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31 May 2004

 
I have but two aunties, and they are each about one thousand years old. One lives in Southport, and the other lives... hmmm... in London, Ontario. When I was growing up, by the time we moved to the States, my nearest relatives outside my house were in Canada -- my Uncle T, who comes from Poland and skied away from the nazis, my Auntie B who is my father's sister and lives on cigarettes and novels, and their second son, my cousin C, to whom I was terribly close to my way of thinking, anyway. C is around a year older than I, and has two children: one of each variety. He has a famously difficult wife from Sweden. [The first son, J, got a fatal combination of childhood diseases and died in England when he was 6 or so.] My other auntie, Auntie A, is the widow of my father's bro, who died of leukemia on Xmas eve in about 1979 or 80. I wrote to him a lot while he was becoming more and more ill, and we spoke on the telephone shortly before he died. He was an artist, and also a writer of children's stories for things like the B.O.P. Their children, a set of fraternal twins and a younger daughter, are older than I. Little A lives in Alberta, Canada and is a retired nurse. C lives in Ontario, Canada and has two grown children. J lives in Hemel Hempstead and has... um... two? children... no, I think it's three. Two effs and an em, as it were. She taught school in Bermuda for a few years, and said she left when she did because to stay longer would've meant staying forever. She told about an incident in her classroom [don't remember where] once of a father frantically trying to find out if his son was all right, because, as it turned out, he had driven the car over the son's head. lol I've always believed my family is cursed, so I have no children. Neither of my sisters has children. My brother S, who, as he told me once, is closer to me than to any other human being, has come to rest in Melbourne, Australia, and has two ems and an eff (Anji). My sister-in-law is a Kiwi, as are at least two and probably all their offspring, but the younger generation is Aussie. I have another half-brother but I've never met him: my father's son. In fact, I've not met the greater portion of those related to me, and even the ones I do know I might not've seen for a decade or more. My brother S left and went to live with my [rich and powerful] grandmother and her husband in Hong Kong, when I was 9 or 10, and I didn't see him again for 16 years. My father used to say it was understood that the Kendall women are all mad: the definition of that being that they married foreigners. There was a great auntie of my name who ran off with her riding master, I've been told -- another instance of Kendall woman madness. My Auntie B said there was a photograph of her standing beside a gate, but I've never seen it. I do know that if my mother had known there was another "Vivian" in the family I'd have a different name. Likely it was spelled a more conventional way, however, as my mother received heat for the spelling of my name. I've lived in many places, and when I'm thinking about the year something-or-other happened in my childhood I remember first what house I was in. I wonder how other people remember things? Of course, with greater continuity and less fragmentation and repetition (best friend 1, best friend 2, best friend 3, etc.), remembering might be easier. This is all rather depressing.



30 May 2004

 

Today...
Played a hilarious game of chess at the chessboard in There. I was the black queen. Hung with Gomi at her garage sale. Had my tarot cards read. Went to see Dragon and got involved in playing with a huge herd of virtual dogs.

Met a fellow and took him to the chessboard while trying to drum up interest in the game next week (today was the first one and went pretty well but next week could be much better). Tried out the new There Vespa-like two-person vehicles. An officious girl came and wanted to sweep us off to a newbie center, so I said I'd go to keep them company but I was an "old avie." I got bored there fast and went off to the crystal room, "borrowed" a boat, went to the Boneyard and rode around on a cat. Watched part of "Leopold and Kate," much to my disatisfaction. Spoke with Looper on the phone. Did not exactly do much, today, which was fine.




29 May 2004

 
ROFLMFAO
Pocket Seducer
"The Portable Seducer takes you step-by-step through setting up and improving your dating life. It contains everything you need!"
Included: Patch kit for Inflatable Doll



28 May 2004

 
Went to school at about 9 -- B<3 stopped her bug by me as I was getting stamps out of the glovebox, and told me the family had given 5k to my toxic mold family. I'm losing them again dagnabbit, which was why I was getting stamps/address labels. I told Sam and Tenaya to write to me when the get to OK and NE. Boo hoo. I'll miss Ten and Sky the most, I reckon.
Finished the last page, and printed -- Erika and Kaylani "helped" me by driving me cuckoo with chatter(K) and noise(E), then both actually DID help, and E started off the collating. Tiff collated the rest out of the goodness of her heart (something I didn't think would happen until next week), and I printed until my printer got the weirdness, then I 'dratted and 'fumed until I had the idea of removing the inner works of the central drawer, closing it, and turning on power, then opening the drawer and installing the works. Then it was fine. I lost time, though, so we wound up with 223 collated copies. Oh, so -- not worried. After making the binder-y kind next week I can print the needed pages and do what I want to do. Tiff drove the copies to OMax -- and I hope they will call me if they are unable to understand my instructions.
The I5, 101, and Route 8 were horribly crammed and jammed with RVs. I'm not holiday oriented so I can't imagine why anyone would want to suffer through that. I have, in the past, spent this w/e babysitting a herd of printers at school -- one year with Tiff.
S and C are living with Tiff as they bought three acres to build on using their house as equity, then sold the house... 'doh It'll work out though, amazingly... Brad is coming up (Mr. Tiff) to oversee the building project.
Went There and talked to Gomi yesterday and asked her to tell Psi I'm looking for him, if she sees him. Just now logged in for a mo' and saw Pink. Got offline to blog and finish watching Pelle the Conquerer, then may get on again later. Uh... chess tomorrow if I don't forget... at the giant chessboard... if it happens... There released two-seater vespa-type things, and port-a-homes -- both of which were eagerly awaited. The communications from Baloo, There_Hardware, and other There employees has heartened the community.
Here: a Gamespot article with the founder.



