worst movie ever

you all know by now that i love old movies. can't get enough of them.
you should also know that since i started watching mystery science theater 3000 (probably about 14 years ago now), i've been on a search for the worst movie ever made. for a long time, that distinction has been held - in my mind - by 'hercules against the moon men'. delightfuly horrible in the most painful way. the mst3k boys eloquently summed it up as 'deep hurting'.
the real winner of this distinguished title is probably widely known to any self-respecting movie buff, but i must admit that until today i was not aware of the wonderfully horrible world of mr. edward wood jr and the movie 'plan 9 from outer space'.
oh.
my.
word.
bad writing. even worse acting. laughable special effects. and a long-winded speech at the end about how men are stupid and are going to use these new technologies that they don't really understand to eventually destroy the universe.
it was so bad, i highly recommend it.
you'll laugh. you'll cry. you'll want those 90 minutes of your life back. and you won't regret it.

photograms

photograms are oh-so-much fun. here's a small sampling of what i created in class yesterday. i posted all of them on my flickr page.

millions of peaches

so what do you do when someone gives you a huge bag of beautiful fresh peaches?
why, go completely overboard and make not just a pie but cobbler as well.
i think we're going to need some help with this...

humancalendar

this is probably one of the coolest websites i have ever seen.


here's a photo of today's calendar. i am in awe of this guy's vision and planning to pull something like this off every day.
click on the photo and check it out.

here's a special treat...

so i go online this afternoon to check my bank account balance (i'll leave out which bank for their sake) and see a funny little check card transaction that i certainly did not make. (do i really need any video professor products? um, no.) since it is still a pending transaction, i think, 'great, i'll call customer service before it posts, get them to cancel it and be done with it.'
apparently, the world does not work that way.
i call and after going through innumerable menus i finally got a human being on the line. i told her about my funny little charge, and she told me that because it had not yet posted, there was nothing they could do about it.
what!?!
i have to have a fraudulent charge actually debit my account before i can do anything about it!?!
WHAT!?!?!?
she said 'wait until it posts and see if the transaction has a phone number and call the vendor and see if you can get credited. if that doesn't work, call us back and we'll sort it out.'
last time i checked, identity theft and fraudulent charges were a huge problem and are costing people billions of dollars. and that's the best they can do. what is the point of me being so careful with my finances and credit if when i find something fishy going on, nobody can do anything about it until the damage is done?
needless to say, i'm pretty upset about this.
just thought i'd share.

costumes

i was having dinner with the catlings on tuesday night and we started talking about halloween. a little early, i know, but that family has already printed their christmas cards.

i was remembering how much time we spent decorating their fabulous house and mentioned that we should start earlier this year. hilary then said something about not being sure she wanted to have a party this year. i know she will, it's just a matter of wearing her down. so then bill gets into the conversation and starts throwing out costume ideas. first he says we should all come as our favorite artists. i shoot that one down because i already did that last year. and it's a bit predictable coming from a group of artist. then he says we should all come as our favorite bible character and how they died. now THAT is a great idea. although i'm not so sure how you would dress up as someone who had been stoned. i think i would dress up as jezebel. it's hard to beat a halloween costume where dogs are feasting on your entrails.

so....any other good costume ideas?

the gods aren't angry

i just bought two tickets to see rob bell at the wiltern on november 13th.

there don't seem to be many tickets left, so if you want to go you better get them soon.

or you could beg to go with me.
although begging isn't exactly an attractive trait....

envy

ever been jealous of a cat?

yeah, me too.

music

last night i bought icky thump off of itunes.

WOW.

i think i've listened to it 3 or 4 times already.

one word......genius.

proud to be an american?

i was at disneyland with my family a couple weeks ago and saw someone wearing this shirt.
while my bro-in-law thought it was funny, it actually made me kind of angry.
why do americans have to have this attitude?

i love yard sales

this morning we held the 'life group yard sale extraordinaire' to try and raise some extra funds to offset dan and alyssa's expenses for the international adoption of the beautiful sofia, while also trying to get rid of some excess junk. i wasn't able to stay for the whole thing, but i would say it was a success on both counts. and also quite a bit of fun. while my heart's desire is to be as minimal as possible and to stop my frustrating cycles of accumulation, i was irresistibly attracted to the random box full of medical and chemistry supplies. while i wasn't able to beat the yard sale vultures to the clamps and scalpels and various beakers, i was able to scoop up these great little bottles. you can never have enough cool little glass bottles.
uh, unless you're trying to have less stuff.
crap.



