5 things

i don't know about deep dark secrets, but things that have probably not come up yet here, or not much:

1. i used to be a very devout christian. note that i do not say zealot, because i have never been the type to evangelize, but i was quietly, deeply devoted to my faith. now i would say that i believe a lot of the same principles, but am less hung up on the details and their implementation.

2. i spent a year and a half living on a bus. have i said that here yet? i think i mentioned it in passing. anyway, with my parents and (most of that time) my sister. my dad and two guy friends (previously homeless guys from the shelter where my dad worked, but had been living in our garage for the previous 6 months) gutted a bus and turned it into a motor home, complete with working kitchen and bathroom.

3. for karen: i used to have grand plans for the music business. granted my plans changed from time to time, but the plan ranged from songwriter, to recording engineer, to producer. i attacked that plan with a vengeance at belmont university. wow, they have a subcollege just for the MB program now. anyway. my time at belmont was insanely formative, to say the least. for example: i realized i liked girls. :-D

4. on a related note: it took me 3 colleges, 8 majors and 8 years to get a degree that i don't use on a daily basis. the breakdown:

chemeketa
psychology
sociology
mechanical engineering
mathematics
physics (ultimate goal: astrophysics)

belmont
music business (business administration)

univ of montana
liberal studies
business administration

5. and how did i end up with a business degree (that i don't use) when i'd been pursuing liberal studies with the intent to go into journalism? because UoM has a cap on how many credits you can have without getting a degree, while accepting financial aid. over the course of 3 schools and 7 years, i managed to hit that limit. woo! so i had to get a degree over the 8th year, and business what i was able to squeeze out enough credits for.

there you go! oh, tagging. um...here's who's left:

kelly
wen
underdog
snowflake or andrea or cheddah or carol, if any of them still read me!

thanks for tagging me, LSR - that was kinda fun. =)

while i'm waiting for a file to open

(don't ask)

i booted up the itunes because i had a horrid yet wonderful song stuck in my head.

the first song that the mr. dj served up was thin line, by the indigo girls. i've heard this song many times. owning the album will do that to you. but for some reason when i booted it up today, i was taken back to nashville. i was sitting with my roommate kelly, singer/songwriter/fellow IG freak, in the dining room and in the background, this song came on. i'd been studying at the table, she'd been sitting up on a desk, feet on the chair below, sometimes playing her guitar along with the cd, sometimes playing her own music.

suddenly in the middle of this song, we got into a big discussion about harmonies, what worked about the song, what could have made it better, and soforth. we were both incredibly passionate about our positions, some shared, some disparate. although of course i don't recall the details, obviously it was a moment in time that stuck, resonated with me. it is a moment that, even though my moment in the music business world has long passed, and am no longer such an IG freak, i cherish.

and so i share a bit of it with you. the song is really good, if you haven't heard it. one of the few covers IG has released. check it out!

$160 = cheap peace of mind

at least it is when your dog starts vomiting blood.

yes we went to the emergency vet tonight. yes pearl is fine, or should be totally fine by later today. for reasons that are very much unknown to me, she decided to throw up a chicken strip (jerky, the kind especially for dogs) about 1am. she's had them plenty of times, but this time it came back and apparently some got stuck somewhere along the way.

poor thing just kept trying to get rid of it, would calm down for 20 minutes, then start up again. after an hour or so of this, she started bringing up blood -- that was my limit, so off we went to the vet.

once again i love adobe animal hospital. they are fast, they are kind, and they are cheap. they only thing i don't like is the distance but really it's only an extra 10 minutes from its competitors and the quality/price canNOT be beat. she got a crapload of medicine there, some to take home, plus the er visit itself...$160? thank you!!

and no they didn't have to do anything fancy. yes i asked if she should get xrayed. that's our baby! but the doc didn't feel anything and as she wisely pointed out, if pearl wasn't better by later today, we could bring her back for more tests. pearl did throw up once more on the way home but she's already crashed asleep, so i think we're done. thank goodness because i'm tired. the *only* benefit of our escapade is now i have a guilt-free excuse to work from home, since i'm just now heading to bed. :-o

the whole world is fair game

earlier today i showed liz a most awesome site i found. it was awesome for many reasons, but for starters, let's just say there were hybrid names involving birds. liz was (sarcastically) thanking me for showing her the site and then noted:

liz: you'll never get this time back
me: i'm glad though
liz: oh me too
liz: wait, why?
me: because this is rich man
me: the world is so full of people to mock
liz: true
me: and eventually, to write about
me: it's perfect
me: i have decided the whole world is fair game, so i'm taking better notes
liz: nice
me: 100% agree
me: dude, there is so much goodness out there
me: it's inspiring
liz: i'm inspired
me: good. that is a good state to be in.

