Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.

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Monday, July 6th, 2009
deathboy	2:06a	augh, softwares, must you hurt me so? ohhhhhh, that's fucking annoying. My own fault, I guess, I didn't think about this: The Pacemaker, like iPods, tries to make it difficult (though not impossible) for you to use it as a device for music piracy. Just like iPods, it stores the music library in a hashed, renamed format. Though each of the files are valid mp3s, their filenames have been mangled to make life annoying. The Pacemaker I bought (second hand) came with an awesome library of dirty electro tracks that I've been really enjoying playing out of - but the editor software toadyingly refuses to transfer mp3s OFF the device and back onto your PC. I just recorded an hour-long mix set, using a mixture of tracks I own and tracks that came on the Pacemaker when I bought it. Admittedly, I don't own these tracks, and my acquisition of them was (legally) wrong. Analogous to buying an iPod loaded with tunes (people actually do this on eBay to up the apparent value of the iPod). But yeah, I may have lost the mix set I just made because the software obeys not DRM, but a kind of anti-piracy-through-obfuscation. However, despite the mangled filenames, all the tags are in tact, because the Pacemaker uses them, and the filesystem is available like a plugin hard drive. So, I'm currently copying 10gb of randomly named mp3s off the Pacemaker onto my hard drive, to which I will apply Tag & Rename, to reconstruct useful filenames, and see if the Pacemaker Editor will then accept these cuckoo files back into its library as legit. Probably not. If not, at least I have a copy of the awesome set of tracks that were left the device that I can re-introduce to the library as legitimate (proving how useless the security charade is). - but I may lose the mix I just spent an hour on. My fault, and an irritating but not unexpected limitation of the Pacemaker. DJ beware, I guess. Ironically, half the tracks I used I had just bought off Amazon, and was about to post a glowing review of how easy it is to put a set together made up of tracks you have and tracks you didn't need to leave your bedroom to purchase. Oops. (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
drake_tigerclaw	8:26p	Computer Geekery Okay so I'm messing around with my VAIO doing a bit of fun stuff with it since I just reformatted it a few weeks ago and haven't used it since. So what I've done today is I went into my infamous basement and yanked an old 3 gig hard drive out of an old Aptiva, hooked it up, baked up all the files onto my external drive, formatted it, found and installed DOS 6.2 on it and then unhooked it and switched the pin bridge from master mode to slave mode and slaved it off of my primary HD. So tonight or tomorrow after I get it set up back in cochran I'm going to tweak the boot initializer file thingy on the primary drive so it will give me options on what OS I want to boot into. I might even partition that drive and put linux on it just for the hell of it. Yeah I ran out of better things to do with my time XD Current Mood: geeky (Comment on this)
kylecassidy	7:49p	stuff Last week trillian_stars and I had, in a fit of madness, crank called whafford, who's currently hard at work at the Odyssey Writers Workshop and left absurd messages on his answering machine with suggested ridiculous plots for stories, one of which started nagging me so I spent some of the weekend actually writing it myself. We made much progress on the Secret Photo Project which I think now is ready for Prime Time -- it's just a question of whether it should be announced on Monday or Tuesday. A large part of Saturday we spent with The Nephews -- I came in second place in the belching contest, much to my dismay (I was actually trying to win). We built a catapult and used it to hurl Fisher Price people vast distances, which was invigorating. Had we fireworks, I would have insisted that we tape them to the FP people before launching them into the netherworld. I seek to be a bad influence. We've been out in the back yard as much as possible basking in The Outside -- it's been great for reading and writing, and with vast swaths of time cut out for both, I feel again some of the good bits about sitting in the tree-house in my parents back yard when I was 12, reading, writing. I finished Flora Segunda which is freaking awesome. I was up until three in the morning today and only stopped when I fell asleep on the back porch. I can't even describe it really. Someone called it a "literate Harry Potter" which I actually think is a gross insult to Flora, because it's not like Harry Potter, really, at all. It's much better, much more complex, more sophisticated, much ... different. Its roots I suspect are more related to Gormenghast with its labyrinths and invented languages and strictures of military society. It's complex but delightful, driving, charming, witty ... it's heaped with positive female role models, magic and intrigue. And it's won the Andre Norton award. You should read it. A while ago I got a beauty dish and a boom to put it on but I'd never used it. trillian_stars and I dragged it out of the closet today. I did Trill's hair. Are you proud of me? (trillian_stars has an update with even MORE stuff we did that I'd completely forgotten about.) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Tamar Berk: When the Time Comes (6 Comments |Comment on this)