27 May 2004

 

Jin shin this morning... I fell asleep and when I woke up I thought I'd missed my appointment, only to open my eyes and find I was AT my appointment. Now that was strange. Came home, watched another in a great wad of movies that arrived two days ago. Rabbit-Proof Fence was good... Restoration sucks... there're two more... went in There, which had more people than in the past few days. Yay! Talked to Xeryous, who's a game developer: he says they just used us to perfect the engine and now they'll license it to other game-makers. He was cynical and spoke from experience, but he didn't say anything I didn't know. We are perhaps in the dawn of a time when worlds can be created and destroyed without regard for the inhabitants -- interesting to think that in the future laws might govern the creation of virtual worlds. Should we go to the United Nations, lol?



26 May 2004

 
Butterfly Rider



 
Contemplating Annihilation

Long ago I found a place in There that has the signatures of the Makers. My avatar went to that place and sat while contemplating the possibility of her annihilation.
Article in Gamespot.com
In happier times:



25 May 2004

 

At Work For Ten Hours... which is too long, really. I have one yearbook page to finish, and five to print -- I was delayed today by a request from the board to add to the board page (people don't understand that if they have requests is rather nicer for them to share them with me before the page is printed in color front and back :) However, luckily, I was able to run the pages through and print the addition on the existing sheets. And there was no cyan toner, I was told, although we are perhaps ten minutes from the toner store, and we'd been WAITING FOR A DELIVERY for a day. Sheesh. Anyway, I re-printed the board page, finished several pages, scanned 50 photos for Hammer and burned them onto a disk out of the goodness of my heart. Was cranky with Rosanne and Mike. I was working this morning and Alex walks in and sits down, with a big smile. "Alex! What are you doing here?" He was subbing, which is good. Hammer's teaching middle school subjects next year -- says he's burnt out on kindergarten. Montrose came in and hung for a little while after track practice. It was Keats's fifth last Friday, and Montrose has turned 50. Kind of an interesting numerical thing. He says he's bought a kayak but when I was given the description of an "open" kayak, I wondered what was kayakish about it. Tiff was working and came in off and on. I will probably go in to work on Friday. My timeframe is: get it printed by Tuesday, collated and taken in to be bound by Friday. I told the binder-folk I'd give them a week, which is spoiling them. Oh, and after the toner arrived I found a re-manufactured cyan toner cartridge under the printer (I was furious last year when school bought re-manned cartridges -- they were horrid and the color was wishy-washy -- what kind of a savings are they when you have to crank the color setting up?) which I'd've probably used in the pinch. I could've printed the board addition with it...

Chez Flemings



22 May 2004

 
Somebody I really like is coming to town on a tour. After I broke up with my husband this man waited a few heartbeats and then asked me out, and I said, "Well, I would, but I'm already living with someone." He spontaneously shouted, "THAT WAS QUICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" After that he was just furious with me. I ran into him in the laundromat once, and he said something I've distilled down to, "UGH!!! It had to be you!!!" I still like him the same amount, and I shouldn't think this is so funny. I guess my liking is on some kind of cosmic level. If I wanted to make up a fake reason I could say that after breaking up with my husband and escaping with part of my life, I didn't want to get involved with another writer. I'm not going to go and see him because it would be horrifying on many levels, and besides, he'd probably yell, "Ugh! You!!!!!!!!!" and I'd start laughing. However, it's quite possible that I remember this because I'm still here -- he probably has no recollection.