and i guess that's why i'm writing this. it's a perfect example of how, even if i'm not writing fiction like i want to yet..and i will…i still feel inspired, turned on to the world at large. it's a really lovely feeling.

i know this post is the equivalent of putting the world on notice that if you say/do/write something i find interesting, i may work it into a bit of fiction someday, but a) that isn't unusual for a writer and b) i promise to change details to protect the obscenely embarrassed. but i also promise to write down the things i find really beautiful. i play nice. :-)

and a very good year it was, too

any year that includes a new space shuttle, The Price Is Right, and alyssa milano is a good year.

In 1972 (the year you were born)

Richard Nixon is president of the US President Nixon approves NASA's space shuttle, a reusable spacecraft, at a cost of $5.5 billion Nixon arrives in China for an 8 day visit, which he calls a "journey for peace" While campaigning for the presidency Alabama Governor George C. Wallace is shot and seriously wounded Five men are arrested in the Watergate office complex in DC for breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee Hurricane Agnes strikes the East Coast causing 117 deaths First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) os introduced for $395 Shaquille O'Neal, Jennifer Garner, The Rock, The Notorious B.I.G., Cameron Diaz, Eminem, and Alyssa Milano are born Oakland Athletics win the World Series Dallas Cowboys win Superbowl VI Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup The Godfather is the top grossing film Pink Floyd debuts "The Dark Side of the Moon" during a performance at London's Rainbow Theater "You've Got a Friend" by Carole King wins a Grammy for song of the year The Price is Right premieres on CBS

What Happened the Year You Were Born?

100% agree!

i'm actually amazed i only got 70%..

You Are 70% Addicted to the Internet

In your opinion, life without the internet is hardly worth living. Could be, but you probably need a bit more fresh air and sunshine to think clearly.

Are You Addicted to the Internet?

winter must be cold for those with no lead memories

so i have this freelance project i've just started - the usual full gamut from design to production, probably with a little writing - and right now we're in the initial design phase. in that phase, if i've gotten almost no visual direction from the business owner (which unfortunately is the norm), then after reflection on their needs, concerns, market, i troll the internet to get my design juices flowing.

tonight in my trolling i found this. when i saw the pencils i involuntarily took in a breath. how adorable! it's a little bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils, their tips ready to loose all kinds of creativity. they're lead cigarettes that i want to linger over and smoke down to their stubby little erasers. and i don't even use pencils anymore. well hardly ever. but seeing them, it was like the promise of creation was in the air, i could smell it.

i suppose this all goes back to being young, when i DID use pencils voraciously, and loving school so very much. truly, i adored it. if i could've afforded to go to school forever i probably would've, and i've got the student loans to prove it.

anyway. when i saw the pencils that phrase popped into my mind: a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils. and i thought, why does that sound familiar? so i googled. there's lots of people saying that, or close. wtf? and then finally, i found it -- it's a variation on a movie quote, of course. it's from you've got mail, which in my opinion is actually rather annoying, but does have moments of wittiness and charm, including the following:

Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

so there you have it. most everything about me probably can be understood through a good movie quote.

what the world needs now

is peace, love, animals, string, and a clown.
fyi.

gloved wonder

oh, the joy that is fingerless gloves!

for those of you who saw my initial query on ba-scrappy, these were
not the ones i wanted most, but they were cutest, cheapest, bestest
ones in stock for little old me and now they're mine and me and my
fingers are oh, oh so happy.

merry christmas, you're fired

or i would be if i were on deadline for finishing this stuff. anyway, i bring to you our hordes of pictures from our trip to mendocino county. enjoy!

since that trip i've been working, sleeping and eating like crazy. astoundingly i have not gained any weight although i have no explanation for that, maybe it's the crazy work canceling it out. speaking of that, i'm off to santa cruz today for more freelance work. bring on the scrilla!

oh and sadly i no longer have the Christmas Camera. while i'm very grateful i had it for a while, and the pictures shown above are all *much* better in quality than my cameraphone or the old olympus i had, ultimately this one was deficient and i returned it to fry's yesterday. the shutter was fucked up -- took too long to close or set for a shot, so a lot of the pictures came out grainy or blurry. even so, ended up with 60+ good ones! and of course, will be on the hunt for a replacement one very soon! me camera addict.

trippin!

thanks to rashenbo:

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

in other news, i really have been working on the photos from our trip, and when i *finish* posting them all, i'll include a link here. meantime i'll taunt you with the fact that the set includes a picture of santa, and martians.