subscribe to Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American."
BBC Radio NewsPod (audio)
"Daily programme highlights from BBC Radio News. Interviews and reports from the BBC World Service, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Five Life, and the BBC Asian Network..."
Brain Food (audio)
"Einstein said, 'Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.' At the Brain Food Podcast, our goal is the pursuit of that wisdom. Each week we will explore fascinating topics from everyday life and use science and mathematics to better understand the wonders all around us."
Cool Hunting Video (dur)
"A weekly series of webisodes, Cool Hunting Video goes onsite meeting artists, designers and other innovators to get an inside look at their inspiration and process..."
Escape Pod (audio)
"The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine. Each week Escape Pod narrates fun science fiction and fantasy short stories, with commentary and review. We're also the first paying market in podcasting. Listen today, and hear the new sound of science fiction!"
Fashion Television Daily Podcast (video)
"Get the weekly scoop on what is new and interesting in the world of fashion."
KCRW's Le Show (Harry Shearer) (audio)
"A weekly, hour-long romp through the worlds of media, politics, sports and show business, leavened with an eclectic mix of mysterious music, hosted by Harry Shearer."
Lip Gloss and Laptops (audio)
"The weekly beauty and cosmetics podcast for the thinking woman, with Kerry Anne and Airdrie from Vancouver, B.C."
MODTV: Fashion Network (video)
"MODTV reports on the glamorous world of Supermodels, Fashion Designers, and goes backstage at all the hottest international fashion shows in Paris, Milan and New York. Exclusive videos on Victoria's Secret and supermodels Gisele Bundchen, Alessandra Ambrosio, Karolina Kurkova and Gemma Ward. Get a front row seat at Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Gucci, Chanel and all the top fashion shows..."
NPR: All Songs Considered (audio)
"An eclectic mix of fresh music by emerging artists and breakout bands -- from NPR.org's Web-only music show. With host Bob Boilen."
Organic Beauty Radio (audio)
"What it is: Organic Beauty Radio gives you in-depth interviews with the people behind your favorite beauty products."
Pseudopod (audio)
"The Sound of Horror. Pseudopod is the world's first audio horror magazine. We deliver bone-chilling stories from today's best authors straight to your computer or MP3 Player."
Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American (audio)
"The Scientific American Podcast is a weekly science audio show covering the latest in the world of science and technology. Join host Steve Mirsky each week as he explores cutting-edge breakthroughs and controversial issues with leading scientists and journalists..."
Style.com Video Podcast (video)
"Style.com takes you inside the world of fashion, with up-to-the-minute runway show videos that go beyond the catwalk to cover the hair, makeup, and designer action backstage, as well as the celebrity-packed front-row scene..."
The Economist (audio)
"Audio content from The Economist magazine, including interviews with journalists and experts on world politics, business, finance, economics, science, technology, culture and the arts."
I love audio podcasts because I have a reeeeally hard time sitting still long enough to read (I *might* get through one or two magazines a month, and one or two books a year), and I also have a hard time sitting still in front of the tv for more than one or two shows a day.
I'm less of a fan of video podcasts (if I don't want to stare at the tv all afternoon, why would I want to stare at an even smaller screen all afternoon?), but they definitely have their place too. I like that most of them are super short and to the point, and if they contain information I decide I don't need, I just click ahead to the next one - no waiting through commercials and less interesting stories. I also like that there is information available in video podcast form that I may not even be able to find on television.
Also, since podcasts are free and many of the ones I listen to publish new episodes at least once a week, they provide a great FREE source of entertainment. Woo!
My top 15 favorite podcasts, in alphabetic order since I didn't feel like ranking them:
60-Second Science (audio)
"Leading science journalists provide a daily minute of commentary on some of the most interesting developments in the world of science. For a full-length, weekly podcast you can subscribe to Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American."
BBC Radio NewsPod (audio)
"Daily programme highlights from BBC Radio News. Interviews and reports from the BBC World Service, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Five Life, and the BBC Asian Network..."
Brain Food (audio)
"Einstein said, 'Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.' At the Brain Food Podcast, our goal is the pursuit of that wisdom. Each week we will explore fascinating topics from everyday life and use science and mathematics to better understand the wonders all around us."
Cool Hunting Video (dur)
"A weekly series of webisodes, Cool Hunting Video goes onsite meeting artists, designers and other innovators to get an inside look at their inspiration and process..."
Escape Pod (audio)
"The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine. Each week Escape Pod narrates fun science fiction and fantasy short stories, with commentary and review. We're also the first paying market in podcasting. Listen today, and hear the new sound of science fiction!"
Fashion Television Daily Podcast (video)
"Get the weekly scoop on what is new and interesting in the world of fashion."