moonandserpent	7:47p	more fone stuff      I seem to have fixed most of the problems I was having with the new phone by hacking the hell out of it.  I took out all of the code that came with the phone and replaced it, cellular radio software and all, with home “cooked” roms of tweeked and customized features.  Now?  She runs like a dream and the interface is springy, the signal crisp, the power extended and the GUI remodeled to make sense with the hardware features of the phone.       On the one hand, that should not be necessary for a consumer electronics device – on the other hand?  Free world-phone with speedy word-processing and decent video.  LiveJournal Tags: phone,work (Comment on this)
deathboy	11:50p	Pacemaker A quick (inexpert) mix showing that despite looking quite complex, I managed to make a passable mix between two tracks *with one hand* (the other holding the camera). A lot of the faffing around you see is me editing and adjusting what I can hear in the headphones, before I bring it into the main speakers mix toward the end. There's also a bit where I have to use both hands to activate the shift button on the side, to allow me to pan the headphone mix ;) Am really liking this gadget, while it's not exactly Traktor, it's certainly up to the standard of more middle-range DJ programs, and though the interface seems daunting, I've been able to put together mixes on it without a problem. I made my first beat-matched mix within 1min of booting the thing, without a manual... it's deceptively easy to use, and has some great features that make slamming a mix together easy and enjoyable. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
mech_angel	6:31p	Weird shit. This intersection in Philly on Google Maps, when viewed from the street, shows a street you can't go down with that. It's got an underpass, beneath train tracks. I remember passing it often when taking the non-I95 way into town, and wondering exactly what the hell was down that road. Why it was always empty, why no one ever went down it, and why there were always abandoned cars on it. I never got a chance to explore there, because I never had my own transportation. I want to now, even more. Because if you follow it back on the overhead view it goes to a complex of what looks like abandoned houses and other neat things. There's a 'road' here simply labelled 'PC'. And here are a bunch of 'streets' that are apparently on bare fields. I lived up there for twenty-six years, and didn't know that there was a 91st Street. And....NOW there's apparently Arkham Horror, now that I've given up on it. :P Current Mood: bored (Comment on this)
matociquala	2:58p	the doctor said she's lucky, it could have been much worse. I won't be around tonight, because I have An Engagement. However, there will be new Shadow Unit! A short novella by, um, me, entitled "Wind-Up Boogeyman." It will also come with easter eggs and extras, of course. Season 2 is more than halfway over! What is Shadow Unit? I say it's a collaborative interactive reader-supported serial hyperfiction. Emma, who is better at clarity than I am, says: (Our story so far: Shadow Unit is a reader-supported series. So if you can, please donate via the link on the Shadow Unit page, join in the discussions on the Shadow Unit BBS, or just tell us, here or in person, that you enjoy what we do. That's support!) Current Mood: excited Current Music: Tom Waits - Everything Goes to Hell (Comment on this)
matociquala	2:29p	and his sister's weird. she drives a lorry. The morning at Volunteer Park (my run was more of an amble, really) I met a rangy natural-eared black-born gray Briard named Buddha. Huzzah! In unrelated news, apparently it has come around again on the guitar, and it's time to talk about How One Gets Published. Which, honestly, is maybe not the best way to put it, because the object, after all, is not so much Getting Published as Building A Career As A Writer. However, one step along that path is breaking into print, which is a major milestone in any writer's life, whether we're talking first nationally published short story or first novel, or both. For the purposes of this essay, we're going to talk about novels, with short stories being recognized as a category under that. And the problem is that I can't give you an easy set of steps to follow to break into print as a novelist, because everybody's path is different. There is still no magic get-published button. But I can give you a series of strategies which either worked for me, or for friends. 