Wednesday, June 29, 2005

*munchchompchompchew!*

remember how i said that i wouldn't gloat about being able to eat meat again? i lied.

i just ate the HUGEST ceasar salad and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! *basking in deliciousness of huge ceasar salad*

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

NOW i get it!

paula deen's cooking show is on the tv right now and i just heard her say the most bizarre thing.

she was making fried okra and while she was breading it, she said that it's sometimes called"southern popcorn".

i've always known that i had a major disconnect with most u.s. southerners but i didn't quite understand why. now i totally get it. it's because i don't call fried okra "southern popcorn". i call it "that gross ass mushy fried okra crap".

Monday, June 27, 2005

mail call

if you read this blog, you know how much i love getting mail. this is because leff and i don't have many bills and also because i get cool things like this:

CDS FROM BUNCHOFPANTS AND FLICKR SCHWAG!!

if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because i'm doing the pants dance to the mix cds that bunchofpants made for me while wearing my flickr buttons. i'm so happy!!

flickr badge

i miss my student press pass. i didn't abuse its (limited) powers as much as i should have.

(unofficial) flickr badge to the rescue! this is the one that i posted on flickr.

press pass

i'll probably make another one with my correct info and photo. (you honestly think i'm going to post one with correct info and an actual photo where i'm not blurred or hiding behind something?? i am not sofa king we todd ed as that.) i'll let you know if my "official" unoffical pass gets me in anywhere cool.

i guess i don't like lucinda williams after all

on the phone with padre yesterday.

padre: you remember that lucinda williams cd that you got for your step mom?

me: yeah. it's a good cd. she said she liked it. why? she likes it, right?

p: yes, she likes it. but i don't think you like lucinda williams.

me: what? um, i think she's fine....

p: well, i don't think you've listened to this cd before.

me: i used to listen to it at virg's! why would..

p: the name of the town where we lived is mentioned in one song. the town you grew up in? i don't think you've listened to this cd at all.

me: p, it was at a party. i didn't hear ALL of the lyrics. besides, why would it matter if the name of that town was in it?

p: i was just shocked.

me: that city is in several states, you know. why don't we just assume that it's the one in north carolina and not tennessee??

p: fine. i just don't think you like lucinda williams.

me: *sigh*

Sunday, June 26, 2005

hot hot heat

oh, it's hot. and it's smoggy. and humid. and i'm melting...

how hot is it? it's so hot that leff and i have started freezing articles of clothing. i won't tell you which articles of clothing. i'll just say that they fit under the ice cube trays and leave it at that.

also, the cats are drinking ice water and the couch is covered in bedsheets (they're cooler than the couch fabric).

we nixed the idea of throwing a tarp on the living room floor so we could fill a kiddie pool with ice water and watch nature documentaries. (we don't want to risk getting water damage in the living room.) but i think we're going to throw an indoor beach party with the bathtub subbing as the ocean. an ice filled ocean. *grinning*

it's true. memphis summers will make you lose your mind.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

monster barrage

ever have one of those ideas for a series/project that isn't fully formed yet but, at the same time, will not budge from the front of your brain making simple things like, oh, reading or even doing the dishes next to impossible?

welcome to my morning.

i've been kicking around the idea of faking histories for a while now. i don't mean things like identity theft or con artist crap. i'm not a criminal. i want to write impractical histories and fabricate the objects that would typically authenticate and place them in their proper context. (you know, lost texts, bones, pottery, etc)

previous ideas have included creating a "lost" painter (and painting all of his works myself) and discovering an ancient cult based on robot worship. yeah, i know, it sounds nuts. and it doesn't help that the concept is difficult to explain. (it has its roots in mid '90s installation art, if that helps to get the point across. i want to create everything---even down to the explanatory foamcore blurbs hung next to the items and the font used to announce the exhibit.)

while i think the other ideas have merit, i'm not sure that i want either of those particular subjects to be my first attempt in the all inclusive fake-o-rama art spectacular. it's been bumming me out a bit.

but that's when it hit me! urban legends!! more specifically, MONSTER urban legends a la bigfoot, nessie, the bray road beast, etc. i mean, these animals are sheer chicanery! perfect! AND they're SUPREMEMLY mulitimedia! (websites, books, documentaries, oh, the things i can make! (if it's done well enough, could i get a mention on snopes??! eep!!))

ok, here's where i ask you a question--what sort of faked animal would be most interesting to you? are you into the hominid stylings of bigfoot or do you prefer the reptillian? how about a combo of the two? do you like griffins? whatever it is, i'd really like to know!

ok, thanks for reading. i think i'll be able to do the dishes now.

