Sigh. It’s finally over.

Finals week was a monstrous labyrinth. Fire, ogres, pain sticks, hot MAGMA!!! And I survived. With black hair, no less.

That’s right. Kristen helped dye my hair black. It’s pretty freakin’ cool.

Mom told me about the new Moby album coming out next week, and lo! and behold! Two hours later I have it! Tis pretty decent. Very 80’s new wave.

Now, I’m in that part of the year where it’s the all-of-a-sudden death stop. Going going going in class, and then STOP. I don’t want to do anything with my days, but I feel I should be doing something. Sigh...

It’s not so bad, though. Just rainy.

back from sxsw. so much happened in such few days. i didn’t stay up late for many of them, but what time i spent awake ruled. first i will attempt to compile a list of bands i stood up for/sat down waiting to end/ just happened to see play wherever i was/heard from across the fences but imagined looking at them.

-some weird bands from england.
-lou barlow
-mac mccaughan dj’ed
-the thermals
-the wrens
-stars
-spoon
-decibully
-the album leaf
-isis
-pelican
-these arms are snakes
-lou barlow again
-m. ward
-radar brothers
-the rosebuds
-crooked fingers
-crooked fingers on kvrx
-m. i. a. from the bridge outside the patio party
-gossip
-supersystem (one second of it!)
-aqueduct
-the long winters
-rosebuds
-crooked fingers again
-the honorary title
-les george leningrad
-listened to nada surf from the patio of a bar which was butt up against the club where they were playing.

im sure there are more in there somewhere and i knew i should have written it down while it was happening, but that just didn’t happen.

amazing people..like subpop, kapu, barsuk (hot guys yes), gct affiliates, spoon dinner at POLVO’s..hehe. canadian music directors are the craziest people i’ve ever laid eyes on. didn’t take many pictures but i gotta get them on the internet soon!

saturday night was the craziest. we went out to the best bbq i’ve ever eaten with the natural history & radar brothers, (natural history are some hot dudes) and drank lemon drops at the touch & go party, travelled over to the side bar for whiskey drinks and pitchers. i kept it real with jameson in ode to byron and rodolfo, but also hit up fat tire to say salute to tony lee. erikah badu was in our hotel room, as was the limbeck dudes and their wasted press lady. i had the best conversation with patrick limbeck that i’ll ever have in my life, for him and me alike. we almost got on the myspace van. elijah wood was too cool to stand in line for LCD soundsystem and the merge showcase...more like not cool enough to get in the back door.

austin is interesting. we didn’t get to go shopping...sooo depressed.

pictures soon.

in about 2 weeks im getting a new big desk at work so before then i refuse to bring lots of stuff in to "decorate" but after that..wheww..im sure it will be a mess. I finally figured out that i can bring my ipod and use it on my new laptop-i just can’t add new music. at first it screwed it up and i got scared that i broke the computer but macs are quite durable yes?

sxsw in just 4 days!! only 2 days of yarn store stand between me & my indefinite future. i got a bag to take with me and it has this ugly/funny army tank print on the inside. i’m going into a war zone. i’m so excited. i get to see sheffield and rubin and evan and maybe will. my loves. all of them. and maybe meet some cute music directors? but i bet they’re all really dorky (because they’re music directors) and i probably wont talk to them anyway. whatever. free red stripe (woo...!!..guggh)

1. Total amount of music files on your computer?

1,000, 3gb. or so.

2. The last cd(s) you bought was...

i re-bought cuisine non-stop, my favorite french music cd.

3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?

The Daily show’s theme song?? orrr-some arcade fire song.

4. Write down five songs you often listen to or mean a lot to you.

Taken from the top of my Most Played in iTunes:

1. walk through hell
2. perfect teeth (limbeck crossover song)
3. woe
4. soap disco
5. your legs grow - nada surf
i believe these are very different on my ipod. but whatevers!

Songs that mean something to me:

* virginia, don’t drown - chinupchinup
* the radiator hums - cursive
* i will light you on fire - golden shoulders
* perfect teeth
* killian’s red - nada surf

5. What new music are you really excited for in the coming year so far?

spoon record? kinda...i don’t know. it’s still growing on me but it’ll be amazing to work on promoting it

6. What 5-6 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?

i don’t really get this. whoever. i’d like to see katrina’s response

select "Party Shuffle" in iTunes and list the first 5 songs (or set it to list only 5 songs)

angryman - band of bees
walk on me - ben kweller
the never saga - karas flowers
country house - blur
things you call fate - sondre lerche

i’m doing this for tony lee. plus i still have an hour till work. last night duke beat unc by like one point. amaazing. college basketball isn’t like this anywhere else. i forgot what it can be like.

i got a parttime job at acmoore, selling yarn to old ladies. john booker’s sister works there. weirddd. it’s only 5 minutes away. i get a really good discount and stuff there is cheap as it is. my sister came and got a good deal on lots of paint so she can make pictures for her boyfriend year-round. if you live here, as in north carolina, come visit me. please. i get bored.

i had my birthday and it was good, mom bought me an ice cream cake yumm and now it’s all gone. i got 4 free songs on itunes from pepsi tops someone gave me.

sxsw--i’m tooootally going. it’s going to be the reunion. i will love it. hopefully. i think all the good bands are scheduled for saturday night so it’ll be really hard to get out and see them all..i hope these venues are really near eachother. i’m hoping to make connections..is that bad? whatever. today i got rid of the california plates on my car. i’m hoping to save them forever....siigh. i think i’ll have bojangles for dinner. or..hmm...shells & cheese. or a ham sandwich. or PIZZA MM..durham should open a cabo san luis. i would die.

ps-only like a week till scott pilgrim 2. and only like 2 years till its a major motion picture..!

the other night i went to cats cradle & saw local bands..they were alright. it was basically a big high school reunion, but the only people there were people in the class above and below mine. obviously no one cool was in mine.

but i was sittin outside wasting some time on the phone with LA, and dan williams walked by with his girlfriend. so we talked for two minutes and then left. it was veryveryweird. i’m still not comfortable running into people i used to know///but it’s like they didn’t even know me. we know our names, we know what we’re going to college for, we don’t know anything else about eachother. i don’t like being forced to be friends with people just because you live here and you have nothing else going on and you slightly knew them five years earlier, when you were the most awkward you’ve ever been, and in since years have come to know nothing about them, but a tremendous amount more about yourself. siigh.

so i might make it over tonight to see the b-sides, my former loves, but im still not ready to sit in the dark bar myself staring at them and wishing we were still friend. eesh. new years was uneventful. i didnt go out. but the life aquatic was good, i guess, not as good as i was hoping.

i just went to caribou coffee and got a white mocha....almost as good as linnaea’s, but not as authentic. they gave me a chocolate espresso bean, trader joe’s style, and now im all jacked up and twitchy.

here’s my quicky summary of cruising america- kronmiller style

it took way too long to get to las vegas. we packed the car and left by 8:30am, which was really good. at first i didn’t think we’d be able to fit everything but apparently my mother is a packing wizard. so the road to vegas is long and boring, but the mojave desert has some neat geographical qualities. and you can’t go too fast on some of the parts-as alex and natalie pointed out (they got tickets for going 95). but we got to vegas and it was extremely dry-good thing we had lots of water with us in the desert. i never saw the "welcome to las vegas" sign that i always see in movies, but whatever. went dropped by the venetian but it was kinda boring-that was the only place where i was asked if i wanted a drink. we didn’t get one though. then we went to the MGM where we were staying. our hotel was really nice, and i took a shower that night, after being covered in smoke, and felt really nice and relaxed. stopped by the lions to see paul and brett, but couldn’t meet up with everyone else because they went somewhere far away. the buffet at the excalibur was a little disappointing, but it was the cheapest on the block.


from las vegas we traveled south and west to arizona, stopping by the hoover dam. we got there pretty early in the morning but the foreign travelers were already packing in. it was pretty boring to look at, but big and important i guess. stopped for lunch (subway), and made it to flagstaff with a couple naps in between. the road out of flagstaff is really cool-flagstaff reminded me of colorado for some reason-not that i’ve been there before, but there was old snow on the ground and lots of pine trees.

we finally made it into new mexico, stopping at gallup for state magnets that my sister kept asking for. lots of native american stores there. and into albuquerque, nothing too exciting, but a quiet road where you can go 80mph. it was nighttime by then, where i ate the 2nd half of my subway sandwich, and hopped on the 25 going straight down south. on the way down, we got really freaked out (delusionally tired), and thought there was a car coming our way on the highway. so i screetched on the brakes, but kept riding when we realized we were just going crazy. we stopped for the night in "truth or consequences, NM" aptly named after some stupid tv show of the 50’s. apparently its real name is just hot springs. hehe. but it was a nice little motel, and we slept well. the next morning it was still dark out and we had to scrap ice off the windshields. but it wasn’t too bad. in the morning it was a quick half hour to las cruces, and another quick hour to el paso, TX.

