Date:	2009-07-04 14:20
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	sore

 Last night was just about perfect. It was nifty-keen see I can use something other than awesome.) I went out to Panoptikon with elina and danced way too much and yet somehow not enough. Of course today my body is saying it was way too much. I am icing both knees and and doped up on enough ibuprofen to kill a horse just so I can move. But honestly, last night was worth every ache and pain. It has been awhile since I have a) been out of the house to dance b) been out to dance and actually relaxed enough to enjoy the company of people I don't know super well. Even better, I was able to see some old friends that I have missed, and see new friends that I have not seen often enough. 

Plus - no hangover! Yay!

Here's to the 4th, and good times with family friends.  More fun tonight and tomorrow.

Monday, job hunting like no other job hunt before. I have to get out of the house soon or I might start climbing the walls. 

 So far today has consisted of running this morning, showering, dishes, laundry, and backing up my work laptop. Later,to  the dentist to have a tooth drilled and visiting my mom in the hospital. (She broke her leg the other night.)

I am having a hard time turning off Demolition Man and doing more work. 

Is this what  being laid off is like? I can't decide if it is good or bad. Haha

 This is me, on my couch, trying extra hard to convince myself to go out tonight. I mean I want to go out, but I'm also feeling like a random roller coaster. 

Hmmmm....what to do...

 Well, besides look for another job of course...

• Learn to speak Italian
• Set up my new office space once Steve moves his office stuff into the front room
• Pick up my personal stuff from my office - all 13 years of it
• Catch up on the last two seasons of BSG
• Play Trivial Pursuit
• Read all the cards in the Trivial Pursuit box to have unfair advantage when playing Trivial Pursuit
• Try not to scrub every floor in the house with a toothbrush
• Catch up on my book list and comics - I am only at 32 books and I had a goal of 100.
• Get my teeth drilled - whee
• Catch up on my flickr photos from Vancouver
• Finish the painting on my easel
• Finish the others in the robe series I am working on

 I just got laid off from a company where I worked very hard for almost 13 years. I guess my time was coming. My ipod is on random, and naturally it plays Jack Johnson and Polyphonic Spree back to back. Universe, you are a mean, mean bitch.

Date:	2009-06-01 14:34
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired
Music:	Morrissey - November Spawned a Monster

First off, let''s get this straight. There is no amount of coffee in the world that can wake me up today. No one told me that I needed to train for A-Kon. Hello, people, why did you not tell me?? I count on you for this info. Well, at least I know this for next year.

Words cannot explain how much fun I had, even working the volunteer table. Oh I won't lie, that part might have been boring, but also mixed in with some really fun times so I can't complain too much. Pan on Friday was fun fun fun. Met a guy who talked movies with me, danced with a pretty girl, had lots of vodka, wore the evil shoes of sexy doom, met the infamous Kris, talked books and lit geeked out with another, and hung out with jconstantine for an all too brief while. elina was missed, but catching back up with her on the front steps of the hotel made the rest of the evening perfect.

Saturday was sleeping in and guarding ConOps from intruders, which pretty much meant hanging out with elina and joking with Laura and the guys. Then off to party to experience the drinks of champions - scotch, Ogre's Blood, and absinthe. All very, very tasty and yet also lethal. One thing about the crew of people I met, they are all pretty accepting and friendly. I'm really liking the people I have met over the last few months.

One thing that shocked the heck out of me - never in a million years did I expect to get hit on by so many people. I mean, I bathe and use deodorant but I am no Angelina Jolie here people. I can't complain; it was flattering for the most part, but when the guy with hardly any teeth, stringy hair, and really bad BO hits on you, you really have to wonder about life.

Date:	2009-05-26 10:26
Subject:	Hello brain, it's me veggiesteph
Security:	Public
Mood:	exhausted

I can't seem to get my brain to function today...and I really need it to work at least today and tomorrow because of customer testing. I need to talk to people, Brain, so start doing your job. Get those neurons firing. Thursday, Brain, you can have off. You can vacay then, okay? In fact, I encourage you to take the time off. Enjoy yourself, cuz I sure plan on doing so.

A-Kon starts Thursday, and this time I am staying on-site. Should be interesting. I am thinking of living it up on my last few days as a free-as-a-bird chica. Let the debauchery begin! Well, Thursday anyway.  Quit thinking about it now and get back to thinking about user interface design. Seriously.

Date:	2009-02-13 12:54
Subject:	Your moment of Zen
Security:	Public
Mood:	artistic

Knowing what / Thou knowest not / Is in a sense / Omniscience. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

"The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else."

-John Updike, writer (1932-2009)

Date:	2009-01-25 13:29
Subject:	the weekend of painting extravaganzafest
Security:	Public
Mood:	creative

 This weekend has been quite an adventure. Friday night after dinner with the family, I felt like going out and luckily my beautiful girl elina was heading out to Panoptikcon (or however you spell it), so out I went to dance the night away. I really needed that; it was so nice to see everyone. Plus who wouldn't want to dance the night away with elina ?

I woke up Saturday morning just itching to paint something. I have had this series of paintings in my head for forever, ever since I bought this kimono style robe in Memphis, but have been putting it off and putting it off. Saturday I started them. We went by Asel Art and they are having an awesome sale - canvases at 50% off, paint on sale, brushes half off. I could have bought out the whole store. My life might be in confusion but at least I am certain of what I want on my canvases. Ha. Pandabob took some nice pictures for me (and of me), in fact I am really proud of how they turned out. I bought the largest canvas I have ever bought to paint and I am painting it. This is a good thing. A series of 3 had turned into a possible series of 5 or 6. It's cool, and it sort of has turned into an interesting collaboration between the two of us. 

