(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
Wandering around Salem with Melissa and Lisa yesterday, it began to grow overcast in the late afternoon and early evening. As we headed back to the depot so Lisa could take the return train into Boston, the rain picked up some force and drenched us.
Standing on the platform under the overhang, the rain was still slanting at us, but it wasn't quite so miserable out of the wind. Then, I noticed it was growing brighter towards the West, the thunderheads rolling away to the East--half angry-gray, and half brilliant blue, and I remarked, "This looks like rainbow weather."
Sure enough, maybe five minutes later:
01 June 2009
sunshowers
30 May 2009
we can't stop here
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
TheJokerBlogs' "Mr. J" is exposing another of his fandoms ...
Yesterday, on my way home I received a Twitter device update from @TheJokerBlogs that read: I'm planning a little vacation disguised as another famous rebel and will be at Hollywood & Highland today. And I'm bringing my attorney.
The inclusion of "attorney" made me think: Thompson--especially since I was overloading on Fear & Loathing a few weeks back.
Sure enough, a few hours later (while I was watching my recently acquired Russell Brand in New York City DVD), @MsManagr posted these:
There seemed to be some amount of confusion on YouTube as to which one is "Mr. J" ... I'm not sure how anyone would think that the man playing Dr. Gonzo is him, but then I've already seen video and pictures with him makeup-free. But really? ... Of course, he'd be Duke.
There was further confusion regarding the characters' names. "He's Gonzo--the one in the white hat." Half-right ... While Hunter S. Thompson--may he rest in peace--is/was often known as the original "gonzo journalist", his physical representation in Fear & Loathing is not Dr. Gonzo (who is, more properly, Oscar Zeta Acosta), but Raoul Duke. And when someone asks which one he is, and the name choices are Duke and Gonzo, Duke ought to be the answer that would cause least confusion.
... Yeah, okay, so I'm a didactic Johnny Depp fangirl and all-around bookish nerd.
More pondering: in revealing his actual face, I wonder if this is a prelude to [-----] coming out of the J-closet.
29 May 2009
26 May 2009
do something (someone?)
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
I ...
Well, I have a few thoughts about the Aldous Snow persona. One is that the Aldous Snow persona seems to have a real person's hair, when Russell's usual half-back-combed 'do looks more like a character's. Two is the belief that the production didn't actually have to spend any money on the Aldous Snow wardrobe (or a very small amount, anyway), and that they probably just told Russell to show up in whatever he'd normally wear.
Three is more of a wonder than a statement, and that is my wondering if Russell actually did the singing for the part (for this and/or "Inside of You"--which is similarly hilarious for how heartfelt, earnest, and chock full of cellophane-thin innuendo it is).
I think my favourites of the signs are: "False Untruths Kill" and "Sodomize Intolerance"
I kind of want to make some icon bases--him GLOMPing the man in the Middle Eastern garb, snogging the policeman, molesting the nun, etc. The video has nice still possibilities. I should probably finish my bases from the caps of Disco Pigs first though ...
19 May 2009
Writer's Block: Space Wars
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Serenity, Alien, 2001—there is a long list of movies and TV shows that take place in space. Which is your favourite?
I think the honour goes to Star Trek: TNG, and I might've said Star Wars once upon a time. But the prequels seriously damaged my fondness for Mr. Lucas and his universe. I still love the OT (and I mean the real OT, not the souped up re-released versions of those films), but ST:TNG ... I stayed up much later than I should've last night because Sci-Fi was playing reruns all evening until 23.00. It's probably fortunate that I don't own the series on DVD, because I'd sit around watching it all the time.
Sure, it's kitschy and self-righteous--but, honestly, the "do the right thing" message always appealed to me as a kid, and the possibility that people with power might do the right thing. And now, it's more a nostalgia for considering matters in a simpler light. Wouldn't it be great if planetary issues could be cleared up by some moral high-ground in the course of an hour (not even an hour, really--45 minutes)? That might be very dangerous in reality, actually, but it's [usually] done very neatly in TNG.