everything in texas is advertized as "texas style" or "as big as texas." texas steakhouses, texas roadstops..i don’t get it. at least they have pride, i guess? from el paso we traveled on the 10 all the way to pecos where it switches to the 20, east east east all the way. texas is one big, ugly state. with lots of walmarts. seriously. and bigrigs. finally though, around nightfall, we reached fort worth. it was a big city to drive through, but once you’re through it, you’re in dallas..which is even bigger to get through. my mom was driving and it was night, so of course she was getting really nervous and freaked out by the traffic, but i made some phone calls and we reached another best western. my exboyfriend, evan, from freshman year tried to get me to go up to his part of dallas (north, we were staying in south-east), but i said no way, come see me, and so he did, with my good friend will. it was nice to see them. i thought evan wasnt sounding excited to see me when i mentioned it to him earlier, but when we saw eachother i think it was good. i needed to see him. it’s been a long time. we just hung out for like an hour at an outback steakhouse, drinking fat tire beer (which is quite good-better than expected), and said goodbye again. the next morning we continued through north texas and landed our butts in shreveport, louisiana.

shreveport was a bunch of nothing, but their welcome center was very nice, and the 7 old ladies working there were very welcoming. it was kinda cold and cloudy, but no bad weather there. louisiana was a nice state to drive through, we continued thru the northern part of the state..it didn’t take too long to get through it, i don’t think.

over the mississippi is, of course, mississippi state. we had to stop in MS to see our old neighbors and my mom’s tennis friends. but for this, we went through jackson and hopped on this little side road into starkville, MS. it’s the home of mississippi state. a nice little college town. they had a huge house, and cute doggies. and i watched the apprentice finale. we were near tupelo, MS, where elvis was born, but didn’t get to go up there and see anything interesting. the next day we made it quickly to birmingham.

alabama is a bunch of nothing, as far as i can tell. one confusing thing to us was where the next time change would occur. basically we had friday to get from MS thru the time change to athens, GA by 1pm and home in NC by nighttime.

atlanta traffic wasn’t horrible but i got turned around getting to athens, so it took longer than expected. mom was pissed, of course, but oh well. athens is a cute little town-too much traffic-but it looks just like chapel hill. seriously. college ave. and broad are just like franklin st. and rosemary. and then on our way to south carolina!

SC is a bunch of lame, as well. i’ve always disliked south carolina, maybe because everyone confuses us with them. we are 1000x better than them. they’re a bunch of hicks. but thankfull, it’s a small state and easy to pass through.

once we popped by the border, charlotte traffic took hold. that was around 6pm, rush hour, but it wasn’t really that bad for a friday night. greensboro came and went, and i thought about trying to get the good greensboro college stations but my car radio kinda sucks at picking up small frequencies. we made it home to durham by 9pm. it ruled. i was tired. but we unpacked a litte, not all the way, and right away realized how sucky living at home can be.



so that’s my travel log of sorts. we went over 3,100 miles (could have been more like 2,500 but we went the long way for some reason). i’d recommend driving with someone who knows how to keep her foot on the gas, instead of increasing and decreasing speed, and lets you listen to music without freaking out about trucks driving next to you.

1. Your name spelled backwards: yesdnil
2. Where were your parents born? mom-maryland, dad-california
3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? i re-downloaded mozilla foxfire
4. What’s your favorite restaurant? tsurugi
5. Last time you swam in a pool? umm.pssh. a while ago. maybe at the beach in september
6. Have you ever been in a school play? duh
7. How many kids do you want? a handful
8. Type of music you dislike most? pop crap
9. Are you registered to vote? yepp
10. Do you have a car? toyota corolla. it’s pink.
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped? no :(
12. Ever prank call anybody? when i was on the tennis team we did that.
13. Ever get a parking ticket? yes unfortunately
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? meh
16. Do you have a garden? no, my roommate always says he’s going to start one but he’s too lazy. we have a compost pile though
17. What’s the size of your bed? tiny
18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? i dont care
19. Bath or Shower, morning or night? shower in the morning, or at night when i need a 2nd wind
20. Best Movie You’ve seen in the Last 4 months? i <3 huckabees
21. What’s the next movie you want to see? kinsey
22. Chips or popcorn? chips mixed with pretzels, or popcorn with season salt
23. Have you ever broken any hearts? pssh
24. Premarital sex? i wish
25. Are you a good cook? when i try
26. Orange or Apple juice? apple juice with calcium
27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you go to? i go out like every day. probably cugini’s a couple nights ago with chris
28. Favorite type of drink? sooodaa. or hot tea, or sweet iced tea
29. Best thing in the world? busy and happy
30. Have you ever broken a bone? pinky toe
31. Have you ever won a trophy? hehe nope
32. What is your favorite board game? yess scattegories! is that really a board game? whatever.
33. What is your dream car? maybe a hybrid
34. Ever order an article from an infomercial? nope
35. Coke or Pepsi? coke
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work? L&D shirt.haha
37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy? bobby pins
38. Who are you going to marry? a hot guy
39. Who would you like to meet? lots of neat people
40. Do you believe in love at first sight? nah
41. What features do you find most attractive in the opposite sex? hair hands eyes smile..orr sense of humor
42. Where would you go for a romantic evening? bedroom
43. How many pairs of shoes do you own? 5 maybe
44. Last song stuck in your head? haha. you dont want to know
45. Any pets? my roommate has a cat
46. What’s your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character? meh.
47. What is one thing you would like to learn to do? web stufff, or speak french maybe.
48. What do you do when you are bored? play pacman
49. What is one thing you would want someone to appreciate about you? responsibility
50. What is one thing you are grateful for today? being almost done with college

 

if you want to win awesoooome packages, listen to www.kcpr.org.

on wednesday around 3-6pm i’ll be giving away a ton of doghouse, etc. music. and tshirts. and crazy junk. listen in. its a lot of fun. m-f 10-6pm. 805 756-5277 756-1518 756-1519

all i ever do on here is post surveys and playlists. so here is some news:

i’m leaving california in about 4 weeks. i’ll be graduated. my mom and i are driving across the country and i’m going to live at home until i find a job. but i may be getting one in athens, georgia. because i applied to team clermont. it took me about a month to finally apply, but once i sent in my application it took about 4 days for the boss to email me asking me to call him. it took me another two days for me to call him and we talked for, hmm..i would say maybe 15 minutes. he’s really nice and relaxed and not mean and kinda doesn’t understand why i’m a theatre major, but all in all, it was a nice phone interview. he wants to meet me on my way back to the east coast so we can get to know eachother better and i can meet some of the staff of team clermont. soo i’m kind of excited about it but i don’t want to get my hopes up. if you know anyone who lives in georgia, tell them that they should be friends with me. it seems really similar to san luis obispo, and even chapel hill for that matter, except they have the elephant six people instead of K records or merge records.

this week at kcpr is our annual auction where we make people bid on a lot of crap. but tomorrow 1-2 i’m auctioning off a whole mess of cool hydrahead and tortuga records, so if you like that kind of thing, listen in. www.kcpr.org.

OR: A Lesson in Learning Your Place



So, today was going to be a normal show day at KCPR, or so I assumed. Nothing too unusual. I got a tarinee. She is nice.

Anyway, I am sitting in my little commander’s chair, the one next to the microphone. I spy, through our window facing the doors of the station, a group walk in. A group of people. Scary people. Tattooed people. People wearing all black.

"Oh, shit," I remark.

My trainee agrees.

A young woman walks in. "Hi!" she exclaims happily. "I’m with this band, called Infernal Legion. We met a DJ at some local record store yesterday, and he said he could get us on the air!"

Um.

So, I chat a little with this lady. She says she is the band’s booking agent / photographer. Fine. Whatever. I agree to interview a band member, as I feel that, if I do not, I will be shanked with a shiv made of a human skull.

Let’s call this dude Chad. Chad the drummer. (I forgot his name). "Hi, Chad!" I say happily. "I hear you’re with Infernal Legion! What sort of music do you play?"

"Um, death metal," says Chad, in a monotone voice. "We are gonna drink beer and worship Satan."

"Great!" I exclaim. I cut an Eels song short and play track 2 from their CD (the one with the Bible in flames -- oh, you know, those wacky devil worshippers!).

...