 
Wittgenstein's Polka
First the program for There wouldn't run at all, although it thought I was logged on, so I just downloaded and reinstalled and then it worked -- however, I entered a world full of turmoil. Almost everyone* is upset because of the statement just issued by There, inc saying they will not be fixing things -- they have bigger and more profitable fish to fry, presumably. I went to a meeting and read lots of forum entries, which were highly charged and emotional. People are upset at the diminishment of this world, which, like any world, is buoyed by faith in the future. The general feeling is (and some have been through this once or twice before) that when the bottom falls out of the virtual economy, the world is going down fast. There, inc says not -- that it will keep There open. It's hard to see people investing time and money in a virtual world that may close. When I found the Uru people in There, who'd lost their world but gathered as well as they could in other mmpog, they were terribly sad, and told me, "It was so beautiful! Oh, I wish you could've seen it!" I've come to understand their feelings, as this world is very real and the friendships meaningful. At a meeting yesterday someone said, "I have friends all over the world, now." I do, too -- and it's a different exchange than any I've experienced previously. Daz and Helda have placed an offer on a house -- their eldest daughter says "Goodnight," into the mic before she goes off to bed. Do I know them? Yes, I feel as though I do. They might be sitting in their kitchen in England while I sit here in Washington State, as we're discussing floorplans -- but it's in real time. Anyway, we'll see what happens.
The world was running strangely yesterday, and things weren't loading, I kept rubber-banding, and inventory items were unavailable. I logged out/in several times -- I could see others doing the same thing. I started a quest but couldn't get into the place where it started, so did aerial mode and got the clue that way. I got to clue 14 quickly, then couldn't find a tiny, new island -- well I knew things weren't loading so I could've gone by it. Bob came to help, and enlisted Pink with her gps, but somehow the island remained elusive. We stood around talking, then I went back to looking, found it, and then the clue wouldn't open. Drat. Log out/ log in. Nope. Exit, restart, log in -- yup. (Actually I had a folder with the gps program and never installed it because of bug issues, but I went ahead and did it, then got the coordinates off a club forum where I remembered having seen them. That's how I found the island. I hadn't trusted Pink's coordinates, as it seems as though if they were correct we'd've found it. I just looked at them, though, and they were correct. 'hmm' )
Dinner at Con and Dave's tomorrow with L, E, Looper and Mr. Looper. I have to re-do Looper's website in anticipation of the bazillion APR-generated hits. She's going to bring the other Wittgenstein book tomorrow so I can read that and we can discuss the two. Or whatever. I told her about the There issues, but she claims to have no understanding of computer crap. She halfway wants to write about being in a virtual world but hasn't made up her mind if it's a waste of time or not.

*Bob: "Meh."



21 May 2004

 
Take note Looper:
I'm reading "Wittgenstein's Poker," which arrived from the library and was placed in the wrong mail receptacle by the Woman Who is Beneath Me. I was interested in something referred to in the book as "Moore's Paradox," which goes: Smith left the room but I don't believe it. Witt. was interested as it seemed to be an illogical statement no one would say, but not "P and not-P." I was interested because I thought, if something is true don't we have the option to disbelieve? Then I realised that it was a matter of language -- that a simple statement like "The sky is blue," is actually "I believe the sky is blue." We just don't state the "I believe." "Smith left the room, but I don't believe it," is either very plainly: "THEY believe or say Smith left, but I don't believe it," or it is just p or not-p in regards to belief -- the actual location of Smith being outside the statement. Maybe, anyway. I have no interest in philosophy. But that seems to indicate that the "truth" has an inner-outer, subj-obj, me-you facet, which explains a lot. I was in a conversation about faith the other day, with a Catholic, when I saw that to him I am an atheist, although to me I am not. His truth is filtered through his personal beliefs -- I never thought about it before (don't much care, to be sure). I'd've thought, I reckon, that any statement or label about me would only be valid coming from me -- well, that's clearly beside the point. It makes the world not a place of shifting focus, exactly, but a place with infinite superimpositions each from a particular viewpont. No wonder everything is so difficult.

Had breakfast at the American Grill with M -- only I had the dreaded Beet Napoleon salad I always order. M had Eggs Benedict. I don't like hollandaise sauce, or alfredo sauce, or cream sauce -- or any of those. I asked them to leave off the mountain of candied walnuts, which are disgusting, and asked her to ask the chef what I could have instead. She wouldn't go, though, so I said I wanted tomatoes and avocado. But they were out of avocado so I wound up with olives, instead. We talked about Joe, who just had a long surgery. M flew down to get him in hospital, then do 400 bazillion things to get his house in order, before flying back. She's a good friend.

Then I went to OrificeMax to talk about getting the yearbook bound. I was happy to see the man who'd substituted at the Lut many years ago behind the counter, as I had been dreading having to explain everything to an uncomprehending noob. He's a typical northwestern man -- tall and bearded, kindly-seeming, and soft around the edges. At least I suppose I'd say that -- hey, the truth thing is cool! I believe that he's a typical northwestern man... I think that might put me back to the idea of shared culture -- something I believe doesn't exist in the USA -- since one would tend to have shared beliefs (and be able to drop the "I believe") if one lived in a homogenous culture. That would lend all those "I believes" the aura of absolute truth, I believe.

My fridge was well-stocked this morning with a spare lamb souvlaki and half my beet Napoleon salad -- I just ate the souvlaki (I'm waiting for the entire freaking There to download as the downloaded update yesterday rendered the program unable to function so I can do frivolous things like eat) and one of the chunks was beef, not lamb. Hmmmm, tricky, and also annoying. Yes, through no fault of There, inc I'm sure, I'm currently exiled from that virtual world. Ugh!



