New Puppy!

Meet Loki, our newest pack member!

What a cutie, eh?

Writing is a bitch

I am on chapter 27 of 29 of my book. There will be one more rewrite after this, then copy editing changes. Goal is to have Chapter 29 done by June 2, (Thursday midnight). Then the serious rewrite by 9/30/11. Then have it out by 11/1/11 so I can start Nanowrimo on the next set of stories.

Wish me luck! So far, 80,000 words and counting.

Sinus Mucus Chunks

It's been a really long time since I've written. Life has a way of getting away from me and this past year, life zoomed away with me along for the ride. R'wick is now nearly a year old and big, and Bratworse and I just love him to bits.

This morning, as I struggled with my sinus infection/cold, I blew out what was a fairly solid chunk of mucus. It was fascinating to me how 1) big it was; 2) how technicolored it was - mostly white with yellow and red marbled in; and 3) how not liquid it was. It was more like a gelatinous cube.

I should've taken a photo but I know Bratworse would be much grossed out by this. Next time I blow out a sizable chunk, I'll document it.

Anyway, I just had to share. Aren't you glad that this is the first post after so many months of silence?

Nature Walks

Bratworse and I have been taking walks around the neighborhood recently. See, we'll be going on a trip soon that requires a ton of walking so I've been a tad fearful I wouldn't be able to keep up.

To help motivate me to go on these walks, I've been taking photos with my camera. Photos that are designed to help inspire Bratworse's paintings.

I present my neighborhood and Oakland Zoo's flora!


















-- Posted From My iPhone

Inundation

Is this even a word? I am so going to be blogging more now. Just to start off, here are a few photos for your enjoyment:



Bratworse showing off her new shamrock confectionery.





Bratworse being surprised by me when she was watering her real shamrocks that she's growing.

More to come!

Wheeeeeeeeee!

-- Posted From My iPhone

iPhone Blogging

I'm trying out a new app to help me blog more. Can you tell I'm blogging from the bed? That's Bratworse asleep beside me. Heeee


-- Posted From My iPhone

Bratworse and I did some redecorating this past weekend for Black-Eye Pea.

I really liked the way we did our design this time.

Saints Row Glitch

OMG! Too funny. We finished a mission on Saints Row 2 during while our protagonist was on fire. Well a glitch occurs and for the remainder of the time, our protagonist has sort of become The Human Torch. We are not of course, the first ones to discover this glitch, as evidenced by this search.

What was friggin' great was that the protagonist could set people on fire, yet drive a convertible with the flames spilling down the back all over the henchman without burning him up. Meanwhile, cars moved out of your way, the entire dialogue of surrounding people reflects the fiery state with questions like, "Does that hurt?" "God is punishing you." "I'm getting tired of your screaming." (This was due to the protagonist screaming her head off and yet her health status bar didn't move a millimeter)

So does that make us inured to violence? No, because I view this in the same way I view Bugs Bunny violence. It's not real.

By the way, Saints Row 2 is a great stoner's game. It's fun, challenging but yet forgiving in lots of ways and great as an audience game as well.

Tang & Bubbles

For about half a year, we've had a hard time getting a castle drawbridge bubbler to work in our tank properly when it finally tilted the right way. Now the drawbridge stays down, trapping the bubbles until the bubbles get big enough to lift the drawbridge, releasing the bubbles.

About a week ago, Lone Wolf came over and was checking out the tank when she exclaimed, "Is the Tang swimming through the bubbles?" I made a non-committal grunt when Bratworse replied, "Yes, it's been playing with the bubbles lately."

Curious, both Lone Wolf and I leaned in for a closer look.

"It's biting at the bubbles!" One of us cried out.

Not only that, but the tang was carrying bubbles in its mouth and releasing them a bit aways. When did the blue tang start exhibiting strange behavior? I thought and my thoughts were echoed by Bratworse: "Think the blue tang is playing or is it showing signs of being in a tank for too long?"

