Tuesday, August 30, 2005

I WIN! (Or do I?)

When the subject of bad food we ate as kids comes up, and it often does, I generally win the “Yeah, but guess what I had to eat” contest. You know that one, right? That’s where your friend says, “Eww, my mom made us eat meatloaf” or some other lame thing. Or, if you have some friends who lived the exotic life they may come up with things like fish heads or chicken feet, powdered milk or calf liver, maybe a few have even had chitlins or…look, I don’t know, there are a lot of pretty disgusting foods out there, but somehow, this one thing that my mom made always trumps that. I have never had brains (to eat! SHUT UP! You’re not funny at all!), or grubs, we were never forced to eat grasshopper empanadas or Frito pie. But I have had, and did have many times as a child, one meal that still strikes fear in my heart at its very mention. Read these three words that I am about to type and tell me you don’t feel a chill go down your spine. CHICKEN…LIVER…STROGANOFF. You’re scared now aren’t you? You want your mama don’t you? And I don’t even have that luxury because it’s my mama that made that…thing.

“What is this horror?” you may ask. “These words”, you say, “I know what they mean but I can not make sense of them. “

Let’s take a look at the basic recipe for such a nightmare…

First you need to make some wide egg noodles. This sounds ok really. Who doesn’t like noodles? Noodles are good. As a kid, noodles are pretty much a food group. Then you need to melt some butter in a skillet. Still ok. Noodles and butter, can’t go wrong with that right? Good stuff. But then…then…sauté chicken livers in butter…did you hear that? That sizzling is the sound of fear. I remember that sound, frying chicken livers. It’s kind of like the silence of the lambs but more…liver-y. Even so, there have been a few times in my life when I was not so terrified by the chicken liver. There may have been once when I saw fried chicken livers on the menu at an “urban” KFC and felt compelled to order them. I may have eaten one and thought, “This is not TERRIBLE. I mean, I don’t need another one but…you know, I could eat this if I had too. “ There may have been a time when I was reading a jewish cookbook and thought, “I should try that chopped chicken liver spread. How bad could it be?” and I did and it wasn’t THAT bad. But the stroganoff…oh the stroganoff…because the next step is to ADD A CONTAINER OF SOUR CREAM!

Oooh, just thinking of it…ooh, my stomach, she aches!

But here’s the really sick twist. I still can’t think of this recipe with out shuddering but my brothers…THEY MAKE IT! It’s just wrong.

Monday, August 29, 2005

"It's hot. Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this hot."

2 points if you recognize that quote. Actually , come to think of it, I'm not sure I remember exactly where that comes from. It's one of those movie quotes that my friends and family adopted for no real reason and it lingers in our...lingo. Here are a few others that have no excuse (any guesses to where they come from?):

1. "Chicken, chicken chicken." (Sometimes we use the whole quote which is "Horse, bear, chicken, chicken, chicken." In fact, there are hand gestures that go with this that have long since been adapted to mean "bitch, bitch bitch." But...um...I don't remember why.
2. My brother started quoting this old commerical for antacids when I was in high school. He liked to just randomly say " Or even a cheeseburger." This is generally used as a non-sequitur.
3. Same brother will still wander around saying (and this one has a cadence that might not translate in type) "Moo...moo...moomoomoo." Please don't ask, we don't know.
4. Occasionally my BF will say "You like Gwar, Why don't you join the band?"
5. And this one is connected to the previous one (and Jodi-odi-odi certainly knows this one) "What's with today today?"
6. SQUEAZEL!
7. "The Larch."

Oh, you know there are many more. Too many to catalog I am sure but I will think of some more later.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Late but reflective...

reflection

This was meant to be my illustration for illustration friday LAST friday, but i didn't finish it until THIS friday so here is a very late reflection.

Dreams for Illustration Friday

dreams

The theme for this week's Illustration Friday is "dreams". Coincidentally, I have been drawing some animals dreaming of...things. I thought these two little guys fit the bill. They don't really MEAN anything. But I like the odd ideas of "sad penguins dream of cupcakes" and "happy bunnies dream of meat".

There are a few more of my illustration attempts on my flickr page.

(and i like nice comments at either place...heee!)

HEY! Some people say that they can't see this picture. I'm so sorry if you have a problem. I can't figure out what it is. Please do look here if you do have a problem.