Also, we return to one of my favourite toys (I could call it "recreational equipment," but it's just an over-sized, expensive toy) of the future: The Holodeck. Sure, the crew are always getting into trouble on the holodeck (trapped in the Wild West with a dozen Data look-alikes, or a Sherlock Holmes novel with Professor Moriarty on the loose, etc.); but without the crazy and dangerous glitches, how brilliant would that be?
(ETA: Comments from LJ)
Susan: Geek.
Yeah, I think that I would pick Star Trek, too, actually. It's been consistently entertaining. I remember watching it on TV with my mom and brother and being just so excited and enthralled by what it had to offer ... new worlds ... new technology ... and, yes, the holodeck.
I must admit that my love for Star Wars has lessened--not that I don't love it, but my interest has been put into other things. Yeah, there are really annoying things in those films ... all in the prequels. LOL.
I was tempted to say Battlestar Galactica, but the 70's version was laughable but entertaining. And the recent series was just frakken brilliant, but the ending kind of disappointed me.
And yes I too was watching ST:TNG on Sci-Fi last night. :)
It never fails to draw me in. I was watching the episode with the Romulan spy, and I thought, Oh, I'll go to bed after this is done. And then I caught the teaser for the episode with the militant revolutionaries (well, terrorists, really), and I couldn't turn off the television without knowing what happened to Beverly--because I couldn't remember how the episode played out at all!
13 May 2009
Flip Mino Camcorder
Flip Mino Camcorder with Personalized Design - Available only at www.theflip.com. Check out this unique Flip Mino design. The Flip Mino camcorder combines remarkable video quality in a pocket-sized package. Now personalizable - create your
I love it. It's very "Land of the Rising Sun."
... But, as nice as it is, I don't think my Mac has a new enough operating system or enough memory to deal with the Flip or its software.
However, if this sort of thing and viddycasting/vlogging appeal to you, there's a great resource with information about software and the steps needed to update your computer. Freevlog has video tutorials about storytelling and the rudimentary technical steps involved in editing video and audio, things you'd probably like to do before any kind of transfer to BlogSpot or YouTube.
It all makes me long for a new computer, to be honest.
10 May 2009
just a note
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
Reports say: Star Trek is awesome. You should see it.
Also: You'll cry, not once, but twice. Emotional wreck!
(ETA: ... More from LJ)
agent0fchaos: Did you see Gaila [Rachel Nichols] and think, "OMG! IT'S THE BEST POISON IVY EVER AND SHE'S IN A TREK FLICK!"
"Hahaha--very close to that reaction, yes.
"I didn't even notice that her complexion was green until she called for lights. Then, my mind--channeling Mark Hamill, apparently--went: 'PAMMY?!'
"Come to that, they did a pretty decent job of creating alternate species for this. I mean, there were still a lot of typical Trek humanoid variations with impressive make-up, but the use of computer graphics for non-humanoids (or humanoids with extremely emphasised features) was pretty tight, too."
Susan: Star Trek is AMAZING. I cried like after the first five minutes. Best movie this year! I LOVED IT!
"YES. Five minutes in, I was crying and on the verge of an outright sob--and really, really grateful that I was in a row by myself so that nobody had to witness it. ... And then it happened again, on Vulcan when they were trying to beam out the Council, and--agh! Blubbered like a little girl!"
07 May 2009
wow, not-a-blip-and/or-tweet
Staying up late reading might've added to the morning's misery...
I nodded off reading Wuthering Heights, which is one of the many free books you can download to the Stanza application on the iPhone.
On a related note, it's more fun to read literature now that I'm not required to respond to it formally. I've downloaded forty or fifty different texts. They'd seem like too many, were it not for the 1.5 hour commute to work in the morning--and then again at night. It's a lot of time, and, most rides (when I'm stuck standing and need to hold on to something), the iPhone is easier to read than a physical book would be. I know I've touted it before, but it really is that useful.
I've watched The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year 2007 several times (okay, maybe more than several), but now that I've found it, I just like replaying this particular clip:
Noel Fielding's reaction is best. The first time I watched it, I definitely shared his sentiments.
... Have you seen Last.fm lately? The new player is quite flashy and it's twice as large as the previous version. See?