KCRW's Le Show (Harry Shearer) (audio)
"A weekly, hour-long romp through the worlds of media, politics, sports and show business, leavened with an eclectic mix of mysterious music, hosted by Harry Shearer."
Lip Gloss and Laptops (audio)
"The weekly beauty and cosmetics podcast for the thinking woman, with Kerry Anne and Airdrie from Vancouver, B.C."
MODTV: Fashion Network (video)
"MODTV reports on the glamorous world of Supermodels, Fashion Designers, and goes backstage at all the hottest international fashion shows in Paris, Milan and New York. Exclusive videos on Victoria's Secret and supermodels Gisele Bundchen, Alessandra Ambrosio, Karolina Kurkova and Gemma Ward. Get a front row seat at Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Gucci, Chanel and all the top fashion shows..."
NPR: All Songs Considered (audio)
"An eclectic mix of fresh music by emerging artists and breakout bands -- from NPR.org's Web-only music show. With host Bob Boilen."
Organic Beauty Radio (audio)
"What it is: Organic Beauty Radio gives you in-depth interviews with the people behind your favorite beauty products."
Pseudopod (audio)
"The Sound of Horror. Pseudopod is the world's first audio horror magazine. We deliver bone-chilling stories from today's best authors straight to your computer or MP3 Player."
Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American (audio)
"The Scientific American Podcast is a weekly science audio show covering the latest in the world of science and technology. Join host Steve Mirsky each week as he explores cutting-edge breakthroughs and controversial issues with leading scientists and journalists..."
Style.com Video Podcast (video)
"Style.com takes you inside the world of fashion, with up-to-the-minute runway show videos that go beyond the catwalk to cover the hair, makeup, and designer action backstage, as well as the celebrity-packed front-row scene..."
The Economist (audio)
"Audio content from The Economist magazine, including interviews with journalists and experts on world politics, business, finance, economics, science, technology, culture and the arts."
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Through Gritted Teeth.
Dear god. I am going to go insane.
Our OLD neighbors who owned the property to the east of us were a quiet, nature-loving Mormon family with a "Dare to resist drugs and violence" bumper sticker on their ancient minivan, a well-loved and well-behaved mutt dog, and a massive clump of foliage on our property line that served as an excellent privacy barrier. We exchanged Christmas cookies in the winter, small-talk in the street, and money for labour when our lawn got too long and their teenage son needed some cash.
Fortunately for them, they came into some extra money and were able to relocate to a bigger home over the summer. Unfortunately for us, Ma and Pa Lawn Ornament took their place. The first thing they did was hang a flag across their front door, and toss some plastic creatures into the front yard. One is a duck, and the other looks like some sort of representation of Abe Lincoln. I don't know exactly what it is...I try to avoid looking at it. Then I wake up one morning to see a curious line of string weaving between the trees and bushes on our property line. "What's this?" I wonder. Well, I was soon to find out.
A few days later they cut down most of the bushes and one of the trees on their side of the property line, creating a line of sight from our living room almost all the way down the block. Previously, we hadn't had to worry about being in our undies in the living room because the only living creatures who could SEE US were their frigging bushes and trees. Not anymore.
To make matters worse, these are retirees, so they're always home, and for some reason always outside, and they had removed the sound barrier between Ma's, "what? what? WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, WHAT?" and my quiet afternoons of housework and podcasts.
We've never complained, but obviously we liked things better the way they were before. They placated us for awhile with talk of putting up a fence; apparently Pa Craphole used to own his own fencing company. So I think, "well, that'll be great - it'll mask the sound AND give us some privacy again! A few weeks later, a CHAIN LINKED fence went up between our two properties. For some ghetto reason it changes in height halfway through, and becomes only about four feet tall before it reaches the street. I have no idea why they thought this ugliness was something to brag about. It's trashy. I know I'm being mean, but it is. I can understand putting it up if you're too poor to afford something else and you have small children or a dog to contain, but they have NEITHER. Why the hell would you need a CHAIN between two RURAL/SUBURBAN properties if you have nothing to contain? It's open to the front yard btw, so they ain't keepin nothin out either.
Then, they built The Thing. I'd like to think of it as their "home away from home." It's a shed that's seriously like half the size of their house. Now, I understand needing storage space, and a place to organize gardening things. If you have a large yard, or a lot of shit. Maybe they have a lot of shit. Their yard however, is considerably smaller than ours. It is SO small in fact, that they had to squeeze their stupid shed in AT AN ANGLE, between their house and the corner of their backyard next to ours. Plus side: I can no longer see the six-foot windmill they put in the center of their backyard. Minus side: It's pea green with a rust-colored roof, and it's odd, squeezed-in positioning makes it look like we live next door to shanty town.
Things quieted down a bit over the Christmas season, but now they're back with their mangling - full force.