Five minutes later, the song finally ends. The vocalist has been singing in that scary voice that death metal singers use -- the one that makes them sound like they are a two-hundred year old chain-smoking mummy. That one. He practices while the song plays. He has dredlocks.

The band finally leaves. That makes me happy.

I find out later that a punk trainee (who is not technically yet a KCPR DJ) was the one who tipped the band off in the first place. This makes me not happy. It was not his place to drag a band of stereotypes into the station. Do not promise people things you cannot deliver. In addition, if you are a peon, do not try to exercise what limited rights you think you have.

Oh, it was hilarious -- the band, that is. But damn, was I pissed at the stupid trainee.

Anyway.

INFERNAL LEGION BLEARGGJVGBEKWGVCJHWGCKHqcxvVLJKGSWVKCHG VDKJCQWC!!! :(

UPDATE
Reading through the ever-so-wonderfully crafted lyrics, I feel the need to punch myself in the face.
One swing of my axe off with your head
Add to my collection of heads and spines
...lame. Is all death metal this idiotic?

The original plan, once I got off of the ship in Honolulu, was to go cliff jumping at some local waterfalls (Pakena Falls I think). After that I?d figure I?d cruise around town and explore the nightlife; eventually I wanted to end up and the local Dave & Busters (a Chucky Cheeses for adults: video games, pool, shuffleboard, darts, alcohol, and a live band). This is not what happened, but I had a great time anyway.

Everybody on the ship only had until 11 PM to mess around in Honolulu. I left with a small group of friends late in the morning; our first goal was to hire a taxi to take us to the falls. Unfortunately all the taxi drivers we talked to, and the taxi dispatch agent my friend talked with on the phone, had never heard of the falls that we wanted to find. Oh well.

So my little group decided to head towards Waikiki beach. Half the time we walked, half the time we rode a bus. Honolulu is a colorful, surprisingly clean town composed mostly of hotels resembling huge appliances that fell from the sky.

The local vegetation was a treat. I spent some time climbing on banya trees (large trees that send think, rope-like roots down to the ground from their branches) and playing with mimosas (little plants that fold up their leaves and lower their stems when touched).

We stopped for grub at an aluminum trailer by a small marina. The proprietor of the little grub stand was a kindhearted older gent? whose skin had turned to leather years ago. I had coconut shaved ice served on top of a scoop of Haupia ice cream (a creamy coconut flavor only available in Hawaii). It was beyond delicious (especially with a can of orange-pineapple pop).

After snack time we hit the beach. The water was warm (not as warm as Saipan). After a little swim we hiked along the beach behind a continuous string of resorts. One of my companions happened to recognize a friend (she had been trying to contact her via cell phone all day) out of a crowd of choir singers that were performing for the occupants of a hotel that we were passing. My friend stayed to watch the show while I and two others went to hit the beach (the music was too show-tooney for me).

We tried to bodysurf with little success (the waves broke unpredictably), and I stubbed my toes on bits of coral at least two dozen times. At six the group reconvened at the choir girl?s (Sarah) resort. She was nice enough to let several total strangers rinse off in her shower and change into dryer clothes.

We met up with more friends of my friend and got some grub. We ate at Bubba Gump?s, a corny but tasty seafood joint based on the movie ?Forest Gump?. Every surface was decked out with Forest Gump paraphernalia: ping pong paddles, tv?s with Forrest Gump playing on them, license plates with ?Run Forest Run? printed on them, and a bunch more tacky crap.

The food was expensive (I spent over $30 on a meal and a pina colada), but tasty. I had a bucket of fried shrimp, lobster tails, and Ahi ahi. I had a great time talking to Viki?s friends (Viki was one of the shipmates I was hanging out with that day) about Hawaii, pigeon english, and tails of our travels.

After ice cream it was almost eleven so we had to say goodbye to our new pals. It seems that each time I?ve made friends on this trip I?ve had to say goodbye to them too soon. Oh well.

-Now begins the tale of what transpired during the evening of ?The Longest Day?.

Soon after I returned to the ship everyone else returned in a drunken flood (their were two bars within sight of where the ship was docked). I was sober (only one drink that night), but I still had fun with everyone. Since everyone had to be back early a big batch of crazy ensued immediately after curfew. It was localized around the aft 01 deck and the balcony of the 02 deck.

A game of keep away between the girls and boys raged for about forty-five minutes, people were hurling packs of unpopped popcorn at each other, and many were um . . . ?enjoying? their last night with a significant other. I aam amazed nobody was seriously injured (lots of drunken kids running around where EVERYTHING is made of steel).

I messed with everyone (using my mini-soaker squirt gun with maximum humorous effectiveness), talked and flirted (part of this involved doing pull-ups for for the affections of one of my favorite shipmates), and wreslted around with my bros.

Eventually, almsot everyone hit the sack. As the night became early morning I played some chess and chatted with some of my closer friends. I lost (after a while), but I was having a hard time focusing on the game anyway.

I didn?t sleep. I didn?t want to. After watching a piece of a mediocre romantic comedy I went back outside to wait for dawn; it wasn?t that spectacular since the sky was exceptionally cloudy, but I did have a very interesting talk with a friend about the future and growing up.

I wasn?t sure how I felt about the the end of the trip. It really hadn?t hit me that it was over. Most the time I spent between by myself before dawn was spent remembering what had happened that day and early, thinking about people on the ship, and gazing at the twinkling cityscape.

It was a very long and interesting day. Again, this is only a summation of what happened.

Well, I had to get up at eight in the morning today (after staying up until three last night playing Illuminati and getting as close to winning without winning). Why did I have to rise early? To serve my two hours of extra duty for failing to sign something weeks ago. It wasn’t really bad at all, just filing such. The only thing that bugs me is that the Purser (who runs the ship’s office) waited until almost the last day of cruise to make me work. Whatever.

I spent the day finishing my last report. Needless to say that when the BBQ (mmm, chicken + corn + cheesebread= yum) rolled around at five I was more than a little stir crazy. The food and the view of the Hawaiin islands quickly chilled me out. The senior CMA cadet were being tested on steering the ship so were doing manuevers by Hawaii today.

It’s been an interesting night. There was a dance after the BBQ, but the music was pretty much crap so I tried to soak up the waves/wind/stars/moonlight. I won’t be able to for much longer.

I was thinking about some more interesting sutff, but now my mind has been wiped by a funny movie on the tube across the room. Crap. Oh well.

Shortly after my folks left yesterday Ellen and I stopped at her house to pick up items. We had decided to hike up black hill (hike details and photos to follow,) and she wanted hiking shoes, her phone, etc. As she put her things together I went out to my car for my camera because Annika’s cats were being cute. Just then, a fellow in shorts and a beat-up T-shirt approached, breathing heavy and acting frantic.

"Hi, hey, I don’t know if you know or if there’s anything you can do, but I was out hiking back up the road a few minutes ago," he said, "and I saw this little white spot on the ground and it just caught my attention, you know, because it didn’t look natural and it was bright white and I dug it out of the ground and it turned out to be a skull! I kept digging and I found a bunch of other bones and I wasn’t sure if I should call the police or what and I went and talked to Harold Miossi and he didn’t know what to do and he said he didn’t want anything to do with it but now I’m worried and I don’t know if it’s a missing person or what or if the police want to know, you know? I just don’t want to leave it because it what if it’s a person and I couldn’t live with my conscience and I don’t know what to do but I want to do the right thing, you know? Maybe we should tell the authorities or something...."

I cut him off at some point and suggested he show me where it was. He obviously thought he had come across the bones of some person recently lost in the grass out near Cuesta park and he was really quite beside himself with fear and probably the simple shock of seeing unidentified skeletal remains. Calling the police occurred to me as well but I decided not to jump the gun considering the likely number of animal carcasses scattered throughout the valley at that precise moment. I suggested he show me where the exact site was. So the fellow Brent and I hopped in DIA and made tracks up onto old Harold Miossi’s ranch. We missed the turnoff to the small trail because Brent was still lost in the world of missing persons and/or "the right thing to do" and wasn’t paying attention. Finding the trailhead on the second try, we made our way through the short green grass and headed down along a creek until we reached the bones.

I picked up the skull. Not human. The eye sockets were on the sides and it had a long, though incomplete, snout. The brain cavity was small. Actually, the whole skull was rather small. Softball sized, roughly. I declared to him what I saw. Perhaps you can imagine a scene where a doctor brings good news to a patient? It would go something like, "We have good news, Mr. Brent. Our tests indicate that, in fact, your liver is not going to hemorrhage massively then combust spontaneously sometime this hour. Now go live a happy, productive life." The look of relief on the man’s face when I gave him the good news was about the difference between winter and summer. I showed him the shape of the vertebrae, the pelvis and the skull and teeth, especially and declared it to be a deer, likely. He said he was glad to have brought an expert up to take a look. He asked if I was a biology or medical student. I said that I was not, but that I was happy that I had taken bio and life sciences classes before. I took about thirty pictures and then left the remains for nature to tend to. They will likely be obscured by the grass in a matter of weeks and probably buried or washed away within a year or so.