well, i still like them.

deathly hallows

i just finished reading the first 5 chapters of harry potter and the deathly hallows and am already completely emotionally exhausted. all of the previous harry potter volumes have taken me on a roller-coaster ride of joy and tears, and this one looks like it is going to beat them all.

i just had to take a break and calm down a bit. but i hope to finish it by monday.

and don't worry, i won't spoil it for any slow readers out there.
that would just be mean.

following sean

ever since netflix made it so darn easy to find them, i've been watching a nearly endless stream of documentaries. some good, some terrible, and every once in a while, some are splendid. i watched one of the splendid ones this weekend. it was called following sean. rather than butcher the plotline, i shall quote the synopsis from the website.

Filmmaker Ralph Arlyck first met Sean while living as a graduate student in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury neighborhood at the height of the 1960s.
The city was awash with the trappings of America's cultural revolution-the San Francisco State University campus flooded with cops in riot gear, the Haight filled with drifters and idealists, and, on the third floor of Arlyck's building, a come-one-come-all crashpad apartment. It was from this top floor commune that the precocious 4-year-old Sean would occasionally wander downstairs to visit and talk-and one day Arlyck turned on his camera.
Sean's casual commentary on everything from smoking pot to living with speed freaks was delivered in simple sincerity throughout the soon-to-be famous 15-minute film. This First Child of the notorious decade may have shaken the audience with his simple sentence- "Sure, I smoke pot"-but it was his barefoot impishness which would encapsulate the hope that lay in front of the nation: a promise of infinite possibility.
Thirty years, three generations, and a lifetime later, Arlyck has returned to San Francisco in search of who the adult Sean might have become. And what he finds, to his surprise, tells him as much about his own east-coast migration as it does about the Californian life he left behind-that the choices we're handed and the choices we make are, very often, quite odd bedfellows.

it was beautiful and thought-provoking and a wonderful, subtle study in sociology. i was not expecting for it to be a reminder that even when others seem so different, we all actually have so much in common.

two magazines you've probably never heard of, but need to go out and find immediately

i know i rarely give my opinion on a subject such as this, but i was really wowed.

here's the story...

yesterday i had some time to kill and some barnes and noble gift cards burning a hole in my wallet. so i went to the mall and headed straight for the magazine section. alissa has been telling me for months about craft magazine and how much i would love it. so i decided it was time to check it out, because she's almost always right about these things. and she was once again right. every page is interesting and well designed and well written and captivating. at least to a crafter like me. i highly recommend it now, too.

but while i was there i took a look around the art and design section and ran across how magazine. it was kind of hanging around in the back and looked a little beat up, but i picked it up and opened it and was amazed at what was inside. now, i'm not a graphic designer, but this thing is still amazing. the design of the magazine itself is awe inspiring and almost makes me wish i were a graphic designer. each page is a treat for the eyes and i can't wait to turn the page and see what comes next. besides being visually engaging, it seems to actually have a lot of useful information, as well.

ok, that's my opinion.

do with it as you will.

life

this morning i woke up and the first thing that popped into my head was...

lather

rinse

repeat

thus is my life.

produce

yesterday morning my mom and i left the house bright and early to sample riverside's brand new saturday morning farmer's market. i was excited because the only one in town for as long as i can remember has been on friday mornings. it seems that only people without jobs were worthy of farm fresh produce until now.

i thought it was a smashing success and wanted to buy a little bit of everything. but i just bought a bunch of strawberries for making jam. micah and i made jam today. it was mostly successful. i'll let you try some and decide for yourself.

done

yesterday my friend dan was kind enough to help me move the last few things out of my storage unit. so today i was able to go in and sign all the paperwork and officially be done with the beast that is public storage.

i'm just thinking about all the money i'm going to save...
this sounds to me like a reason to have a party.

roadtrip

micah and i drove to san francisco for the weekend.

we drove up on friday, spent saturday at the oyster and beer festival, and drove home today.
the main reason we went was to see flogging molly. they played at the festival, and it was their last show for a very long time.

and they were totally worth the drive.

in order to save money, we stayed at a hostel which turned out to be in one of the worst neighborhoods in town. but it was great, because we met a lot of fun, random people.

friday night, we met paul, who was restoring this ford truck and was kind enough to let us check it out and take photos.

