Random

Been too busy to post between my Philosophy final paper, assisting David with getting his new Transhuman blog up and running, and various work related crisises.

So, here's a random cute site from my Favorites list to amuse you.

Crickets

No comments, my hitcounter is pathetic (although it is set up only to grab unique hits, so I probably need to fix it), where is everyone? Do I just do this blog to amuse myself and David? Perhaps.

Anyways, if anyone is reading out there - prepared and served food at the soup kitchen this Saturday. It appears to be down to us and the guy from church that started this project Eric. Luckily Joe decided to tag along so it was the four of us making burgers and hot dogs and feeding the hungry. Which is still fun because we get hang out time with those guys and get to help out people who really need it. But it is still kind of sad in its own way that out of the hundred people or so who attend the church we used to call our home church the only people who show up on a regular basis to do the only outreach the church does (at least so far as I'm aware) are the guy who started it (Eric) and the couple that hasn't really attended the church since they moved across the county (us).

Meanwhile, the stated reason why not even the pastor showed up this week? Because all the other married couples (ourselves and Eric & his wife not included obviously) were out on a retreat in Palm Springs. Cute, real cute. Not that I have anything wrong with retreats or anything, but, uh, couldn't we schedule them on a different week than the church outreach that we only do once a month, on the same weekend every month? I know fellowship is important and all, and so is a good marriage, but I think caring for the poor should probably rank just a little higher on the church's priority list.

Anyways, just soapboxing as I sit on hold with the IRS and try to get back into "write my Philosophy final paper on my worldview" mode.

Tagged Again!

1. What were three of the stupidest things you have done in your life?

Eating whatever I wanted when I could get away with it. The eating habits of my teenage years stuck with me, but my very high metabolism got a case of mono.

Choosing my skanky drug dealing boyfriend that needed me over the cute stable good 'ole southern boy that wanted me. Double stupidity for giving him the "Let's just be friends" speech the morning after and being a complete bitch about the whole thing to convince my very jealous boyfriend that it was a one-night fling.

Taking up drinking and drugs when I knew my dad had alcohol "issues".

2. At the current moment, who has the most influence in your life?

Considering we spend pretty much 24 hours a day, 7 days a week together, I think David wins that contest hands down. Nonetheless, the Boo, my philosophy professor, my mum-in-law, and Luke Ford are all close runners up at the moment. (Luke mostly because he has a surprising amount of influence on David, and it spills over to my side of the office on occasion, such as this whole crazy blogging thing.)

3. If you were given a time machine that functioned, and you were allowed to only pick up to five people to dine with, who would you pick?

Ok, pondered this far too much and came up with the following - Benjamin Franklin because he was sbrilliantrillant and funny. Lucius Cornellius Sulla just to find out how many of those crazy stories in First Man in Rome might be true. King David to get a better idea of what a mortal man after God's own heart is really like. Jesus Christ, for obvious reasons, and so I'll feel safer being the only woman at lunch with Ben Franklin, King David, and Lucius Cornellius Sulla. And, last, Plato, just to see intellectualtellitual discourse with all these great minds, and to see him have a philosophical discussion with Jesus. I think that would be cool.

4. If you had three wishes that were not supernatural, what would they be? To see David's book series be successful on a "Star Wars", "Lord of the Rings" kind of scale.

To have more Starwood points/Frequent Flyer Miles than I would ever know what to do with.

Free college tuition for life.

5. Someone is visiting your hometown/place where you live at the moment. Name two things you regret your city not having, and two things people should avoid.

I regret OC not having a decent goth/industrial club scene, at least not that I've been able to locate.

I also regret the lack of any kind of decent public transportation system.

People should avoid the freeways because the traffic is unpredictable and trying to drive through the Crush is a wonderful way to suddenly find yourself half-way to San Diego if you don't know where you are going.

You should also avoid any hotel that says it is "near Disneyland", since from what I've been able to tell that can be translated as being located anywhere from next to Seaworld to being in West Hollywood, both of which would probably be in completely different states on the East Coast.

