red hair and black leather

MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE, BITCHES.

In which Patrick Stump shows us his mad genius.

Cellists headbanging whilst playing... well I won't spoil that part for you.

And if I'm going to be linking to headbanging cellists, I need to put Apocalyptica in here. Hall Of The Mountain King. One.

ESPN feature on Roller Derby. A lot of the footage is from the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, MN. Whoo! These women make miss playing rugby. Not enough, to, you know, go out for any of the teams here, but still.

More seriously, Amazing slide show of a wedding photo shoot interrupted by the quake in China

It looks like the Summit Fire is coming under control, thankfully.

Almost into the weekend. \o/!!

From Wired:

Why French DSL Service Is Like a Rude French Waiter

PARIS -- France has more broadband DSL customers than most countries, including the United States. But if you happen to be one of the millions of customers having major problems with your connection, then life can be a living hell. High-tech service in France is like service in a Parisian cafe -- intermittent and snooty.

Not a day goes by when 60 Millions de Consommateurs, the French equivalent of Consumer Reports, isn't inundated with complaints from DSL subscribers about a faulty connections, abusive pricing practices or incompetent technical support. Nearly half of all complaints are DSL-related, the publication says.

"Imagine if one customer out of four complained that a bakery's bread was not fresh," the publication wrote.

The rest of the article is interesting, and the level of service described would have most Americans howling in rage. I just adore the fact that bread is held to the highest expectations in a major publication. Brilliant.

And now I want a warm roll and dark chocolate. Le yum.

Random squee-ables:

• aimeejmc will be here on Friday! And there will be rampaging and dinner and wandering and the Komen Race For The Cure! Yay!


• First weekend of October, I will be in Nashville with smonsterbite, luluminion, wildgreentide, and alterjess! Huzzah!


• I may crosses fingers have a bartending gig. More as things develop. Bounce!


• I have a gift cert. for a mani/pedi and another one for a massage. Yum!


• I will be seeing Lucero in October and I just got their new CD & buttons in the mail. SQUEE!


• I'll be seeing Joan Jett in November and The Dixie Chicks at some point with la_perkins! Music-licious!


• I've been working out often & consistently for over a month and I'm seeing very good results. Healthy!


• I have a very good man in my life, and I'll get to introduce him to more friends this weekend. Awwwwwww.

So, what's good in your life?

Elmo is a 45-year old African-American with a deep voice. (NYT, registration required, visit bugmenot.com if need be.) I've found Elmo kind of annoying, but Mr. Clash's story is pretty damn cool.


Killa and T. Jonesy's Star Trek sings "Knights Of The Round Table" is up on DevilDucky, and is hilarious.


Man shoots hanggliders at Ft. Funston, then turns the gun on himself. The victims are friends of a friend - please spare a good thought or three for them.


Crap. I should stay more on top of things - PopScene's 10th anniversary bash tomorrow should be pretty damn awesome. Of course it's sold out - also, why are The Killers looking like a 70s rock band?


I'm sure many people have already seen Stylus Magazine's Top 100 Videos Of All Time, but in case you haven't....


serenada, do you know of Corky & The Juice Pigs at all? (I'm assuming they've been in Montreal a few times, but I could be wrong.) They're well worth the watch.


Huh. Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski lost the primary, so the race is between Tony Knowles and Sarah Palin. Murkowski used to be a Senator - he, Don Young, and Ted Stevens have been in political office for as long as I can remember, and for much longer before that - almost the entire life of Alaska as a state. (My family is, of course, supporting the Democrat Tony Knowles.) I also notice that the natural-gas pipeline is a major issue for both candidates. I know it's a factor in BP shutting the Pipeline down - they want the gas pipeline, and are reminding AK exactly how dependent the state is on those companies. My question is - what's Canada's stance on this thing? This is bigger - in both a financial and security way - than the Alaska-Canada Highway. If Canada doesn't want it, it's a non-issue. Or, at least, it won't be happening for a while.

So - went to see Sisters at the Warfield last night. They were good, but the sound mix was hella muddy, even after I moved out of the pit, and the copious smoke started bothering me after a while. (Gods, I feel old typing that. Stupid bronchitis.) However, we got in for free and got semi-VIP treatment, so I'm not complaining a bit. I was just happy to see them.

The Warfield is possibly one of the most beautiful theaters I've seen. Wow.

I was too lazy to go all-out, so I went for my Standard Gothy Concert Ensemble - all black velvet - tank, long skirt, swoopy overdress, with black boots and the usual makeup. There was some beautiful corsets wandering around last night.

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Diablo Cody rocks my world. If you haven't heard of her, check out her blog and then read her book.

