Thursday, February 28, 2002

this job is putting me on the fast track to a nervous breakdown. kainui, i might have quit by the time you get here, then we'll have lots of time to hang out.

Angie - what can I say, I love love love lists.
And as inspired by Shelly's more positive spin (not that I couldn't go on and on about pet peeves - stop tailgating me you huge trucks!)
Things I like:
--giggling
--trash talking with Ted during dance lessons about who's on the correct tempo
--wearing red
--lying in bed, snacking and reading all afternoon
--good smelling shower stuff
--watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Survivor with groups of friends and making commentary
--Italian food/red wine
--my job
--spring in Austin
--planting/gardening
--unexpected presents (to give and to receive)
--covering my fridge with photos (this month's theme: people in wigs)
--after picking up some film, not even waiting to get home to look through the photos, but sitting in the parking lot of the photo place and going through the prints/slides/whatever
--the Scottish accent of my yoga teacher
--theme parties (big surprise there)
--being a part of this blog (awhhh)


The show with Tristeza went well last night. We played well. Fifty something people showed. We had fun. Tristeza was great.

Wednesday, February 27, 2002

Man, I could do these pet peeves all day long, but I promise this is the last one.

Why o why do people put the toilet paper on backwards? Clearly, CLEARLY, the preferable way to do it would be sheets hanging over, therefore facilitating easy of access and removal. My household, however, is a hanging under group. What the fuck? Why? I asked. They said, "what difference does it make?" This is some shit for two reasons. One, they always do it hanging under. Every single goddamn time. And, two, if it doesn't matter, then why won't you do it right? It only takes a second to orient the roll! Hanging under, aside from being totally counter-intuitive, also means that it most bathrooms you get a nice cold brush on your fingers from the wall.

Man, I sound like a lunatic.

Tuesday, February 26, 2002

skiiing was so much fun that i decided to give it extra iii's--;... skiiiing. i fell in some interesting positions that probably would have hurt less if i did more yoga. but the last run i got from the top to the bottom without stopping or falling until the VERY bottom where people were clustered waiting for the lift. i panicked and veered into the net because i didn't think i could steer between them. it took three men to untagle me from the net, but i was still pretty pleased with myself. the land was pretty and snow was surprisingly NOT very COLD. i burrowed down in the snow on the sunny top of one hill in the afternoon and took a nap.
art is going well though i'm "working" too much to get as much done as i want. the new job still sort of sucks but i still hope it will get better. i don't think they're going to let me have the schedule i want and they promised me a bus pass and renegged. keep your fingers crossed for me. so far i'm not transitioning well back into the daily grind after two years of semi-employed bliss. my old hell job comes back to haunt me by trying to collect money for 3 months cobra insurance saying that they "have no record" of me cancelling it. so basically they're trying to bully like $1000 bucks out of me over their mistake. but i shan't complain, i'm in a good mood.
tonight we had the photo shoot for the fashion show which was frenzied but fun. the theme is " fashion plates and flying saucers." pictures are one f the things i'll need to post. also a few designers asked me to model for them in upcoming photo shoots for their portfolios. i feel like a *STAR*.
i don't feel like talking about my pet peeves as i have a great many of them. some of the models started getting testy tonight when a few of the camera's broke down and the line started getting really long and overschedule and it was pretty hot. so we started playing a game of listing things we like. i like a lot of things too.

Pet peeves: Stephanie M hit my number one, I think. Purposely misspelled words drive me bonkers. But, honestly, I think I hate purposely misspelled names even more. I knew a Daryel, a Rian and a MaKenzy. Grrrrr.

Since I proof a lot of writing, I have come to despise dashes, exclaimation points, semi-colons and elipses. No one has any idea how to use them.

My roommates (especially Benji) tend to stop the microwave before it finishes, then leave the last 5 seconds on there for the next person.

My friend at work collected his friends Pet Peeves. Mine's included below.