6. Name one event that has changed your life.

This would have to be the first time I agreed to marry David, which was about a month after we started going out (though to be fair we had been friends for a couple years). The silly side of me says this is because it was the only way I could get David to give it up before Marriage, the serious side of me says that in some way we could not explain we both knew this was it for both of us. I don't know how serious we were at the time, but it's been almost eight years and we're still together. In the meantime, I've sobered up, become a Christian, a wife, and a mom, as well as many other changes that I don't really have time to get into right now.

7. Tag 5 people.

Well, crap. Once again everyone I would tag is tagged.

So, uh, whoever wants to tag themselves, have at it and drop me an email about it or something.

The Cool Looking Chili's Waitress

Ok, having been ousted by the David, I thought I'd least post some thoughts here.

In case you don't want to read the whole thing the main issue was that we went to Chili's to eat dinner before meeting up with a client for a document signing. Our waitress was just so exotically good looking I could not take my eyes off her. She had this shiny long black hair that was just curly enough to be sexy, and these amazing green eyes that just glowed. She was kinda skinny, but in a still feminine way and was one of the nicest people I've ever only known for a half hour.
As I told David later, "If I wasn't married, I'd totally ask her out."

So, what does that mean? Well, fact of the matter is that I have some Bi tendencies, but have never and (now that I'm married) never will indulge them beyond the realm of fantasy. But it's fun to have crushes on people, and I've always thought looking (guy or girl) is fine, as long as one doesn't go further than that. The Bi thing is especially complex because I don't really like women in a personal sense; I have no real female friends and generally think of myself as one of the guys. Which, as David has pointed out, may be exactly the problem. He thinks I'm just a femdom waiting to happen. Which, given my B&D tastes may not be that far off. Which is fine, because David doesn't mind indulging me in the slightest and thinks my weird little girl crushes are cute.

So there you go. My secret to marriage - indulge each other sexually as much as your morality will let you and try to be as honest as you can without hurting the other persons feelings or making things weird. Anyways, just my two cents.

Blogging Offline

(Written at Chili's in between sneaking peeks at the cool looking waitress)

So, things I learned this weekend. Why I still don’t like LA. It just feels….closed. I felt trapped all weekend. The hotel was tiny, the room was tiny and there was nowhere to really escape to because we were right by downtown, so it was nothing but tenements and office buildings for miles. No place to park that doesn’t cost you 6 bucks or more. And after only two days in LA I think I’m starting to realize why you see more people from LA talk about class division than in O.C. In LA the class differences are almost oppressively obvious. There are almost no signs of middle-class civilization like you see in OC, i.e. a proliferation of fast food restaurants, places like Chili’s or Denny’s that pretend to be restaurants but are very little above sit-down fast food, Kmart, Target, etc.

It’s all either way lower class liquor stores or way upper class Morton’s. It’s just weird.

The Music Version

Ok, I will!


1. The total number of CDs/Songs I own: Somewhere over 2 gigs of individual songs, probably about 200 CDs, give or take.

2. The last CD/Song I bought: The Requiem for a Dream soundtrack. Awesome classical meets dance club soundtrack. Great for doing homework to.

3. The last concert I saw: Bond, at the House of Blues in Anaheim. It was, hands down, the best concert I’ve ever been to, as well as the best concert venue. Classical music always sounds better live, even remixed classical music, and the Bond girls were only a few feet away, very different from the statium style concerts I’ve gotten used to.

Last song I listened to:
“Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, mainly because David was playing some horrible Steel Wheels single and I needed to remind myself why I like the Stones, if only in small doses.

4. Five Songs or Albums that mean a lot to me, in no particular order:

1. Mr. Brownstone, by Guns N’ Roses – This was the first band I was ever obsessed with and hearing old Guns N’ Roses songs still takes me back to the more fun parts of High School. This song, in particular, I cannot listen to without singing along, and the lyrics remind me, at the same time, of some of my worse experiences from High School. Go fig.

2. Dragostea Din Tei, by O-zone – AKA the “Numa Numa” song. I love this song, it’s my new favorite. Amazingly catchy, it makes me smile whenever I hear it. ‘Nuff said.

