Date:	2006-09-28 11:18
Subject:	News from the edge
Security:	Public
Mood:	chipper
Music:	She Wants Revenge, "Sister"

Your eyes will bleed.

In other news, the other half and I are domestically partnered, and I lopped off the tip of my thumb in a freak vegetable-chopping accident.

That is all.

Date:	2006-08-01 11:59
Subject:	Food.
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry
Music:	Simple Minds, "Don't You Forget About Me"

I ate more fresh fruit last month than I ever have in any given year. Indeed, it was a month of fruit! I must atone for this crime. Therefore, I shall consume the meatcake.

Date:	2006-07-21 12:42
Subject:	Ripe! All ripe!
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry
Music:	Radiohead, "A Wolf at the Door"

I have eaten of the pluot. It tastes of Hawaiian Punch, only without the chemical aftertaste. Beneath its mottled greenish skin, the flesh is the color of radioactive meat.

I think I will have another tonight.

Date:	2006-06-13 11:10
Subject:	Airline tickets?
Security:	Public
Mood:	hopeful
Music:	Neutral Milk Hotel, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"

I'm flying to Indianapolis in a couple months, and I still haven't picked up tickets. Lazy me! Which of the online cheap airfare middlemen (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc) are dependable, and which ones should I stay away from?

Date:	2006-05-26 11:33
Subject:	Can't sleep, snakes will eat me.
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired
Music:	Billy Idol, "White Wedding"

Things have been pretty good lately. I've lost ten pounds on the "eat all the same things, but not quite so much of them" diet, I'm taking a summer class in Adobe Illustrator that should help me move toward design work, and the weather has been really nice lately. Money's been tight, but when isn't that the case?

It's a sign of how well things are going that the worst thing that's happened to me lately is that someone spilled soda on my backpack at the X3 showing last night. Well, that and the fact that I actually watched that crappy movie. It makes the Fantastic Four movie look like a real gem of filmmaking. I wish I could un-watch X3, and I certainly wish I could take back the money I spent.

The writers clearly didn't know what the hell they were doing. The director didn't know what the hell he was doing. (Well, except for spending most of the special effects budget on the one thing he knows well: EXPLODING CARS.) The actors, bereft of good direction or a good script, didn't know what they were doing. (By the end of the film, even Ian McKellen was phoning in his lines. Brr.) The only ones who knew what they were doing were the producers; their agenda was clearly to sink the franchise in a fit of pique over Bryan Singer's departure. Ugh.

Something good came out of it, though. Well, two things. First, I got to see a bunch of people that I hardly see much of anymore. And second: the trailers rocked! Superman Returns looks totally awesome. Ghost Rider seems hokey but fun. My Super Ex-Girlfriend looks silly and fun. And then... SNAKES ON A PLANE! The movie may suck, I dunno, but... SNAKES ON A MOTHERFUCKING PLANE!!!

Ahem. Back to your regularly sponsored LJ.

Date:	2006-03-27 10:55
Subject:	Shopping: the Aftermath
Security:	Public
Mood:	sore
Music:	Alphaville, "Forever Young"

New shoes feel like prosperity.

New sneakers feel like comfortable prosperity.

Life continues to move along at its usual pace, tick tick tick.

You know you've gotten into a routine when you show up for work on a holiday.

Date:	2005-12-23 14:28
Subject:	That's one day I'm glad I'll never see again.
Security:	Public
Mood:	sore
Music:	Bonnie Tyler, "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

Due to the transit strike, it took me four and a half hours to get home last night.

Okay, only about three hours of walking. I took a couple of half-hour breaks to deal with a two-hour bout of heart palpitations, something I haven't had to deal with since high school. Of course I get them again when I have no choice but to walk six miles. I'd have gladly taken a cab, but of course every driver I hailed refused to leave Manhattan. Oh, and crossing a bridge with big segments missing from the safety fence is *great* when you're afraid of heights.

Also, note to self: the 59th St. bridge trolley car goes to Roosevelt Island, *not* to Queens. Duh.

Date:	2005-12-16 16:08
Subject:	Why do people keep writing things that I cannot unread?
Security:	Public
Mood:	groggy
Music:	Sponge, "Sixteen Candles"

It's the Quentin Tarrantino Muppet Movie.

(not really a movie, but still)

Date:	2005-12-07 11:09
Subject:	Iä! Iä!
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy
Music:	Peter Gabriel, "Sledgehammer"

Oh Great Cthulhu!

I have been an extremely assiduous devotee this year.