20 May 2004

 
Yeah, Yeah
I know I said I wasn't going to school today... anyway, I went to jin shin, then gassed up my car and went to school. On the way down Plum towards the I-5 I saw about twenty army vehicles, Fort Lewis police, etc. The camoflage-painted army vehicles were driven by beefy young army men who all looked happy. It was this, says the Daily O:

"Dozens of military vehicles, primarily flatbed trucks, are arriving at the Port of Olympia today in preparation for loading on a ship and, ultimately, the war in Iraq.
In all, about 400 Army vehicles and pieces of equipment are scheduled for loading at the port. The last time the port was used for military vehicles was in 1987."

Don't ask me why they were smiling.

I arrived at school at 10:30, and my main reason for going during Alex's workshop is that I wanted to pay him. He was sweet and was in no hurry to leave after the workshop, and we sat and talked, which slowed me down. He's been doing a wide variety of things including fishing (he's Makah), carving, subbing for area schools, and creating CD covers. I had to kick him out, finally, but he's coming next week and possibly the following week as well. He's pleasantly absent-minded-professor-ish, even at 20-something. Then I had yearbook things to work on. Tiff was at school and wanted me to print a few Kahlo-Rivera-Siquieros-Orozco images. I got the two remaining interviews from Christy, who was ok with me finishing up that page. I got Ilene to check the Grade 1-Activities page, which made her chortle. I printed that and the Pre-School pager, got the Grade 2-Activities page nearly finished, and burned a lot of things onto a disk so I can work at home. Then left, starving, headed for lamb souvlaki with Tiff at about 3:30. Got home at 6:30 or so. Talked to Looper, who is in the APR again soon, so we need to update the website (which she's been adamant about keeping as hidden as possible -- but the APR is going to publish the url). Just finished the interview page except for a few lines I can't read. And did Neil really write that if suddenly in possession of a million dollars he would buy a skateboard? Hey Neil, I have a skateboard I'd like to sell you...

At lunch/dinner/whatever Tiff and I discussed various hideous situations, amnd I asked her, "If it were Animal School, like Animal Farm, what animal would M be?" She thought he would be a conch, since she heard they flip out and sting you savagely if you touch their shells. I said J was a bear, S was a cockatoo... and Tiff, what animal do you think I would be?

For the record, I don't think the justification "they're always busy" quite explains why she thinks I'd be a HAMSTER. "They aren't evil," she added. "Couldn't I at least be a beaver -- they actually make things and don't just spin a wheel...?" "Well, but hamsters are ..." AAAwk! Freakin' hamsters.

PS: '''yay'

IM with TheDragonMaster last night
Osprey 'coy
Osprey 'sexy'
TheDragonMaster hello
Osprey how embarrassing
TheDragonMaster lol
Osprey lol
TheDragonMaster no biggy
TheDragonMaster i know im sexy
Osprey whats up?
TheDragonMaster x;p;
TheDragonMaster lol
Osprey yup!
TheDragonMaster i remember you now
TheDragonMaster i met you in teer
Osprey right!
TheDragonMaster in the paz in teh sky
TheDragonMaster i said some day i would have one higher then anyone
Osprey ah maybe not sure
TheDragonMaster you ahd your horse
TheDragonMaster and outfit
TheDragonMaster had
Osprey oh! yes!
Osprey that's it!
TheDragonMaster thats where i met you i was a noob at the time
TheDragonMaster come say hi when done :)
TheDragonMaster hope you like my paz
TheDragonMaster the castle will be 6 paz as one
TheDragonMaster in space



19 May 2004

 
I'm working furiously to get the yearbook finished -- wasn't helped by it being 300 degrees in my room yesterday. School has installed a portable a/c that was running when I arrived so I never looked at it... Rosanne pointed out that it was on "fan," doh! Someone does this very strange thing: I put the remote by my computers, but when I come in it's always atop the a/c itself. Huh? That makes no sense to me. Tiff was there, yay!, and was worried about the printer perhaps overheating -- it does get hot but in the years I've had it (an HP color laser printer) it's functioned admirably even after many hours of printing. I left some pages for M to print (a new development -- hope he can manage it) -- as well as the graduation invitations. J hasn't come up with the program yet, and I had a conversation with M wherein he said he wasn't going to remind J. I said, "You need to." Last year I had to babysit the printer because they were having difficulties printing the programs on the day of graduation. Ridiculous. I made/printed some pow-wow invitations yesterday, too, and tomorrow is the blasted half-day. There will be a half-day printmaking workshop with Alex: I've begun arranging another for next week. You'd think will all the people I talked with someone would've pointed out before this week that Thursday is a half day. Dagnabbit. I'm not there on that day so I just assumed... drat.