I don't know if I ever put it down here, but I stopped updating my web site where I kept my paintings and things up. I switched to a blog on blogger- much easier to maintain. Here it is: 

http://mediakittenart.blogspot.com/

Anyway, enough procrastination. Time to pick up the brushes again. 

Date:	2009-01-19 10:53
Subject:	Your moment of Zen
Security:	Public
Mood:	creative
Music:	Rivers Cuomo - Paper Face

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. "

-Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)

"A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom."  - Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963)

Date:	2008-11-20 10:16
Subject:	I am such a Geek - I am Geek-tastic.
Security:	Public
Mood:	geeky

I think I just discovered just how dorkalicious I am. I mean I always have known that I run with the Geek side, but it really just stood up and flashed me today.

Think Geek sent me an e-mail with their special Christmas gift lists and I actually got excited when I saw they had a 2 book set of Star Wars cookbooks. And a Dismember Me Plush Zombie. And the Doctor Who TARDIS 4 port USB hub. And a freakin' remote control DALEK!

*swoon*

I am so ashamed. And yet so proud. All at once.

Date:	2008-11-20 09:47
Subject:	Zen for the day
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

"The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

-John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

"The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a wrong one. The more active and swift the latter is, the further he will go astray."

-Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

Date:	2008-11-07 14:08
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	hopeful

I just walked through our break room here at my office to grab my next infusion of Diet Coke and saw President Elect Obama on CNN giving his first press conference.

I got all choked up.

Silly I know, but for the first time in a very long time I have hope and pride in the man who is going to lead us over the next four years. I don't feel so cynical over what our government is capable of.

Don't disappoint me sir. Don't disappoint us. Please.

Date:	2008-10-10 15:09
Subject:	Far and away
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

I am packing up the old Beaker tonight and driving him way across yonder New Mexico way tomorrow morning. Poor pandabob will be on all on his lonesome while I freeze my butt off in Red River. I can't wait. Solitude, my MacBook, a load of books, and toasty socks.

I told him I was a bit worried I would get lonesome. His response was, "Are you kidding? You'll never want to come back. It's like your ultimate zombie adventure." ( you know, alone in the wilderness, mass extinction, ...anyway)

He's right. I am a bit solitary I guess. I figure I'll fall in love with it, want to stay, and end up texting him on next Saturday, "not ever leaving. becoming fry cook, quitting real job. never coming home."

He said as long as the fry cook job has great health benefits and makes the same amount I make at my real job.

Oh well, so much for the dream. :-)

Date:	2008-09-23 14:31
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

Whee - my copy of Mother of Tears has arrived - only it's at Pandabob's office rather than mine.

I feel like a Star Wars geek did when Jedi finally came out. Long years of drought and sadness are over. II know it will never match my very first viewing of Suspiria, but still, the Three Mothers trilogy finally complete. I never thought it would be true.

*sigh*

Date:	2008-09-12 10:02
Subject:	Finally settling back into the routine
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

We got back from our great Southwest road trip late Sunday, and since I am lazy, I am going to refer you to Pandabob's blog, http://dayoftheclock.blogspot.com/ , for the details.  I am just about finished posting my pictures to my Flickr page from last year's trip to New Mexico, so then I can post this year's horde.

A preview, in bullets:

• The great moth massacre of I-10
• Prison food
• New Mexico wineries
• White Sands is eerie. And white. And yes, you want the wax for your plastic sled.
• Look Ma! Missiles!
• Hatch chili festival and our horde of chilies (Hurry honey, before they realize they sold us a crap-ton of chilies for 20 bucks!)
• Yum, chilies.
• Have you seen THE THING? Well, I have, and I have the mug to prove it!
• Tuscon and the great torrential rainstorms
• Titan missile silo - with missile!
• Seeing Tuscon turn the lights on from Mount Lemmon
• El Charro - Birthplace of the Chimichanga
• Pima Air & Space museum - look Ma -a plane!
• Chilies
• Really, really fat prairie dogs
• Hey how are ya? Let's do the wave - no not everyone at once!
• Honey, don't start the drum circle just yet, I am still making my medicine wheel
• Flagstaff is the darkest city in the world.
• And you can't find a place to eat
• Oh wow.
• What?
• Oh yeah - it's the freakin' Grand Canyon. I'm looking at the map and not looking at the freaking Natural Wonder on my right.
• Watching Pandabob scramble down the side of the Grand Canyon with his tripod after some crazy guys flip flop.
• Crawling out on a ledge of the Grand Canyon and just sitting, listening to the breeze. It's life changing.
• Wine and beer hits you much, much faster that high up.
• Look marmosets!
• They aren't pets, Steph, quit trying to pet them.
• Chilies
• Fill that sucker up with concrete - it's a hazard!
• It's a really long drive from the Grand Canyon to Red River.
• Watching my Dad clap with glee when we hauled the gigantic bag of chilies into the condo.
• Chilies.
• Roasting chilies.
• Eating fresh caught trout stuffed with roasted chilies.
• Our local lush, hiding her booze in the bushes behind the condo, and watching her go to the store very day to get restocked.
• Chippy.
• Chilies
• Getting the resident wood duck to eat out of my hand.
• Realizing I get to go back in a month, by myself.