Friday, June 24, 2005

illustration friday--hero

this was my least favorite topic to date. i hate the word "hero" and the way it's bandied about with the weight of a feather these days.

anyway, despite that horribly loaded and misused word, i made super stag which, i feel anyway, turned out rather nicely.

super stag (illlustration friday--hero)

pbsplenetic

i've just added julia child's "the french chef" to my netflix queue! (i didn't even know the shows were out on dvd until i saw a review of them on the amateur gourmet! i suppose the dvd release coincided with the american masters about julia (or vice versa)that was on, oh, about two weeks ago? great documentary, btw.)

while i'm writing about pbs, HOORAY!, the house didn't cut $100 million from their budget! big sigh of relief about that!

although, patricia s. harrison, the co-chair of the republican national committee from 1997 to 2001, has now been named as pbs' new president. which is probably why the house granted the reprieve in the first place. it's making my stomach turn.

does anyone in the u.k. want a sister? i cook pretty well and i can sing lots of old timey 'merican folk songs while clogging and/or square dancing. that's always good for a laugh. any takers? canada? australia?? new zealand?? anyone??

Thursday, June 23, 2005

shredding season!

what luck! one of the memphis area teacher's credit unions is offering free shredding this saturday!

a professional shredding service will be at the 7845 hwy 64 location from 12:30-3p in an effort to help curtail identity theft. how nice!

i've been needing to shred college financial aid records, old checks, my hs yearbook and many, many other things for a while now. i was hoping to shred them at leff's office and use the left over strips as packing material, but if i can have a professional shredder do it, i WILL! (those guys are FAST!! i worked with one of them when i was purging old student medical records from the university disability office. fantastic, i tell you! i didn't even have to remove staples!)

in other news

my hair is now incredibly short. leff helped me cut it and WOW i haven't had it this short since i was, like, thirteen. it's taking some geting used to.

also, the first disc of the adventures of pete and pete should be in my possession by this afternoon. can i get a w00t??

AND i finished my summer burn cd. (i'm mentioning it here because i know that leff gets my feed through bloglines and i need to remind him to please print out my cd cover. please? thanks!)

plus, michael palin's himmalya series started on the travel channel monday night (10p est/9p cst every monday night). it's soooo gooood! fantastic photography, michael palin being himself and, in the second episode, he met with the dali lama!

ok, now off to pack up the winter clothes.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

big al davies on flickr blog!

big al wrote a lovely song called "pretty little stream" (link to song on that photo or directly here or here.) and now it's been posted on filckr blog! congrats, al!!

i only wish that his name with a link back to his photostream had been included in the post.

edit: hooray! it's been fixed in flickr blog! there's now a link back to al's photostream! thanks, flickr people!

Monday, June 20, 2005

summer burn

i so *heart* new music! esp when it comes in the form of a mix cd! (i used to love mix tapes too. i still have a few near and dear ones kicking around. and i'm so getting this book after we move!)

herein lies the rub: my friends are lazy. no one makes me mixes anymore! but lookit what irregular shed pointed out! summer burn!!!

the gist of it is, you make a mix cd (that you then make two copies of), sign up at the site and then mail said mixes off to the addresses that you recieve (via email). in return, you get two cds from two different people! SO t eh rock!!

it's open to intl participants so, go make some mixes! just remember that this is super last minute (sorry, i only found out today!) and that mixes have to go out, like, wed at the earliest. (you've got a week to mail it. here's their faq if you need further clarification.)

airmail's cheap for something as light as a cd! and you don't even have to fill out a customs form! (or if you do, it's the tiny green one) so get burning!

Sunday, June 19, 2005

dr. who knew it was so good??

i have to admit, i've never been a big fan of "dr. who". not actually going so far as to call it "dr. who gives a @#@$", just being ambivalent about the whole thing. i reserve my hatred for all things "star trek".

surely, everyone knows that there is a new "dr. who" series, right? starring christopher eccleston and billie piper? yeah, i thought you'd heard of it.

anyway, leff has been gobbling these up for the past few months. every week he would be glued to the computer watching the latest episode and fairly dancing with joy when it was finished. but even his praise of the show wasn't enough to make me watch it. (he likes "star trek", you see.)

groc, however, finally persuaded me to watch the series. (he said that it was "buffy good". also, groc likes 60s spy shows like "the prisoner" and "the avengers". and he was responsible for getting me hooked on "buffy" in the first place. by this, i mean that i trust his judgement in all things entertainment explicitly.)

i cannot thank him enough!

i've watched six episodes so far (three a day) and i'm absolutely HOOKED! so, THANK YOU, groc!!! and THANK YOU new "dr. who" people!!!

the only down side is that there are only seven more episodes left for me to devour. sigh......