1) Write better. ccfinlay once said to me, "There is always room for excellence," and I think it's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten. Whatever level you're at as a writer, don't assume it's good enough. I've adopted, as my personal artist's motto, two phrases. One of them is There is no such thing as good enough. 2) Develop a voice and a vision. Art is not about following the rules. (The second part of my motto is, There are no rules. There are only techniques which work or do not work. ) Have something to say, and say it in a manner that is clearly and uniquely your own. This takes time and practice. Garage bands all sound the same, but I can pick out an unfamiliar Pete Townshend lick in about half a bar. The infamous million words of shit, and the equally infamous ten-year writer's apprenticeship (mine was closer to twenty, but I've always been slow), are the process by which we develop this voice. Visual artists call it confidence of line; we call it narrative authority. Only practice earns it. Whenever they tell me children want this sort of book and children need this sort of writing, I am going to smile politely and shut my earlids. I am a writer, not a caterer. There are plenty of caterers. But what children most want and need is what we and they don't know they want and don't think they need, and only writers can offer it to them.          --Ursula K. Le Guin 3) Write, edit, submit. We all know this part, right? Write stories. Revise them. Submit them to paying short fiction markets or to non-shyster agents (or to those few legitemate novel publishers who still take slush) in a manner consistent with the guidelines of those markets and the generally accepted practices of publishing. (Most markets will have their guidelines online. SFWA also has a page where they discuss the business of writing and proper manuscript format.) It is not necessary to build a career as a short story writer to sell novels, but a few nice short story sales never hurt. On the other hand, my novel sales really drove my short story career into the major markets: before my first novel sale, almost all my short fiction sales were to teeny tiny indie magazines. (I love teeny tiny indy magazines. I still read slush for one.) 4) Build a peer group. Find some like-minded writers who are on their way up and stick with them. Learn the ins and outs of the business from them. Share what you learn with them. Compare notes, share experiences, talk about editors and markets. You need each other: trust me on this. Good places to look are serious online writer's forums (Absolute Write, Baen, Forward Motion) and online workshops (Critters, the OWW). Be aware, however, that there's a lot of misinformation out there. Check what people tell you. Also, this is the most effective form of networking. No, really. As you become a more accomplished writer, you will find your peer group expanding kind of naturalistically. Knowing people as people is far more effective than trying to insinuate yourself into their circle for business purposes. (They can generally tell if that's what you are after.) 5) Get stubborn. I first submitted a story to Asimov's when I was a sophomore in high school. I finally sold them one when I was 35. My first published novel was my fourth finished novel--and not the first version of that foruth novel either--and there had been many, many false starts before. Persistence is vital. Current Mood: helpful Current Music: ZZ Top / Dwight Yoakam - I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide (20 Comments |Comment on this)
mech_angel	4:22p	Lazy Sunday, and cracks make fissures, eventually. I think I woke up too early today, for no good reason, and now half of me wants a nap and half doesn't want to work but knows it should. I think the weather is to blame, too. It's been grey most of the day, and raining on and off. I swear to fuck I heard all of the plants around sighing and going 'Hells yes!' when it started pouring for ten whole minutes, earlier. Trying not to get angry about and argue with people whose apparent opinions differ from my own to begin with, about things I actually feel the need to argue about. I know it never gets anyone anywhere except angry at one another, and neither side, in things like this, will ever be likely to convince the other of their viewpoint. Plus, the idea of having to argue over it seems to want to give me panic attacks, complete with shaking, and that pit-of-the-stomach thing and forgetting to breathe. Huh...More and more things seem to want to do that to me. Tight crowds, possible arguments or even the hint of disagreeing with someone, confrontation, speaking to strangers...I might be neglecting something emotionally that I should really be paying attention to, here. This helps: Current Mood: uncomfortable (1 Comment |Comment on this)
