New Job, New iMac, New Borough, New Apartment

I'd say things are looking up. This is why I have neglected my wonderful blog. I've been so crazy busy. And NOW its the holidays oh whats a girl to do? Its also just 10 short days away from my son's 17th birthday! Oh me oh my!

We've been doing some major things to the loft. DIY Curbly style. I'll post some before and after pics soon.. Hopefully soon.. I'll try to make it very soon.

Anyway time to get to work oh but look here are some pics I took with this awesome imac! woo!


Alright, alright, alright

I'm now residing in Redhook. I LOVE Redhook. I now own a Darth Tater toy, and I have decided to support the movement to have BC & AD stricken from all historcal timelines..

(only two of those things listed above are actually true, one is just a grostesque fantasy)

OK Be Honest...

Does this ever happen to you?








Wednesday in Brooklyn







Photos from our wednesday happy hour in Cobble Hill - two for one UFO Hefeweizens, 1/2 off chicken wings and chili cheese fries YUUM! pictured above, various shots of the restaurant, Chad aka beer face, and a photo of our pet lobster! ;)

Redirect a no-no

Morning!

I know I promised more burning man pics and stories, I haven't forgotten. I've just had to downgrade computers so keeping up with all of my activities online has been difficult. However I'm finally starting to get used to this little guy, in no time he and I will be as tight as my old faithful. Anyway, I had to be up early today to run some errands so I decided to get up extra early have some coffee, watch some DIY network and pa ruse my old web 2.0 haunts. Its been a nice morning.

Anyway I was inspired to write because as I was surfing around I kept running into one of my biggest pet peeves. When I'm on a site and I click on an external link I get redirected. I HATE being redirected. I hate that. Then I have to bookmark this page and go back to the page I was on originally. I mean don't you people want us to spend as much time as possible on your site? Then why on earth would you let links lead them away you know? Sheesh!

Anyway that's it just thought I'd share that little rant. I better start getting ready.

xo,
Tawnya

Funny Stuff!




I wish there were more than 5 episodes but this is funny stuff!


"its back to better"

;)

Americas Next Top Chef: Um Hung?


What? OMG I totally thought it would be Casey. Seriously! Hung? Man! I just think that the finale should be based on how well the chef did over the entire season not just that ONE challenge. I find this upsetting. I must go bury my head in the sand until they straighten all of this out..

Its ME! In the desert!


by the way that thing by my eyebrow isn't a mole is an eyebrow ring........... yeah I'm that cool ;)

Monkeys, mushroom clouds and 80's mash-ups

Thought I floated away into the great big yonder? well, your right! I was at burning man and OH MY GOD what a year! I just got back freshly tanned and all. I will post pics, tales and hopefully pick up the slack from the last month... and hopefully lose the sour puss tude!

xo,
me

The Fam

Some people don't know what they've got and take it for granted, they even go so far as to make it their burden.

Other people know what they've not got and make it their sorrow, they even go so far as to make it their tragedy.

Card Design



So I designed this business card (based on someone elses interest and tastes) but what do you think?

Baby Birds and the Wonders of Life

A baby bird fell out of his nest two days ago into my backyard. My son and my friend ran in to tell me and I immediately began shouting commands. "Cory! You get on google and find me a number for wild bird rescue". "Barbie! you go upstairs and get me a spatula and some paper towels!" Yes, as you can probably tell I take things WAY too seriously. I care too much.. it destroys me. They eventually convinced me to leave the bird be and I let them take him outside, in the basket that I created a final resting place for him in. I checked the next day, he died. The day before though.... he grabbed my finger with his little bird foot. And I think, in that one touch, in that one encounter I at least transfered my "I truly care" feelings on to him, he will now be recycled in "GODS GREAT WONDERLAND" whatever the FAAAK that is.

xo,
T

Keyboard cuties

Why encountering a 404 error on Craigslist can never make me angry.....

Not Found

There is nothing here

No web page for this address

404 Error



____________
( return to )
( craigslist )
( homepage? )
-------------
O
O ^__^
o (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||


I was trying to open an ad under the free category
for a coldfusion construction kit. Normally I'd be
irritated at the 404 error I got when opening this
ad because I really, really want a coldfusion
construction kit but gosh darnit! he's just too
frickn cute! I'll take him instead.

By the way I did the spell check on his post and
it turns out his eyes are spelled wrong!

NOW Watch

NOW Watch

I want this because I usually don't really care what time it is... well unless I have to go to work which I don't really ever want to do so I'd really rather never know what time it is.. all that matters is WHEN it is. (via ThisOne)

Fighting the Evil Minions of the Vast Machine

I just learned that my birthday is exactly in the middle of the year. Its the 182 day of the year, 183 on leap year. That means there are 182 days left till the end of the year fascinating! Oh and it always falls on the same day as New Years day except for leap year. Another fascinating tidbit.

Also I learned that Kerwin Mathews died on July 5th. Kerwin was best known for his roll as Sinbad in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, the one where he engages in a sword fight with an animated Skeleton. Anyway, I met Kerwin a few years back he and his partner Tom used to bring their cats into the clinic I worked in. He was seriously the sweetest man always smiling and friendly to everyone, he also sent us yummy candy during the holidays!

Actually several famous people used to go to that animal clinic. I met Armistead Maupin, Tracy Chapman, Ashley Judds personal assistant, James Hormel the heir of the famous Hormel estate, as in Hormel Chili. Thats all I can think of at the moment...