Stephanie M.: Words spelled incorrectly on purpose (ex: Krispy Kreme, Kwikwash).
Karen P: When the cashier puts your coins ON TOP OF the bills.
Sujay P: When people say “Yeah, no . . .”
Kristin H: I can’t stand it when people have stinky feet but pretend they don’t (and then get offended when it’s pointed out).
Lyndol D: When somebody eats a huge bowl of salad and it takes them forever to eat and they’re not even full. They just eat and eat and don’t get anywhere.
Rachel: When the last person to use the shower leaves the shower switch up in the shower position.
Emily S: When people say they don’t like a certain food but have never tried it.
Ben H: When you make a phone call to a business and get an automated menu and the first option isn’t #1 (“Press . . . 6 now”).
Ann: I hate it when people tell me to relax.
Stephanie F (me).: When people ask stupid questions at question and answer sessions (such as “What makes you tick?”); also two part questions at Q&A sessions (ex. I have a two part question, the first part is...). Also when people try to talk to you when you're using the bathroom stall at work. And when adults talk baby talk to other adults at work.
Sarah H: When people start to explain something complicated and then say “You know . . .” but you don’t really know.
Julie B: When people use a sponge and then don’t ring it out, so the next time you use it it’s all cold and wet and gross.
Paul R: When people use the word “y’all” in an e-mail.
Emily R: When people make noise when they eat quiet foods--like when someone’s eating mashed potatoes and you can hear it across the room. Also when people refuse to “see what else is on” during commercials.
Ted M: 1) I am aesthetically allergic to bellowers and screechers in public places and 2) the existence of strip malls pains me . . . also 3) any mention of the greatness of Ayn Rand or her books, or her philosophy (get a clue: they blow).
Kelly S: Toothpaste spots on the bathroom mirror. And people who can’t talk and work at the same time--people who have to stop what they’re doing when they talk to you--especially annoying if you’re waiting for them to finish what they’re doing so you can start your stuff.
Katelijne L: People who smack their food, smack, smack, smack. Also people who drive at the same pace as the story they’re telling.
Jarred P: People who make lists.

Oh yeah, she did all those things. Then she did a twirl and doffed her top hat at me.

Actually, the damn cat just slinked around, probably planning her next escape. No one offered to fedd her, so her interest in us was nil.

Monday, February 25, 2002

Hey, Upma, I saw your cat tonight.

Thursday, February 21, 2002

Work. Super busy.
Upma - did I tell you I'll be in Philly for one day in April? With my fam, not sure what we're doing yet. I'll be asking you for touristy advice once you're more settled in. Going to a photo lecture tonight by Lucien Perkins - Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. Should be inspiring and humbling.

going skiig for the first time ever. maybe. i'll definitely see snow for the first time in any sory of accumulation. did that make any sense? i'm exhausted. 15 hour days only doo a body good if you love what you're doing. i don't. i hope my weekend (which starts now) is different.
there is so much going on with ya'll. i have to put out a generalized good luck and congratulations cause i accidently fell asleep last night when i "sat down for a minute" before packing. i'm getting picked up in less than two hours and i'm not sure what to pack for snow, but i'm pretty sure i don't own it.
good luck, congratulations, and love!

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

All of our MP3s will be posted soon on mp3.com. They have a very drawn out approval process. We're still waiting.

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Hey, it looks like the Dirty Version will be opening for Tristeza in Chapel Hill next Wednesday. For those of you who don't speak indierock, this equals good news.

I think I read like 200 pages of my book today. I should get paid for this.

Monday, February 18, 2002

My second replacement monitor died over the weekend. I'm back to the brain tumor headache inducing first replacement.

Sorry about the red.

Oh - I forgot to tell you guys about the cinematic dream I had last night. It involved one guy and two girls. All the scenes between the guy and girl 1 were in b&w, with the other girl 2, in color. It played out the relationship with each couple, all hinging on one moment when he has to chose one or the other (think Sliding Doors), but he ends up in both stories, which I dreamed to the end, with him cheating on whichever girl he started with. But the dreams kept cutting into each other, switching back between the two stories, b&w to color, time going all jumble. It was hella cool.