spiritualmonkey	1:23p	Myspace: The Ghetto of the Internet? Via twistedcat And by the way... Peet's is more cultured than $tarbucks, and Jazz is more cultured than bubblegum pop. That's neither good nor bad, but it is a fact. Of course, I and the swell-set long-winded/thoughts-&-ideas-oriented look down from our Olympian Livejournalian heights on both the book-facers and the space-havers as equally plebian entitled to their choices (though some people I know both have an LJ and go slumming maintain one of the others). clipped from www.inquisitr.com At a keynote speech during New York's Democracy forum at Lincoln Center, Danah Boyd spoke of the racial disparity and possible reasons for mass abandonment of MySpace for the "more cultured" and "less cheesy" social networking site Facebook. Boyd, a social media researcher for Microsoft and fellow of the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society, stated: "We might as well face an uncomfortable reality - what happened was modern day 'white flight'." "The fact that digital migration is revealing the same social patterns as urban white flight should send warning signals to all of us. It should scare the hell out of us." Boyd also said that teens who use Facebook are more likely to condescend their MySpace-favoring peers. "Any high school student who has a Facebook page will tell you MySpace users are more likely to be barely educated and obnoxious - like Peet's is more cultured than Starbucks and jazz is more cultured than bubblegum pop. And Macs are more cultured than PCs." Previosuly in O,DIKTO?: -Quitting Facebook -Class In America (both online & off) -"What are you? -I, Cracker Current Music: Ben Folds - Rockin' The Suburbs (Comment on this)
drake_tigerclaw	3:33p	I hate remembering things on sunday I hate remembering stuff I wanted to do or look for on sunday because most of the places I would need to go to do or get those things are closed on sunday :P Like for example I wanted to go look for an old old laptop at the thrift stores so I could take it and do things to it for my amusement but those kind of places are closed on sunday. I also just thought maybe I should see if FatTire comes in smaller bottles but liquor stores are also closed sundays. (Comment on this)
comorbid	9:28a	Blip Such an awesome cover. If you don't stomp around to that hook, something's wrong with YOU. Current Music: Prong - [Strange Days] (Comment on this)
greygirlbeast	11:45a	Entry #2,205 A bright summer day here in Providence, 73F, and the humidity all the way down to 44%. We seem to have survived the cannonade of illegal fireworks. No word yet if the barges the city rented for Providence's official fireworks display also survived, or if they're now resting at the bottom of Narragansett Bay. I have to admit, in a state that's struggling to keep its public libraries open, spending $14,700 to rent barges for a fireworks display might be evidence of questionable priorities (the city spent a total of approximately $41,000 on last night's celebration). Nonetheless... Yesterday, I wrote a very respectable 1,541 words on "The Sea Troll's Daughter" and reached THE END. Today, I'll be proofreading and polishing, and this evening I'll send the story away to my editor, who I hope will love it. Still waiting for my full schedule for ReaderCon 20, as are all the other guests. I do know that I'm booked solid on Friday evening (July 10th), from 5-8 p.m. I'll post the full schedule as soon as I have it. The manuscript for The Ammonite Violin & Others (coming in 2010 from subpress) is sitting here, reminding me it needs to be proofed. Maybe I'll get started on that after the convention. July is actually looking slightly less hectic than was June. I have to write Sirenia Digest #44, and get the book trailers done, and there's ReaderCon. That's plenty, but it still seems better than the last few months. I may actually have time in July to venture Outside on a regular basis. Also, I think the next novel, the one after the new novel (The Red Tree; pre-order now) is starting to take shape. Admittedly, a very vague shape, but it's a relief, nonetheless. Today, I'll be twatting micro-excerpt #14 from The Red Tree, at greygirlbeast. Did I mention pre-orders? And now I'm off to Finishing Touches Land, my platypus and dodo and Spooky in tow. Current Mood: congested Current Music: NIN, "The Fragile" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
vonfaustus	8:36a	The Nocebo effect: Some years ago, I recall reading Peter Carroll's commentary on "Red Magick" (which was, as far as I can tell, based on William S. Burroughs exposition on war magick and effective psychological cursing) and being intrigued. About two years later I got the first-hand chance to experience what that shit can actually do to you, which was enlightening to say the least. ("Does it work?" Yes. If you can work it.) New Scientist has recently published an article on the Nocebo effect, which is the inverse of the placebo effect and you can read about it here.  "People used to wig out on me and say things like: 'You're giving kids occult guns!' And I'd respond: 'No. I'm giving kids occult guns with bullets in them. So you'd better not piss off those kids!" - From a private conversation with a member of the Old School A/X regarding his forged version of Des Vermis Mysteriis. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