Friday, June 17, 2005

*dancing like snoopy*

the air conditioning in our apartment is fixed! wooooooo!!

illustration friday (b & w) and some other stuff

here's my quick, quick scribbly drawing for this week's illustration friday.

illustration friday--b & w

while i was at the grocery store today, an older gentleman handed me a magnolia bloom. he had a bag full of them that he was handing out to all the women in the store. that's the nicest surprise i've had in a while! i mean, how sweet! i took his photo, but i'm not posting it--i forgot to ask if he would mind.

additionally, i am the world's greatest girlfriend. (oh, i am.) not only did i buy leff a father's day card for him to send to his father but, and this is a huge but, indeed, almost a bubble but (snicker, tee hee), i managed to find one that wasn't venom filled and/or terribly spriteful. see how great of a girlfriend i am! do you realize how hard it was for me to behave in this situation?!? (i SO wanted to find a venom filled one!!) i am so wonderful that i deserve, like, ten cookies. HAHAHAHA!!!

Thursday, June 16, 2005

cleaning house

in an effort to keep myself from purging my entire flickr account, i've decided just to dump all my groups including those that i admin. (although, not the ones that i co-admin. so if i'm co-admining with you, please don't worry. i'm not going anywhere.)

i've managed to find new admin for several of the groups that i started but there are still three left. if anyone would like to have any of those groups (animalapropism (which needs serious pruning in the group pool), same place, same time or pandas) just let me know (either in comments here or in the group threads on flickr titled "looking for admin") and the whole group is yours. or you can have all three. or just two. whatever.

none of them are particularly active (in reality, they're all fairly dead) so admining's a breeze. i just can't stomach the thought of belonging to groups anymore.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

flexitarian

i'm going flexitarian. by that, i mean that i'm going to start eating fish again. why? well, i've had a particularly bad headache for the past three days that refuses to go away. (this sort of headache is getting frighteningly frequent.) after talking to groc, who knows about these things, i've decided to see if eating fish will alleviate my migraine problems.

if you happen to be one of the people who knows how long i've been doing the veggie thing (and you know who you are), please don't get sanctimonious about my new choice in food consumption. because i'll kick you in the shins. hard. you've been warned.

yes, leff and i have talked things over. it's possible for there to be one veggie and one flexie in the same household esp. if the one eating meat doesn't flaunt that fact in front of the non meat eater. and i don't plan on doing that.

so there, bombshell dropped. that wasn't so bad, was it?

Monday, June 13, 2005

high profile traffic

(a note before we begin--i have not been following the michael jackson child molestation case. i will not follow it if it goes to appeals court. likewise, i did not follow the oj simpson trial and i won't be giving you my opinion on the verdict. thanks, the management.)

a few moments ago, i found myself with a wicked headache watching the michael jackson motorcade on its way to the courthouse for the verdict. (muted, of course) and i thought "huh. kind of deja vu."

you see, all the way back in the oj simpson days, i also had a wicked headache and just happened to be watching tv when oj was booking it down the interstate in his white bronco. (it was muted then as well.)

so i'm wondering, what is it with me and motorcades/police chases on california highways? after a small amount of thinking (i still have the wicked headache so cognition isn't much fun right now) i realized why i'm so transfixed--i'm always wondering what the other motorists sharing the road are thinking. and that makes me laugh.

ok, back to my headache.

also

can i tell you how pissed i am that howl's moving castle (hauru no ugoku shiro) still hasn't opened in memphis?

friday was the new york/la/chicago/all the cities that matter opening date and it's supposed to be opening nationwide on the 17th (this friday) but i've not seen it in any of memphis' "coming attractions" lists for this weekend. mother$#@$@#.

i'm so pissed.

of cabbages and kings

well, ok not kings. but i did make two kinds of cole slaw this weekend.

first off, i've found my new bag.

EEEEP!!!   A FREAKIN' POCKY BAG!!!

it simply must be mine. and since i've been looking for a new bag for a while, it simply WILL be mine. so there.
(bag at spiral and circle, btw.)

i'm suffering a major flickr burnout. i don't know if it's because i've been so busy packing that i'm exhausted or if the list of things that i have to do every time i log in to the site has gotten so long that i just don't even know where to start that it's wearing me out...but there's something.
i'm trying to give it a break since i know that i'm capable of getting super frustrated with things and just not. doing. them. ever. again. but i care too much about the contacts that i've made to just up and leave.
so i'll continue to post at least one photo a day to let people know that i'm not dead/maimed/in rehab and comment when time allows. hopefully, i'll find a happy medium (besides acrylics. wah-wah. ba-doom-chick!).

but not all things are dire. leff in his unfailing coolness has found a roller derby in seattle for me! somehow he intuited my real sadness about not moving to austin included not just missing sxsw again but also not getting the chance to see austin roller derby and, most especially, the h2hos. (we got to see the h2hos last august! (by see, i mean, i heard what they were doing but it was so crowded that even tall, tall me couldn't see over the hordes. it was still fantastic, however.)) hooray for leff!

wow. that was a long ramble. i think i'll go read more of word freak. (oh, i finished assassination vactation this weekend. it was fabulous! still haven't gotten a copy of garlic and sapphires however. big sigh...)