Happy Birthday Angie! I hope your sinus infection is gone super soon Upma - you are having an adventure. You rock. Also - you can order Target stuff online if there isn't one nearby you. Angie - have you ever been to the Broken Spoke on any of your Austin trips? We took Ted's parents there Saturday so they could have a "Texas" experience - two-stepping, waltzing, cotton-eyed joeing. I think they had a blast. Yesterday we took them to this yummy restaurant East Side Cafe - they have a garden in the back and specialize in vegetarian fare. I had the artichoke carrot manicotti, vegetable gumbo and broccoli with lemon butter. We have to shoot paper airplanes tomorrow and I haven't had time to make any. Yikes.

Saturday, February 16, 2002

We had a Dirty Version rock show last night. These are the people who came:

Manamid, the other band (3)
Gina, somebody and somebody else, aka Manamid's wives and girlfriends (3)
Rick Spencer (1)
Francis, Myra, Myra's Boyfriend and that girl with the fuzzy hair they hang out with (4)

Which isn't an overwhelming turnout, I'm sure you'll agree. But, we played really well and got paid more than we ever have before ($35). And it was fun. We finally nailed the beginning of our newest song. I made some funny jokes. Scott of Manamid assisted, with playful heckling. Me: Manamid is playing next to give you the other half of your money's worth. Scott: Ha! More like two-thirds!

We were competing against a cool show in town (Summer Hymns and Choose Your Own Adventure) and a lame show in Winston-Salem (the new Dead Kennedys) and some dude's party.

---

This morning a spontaneous posse assembled to go to K&W Cafeteria. These things may not exist where you are. Basically, its the elderly's version of a high school cafe, except the food is mostly better.

I suspect that these things don't exist where you are, because the style is heavily Southern. Even Louisiana has likely missed out on the Cafeteria scene, because, guys, I don't know if you know this or not, but LA, and New Orleans, in particular, are the South, but the South as it exists in Bizarro-land. You guys probably have PoBoys shops and crawfish bazaars, where we have cafs. There is nary a hint of hoodoo at the K&W.

What you get there are homecookin' classics. Mashed potatos, green beans, fried chicken, liver and onions, cooked apples, seven layer salad, cornbread and, praise Jesus, sweet tea. A vegetable plate costs about four bucks, five with tea. The clientele is almost exclusively blue-hairs. The elderly love cafeteria food with a great and insatiable passion. My guess is this the kind of food they would make for themselves everyday if their age didn't make it such a chore.

What makes this lunch worth mentioning is that, while my parents love to go the K&W in Hickory, my Greensboro friends are a little afraid of the place. K&W is not very vegan friendly, as you might imagine. So, I was surprised when a big group of people wanted to go there this morning. The ringleader, I suspect, was Chris Newsom. Newsom dresses like a dirt punk, but is really a good ol' boy in pupil stage. Here's a guy who knows some shit about living. Today he said, "Dude, I don't know if I'm ready to live in a place that doesn't have bullet holes in the stop signs." Preaching to the choir, Reverend Chris.

Outside, Girl Scouts were selling cookies. Had I been a total scumbag, I could have stolen about six boxes of cookies. Girl Scouts, being young and trusting, had decided to store their cookies behind them in an alley. I thought about it for a half a second and decided that would be an irredeemably low thing to do.

---

Listening to Steely Dan. "They got a name for the winners in the world. I want a name when I lose."

Friday, February 15, 2002

I didn't do it. I'll try to figure it out.

Thursday, February 14, 2002

Valentine's Day is the most miserable day of the whole goddamn year. Love should be illegal.

Wednesday, February 13, 2002

Thanks for all the bookclub suggestions. We decided to read Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. It's about a detective with Tourrett's syndrome. Here's the link on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375724834/qid=1013611798/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2863315-7593651

Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Russell Banks should only be read with a shotgun in one hand facing the door. That guy is a great writer, but goddamn he's grim.

If you're into bestsellers, the Corrections is as near to perfect as any book I've read in years. Zadie Smith's White Teeth is a great first novel, too. Both books are surprisingly similar in style to Kavalier and Clay (which, for those of you who haven't read it, is fantastic). All of Chabon's books are good, especially his first The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. What kind of books do you like? I've got suggestions for everything.