I love L.A. (but I'm not “in love” with it)

It’s no secret to the people who know me that I don't really like L.A. very much. And I don't know that I have very good reasons for it either. I had never lived in a city before I moved to L.A. And even though I live in the most suburban, white bread part of the city, it still doesn’t feel like the suburbs. I know that my fantasy of living in the country is unrealistic (in my dreams there are fluffy little lambs with chains of daisies around their necks and cows that sing to me…no, really!) so I don’t know that I am actually the country girl that I may claim to be.

I also have an unrealistic view of the city where I can stumble out my front door in the morning, grab a cup of decent coffee without waiting in line at a Starbucks (because I would go to a hip indy coffee shop, of course), have some 1920’s newsboy toss a paper at me, read on a subway to work UNMOLESTED and go to my wonderful job as an artist who makes enough money to live in a wonderful toon town city like this.

All that said there are some things I do love about L.A.

1. I am always amazed and kind of comforted by the smell of chlorine that permeates the valley on a hot day. Yes, of course it is a deadly gas, but it is the deadly gas that smells like summer
2. Conversely, the smell of jasmine sneaks up on you in this city. At any moment on any street, you could suddenly be enveloped in the heady scent. I didn’t even know there was jasmine in California until I moved here.
3. Sometimes, in the dead of winter, when I have been on the phone with friends on the east coast who complain of the WIND CHILL FACTOR (we don’t have wind chill factors in L.A.) I drive along Sepulveda and marvel at the flowers still in bloom in January. Especially when they are poppies. More especially when there are orange and pink poppies.
4. The greatest view in Los Angeles (to me) is the view of the valley from the crest of the hill on the 405 at night. It’s like you suddenly see the promised land, which is certainly not to say that Sherman Oaks is the promised land, but when all you can see are the millions of twinkling lights, it’s kind of worth it.
5. I like Hollywood. I know I can’t be the only person. And I’m not talking about this new shiny disneyfied Hollywood. I am talking about the crumbling glory of the other end of Hollywood. I like the crazy people in costumes outside of the Chinese theatre. I love the old building on the corner of Hollywood and Highland (that is NOT the mall). I like the architecture of the old buildings. It’s a very cool place to visit.
6. I like the L.A. River. The poor, sad, L.A. River. Who doesn’t love a cement river with hardly any water? Not me, I love it.

So I guess I don’t HATE L.A. and if I could I would say to it, “It’s not you L.A., it’s me, I love some city that’s like you, but not you.”

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Duped by ABC

I'm a sucker and I admit it. I feel like such a dork. Today at lunch I looked across the street from Snug Harbor (where i was sitting having tuna with capers and dill) and I thought "Cool, that building got tagged!" because I do really like graffiti, even thought it's bad and a blight on society and it makes babies worship the devil and what not. Whatever, I think it's an interesting form of expression and, in some cases, it's art. Mind you, if some one tagged my house or my car, not so happy, but I like it in certain public arenas. OK that's a whole other story...anyway, the building had been tagged and it said didyouseethelights.com. TAGGERZ GOTS WEBSITEZ!!! Awesome!
...
...
...
Fuck you ABC. Fuck me for being fooled by you. I don't know if I love them for being just hip enough or hate them for making me belive in them. Jerks.

HTMHELL!

Hee! I don't know anything about HTML but i am trying to make this page look the way i want, bear with me (jodi, the only person who knows this exists...) whilst i fiddle around with the formatting or whatever you call it. It's probably going to look different everytime you might stop by. Sorry.

Not really a lifetime love affair.

I like comics. I like them quite a lot. In fact, I have made a good portion of my life comics as I now work in the industry AND I read them for fun AND…well, I’m starting to attempt to sort of kind of make things that are not exactly comics but…you get what I am saying here? I live with comics. But there is this world, this…comics blogosphere, if you will, FILLED with people who have a lifetime love affair with comics. That is not me. Comics and I have a long-standing relationship. And it’s the good kind, the kind where you can be apart for a long time but when you are back together, you pick up right where you left off. You still have the same issues (ok, that was kind of a pun, but an ill advised and not particularly effective one, I know), but at the same time, everything has changed so you have plenty to do together.