saturday morning we met earston, who told us we needed to see the rooftop garden at the YMCA, which turned out to be wonderful. and it had a spectacular view.

we spent saturday afternoon at the oyster and beer festival at fort mason and met lots of incredibly drunk people, and even a larger-than-life-size pint of guinness.

and of course we took the time to see some of the sights.

i think that we did a lot in a day, but at the same time we took our time and enjoyed ourselves.

and it sure was nice to get out of riverside for the weekend.

words

i was just thinking today that there sure are a lot of fun words.
but they're all fun for different reasons.
some have interesting meanings and make you sound super-intelligent, like misogynistic.
some are fun because they have sounds in them that sound like other words that are nothing like the original word, like condiments.
but then there are the fun words that people rarely have use for and probably don't even know the meaning for, but are oh-so-much fun to say. i have lots of favorite words that fall into this last category, but the reigning word for the moment is phytoplankton. i will probably never have a reason to seriously use this word in a conversation, but that is just a tragedy, because i love how it sounds when i say it.
phytoplankton
love it.

news?

yet another example of why i despise and actively avoid the fox news network...
i was just at wanda's, getting some coffee. while i was waiting, i glanced up at the television to see if anything interesting is happening today. now, these televisions are religiously tuned to the fox news network 24/7, so the glance is just to see if there is something going on in the world for which i need to make sure i catch the story on either NPR or the nightly world news on ABC. this afternoon, the lovely fox network was covering a car chase in the LA area. already i'm slightly annoyed, because the last time i checked, car chases are not news, they are sensationalism. what really provoked my ire was the blurb they were showing under the video stream which informed the audience that 'the suspect is heavily tattooed'.

what the crap!?!

what does that have to do with anything, except to play into the already heavily entrenched prejudice and racism prevalent in the right-wing, ultra-conservative fox news audience? if they're anything like my grandmother, they believe that everything that comes out of pat robertson's mouth is uncontroverted gospel, which is therefore also attributed to the network as a whole.

i am so sick of 'news' networks and programs using a medium which should be educating the populace in all information so as to enable them to make their own educated opinions and decisions to instead indoctrinate the populace into their own biased opinion. these opinions are not based on any true introspection or thought, but on the fact that some talking head in a flashy suit who supposedly subscribes to the same 'religion' told them that this was the best and most 'christian' way to think.

while i'm on a news rant, i'm also disgusted by the network news programs who pawn car chases and reports on paris hilton and anna nicole smith's baby off on us as 'news' when important events around the world are completely ignored. where is the news about france's elections and the fact that they have fallen to 50% unemployment and the 17th economy in europe and are on the verge of imploding? where is the news about the genocide in sudan? where is the news about everything that is going right in iraq instead of only what is going wrong? where is the news about how vladimir putin is slowly but surely eroding away at the democracy in russia and setting himself up to be another russian dictator? a majority of the american public get their news solely from these networks and are being spoon-fed exactly what they need to be placated into a false sense of global security and superiority. and then armed with these half-truths they turn around and demand certain actions from our government which might serve america well, but will ultimately harm our global community.

i'm coming to the realization that i need to use my voice to change this travesty instead of just using it to yell at the television.

anybody else with me?

san diego

heather treated me to a weekend in san diego. we went with no plans, and it was splendid. the hotel we stayed at is in the gaslamp district and was the hotel wyatt earp stayed at when he was in san diego.
on saturday we decided to go to the zoo, and it was a gorgeous day. this was the view of the city from the skyway at the zoo.

it seems that if you point a camera at heather and i, we are incapable of making normal faces. this was our attempt at 'scared face'.

aren't meerkats enormously entertaining? these guys live in the children's section of the zoo, and they kept us hanging around for about 20 minutes with their schenanigans.

and finally, i came across the 'star wars cookbook' at urban outfitters. i was tempted to buy it until i realized that the key to star wars cooking was adding an action figure to your recipe. just add the princess leia action figure, and those boring old cinnamon rolls become 'princess leia hair rolls'.
so who would win in a light saber duel, obi-wan or a chicken kebab? that's a hard one.

russian wisdom

i moved most of my stuff out of my storage unit this weekend.
*applause and congratulations here*
i only have a few big things to move, once i figure out how to do it. (anyone with a large vehicle willing to donate about a half hour of your time will be greatly appreciated.)
so today i was sorting into keep, give away, throw away, and sell on ebay piles and i came across my old chalkboard.