I dropped the fellow off on Loomis street by the gate to the Miossi ranch. He thanked me again for lifting the burden off his back. I said it was no problem and that it was nice to meet him.

Here are a select few pictures from the scene:


The scull, from the right side.


The skull from below, showing a healthy rack of entirely molars.


The lower half of the wreckage. Note the ribs, vertebrae and pelvis with small tail especially.

The first reason I wanted to post this story is to ask for help identifying this creature. I can be almost completely certain it is a deer, but I’m curious to know if I’m wrong. There are no feet or hooves to give clues nor front teeth, which make me slightly more uncertain. Those aren’t dog teeth, I know for a fact, so it’s not a coyote or a fox. If any biology majors read this and want more pictures, let me know! Please forward this url to any biologists you may know if you, too, are curious. Thanks!

Secondly, I observed here what power a basic education grants a person. Knowing a little bit of biology from high school was all I needed to put the mystery to rest. Brent said, "I’m really glad now that I didn’t call the Sheriff." Being able to deal with body parts in a measured, calm fashion is a skill every kid graduating high school today should have. May the bio lab dissections continue, and may laboratory sciences never go the way of shop, music and art programs.

In other news, meet Specimundi, the iPod.



Specimundi lives in people’s pockets, enjoys music and likes computers.

Specimundi is a special needs appliance much like every other iPod...

iPODS ARE SLOW LEARNERS WHO FOR THE LIFE OF THEM CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO PLAY CONSECUTIVE SONGS WITHOUT A GAP BETWEEN THEM.

Silly retarded iPod. Clearly I thought this issue was fixed but apparently I was lied to by whichever web site I looked at. It wasn’t an Apple site; it was some fan-site and they were wrong.

Not to fear! It’s likely that Apple will add this feature with the next release of iPod’s firmware! RIGHT?? Besides, Apple technical support will probably enjoy talking about it as I call daily requesting the feature be added. Until the featue is added.

In the meantime, Specimundi is making friends with the other appliances in it’s new home--five CD players--which will still be getting a lot of use until therapy and a firmware update can broaden Specimundi’s horizons.....

Post Script: Besides the dead gap space, I’m very happy with the design and performance of this modern technological marvel.

It seems amazing to me how intricate and confusing our world is. It’s also amusing to me how this complicated world has outmoded my mother a time or two.

Chatting with my folks at the breakfast table one morning someone mentioned how raunchy the internet can be. Perhaps I described the best way to steal music without the Feds finding out (peer to peer network) and mentioned that it’s how the kiddies get their porn also. My poor mom says, "Well, I know you can get it on google images, too.

"I wanted to do some research for school on obese teenagers and I typed ’fat teens’ into Google and was SURPRISED BY WHAT POPPED UP!"

My dad saw what was coming before she got the whole story out and tried not to laugh, but oh, did we laugh.

Not everything that showed up was XXX teen hardcore sl*t teen f*** teen fat XXX suck c*m teen sex adult.....but.....


Anyway, there’s an....um....NICHE for everyone’s.....um..........tastes?

Oh. Don’t steal music. That’s bad.

Also: The breakfast table is the same table as the dinner table. Different meal, same table.

10 favorite songs (in no particular order)
1. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
2. Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
3. Voodoo - Godsmack
4. Pity the Child - Chess, the Musical
5. Giants in the Sky - Into The Woods
6. I Am The Walrus- The Beatles
7. Heaven Beside You - Alice in Chains
8. Ebony and Ivory - Barenaked Ladies
9. People are Strange - The Doors
10. Spider Webs - Joan Osbourne

9 favorite things:
1. Laptop
2. Friends
3. Painting
4. Collecting
5. Music
6. IM
7. Poetry
8. Fire
9. Gaming

8 least favorite things:
1. Heavy Perfume
2. Stupid People
3. Intolerance
4. Migraines
5. Beer
6. Loneliness
7. Wasting my time
8. Pain

7 things you can’t do:
1. Through art together hastily
2. Revise my poetry
3. Generate money without effort...
4. See in the dark
5. Use physical force as a problem solving device...
6. Meditate
7. convince my friends I DON’T win at every game...

6 things you’ve never done before:
1. Shot someone
2. Been thrown through a plate glass window
3. Understood Punch Drunk Love
4. gone skinnydipping
5. Levitated
6. Gotten more than buzzed (nor will I)

5 bands you adore:
1. White Stripes
2. The Police
3. The Beatles
4. Alice in Chains
5. Barenaked ladies

4 things you don’t have but wish you did:
1. A job
2. A girlfriend
3. Entertainment
4. Money

3 things you can’t live without:
1. Air
2. Human interaction
3. Food

2 of your favorite imperfections:
1. My pinky finger where i shredded it
2. Chipped tooth from 8th grade...

the only thing you would die for:
1. ::shrug::

[ Current Clothes ]: sweatpants (green)
[ Current Mood ]: lethargic
[ Current Music ]: Weird Al - Can’t Watch This
[ Current Taste ]: saliva
[ Current Make-up ]: none
[ Current Hair ]: Bed-head
[ Current Annoyance ]: Lack of Job
[ Current Smell ]: Vanilla
[ Current Favorite Artist ]: ::shrug::
[ Current Desktop Picture ]: Incompetence (www.despair.com)
[ Current Favorite Group ]: ::shrug::
[ Current Book you’re reading ]: Cyrano DeBergerac - Edmund Rostrand
[ Current CD in CD Player]: Labyrinth Soundtrack
[Current DVD in player]: Pirates of the Carribean
[ Current Color Of Toenails ]: Toenail colored
[ Current Refreshment ]: None

LAST PERSON...
[ You Touched ]: I don’t know... do do that often...
[You Talked to ]: Mike, my roommate
[ You Kissed ]: Kelli ::scowls::

FAVORITE...
[ Food ]: Chinese
[ Drink ]: Ginger Ale
[ Color ]: Green
[ Album ]: no idea
[ Shoes ]: Hiking Boots
[ Candy ]: Altoids Apple Sours
[ Animal ]: Penguin
[ TV Show ]: ???
[ Movie ]: Boondock Saints
[ Dance ]: Swing (now if only i could do it)
[ Song ]: at the moment, Seven Nation Army by White Stripes
[ Vegetable ]: Carrots
[ Fruit ]: Most any...
[ Cartoon ]: Pinky and the Brain

ARE YOU...
[ Understanding ]: yes
[ Open-minded ]: yes
[ Arrogant ]: yes
[ Insecure ]: yes
[ Interesting ]: Who knows...
[ Random ]: usually
[ Hungry ]: no
[ Friendly ]: i try
[ Smart ]: i thought so...
[ Moody ]: yes
[ Childish ]: sometimes
[ Independent ]: yes
[ Hard working ] if I?m motivated
[ Organized ]: chaos theory says maybe...
[ Healthy ]: no
[ Emotionally Stable ]: Usually
[ Shy ]: onlywit girls i like...
[ Difficult ]: definitely
[ Attractive ]: ::tries not to bust up laughing::
[ Bored Easily ]: yes
[ Messy ]: More than a little...
[ Thirsty ]: yes
[ Responsible ]: sometimes
[ Obsessed ]: No
[ Angry ]: No
[ Sad ]: Often
[ Happy ]: On occasion
[ Hyper ]: Not now, but I?ve been known to be?
[ Trusting ]: Yes
[ Talkative ]: Usually

WHO DO YOU WANT TO...
[ Kill ]: Stupid People
[ Slap ]: Clueless people
[ Get Really Wasted With ]: ::blank stare:: ummm... no
[ Get High With ]: even worse...
[ Look Like ]: Collin Farrel
[ Talk To Offline ]: Anyone...
[ Talk To Online ]: Anyone...

[ My Name Is ]: Dragon (sorry, not saying it on here)
[ In The Morning I Am ]: Lethargic
[ All I Need Is ]: Something to live for...
[ Love Is ]: a goal...
[ I’m Afraid of ]: failure
[ I Dream About ]: Nothing... head turns off at night...