I started reading comics as a kid. I was an avid reader and comics, well, they were 10 more minutes of reading as far as I was concerned. My brother was a serious comics reader, not reading serious comics, but the kind that reads the series…a seriesous reader? I don’t know but he was a comics regular. Me, I was more about picking what looked interesting from the covers. And we bought remaindered comics (that’s sooooo illegal!) but they were 10 for a dollar, well within my childhood budget.

Mostly I read Richie Rich. Maybe a little Archie, an occasional Spider-Man, especially if the Green Goblin was on the cover. I shoved the books under my white four-poster bed (with Katie Patchwork canopy) when I was done with them, pulling them out now and then to supplement my reading. Eventually my mom made me clean under the bed and I remember dragging two or three FULL TO THE TOP lawn trash bags of comics out to the curb. I kind of regret that now. They wouldn’t have been worth anything but still; I’d like to read some Richie Rich comics every now and then.

Then there are gaps in our friendship, the comics and me. I don’t remember much of what I read in high school, probably what ever was lying around on the floor. But in college, a very strange little man named Marc gave me an X-Men and I was back in the game. I would walk to the drug store once a week to pick up a few books. Usually X-men, Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. Maybe a Spider-Man or two. I started thinking, “Hey I could do this” and I started drawing every day. Mind you, I had always fancied myself a bit of an artist, it’s not as if I just picked up the pencil and started one day halfway thorough my English lit studies. But I started to realize that there were careers here…and I might be able to have one.

I wrote illustrated sequential art style letters to friends. I always drew them in blue ink so they became the slightly inappropriately named “bloo toons”. I was taking costuming classes, so I drew superhero figures to match my costumes for “The Birds” (it’s a good play, look it up). But somewhere along the way, I got side tracked by English lit and midterms and whatever else, so it never went much farther than that.

Years after college, I re-entered the nerd world and dated a comic book collector. He introduced me to some “artsier” and sillier kinds of books and I was welcomed back to the fold with open arms. I fell in love with The Maxx and Tank Girl. Bought tons of Kid Infinity comics (never read them but they had cool covers, I think I still have them some where), I think I even read some of Those Annoying Post Brothers.

Eventually, I moved to L.A. fell in with a bad lot and started frequenting comic book stores and the monthly convention at the Shrine. It all culminates in a job in comics and a box the size of a small car next to my bed, overflowing with comic-y goodness.

Comics and I are friends. We get along just fine. I dabble here and there and go back to my classics every now and then. And comics, they just do what they do. Which right now happens to be pile up and collect dust. But that’s a whole other story.

Monday, August 22, 2005

ten more for jodi but answered by me

1. So…you think George Michael was kind of sexy back in the day? Well who didn’t? (neither of those were the actual question though…keep reading)…who is sexy now? Give me three please.
alan rickman
ciaran hinds
pete postlethwait
brenden gleeson
i could go on and on...

2. So what makes a person sexy?
well, in real life, it takes brains and a sense of humor. on screen it takes a PERCEIVED intelligence and sense of humor. for example, i find the CHARACTER of gil grissom on CSI sexy. he's very intelligent, introverted, well-read, good sense of humor, all things i like. but the actor, william peterson, although i still find him physically attractive, he's just more of a bloke, you know? he may still like shakespeare and such but he comes across differently and thus, i find him attractive, but not really sexy. does that make any sense?

3. I use itunes on my computer but I can’t use the random play feature because…ok, lets just say I have a lot of music that I rarely want to listen to but I still must keep. If you use a random play feature on your mp3 player or your cd player or whatever, what are the first 5 songs you get and will you skip any of them?
Winter Wonderland-Tony Bennett
Train In Vain- The Clash
White Christmas-Norway
Come On Home-Cyndi Lauper
The Amens-The Brian Setzer Orchestra
see what i am saying? i've got a lot of christmas music, which i really only want to listen to at christmas. so i would probably just listen to the clash and cyndi lauper. skip the rest until december.

4. How was Vegas?
i'm guessing it was crowded and hot but i don't really know.

5. I know that you have some trouble sleeping sometimes, just like me. More about time to sleep really, but do you have and good tips for getting a good night sleep?
camomile tea and calms forte seem to work better than nothing.