Anyway, I also learned that the very day I was born Betty Grable died.

Can you tell I've been spending time on Wikipedia again? Its terribly addictive. Oh yeah and so far today there has been one death of note, an opera singer who actually shot himself in the head a while back but his girlfriend found him and he was rushed to the hospital where he was put on life support. They unplugged the life support two days ago, he died early this morning.

Aligator Lizards in the Air.

I'm currently reading this book called "Permanent Californians" its basically a literary tour through some of California's best known cemeteries. Then a brief biography of some of the notable residents. It starts in LA at the Westwood cemetery where the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Buddy Rich, Natalie wood and Heather O'rourke are buried and ends in Colma California aka "city of the dead" where its said that the dead out number the living by a thousand to one. This is my second time reading this book I find it morbidly interesting. The authors also wrote Permanent New Yorkers and Permanent Parisians. I'll pick them up next.

At the moment I'm compiling a list of my all time favorite songs I'll post it here in a few days..

I fell down and split open my chin recently :( I swear I must be the clumsiest girl EVER!

well thats my update be back in a few.

xo,
flutter

I'm going to get you my pretty....

Ok maybe my last two anger fueled posts were a bit over the top. However I was reading about the Broadway play called "Wicked" today. Its the pre-story of the witches of wizard of oz, and ironically I was headed on the same path as The Wicked Witch of the West. Her name was Elphaba and Elphaba was a do-gooder, but everything she did backfired. The lyric from the song she sings is "no good deed goes unpunished" So she decided to never do any good deed ever again, and thats how she became The Wicked Witch of the West.

Whats even MORE ironic is when I was little I had a series of reoccurring dreams that were all of The wicked witch of the west chasing me up an electric tower with a butcher knife.. I mean as if being chased by a witch wasn't scary enough, she had to bring along that knife. I mean one of those flying monkeys alone would have even done the trick. Anyway the fact that she was only able to use one hand to climb gave me the advantage, but the fact that I mysteriously couldn't use my voice gave her the advantage. I would open my mouth and scream with all my might, and not a peep came out.. Also each dream picked up where the other left off. Apparently we were on the 8th wonder of the world; The ONLY electric tower that expands into space and beyond! Luckily I grew up before we got to space.. I think I mean I really don't know because it was always dark.. but then again I don't ever remember zero gravity so there ya go.

Small explaination..

Sorry about my cryptic rant over the weekend. Basically I was nice to a few people (strangers in the neighborhood) and it came back to bite me in the ass.. I'm now learning the hard way why its just not worth it. Thats why I just added to my 43 things list, make better decisions, in other words decide not to be nice to random strangers.. I'm all done, no smiles, no hello's no good mornings, no friendliness what so ever unless I know you or your a friend of a friend, or we happen to be blogging buddies from all parts of the world ;) you know who you are.

As of today I am making that decision, its going to be hard because its in my nature but its just not worth it in the end.

-Me

!!!!! - rewind, rethink, re-evaluate.

remember random acts of kindness? they don't matter.. don't bother, it only makes your situation worse. look out for yourself and no one else. caring about others, about strangers in this day and age is only going to lead to trouble.

July two

Since yesterday was my birthday I have decided to start a Wiki Birthday Meme because it sounds pretty interesting. Heres how it works, go to Wikipedia type in your birthday (only month and day). Then you list 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday, and then you tag 5 friends.


July 2


Events:

1776 - John Hancock signs Declaration of Independence

1947 - An object speculated to be a UFO crashes near Roswell, New Mexico, though the United States Air Force claims it is a weather balloon.

1998 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released to the public as the second installment to the Harry Potter book series.

Births:

1964 - José Canseco, Cuban baseball player
1986 - Lindsay Lohan, American actress


Holiday:


Canada Day. Under the Holidays Act, Canada Day is always observed on July 1 unless that date falls on a Sunday, in which case it is observed on July 2


I tag:

http://southernsnowball.blogspot.com/

http://keralaarticles.blogspot.com/

http://www.turtleparade.blogspot.com/

http://www.momoneymandy.blogspot.com/

http://rainbowcircuit.blogspot.com/

more art by me!

I made a robot


[ ■_■ ]
| ♥ |
σ σ σ

isn't she cute?

They Say Its Your Birthday, Its My Birthday Too!

Well today isn't my birthday but we're going to celebrate today with a bbq. Its officially on Monday. I don't know why but I LOVE my birthday even though every year I wait for it with anticipation and its a huge let down I still love my birthday. I also feel like its such a feminine date, July two isn't it? That's how I say it as well most would say July second, but I prefer July Two.

So about this
iphone madness. Yeah I know everyone else is talking about it, you can't go 2 minutes without hearing about it anywhere the past few months. So the NYC Apple stores got crazy there were as many news vans as there were people in line. I heard the front of the line smelled funny, go figure. The San Francisco Apple store on Market street had clowns who set up a mini, mini golf to entertain the crowd.

More about the coming out ceremony of the
iPhone:

One, if you were getting your phone anywhere other than the Apple store you were limited to just one phone per customer, if you did happen to get it at the Apple store you were limited to only two. TWO?? Who can even afford one?
Sheesh!

Two, I heard that after purchasing the phone and getting home to set it all up people waited on hold with AT&T longer than they waited in-line to get the thing.