So, what do you think? Is the Blue Tang playing with the bubbles? Trying to kill the bubbles? Or just having a bubble fetish?

An Interesting Exchange

The following is a transcript in an AIM exchange between a friend who is white, lives in NC and has a hippie mom and a very very republican Dad - about the Inauguration

Me(10:48:38 AM): I can barely focus today... woke up happy and didn't know why since I had to work. Then remembered!

Friend (10:48:39 AM): I am getting my permit to carry a concealed weapon and we are making survival kits

Me(10:48:48 AM): You serious?

Friend (10:49:00 AM): Flash lights, Ammo, Canned foods, water, Skittles

Friend (10:49:04 AM): all the necessities

Me (10:49:07 AM): lol yeah

Me (10:49:15 AM): well, I feel like I can unpack mine

Friend (10:49:24 AM): hahahahaha well hand it over!

Me (10:49:27 AM): rofl

Obama's magic is starting - I'm able to laugh with a semi-conservative about survival.

Time Wastin'

So, I've been reading Andrew Sullivan's site (shhhh don't tell people I'm actually reading a conservative albeit gay albeit who voted for Obama) and he leads me to this site today. It's call Pretty Loaded and well, it's a seamless panoply of loading animations.

You know, the animations that happen when your program/video file/website is loading?

My first thought before entering the site: "How good can this be?" Other thoughts of endless circles of death persisted.

And then the first animation happened and I thought, "Cool!" and before I even knew it was over the second one started, then the third one...

Five minutes of my life. Gone. Poof. Just like that.

Enjoy!

Owed a "Hot Chat Topping Session"

So last night, I had the fortune of spending 45 minutes on the phone with Scarlett O'Hall. This is the friend I first made on my own, when I moved up here to the Bay Area. Scarlett (Name have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent) was a fascinating character I really had to good fortune to meet through a BBS.

Okay, for you youngsters fairly new to the internet, a BBS was a Bulletin Board System back in the dark ages of the internet, long before there were images, ebay, amazon or even AOL. Yes, I was an early geek. Anyway, back in the 90s when I first moved here I was a lonely 28 year old and longing for any sort of company. When I found out there was a BBS for lesbians, well I jumped to log on.

Scarlett was the first person I met through the internet and our friendship was fast, furious and funny! Her apt was on the way home for me so often after work, I'd drop in on her, calling through the intercom "Short girl bringing Tall Boys". Tall boys were the long tall Buds. I used to get soooooo drunk with Scarlett.

It was through Scarlett I met Lone Wolf who remains a close friend to this day.

Anyway, Scarlett was a bit down in the dumps because it was the anniversary of a memorial service for a close friend of hers, one I had known. We talked, and I was able to commiserate with her, due to the sudden death of JoEllen when she had just turned 30. Apparently she and her significant other has experienced a ton of deaths lately and she was wondering if that was all life had to offer anymore.

I pointed her gaze to the future, where her little girl was poised to take over. Her child is 4 and there are so many more firsts in her life... that's where the future is. Death is inevitable... the 80s and 90s taught me that. To see it as the future is to condemn yourself to a future of closing doors. Yes, it will be that, but that's not all.

Oh, the title of the post? I was telling Bratworse about Scarlett's and my history together and I told her how I stopped playing on the BBS when my GF at the time asked me to, but before I stopped, I engaged in a "Hot chat" with Scarlett and how I was promised a return chat which never occurred.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that anything like that will happen nowadays, with all of us older, wiser AND more tired. lol

Pages of a Dusty Book

That's what this feels like, like reading pages from a dusty book.

Lives intersect at different junctures and there are lives that interweave throughout time. Perhaps it happens more often to someone like me, but right now, many lives are intersecting with mine due to the tool called Facebook. Some are current friends, some are old friends popping out of different periods in my life.

The one that's just jaw-dropping to me is the one connection to probably one of my closest friends as a child, back in Singapore. As I read about her, I realize her world and mine would only have intersected as children and now, through this tool. We run in vastly different worlds.