6. So, say someone give you. I don’t know… a million and a half dollars but with the proviso that you can’t spend it on yourself. What would you do with it?
oh, um...i guess i would give a bunch to my family, start trust funds for my nephews and then stock the food bank and animal shelter. a million and a half probably won't go very far.

7. Can I go home now? I’m really tired…
um...no. you can't. sorry.

8. Who is your favorite south park character?
TWEEK! i love tweek. or is it tweak? i don't know.


9. Oh, I have this really good question but I keep forgetting what it is! So…um..favorite color?
burgundyish red.

10. What did you have for dinner last night?
excellent chicken tacos that i made myself.

Friday, August 19, 2005

so...very...bored...

ugh. can't do any more work. too boring. killing me.
you know when you sigh like 14 time in twenty minutes that it's pretty bad. well, either that or i'm hyperventilating...

a few words on grammar and such...

here's the thing. i was an english major in college, i have been trained to do all this properly, but i don't. i don't spell check because i generally don't capitalize and the spell check, oh it gets mad at me for that! and why don't i capitalize? well..i don't really know. partially because i am a crap typist and it has always seemed to work better for me if i just forget about that part. recently, i have become a slightly less crap typist and i've been thinking i should put more effort into proper capitalization, spelling and punctuation. then again....i'm pretty lazy. but here's the thing...grammar is fairly arbitrary. many of the rules were pretty much decided by some guy a long time ago. and language, i think it is safe to say, is a living, evolving thing. we add new words to our lexicon on a regular basis, we embrace slang, we allow things that simply weren't permissable before (starting a sentence with and or but being the one that i haven't come to accept yet). and something like a blog or a journal, this is personal writing, and by that i mean both about myself and reflecting myself. i think it should "sound" like me. i tend to pause a lot when i talk, for the joke or to consider my words. i find that i represent that in my writng with the use of ellipses. this is perhapse not acceptable in a formal sense, but in a conversational sense, i think it's fine.

as far as the capitalization goes...yeah it's about being lazy. but i realize that when i write longhand, i don't always capitalize. in fact, i find that my capitalization and even my choice of how i write (cursve or printing) tends to mix according to what i am wrting about.

now, this is all about personal expression, mind you. i wouldn't do this in a legal letter or a formal letter. this is about day to day, conversational writing.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

stop asking so many questions!

so, someone at jodi's blog thingy liked the ten questions routine, so i wrote one for her. and to be fair, i will attempt to answer them myself as well...unfortunately, i don't watch that many movies so this could be a tricky one.


1. so you like movies. Tell me, what do you think Is the best adaptation of a book to a movie that you have seen?
hands down that is "persuasion". i just love the story and the movie is v. faithful and nothing with cirian hinds could ever be bad.

2. what movie did you pay to see and really wish you hadn’t and in fact, feel like they couldn’t pay YOU enough to ever see it again?
oof, that would be the "the man with one red shoe" and...look, i know this is not the class answer either but...i really didn't like "blue velvet" when i saw it. i really wanted to walk out.

3. that said, do you ever walk out of movies if you don’t like them?
i really can't. i get worried that maybe i'm missing something and i should stay just in case it's not the movie, it's me. but that's just a bad relationship all over again.

4. what is your favorite movie snack and why?
popcorn, popcorn, popcorn. love it. but i try to eat it quietly. i tend to kind of suck on it for a second so it doesn't crunch (don't twist that, it's not at all dirty). and i just have always loved popcorn but the only really good popcorn is the kind you get at the movies.

5. please, tell me three movies that I may not have seen but I really should because they are just that good…
well, this is silly since i actually asked the question but...in the spirit of it all:
1. "waydowntown" is just fascinating and funny and a little bit...scary
2. "sexy beast" blows my mind a little more every time i see it
and
3. "shaun of the dead" is dead brilliant.
unfortunately, i'm pretty sure most people have seen at least two of these by now.

6. from your current reviews, I see that you’ve been watching a lot of “Hollywood” movies, but you also watch foreign films too…but what do you REALLY like to watch?
i am only slightly embarassed to say that i like comedy...romantic comedy.

7. what would you like to see more of in movies?
more alan rickman! more pete postlethwait! more blowing shit up just because we can! oooh and a little more tim roth would be nice too.

8. what would you like to see less of? And no fair saying Jennifer lopez, that’s how everyone answers!
less weepy drama shit. and less faux history. look, i go to the movies for fun. i don't need a bad history lesson and i probably don't want to cry either.