Upma - that's so sweet. I don't really ever go to Chipotle, but thanks for thinking of me. Weezie - I'll be emailing you a current pic my dad took when most of my family was visiting a few weeks ago.
So has everyone of this board dyed their hair a new color in the last two weeks?
My Monday: sushi eating with the book club - we just finished up The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. You guys have any suggestions of good books to read next? I had the Buddha roll- tofu, cucumber and avocado and miso soup, man, I love miso soup. Then I went and saw this lindy/swing band Victrola at the Empanada Parlor - a guy at work is their clarinet/banjo/saxophone player. They were really enjoyable.
Now I'm going to chain myself to my desk until I get more work done. Have a great day everyone.

Monday, February 11, 2002

J.T. - welcome back. I really liked the pictures in Paris.
Okay - Cyberworld 3D - wow. I went to a 3D IMAX of different animated shorts.
wow. I spent most of the movie with my mouth agape. It was so fantastic. If it comes to an IMAX near you, go. Just go. I felt like a little kid, totally amazed and blown away by the worlds I was seeing before me. Underwater, future utopias, monkey robot sushi, just wow.
Rest of the weekend - birthday party attended, one too many mexican martinis consumed, photo shoot with the cutest dog doing tricks, dance class, and secret shopping of a terrible movie (Orange County- so bad - but at least it was free).

Sunday, February 10, 2002

Dear sweet lakeeffectors. I apologize for my absence from the list. I've been in Paris, and then in withdraw from Paris and now I'm in busy, and thankfully, otherwise I might realize in what a bad way I'm really in.

Buffalo's sweet gray is my constant, tangible thing with sometimes snow that makes me stare and float and smile. Right now there is wind and wind and the sound of tiny pieces of cold rain trying so hard to be ice hitting the window. It hasn't been nearly cold enough. Of all the lakeeffect colors so far the two I've liked the most have gotten the least amount of response. Our original gray, but it's obvious that that color (as well as the name of our page) has some real significance for me, and purple, the fading color of my hair, of my entire being. I orignally liked the blue against our current green but it hardly seems shocking anymore. I thought I might turn my entire text into a link just to spice things up, a mere threat the way pink was. I've always been more concerned about what our site has said than how it's looked. Not that I'm discouraging any efforts to make what's readable more readable.

Pictures of me in Paris at: http://www.geocities.com/jtprinker/paris.html

I've been reading and re-reading your posts, my respones are slow and outdated by the time I've thought about them enouugh to write. The speed at which snow falls in these storms, that's how you write, with incredible accumulation.

I found out this past week that I'm an aspiring feminist, which makes me a traitor to both causes. If only finally knowing your struggle made it any easier.

My new little big pop swatch keeps telling me now that it's time to take a bath, bath, bath, bath and then it will say sleep, sleep, sleep 21,600 times, (but only if I'm lucky, and more if I've been blessed)

Listen to mid Lemon-heads (with Juliana Hatfield), Richard Buckner, Luigi Nono, Xenakis, a littel Bjork, Pierre Henry, the Swirlies and you will hear what I hear. Close your eyes and think the world is very cold and you are very warm, and you will see what I see, feel what I feel. I'm drawing my bath, I hope you are too.





Saturday, February 09, 2002

I've done no work on the bios at all, because I've been lazy. But, also because Kainui is the only one who has sent anything. I'll get to it though. I promise.

Friday, February 08, 2002

Have a good weekend everyone. Upma - good luck with the packing. I'm contributing to a yard sale tomorrow so I need to go clean out my closets tonight. Not fun. At least I have a birthday party to go to afterwards.
So I just transmitted a slide from NASA with the following caption: the dark lava plains of the Marginis and Smytthii Basins, taken by Galileo, left part of the Moon visible from Earth - aren't astronauts poetic?
Went down for the First Thursday on S. Congress last night - saw lots of art scene hipsters, oogled over too expensive fun purses and skirts, wondered why no one was at the kissing booth but at the face painting booth instead, listened to a band and ran into an old friend.

Thursday, February 07, 2002

John teaches high school art.

Went to see the Breeders last night. Time and drug addiction have not been kind to the Deal sisters. We joked that the tour should be named "the Breeders Help Kelly Make it Through Recovery" tour 2002. Kim looked bad, no question. But in comparsion to Kelly, she was the model of good health. Poor Kelly. Whew. She's gained about a hundred pounds. Weight gain is common for recovery, I guess. She chain smokes. She can't play. They had a third guitar player just so she wouldn't have to play the hard parts. She sweated like she was roasting in hell. We were a little afraid she would have a heartattack on stage.