newscientrss	11:01a	Call for tolerance towards some 'stem cell tourism' http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/52020af/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg20A3271530B70A0A0Ecall0Efor0Etolerance0Etowards0Esome0Estem0Ecell0Etourism0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327153.700 The internet may be awash with bogus or untested stem cell-based treatments targeted at unwary patients, but that is no reason to condemn "scientifically justifiable" therapies, say researchers (Comment on this)
choronzon333	7:09a	Inner-X-Musick On the Web www.innerxmusick.com Help me spread the word. The Inner-X-Musick web page is now open. INNER-X-MUSICK RECORDINGS are back. The web page features a current catalog, as well as Inner-X-Musick news! Expect a various artists release by summers end, lyric booklets... and more! Add a link to the page EVERYWHERE!!!! www.innerxmusick.com And of course, if you have not visited The John Zewizz Appreciation Society do so at; SLEEPCHAMBER.INFO And spend some time browsing around. There is a ton of information through the pages.! Inside Innersleeve Records (early 1980’s) “Welkum to the inside wonderland ov XxX… “ Inner-X Musick was a record label/mail order catalog run by Boston musician John Zewizz. Over the years Inner-X Musick has changed its name 3 times and released well over a hundred releases. At its high point (the mid 1980’s) Inner-X-Musick released musick by bands such as Sleep Chamber, Controlled Bleeding, Jonathan Briley, 7 From Life, Daze Of Trance, The Flagellents, Hideous In Strength, Women Of The SS, Cult Ov The Womb, Mahcanik, Dokument, Noizeclot, Hunting Lodge, Human Flesh, and PSI Field. But by the 1990’s Inner-X-Musick was the solely promoting Sleep Chamber musick, and usually shared the release with another label (the Italian label Musica Maxima Magnetica,the German label FünfUndVierzig, and Cleopatra Records out of L.A.) Soon I shall be making a related announcement. There is a lot in store from Inner-X, Choronzon and Veil of Thorns. (Comment on this)
newscientrss	9:00a	Review: Sex in shades of grey http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/51fd81d/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg20A3271510B70A0A0Ereview0Esex0Ein0Eshades0Eof0Egrey0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327151.700 Science is undermining the notion that there are only two sexes and presenting a broad spectrum – from male to female and everything in between, says the author of Between XX and XY (Comment on this)
needcoffee_rss	6:14a	Our Life With The Hellhound: Month One http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/needcoffee/~3/wF0sRkxvkNw/ http://www.needcoffee.com/?p=11650 This rawhide bone tastes like a soul. Mmm nom nom nom. We've been wanting a Hellhound around the Needcoffee compound for some time, and finally this summer, we began looking for the perfect one. While a fully grown hellhound would be cool to have, we thought it best to get a puppy so we could start training the hound early. After all, a hundred pound toothy mammal that doesn't know how to behave and knows where you sleep...can be problematic, to say the least. We also wanted to get a mix breed--not only to save money and because "pure breeds" just seem so terribly frou-frou--but also because pure bred dogs have the potential for all manner of genetic problems. Saint Bernards are awesome beasts, but reading the laundry list of stuff that could go wrong with them is just sad. So after endless hours looking at Petfinder and other local rescue sites online, then meeting quite a few puppy candidates, we either hadn't felt a true connection with anyone, or else they were adopted before we got to meet them (yay!). And then, late one night in May, we stumbled upon two puppies that needed a home on the Adopt A Pet website. They and their mother had been rescued from a home where the mother had been chained to a tree and was underweight. Apparently while the rescue folks were there helping build fences so the dogs in the household could have better living conditions, the mom decided to get out while the getting was good and hopped into the volunteers' SUV. So they took her and the two week-old puppies to a very loving foster home with their other doggies. Their mom, Niobe (who still needs a forever home) is a Cane Corso, or Italian Mastiff, and their dad is a bully breed of some sort. Widge locked onto the idea of having a Cane Corso, because...well, look at what they can grow up into. (Magnificent beasts! - Widge) We met both puppies and their wonderful foster moms. By the end of the visit (well, probably sooner, actually), we knew that one of them would be coming to live