slightly ironic, don't you think?

garden

this weekend i planted an herb garden. i've been buying fresh herbs at the grocery store for various recipes and realized that it was getting really expensive. so this weekend i went out and bought parsley, thyme, peppermint, spearmint, basil, oregano, dill and cilantro plants. i spent less than half of what it cost me to buy bunches of herbs at the store. i'm all excited for them to get bigger so i can go out and clip some and bring them in and cook with them.
now the trick is to not let the snails eat them first.

music

don't be afraid to bask in my unparalelled coolness, but i'm seriously considering learning how to play the.....accordion.

that's right folks, you heard correctly, the accordion. i am newly enamored with irish folk music and would love to learn an instrument that i could play such folk music on. i just can't decide between the ubiquitous keyboard-style or the traditional two-row diatonic B/C scale button-style accordion. many factors must be considered, not the least of which is cost. i think the cheapest button-style i've found so far is $500.

i think my mother will have a heart attack when i tell her, because when she was a child she was forced to learn the accordion and hated every minute of it. maybe she could give me some pointers.

and if i get any snide 'polka' comments, i will throw said accordion at you.

seasons

i can't decide which season is most becoming of my hometown.
when asked, i generally say that my favorite month is november, because fall is such a wonderful time of year. plants start getting ready for the impending cold, sometimes in spectacular fashion. the sun moves to a different position in the sky, casting a different light and making everything look a little mysterious. even the air takes on a delightfully different smell. the oppressive heat of summer gives way to a briskness in the air. i'm getting all nostalgic.
well, that's what fall is SUPPOSED to be like, but it never really delivers here in riverside.
but then there is spring. grass gets greener. daffodils and tulips give an early shot of color to the landscape. wildflowers make everything look more cheerful. plants and trees of all kinds come out of winter dormancy and put on the new year's clothes. but hands down, the best part of spring in riverside is when the orange groves are in bloom. there are still enough orange trees around here to make the wait for spring worthwhile. all the citrus trees are blanketed in little white flowers that give off the most delightful scent that hangs in the air and becomes thick by dusk. it compels me drive around with my windows rolled all the way down and makes me wish i had a porch swing so i could linger outside on warm evenings.
i think spring would win out over fall if it weren't for my allergies.
stupid hayfever.

drought

i have just been relieved of a 24 hour media-technology drought.
the fine folks at charter communication, who provide us with cable and high-speed internet, apparently had some kind of malfunction and we were without both services since some time yesterday morning. i have never before realized exactly how much i have come to depend on the fact that cable and internet are always there at my whim.
i already know that i would have no problem living without either of those luxuries, but it would have been a lot easier to deal with if i had known it was coming. at least i've gotten a lot of reading done.
so i can now resume watching the various television shows and surfing the various internet sights which seem to suck my time into some undisclosed vortex.
should i be happy about this?

irish fair

today micah and i went to the los angeles irish fair and music festival.
it was good times.

irish food, irish music, irish dancing, irish people...

they even went so far as to dye the water in the fountains green.

there were some awesome bands who were obviously proud of being irish...and even made some good music.

good times, good times.
i'm definitely going again next year.

exercise

yesterday i was out jogging through my neighborhood (that's right folks, i said i was jogging. i solved my shin splint problem and decided to start it up again. i walk more than i jog, but a person's gotta start somewhere.) so like i was saying...i was jogging through my neighborhood and saw a lady pull partway up the driveway of the house which was unfortunate enough to host the neighborhood mailbox in their front yard. she got out and fetched her mail and got back into her car and backed out. my first reaction to seeing this was 'wow, that's kinda rude'. but then i kept watching and saw her proceed to pull her car into the garage of the house NEXT DOOR to the house with the mailboxes.
wow
and people wonder why they have weight and health problems.
i'm still a bit speechless.

festival

micah just brought to my attention that there is an irish festival going on this weekend at the la fairgrounds. the first thing that comes to mind is 'why haven't i heard of this before?' the next thing that comes to mind is 'why have i never heard of this before?' i mean, really. i'm not being a very good irish person. so i guess i'm going to go get my irish on this weekend. awesome.

peer pressure

by popular demand (maybe 2 people), i've decided to bring the old blogger account out of retirement. i will now be dual-posting my thoughts and ramblings both here and on myspace so as not to leave anyone out.
enjoy.