04 May 2009
is this catching?
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
The masks, I mean--not the actual flu:
Swine Flu Mask Fashion
30 April 2009
no, I didn't
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
My mother just texted me to ask if I'd gone to the doctor's yet.
No, I haven't. I'd thought about going yesterday after work, but then the time came and I wasn't feeling particularly wretched anymore. That's usually the way of it: I decide to go seek professional help, and suddenly my symptoms don't seem as serious. So I didn't go, because I was tired of having people look at me like I'm a hypochondriac (thanks, I got sick before any of this swine flu bullshit came reeling out of the woodwork).
I almost always feel this way in the presence of health professionals, actually--like they think I'm faking just to enjoy the pleasure of their company. Or that I'm being sick on purpose. Don't you just love it when people make you feel guilty about being sick? It's ridiculous, because I rarely seek out doctors. The last time I sought professional assistance (beyond the annual physical exam) was when I split my head open snow-boarding. See? Actual emergency situation. I hate hospitals and I hate doctors, and I don't try to spend time with them until I've exhausted all other options and it's become my last recourse.
So I felt marginally better yesterday afternoon (after eating half a dozen lozenges and a pair of Mucinex tablets), and decided to forgo the hairy eye I knew I'd get in triage.
Of course, then I woke up this morning and my left side sent me a throbbing pain whenever I breathed. Over the course of the hour between waking and walking to the Salem depot, I coughed up a bunch of fun stuff--and now it doesn't exactly hurt to breathe anymore. It just feels like there's a weight on my chest.
I know I should just go and deal with whatever typical incredulity gets thrown at me. I guess being treated like a faker for a few hours is better than contracting full-blown pneumonia from leaving bronchitis to fester.
Blah. I really don't want to go. But today is the seventh day, and I'm only feeling worse as time goes on. So--and so it goes.
29 April 2009
28 April 2009
Saturday into Sunday, NY and NJ
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
On Saturday, Rodney and I left John to his grating (how he refers to grading), and took the train into New York City for the purpose of photographing urban over-development in what is technically historic Harlem. It was a little difficult to capture the right angles to make his point, and, in some cases, just impossible--but we wouldn't have known if he hadn't tried.
I think my favourite of the ones I snapped off on my iPhone was this one, which we entitled "Our Lady of the Condos":
More about finger buildings.
More about Saturday & Sunday:
There were only two subway rides over the course of Saturday, and mostly we just walked everywhere (woe to my flip-flopped feet), because the weather was gorgeous and Rodney is very familiar with the area. We went to a vegetarian dim sum restaurant for lunch, and then walked to the shopping strip, because--
In addition to my inappropriate footwear, the strap on Rodney's bag fell apart halfway through the day. Thus, we were looking for comfier shoes and a new bag. Of course, nothing we saw gave us any compulsion to buy. Sad feet. Sad bag.
When we returned to Rahway, all three of us went over to Little India for dinner and window-shopping. Dinner was delicious. Shopping was awkward, but then we didn't stick to simple window-shopping; we actually went inside three places. You could tell it made the clerks confused and anxious--which, in turn, made me feel anxious and guilty. It's a shame, really, because the fabric selections and the artistry involved in creating these clothes--it's amazing. Yet I feel undeserving and somewhat voyeuristic, a dull interloper.
As I told Kat, I was having poor luck with shop-keepers, in general. Later, we were at the mall (where I continued to feel awkward and wrong), and I laughed too loudly in the Game Stop at something or other that Rodney had said. I'm pretty sure the clerk wished me miles away.
Sunday was a quieter affair. We all went to New Brunswick so that John and Rodney could get some school work done. Rodney went to the computer lab, while John and I hung out in Au Bon Pain, taking advantage of their wireless access and air conditioning.
For dinner there were stromboli from Stuff Yer Face, followed by bubble tea at I's Cafe. I'd never had bubble tea before, and I can say that I really enjoyed the kind I tried (coconut milk tea) and can't wait to try others.
27 April 2009
more from the Mid-Atlantic
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
I'm ill and have been since Friday night/Saturday morning.