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I am in lurve with the shirt I'm wearing today. The cut is a pretty standard women's button-down, but the cuffs and the fabric make it. It's a black stretchy fabric with satiny pinstriping, and the cuffs are long enough to be French cuffs, but with only one buttonhole. I know they're meant to be folded backl, but I'm wearing them down which makes me feel like Rusty Ryan, who would totally be my Seekrit Fictional Boyfriend if he weren't so in love with Danny already. (Apropos of Teh Pretty - I think this picture should go up on a certain site, iff'n the admin likes. Such nice hands he has.)

Right. Back to clothing. (Rusty is such a clotheshorse. See! He's perfect!) The shirt is from H&M. Their selection is pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to things that flatter me, but when they hit, they hit. I have my new favorite blazer from them, too.

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I definitely need this Avenging Unicorn Play Set.

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I think tonight will be mellow. I'll probably try to run, and then maybe walk up to Safeway & Trader Joe's. I need to break down and get one of those wheely-cart dealies that the old ladies in Chinatown are always dragging about. A mile is fairly long to be carrying groceries & 20 pounds of cat litter & 10 pounds of cat food all by myself. Oh, and I have Hustle & Flow from Netflix. Awesome.

Phew. Long weekend. Very long weekend. Need to not do that to myself so much. Damn. V. tired. Am like to falling down.

Plus, no rest tonight or tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going straight from work to the CalTrain depot to meet a friend from Minneapolis who now lives in LA who's working in Palo Alto this week - we're going to wander around South Beach and have dinner before he has to go back to work.

Tomorrow, I go straight from work to dinner with another friend and then we go see Cats. Why Cats? Because I won two free tickets from Theatre Bay Area. I wouldn't have gone to see it otherwise - I've never seen it, actually. Just didn't appeal. However, I am never one to turn down free theater, and since said friend is depressed, I figure it's good to get him out of the house.

Linky! The new X-Men 3 posters have been rolled out. Nummy Wolverine. And I want Jean Grey's outfit. Yes.

Right. 20 more minutes, then dinner. Then maybe karaoke. Possibly not. I am that tired. And that Random. Phew.

Half the regulars must have been at Star Wars. Not complaining, though. We had a great group of people at our table, and I got to talk to every single one of them. I like it when there's less people, because we get to be more rowdy. As in - someone drank beer out of someone else's clog last night. Whackiness and hijinks continued to ensue. (I love the word hijinks. I think it's the three dotted letters right in a row.) (And now I just realized that I repeat my love of the word hijinks every 8 months or so. I should pay more attention to what I write.)

I also talked to a friendly acquaintance who was there the night I fell. He has a better memory of what happened than anyone else, so I got to hear further details (though I didn't need to know what the impact sounded like. Really, I didn't).

Stayed out too late because I was talking, but I did get a 9-mile run in yesterday before rehearsal, so I'm not kicking myself too hard. Must get food soon, though.

18 paper resumes going out today. 5 emailed resumes went out yesterday. I also applied to 6 internal positions. Nothing like work-related stress dreams to kick my ass into gear, is there?



(I've started listing music lately, but it's only what's in my head here at work. No radio in the cube for the juliana. She finds it rude.)

But I don't.

On various posting boards, I keep typing entries and then deleting them, as they rarely make sense even to me. Either that, or they're fullout snarks at people, and I either don't want to get into it or I'm trying to practice kindness, whichever suits my mood that day.

I had Fun With HairDye last night. My first time attempting a demipermanent (RAW from Hot Topic - seriously, my hairstylist recced the reds to me), and whoo-boy. I don't think I'll be using the demis much. I'd rather do the hair-damaging full permanents, at least as long as I'm keeping the hair short. Then again, I can't seem to find a scarlet that I like in the permanents, which is why I got pointed at the demis, but have you seen my bathroom? White tile and white grout - not a good combo with the red. Plus, this demi smells like patchouli. Bleagh.

Watched Star Wars: A New Hope as I ran my long run yesterday. Turns out they did give us fair warning that this was the last time we could buy the original versions. Sigh. Han shot first, dammit. I so love that movie, in all of its cheesy 70's cheap plastic glory.

I completely forgot today was V-Day. Shows how much importance I place on the day, huh? Even so, I managed to put on a red top. Not that hard, considering that everything in my work wardrobe is either black or red, but still. Funny.

The weather has been Teh Craxy the past few days. Rain yesterday, snow today, who knows what for the rest of the week. Oddness.