3. Orion, by Metallica – The best Metallica song ever. This instrumental is amazing and I was really, really sad it wasn’t on the S&M album. It belongs in the classical section. It’s that good.

4. The Nutcracker Suite, by Tchkovski – Yes, it reminds me of Christmas, but it was also my first exposure to classical music and is still my favorite, especially the Arabian dance, which I think is the sexiest piece of music ever written.

5. Alive, by Pearl Jam – This song was my life perserver the day after I was raped. I must of listened to it about 20 times that day and I think it was one of the few things that kept me grounded.

Honorable Mentions: Cornflake Girl (Tori Amos), Pretty Hate Machine (Nine Inch Nails), These Thousand Hills (Third Day), He Reigns (Newsboys), Use Your Illusion I&II (Guns N’ Roses), Hard Days Night (The Beatles), Sweet Lulluby (Deep Forest)

Woo Hoo! Now I can actually tag people because no one has done this one yet (I hope):

David Scott, LYT, Christian Johnson, Luke Ford, Cathy Seipp, you are all tagged. So there.

I've been Tagged!

Ok, I'm offically answering the tag:

1. The total number of books and movies I own:

Movies I own: Somewhere around 50, not counting those I left at my parents house when I left home.

Books I own: In the neighborhood of 400, though that fluctuates on a monthly basis.

2. The last movie I bought: Well, the last movie *I* bought was Napoleon Dynamite, for David’s birthday. We buy most of our movies on EBAY, and David is the EBAY expert in our house. The last movie we bought together was Embrace of the Vampire, because it looks like one of those movies that will either be a fun B-movie or horrible, but I love vampire flicks, so hopefully it will be the former.

The last book I bought was Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World, which seemed like an interesting biography, but I got completely distracted by a gift copy of Requiem for a Dream and haven’t had a chance to really read it yet.

3. The last movie I saw:
In the theater: Revenge of the Sith, twice. It’s awesome, in a Star Wars way.
On Video: Big Fish, which was also awesome, in a Tim Burton way.

Hey, both movies starred Ewan McGregor! Coincidence? I think not. That’s the key to the movies, folks. If you want me to go see a movie, stick Ewan McGregor in it.

Last book I read:Much like David, I am in the middle of several books, mostly for Philosophy class, though as mentioned above I have a Chaucer Biography I need to get back to and I have the ever present editing project for David’s books going on. The last book I finished was Requiem for a Dream, which was better than the movie (no surprise, the only book I ever read that was worse than the movie was the Neverending Story, but that’s a whole other post). It’s a tough read, but very rewarding and thought provoking, so I highly recommend it. I also think it should probably be required reading for High School students, but again, that is another subject entirely.

4. Five movies/DVDs that mean a lot to me, in no particular order:

1. Requiem for a Dream: The look, the emotion, the directing, the acting, it was just mesmerizing. I think it is now my favorite movie ever. Very few movies make me cry. This one made my soul ache. Powerful stuff.

2. Sleeping Beauty: My favorite Disney movie ever, also my favorite animated film in general. The art of this movie is really well done, and unlike the latest Disney flicks it actually kept the Tchokovski ballet score. It also helps that David sang “Once upon a Dream” for me while we were dating and it is now my daughter’s favorite Disney movie.

3. Napoleon Dynamite: I cannot watch more than two minutes of this movie and not sit down and watch the whole thing. It’s addictive, it reminds me way too much of my own childhood, and it’s funny without being gross. It’s also amazingly quoteable. Gosh!

4. Natural Born Killers: To be fair, I’ve never actually seen this movie all the way through, and I may never do so. But in terms of emotional impact, I have to say that this is the only movie I’m scared to watch, not because of the movie itself, but because of the circumstances I first watched it under. Note to sociopathic incest-minded estranged (Thank Goodness!) older brother: This is not a date movie and even if it was, your 16-year-old sister does not count as a date. End of lesson.

5. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: I really wrestled with putting this movie on this list, but to be honest I don’t think any other single film has had more impact on my life. How many movies spawn whole subcultures? Sure you have Star Wars and Star Trek, but it’s just not the same thing, because, well, the movies are actually good, whereas with Rocky the subculture is the draw. Anyways, I’ve never quite managed to get away from my Rocky roots; my sis-in-law was ever in a rivival of the stage play two summers back. When David and I started dating he had been playing “the man with no neck” at the Redondo Beach Rocky and I had done a very brief stint as a tranny there, mainly because most of my friends were also on cast. Anyways, for better or worse, the movie and the subculture it spawned are forever attached to my life, and I can’t say that about many other movies.

Honorable Mentions: Resevoir Dogs, The Princess Bride, Rocky, Army of Darkness, Monty Python & The Holy Grail, Trainspotting, Mallrats, Dark City, The Graduate, The Bells of St. Mary’s…and far too many others. I love movies.

Five Books...

1. The Bible – Actually the weird thing about the Bible has been that I never really read it until a few months after I became a Christian. So, I can’t say the Bible led to be becoming a Christian, but it’s certainly (for obvious reasons) been important to my walk as a Christian. Not to mention the Bible is really, really interesting when you approach it fresh, because there are so many things there you never hear about in most churches and so much not there than many chuches pretend there is.

2. The First Man in Rome – I actually started reading this because David was reading it as research for his book series and I couldn’t put it down. The book is just fascinating and a good history lesson to boot, without putting you to sleep. We both read this book so much that it literally split in half and is currently bound in duct tape, because for some reason we’re too cheap to buy a new copy…I mean, for sentimental reasons.

3. Hamlet – Okay, I know it’s a play. But Shakespeare is so…good. The way he plays with language is well worth the time it takes to decipher what the characters are actually saying. We read a version for a literature class that had the most awesome translation notes and I was amazed to realize that for all its tragedy how funny the play actually is, in a witty sort of way.

4. The Four Loves – This is currently my favorite C.S. Lewis book because it tackles a subject I don’t think enough of us think about, particularly Christians – What do we really mean when we say “Love”? It also illustrates how completely inadequate the english language is when it comes to concepts like Love. I, mean, the Greeks apparently had at least five words for Love, all of which are far more precise in meaning and would probably help people avoid that wierdness of saying things like “I love her, but I don’t love love her.”

5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a genius. Sherlock Holmes was a genius, but then you realize that someone had to come with all the cool stuff he said and did and then you realize, no, the author is the genius. Anyways, this book started my love affair with British Lit and it has not stopped since, ergo, the biography of Chaucer sitting on my bookshelf.

Honorable Mentions: The Canterbury Tales, The Jungle Books, Black Beauty, The Princess Bride, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, LOTR, Requiem for a Dream, Alice in Wonderland, The Dark Tower trilogy, The Eye of the Dragon, and far too many others to list right now.

Now I have to tag five people and I’m not even sure five people (and the only 3 I am sure of have already been tagged), ok, here goes nothing:

Joseph Riesen (I’ll post your answers if you’ll email them to me), Robin Nair (who probably doesn’t read this, but I’ll email him), uhhhhhhhhh…huh.
Ewan McGregor (yeah, right. I wish he read my blog)
Donna B. (She’ll say she doesn’t read this blog, but I bet she does, just to think up new insults to throw at me on CW.)
Pastor Mark Roberts (I don’t know if he reads this or not, but I go to his church sometimes and his blog is cool.)

Somebody should do a music version of this.

Blogging from the LA Convention Center!

Hello all. So here I am, waiting for David to finish his real estate exam over at the LA Convention Center. I have escaped to the South Hall because the food court in the West Hall sucks. Not that the food is much better over here, but there is a real Starbucks kiosk and for some reason there is both a Home Improvement Expo and an Erotica Expo going on at the same time, so it makes for good people watching. The hall just erupted in random clapping for some guy. Anyways, found the erotica-la show interesting, but it's $30 to get in, so no satisfaction of curiosity for me. Oh yeah, and there's also some Tony Robbins thing going on.