Three AT&T freaked out over the
possibility of violent iPhone line-waiters so they beefed up security. Turns out that the media were the ones they should have worried about more "when the first iPhone purchasers emerged from the store, reporters started to grab at them." However when the same happened at the Apple store, Apple employees clapped and cheered according to the Gothamist - "With helicopters circling overhead and the NYPD stationed on Fifth Avenue, the excitement reached a fever pitch when Apple employees started getting the line ready. Then cheering began when the doors opened. And when customers left with an iPhone in hand, a receiving line of Apple employees cheered and congratulated them when they left"

Anyway I won't be getting one. I can't afford that crap as a matter of fact the only reason I have an iPod is because I happened to get one for my birthday last year OH see how I brought that back around? So yeah and its only a one gig, I hear people say, yeah I remember my first ipod back in 2002 it was only a gig and I'm like, um... right.. mines brand new and its only a gig, but that's all that could be afforded... I'm like that kid who wears the KMart brand tennies to school right? The one who wears Jordache instead of Guess... :(

Oh well what can you do
that's my life and I am just fine with it.

Lil' BoheMia's Beginnings

My new favorite artiste! Lil' BoheMia's Beginnings How cute is she?


oh and here is my recent works of art, not nearly as good as Mia's but close

() () () ()
(>'-'<) >( '-' )<
(^,, ,,^) (,, ,,)
well blogger wont let me keep my bunnies aligned but you get the jist.


Happy Wednesday!

My Very First Summer Solstice resolution

While I was in the shower this morning I was planning what I was going to write about in my blog today but then I got on my bike and biked to work (for the very first time) and I totally forgot. The ride was roughly eight miles along the Hudson bike trail. I'm not gonna lie, it was tough, and my rear started hurting from the seat right around Chelsea but I did it! AND you know what? I'm not afraid to do it again that is AWESOME! Seriously it was much better than the smelly old stuffy, rat infested subway.

So.... Happy first day of summer!

Oh yeah! so I've decided to make a summer solstice resolution, since I no longer make resolutions on New Years Eve because I never keep them anyway. Lets see how I do with the summer solstice resolutions. I have a good feeling about this one. The resolution is to ride my bike as much as possible to and from work. I'd like to do it daily but that may be ambitious we'll see how my legs feel tomorrow!

Also did you know that every year thousands of people go to Stone Henge for summer solstice celebration? I have never celebrated summer solstice and I think I'd like to start doing that.

Anyway maybe my original ideas from this morning will come to me.

Funny of the day

Four Eyed Monsters - support the film

I came across this movie the other day on Gearlive. Its this really amazing movie made by Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, a couple who met online then made this film about their experiences together. I loved it so much I've watched it three times. Also if you sign up for a free account at (www.spout.com/foureyedmonsters) it'll donate a dollar towards their credit card bills which were exhausted from making the film.
just an fyi. the film is 71 minutes long.








Enjoy!

8 Random Things - Tag

I was tagged by DaydreamSupercollider to post eight random things about myself, it was surprisingly hard but here is what I came up with.

1. I'm never on time to anywhere ever

2. I hate talking on the telephone.

3. I've never been out of the country

4. One Christmas I ate an entire book of lifesavers candy (thats about 8 rolls) of which I ended up throwing up the rest of the day

5. Sleeping is my least favorite thing to do

6. I don't believe in killing anything. Let me elaborate, I do eat meat, but I wouldn't if I had to be the one to kill the animals (hypocritical I know) What I really meant by this is I don't kill bugs and I don't like it when other people do.

7. Pink is my favorite color

8. Fruity pebbles is my favorite cereal


oh and 9. (daydreamsupercollider) The sticker is due today, I don't think I'm actually going to make the deadline :(



Morbid Curiosity Killed the Cat

What I'm doing at the moment is.... still creating that sticker.. Damn! faking creativity is hard! Sort of working, I mean I am at work, and reading the recent deaths on Wikipedia.to clear my head.

I find it so fascinating. Its one way that people can be remembered after they are gone, a quick note explaining something noteworthy about them. Not only do they tell you name, birthday, what they were known for and how they died but they tell you who died today, everyday. When I clicked the link this morning, I found that four people had already died today. Don't get me wrong, I don't read it everyday, I'm no goth or totally obsessed with death, thats why I read it every other day ;)

Deaths of note, in other words deaths I remember because of who they were, how old they were, what they did or how they died are:

6/11/07
Stack Bundles, American, rapper, shot.
Before today I had never heard of him. He died tragically at the age of 24.

6/9/07
Frankie Abernathy, American, cast member of The Real World: San Diego cystic fibrosis
She was also too young too die, I never watched The real world: San Diego, but the wikipedia entry
about her says it was obvious during the time of taping that her health was deteriorating.

6/5/07
Edwin Traisman, American food scientist, who developed McDonald's French fries and helped develop Cheez Whiz, heart attack
McDonald's french fries and Cheez Whiz!! a match made in heaven this man was a genius! mmmm gooey cheese fries. (not trying to be morbid at all seems like he had a nice long life)

6/2/07
Steve Gilliard, 42, American blogger heart kidney failure
A progressive blogger from New York, and editor and publisher of The News Blog

John Pike, 23, American Ra Ra Riot drowned
What a horrible tragedy, when you go to the wikipedia entry for Ra Ra Riot it mostly talks about his death, when you go to Ra Ra Riots website the latest news is a brief blurb about the incident and their mourning.