I hope the fondness we both feel evaporates any differences. I feel like though we have differences - here I go again with my feelings of alienness - both of us seem to have the philosophy of live and let live... a philosophy that should lead to a somewhat harmonious life.

Anyway, this contact with her... the tentative reaching out, it's been feeling like reading pages from a dusty book. Some words stand out, others obscured, and with each contact, more dust is blown off and more words become readable. The memories start to stitch together (how's that for mixed metaphors) ... bah, I derailed my own thought.

All this to say, I'm enjoying myself.

You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

My mother just called to apologize for last night's phone call saying she was upset at losing her glasses and she took it out on me.

I'm trying to pick my jaw off the ground. This old back just takes its time bending nowadays.

Facebooking

So, after several people had asked if I was on Facebook, after watching Stephen Colbert tease Jon Stewart about being out of it... I succumbed to the forces of conformity and signed up.

The first thing that popped up upon signing? Alison Blanchard's face greets me and wants to be my friend.

Awwwww!

So not being able to resist a gorgeous red-head, I accepted of course. Well! Numerous faces greets me upon this acceptance and amongst them I spy tons of faces from my past, from acquaintances long-forgotten, to ex-clients to friends no more. Wow. A name... seemingly familiar when the memory snaps into place and I am transported to my past, somewhere in L.A., on a hot summer day. Another name... and again I am transported, this time to a crowded convention floor.

I start choosing people to ask to be my friend. Safe choices at first, ones that I know will welcome my advances. Weasel is the first to accept. It'll be nice to stay in contact with Wease and his wife.

Part of me is screaming at me, How will you maintain hermitude???? The other part is soothing me, It's okay, time to come out of your shell. I guess time will tell if social networking will work for me or not. But damn it, I am not going to be ignorant about these types of programs any more.

Did You Vote?

So we left our house about 7:05 this morning to cast our votes. There were about 20 something people in front of us and by the time we left, the line built up to about 30 or 40 behind us. I was 24th in my precinct and Bratworse was 26th in our precinct to vote.

There was a dyke in front of us who was ebullient. She was talking with a black couple. Behind us was a young Jewish woman with a 6 and a half month old baby. I declared "His first election!" and his mom beamed back at us.

We just dropped off some donuts for the poll workers cause for the first time in my voting life, I asked if there would be shifts for the volunteers. They said no, just breaks. Hence the delivery of Krispy Kremes.

The buzz is affecting this side of Oakland, CA too. The lines were definitely longer than usual, and the cheerfulness of everyone involved in the process is just contagious.

As for Prop 8... I don't need to voice my views here, having blogged about our wedding. You want to know my sadness? That I have a feeling I know what my family who votes, voted for.

Bats Day

If you are going to Bats Day at Disneyland, November 8, look for Bratworse and I there. We'll be one of the many in all black but probably without the face make-up.

Reincarnation Placement Exam

Your result for Reincarnation Placement Exam...

Spy

49% Intrigue, 54% Civilization, 67% Humanity, 28% Urbanization.

Live well, ride fast, and die

If you want to try this test, go here

Swiffer Commercial!

We were watching Wild Kingdom on Animal Planet when we both looked up at the Swiffer commercial.

'Alison!' I cried out.

Bratworse looked up and confirmed that it was our friend, Alison Blanchard.

When I can, I'll post a Youtube of the commercial.

Can you see it?

Bratworse was in Florida, visiting her grandparents' property and taking a nice stroll around the premises. Along the walk, she spotted this next to her sister.



What? You can't see it? Here, let us highlight it for you.

There, is that any better?






No?

Okay, we'll go closer up. Any better?





Still no, eh?

Okay how's this? We've pulled closer up.






Yes! There it is.

Yes, that was a hidden snake next to her sister, and Bratworse managed to spot it from about fifteen feet away. She called it a "pygmy rattlesnake."

Okay, if you still can't see it, click on the picture. Click on any of the photos and you'll get a bigger photo.


Here, let me show you again how far away it was.