9. so, when you watch movies at home do you watch straight through or do you pause to get a drink, maybe make a phone call, watch a little tomorrow?
i am a notorious "breaker". i can watch a movie over a week if i feel like it.

10. read any good books lately?
oh, i have. i just read "the namesake" by jhumpa lahiri, it was quite good.

lost entry recovered

i wrote this at one of my ghost blog things. i abandoned it a while back but this still stands pretty true. it probably needs some adding to but here are somethings my friends and family SHOULD know about me but apparently DON'T...

2004-10-05 - 4:53 p.m.

1. gingersnaps are NOT my favorite cookie
2. i do too carry a penknife with me
3. and sometimes a lighter too
4. yes, there is an extra pair of knickers in my car
5. yep, that is MY foreigner cd. what about it?
6. no, i don't mind if a straight boy wears a skirt, or eyeliner, or nailpolish, in fact, i kind of like it
7. yes, mr. andrews, i remember you and no, mr. andrews i still don't like you
8. i have 2 spice girls songs on my itunes player
9. yes, i smoke cigars sometimes, and i drink whiskey and i like beer
10. no, no matter how much you try to convince me, i will never like green peppers

this town (ahhh ahhh) is comin' like a ghost town

heh...see, that's a reference to an old song by the specials (baaaands won't play no more...too much fighting on the dance floor) but it's also a reference to the fact that i have left a string of deserted bloggy, journaly type things on the internets. i just can't keep up with them. mostly because i am boring and have very little to say, also because i never tell anyone about them so i don't get a response and i guess sometimes that is discouraging...almost as discouraging as my run on sentences.

i am trying to track some of my old journal entries down, just for fun. the previous posts about movies and books were actually from emails. but i think they are interesting enough to be recorded. not that i am interesting, just you know, sometimes you learn new things or something...yeah.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

favorite books (written aug. 14, 2003)

1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy-Douglas Adams-I think, no matter what this will always be my number one. I read it every few years to remind myself that nothing has to make sense
2. The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald-I actually like most Fitzgerald, but I will also acknowledge that a lot of his stuff is cheesy and overwritten. Nonetheless, this is a brilliant book and if the last time you read it was in high school and you don’t remember it being good, try again. It only gets better as I get older
3. The Death Of Vishnu-Manil Suri- This is something I’ve read recently and I can’t say enough good things about it. I think in 50 years it will be considered a great overlooked novel
4. Persuasion-Jane Austen-I like all jane austen but I think, by far, this is her best. Pride and Prejudice is funnier, but this is so real and warm and I really feel for the characaters .
5. How To Cook A Wolf-M.F.K. Fisher-Really amazing writing about surviving the depression with wit and style.
6. Like Water For Chocolate-Laura Esquivel-First, it has all the recipes, then it had all this amazing use of magical realism but in the end, it’s just a really goood story
7. The Glimpses Of The Moon-Edith Wharton-Not her best book, but I really like it…in fact, I think I need to read it again
8. On A Pale Horse-Piers Anthony- I just really like this story. It makes me feel better about death.
9. Girlfriend In A Coma-Douglas Coupland- I never finished “Generation X” -I thought it was boring and pretentious, but I have really enjoyed all of Coupland’s stuff since then. This book, while not great, really moved me, as goofy as that may sound
10. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit-Paula Danzinger-Real teen angst. It was good.

favorite movies (written march 10, 2003)

Ok, first off, I won’t debate my choices with anyone, especially you James, because I am not the movie girl. I’ve never seen the The Godfather, every time I’ve tried to watch it, it puts me to sleep. And I never seen Gone With the Wind, but I read the book, that should be good enough. Clearly I have three categories of movies, relationship stories, lame-ass comedies and the ones where people get killed. I don’t dig the drama and as wonderful a movie as Schindler’s List or the like may be, I know my history, I don’t go to the movies to learn, I got to be entertained…that said:

In no real order because how could I choose???

1) Animal House-I have seen it many, many times, it’s still funny, I will see it many more times, and it will still be funny

2) Some Like it Hot- men in drag are funny. It’s a fact. Marilyn Monroe was funny. That’s a fact too. Niagara is good, Seven Year Itch is good, but this is great.