with us and be our very own hellhound in residence. After a long discussion--mostly bemoaning the fact that as responsible adults we couldn't take both girls--we decided on the larger and seemingly more thoughtful of the two sisters. We also decided to name her Kora after the Greek goddess of the Underworld. And a short week later (during which she was spayed), Kora came to live with us! Kora's mom, Niobe, taking a break. (As a note, her foster name was Sophia. And when we received her, we decided that if she already had enough name recognition going on, we would keep her original name. But a quick test showed that not only would she answer to Kora and Sophia, but also "Spaghetti" and "Ice Cream." So Sophia is now her middle name.) We have had Kora for a full month now, and she seems to be settling in very well. She already knew how to sit when she came to us (amazing!), and now she can come when called (most of the time), lay down, stay, and is adept at the house rules for playing Tug. She is also getting housetrained very well, learning to ring bells on the door when she needs to go out. Her first vet visits with us went remarkably well-- she is very good natured with people so far, and she's even submitted with little protest to two baths and to having her nails trimmed. She's definitely conniving, though, and likes to jump on the couch when she thinks she can get away with it. When she goes outside, she likes to crunch down on magnolia leaves outside like they're damned souls ready for hellfire, but the softer side of her hellhound nature is really betrayed when she shamelessly begs Widge for a belly rub...which she pretty much does whenever he comes in the room. And we also found out that she has a nemesis: the Evil Red Dot. The Evil Red Dot (or laser pointer, as we humans know it) has no smell and insists on flitting erratically around the room, coming and going as it pleases and refusing to be captured. It makes her a bit crazy, and tires her out when she needs to go to bed. We finally got the okay from the vet to take her for a walk--as puppies need a variety of shots before they can go out in public. We've been probably overly cautious about letting her out into the world at large but now she gets to explore! She has been making the rounds and meeting neighborhood dogs and even encountered some children at the local farmers market--and didn't eat a single one. Based on our experiences with Kora, we'd like to make some recommendations on What We've Learned So Far. Training - This is our first dog as adults, and before we always had the family dogs growing up. And Widge and myself always thought that training a dog was something highly specialized, complicated and best done by a professional. However, after checking out the work of Dr. Ian Dunbar, an animal behaviorist, we found that the only piece of our previous notion that was 100% accurate was the complicated part. There's nothing quite like having to discuss command words to ensure that they don't sound like anything else. Regardless, Dr. Dunbar's work has been extraordinarily helpful to us and we recommend anybody check him out for their own pooches. You can find more info here. Kongs - Combination chew toy and food distribution method--the idea is to get a dog addicted to one of these rather than, say, addicted to chewing on your couch. Or your clothes. Or another pet. They have multiple varieties. I'm sure at some point, having a mastiff on hand, we'll need the black "extreme" version but for now we've got one puppy kind and two of the standard red ones. They are perfect for dry food or getting food wet and then freezing it for a Kongsicle. Also, peanut butter can be added to the inside contents to make a dog go even more mental than normal. Bitter Apple - When trying to convince a puppy hurtling headlong into Teethingville not to gnaw on something, you're going to need to make it taste terrible. Bitter Apple is, so far, the most convincing way to do that. It's got enough alcohol in it that I'm not sure how anybody could find it tasty, but I've heard that other dogs have apparently acclimated themselves to the taste and won't stop gnawing. It seems to deter Kora. She always looks so mournful when you spray something with it, though. So be prepared for that. Nature's Miracle - A stain and odor remover that will take care of things when the puppy doesn't get outside often enough. Seriously, you apply it to the carpet and wait five minutes, then wipe up the mess. It will also take care of any lingering after-odors--the idea being that if a dog smells where it's gone before, it will make it easier to go there each time. No idea what's in it since the main ingredient besides water is "Nature's Enzymes." Whatever that means. I will say that if you have to enlist the help of the "Nature's Miracle 1.5 Gallon Power Sprayer" as mentioned on the container, then...you have serious problems. Of course, it helps when you have a puppy to also have something else we