my pet peeve

look, uncrustables have a f-ing crust, okay?!??!??!

seriously, that crimped thing around the edge?!?! that pocket of stuff that holds in the goop kind of like a, i dunno, pie?!??! that's a crust!!!!!!! they're both a part of the same damn CRUST!!!!#@#!@

aaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhhh!!#@!#@!#@#!@

thank you, the management.

we saw totoro!! we saw totoro!!

today the "jump into japan" exhibit started at the children's museum of memphis. (warning: craptacular site).

i've been waiting for weeks for this exhibit to open because of the life sized catbus!

little did i know that there would also be a mei, satsuki and GIANT TOTORO included as well!!! *jumping up and down and shrieking with excitement!!!*

i can die happy now!

tsunami quilt group

iemoto has started a wonderful group on flickr called tsunami quilt.

the group's premise is that anyone who is willing can contribute a fabric square 15 cm x 15 cm which will then be sewn into a quilt with all the other entries.

the finished quilt will then be auctioned on ebay with all proceeds going to unicef (to aid tsunami victims).

so, if you're crafty with the fabric, this is a worthy cause that could use your handiwork!

scheduled downtime for maintenence

this cold i've been blogging so incessantly about? well, it's still not gone.

so i'll be on a brief sabbatical until i get back up to speed.



velma will be answering my emails for me. she says "hi", by the way.

rain check on beck

damn my cold! the unmixed, unedited version of beck's new album "guero" was briefly leaked online the other night. and if i hadn't been sick and/or sleeping, i might've snagged a copy of it by now!

grrrrrr!!

looks like i'll have to wait until march 29 now. and then i'll have to wage that inner battle about buying a major label release...

maybe i'll be waiting until it's used somewhere...

jenna *hearts* satan!

aw! just like her f###ing father! (now we know how the bastard won the election...)

here's proof! best shirt ever!

(found via boing boing)

i am the warrior...

see, that title is funny because i'm fighting off another cold. yes, another one.

jesus h. frances christ, but i've got a compromised immune system this year.

so, all grumbling aside, don't expect much for a bit. i think that i started taking zinc early enough, but only time will tell.

off to battle bacteriophages and such....

breadtangles and kissyboots

this is the best teen girl squad EVER!!

go watch it! then watch it again until strongbad says it's over!

smell's bells!

what is with the olfactory overload in my apartment complex?!?

today the hallway smells like flonase!

ick!

leff is a thinkin' man!

brains are weird things.

here's an example. yesterday, i put a chicago bears helmet on a jar of peanut butter. (don't ask.) this simple act made me subconsciously think of chicago. which made me think about dr. fusbender, who is, in fact, from chicago.

dr. fusbender used to say "cocksmoke". as in "heeeey there, cocksmoke!"

okok, here's the payoff. my putting a bears helmet on some peanut butter resulted in my saying "heeey there, cocksmoke!", a phrase that i haven't uttered in about oooooh, a year or so, to some moronic memphis driver that almost cut leff off in traffic. (it took approximately ten minutes for the phrase to filter through my grey cells.)

but the funny thing is that leff just looked at me after i'd said it, paused, nodded and said "chicago bears helmet."

you gotta' love someone that can understand how your brain works! *grins!*

brittania rules!!

today i got another package from the wonderful, wonderful groc!!!

hooray!! (*dancing!!*)

it's full of tasty u.k. chocolates, a pack of crayons with pandas on it, a hello kitty magnet (and she's dressed as a painter!! eeeep!) and, best of all, stickers made by his grocness!!!! (*fainting from the excitement of it all!*)

best. package. EVER!!!!

thank you, thank you, groc!! *hugs and kisses!!!*

return of the jed-eye

two things that i love have now been combined to make one thing that i absoutely must possess!

mr. potato head + darth vader = darth tater!!!

brilliant!!