Kim wasn't much better. She played consistantly, although I wouldn't say well. But, she shook and got drunker and drunker as the night went on. It was a little discouraging to watch as one sister, clearly an alcoholic, got plastered, while the other sister, recovering from heroin, watched on.

One sort of funny thing, is that with the extra weight and dyed black hair, Kelley looked a hell of a lot like John's mom. He goes, "Whoa, dude, what's my mom doing on stage?" John's mom, of course, is a not nearly the shabbles that Kelley Deal was. But, the do look a lot alike. Both have cute round faces with thin, squinty eyes.

I'm happy to say they weren't struggling. They were having a geniunely good time on stage. And, as a consequence, we did too. It was fun. The band was very under-rehearsed. They plowed through "Cannonball" like they hadn't heard it since 1995. But, it was actually quite endearing. They weren't afraid to admit it either.

There was some weird shit going on too. Like, for example, Kim told us that she had taken her "monthly shower" and had put mayonnaise in her hair as conditioner. Therefore, everytime she put her hair behind her ears, her hands got greasy. By the end of show, a helpful fan in the front was sweeping her hair back for her. It was a hoot.

And their entire road crew is latino. That, in and of itself, isn't strange, but the juxtoposition was noticable. There are these two late-thirties Ohio white trash drug abusers on stage with a latino drummer, guitarist, bassist, guitar tech and drum tech, all of whom were like ten years younger than the Deals. I guess is that their backing band was a band before the Breeders. Because, really, the only other thing to assume is that the Deals are really into young latino men and set about forming a band on those guidelines. And they're from Dayton, Ohio. How many WHITE rockers can there be in Dayton, much less a talent pool of alt-rock hispanic dudes. The Breeders and Guided By Voices are it for Dayton, right?

We stood right at the stage with some of John's students. They were really jazzed, because I think it was their first concert. After the show, Kelley handed the girls the setlists and then she and Kim signed them. It was very gracious and very cool and the girls loved it. They were on cloud nine. Hell, Kelley and Kim were on cloud nine too.

Wednesday, February 06, 2002

work. so much of it. be back later.

Monday, February 04, 2002

For those of you without your own computers, keep sending stuff to me and I'll upload it for you. But, I think you should learn the

Okay, posting pictures is really very easy. You need
three things.

1. An image saved as a jpeg or bmp or tif.

2. A FTP (file transfer protocol) program. PC users
can download a trial version of a
href="http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10064-108-15771.html?bt.15065.10013..dl-15771">CuteFTP.
CuteFTP is a rock-ass program. Even the trial
version. Its very simple to figure out and use. Mac
users should look into Fetch, which is also quite easy
to use, but I'm not sure if you can get it free. I
bet you can though.

3. Some webspace. I would be EXTREMELY surprised if
you don't all have a little webspace somewhere. If
you are paying for internet service, you've got some.
You're paying for it and you should use it. If you're
getting free service, at school, for example, you've
still probably got some webspace dedicated for your
use somewhere. Users of free email services, myself
included, have a little free space with the email
service. For example, by having a Yahoo.com account,
I have a geocities account just waiting for me to use.
I don't because geocities blows ass and because you
can't link images from there, but it exists
nonetheless. Also, most of the free email programs
have uploading (FTP) services included on the page
somewhere.

Once you have all of these things you can post a
picture to the web (using CuteFTP) in a few keystrokes.

Let's test it. First download and install your FTP
program. They aren't very big and should download and
install quickly. I'm assuming you chose CuteFTP. In
about 30 days its going to ask you if you want to buy
the program. If and when I use it more often, I
probably will, cause it does unlock some functions
that are worth having, but for now the trial version
is ok. If you get this "Buy now" window, simply click
on "close."

Our house has about 10MB of space that we've been using for our band websites. I'm going to donate some of this space
to Lake Effect, for now. There is a Lake Effect folder inside the Dirty version directory. I'm going to email you
the username and password you need to access the
space. Please, make sure you don't give the password
to anyone who isn't on this blog.