-H A V E .Y O U. E V E R . .
[ Pictured your crush naked? ]: No
[ Actually seen ur crush naked ]: No
[ Been in love ]: Yes
[ Cried when someone died ]: Yes
[ Lied ]: Yes

-W H I C H . I S . B E T T E R-
[ Coke or Pepsi ]: Pepsi
[ Flowers or candy]: Candy
[ Tall or short ]: Tall

-W I T H .T H E. O P P O S I T E. S E X-
[what do u notice first?]: Eyes
[last person u slow danced with]: Long time ago... prolly someone from USY...
[worst question to ask]: Will you go out with me? Apparently,straightforward isn’t right...

-W H O-
[makes u laugh the most?]: Hard choice... Maybe Nate
[makes you smile]: Too many to answer just one...
[gives u a funny feeling when u see them]: ::shrug::
[who do you have a crush on?]: ::shrugs:: who knows
[has a crush on u?]: I’ll give you 5 to 1 saying nobody...
[easiest to talk to]: RP

-D O. Y O U .E V E R-
[sit on the internet all night waiting for someone special to I.M. you?]: Yes
[save aol/aim conversations]: Yeah
[wish u were a member of the opposite sex]: No...
[cried because of someone saying something to you]: Yes

-H A V E .Y O U .E V E R-
[fallen for your best friend]: Yes
[been rejected]: Like you need to ask...
[rejected someone]: Yes
[used someone]: Yes
[been cheated on]: No
[done something you regret]: I’m going to say no, but only cause I don’t let myself regret things...

-W H O .W A S .T H E .L A S T. P E R S O N-
[you talked to on the phone]: My Mother ::grumble::
[hugged]: prolly Mary...
[you instant messaged]: Laura
[you laughed with]: RP


-D O .Y O U / / A R E .Y O U-
[smoke cigarettes]: No
[obsessive]: About some things
[could u live without the computer?]: Yes, but I’d be sad....
[color ur hair]: No
[ever get off the damn computer]: Yes
[habla Espanola]: Un poco
[how many peeps are on ur buddy list?]: 98
[drink alchohol?]: Yes
[like watching sunrises or sunset]: Yes
[what hurts the most? physical pain or emotional pain?]: Emotional

Alyssa and I pre-celebrated our 1-year anniversary last tuesday by going to see a really cool modern dance performance at Cal Poly titled Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Here you can see the following descriptions of the repertoire titles we saw: Diphthong, Gimme (I think), Love Stories (my favorite; danced to awesome jazz music), and Rooster. I know there’s probably a few others I’m missing, but the show lasted for 2 hours and was quite good. Alyssa really liked it, too, which I’m happy about. :) Our real anniversary is on the 29th on February, which doesn’t exist this year, so it’ll be the 28th. ;)

I’ve been surfing a few times in the past week... the one great thing the rain brought with it was these wonderful (offshore) SE winds. The surf’s been really fun because of the conditions. I’m probably gonna go surfing again today, so it should be fun. :)

Well I guess what you say is true
I could never the right kind of girl for you.
I could never be your woman.

"Stress is the confusion created when the mind overrides the body’s basic desire to choke the living shit out of some jerk who desperately deserves it." -- Anon.

between lab and banality, I’ll be happy when my day doesn’t consist of persistent feelings of futility, punctuated by occasional vomitous tachycardic moments of anxiety. I thought I’d left those behind months ago.

I live a lot better when I’m out and about. there’s got to be a way I can incorporate my sci-geekness, the computer stuff, photography and a serious case of wanderlust. Spring break seems to be leading towards a camping/climbing/photo trip to Joshua Tree NP, and early summer’s NOLS plans seem have a green light, barring something stupid. If I don’t get my credits from this year (serious possibility, depending on the outcome of this project), I can graduate with credits from NOLS.


Also, a prize goes to the first person to give me a good reason to why I was listening to Annie Lennox covering the Clash’s Train in Vain. I want those minutes of my life back, damn it.

Yesterday’s purchases:

Orthopædic insoles
Billy Idol’s Greatest Hits

That, and I got excessively excited when I found out that Blue Öyster Cult are playing Portland 3/25.

What’s my age again?

That said, life here is chugging along. I’ve put med/grad school plans on temporary to indefinite hold, pending a less tenuous grip on what I want from a prospective future... right now, medschool isn’t it, and I’ve lost most of my taste for graduate-style research. I’ll be doing a wilderness EMT course at NOLS this summer if plans hold together, and after that, I’m open for suggestion/fate/divine intervention. I’ll think about all that after my 4/15 deadline on my lab stuff, however.

(edited to change ? to æ, as tracerj inadvertently pointed that gaffe out to me.)

FOXNews article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148217,00.html

Among the people whose e-mail addresses and numbers were publicized: Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody, Ashley Olsen, tennis greats Andy Roddick and Mark Philippoussis, model Amber Valletta, Jay-Z (under his real name Shawn Carter and actor Luke Wilson.

Paris’ Blackberry also includes her sister, parents, best friend Nicole Richie, Jermaine Dupri, Vin Diesel, Eminem, Shannon Elizabeth, Frankie "Malcolm in the Middle" Muniz, Miami party girl Ingrid Casares, tennis beauty Anna Kournikova, rocker Fred Durst, Christina Aguilera, Avril Lavigne, Lindsay Lohan and her mother, Victoria Gotti, hip-hop star Pharrell Williams, rock heiress Bijou Phillips, lip-syncher Ashlee Simpson, heir Brandon Davis, singer Blu Cantrell, "Boston Legal" actress Rhona Mitra, singer Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, actress Peta Wilson, Leelee Sobieski, Cher’s son Elijah Blue Allman and Yoko Ono flack Elliot Mintz.

There are also numbers stored for the kind of restaurants and hotels only Paris might frequent: Mr. Chow, La Scala, The Soho Grand, Koi, plus New York’s Prive hair salon.

There are the kind of odd friends with whom you might not associate with Paris: criminal defense attorney Robert Shapiro, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the daughter of Pocket Fisherman inventor Ron Popeil and the son of director Ivan Reitman.

There’s also rap and fashion entrepreneur Russell Simmons, rocker Matt Sorum of Velvet Revolver, the daughter of Rod and Alana Stewart, Anders Eisner (son of Disney chief Michael), Warner Music’s Lyor Cohen (misspelled "Leore"), actor Kevin Connolly from "Entourage," Las Vegas hotelier George Maloof, Super Dave Osbourne and Donald Trump competitor Mark Cuban.

In addition, there are some clues to Paris’ personality and education in the notations that came along with this stuff. She spells a foreign country "jermeny." She has a number for a tattoo-removing dermatologist in Beverly Hills. She wants to do business with music exec Andre Harrell and is interested in a "hive movie" at Miramax.

On October 8, 2004, she text messaged a friend named Naomi (Campbell perhaps?): "Do you wanna leave soon, ill pretend I hsve (sic) 2 go pee and u wait 3 mins than come by yourself to the back entrance."

And don’t think that Paris isn’t clever enough to have connections at the tabloids or entertainment TV shows. She has the private instant messaging addresses for Pat O’Brien at "The Insider," Ken Baker at US Weekly and Smokey Fontaine, editor of the hip-hop fashion monthly America magazine.

 

recording new music with body massage is fun.  its 5:30 a.m.  goodnight.

  in case you havent listened to it yet, this william shatner album is actually really good.  i know i know, i feel weird saying that, but it really is awesome.  at least listen to it for his cover of Pulp’s "Common People".  its a little weird to get in to, because shatner doesnt really sing, he kinda talk-sings, but the music is super good and most of his lyrics are really great.

 

 these are the three most embarrassing albums i have ever owned.

3. Candyman - Aint No Shame In My Game.   this album is the worst rap album i have ever heard.  this guy was a rip off of tone loc who is a rip off of decent rap music.  he had one hit, "Knocking Boots".  i was too young at the time to know what knocking boots meant and i just assumed it had something to do with dancing in a coutry bar.  i have since found out what it really means and am quite surprised my parents actually let me listen to this album. 

2.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Coming Out Their Shells.  ok, get this, this wasnt the soundtrack to their movie or tv show or anything.  this was an entire album of new songs written in the style of the ninja turtles and sung by people pretending to be the ninja turtles.  after this album came out they toured the country in their terrible foam costumes singing such great hits as, "Pizza Power" and "April Ballad".  they played at the cow palace in SF and i cried for days when my parents refused to take me to it.  im still a bit bummed out about not going.

1.  Gerardo - Mo Ritmo.  this is possibly the worst album ever made.  this is the guy that had that terrible music video for the terrible song "Rico Suave".  i actually liked that song so much i went out and bought his album on tape.  it was the worst thing ever.  not just worst album, i mean worst thing.  worse than WWII, worse than Apartheid, worse than toni morrison novels, worse than pauley shore movies, worse than crystal pepsi, worse than beanie babies, worse than circumcision, seriously, this album is the worst thing ever.  i cant believe i actually admited to owning it.