(orig found via boing boing)

the first 100 photos are always free...

flickr is going to be down for five hours tomorrow. (12p-5p pacific, 2p-7p cst (my time)).

this brings up a valid question. q: how do you know when you have a flickr addiction? a: when you find yourself planning what you're going to be doing while flickr is down and how you're going to photodocument it. (and i'm doing precisely that. *eyeroll at self*)

of course, these very same photos will then be placed into their own set entitled "what i did while flickr was moving its servers to a new building" or some other such nonsense. and then probably a group will be formed. (of which i will probably co-admin)

sigh....i need help.

43 things (and the b#### ain't one)

ok, so that title was lame. i don't care.

what i do care about is 43 things, a handy little site that helps you to get your priorities straight.

or, if you don't have priorities it'll help you get some. if you want them.

yes, i'm a copy kitten. i found out about the site from leff. who found out about it from matt. (thanks to both of you, by the way.)

if you care, here's my list. my most important thing? moving the f### out of memphis, of course.

i can't stand the rain...against my window

last night there was another humungaloid thunderstorm in memphis (where i live) knocking out power to most of the city that matters (i.e.--midtown, where i live), downing trees and powerlines, etc.

obviously, i have power again, but a lot of the traffic lights are still out and some of the roads are still choked with debris and/or flooded and frankly, next to impassable in some places. knowing memphis, this will probably not be rectified until early next week. (well, except for the flooding since that will take care of itself.)

leff has footage of a street light trying to blow itself to smithereens.

in the meantime, i'm going to settle my internal debate about whether or not i should risk life and limb dealing with memphis drivers (oh, they're bad in sunny weather!) to get to a job that i care practically nothing about.

oh, and find clouseau (one of the cats). he's been hiding since around 2 am.

update: found the cat and not going to work! hooray!

boiled butt

have i ever mentioned that our neighbors always make food at around 5:00 p.m. (c.s.t.), that smells like boiled butt? because they do. and it does.

no, you would have remembered that, wouldn't you?

crafters coast to coast

in order to write this entry, i have to make a confession. i was watching hgtv whilst i was recuperating from my stomach virus.

normally, this state of affairs would make me try to bite my right arm off in an attempt to get to the remote but this one time i actually saw a show that piqued my interest.

it's called crafters coast to coast and it features real, crafty people making real, crafty things.

it doesn't hurt that all of the crafts are cool and that all of the crafters are super cute!

did i mention that the crafters are super cute?

so, you know, check it out if you're so inclined. i'm looking forward to the stuffed animal food critter episode!

many happy returns

thanks to the wonder of zinc lozenges, i've managed to escape the suffering of three colds to date. hooray! hooray for zinc!

but here's something that i'll bet you didn't know. zinc won't protect you from stomach viruses. oh, nosiree bob, it f###ing won't!

and that is exactly what leff decided to give me for a late xmas present, a f###ing stomach virus.

thanks a lot, leff. grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

coma, coma, coma, coma, coma chameleon

for months i've been dealing with a bout of insomnia. but right before the new year rolled around, things changed. now i'm falling asleep at every opportune (and inopportune) moment and often sleeping for hours.

so i just wanted to apologize to everyone for my lateness in replying to flickr comments, email, phone calls, snail mail and visits. the fact is, simply, i've been asleep. sorry! i'll try to get back to you shortly when i'm actually cognizant.

frank lloyd is soo, soo wright

i really, really, really want to go to the price tower arts center!!

i want to see this place so much that i would travel to bartlesville, oklahoma where it's located. yeah, the tower's all they've got, but i don't care because it's awesemo!

oh, i also like this pin even though it has nothing to do with bartlesville, oklahoma or frank lloyd wright.

idioteque

sometimes i could swear that i was out sick from the most important days in elementary school. you know, like on the days when they taught us how to tell time? (i still have problems with analog clocks.) and maybe how to tell your left hand from your right without looking to see where your freckle is? (freckle=right hand).

i'm pretty sure that i missed out on the chapter regarding "how to dress in winter weather" too. (most of you who read this blog know how ill prepared i am for colder climes...)

case in point, i just bought a knit hat. i haven't had one since i was ooooh, about five or so. and, this is the funny part, i don't really know how to wear it. leff, the great and wonderful, keeps having to help me readjust it. and while that's really sweet and all and i really appreciate it, i can't help but feel like a total idiot.

hopefully i'll get the hang of it soon. but until then, can anybody tell me what time it is? the clock's on your right...er, no! your left! no! your other left!

sprechen sie american?

pbs is showing do you speak american tonight!

it's a three hour special focusing on different dialects and various other aspects of english as spoken by people in assorted regions of the united states.

since i am a fan of etymology and linguistics and, well, let's face it, i just think that people from maine and texas sound kind of funny, i'll definately be watching it!