Meanwhile, the Philosophy class continues to be entertaining and challenging. It's got me thinking about looking at how I became a Christian from the viewpoint of what I see as "real", and that's had my wheels turning. I had a wierd upbringing. No personal exposure to a church or other house of worship until I was 20, didn't really even look at a Bible unti after I became a Christian. After this class, it starting me thinking about why the heck I became a Christian, since most Christian's idea of God is apparently based in what the Bible says or what they learned in Church. I realized it has a lot to do with the reality of God from my own perspective. In a nutshell, God wasn't "really real" to me for many years. Then the Enemy (Lucifer, Old Scratch, etc) became real to me, because he intervened in my life in such a dramatic way, and then as side effect of that, God became real to me, but in a messed up, negative kind of way. Then various "supernatural" stuff because real to me, because of various interventions in my life and neo-paganism became very real for me, but probably in a very different way than most people would think (it's a long story, if you're curious, email me). Anyways, then I had a better concept of God, but thought of Him as a very distant and cold being, because out of all this craziness in my life, He had never intervened. But then, He did, and rocked my world, and became real to me. And then I became a Christian, because God was real to me, had shown me examples of His inceptions, His love, that He wasn't just an absentee parent, and I became a Christian, without any real idea of what I was signing on for. It's been a fun journey, though.

Postmodernism and the Church...

I predict troubled waters ahead for the Crystal Cathedral, but only time will tell. Just got back from preview night for "Creation" and it was...uh...Interesting. The first half, I must say, was quite the visual spectacle and could only be described as Cirque de Soleil presents Creation! Or maybe Creation! The latest Disney musical. But, I digress. The first half was a fun visual treat, my little one was captivated, the second half needed a serious overall and my little one was traumatized. Do not go for the theology. Please, don't go for the theology. But go for the fun of it. I think as an evangelical tool it failed miserably, though I wouldn't really expect anything that refers to God as "the presence" and presents Him as a completely distant creator with not even an echo of the personal, loving, relationship oriented God I could have sworn the Bible teaches about, to be evangelical at all. But anyways, Schuller said he wanted a show anyone could go to and like and that's exactly what he got - secular mediocracy, with some good showmanship. Welcome to the Postmodern Church folks!

Where oh where is my Diet Sunkist?

So...still no sign of the elusive Diet Sunkist. Not that I've been looking all that hard, but one SavOn, one Albertsons, two 7-11s and a Blockbuster have yielded no results. This reminds me of when Vanilla Coke came out and David and I went on a hunt through O.C. to find one, until we finally tracked down a random AM/PM in Santa Ana that had them.

Meanwhile, a quick update, since I only post once in a blue moon. Ran Old School West End Games Star Wars 2nd edition this weekend. Our college professor buddy who only emerges during winter break and after spring finals played a Jawa Jedi. As I posted over on Cinerati, anyone who can think of an actual rules reason this should not be is free to let me know, but it was fun in its own goofy way, so I suppose I don't mind too much.

The lunch with old high school friend didn't happen, but I continue on with my mad return to the "1200" diet, nonetheless, since it's summer, and the 10 year H.S. reunion is less than a year a way. I have no idea why I care, but I do, so there. It's a reason, and as long as my fridge doesn't start growling at me, I figure I'm cool.

Ok, so off to watch "Big Fish", which somehow just never showed up on my cinematic radar last year, despite the fact that it's a Tim Burton flick. So, good night, or good morning, or whatever the heck time of day it is where ever you are!

Brilliant!!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

A DIET, ORANGE, soda with CAFFINE!!

I haven't been so excited about a soda since they came out with Mountain Dew Live Wire. Orange soda is vastly underappreciated. It's my favorite flavor, in case you couldn't tell, but most orange sodas are vastly lacking in the caffine department, which is one of the only addictive substances I've allowed to stay in my system. And I have never, ever been able to find a diet one, so this is awesome. All the orangy goodness, but none of the calories. Which is good given my impending lunch meet-up.

Anyways, if you also crave orange soda with caffine coolness, but zero calories go get some and tell me if it tastes like crap, because I only saw it advertised in a magazine and haven't gotten my hands on one yet, so maybe I will be horribly disappointed by the reality of it all (but I hope not).

Anyways, this whole post makes it obvious I need sleep and have spent far too much time on my philosophy paper.