A sore throat and congestion that makes my head feel disconnected from the rest of me. My breathing isn't blocked or anything, but I've been coughing on and off. Also, this ridiculous heat wave makes it difficult to tell if I'm really feverish or just feeling naturally hot like everyone else.
I used a Phenol throat spray this morning, which numbed me for a while but tastes the way dissection labs smell--formaldehyde and pickling jars. Not a pleasant association, that.
Having said all that, I knew I wouldn't be feeling well enough to go to work today... I spent the majority of the day on the couch, watching My So-Called Life and going in and out of consciousness.
Wandered upstairs around noon for a cool shower, and then returned to napping.
take the highway to the end of the night
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
My feet belong to a zombie. It's been somewhat painful to put shoes on, and they've occasionally been sticking to fabric (like the couch and my socks) ... and, well, they look terrible. But, along with all that, there's a familiarity with the situation that's left me vaguely detached. (Not my feet! Zombie feet, I tells ya!) I've done horrible things to my feet in the past (and know that I will continue to do so, because I am that sort of incorrigible creature), and thier current appearance exhibits the recognisable damage of walking too far in flip-flops too early in the season. Unfortunate temptations of 90° weather in April.
Friday night:
My new license was waiting for me in my mailbox when I came home from work on Friday evening, so I decided to go through with the previous weekend's plan: I ate what little dinner I could scrape together after not being able to go grocery shopping for too long, filled a backpack with the necessities, set the iPod to shuffle, and left Salem at approximately 20.00.
I stopped only once on the five-hour journey to Rahway, NJ, and that single stop reconfirmed what has been repeated to me several times in the past: Connecticut is cold and dark. "Dark" being the operative word on this particular trip. Fuel signs are not to be believed. They will lead you off the precarious safety of the highway into the resident-friendly and traveler-hostile darkness of bedroom-community Connecticut. There are no lights. There's just you and whatever the high beams might illuminate ...
AH! A BUNNY! BUNNY!BUNNY!BUNNY!BUNNY!
Eventually I was able to make Nigel-the-GPS lead me to a little oasis in the dark--Sunoco. Twelve gallons later, I was back on the road and back on course.
Apart from my little detour, it was smooth sailing most of the way. The only spot of traffic was around the George Washington Bridge in New York, and that's usually to be expected. I was afraid I might zone out, but my iPod had me fairly entertained for the duration of the trip. Lewis Black kept me company for an hour or so in Connecticut. Russell Brand, Matt Morgan, and Trevor Locke were with me through part of New York and New Jersey.
Unlike my last journey to Pennsylvania, the New Jersey Turnpike turned out to be my favourite part of this drive. There was this lovely stretch of time around Newark where there was a cluster of lorries far ahead of me and another cluster far behind me--and just my little blue space buggy coasting along by itself between them. I love being the only one on the highway, and that's as close as I came to it on this drive.
I made it to John and Rodney's by one in the morning, very happy to be done with driving, but sort of hungry. There was a tour of their portion of the Irving House and a run to McDeath, but I was very tired and nothing really took. I'm not even sure what time it was when we all said good-night ...
23 April 2009
re: argh
(Comments from LiveJournal)
Kat: You see that book? The one by the pretty man? Yeah, I'm going to borrow that from you.
And how did I know the instant I saw him, that he was undeniably one of your current (and possibly everlasting) deep, dark, and guilty pleasures?
(BTW, this means I get Johnny.)
Russell is pretty. And funny. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to search for and watch "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006" on YouTube; he and Noel Fielding comprise the third team, and they are wonderful together.
Why does my fondness for Russell mean giving up Johnny [Depp]?
[...] I finally finished the book of Lovecraft stories I was reading, so I'm only just on Chapter 5 of My Booky Wook. It's hilarious one minute, and terribly sad the next--but you can definitely hear Russell's voice throughout. It's excellent.
21 April 2009
yesterday's fake-holiday activities
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
Yesterday was good for nothing. I should've done laundry. Instead, I watched most of Season 2 of Dexter. I'd forgotten many of the subplots, so it all felt sort of new and interesting. I still strongly dislike Lila--which makes sense, I suppose, as we're not meant to like her. Still. What a skank-ho'.