17 May 2004

 

I've lived most of my life out of towns, and a great deal of it on horse farms in the country, and I really don't much like plants in the house. I mean, they're ok, but when I've just spent all day tending to acreage, I don't view a potted plant as being particulary important. Before my mum died she gave me a poinsettia which I resigned myself to owning, but I decided it would be substitute curtains, so that was ok.
She also gave me a Christmas cactus. I don't like them -- they look like ant legs to me. But I suffered with the damnable bloomless thing for more than a year when -- without me doing a thing -- it burst forth into bloom. That was February. Then it became withered, and I thought, "Aha! It's going to die!" No, then it recovered, and now it's covered in buds AGAIN. What the? It must enjoy the light, neglect, and company of the TWO poinsettias -- yes, two. Tiff gave me one early in the season last year -- and that damned thing could be sold as new tomorrow as it's still all red. Damnation! This must be a cosmic joke.



16 May 2004

 
Come home, GalacticBob, you are missed!


 
When I told Con that Psi is selling my virtual shirts she said, "Where was he when we needed him?" The reference was to a SAD incident: I cut a rather cool block for the UWMC Eye Clinic, which was an eye with things floating around in it. (It was an invitational art exhibit and all the artwork was made within the confines of a particular eye shape.) I just had a look around and couldn't find a print -- the block is in a cupboard, I believe, but I can't print one now. I had to scan an old shirt (how appropriate).

Con and I decided that the design would be groovy on a shirt, so we went in together and had Dice make some. I put them in the artists' Christmas store in Seattle at COCA (Center On Contemporary Art) then went off to Kauai secure in the knowledge that SJ and Michael were picking up for me. Which they did... except COCA unaccountably didn't keep records or check-offs, or make people sign things or anything, so there were no shirts. The shirts walked. Someone else took all the shirts. Con says, with admirable good humor, "We lost our shirts!" I had an extended wrangling with COCA for months after, since I at first didn't understand that the shirts hadn't been somehow mislaid. They were very shirty with me, and exclaimed, "You should've been here on time to pick up!" -- which annoyed the hell out of me. After letters and phone calls, the final person I spoke with said, "I've looked at your record and you've been a good friend of COCA. The shirts aren't here. Too bad for you." It comes down to public relations -- because if COCA had said, "We don't have the shirts, but because you lost out we're going to make you a Lifetime Member," they would have retained my goodwill at no cost to themselves. Instead they kept saying it was my fault, adding insult to injury. I had believed when I consigned things to them that since things were inventoried and checked-in with precision, that they'd be returned to my "agent," who was there at the correct time, with the same degree of care. No. And the short answer is: He was a toddler at the time!



15 May 2004

 
Taking E shopping tommorow. AV is doing yeoman service not just by getting E to the Special Olympics meet, but also by submitting her package for camp. Talked to C, whose birthday is next week. She said her niece, the one who unaccountably has a man's name, had been hospitalised with a collapsed lung! Horrors. She is mostly recovered now. I have a lot of work to complete before Tuesday -- to keep the yearbook on track. Tiff is back from South America and was at school last Thursday. She'll be there Tuesday so we can hang a bit. Thursday is Alex's workshop. I've got him scheduled for one pre- and one post- lunch session, with 5 students in each session, 7-8th graders, and 5-6th graders respectively. I'd like to do one more with younger students in one session, and keen students from Day One in the other. We'll see. This is print-making -- although exactly what kind remains to be seen (but not by me as I won't be there). I'm interested in having my students experience a different artist's methods, and to just hang out with him. I think that's valuable. I'm process oriented, and I'd rather the children learn something in a strict artistic sense than make pretty prints. Although I'm sure there will be some nice prints made, those are more the gravy. I've been surprised in the past by wonderful work by the students. Despite having to come up with an idea fast, then execute it rapidly, they rose to the occasion well.


 
Psi is my business partner now, which is fun. He's got talents that are very different from mine. He arranged an event today, wherein I showed off my shirt. It was a fast half-hour and I keyboarded up a storm. Earlier we'd been exploring the new Tyr neighborhood of Loki's Den, which has some pretty nice water. I mistakenly thought he wanted to go and explore by himself, so I was surprised that he thought I'd been offhand -- made it up by summoning him to look at the Aviary. The new houses look like dogloos and shrimp heads, which is odd, and the rent is huge. Make a virtual world and you'll make money! I hope they do, anyway. There is very well done, so I hope it manages to make a go of it financially.


 
The more I thought about the man who was killed recently, the more perturbed I've become. West Chester was our big town to shop in when we lived in Chester County. My older sister lived there and my younger sister was born there. I don't know if it makes it worse that I know the town -- maybe not. I am shocked by the poor fellow's death. I did not learn anything I didn't already know about human nature, though, so I can't fathom why I'm shocked. I suppose it has to do with horror at sinking deeper and deeper into the morass. Ugh! I am sickened over and over by this whole thing. There is so much ugliness in the world that has been deliberately called into being by people.