recommend... Decades-Old Carpet - Seriously. There's something so liberating about knowing that one day soon you'll have to replace the carpet anyway, so to hell with it. You know? Reading the Ingredients on Food - Also seriously. Read close. You might remember the nightmare that came out of the pet food recalls from a couple of years ago which made a lot of animals sick and killed others. So you'll forgive us if we're a bit sensitive to stuff coming out of China. And we've found a lot of products that have an American flag on them but say "Made in China" on the back. Actually, it doesn't have to be made in the USA for us, we just don't want anything from China. More to come. Any questions on living with a cute avatar of the underworld, just let us know. a Our Life With The Hellhound: Month One (Comment on this)
coilhouse	3:26a	Back in the Summer of ‘69 http://coilhouse.net/2009/07/04/back-in-the-summer-of-69/ http://coilhouse.net/?p=8586 Jimi Hendrix performs “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York, 1969. You can hear the bombs, screams and ear-splitting jetfire of Vietnam in that guitar. At first, I just figured I’d take a minute to mark the occasion of this country’s birth with the above clip of Hendrix’s string/mind/soul-bending rendition of the U.S. National Anthem.  It’s been almost exactly 40 years since the footage was shot at Woodstock, during late summer, in the astoundingly eventful year of 1969. Then I got to thinking a bit more about 1969. Egads, what a dense historical American nerve cluster! Over the course of those twelve months, one seriously heavy, snaking cultural current swept humanity in some exhilarating and alarming directions. Countless aspects of life as we now know it were irrevocably changed, and it all basically happened overnight. In a piece written recently for USA Today, cultural anthropologist Jeremy Wallach called 1969 “the apotheosis and decline of the counterculture” and Rob Kirkpatrick, author of 1969: The Year Everything Changed said: “I don’t think it’s even debatable. There’s an America before ‘69, and an America after ‘69.” To give me and mah feller ‘Merkins something to chew on today besides corn on the cob, here’s a list of just a few of the country’s more momentous occurrences, circa 1969: The whole world watched, breathless, as the lunar module Eagle landed and Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon.  Dr. Denton Cooley successfully implanted the first temporary artificial heart in Texas. Four months after Woodstock, the infamously violent, miserable Altamont Free Concert was held at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, ostensibly bringing an end to the idealistic sixties. In NYC, the Stonewall riots kicked off the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.  Members of the Manson Family cult committed the Tate/LaBianca murders, horrifying Los Angeles and goading a prurient media circus. The first message was sent over ARPANET between UCLA and Stanford.  L. Ron Hubbard had his organization’s name officially changed to The Church of Scientology, and they started litigating. Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autobiography and the Thoth Tarot Deck were both republished, and Kenneth Anger shot his lesser known –but deeply resonant– film Invocation of My Demon Brother. Barred from reentering the states to hold their planned New York City “Bed-In”, John Lennon and Yoko Ono relocated the event to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Quebec, where they recorded “Give Peace a Chance”.  Everybody got nekkid in the Broadway muscial production, Hair… Read the rest of Back in the Summer of ‘69 Post tags: Culture, Events, Film, Music, Politics, Revolutionary, Technology, Testing your faith, War (Comment on this)
theapplethief	12:18a	you're no good, heartbreaker. You are witnessing procrastination, right at this very second. Delaying the second paper I will be having to write today, is a pleasure I should feel guilty about but I feel more hungry than anything. So, I guess I should update a little. I'm still with this amazing guy and we're pretty much joined at the hip. We have our fights, as do all couples, but I think they mostly spawn from how stubborn we both can be. Gushgushgush. I am going out of town next weekend with previously mentioned boy, his mother, and boy's roommate. It's for his birthday and we're going to St. Augustine. I'm pretty god damned stoked. I have cut most of my hair off. Well, not like before when I pretty much had no hair- but it's in a fifties house wife style... if she went at her head with a straight razor. Oh, and it's no longer red- it's dark, dark brown. Almost black. I've been kind of stupid busy with school. Summer semester being my first was a ridiculous idea, that I only halfway regret. It's a metric fuck ton of work because it's only seven weeks, but I think I got this. I got a tutor and shiny new friend out of my math retardation, so that's cool. Other than that? Not much that is new. Nothing to complain about. Everything is absolutely spectacular. I hope I didn't just jinx myself there. Everything is crap and I hate it all so much, why do I have such a stupid life? (just in case) Okay. I guess it's time to get to this other paper. Current Mood: swimming Current Music: The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