Go to CuteFTP. A page should pop up within the program. It is the "site manager" screen. If you don't see it, when you open the program, in the lefthand corner of the main screen there is a little book looking button. Click on it. Click "new" at the bottom of the site manager. In the space "label for site" type "lake effect" (or "booger alarm" or "jack mammy" or whatever you want to call it). In "ftp host address" type "maybelle.home.mindspring.com" (without the quotation marks, of course). Then it asks for user name and password. Then port number, which is 21. Then login type, which should be "normal."

Now, click on connect. If everything is cool, you'll get a login messages page after a few seconds. Click Ok. If your screen is set up like mine on the main page you'll see one long window that shows tranfer messages on top. Then two facing windows. In the left one, you see the contents of your computer. In the right one, you see the contents of the website. Take a second to find the right directory on the right screen. Click "www." Then Choose "dirtyversion." (btw, everything you see in the "dirtyversion" folder in on our band site, so please be careful not to delete anything.) Then "lakeeffect." To transfer files, simply find you files on the left screen and double click on them. They are now online.

To check go to your Internet browser and type in "http://maybelle.home.mindspring.com/dirtyversion/lakeeffect/XXXXX.jpg" with XXXXX.jpg being whatever you named your image. If you did it right, it should appear.

If it does, go to the Blogger site and type this HTML tag into you message anywhere you want it:

img src:"http://maybelle.home.mindspring.com/dirtyversion/lakeeffect/XXXXX.jpg"

Type it just like that including the interior quotation marks, but replacing XXXXX.jpg with the name of you image. But! so, I could show you how the tag looks without it drawing up a picture, I left off the beginning and end brackets. It should be written like this . Get it? remember to use the < and > brackets or it won't work.

Hey! Our demo is done. I'll try to post some songs soon. Yeah!

Also, I'm working on a step by step intro to posting images. I'll finish it tonight.

My parents came in town last Thursday and I spent through Sunday playing cruise director. We went to the LBJ library (they're having a special exhibit "Treasures of the Harry Ransom Center") So who was Harry Ransom? and damn did he have a lot of money! I saw Milton's Latin essay from age 16, first edition Shakespeare's, the Gutenberg bible (a gem of the collection), the first photograph, Frieda Kahlo painting, Diego Rivera painting, letter to Hemingway from his mom (best line: A mother's love is like a bank, and you son are overdrawn). We went to this great nature photography exhibit at a gallery near 5th and Lamar. Saw breathtakingly large color nature photos. We also walked up Mt. Bonnell (sore quads the next day), walked around Mayfield Park (one with peacocks - did you know that peacocks roost in trees? cause I sure didn't). We also walked down South Congress (or SoCo as it's more fun to call) and went in all the cool junk shops there. I took lots of pictures on that walk and made some Polaroid transfers last night. It was photodorkwonderful. We have this gallery section at work where I'll probably hang a few of my favorites. We also did many super yum meals - NXNW, Mezzaluna, Asti (my new favorite restaurant in Austin - I love their risotto - how did I go so long without consuming mass quantities of risotto - I just don't understand). Also my folks and brother and sister-in-law got to meet Ted. I was expecting much more interrogation, but it went really smoothly. Now Ted's parents come in two weeks and we do it all again.
So I had a dream last night that I was Sisyphus and some combination of Hercules cleaning out the Augean stables. I had to clean up this impossibly messy room and had to keep doing load after load of laundry while people kept putting more things in the room. I think it's from work stress - my math book has kicked into high gear.
Oh, so I had my first country western dance class with Ted yesterday afternoon (once again eternally grateful to date a boy who's willing to dance). I was all snob about taking a beginner's class but we ended up doing a different basic pattern than I'm used to so now I have to remember to the do the reverse (I know slow, slow, quick, quick and the class teaches, quick, quick, slow, slow). So my feet need to now pay attention to my brain.
Well - work calls and yells and screams and must be paid attention to.

Sunday, February 03, 2002

I would guess that one of my roommate turned my computer on while I am away (in Hickory), because my room is actually the common room of the damn house.

Saturday, February 02, 2002

Ten hut! Military green!