12 May 2004

 
How Nice
Frozen sperm is just as good as fresh!
That makes me feel good about frozen vegetables. So, if they find a corpse-icle of an early human, flash-frozen (without freezer burn and in A1 shape which would seem to be impossible), will they then make little test-tube half Neanderthal babies? Doh! Of course -- and that child, if born in the US, could be president! Deja Vu!



10 May 2004

 
Polka
Over at Rayne's she was talking about polka music perhaps being a siren song for refrigerator monstrosities. It reminded me of one year that Annie$ had her "Bad Art Auction" to benefit the food bank (I think it was the food bank...). She'd had it before -- getting people to bring strange and weird things they'd made, found, or bought, advertising the event as taking place "behind the dumpster at Buck's Fifth Avenue." The polka year it was held at the restaurant-that-had-been-the-Rainbow -- and Kathy and I were the Vannas. We danced around showing the auction items off -- but get this. We had to wear enormous fake plastic tie-on naked boobs and behinds! ( * Y * ) and ( ! ) Very large. We were both (at that time and she still is) very physical and funny -- willing to do anything for a laugh. Con brought a stack of elderly polka records -- which were snapped up by DB. DB was a very nice man who had started a coffee-roasting company, and he died right after the auction. We were all sad, but considered it likely what Con had said -- that he'd polka-ed himself to death. It just goes to show you that even with the best of intentions one can never be assured of unsurprising outcomes. It's ok, however.

At a much later time -- years later -- at a birthday for J, a child of about 8, SJ and Michael wore the fake enormous naked bottoms to bowl. They brought extras for the clamoring hordes who would wish to join them... I videotaped it, maybe wore a ( ! ) I don't remember... but the children were NOT AMUSED as it was BENEATH THEIR DIGNITY and another example of THE EMBARRASSMENT BROUGHT ON BY OLD PEOPLE.


 
My Dinner with Looper
It was MUCH nicer at Looper's than here -- blue sky! Here it was black rain clouds (however, yippee, as I'm glad the weather is normal). We had nice salmon and salad that L made, and I reclined in their fabola new leather chair. Discussed Wittgenstein's Poker, sort of -- just L getting me to agree to read it so we can discuss it. She was talking about objective and subjective self -- I said I avoided the objective view as it made things even more difficult, but that I saw the obj/sub self as having an overlap where the outside unavoidably influenced the sense of self-worth (at least I think that's what I said but it's 2am). L said she sees no overlap, which may well be right.

Alien Landing
There had an alien landing on Friday. Interesting outfits. Blogger is different now and it bothers me...



Shirts
Psi is selling the shirts and I'm giving him half the money -- he's sold 3 so far. Pretty good. I had my head shrinker booth up last night and got lots of customers. Saw Daz and Heldaraincloud, ran into Kraxton when Dave7 summoned me to an event with cards.



08 May 2004

 

I was invited out to Steamboat Island by Frank and Birdie, to take part in a crystal bowl-toning thing that was part of the huge number of ceremonies today that are an attempt to help energise and balance the earth. So -- the bowls range from salad for 6 to jumbo-rrific size. They resonate in different keys, and are played in a way that is like extracting sound by running your finger around the rim of a wineglass. Some bowls use covered wood and others rubber-ballish instruments that are first bonged on the side, then used to go around and around the outside of the bowl. The sound is quite beautiful. I was out there for 3 hours and came home exhausted. I took some deer pictures because three deer were just standing there -- however I see deer all the time so it wasn't unusual.

Before I left I talked to Psi and found out he wants to have a store in There. I said he could sell my things, and if we can work it out so that it's amenable to both of us, we'll do that. I said I'd front him $12,000T (6 bucks) to help him get going. My interest is in getting my design out where it can be seen. I sold one, however, today! Yay! That's 1200T in, after I spent 8,000T to submit. It would be nice to break even!

I set up a psychiatrist booth at Tiki Cove last night for humor's sake, and my first customer paid me 300T for fun. I could see the sea parting -- people interested in humor sat and stayed, the others fled. My first customer had to be told "Scram!" by me or I'd still be there. Psi was amazed that I'd made 300T (me too!). It was just an impulse in an idle moment.