Friday, June 10, 2005

irony

i just watched a show about cemetaries that was sponsored by new york life.

ha ha.

illustration friday--summer

i've been looking at illustration friday for quite a while and today i decided to throw my hat, er, my cone?, in the ring. here's my entry for "summer".

summer (illustration friday)

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

netflix note

i think that netflix may have opened a distribution center either in memphis or just outside of town.

last week, movies in my queue started having an estimated shipping time of one day. ONE DAY!! as opposed to the three days it took for movies to get here from atlanta (our orig distribution center).

who knows, maybe they've changed the class of mail that they use to get it through the p.o. faster. whatever the cause may be, all i can say is hooray!

kulfi results

the kulfi is ready and, oh! it's so tasty!

kulfi in a cup

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

kulfi

the new issue of chow finally arrived in my mailbox on saturday. inside was a recipe for kulfi (indian ice cream).

one essential ingred, of course, is cardamom. have i mentioned that i *heart* cardamom? *SUPER HEART*, in fact. when i saw that the recipe called for 2 tsp of the stuff, i ran to the spice cabinet mummering "pleaselettherebecardamom!pleaselettherebecardamom!". lo and behold there was! (it's a holdover from the dotcom boom. leff invested in spices and tableware.)

since i've been trying to use as much of our dry goods as possible so i won't have to pack them, i told leff "soon! soon, we will have kulfi!" he responded with a hearty "ka-chew!!! DOOOOOD!!" actually, that was his game, but you get the point.

all *ka-chews!!!* aside, we will be having kulfi tomorrow. it's in the freezer right now. DOOOOOOD!

Monday, June 06, 2005

grocery day

have i ever told you that one of my least favorite things in the world to do is to make out a shopping list? i hate it worse than being forced to watch my childhood development teacher's birth tape. (seriously, in high school i had to watch my instructor give birth via vhs. *shiver* (i was taking childhood development because there was nothing else left for me to take.))

anyway, it's grocery list time. which means trying to figure out what leff and i will both eat.

all i've come up with is sushi, pizza and various cakes and cookies. (leff won't eat the cakes and cookies.)

grocery list

does anyone have any ideas?

pete and pete

here's happy news! the adventures of pete and pete is on dvd!

it might have been released a while ago, but i only found out last week. so, hooray! here's hoping that it will be off "long wait" status on netflix very soon!

did i mention that iggy pop plays one of the dads on the show? because he does and it's fantastic!

Friday, June 03, 2005

catching up

so what's been up with rakka, you may ask. well, you may ask if you're bored and trying to kill some time by reading this nonsense.

well, let's start with saturday. leff and i went to el destructo's memorial day bash and man, oh, man what a party it was indeed! i mean, check out his recycling bin! (thanks again for inviting us destructo, my man! great party!)

i started a new game of animal crossing and i've been playing it as obsessively as i've always played animal crossing. i won't dwell on it because i could go on at length. please let me stop before i start.

food and drink wise, it's been diet coke with splendasplendasplenda and hawaiian pizza. mmmm, i love hawaiian pizza! the fake ham! the pineapple! the cheeeeeeese! (the craving started when groc uploaded this photo. evil groc!)

big into plants right now. (i can hear katty kat saying "right now?!?!" heh heh!) i've managed to get both of the mini roses that leff acquired on admin assistant's day (tee hee! haha!) to bloom again. i also picked up some african violets. we'll see how long it takes for me to kill them. (i always do.)

i've also got plans to make a terrarium in the near future. like, this weekend if possible. and if i can pick up a bonsai or an orchid as well, i'll be pretty happy.

reading the new haruki murakami book, kafka on the shore which is, of course, fantastic and rereading some arthurian legend (malroy's le morte d'arthur). i'm still trying to get ruth riechl's and sarah vowell's new books from the library, damn it!

and, that's pretty much all she wrote. oh, except that the last ms. marple "mystery" ("the body in the library" with joanna lumley EEEEP!!) is on sunday. and also that leff has been playing disgaea, so i fall asleep hearing penguins shout "DOOOOOOOD!". i guess i can't complain.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

hello again

hi, all. sorry for the abrupt and extended absence. a personal issue that i'd rather not discuss in public came up and i had to do what i had to do. (it's nothing to worry about, so please don't.)

i should be fully up to speed here by friday and flickring again by saturday.

hope everyone's doing well.