Kelsey Smith American kidnapping and murder victim
Unthinkable, this sort of thing makes me ill. I'm so sorry for her and her family. Kidnapped and killed at the age of 18 horrifyingly tragic.

6/1/07
Ernest Hofstetter, 95, Swiss pioneer climber of Mount Everest
Quite an achievement. I've always wanted to climb a mountain, well actually no, I used to want to climb a mountain, now I'm just too lazy.

Tony Thompson, 31, American lead vocalist of the R&B group Hi-Five, apparent drug overdose.
I think they were best known for "I swear" I mean when I think of Hi-Five that song starts to play in my head. hmm guess I better google that.

Pamela Low, 79, American flavorist who created the coating for Cap'n Crunch
I wonder exactly how similar a flavorist is to a perfumist or is it smellist? Its all science right?

Shinichi Yamazaki, 76, Japanese public official implicated in recent bid-rigging, possible suicide by jumping
Adding to Japans enormous suicide rate.

5/28/07
Barbara Cox Anthony, 84, American heiress to Cox Enterprises and 45th-richest person in the world, after long illness
Its really very sad that she struggled for so long.

David Lane, 68, American neo-Nazi leader and author
Neo Nazi? Strange it doesn't say how he died.

5/27/07
Marquise Hill, 24, American football player for the New England Patriots in the NFL, drowning.
His Wikipedia entry says that he was riding a jet ski with a friend when they both fell off, neither wearing a life jacket, his friend was rescued by coast guard but they could not locate Marquise. He is also noted for spending a lot of time in New Orleans helping out after Katrina hit.

Ed Yost, 87, American inventor of the modern hot air balloon.
I've never ridden in one but if it weren't for him we wouldn't have this

5/26/07
Arwon, 33, New Zealand-born racehorse, longest surviving Melbourne Cup winner, euthanasia
Euthanasia :( I'm sure they had a good reason, and the only reason I would consider good is if the horse was suffering from some terminal disease.

5/24/07
Christopher Newton, 37, American murderer, execution by lethal injection.
According to his Wikipedia article his death has recently riled controversy over the death penalty because it took over 2 hours and 10 attempts before he died. Mostly due to the fact that he was 265lbs and his veins were hard to find.

5/22/07
Robert Comer, 50, American murderer, execution by lethal injection.
May is also the month of lethal injections apparently

5/15/07
Harvey Weinstein, 82, American businessman, chairman of Lord West Formal Wear and 1993 kidnap victim
I totally remember the news stories surrounding his being kidnapped

5/11/07
Dayna Ho-Henry, 51, American daughter of famed Hawaiian singer Don Ho
Because I have a friend named( Danya not Dayna but similar) and because I was wondering if Don Ho was still around.

5/9/07
Philip Workman, 53, American murderer, execution by lethal injection
Hmmm read the wikipedia article, I don't know how I feel about this one.

5/7/06
Isabella Blow, 48, British fashion journalist and stylist, suicide by poisoning.
Very interesting lass its sad that she felt the need to kill herself it seems like she was liked by many and her eccentricity is just what the world needed.

5/3/07
Rose (goat)Rose Tombe, Sudanese celebrity goat, asphyxiation
I hate this story but it did catch my eye


Ok, I'm done. Back to my sticker.. oh and work I guess

Breif Hiatus

Sorry I'm MIA, I'm designing a sticker for Burning Man 2007, if its chosen it will go to 40,000 people! if its not :( I'm a loser.

I'll post it here when its done.

Potatoes in disguise



via : uncrate.com

Update:

oh man this is my favorite! Artoo Patatoo

“Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list.” - Dennis Leary

Last night I was at a cute little french restaurant on the Lower East side called The Flea Market, having drinks and a small dinner with a friend when I noticed sitting just about 4 feet away from us was a table of 4 men, 1 of them happen to be Dennis Leary, as usual I was star struck. Thats what I love about New York. Turns out he's a bit smaller in person than he looks on TV.

The friend I was with didn't really know who he was so I was trying to explain who he was to her as I was explaining he was listening to me. I felt kinda bad because all I could say was, you know he's a stand up comedian from Boston, he's Irish, he was in a movie where he tied up a couple and held them hostage and now he's in some TV show about Firemen..

Yup! Hearing me describe him with that much detial must have made him feel really good.

Its not always skin deep

I have a horrible horrible mind disturbing head ache today. Its driving me absolutely crazy. Also, over the weekend I did what I like to call "girl maintenance" if your a girl you know what that means, if your a boy you may or may not, ask the girl closest to you.. Anyway, one word eyebrows. Seriously? Come on. I don't pay to get any type of beauty service. I do it all myself, plus I'm afraid of waxing and threading.

I hate to tweeze and since I'm drinking less than I used to it barely gets done. The reason is that I used to have a few drinks before I tweezed to take the edge off (yes if your thinking I'm a huge wimp your right)

Anyway this past weekend during my "girl maintenance" I attempted to tweeze but couldn't take it so I got out the ol trusty depilatory cream. I applied vaseline to the parts of the brow I wanted to keep and the depilatory cream to the parts I wanted gone.

Well I must have left it on too long because I now have a ton of these little red scabs where some of my hair follicles used to be. It specifically says in bold print "
DO NOT EXCEDE 10 MINUTES" I thought I didn't but I guess I was wrong. Now I have a set of red eyebrow shaped scarred skin patches above my normal eyebrows.