07 May 2004

 
Exploring Gender Issues -- really, not just laughing and wasting time
System DAVIDTHECRAZYKID has been added to the conversation.
Society Hey, David
Society 'wave
Osprey hi crazy kid
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID HI
Society 'hmm
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID hows it going girls
Osprey In what way, exactly, are you crazy?
Society You beat me to the question, Osprey.
Society :P
Osprey [''lol']
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID ummm just like to have fun
Society That's a mental disorder?
Osprey That makes you like all of us
Society 'doh
Society I'm crazy!
Osprey Are you saying we're crazy too?
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID ok so anyway
Society David isn't amused.
Society :P
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID where are you girls from?
Society Hehe
Osprey I'm sorry, David, I'm being creepy.
Osprey Ummmm
Society David, I'm in the US; Midwest.
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID i am from wi
Osprey I'm in Washington state
Society Wisconsin, huh?
Society Neat
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID yeah fun stuff
Society What part of WI, David?
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID Milwaukee
Society 'nod
Society Ironic!
Osprey Heartlanders.
Society I just went and saw the modern 'Dawn of the Dead' with a buddy this evening.
Society It took place it Milwuakee.
Society Er.. however you spell it..
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID Milwaukee
Society 'hmm
Osprey What is there in Wisconsin -- good roadside attractions?
Society Zombies, apparently..
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID hold on my roommate is going to come
Osprey k
Society Cool, David.
Society Actually, there are some pretty clever touristy sights in Wisconsin...
Osprey I am terribly frightened of zombies, Society.
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID grrrrr
Society Better not visit Wisconsin, then!
Society :)
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID do how old are you 2?
Osprey oh oh
Society 'hmm
Osprey I'm 50
Society Very quick with the nitty-gritty..
Society I'm 23.
Osprey How old are you?
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID i am 22
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID 23 this month
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID whats your name soc?
Society Jeremy.
Osprey You are very much in the big age group here but there're more boys than girls
Society :P
Osprey sadly
Society Check out my profile, David.
DAVIDTHECRAZYKID ok i will
Society 'nod
Society A point I just proved, Osprey...
Osprey You are looking to meet people from around the world?
Osprey Ah!
Osprey Society you are usually right.
Osprey Oh-oh
Society 'hmm
Osprey ['hmm']
Osprey So talk to us David
System DAVIDTHECRAZYKID has left the conversation.
Osprey or
Osprey don't
Society 'hmm
Osprey ha
Society I'm pretty sure my profile scared him off..
Society 'doh
Osprey ['''lol']
Osprey Funny!
Osprey yeah!
Society I guess he wasn't feeling as social as he got a better idea of who we were behind our avatars?
Society 'hmm
Society Sadly common around here...
Society How many people -really- 'hook up' through this medium, anyway?
Society 'mad
System Megz has been added to the conversation.
Osprey I would've thought alarm bells might've sounded at the first word
Society Heya, Megz
Osprey hi
Society 'wave
Megz Hi, everyone. wanted to come say hi and stuff
Society Well, "Hi and stuff" to you as well.
Society Welcome.
Society :)
Osprey We were just rejected by a mentally ill man
Society It's sad, really..
Osprey ['drat']
Society Apparently, I'm 'crazy' too..
Osprey He tried to say we were, but I don't think he was correct.
Society 'nod


 
Off the Deck at Noon


 



06 May 2004

 
Thereywood Squares

Psi sneaked me into Thereywood Squares, which were taping this evening. It was fun. I listened through Pulse Radio, but the dratted dial-up made things out of sync -- however, I still had a good time.

Hung out with Daz and Held (married couple) and Psi for a few minutes and Daz told me he'd been approached by a woman with a sob story wanting real money, which he didn't fork over needless to say. We were all tired of keyboarding so we agreed to meet next Tuesday in Las Vegas -- a long trip for Daz and Hel as they live in England. I specified 2pm but not where -- how will we find each other?

++I had to edit the first picture as it looked like the woman in the black hair was being peed upon.++

At jin shin my jin shin man told me my homework is to do something each day that I don't make perfect. I said I didn't try -- he said he knows, but that I was going to have to try to NOT be perfect. I said, "Like oriental rugs that have a flaw woven in on purpose?" He said, "Exactly!" An interesting and unexpected thing to have to try to do. I'll do anything he says -- why not? This is a hard one, though.


 
Congratulations, Uncle Psi
Psi became an uncle and told me the baby sneezed during delivery. He hasn't seen it yet.


 
At a stop light the other day I was rather startled to see that the grey-beige car ahead of me was called a "vole." I looked over at the car maker name -- Toyota -- then back at the model name -- which under scrutiny revealed itself to be "v6le."

I had to go and buy food today, since I was RIGHT OUT -- not that I care. Dinner last night, though, was succotash and a popsicle, which might be considered mildly eccentric. It would've been fine except I dropped the bowl of succotash and lost half of it (lucky to not wind up with just a popsicle!). So today I went out and got grocery-store sushi (not bad considering), bread from the Mud Bay Bakery (down the road), and some crumpets which I remembered after I got home were a really awful brand. So now I should go eat sushi, then, damn it, I'm out of food (more or less) and have to go grocery shopping AGAIN. But I just went! What, is this some kind of NEVERENDING CYCLE? I remember that in the 70s, Peter Fonda said in an interview that he'd like it if we had meal pills. It has taken me THIS LONG but I finally see the wisdom.

Looper has become a tech-head at last! Don't forget to re-set your automatic backups! She went off to see the Void movie that I wouldn't go to see -- too stressful. I want to see "The Same River Twice" -- maybe she does, too. I know SWMNBMIMB wants to go. Last week I went to meet her at Big Fish but she walked in when I was walking out ("Oh, shit!). She turned in her ticket and we sat on the drastically hard bench outside and talked, which was fine.