In October, I exposed peaseblossom to soul-rending horrors (250 points). When the stars were right, I sacrificed matt_snyder to Cthulhu (500 points). In February, I burnt my copy of the Necronomicon (-75 points). In September, I stopped neezbeez from defiling Lovecraft's grave (-20 points). Yesterday, I wore an Elder Sign (-10 points). In May, I called down the wrath of Yog-Sothoth upon sugar_devil (65 points).

In short, I have been very good (710 points) and deserve to be promoted to High Priest.

Your humble and obedient servant,
firebranch

Date:	2005-12-05 11:22
Subject:	Minority Drinks!
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused
Music:	Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark, "If You Leave"

Date:	2005-11-18 18:28
Subject:	It's Back!
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased
Music:	Flying Saucer Attack, "Dust"

The big black cube sculpture on Astor Place is finally back! It's totally velvety clean, without a scrap of graffiti. (We'll see how long that lasts.) Finally, a return to normalcy! Yay!

Date:	2005-11-04 17:15
Subject:	Just a few "bad apples"?
Security:	Public
Mood:	restless
Music:	Rasputina, "Why Don't You Do Right"

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney's office was responsible for directives which led to US soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former top State Department official charged.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, told National Public Radio he had traced a trail of memos and directives authorizing questionable detention practices up through Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's office directly to Cheney's staff.

"The Secretary of Defense under cover of the Vice President's office ... regardless of the President having put out this memo ... they began to authorize procedures within the armed forces that led to what we've seen," Wilkerson said.

He claimed the directives contradicted a 2002 order by President George W. Bush for the US military to abide by the Geneva Conventions against torture.

"There was a visible audit trail from the Vice President's office through the Secretary of Defense, down to the commanders in the field," authorizing practices that led to the abuse of detainees, Wilkerson said.

Date:	2005-11-02 12:34
Subject:	See, *this* is why I don't want to try oysters.
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused
Music:	Tom Petty, "American Girl"

The great oyster beds of Long Island and the Chesapeake produced mammoth mollusks up to a foot in length. On a visit to our shores, William Makepeace Thackeray, the English author of Vanity Fair, commented, rather vividly, that eating one was like "swallowing a baby."

Date:	2005-10-24 17:13
Subject:	I Vant To Suck Your Sacred Blood!
Security:	Public
Mood:	giggly
Music:	The Cure, "Fascination Street"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9785289/site/newsweek

Date:	2005-10-21 12:06
Subject:	Recuperatin'.
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired
Music:	Naked Eyes, "Always Something There To Remind Me"

It's been a week and a half since I got sick, and I'm only finally starting to feel normal again. If my immune system handles the avian flu this well, I'm in trouble.

I went out to dinner last night with Conn and my parents at a nice little Italian restaurant we know in the East Village (Cremcaffe). The service may have been a little sluggish, but the food was good like always. The sauteed broccoli reeked of garlic. Yum!

My parents are in their seventies now. It's strange and uncomfortable to watch them get older. Since I only see them about once a year, the changes jump out at me a lot more clearly than if I saw them every day. My mom's always been small but tough. I don't like seeing her turn frail.

Date:	2005-10-18 18:04
Subject:	FindPlay
Security:	Public
Mood:	groggy
Music:	Simple Minds, "Don't You Forget About Me"

Find people in your area to game with through FindPlay: http://findplay.anvilwerks.com/

Unfortunately, it shows people within a 35 mile radius. This is, like, light-years in terms of NYC.

Date:	2005-10-14 11:41
Subject:	Ill.
Security:	Public
Mood:	sick
Music:	The Tragically Hip, "Nautical Disaster"

So, Conn's sister and brother-in-law came out to visit last weekend. We had a fun time, with lots of good food -- a bunch of people went to our friend Tami's steakhouse on Friday, and we had brunch on Sunday, followed by Peking duck. Unfortunately, those were my only two meals on Sunday. We spent most of the day wandering through Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art without food or drink. As a result of one day's dehydration and stress, I've been sick all week! I'm only at work now because I ran out of sick days for the year. :-(

Fortunately, the doctor says it's just a virus, rather than (say) strep throat. So a few more days of rest and tea and soup should get me through it. But man, sloshing around through the rain while sick is extra not-fun. Ugh.

My parents will be in town this weekend. I hope I'm in good enough shape to spend time with them.

Date:	2005-10-06 16:33
Subject:	Watch it, you!
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry
Music:	Third Eye Blind, "Jumper"

Date:	2005-10-03 12:11
Subject:	Mmm, pancakes.
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry
Music:	Sisters of Mercy, "Dominion"

Made pancakes twice this weekend. They rank pretty high up on the chain of comfort food. Fresh and fluffy out of the pan, good pancakes don't need butter or syrup. And for extra pancake goodness, replace some of the milk in the recipe with heavy whipping cream, then thin out the batter with extra milk until it's the proper consistency. Yum!