kylecassidy	11:44p	In which your humble narrator asks you spend time with the people you love I was a bit shocked to learn of the death of NME columnist Stephen Wells when I read about it in mickmercer's blog yesterday. I wasn't sure what to expect from Stephen when I met him in 2007. He was one of the first people to do a cover story on my book, Armed America. Knowing I'd picked a controversial topic, and knowing about Stephen's ... inspired rants, I was more than half expecting a very hostile interview, to get rolled under the wheels of the machine ... which is not what I got. I got a jovial, friendly, fun journalist. We had a great time during the interview and I felt afterwards that I'd made a friend. Over the next few months we made a few attempts at getting together, but family and work obligations seem to have pegged down most of his time and we fell from one another's radar.I didn't really know Stephen Wells, but I feel the loss in a wholistic way -- I realize that there are people who should be closer to me who I haven't spoken to lately -- and that there are people who I know who are sick, or who are older than I remember them being and who I should spend more time with. If something good is to come from this, and I believe that good can come from most things, it's that realization -- that somewhere there's someone out there who you need to say "hello" to, because you will feel terrible if you don't get the chance to say "goodbye" to them. Stephen had a chance to say goodbye in his final article in the Philadelphia Weekly. Go do good things. Current Mood: lucky Current Music: opossums rooting around (12 Comments |Comment on this)
greygirlbeast	9:48p	New Dinosaurs from Oz Three of them, actually. "Scientists have discovered three new species of Australian dinosaur discovered in a prehistoric billabong in Western Queensland." One allosauroid theropod, Australovenator wintonensis, and two titanosaurid sauroopods, Witonotitan wattsi and Diamantinasaurus matildae. You can even read the full paper online (Scott A. Hocknull, Matt A. White, Travis R. Tischler, Alex G. Cook, Naomi D. Calleja, Trish Sloan, David A. Elliott. "New Mid-Cretaceous (Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia"); just follow the link at the bottom on the article. Current Mood: fireworks make me jumpy Current Music: Big Bada Boom (3 Comments |Comment on this)
momentai	6:56p	just my imagination running... There are so many birthdays among my friends in July. It's kind of annoying, really;) I will try to send out some cards, or s/t, but in case I don't, remember I have nothing but love for you guys. Most of you, anyway. Today's July birthday is minagaine. Happy Birthday, sunshine state. I wish I could be there for the party, so ya'll get extra wild to fill the void. My anniversary of birth is on the 22nd. Here's a list of what you could buy me if you felt like it. As you read this, I will be trying hard to not be sad. Today has been sad and I am not at all happy about that. I have to stop feeling this way and wish I knew how to stop it. Someday. wish list Randomness paid account sour patch kids jolly ranchers real photos of you letters from you skittles DVD The Dark Knight Paper Moon Madadayo Hamlet (Kenneth Brannagh) About A Boy The Transformers: The Movie (25th Anniversary Edition) Cowboy Bebop Complete Series Howard the Duck The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Games Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition (xbox) Ninja Gaiden Black (xbox) Xenosaga 3 (PS2) Rogue Galaxy (PS2) Sega Genesis Collection(PS2) Metal Gear Solid (PS2) Metal Gear Solid: Subsistence (PS2) Gradius 3+4 Gradius 5 Please feel free to comment with your wish list, whether your birthday is upcoming or not, or make a post in your journal. it's all in good fun, afterall. (Comment on this)
jam1974	3:11p	Is anything of interest going on tonight after 9:30ish? Looking for something to do, other than surf the net and watch Adult Swim tonight. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
matociquala	12:44p	she sewed my new blue jeans We managed to get back from the farmer's market with only four varieties of cherries, and having spent only about five minutes singing along with the busker who was doing Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun, Blind Boys style. Good times. And now it's just me, a sofa, a laptop, a cup of strawberry peppercorn tea, a Saturday, and forty student manuscripts. Excelsior. (348 miles to Isengard.) Current Mood: working Current Music: Emmylou Harris - The Pearl (9 Comments |Comment on this)

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