Tomorrow Alex is going to school to check on supplies for his workshop. I have jin shin.



05 May 2004

 
Hoover
When I was at Looper's we lay on the bed while the virus scan was running, and she made me laugh so hard I was teary. We were talking about JFK's funeral and how affected people were at the time, then she said that a pair of sisters at her school, named "Petrie" (I called them the Petrie Dishes, natch) were weeping one day much later. "What's wrong?" "EISENHOWER just died," they sadly replied. I howled when she told me the story, but I just can't tell it like she does. We talked about beejays and presidents -- she said every president had had a beejay in the Oval Offce. I said, "Nixon? Who would? Pat?" I thought maybe J. Edgar Hoover, although I first mistakenly said some other name I can't remember now for J.E.Hoover and L said, "???" Well if your name is Hoover I'm sure beejays are right up your alley...


My shirt was accepted by There -- Yay!! -- so now I can wear it and people can buy it, although I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.



04 May 2004

 
Caitlin's Fifth
...was celebrated on Sunday with a big party. Anj made another of her world-famous Australian pinatas, and there was a fairy entertainer who enthralled the children.
Anj said: the fairy pinata and fairy crystal... the likeness is uncanny...


I see the doorway to "my room" in the background... I don't really suppose I'll ever visit the new place in Brisbane, but I wish I could...


 
Nice Day

I was just posting these pictures I took off the deck a minute ago, when Alex called. I saw "Neah Bay" and knew who it was -- so I got off line and he rang again. He's the young artist I've been plotting... uh... planning to have come to WHL and teach a printmaking workshop or two -- since Centrum fell through. He's coming in to check out things on Thursday, then we may get in gear and have the workshop the following Thursday. I thought about it and decided it was best on Rosanne's day, since I'd like her to gain experience in printmaking. I've been trying to figure out how this could help me, but alas I'm so short of time for the yearbook that I can't spare a second. Anyway, I believe it will be a good thing all around, and if I can't be there to see it happen I'll just have to be content with knowing I made it happen. Yay!



03 May 2004

 
When I was in tenth grade, at age 15, I was in that nasty rah-rah school. I had a nice art teacher, though -- well "nice" isn't the right word. I respected him, and thought he was ok. He died a year or two later, which was too bad. He liked me -- I can see why, now. We had various interesting projects most of which I can't remember, but one was to do a portrait in pencil of someone. Everyone around the room drew from photographs of boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. I drew Gandhi -- how weird I was. I had that drawing up until the water heater leaked in my last place (the incredibly tiny house on the cattle farm on Ward Lake) -- I lost an awful lot of artwork then, mostly mine but also a painting by Louise. I can see it still, however, in my mind's eye. Just a 9x12 shaded pencil drawing -- but a good likeness. Another strange thing I remember from that time is liking to read about Spinoza. Today I don't like reading about Spinoza, nor can I even remember a thing about Spinoza -- at that point I was not so set in my ways, I suppose. At some point one realises one needs to keep a mild focus, I suppose -- not tunnel-vision, but expend energy in the general direction of the Main Thing, perhaps, or maybe it's necessary to bite off a little piece from a variety of things to find what tastes good. I know not.



02 May 2004

 
Chez Looper




 
New renter down below. I had an email from Mr. Landlord asking me to call her, which I did. She was in a dither and had told Mr. L. she wasn't going to take it even though she wanted it... but was vacillating due to being the parent-helper in the family for elderly parents... to the extent of living with them... How very difficult and familiar for so many people -- but these days it's not considerered wrong to actually have a life of one's own. In fact, I would presume one is of more use if one has not gone completely out of one's tiny mind, which would be the case when living with one's parents at any age past adulthood. So -- good thing she moved in, I reckon.

I unlocked my door, which has been locked since T walked into my house after knocking (I didn't answer her knocks because I DIDN'T WANT to answer her knocks). I will, I suppose, have to say a few things that I require, such as NO WALKING INTO MY HOUSE UNASKED ESPECIALLY NOT MONDAY NIGHT AFTER 9. And NO PARKING YOUR CAR BEHIND MY GARAGE AND LEAVING IT THERE FOR A WEEK WHILE ALL THE TIME YOUR CARPORT SLOT IS EMPTY AND MY FRIENDS HAVE DIFFICULTY LOADING THINGS FROM THE GARAGE BECAUSE THEY CAN'T PARK IN THE RIGHT PLACE. There were many good things about T, so I'm just nit-picking. She got married...
>>))HORRORS((<<


 
I designed a T shirt for There -- just designed it and submitted it, idly. Cost $T8000 to submit! Well, that's $A4. Bad enough.


 
My jin shin man is switching to the Mayan calendar, so I guess I'd better get one so I know when my appointments are.

 

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I want to ask for thoughts about improving the world -- what do people need? How can things be organised?