Most properties in our neighborhood have extremely large, extremely old evergreens growing on them. It's a FEATURE of the neighborhood. It provides a nice contrast to all the new developments around here that have no old trees, and all look naked and bare. Our neighborhood is filled with greenery, and in the winter, it looks incredible. The only way it can KEEP being filled with greenery is if each property owner refrains from CUTTING IT DOWN. We are not backed up to a forest. We have plenty of forest and swamp areas around town, but the few blocks around our house are totally developed - it's just row after row after row of houses all squished together. What makes it feel LESS developed and MORE isolated are THE TREES. If you don't want the trees, there are plenty of newer homes on the south side of town that are quite affordable, and quite bare of any foliage whatsoever. Some of them may have even come with chain linked fences pre-installed.
And it's not like this decision was made because of a fabulous landscaping plan (it wasn't, trust me), or because of any real, arbourist-confirmed safety problem created by the trees. Pa Windmill complained to me a couple of months ago that he hated all the crap that was always falling off the trees and onto his roof.s. I guess as I stared into his face and saw the look of disgust he wore while staring up at the trees, I should've known what he was planning. I seriously bet that the ONLY reason they cut down their trees was because they were inconvenient. End of story. I've talked to these people, and they don't seem thoughtful, and they don't seem educated. At least from anything I'VE ever heard come out of their mouths. I bet they didn't give it a second thought. I think that's the heart of why it bothers me; if it had been a thoughtful and calculated decision, I could respect it. But somehow (even though I haven't actually TALKED to them about it, I know) I just get the feeling that it wasn't. That they just thought, "trees bad, plastic Abe good..." and hacked them down. The loud, lougie-hocking cavemen they hired to do the work didn't do anything to dispel that thought. And they only moved to M'ville a few months ago; wouldn't they have known THEN that they didn't want trees?
No. Instead of buying one of the tree-free homes, Ma and Pa Nature-Hater decided to buy a home in tree-land, and cut all their trees down today. All of them. Every single last 100ft+, perfectly healthy evergreen.
So now 1) we'll need to have an arbourist come out & make sure that our trees (which bumped right up against their trees) aren't at a greater risk of falling from the added wind/root exposure; 2) I can see not only their crappy backyard, but the crappy backyards of four other homes past theirs; 3) From LITERALLY 9am to almost 5pm today I had to listen to chainsaws and chippers (sans any warning ahead of time), all the while breeding new contempt for Ma and Pa Plastic Lawn Duck; 4) our houses are going to get A LOT hotter this summer; 5) all their squirrels and birds will have to relocate to other people's trees; 6) their house looks way uglier and smaller now; and 7) If one of them falls and can't get up, they'd better not expect ME to help them with their chores. I'd totally help Fran though. She's our neighbor to the north, and she's super cool.
I know this post is horribly bitter and ranty, and possibly ageist, but here are my excuses: I've put up with their tackiness for six months and barely complained at all. I listened to chainsaws for eight hours today. I have PMS, and it makes me VERY short tempered. I try to be peppy and cheerful anyway, but sometimes I just need to tear into someone for no apparent reason. Brett can attest to all of these statements, if you need verification.
On a brighter note, Star is curled up in a little ball near my feet, and she's twitching and chirping in her sleep. It's very cute. I wonder if she's dreaming of chainsaws...
Our OLD neighbors who owned the property to the east of us were a quiet, nature-loving Mormon family with a "Dare to resist drugs and violence" bumper sticker on their ancient minivan, a well-loved and well-behaved mutt dog, and a massive clump of foliage on our property line that served as an excellent privacy barrier. We exchanged Christmas cookies in the winter, small-talk in the street, and money for labour when our lawn got too long and their teenage son needed some cash.
Fortunately for them, they came into some extra money and were able to relocate to a bigger home over the summer. Unfortunately for us, Ma and Pa Lawn Ornament took their place. The first thing they did was hang a flag across their front door, and toss some plastic creatures into the front yard. One is a duck, and the other looks like some sort of representation of Abe Lincoln. I don't know exactly what it is...I try to avoid looking at it. Then I wake up one morning to see a curious line of string weaving between the trees and bushes on our property line. "What's this?" I wonder. Well, I was soon to find out.
A few days later they cut down most of the bushes and one of the trees on their side of the property line, creating a line of sight from our living room almost all the way down the block. Previously, we hadn't had to worry about being in our undies in the living room because the only living creatures who could SEE US were their frigging bushes and trees. Not anymore.
To make matters worse, these are retirees, so they're always home, and for some reason always outside, and they had removed the sound barrier between Ma's, "what? what? WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, WHAT?" and my quiet afternoons of housework and podcasts.