I also messed around with my iPhone some more; and, on that topic, two more good and useful applications that also happen to be free:
Wikipanion, because it's about as close as we're going to get to an actual Hitchhiker's Guide. It's Wikipedia in a more iPhone-friendly format than you'd get browsing through Safari.
Stanza, because I don't want a Kindle, but I like the notion well enough. Hand-held electronic books (plenty of them for free if you're meaning to play catch-up with the classics), with changeable fonts and background contrast. It pulls from a variety of sources, including but not limited to: BooksOnBoard, Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, and Fictionwise. And while I definitely prefer physical books, this makes for a good alternative if I run out of space in my bag or just forget to pack one.
And I discovered that it was much better for reading in bed when I'm cold (good grief, I was cold last night). I can burrow under the blankets and I don't need a light to see the text.
Mainly, I just keep thinking of little things that interest me and inspire me to seek out applications that correspond to them. Really, anything that deserves a button on my bookmarks toolbar has been given a search in Applications.
The one I've been avoiding downloading is Facebook, though it's in the Top 25 on the App charts. I think I probably share enough of myself as it is with LJ and Twitterrific. LiveJournal to satisfy my verbosity while maintaining a relative privacy (hello f-lock), and Twitter for the more public and more meaningless bits of life (Stephen: "twitter's right - every little thought that pops into my head is worth sharing"). Facebook still feels like giving and receiving much unwanted information. I'm okay with checking in at my desk, but I don't especially need it at my fingertips constantly.
What else? I started making icon bases for Disco Pigs. You can see them over at phantasm_bunny. Cillian Murphy's character Pig is a careful combination of adorable and creepy, which, by the end of the film, slides in favour of scary. I enjoy Cillian like that though (see: Red Eye and Batman Begins). The images, so far, come from The Cillian Site, but I think I might do some of my own screen-caps for my next part in the icon base series to see if I can't up the image quality a tick or two.
Other fun things to do: beating up lawn gnomes and flamingos (or being beaten up by lawn gnomes and flamingos) in the ZOMG! game on Gaia. The wasps found on Rancho de Bill frighten me, though. They're no more difficult to fight than the gnomes or the flamingos, but--they're giant frackin' wasps! BLEAH. Oh, well. My virtual purple sari and Colbert also make me happy.
... Is it wrong that I'd like to wear an actual sari? It feels somehow socially and ethnically incorrect--but they look so nice and vibrant!
18 April 2009
argh
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
The perplexing contents of my overfilled bag:
I am as Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club, which would be more amusing if I could find my driver's license in this mess.
17 April 2009
thank you, Mr. Oliver
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Tea Party Tyranny | ||||
| ||||
Taxation without representation? They don't even understand what that means. They may not like their current representation--but at least they have the opportunity to vote and change it. I really wish this "movement" would inspire some of them to crack a history book and learn something--but I doubt it.
15 April 2009
re: neither irrelevance nor home-feeling
(Comments from LiveJournal)
Nicole: I was thinking today, while I was reading said Metro, that I'm surprised there aren't more instances of T-riders beating up T drivers out of rage for what they read in the Metro while they're on the T. I think the Metro is largely to blame. That headline/picture(s) on the front page today was extreme. Every other week it's "they're cutting service and raising prices!" "no we're not!" "yes they are!" I'm kind of tired of getting all worked up over it for possibly nothing. If they do cut nighttime service in half, I will most likely need to find another job. As it is, it takes me 25% longer to get home at night than it does to get to work in the morning...
I think most people would blame the Metro's tendency to fan the fire before they would blame the T drivers (which is [maybe] why no one has been attacked yet). It's not like the drivers can control their schedule; they can, to a point, so far as efficiency goes, but on the larger scale they have to listen to dispatch. The only time I see anyone get annoyed with the drivers is when the drivers are themselves being rude.
Cutting nighttime service is a mistake on so many levels. I'm not sure how it is on the other lines, but trains on the Newburyport/Rockport line are crowded enough as it is, even later in the evening.
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