The show opened well. We had photo call yesterday after the matinee, which would have been fine, except that the photographer has little to no people skills and he brought his 4-year-old son with him. Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is to be posing in a cage as a go-go dancer/whore and hear a tiny piping voice asking Daddy about whatever random toy the child has? And then the shots of all of us grinding merrily away, where we had to hold difficult poses and listen to him wrangle the child. Yeeeeeargh. Those who know me know I have very little modesty around adults, but even I have Issues with displaying like that around children.

I was quite virtuous yesterday, possibly to make up for the copious amounts of napping I did on Saturday. I managed to work out before the show, and then I cleaned the living room and culled clothing from my closet. I'm finally giving away my rugby jersey. Kind of sad, but I'm still keeping my Gustavus Rugby jacket & sweatshirt, so it's not too much of a shock. There were clothes in storage that I haven't worn in over 5 years, and going through them brought home how much I've changed in the intervening time. It's a very good thing, as the rugby is the only thing I miss from past lives, but still odd.

Poor Z. He got home from Trivia Weekend yesterday with an aching back and exhaustion. Apparently the driver's side windshield wiper broke as he was driving home from St. Cloud, and he had to spend the rest of the drive leaning over into the passenger's seat in order to see. Not the best way to spend a Sunday evening. Poor guy went to sleep before I did, which is a rarity in our household.

Happy days to everyone. May those who hate the day get through with a minimum of crap, and may those who love it enjoy it to the fullest. Me, I'm going to treat myself to some gyoza. Nothing says loving like Japanese appetizers, dammit.

To all the New Englanders who were trying to tempt me their way when I complained about the cold and ice here, I say: Neener.

I will not mention the 6 inches of snow we're currently getting. I'm just glad we live right behind the Guthrie right now, so we don't have to deal with idiot drivers.

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I am very sad that Satsuma season is over. I am trying to console myself with Clementines, but they are not the same. They are dry and bitter compared to the sweet juicy tartastic goodness of mandarin oranges. I've never found a citrus fruit that I like as much as mandarins. Hell, only raspberries and cherries top mandarins in my Pantheon Of Fruit.

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Rehearsal is going well. I only wandered onstage for a total of 10 minutes out of a 3-hour rehearsal session last night, but my attention was absorbed by Leading Women: Plays For Actresses. I tore through 5 full-length plays - which I will review in my next post.

I'll need to bring crosswords or something to work on during shows, though. I'll have a lot of downtime, but not enough to allow myself to be absorbed into a book. Besides, I enter an incredibly private headspace when I'm reading, which is not conducive to performing.

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Have I mentioned how much I love our treadmill? Because I do. It's so easy to just hop on for 20 minutes and then hop off. I could never do that with running outside - I either need to bundle up or apply sunscreen, and once I've gone to that trouble, I don't want to have it be a wasted effort, so if I don't have enough energy for a full run, I may as well just stay in and nap, and then I get out of shape. I do miss the outdoor runs, but they will return soon enough.

Other good things - If I feel like doing a hill workout, I can just program it in instead of having to calculate how many blocks I've run and what that distance is in my head and where I should go next. It also keeps me to a strict pace, which I'm incredibly lazy about doing on my own.

I'm a little obsessed with getting into shape right now, because I fear what the costumer will put me in for Measure For Measure. I am playing a whore, after all. I did have the goal of getting into super shape before the end of 2004, but I got a little derailed. I look upon this as catch-up. This week has been very good, with some sort of exercise occurring every day. (Monday's was before my tummy rebelled.) I hope I keep this up.

I think I love the treadmill most because it gave me another context to run in, so it revitalized all of my running. Yes.

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Ganked from lysana - my Humor type:

Sunny/Dark: 1/10
Dry/Gross: 5/10
Traditional/Offbeat: 4/10
Active/Passive: 6/10


You are a SGT--Sunny Gross Traditional. This makes you a John Hughes.

Your sense of humor makes you the ultimate every- person, just I'm-a try not to trouble nobody. You're laid back. Like la-a-a-aid back. You might be from the Midwest.

You enjoy the occasional weird or dark humor, and the right joke out of nowhere can really make you laugh out loud. In fact, the funniest stuff for you is the stuff that takes you off guard. If you can see it coming, you don't want to see it arrive.

You probably don't think this site is all that funny. So it's weird that you're here. I appreciate it, though. Maybe I'll cut back on the ranting and say something nice for a change.

Your Active humor score of 6/10 means you are ju-u-ust right. You're probably pretty popular -- a walking social lubricant. You know how to take someone from on edge to relaxed, and from relaxed to larfing. You're kind of like an episode of Arrested Development. That show is good. Anyway. Rave on, funny one.


If you want to take it to find out yours, go here.