 

i listed mine, now you list some of yours.

i grew up in king city california. it has a population of 10,000 and is nestled right in the salinas valley. the salinas valley, besides known for being dreadfully dull, is also famous for its agriculture. so basically king city sat in the middle of broccoli and lettuce fields. we had one movie theatre in that town until 2000 when a 3 screen theatre opened up. let me first tell you the tale of the original movie theatre. it was known as the reel joy and it was the biggest piece of shit movie theatre ever. this movie theatre was run by a man named Rene and his wife Jan. they were friends of my family and pepe would let me watch rated r movie without my parents. the first rated r movie i saw was Navy Seals staring Charlie Sheen. thanks again rene. anyway, this movie theatre was a dump. it was only open on friday and saturday with the potential of a matine on sunday depending on how many peoplewent the 2 previous days and whether or not there was a church function going on or something. also, since we lived in the midle of nowhere and had a shit theatre it took us forever to get movies. the reel joy would be showing a movie in the theatre the same week it was coming out on vhs. the whole place reaked of urine and the floor was so sticky that once it honestly did pull off my shoe. now movies are shipped in reels, usually divided up to about 20-30 minutes of film per reel. now days what they do is they tape all the reels together on a platter and the movie plays through seamlessly. this theatre didnt have that. they had 2 projectors side by side with 1 reel each. as the first reel was ending pepe would turn on the 2nd projector and it would begin playing the next reel and everything was kosher. well for a period of time in 1997 one of the projectors broke. rene, being the genius he is, decides not to repair said projector, using the logic, "i have 1 projector that works perfectly fine, we will just use that and take breaks between reels." this means that when i was watching titanic, a 3+hour movie with over 10 reel changes, i got a 5 minutes break from the film every 20 minutes. now we come to the best part about this movie theatre, the sound system. i swear to you this is real. the speakers blew out during a screening of Three Men and a Little lady and instead of replacing them with new speakers rene took the speakers out of his honda civic and wired them up in the reel joy. i kid you not, the speakers for the reel joy were car speakers. despite all these negative things about this theatre, it was like heaven to us king city kids. you have to understand that the king city had nothing. the next closest movie theatre was about an hour away. there was no music store in king city and the closest one was a sam goody’s that was also about an hour away. all we had was out crappy movie theatre. now we get into some of the incredible things about the reel joy. the first one being the balloon machine in the boys restroom, at least we thought they were balloons at that time. later we found out they were condoms and realized that we were sticking on our mouths what were were suppossed to be sticking on our penis’s. the next great thing was the soda. this is one of my most fond memories of the reel joy. i would go in there with my $1.75 and get me a large soda, but not just any soda, a large SUICIDE! for those of you who dont know what a suicide is, its when they mix all the sodas together to make one potantially fatal soda(or so the story goes). this was like the test of manhood. you would wait until the lobby was full of your classmates and then go up to Jo at the soda fountain and say in your loudest and most manly, yet still pre-pubecent, voice, "ILL TAKE A LARGE SUICIDE PLEASE!" the entire place would stop, a woman would scream, the entire lobby slowly turned to stare at the child ordering the death drink with their jaw dropped wondering how i would survive the endless syrup of the dreaded suicide. jan would clear her throat, her cigarette would fall from her open mouth as she would say in a nervous cracking voice, "are you sure you can handle it young man? how about just dr. pepper or orange slice?" to which i would reply, "i said suicide and hold the diet." her hand, shaking noticeably, would slowly move along all of the sodas, root beer, sprite, orange slice, pepsi, and ending on dr. pepper. she is so nervous and her hand is shaking so much she spills a few drops on the counter. the drink is so potent it burns right through the counter like acid. the entire crowd, which is now numbered int he hundreds lets out a gasp as i reach for a straw and take my first sip of my sweet drink of death. i let out a glorious, "ahhhhhhhhhhh" as i am refreashed to the core and am still alive to tell the tale. silence. then slowly one lone man begins clapping. clap. clap. clap. the crowd begins noding their head in approval and all join in with the lone clapper. soon the entire lobby erupts in applause. young men are running up to me to shake my hand, women are bringing their baby’s to me so i can kiss them on the forhead, i am treated like a war hero, rightfully so i believe. just then they all through me on their shoulders and carry me into the auditorium and deliver me to the best seat in the house just as the trailers finish and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 begins to roll. now that was just an average night at the reel joy.

the reel joy was litterally the only hang out in king city. every friday and saturday, regardless of what movie was playing, all the school children would be there. i remember going there for the movie 8 Seconds, agurably one of the worst movies ever, and having it be so full that i had to sit in the 2nd row on one of the broken seats. 8 Seconds, the luke perry rodeo epic, was also the place i recieved my first kiss. her name was dennalie folks and she was my girlfriend for 3 weeks. three of the most magical weeks of my 7th grade life. as luke perry was conquering all odds to be the best rodeo person ever i leaned over and kissed her. all i can remember is OUCH. see dennalie had braces and she wasnt ready for the kiss so i got lips full of metal and a small cut to go along with it. i didnt care, i had just gotten my first kiss! now 8 Seconds is still one of the worst movies of all time, but it will forever be etched in my memory and i gladly welcome it. now little miss dennalie was my frist kiss, but my first date occured one year earlier with shannon nelson. we also went to the reel joy for our date and watched Addams Family Values. this was my first time holding hands with someone, which i still dont really like that much, but it began my prolific dating career. she didnt kiss me that not or ever, but she still has a place in my heart, thanks to the reel joy and raul julia.

the movie theatre wasnt all love and kisses and suicide drinks, there was also a large element of danger to it. this was the place all the kids went to on the weekend, so naturally this is the place where people would settle any disputs they had. this meant for a lot of fights next to the gross, seedy, lobby couch. they were always quick and lame, 1 or 2 punches then a girlfriend would jump in screaming, "no j.d. escobar, i love you, dont fight over me!!!" and rene would come over and pull the 2 apart. one such incident almost took place with me. i was in 6th grade and got into a little playground argument with steven ramirez. steven, using his brain, says, "lets not settle this here, lets settle this at the movie theatre tonight during Mr. Nanny." no i was a scrawny little kid and steven could have beat the shit out of me but i agreed anyway. why you ask? well i knew i was grounded anyway because i had gotten caught stealing mechanical pencils from a store earlier in the week and knew there was no way my mom would let me go to the movies that night, even if it was for Mr. Nanny. so i went home, smiling the whole way, knowing that the whole thing would blow over by monday. monday comes and i had missed the 2 sold out showings of Mr. Nanny. i get to school that morning and am approached by my friend Trask Munoz. he says, "man, its a good thing you didnt go to the movies on friday, steven ended up bringing his pocket knife! he said he was gonna stab you at the soda counter!" this shocked me at first. had i just avoided my own death? did my stealing of school supplies somehow save my life? then i started to giggle at that. i could just imagine me ordering my usual large suicide, then as the crowd gets silent steven bursts through with his, probably very dull, jr. swiss army knife and jabs it into my side. i collapse right as i get my soda and it gows spraying everywhere. steven is immiediatly tackled by the onlookers. i fall to the ground and slowly drift into unconciousness in a pool of blood and 5 different soda syrups. i die the way i lived, very sticky. anyways, i didnt die and i seriously doubt steven would have actually used the knife on me had i gone, but its a fun story none the less.

after a while rene got tired of running the reel joy. he sold it to some scum lord of a man from greenfield(a shit town 10 miles from king city) and even though no one thought it to be possible, this man turned it into a much bigger heap of crap than before. first, he stopped showing movies all together, instead opting to only show mexican soccer matches and pay per view boxing and wrestling matches. not only is this illegal, but it was boring. the reel joy quickly went out of business. it still stands in king city but is ow a little mexican grocery store. we went back there a few months ago to check it out. all the seats in the suditorium had been ripped up to make room for excess groceries, but to our surprise the priojectors are still there and in somewhat working order. we talked in broken spanish to the owner of the reel joy grocery store and convinced him to give us the projectors! now all we have to do is find a place for them and get them whenever we get some time.

and that my friends is the story of the rise and fall of the reel joy, the greatest movie theatre ever. for the one or 2 people that actually read this, i and rene thank you.

Name Four Bad Habits You Have:
1. im an asshole.
2. very negative.
3. lack of motivation.
4. OCD.

Name Four Scents You Love:
1. me, after a shower.
2. clean socks.
3. sweet smell success.
4. my jesus candles.