3) Persuasion-the best romance movie I have ever seen. You’ve probably never heard of it, you probably don’t know who the actors are but I do and it’s one of the best adaptations of a book (Jane Austin) that I have ever seen.

4) Wizard of Oz-I’ve read the book, I like the movie better. It does what it’s supposed to do and it’s still really beautiful with the simplest, most beautiful special effects

5) Better Off Dead-gotta go with James on this one-Gee Ricky, I’m sorry your mom blew up

6) Reservoir Dogs-Now, I haven’t actually sat down and watched it in a long time but I remember loving it when I saw it the first time, the second time and the third time. Not to mention that it has some of my favorite boys in it…Harvey, Steve, Tim.

7) The Italian Job- I only recently saw it on the recommendation of James the Brit and I thank him for it. How can you not love a movie full of mini coopers?

8) The Winter Guest- this is another one of those relationship films but its really good, so subtle you might not even notice it. And it doesn’t hurt that it was directed by Alan Rickman

9) The African Queen-I love any movie Bogart was in, I love Bogart and I have since I was a kid. But the older I get, the more this becomes my favorite. It’s simple and beautiful

10) Sexy Beast- I love, love, love this movie! Ten minutes into I knew that this was one of my all time favorite movies ever. There is nothing I don’t like about this one although the rabbit man scares the crap out of me. Amazing on every level! Not a bad performance in the bunch and an awesome opening, right down to the stranglers song ( this would probably be #1 or #2 if I was going in order, fighting it out with Animal House).

11) Four Weddings and a Funeral-c’mon it is exactly what it says. But it’s a good romantic comedy w/o being too sentimental. Has a great cast and, you know the most oft used words in the movie are bugger and fuck. AND THEY DON’T EVEN GET MARRIED IN THE END!!! (and it’s written by one of my favorite screen/t.v. writers ever).

12) Jaws-for all the usual reasons but also because I occasionally forget how sexy Richard dryefuss and Roy Schneider can be

13) Mallrats- I make no excuses. I love this movie, you can have your ‘chasing Amy’ that ones bull shit. Mall rats is the real deal, he can deny it as much as he wants it’s the funniest movie Kevin smith has ever made and I’ll stand by it even if he won’t

14) I’ve been told that I said that Bedazzled (the original with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook) was one of my favorite movies. I don’t actually remember saying that but it’s funny and I love it.

15) I wasn’t going to say this one, but the more I think about it, the more I have to include The Blues Brothers. It’s just cool.

16) Now I’m feeling bad because I have so many modern movies so I just remembered one that I haven’t seen in a million years but I loved so much I swore I’d name my first child after one of the characters…A Tale of Two Cities (1935). I find the book tedious but the movie truly moved me. If I had a kid I might name it Sydney.

17) Mame- the Rosalind Russell version, not the Lucille Ball one. I always wanted tbe be Mame and I love her apartment and I think I already have the drunken best friend…

18) OK then there are all the movies that I wouldn’t classify as “favorites” and certainly not as “good” but that I love anyway. The bastard stepchild movies: Drop Dead Fred, Baseketball, PCU, Pretty in Pink, Sid and Nancy…stuff like that.

19) Then there’s all the stuff that I really do like but I just don’t want to put on my favorites list , like Casablanca, Willie Wonka, Wuthering Heights (the Laurence Oliver version), Move Over Darling, That Touch of Mink (love that Doris Day!), because they are favorites, but in a secondary way

20) Then, finally there are all the movies I can’t think of that I love and will remember after I send this…or the ones that I only saw once but thought we’re great but would have to see again to be sure (The Mission, Kafka, The Piano and my new sort of favorite Waydowntown).

21) And see, this is exactly what I’m talking about! How could I forget Breakfast at Tiffany’s? LOVE THAT MOVIE! Who cares about the racist Mickey Rooney portrayal of the Japanese photographer. Everyone in the story is a bad person, but you love them anyway.

ten "real" questions for jodi, as answered by ME!

1. do you have a favorite “adult beverage”?
i do like the gin and tonic, the gin and soda and the whisky and water, but not all together. also rather fond of blueberry wine from the tomasello winery.

2. you see a lot of movies, is there one that stands head and shoulders above the rest as your favorite?

hmmm. well...i like a lot of movies but i don't see as many as i wish. i do have a list somewhere that i will post after i finish answering these questions to myself...