(and to answer the question that might arise due to this topic...yes, i am from the southern u.s. and no, i don't have a southern accent. most people think i'm from chicago.)

all consuming

thanks once again to herr wunderbar, leff! this time for finding the aptly named all consuming, a web service that keeps track of the books that i'm currently reading and have finished.

thanks to this site, you'll now see my list of "currently reading" on the bottom right hand side of the main page.

you can visit this page to play the "rakka reads 150 books in a year" game. i mean, really, it can't get much more entertaining than that now can it?

(can you smell the sarcasm?)

completely knitless

it may come as a surprise to some of you that i don't know how to knit.

yes, it's true. i'm without this skill. i can crochet though. er, kind of...

anyway, learning to knit is one of my new years resolutions. (along with 1) read 150 books 2) move the f### out of memphis 3) move the f### out of memphis and 4) well, you see where this is going...)

i'm using stitch and bitch to learn the new craft. the patterns are terrific! and the instructions seem to make sense so far.

i'm heading to yarniverse this week to pick up assorted knitting things and some needles (size 8, 14" single pointed, straight and a set of size 17 straight needles).

any experienced knitters out there have any recommendations for needles or other kit that i might need to get started?

the life aquatic with steve zissou

leff and i finally got around to seeing wes anderson's new movie, the life aquatic, today.

i'd like to say that i was blown away. that i instantly fell in love with this movie the same way that i did with both bottlerocket and rushmore. that i laughed so much that it hurt, a la the royal tennebaums. but it's just not so.

while i enjoyed the life aquatic quite a bit, i didn't adore it in the same way that i did with anderson's other films. true, there were great moments, like the accoustic portuguese renditions of david bowie songs, the wonderful, diorama-like sets that anderson is known for and bill murray in a speedo, but these three things do not my favorite movie make.

maybe i was just expecting too much. maybe with time, aquatic will grow on me.

i'm just hoping that this is the case.

we're movin' on up...er...over?

all right, there's been a change in moving plans. again.

remember how i've been planning on moving to canada? well, it's not happening fast enough. and i'm not going to be able to handle living in memphis for as long as it takes me to save up money for application fees, moving expenses, etc in order to get to vancouver or toronto. because i hate memphis with a red hot passion.

so leff and i, after much discussion, have decided to make a short term move to the west coast where, hopefully, we'll be able to make more money faster and thus be able to get to the land up north. and then maybe england. and then possibly japan.

but i'm getting ahead of myself! laughing!!

i'll keep you posted as warrented. just, you know, wish us luck. please.

distorto fish 1, rakka 0

since there is nothing on the tellie, leff and i are watching the educational channel that our local cable company provides. (basically 24 hours of language courses, old wgbh documentaries, you know, "corporate funding provided by the annenberg cpb project")

anyway, i just realized that we were watching a documentary about those creepy ass super deep sea distorto fish and i almost screamed!

look, normally, it takes a lot to frighten me. but when the distorto fish are factored into the equation, i just curl up in a fetal ball and cry until their brutal images unburn themselves from my retinas.

irrational fear? of course it is. but let me tell you, i'm not going scuba diving any time soon.

book end

as promised, here's the final tally of the great bookoff of 2004.

somehow i managed to finish two more books in the last two days to bring the grand total up to 134.

those last two being, for those who are interested,speedy death by gladys mitchell (if groc is reading this, let me tell you, the mrs. bradley in the book ain't no diana rigg!) and sharing good times by president jimmy carter.

shut up. i'd read jimmy carter's grocery list. i idolize that man!

anyway, happy new year, blahblahblah.

i have to get started on my 150 books project for 2005. and it looks promising! i'm already 39 pages into asleep by banana yoshimoto!