Name Your Top Four TV Shows
1. NEWSRADIO
2. arrested development
3. monk
4. newsradio

Name Your Top Four Movies
1. the thin red line
2. night of the hunter
3. magnolia
4. 2001: a space odyssey

Name Four People That Know You the Best:
1. dj
2. steve
3. casey
4. no one else really understands me

Name Four Things You Are Thinking About Now:
1. i want to watch the original 6 hour cut of the thin red line
2. how many pushups could i do if i really tried hard?
3. i wonder how i am in bed?  (i know not very good, but how bad?)
4. i wonder how i would look with a moustache?

Name Four Things That You Have Done Today:
1. sent music to various people.
2. rode my bike to the bank.
3. stared at myself in the mirror for my usual 4 hours.
4. cleaned the bathroom. (ben needs to work on his aim when he pees)

Name Four Drinks You Regularly Drink:
1. various kinds of pop
2. water
3. more pop
4. ANYTHING WITH ALCOHOL, WOOOOOOOOO LIVERS RULE!

First Grade Teacher’s Name?: mrs. petrovic.

Last Words You Said: "hey ben and casey, what are some of my worst habits."  followed by, "wow, how do i even have friends?"

Last Song You Sang?: i dont sing.
Last Person You Hugged?: bertha.
Last Thing You Laughed At?: all my awesome bad habits.
Last Time You Said ’I Love You’ And Meant It?: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Last Time You Cried?: in the words of sara, "i am emotionless."

What’s In Your CD Player?: owls

What Color Socks Are You Wearing?: black as night.  black as my heart.

What’s Under Your Bed?: 7 dead hookers.

What Time Did You Wake Up Today?: i dont remember, i think around noon.

Current Taste?: not a damn thing.

Current Hair?: it does what it wants.  i combed it a few days ago.

Current Clothes?: socks, blue boxers, grey slacks, blue discount shirt, blue grandpa sweater.

Current Annoyance?: jesus, way too many to list.

 

Current Longing?: i long to see the original cut of the thin red line

Current Desktop Picture?: OWL!!!

Current Worry?: i gots no cash money millionaire till my birthday!!!

Current Favorite Physical Feature Of The Opposite Sex?: i like tummys

Last CD You Bought?: raking bombs oh, and trail of dead.

One Person From Your Past You Wish You Could Go Back And Talk to?: me as a little kid.  id slap some sense into me.

How Many Kids Do You Want? two and their names will be Hezikiah and Jamaal-Fuquan.

Type A Line You Remember From Any Book: "though like a lightning flash, some sword may lop my head, it were as though spring winds were slashed.  one is not awed by threats of such a blowless blow."  I Am A Cat - Soseki Natsume

A Random Lyric: "we fall into patterns quickly.  we fall in patterns too quickly."-owls

How about the stupidest lyric?: "everytime i come ’round yo’ city, bling bling.  pinky ring cost ’bout fitty, bling bling."

 

Right now im dealing with ipod withdrawl. im so glad adam convinced me to bring it. it really is my baby. i am totally blocked off from the music world. i have no idea whats going on and new bands and stuff and its driving me nuts. i miss being a dj. i have no time to look them up on the internet or watch mtv. except i did see the lcd soundsystem video. kick ass. those guys are really good live. im gonna miss coachella too. the music part of it anyway. the camping part i would not recomend. they closed the showers on us last year and you had to get up early to stand in line for the water hose. so not showering for 3 days in 100 degree heat is not all that fun. sleeping next to tyler who snores a lot wasnt exactly all that great either. i so want to see gang of four. OHHHHHHHH man. coldplay i can do without. i wish we could all hang out again. someday. maybe a vegas trip, so we can all catch up on eachother and our drinking binges.
so ive gotten a few letter in the mail! yay the system works! i must have read each letter about 5 times. thanks guys! ive been really busy these past few weeks. harvest has started and im working 12 hour days except on sundays when i work 6. so ive been up to a lot. a lot of sleeping. harvest is kicking my ass. but i really love it. its crazy that i get excited for the day. i think im nuts. ive never felt this way about a job before and its a really good feeling. oh yeah, my hands are purple.
so last week i got to hang out with the winemaker from california and we went to this castle and i ate chicken off of a sword. it was really crazy. this medevil castle in chile where this guy makes organic wine and ther is no electricity only candles. there is a small lagoon that is filled from a natural spring and the place is creepy. the people call this guy a vampire. but we drank good wine, ate chicken, and listened to omar play the violin. the pictures should be up. im gonna try and change the website since you have to pay for them at snapfish. on monday, began the cosecha nocturna. or night harvest. mostly for rich tourists. there was a news team there and i got to be on tv! the americans that i meet here are generally not very nice. they are wine snobs and drunks. which is sad that they are here representing my country and they are all drunk vulgur people who id really rather not talk to, even in english. so i got to pick grapes at night and it really wasnt that special. just picking grapes at night. whoooo. but it was an experience.
its starting to get colder here and i feel the seasons changing. ive always wanted to live in a place long enough to see that. the people i work with are really nice. there are still a hand full that feel like they dont need to talk to women. but whatever. i have my group of guys who will kick some ass if i ask them. this winery feels compeletly disorganized. the bosses dont talk to each other and dont even get their hands dirty. they just like to give orders. fucking bastards. i think that if i knew the language well enough and they actually respected women, i could totally take over this place in a few years. but i know the culture wont move that fast. i would like to stay longer here , but my plan is to see other parts of the world too. so we´ll see what i do. right now its all up in the air.
so i work all day and sleep all night. and get paid very little. vaht a country. ive noticed that when someone is your boyfriend or girlfriend here, the word is used loosely. because they always have one on the side. so im gonna stay clear of all that. there is a family who has decided to try and set me up with one of their sons. both have girlfriends and are 17 and 15 years old. the 17yr olds girlfriend is due in april. a baby boy. the way things work down here is a little insane. any woman under the age of 30 is up for grabs. doesnt matter the age difference.
i really want to try and travel more. but i guess it has to wait till after harvest. lilian who is doing the peace core thing in peru wants to go to the amazon at the end of july. im thinking that im gonna go. so the language is getting better. im speaking much faster and im understanding a whole lot more. even the chilean slang. tonight im having dinner with a few women who work on the sorting line in their little pueblito. everyone is curious about the gringa. after dinner, me and my roommates are hitting the town. the town with 3 bars and 2 discos. but its really cute. im getting used to the small town. even though i dont see it too often. because i live in the sticks. it feels more like a big town. i do miss the food from california. everything here is really bland. a salad is iceburg lettuce with lemon juice and salt. and thats all. but my nanny is awesome! she makes a good lentil soup. im so spoiled.
what else..... the bugs here are big and furry. spiders, moths, beetles. everything. big and furry. we have a juniper bush that surrounds the house and the birds go nuts in the morning. i bought some earplugs. this week i get paid. its not much, but im going shopping. i need a warm jacket for the night time. and underwear too. the puppy has eaten 3 pairs off the clothes line.
the pope died. its a big fiasco down here. the news is only specials on the pope, his life, a documentary on someone who organized the pope´s visit to chile. they are really streaching it out. usually its riots somewhere, or accidents. really the news is more interesting here. stuff actually happens. not like in slo where the big story is that its going to be 75 degrees tomorrow. again.
so things are improving. and thanks for the letters and emails. i love to know whats going on in gringolandia. besos.

love,
natalie


Natalie Dale
Casilla 208
Correo
Santa Cruz
Sexta Region
Chile

011-56-9-295-7668

So yesterday totally turned around for me. After i got off the internet, I called Omar. Alfonse from the US was in town and they were going to go to this castle where an organic winemaker lives. So I begged my roommate to give me a ride into town and I met up with Omar, Juan Pablo, Al and his father who doesnt speak spanish very well either. we headed out to the castle. this place was so crazy. just off the road, you would never know it was there. there´s a small pond that is fed from a spring under the castle and the water is pure. This guy, Alejandro who lives there, built this castle in 15 years. he lives there with his daughter and makes wine. there is no electricity, just candle light. So they bbq some chicken on a sword, and i had some. EWW. but I didnt want to be rude. very surreal night. Alejandro also makes music there.(so theres electricity to one room) mostly just ambient noise stuff, he was influenced from the sounds of the castle. crazy. so im in this castle, in chile, drinking wine, listening to Omar play the violin, eating chicken off a sword. it was a very beautiful night. i posted the pictures too. Hopefully i will be able to go back to the castle. Omar has dared me to jump in the pond. Never dare a drunk Natalie. bring it on.
miss you.