Just thought I'd share.

A Rant About My Disgust and Disappointment in our Troubled World.

Is anyone else troubled by the increasing news of Illicit police violence, Corruption among the US Government, People dying in a meaningless war, Mothers who murder children, Teachers Molesting Students, Clergy molesting children, Animals being treated cruel and experiencing horrible unthinkable deaths, and on and on.

When I review the list above I see one common denominator.... Abuse of power. Every one of those crimes involves an "Authoritative figure" and a those who look to them for safety. I know there are a ton of good people out there but the violence in the world is growing at a rate that I'm not sure any one of us is ready for.

There are things I read that I cannot get out of my head, headlines I read that wish I hadn't. In fact these same headlines haunt me for days and days. I read a headline about 6 months ago that I'll spare you, but it never left me. To this day when it crosses my mind it turns my stomach as other headlines often do.

My point is this, if we as humans are starting to wake up to all thats happening in our world, we are doing it
too slowly. All this stuff thats happening, meaning whats listed above is obvious, we all know its happening, but most of us think if its not happening to us then, we can ignore it. Not true. I'm afraid to read news headlines, because I'm afraid to see the horrible things that are happening everywhere because I can't face it, and because I alone can't fix it.

We can liken it to this; We are in a trash compactor that is slowly closing in on us, and we can't do a thing to stop it. [Think of the first Star wars, Han, Luke and Leia stuck in the compactor on Darth's ship] Except, we don't have droids helping us escape.

I recently started feeling really guilty about eating meat. I've spent my entire life eating meat, its always been ok with me. But now, faced with all the violence I'm starting to feel really guilty about my role in the violence towards animals that are bred purely for our consumption. I'd really rather not contribute to any to the violence in the world in any way.

Kidnapped children, human trafficking, spousal abuse, rape, hate crimes, harassment, the list is endless. Its really disheartening to be aware of such horrendous acts of humanity.

World No Tobacco Day


Acording to Wikipedia. today May 31st is World No tobacco Day its officially my favorite day after my birthday.

So all you smokers and self-proclaimed non-smokers(who still smoke) try not to smoke today.

Hilarity Ensues!



image via: http://pr0n.encyclopediadramatica.com


I know its old news but this is pretty funny.

Question;

Why does it always seem like your cats are rolling their eyes at you?

Mary Poppins vs Rancid!


I think I'd like to hear a punk version of Bibity Bobity Boo don't ask me why I was just thinking it would be funny. Ooooh or how about a Spoon Full of Sugar how awesome would it be to hear some hardcore punk band say "in the most delightful way!" Oh or how about Whistle While You Work. Wait has someone already done this?

Searching for My Mini Fame

You google your name right? I mean everyone does it at least a few times a year. So when I google my name I get a wide array of results. Doesn't help that my last name is a real word, but my first name is spelled in a way that most people wouldn't spell it.

Anyway it turns out it links to my blog that I kept for 6 years on diaryland a lot, as well as all those other things I had to use my real name to sign up with. It also leads to a site created by the bosses with my work contact info for when we hold these live events and people need real time technical help, I hate that. That means that anyone who knows my first and last name can google me and get my work number and extension
and its the first result right up there at the very top! ugh.

Anyway it also turns out that there is at least one computer user in the world with my first and last name and a few computer users in the world with my first and middle name. Then we have all the stragglers with just my first name one girl is even a very famous porn star!

There is this sense of satisfaction when you see many many links to your own stuff or even more what someone wrote about you. Unless of course its press about a crime you did, which isn't the case for me.. really, its not! um.. ok bye.

Mac vs PC spoof SouthPark Style

Found this on The Thinking Blog

Oh dear......

I think I have cat vomit on my skirt... And yes I am aware of how insanely disgusting that is. Thats what happens when you don't put your clothes away after washing them and you get dressed in the dark :(

Yelp!

Discovered Yelp today.. I'm likin it! Its so much better than scouring the internet for reviews and ideas about what to eat or where. I like that the reviews come from real people not someone working for a company who might withhold a bad review because the place in name is affiliated with their sponsor. Well thats just one reason I like it, its pretty fun to assess the places I've been to recently and write up a review. Anyway, not feeling too chatty today so I'll end there but if you live in NYC be my yelp buddy.. if you don't but you might be visiting some day.. be my yelp buddy :) http://flutterbot.yelp.com

cheers!

me

Guilty pleasures that sneak up on you

I'm working from home today, and in between checking emails and keeping up with correspondences I have been watching Judging Amy reruns. Turns out I'm really really enjoying it. It makes me happy, it makes me sad, sometimes even makes me scared. weird... Also most mornings I wake up turn on the tube before I get ready for work most likely run into the following shows; Charmed, Dawson's Creek, and Boy Meets World. I have found myself suddenly, and strangely engulfed in each of them at one time or another.

The other day on a Boy Meets World rerun, Cory and friends were on their senior sky trip. When Cory hurt his ankle on a bunny slope and had to spend the day inside. A young employee of the ski lodge took a liking to Cory and Cory to her even though
Tapanga was on the trip with him and obviously his girlfriend the girl didn't back down. At the end of the trip she openly expressed her feelings and left Cory with a card explaining how she felt... Tapanga found the card and..... To be Continued.... displayed on the screen.. dunno what happened after that..