We've never complained, but obviously we liked things better the way they were before. They placated us for awhile with talk of putting up a fence; apparently Pa Craphole used to own his own fencing company. So I think, "well, that'll be great - it'll mask the sound AND give us some privacy again! A few weeks later, a CHAIN LINKED fence went up between our two properties. For some ghetto reason it changes in height halfway through, and becomes only about four feet tall before it reaches the street. I have no idea why they thought this ugliness was something to brag about. It's trashy. I know I'm being mean, but it is. I can understand putting it up if you're too poor to afford something else and you have small children or a dog to contain, but they have NEITHER. Why the hell would you need a CHAIN between two RURAL/SUBURBAN properties if you have nothing to contain? It's open to the front yard btw, so they ain't keepin nothin out either.
Then, they built The Thing. I'd like to think of it as their "home away from home." It's a shed that's seriously like half the size of their house. Now, I understand needing storage space, and a place to organize gardening things. If you have a large yard, or a lot of shit. Maybe they have a lot of shit. Their yard however, is considerably smaller than ours. It is SO small in fact, that they had to squeeze their stupid shed in AT AN ANGLE, between their house and the corner of their backyard next to ours. Plus side: I can no longer see the six-foot windmill they put in the center of their backyard. Minus side: It's pea green with a rust-colored roof, and it's odd, squeezed-in positioning makes it look like we live next door to shanty town.
Things quieted down a bit over the Christmas season, but now they're back with their mangling - full force.
Most properties in our neighborhood have extremely large, extremely old evergreens growing on them. It's a FEATURE of the neighborhood. It provides a nice contrast to all the new developments around here that have no old trees, and all look naked and bare. Our neighborhood is filled with greenery, and in the winter, it looks incredible. The only way it can KEEP being filled with greenery is if each property owner refrains from CUTTING IT DOWN. We are not backed up to a forest. We have plenty of forest and swamp areas around town, but the few blocks around our house are totally developed - it's just row after row after row of houses all squished together. What makes it feel LESS developed and MORE isolated are THE TREES. If you don't want the trees, there are plenty of newer homes on the south side of town that are quite affordable, and quite bare of any foliage whatsoever. Some of them may have even come with chain linked fences pre-installed.
And it's not like this decision was made because of a fabulous landscaping plan (it wasn't, trust me), or because of any real, arbourist-confirmed safety problem created by the trees. Pa Windmill complained to me a couple of months ago that he hated all the crap that was always falling off the trees and onto his roof.s. I guess as I stared into his face and saw the look of disgust he wore while staring up at the trees, I should've known what he was planning. I seriously bet that the ONLY reason they cut down their trees was because they were inconvenient. End of story. I've talked to these people, and they don't seem thoughtful, and they don't seem educated. At least from anything I'VE ever heard come out of their mouths. I bet they didn't give it a second thought. I think that's the heart of why it bothers me; if it had been a thoughtful and calculated decision, I could respect it. But somehow (even though I haven't actually TALKED to them about it, I know) I just get the feeling that it wasn't. That they just thought, "trees bad, plastic Abe good..." and hacked them down. The loud, lougie-hocking cavemen they hired to do the work didn't do anything to dispel that thought. And they only moved to M'ville a few months ago; wouldn't they have known THEN that they didn't want trees?
No. Instead of buying one of the tree-free homes, Ma and Pa Nature-Hater decided to buy a home in tree-land, and cut all their trees down today. All of them. Every single last 100ft+, perfectly healthy evergreen.
So now 1) we'll need to have an arbourist come out & make sure that our trees (which bumped right up against their trees) aren't at a greater risk of falling from the added wind/root exposure; 2) I can see not only their crappy backyard, but the crappy backyards of four other homes past theirs; 3) From LITERALLY 9am to almost 5pm today I had to listen to chainsaws and chippers (sans any warning ahead of time), all the while breeding new contempt for Ma and Pa Plastic Lawn Duck; 4) our houses are going to get A LOT hotter this summer; 5) all their squirrels and birds will have to relocate to other people's trees; 6) their house looks way uglier and smaller now; and 7) If one of them falls and can't get up, they'd better not expect ME to help them with their chores. I'd totally help Fran though. She's our neighbor to the north, and she's super cool.
I know this post is horribly bitter and ranty, and possibly ageist, but here are my excuses: I've put up with their tackiness for six months and barely complained at all. I listened to chainsaws for eight hours today. I have PMS, and it makes me VERY short tempered. I try to be peppy and cheerful anyway, but sometimes I just need to tear into someone for no apparent reason. Brett can attest to all of these statements, if you need verification.
On a brighter note, Star is curled up in a little ball near my feet, and she's twitching and chirping in her sleep. It's very cute. I wonder if she's dreaming of chainsaws...
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