So I think I actually need help this time. This hasn´t just effected me, but traumatized me, and it haunts me everyday. Maybe in order to get through this I need to tell you everything. Keeping this from you all and trying to work it out on my own isn´t working. But I know it will change everything for the worse. Maybe after you´ve moved away from there, that way it will be in the past for you too. I don´t know. I just want to feel better. Maybe this journal thing will help. I don´t know. I don´t know anything anymore. When you think everything was truth and it all ends up being lies and is thrown in your face, it fucks you world over. You don´t look at things the same way. I´ve lost confidence in mostly everything and I don´t see that light that´s supposed to be there. They´ve seemed to move on with no problem, so why can´t I? It´s not a good idea for me to ask why anymore, because I can´t comprehend it. Maybe the first step is not asking anymore questions and just accepting everything. But how can you accept something like this? Well, I guess I´m still alive right? It´s a day-by-day thing. How did I let myself become so vulnerable? This just isn´t something you can sleep through. Even though I wish I could...just on the bad days. Please?

Yesterday was one of the my better days. My roommate took me to Machigue where the other Montes vineyards are. There´s a plantation-like house overlooking a small lake and rolling hills with vineyards and llamas. We sat in the sun and took a little nap. There´s an airplane runway there too. Perfect place for my parents to retire. It was a windy 50min. drive up there and we went through a few small towns. I had the Y Tu Mama Tambien soundtrack stuck in my head. I think I´m starting to like this place.

Last night I took a taxi to Omar´s Pub and watched his band play. I was by myself so I didn´t talk to anyone there, but it was nice to see live music again. I surprised myself by being able to catch a taxi there and back all by myself without my dictionary or anyone else with me. Had some cellular problems, but eventually got home around 3:30. I got to talk to Carina for a little bit too! I wanted to catch Byron, but he was in SF instead. My parents called too. They´re keeping the fam updated through my emails.

wine note: everything is de-stemmed and the grapes are individually sorted. then go though a gentle crusher that just breaks the skin. the conveyor belt is not so gentle.

Chile notes: Chileans seem to be all about Freddy vs. Jason and horror movies. They like to brag about La Ley. They eat a lot of sugar(fruits and cookies and always desert). I´ve been warned about the Chilean men, but I´m taller than most of them so I figure I can kick some ass if I need to. They also love classic rock. boo. Lenny Kravitz came to Argentina and it was a big deal over here. Also the Michael Jackson trial. Funny how I used to live 20 min. from the court house. The girls here have really cool jeans and sneakers. 10 years ago only 10% of the population knew houw to drive. Now 70% know how. They are impressed that I know how.

The question has been asked, "what cd would your friends most be surprised that you owned?" That’s an interesting question.

It takes many things into account:

First, it assumes that you have a definition of some sort. I mean you are defined somehow and there is some cd that you own that strays from what people think you like.

Second, the questioner assumes you have friends.

Thirdly, it makes me ask a bigger question. What kind of friends do you have that would be surprised that you own a certain cd. They must not be your closer friends, wouldn’t close friends already know your cd strays?

But I do have to say that I do occasionally come across random tracks on people’s Ipods,(I know that statement is very dated, but I know more than few people who have them so back the fnck off), and I do get surprised by them.

So, how do I answer the question?

I dont think anyone would be surprised that I have Gladys Knight and the Pips, Ray Charles, Shonen Knife, The distillers,what could I possibly say that people could get "surprised" by. By no means am I saying that I have this all encompassing music taste, but to "surprise" someone, I think that’s a little hard. I have nostalgic tunes like CCr and the Mac. I have the Priests and the Dishes because they rock. I have Issa Bagayoga because it was a good world/afro/electro album. I have some Ozzy for posterity reasons.

Okay...maybe if I had some really really bubble gum album than that might surprise some people. If I had the new usher or something like that then that could surprise people, but even then I will have some sort of excuse or reasoning for it. I mean I would like to think that not all my taste is in my mouth, but is that too aggrandizing? But that’s not the case here because I dont have the last Usher CD. I just don’t like Usher the public figure and sometimes if I just don’t like the artist, it doesn’t matter how valid the music is that they make, I will dislike it just the same.

I think that’s why I’m leaning toward not liking Vincent Gallo and all his movies. The public persona (Eventhough he always makes the case of how "real" he is all the time) makes him an asshole and I don’t think "Brown Bunny" was that great. But this is a rant for another day.

Masses:

So finally another email on this mag thing. Sorry about
delay. I have been kind of busy with my current paying job.
So what I am going to do is write a few ideas I have and a
few terms in general just to get the creative juices
working. So here are a few titles that I want to use and you
come up with the content. (we work in reverse here)

i love Meth, but it ain’t what it use to be
I hate gypsies
Want to get off junk?
Squatters: Get off of that!
Turkey baster: not just a device to get meat moist
Von Dutch, G**D*** i hate you.

Actual ideas:
What’s up with TV sold CDS: kidzone 1-5, Now this is what I
call music 1-13, The essentials: the boss, simon and
garfunkel, pink floyd. Do they really sell, Who the f- buys
them.

What the hell do i have to look for when buying a turntable?
is there anything in particular? does it really matter what
the hell i buy as long as it has a needle?

Anything with strippers in it. Anything with alcohol in it.
Anything with strippers and alcohol in it is even better.

Something with box wine, on the account that i want to sell
ad space to them. Can you use box wine in cooking?

Does the day after pill really work? (yeah but not the preg
one but the beer ones) do you just not get a hang over with
them? What the f-? Ex: Chaser, RU-21, morning Relief.
Do they work or should you just take a b-12 vitamin the day
before?

The Jesus candle and I.

Can I make a dollar out of 15 cents. How can i make this
nickel stretch.

How I found my self in a Korean whorehouse/tofu house.

As Always this is not the end all so hopefully i have
somewhat sparked some ideas.

What also would work is any traveling ideas. If you are
going somewhere for springbreak or are taking a vacation
soon.

If you have any craft ideas that isnt making a pot holder or
something lame.

I want to try to get a dummy together pretty soon so i have
something to show when i start selling ads and sh!t.

Thanks Again,

B-

PS I havent been receiving any email for the past two weeks
very well so if i havent replied to your email please send
it again on the account that i lose mail here.

So for the past few weeks i have just been going to work and reading my how-to book on the magazine biz. And I must say that after a few months i have finally finished. I know have all the information i need to make this magazine fail or not suck.

I have been reading and hearing things that make my goal seem plausable.
Billboard recently had an article on magzines but specifically on music magazines and how they are doing okay except for the big five: Rolling Stone, Vibe, Spin, The Source, and Blender.


So, what’s the the next step?

Get ADS. That’s what’s gonna kill me and has killed many magazines.

I’m going to try this for just this year. Sort of an experiment of sorts. I want to see if my motivation will change if I can document this year. Start the year with some goals and things i want to accomplish for the year and hopefully get them done.
I guess I’m also doing this live journal thing partly because a few friends said i should. And I like to do everything that my friends tell me to do, hence the mohawk. I think that it’s the New Year, so let’s try something new and inventive. I live in LA so there should be more than enough shit for me to write about and crap always seems to happen around me. But when I start becoming too much of an ass-hole, I would like for anyone who reads this to tell me.
At first I thought that I would have to be somewhat self involved to even do this, but if I can entertain someone with the antics of my mostly inane life than so be it, call me narcissistic. I will also try to write only when interesting things actually happen to me, which means that you will not see an entry that just says, "today I dont feel like writing," or "Nothing happen to me today." If i’m sick I will tell you how sick I am. Where the ooze is coming from. If nothing happen today then you wont see anything.

Quick bio: I am 24 currently work for a spanish rock alternative music label as a lackey and I graduated in 4/03 with an ecology degree. I worked for the college station on campus which got me the job that i am now at.
I am guatemalan and I am jaded and sarcastic. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. Keep the deep metaphysical, emotional, shit to yourself. I have a cussing, swearing, and cursing problem. I also am an alcoholic when I’m around booze. I just cant have one. Most if not all my friends are drinkers and somehow too cool for school. Some can be viewed as alcoholics, some as foreigners that wear suits, so weird looking but nontheless I’m loud and at time, yes obnoxious.
In the back of my head I think that I’ll end up in the rainforest of Guatemalan living in a tree and saving the forest. I’ll have a little indian wife, that will know when to shut up and be in aw of my westernized upbringing. She will cook and clean and make tamales. At the same time don’t think that I’m a machismo asshole. I believe that CHICKS should be able to make it in any field they want.
This year a couple of things should create good stories: alcohol, friends who are in San Luis Obispo, LA crowds, and this magazine that I’m trying to start up. Read it or not this is the crap that goes on in my life!

Thank You for your time,
BS