The other day on a rerun of Dawson's Creek, Dawson's movie was going to be shown to a theater full of people for the very first time, and a well
renown film critic was to be there as well. Dawson ran into her before the show began, she was having a fight with her ex and he heard it all and proceeded to insult her because he thought she was a high maintenance, stereotypical girl who most guys regret being with... needless to say he finally figured out who she was and apologized, they had coffee and she came to watch the movie. Meanwhile Joey has decided to indulge on a prospective mutual crush and gets disappointed, while Casey and (blond girl forgot her name) play a game called how many people have you really slept with...

I'm going to stop there I could go on and give a synopsis of the last rerun of Charmed that I saw but my fingers are now stiff from typing.. Anyway my point is I used to steer clear from all this popular prime time TV stuff.. I was good at it but now its slowly creeping its way into my life, a little too late its hard to have
water cooler talks about shows that were hot 6-7 years ago when American Idol is all the rage...

eh.. oh well, it'll be a guilty pleasure like, old
Madonna, the spice girls and van halen.

cheers!

The Many Shades of Me

I'm getting my hair braided again this weekend. At lunch time today I'm going to get the synthetic hair and pick out the colors. I thought it might be fun to share the many colors and styles that I've had through the years.

The first time I braided my hair was back in 2002. I did it because I was going to BurningMan, for the first time. If your not familiar with Burningman, its a HUGE festival of sorts held way out in the Nevada desert.. Its really too hard to explain go to the website and check it out. Anyway, having curly hair I was afraid it would end up in dreads by the end of the week so I decided to braid it.

I've since braided it a countless number of times and have learned not only how to choose better colors but how to style it and such.. I though it might be fun to showcase some of the different colors and styles.



  • The 2002 theme at BurningMan was The floating World based around water and the color blue. As you can see I dove in head first (hardy har har)





  • This one I like to call my Indian corn because if you could see the colors close up thats exactly what it looked like.





  • This is my old faithful and probably what I'll be doing again tomorrow. The colors are pink, dark red and blonde.





  • This one is the same colors above the old faithful its just in a different style.





  • I decided to take old faithful and put a fire under its ass.. This is the florescent version of old faithful. And how I wore my hair to BurningMan last year.





  • This is the same as above post BurningMan the ambient light doesn't show it, but its pretty faded and pretty grown out..




The end.

Tinky Winky



The purple Teletubby can safely walk the streets again..




Refrigerator


I have to get this I can't stop laughing its so funny!


The R.A.O.K project

I just had an idea, actually two ideas but I'm only going to focus on one right now. I'm going to start a new project called "The Random Acts of Kindness Project" I could have gone with a more creative title but I decided to stick to a more descriptive one.

Anyway I got this idea when I was downstairs just now taking a walk. I'm not sure what sparked this memory but; back when I lived in San Francisco I used to cross the Bay Bridge several times a week. On occasion I randomly gave the Bridge toll taker(?) what the heck are they called hmm. Anyway on occasion I would randomly pay for the car directly behind me. Just because you know. I thought it would be something that would become a chain of some sort. You know like I did it for someone then they would in turn do it and so on and so on.. Also I chose my bridge frugally the Golden Gate would have broken my bank acct you know what I mean?

I suppose that I would have to go looking for what this random act would be unless there are rare occasions when they are just obvious. It can't always have to do with money either since I have none. But I will be creative and come up with these random acts, then carry them out..

I'm thinking it might be a helpful way to improve my overall happiness as well.

The only other thing that worries me is that now that I am in New York my random acts of kindness might not be taken the same way that they are in the bay area you know? I mean I'm not just talking about giving up my seat on the subway to an elderly or pregnant person I already do that. Something more, something that people don't usually do for strangers..

Anyway I think you get my point. I'll post them when I do them.


Pay it forward

Sunset over New Jersey

Yesterday I took the dog for a walk to watch the sun go down. I was on the Manhattan side of the Hudson. As I watched the sun decending from the sky I was wondering why New Jersey gets such a bad rap when clearly the sun prefers to decend into it rather than Manhattan.

The sunset was the type that had huge beams of light shining down here and there. Every once and a while one of the beams would draw a reflective line across the river that was so bright it made my eyes water. While I was looking at those beams I couldn't help but wonder what parts of New Jersey were blessed with the the sun's last rays of the day.

I've decided that watching the sun go down across the Hudson is one of the coolest things I get to experience in my life. And... I'm so very happy that I have the capasity to recognize its beauty

Channeling My Inner Sweet Tooth with Cow Tails



I was in CVS yesterday, meandering about waiting for the pharmacy to fill a prescription, when I came across a candy called cow tails. I have never heard of them but it turns out they have been around for quite some time. Based on what they look like, I'm not sure I would ever want to eat one. On second thought I don't know why I'm being so picky I used to eat candy in the form of worms. I have even tried jelly bellies flavored as boogers, dirt and vomit.

While checking up on this cows tail candy thing-a-ma-jig, I came across oldtimecandy They sell lots of candy that I guess is hard to find. I wouldn't really know because I have not gone looking for these candies myself.


But I do remember those days of lemonheads. charlston chews, mambas and now n laters. Back then for me, it was more bang for my buck since I barely had any buck. So I went for either the boxes that cost me a quarter or the biggest candybar that was the exact same price as all the others.

Perplexing Meal Desicions; Be warned; This is SO interesting you may want to read it over and over and over again..