3. where would you like to go within the united states, that you have never been before?

i would like to go to seattle.

4. what about in the world?
norway, iceland, vietnam (i used to really want to go to greece and egypt but lately i've been all about the scandanavian places...and vietnam)

5. you seem like the kind of person who is always up for something new. Do you see yourself as adventurous and adaptable or is that all a façade?

this was pretty specific to jodi but i think i am pretty adaptable but not necessarily adventerous.

6. is there something (without reavealing a weakenss that you don’t want to reveal, remember, there are supervillians reading!) that you just can’t handle?

oh, not good with the frogs. or lizards...or damage to eyes. or needles....

7. well, let’s say you are a super hero? What is your name and what are your powers?

ah, i know this one. i am contusion and my superpowers are that i can give people uncomfortable sprains and bad bruising.

8. what one thing about yourself are you willing to tell that would surprise your friends?

um...no.

9. do you have a favorite dessert?
i like things made with chocolate. or sticky toffee pudding.

10. what talent are you most proud of?
the willingness, if not the ability to see both sides of the argument

ten bad google questions

i torment jodi with shit like this. but in all fairness, i answer them myself too...

1. What are the best fonts currently available for captioning and subtitling? Are these fonts adequate?

well i do have a favorite font but i don't think it's very good for subtitling. it's called caslon and i do like most variations on it. i think it is and elegant and simple font that is both pratical and beautiful.

2. Why do textbooks claim that the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment shows how life's building blocks may have formed on the early Earth -- when conditions on the early Earth were probably nothing like those used in the experiment, and the origin of life remains a mystery?

well, i suppose because that in 1953 no one had any real idea what the heck was going on. but i also think that we still can't assume that we know the ultimate origins of life and creation. and while i think it is an interesting thing to explore, i also think that more time could be spent figuring out what the heck we do now that we are here!

3. Can I Keep the Same Phone Number?

it is my understanding that you can. yes.

4. Who can be with me during labor and birth?

well, i don't about you, but i only want a doctor.

5. Are there any circumstances under which you believe the President of the United States could legally authorize torture?

no. i do not.

6. Are you networking?

actually, no. i don't much like talking to strangers.

7. How common is lung cancer?

unfortunately, it is more common than we think. and i hear it is one of the top killers of women.

8. What is the risk that I could lose the money I invest?

there is always a risk my friend. always.

9. TiVo is a revolutionary product and aside from the basic recording features, the interface is often seen as a key killer feature among both typical users and the design-savvy. I'm constantly hearing it referenced as the hallmark of useful design that masks powerful features. Was an easy-to-use interface a key design goal from the beginning of TiVo's development?

i think that an easy to use design is always a goal but i also think that most designers prefer to leave their mark, rather than think of the end product and the usefulness of it.

10. How many visits did you and your chief of staff make to CIA to meet directly with CIA analysts working on Iraq?

i'm sorry, i can't answer that question. if i did i'd have to kill you...

(taken randomly from the first 15 or so hits on the google search ten questions)

Thursday, August 11, 2005

illustration friday
(even though it's only thursday)

empty
illustration friday is a very cool idea. i slapped together a quick picture today and i do like it but i could have spent days on it and not been satisfied. i realize that i have to just cut my losses and let it go. but i do like my poor little robot. and yes, he is supposed to look a bit like a washing machine.

Monday, August 08, 2005

reading list

finished "gridlock". i didn't much care for it. ben elton has made some great t.v. but this book was kind of relentlessly hammering his point. and it wasn't all that funny to me. perhaps to someone else though.

finished "ultra". i liked it. i was surprised how much i liked it. it just reads well. very...cinematic. within the first few pages i was wondering if it had been optioned yet. i won't say that it's great but it's certainly entertaining.

finished "spiralbound". beautiful art. ok story. i neither loved nor hated the story but it didn't blow my mind. the art is amazing though and the book gets extra points for being sweet natured and gentle but not cloying or babyish.

reading: "the namesake". halfway done and i think it's v. v. good. nicely told story about nothing much at all. well, not entirely true but it's not about an earthshaking life. it's kind of just about life.

about to start "street angel" and when i finish "the namesake" i will read "skinnydip".