Since I'm on the subject of food, and its past lunchtime and I have no money I've been thinking about my strange needs regarding different types of food. When I do have money to get lunch its such a tough decision. When I can't decide (which is everyday) my default lunch is salad. Even though this neighborhood has some pretty good, reasonable options my daily lunch decision is hindered by what I require based on the meal.. See below

Salad = bottle of vinegar
Mexican = Limes
Sub Sandwich = banana wax peppers
The buffalo blue = crystal hot sauce

Let me explain-


I'll start with Salad since its my default. Its my default because I require some sort of vinegar for my salads. I prefer either red wine or just plain white. And I'm not looking to put a few drops of it on my salad I want my veggies swimming in it.. no joke. So I always have a bottle of vinegar on my desk at work.

Sometimes I consider getting tacos or taco salad but in order to eat either of those things actually any kind of Mexican food I require about 3 limes. Again I don't want just a few drop I want the food to be soaked in lime juice. Of course most restaurants in New York don't offer as many limes and I require, so then I have to make an extra trip to the grocery store, then get back to work and clumsily cut the limes at my desk with a plastic knife. So yeah, if I can't have limes I won't eat Mexican. So I just go get a salad

Occasionally I consider a sandwich, usually I'll go to Blimpies or subway depending on how much money I have, what kind of sandwich I want, and what kind of peppers they happen to have that day.. When I get one of these sandwiches I require those pickled banana wax peppers and I mean a TON I love them. A sandwich isn't a sandwich without them. If I can't get them I don't want a sandwich.. So I go get a salad


mmm... I could eat a whole jar..

And finally the other lunch item I occasionally think about getting is called the Buffalo blue. The buffalo blue is a sandwich on country bread with grilled chicken w/spicy buffalo sauce, tomato, shredded lettuce and blue cheese dressing. I usually end up just eating the contents of the sandwich and leaving the bread, but anyway so for this sandwich I require a bottle of Crystal hot sauce because they never put enough sauce to meet my needs. Actually, I'm sure I'd be hard pressed to find any place that would drench my sandwich in my favorite hot sauce. I usually keep a bottle of it at my desk as well so I get this more than every so often.


AND thats just lunch you should see what I require for all of my other meals!
I'm sure this is a boring read but its good I got it out there.

Pig decision... and not a moment too late er soon

I finally made the decision to stop eating pig. I was getting more and more guilt ridden with every piece of bacon I consumed.. Don't get me wrong bacon is good but pigs are cute and smart and I just hate contributing to the death of more than a trillion of pigs every year for human consumption.. Now if a vegetarian heard me say that they'd be like.. "all life forms are equal" or something like that.. and I'd retort, "yeah they are, but so far I can still eat cow and chicken and fish and not have that same guilt so I'm not ready to go that far with this"..

So what does not eating pig mean for me.. It means no crumbled bacon in my chef salad, it means no grilled pork loin skewers over couscous with feta sauce, it means all beef, chicken or turkey hot dogs and sausages, it means no more BLT's, no spicy pork rinds, no holiday ham... ho hum.. well I think that my life will go on without the aforementioned so Im ok with this decision.

I mean seriously do you want to eat this?



See! How cute are they?

Someone stop me!

I've discovered widgetbox and I've already created like 4 widgets and added them all over my social networking profiles! Man this is fun... Good thing the bosses are in a meeting... I created a blidget.. what is a blidget you say? Well its this-



I made several so far. I'm trying to control myself I promise, but there are so many to choose from and its so easy to do! see watch.. look up. Just above kitty kitty.. thats my widget to say what I love.. and everyone now knows that my first love is of course cheese. fun fun fun!

:)

Random Things

I stole the April New York Magazine. from the doctors office this morning because I began reading a story in it about child prostitutes. Its one of those stories that you read and it sticks with you all day. Then every so often throughout the day your thoughts are taken back to the heaviness of that subject. I haven't finished the article yet. I plan to do that on the subway on my way home.

Earlier I kept thinking this phrase.. "If a strange man suddenly brings you flowers" I know its a commercial from the 80's I think it may be from a deodorant like Aarid extra dry.. Er wait was that "strong enough for a man but made for a woman" hmm. ... um anyway that got me thinking of commercial catch phrases from years ago like...


  • "hmm he never has a second cup"
  • "good to the last drop"
  • "don't squeeze the charmin!"
  • "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter............."
  • "The choice of a new generation"
  • "It's fun to tickle your tongue with fruit stipe gum" <-- I totally loved this stuff
  • "the "silver bullet" ... maybe its just me but that phrase doesn't make me think of beer ;)
  • "plop plop fizz fizz oh what a releif it is"

anyway thats all I can think of at the moment.



Often when I'm alone I like to blast some of my most embarrassing favorite songs and I even sing and dance to some of them.. below is a list of a few of them:

  • More than a feeling -Boston
  • If I close my eyes forever - Lita ford & Ozzy
  • Seasons change - Exposé
  • Don't go breakin my heart - Capt n Tennille
  • Love comes walking in - Van Halen
  • Poor some sugar on me - Def Leopard
  • When I'm with you - Sherrif
  • Mister Telephone man - New Edition
  • Pleasure Principal - Janet Jackson
  • He's so unusual - Cyndi Lauper
  • The Glamorous life - Sheila E
  • Anything from the Rocky horror Soundtrack(but mostly sweet transvestite) yeah um I dunno..