10 more for jodi...

as answered by ME!

ok, 10 more…

1) what is your favorite word? peace...i like the way it sounds and i like what it means. but i also really like to say "randy" it's just a fun word.

2) and what one word do you say the most (i know it’s rude)? my mother would cry if she knew but it's either fuck or dude.

3) last 3 cd’s you bought? were they any good?
uh...bibio-fi....v. good.
and then....i don't know. it's been a bit.

4) let’s say you could be any character in any book you have ever read. let’s say you have to be a character in a book you have read. who would you be?
oof. maybe tuesday next from the jasper fforde novels. she has an exciting life. but she also has a tragic scary life so maybe no...but then again, she does have a pet dodo...

or how about...beatrice in "much ado about nothing". she's got it pretty good.


5) do you have a morning ritual? because i know you used to have the diet coke thing going but no more…
first there is a lot of snooze button action, then a shower, then take care of the cat, pour out some tea, drink some soymilk, find something for breakfast and go to work.

6) are there any programs you use regularly on your computer?
i use illustrator everyday and i loooooove it.

7) why don’t you just stop running around all the time and take a freakin’ nap, woman?
(jodi-specific)

8) i am kind of mildly obsessed with magazines. i always buy any new ones that start up and i buy all kinds of things just to see what they are like, teen magazines, wine magazines…right now i am v. fond of scientific magazines. what magazines do you like to read and why? and are there any you hate, hate, hate?
scientific american, and then that weekly science one are both good, ready made, bust.
i don't like instyle or harper's bazaar.

9) so, you saw david bowie in your dreams, eh? what is the best real star sighting you have ever had?
evander hollyfield

10) going back to the no more diet coke thing…i know you drink tea more now. is there a specific type you like? (pg tips makes great iced tea. v. dark. like your soul!!) i like black tea and some green but mostly black and mostly dark.

Monday, August 01, 2005

so, i wrote jodi some questions to answer on her blog and since i have nothing at all of importance to say, i thought i might as well answer them myself too...is that creepy? pretend it's just some slightly disturbing inner dialogue that got out.


1. so…if you weren’t reading this right now, what would you be doing?
probably finishing that ben elton book that i am supposed to be reading. it's really very short but i keep putting down because it's just not as engaging as i had hoped.

2. ok, if you could do anything in the world as a career, other than what you currently do, what would it be?
i would like to be the poet laurate of the united states....or a farm vet.

3. i know you love dark chocolate but do you have a favorite type?
um, wow. of course you know that because YOU ARE ME!! but no, i just like it kind of...firm...and really...dark...and...oh this is sounding all wrong.

i don't like it to be soft, i like it to have a bit of bite and i like it bitter but not too tart.
4. since we’ve both become a fan of “candyfreak”, is that a particular candy (other than above mentioned chocolate bar) that you really like or even have fond childhood memories of? how about one that totally creeps you out (ewww! coconut cuticles!)?

i am pretty fond of peanut and almond m&m. and i like chunky bars. i have fond childhood memories of nik-l-nip wax soda bottles, but i really couldn't say why. as a kid i was really bothered by those nougats with the jellies in them. but now it's mostly just necco wafers that horrify me.

5. i know you just finished reading “harry potter and the half blood prince”. do you have a favorite harry potter character? why? and would you eat a chocolate frog?
oh, i haven't read "harry potter and the...". yet but i have my bets on who the half blood prince is. but my favorite harry potter characer is probably sirius black. he's so misunderstood.

6. how about other books? what’s next on your reading list?
next on my reading list is "skinny dip" by carl haissen and then maybe "johathan strange and mr. norell".

7. um…yeah… well, we have both had housekeeping related accidents. do you have any handy cleaning tips you can share? preferably ones that will not injure me?
i would have to say "don't bother". it's just easier all around and no one gets hurt. well, until all the crap piles up and someone trips, but that won't be for a while yet.

8. tell me one little thing that makes you happy.
i like seeing bees in flowers. i like bees. bees make me happy.

9. are there any internets sites that you visit every day?
yes, lots.

10. you like comics, that’s good, but who have you discovered recently that you’d like to sing the praises of? i was just reading "teen boat" and it totally rocks!

11. can i ask you ten more questions next week? what about if they are better than these ten?
shut up ren, you're boring.