Damn I could go on for days.. anyway your not allowed to make fun.

Actually when I was little I used to line all of my stuffed animals up on the bed and call them "the audience" I would then stand on my wooden toy box or " my stage" and sing into the handle of the vacuum cleaner or "my microphone" :) and of course the gigantic teddy bear in the middle would be my love interest staring at me adoringly, while I would gaze deeply into his eyes as I belted out a ballad that was all about our love.. I seem to remember many many times morphing into Janet Jackson, Tiffani, Debbie Gibson, Expose, and Whitney Houston.. man those were the days..

end of thought-vomit session.

Flutterbot the.....Programmer?

I downloaded this cute little software program the other day that is designed to help beginning programmers learn the ins and outs of programming by taking a few simple lessons in the programming language called Ruby. Its called Hackety Hack they say that it can even get little kids interested in tinkering around with code. Ruby is very simple to understand and really fun to learn.

The software is free and if your interested in coding at all I guarantee you'll have fun while learning. This is what I do at work and I'm getting paid for it cuz they want me to learn woo!

Just wait I'll be creating Ruby apps in no time!

Follow-up to Modest Mouse at United Palace

Ok first of all the United Palace kicks ass! Its beautiful its big without being too big. Its interior is really something to see. The United Palace is a church by day and concert venue by night so the marquee reads the name of the presiding reverend not the bands.

Knowing that this is a church we were worried that we might not get booze.. But the nice folks at the Bowery who sponsor the events would not let that happen. However come with lotsa cash if your hoping to drink because the booze are kinda pricey. They actually didn't' have booze they had only beer and wine, and other non alcohol beverages. A beer will set you back $7 and its not even pint size, and the wine $8 and its a pretty good portion. Also the bathrooms were not at all crowded I never once had to wait more than a couple of minutes for a toilet.

So let me take a step back and start at the beginning. After you get past the annoying guy screaming out rules of what you can or can't do upon entering you see a HUGE beautiful room with very intricate walls, and lighting and floors. You see a ton of people standing around in groups, you see a line of tables chock full of full glasses of wine and beer and a TON of Staff either running around or blocking every entrance. However they were all very nice and helpful. Our seats were about the third teer up which wasn't' disappointing at all, I mean I would not have complained if I was in the first 10 rows but like I said our seats were fine.

The sound quality left a bit to be desired there was quite a bit of feed back during Modest Mouse's performance and I kinda felt like it was too loud to really even hear.. Which is normal in a live music venue but I was kind of hoping that it wouldn't be that way there. At any rate. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Modest Mouse can do no wrong, they played a good mixture of songs from their last three albums. The overall performance was really, really good despite my complaints of the sound quality I certainly enjoyed the overall experience and I would even venture to say that that might possibly be my most enjoyable concert experience ever.

The end.

"The Dashboard Melted but We Still Had the Radio"

I'm so excited I'm going to see modest mouse tonight woo! Its in Harlem too! Just a few blocks up to 178th! And the weather has never been better for a nice walk. I am so very excited. Just thought I'd share.. jealous? :)

I'll update tomorrow to let you know what an awesome time I had..

woo! yay! woo!

So... This is weird



Notice anything strange about the picture above? For a split second blogger made all of my months Spanish.. I suspect its because I had more than one session of the blogger editor open.. in fact I had three. Anyway I thought it was funny.. Oh on another note, I got rid of Snap.. I like the idea but I'm not sure I like the pop ups all over my blog.. its too cluttery.. Sorry Snap.. its not personal..

I want this


Yeah I'm in New York but I sure do miss California..

"U.S. Out of California

Seriously, what are we getting out of this relationship? We grow our own oranges and avocados. We make our own movies. We’ve got burritos and the world’s 5th largest economy. Get the hell off our land so we can marry some gay people!

And stop cuttin’ down our damn trees!"

You can buy this here

Free Lunch Wednesday!

Earlier I was looking for some documentation in my file cabinet which is a total mess, anyway I found a full salad card! You know those cards that you get mostly at cafe's and such if you buy so many coffees you get a stamp each time then when its full you get a free one? The place across the street does that for salads and soups.. I'm not much of a soup eater but I do love me some salad! WOO! I feel like I won the lottery or something!



YUUUMM!

My weekend in Woodstock




Click here to see the images on Picasa


xo, me

Ping 192.168.1.136

I was walking around Chinatown yesterday and came across this restaurant...

Get it?

c:\Ping seafood.restaurant.

0 packets returned...
0 packets returned
4 shrimp stir fry returned
4 Lobster w/Black Bean Sauce returned..

:) if your not familiar ping is what you type at the command prompt to see if you can reach another computer or other apparatus with an IP address on your network.

Then across the street from ping restaurant I saw this really cute shirt..




However, the outfits on either side leave much to be desired.

Dear Person...

Free Ice Cream noon - 8pm

Ben and Jerry's annual free ice cream day has come once again.. Ice cream lovers all over the world are jumping for joy.

Today only noon - 8pm.

Find a store near you!




  1. Cherry Garcia® Ice Cream
  2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
  3. Chunky Monkey® Ice Cream
  4. Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream
  5. Half Baked Ice Cream
  6. New York Super Fudge Chunk® Ice Cream
  7. Phish Food® Ice Cream
  8. Coffee Heath Bar Crunch® Ice Cream
  9. Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream
  10. Vanilla Ice Cream