i'm not dead.

I tried to update twice before now, really, i did. Here's proof:

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f p s p i c 2 0 0 9 - seriously. can we come up with a more ridiculous acronym? probably not. but it is kind of keeping in the tradition of fps - ridiculous acronyms. i had a team earlier that mocked it, they had an acronym that was just like 9 letter that didn't spell anything strung together, like CCDPREONF or something. it was worse.-----------------
I'm sorry I'm such a lame blogger. I will try to be better. Until then, i'll just give you lots of updates. 1) Heidi went to AK for the summer. In her stead, i had a roommate from craigslist for a while (a very nice vegan named Justin), and for the past 2 months the lovely Haley has graced me with her presence. She decided to move out of AK - a wise choice, i think - and having a place to stay in Seattle for the summer helped her decide where to go. Its been fun, although pretty stressful for her i think - what with moving and then trying to find a job, and now trying to find an apartment for October. 2)
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I saved both of those in drafts and never went back to finish them...........

SO LATELY ive been sick. I might even have had Swine Flu. But it was just like a cold, so i don't know. but i didn't go to work for two days, and instead sat around coughing and having sore eyelids and a strange stomach disposition.

- and i started kind of working for Angelo at his consulting tech company, but we're still just kind of testing it out.

- and i have not been watching hardly any movies. which is sad. Last night i watched Monsieur Ibraham, which was awesome and reinstilled my love of Omar Sharif because he's adorable at every age.

- i still have been dancing a lot, but not as much as before, which is sad.

- i'm writing fanfiction again, which is HARD but interesting and challenging and i kind of like it because of that, it feels like a good creative exercise for me or something.

- oh and GLEE. soooooo great.

- finished my first set of FPS packets for the year, which was fun. I'm also lead evaluator for the middle division this year, which is interesting. Mostly it means i just write an article for the newsletter after every topic on how students in my division seem to be doing. My first article went pretty well, but i think it was a bit loooooong (imagine that, me being verbose, gee)

- best thing of late: held the most kick-ass crazy pre-halloween dork party EVER. we read Macbeth entirely by candelight. the activities list:
::: dance party to No Kids / milling ::: MACBETH ::: dance party #1 - beat it ::: MACBETH ::: dance party #2 - "swing" dancing, the madison, spontanious improvisational dance line (a la grease) ::: predator cake ::: MACBETH (with: armor, gay siward, lady macbeth is gender confused, monica nelson voices, redneck & schwarzennegar murderers) ::: dance party ::: glow sticks ::: glow stick ring toss around beer bottle game ::: glow stick dance party in the dark ::: fitting into the bathroom ::: making glow stick shapes and animals and taking pictures ::: weird pictures on the couch ::: weird pictures with our heads ::: weird pictures of leg zippers ::: leg wrestling tournament ::: stick thing tournament ::: 17 again

- fell in love with an amazing gay makeup artist on youtube, spent too much money on makeup, did lots of fun crazy makeup stuff for real halloween.

- and then i got sick. thats been it. yay i updated! aren't you proud?

harry potter musical !!!!!

this is sooooo amazing. its hysterical. seriously. draco and voldemort and the funniest things i've ever seen. so many awesome awesome pop cultural references. and many are pleasingly zefron centric which is hysterical.

ELEVEN TIMES.
there is something wrong with me. but i don't care.

oh man, macaroni and cheese is like 80 times better if you just let the butter and milk coagulate for a few minutes before you eat it...... sooooooooooooooooo good.

Another Long Post? Wicked Rad!

There is something about sunshine... if i'm in a reasonably good mood, it affects me in one of two ways: either i want to go outside and bask in it like a normal person, or the subversive antisocial chunk of myself says "movies! go inside and watch movies! muahaha! no one will bother you because they'll all be outside!"

obviously the latter option won tonight. But that's okay, because tomorrow is the University District Street Fair - so i'm sure i'll spend plenty of time outside this weekend.

Some cooooooolio things coming up:




1) Reading Shakespeare! Heidi was reading Macbeth a while ago, and wanted to have a reading with friends - so Sunday people are coming over and we're either going to read Hamlet or The Taming of the Shrew. Should be fun. I spent a lot of tonight highlighting parts, which was peacefully monotonous.




2) SIFF Starts! Angelo is working for them a bit, and they're paying him in swag, and i'm his friend - so i totally get to reap the benefits (THANK YOU!) of lots of free SIFF films and gala premieres and press screenings and the like. The premiere is next thursday, and should be pretty awesome. I don't remember what it is called or what it is about, but Francis McDormand is in it, and i'm pretty sure that guarantee's it will be awesome.


3) dun dun, dun, dun dun. dun dun, dun, dun dun. TERMINATOR starts thursday night after SIFF. :) I'm so happy it looks good. For a while there there were only "teaser" trailers and they made it look like it would just be a shoot-em-up film, but the newer trailers look awesome and like there is actually a plot.

4) FPS International Conference! End of may! Free trip to Lansing, Michigan to see my mother and my best friend. How awesome is that. I heart FPS.

SO. Thats what's upcoming. But what's pastgoing, you ask? Well, i'll tell you (since i'm in such a jovial mood for 1.30am...).

-- went to a Casting Call for "confessions of a first-time opera-goer." Its some documentary-ish? film series the Seattle Opera/Rrrl Girls is making, sending someone to The Ring (Wagner) in August. They're going to have the person interview people in the opera, go back stage, talk to the music director, and talk about their experiences. It sounded cool, and like they were looking for someone kind of exactly like me - who is really getting into opera, but doesn't necessarily know much about it. They're going to put the top 4 contestants online so people can vote - so i'll be pleading for votes from people if i get picked.

-- on a related note: Last wednesday i went to see The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) at the opera. It had started raining like crazy, and then i missed my bus and had to catch a taxi in order to get there before it started, but the $15 cab ride was totally worth it. It was the first really comedic opera that i had seen, and it was so freaking FUN. It has a mezzo-soprano in a male part, which i've decided is my favorite thing ever - those parts have been SO good both times i've seen operas with them. But the whole thing was just amazing. It was nice to finally recognize music in an opera (that song that Lizzie sings in Pride and Prejudice while she's at Pemberley? Yeah, thats totally in there. it was really amazing to hear it sung so well).




-- have seen 17 Again more times than I am willing to admit to any general audience. But Zac Efron is still hot, and the movie is still funny. I know i will see it more times before it's stint in theaters is over.
STILL HOT --->








-- Oh! Made another awesome theme cake. This time it was TV themed, after Dexter! For Amber, who helped introduce me to the show (Peter gave me the DVDs, but Amber watched them with me). ALSO a huge first - this was a completely vegan cake. It kind of felt like i was killing my soul to make a cake (especially the frosting) without butter, but it turned out really well, actually, and tasted yummy. It was kind of a chocolate spice cake.


- wrote my 2nd response paper for my SciFi class today. It was not good. It had some good things in it, and i liked writing it, i just really wish i had had another hour or so - because the conclusion was complete crap, and i didn't have time to go back and re-read it. bummmmmmer.

-- OH and i'm going to start using the phrase "wicked rad" as much as i can remember to. because its wicked rad.

-- and ahem, STAR TREK. seriously, the most fun film i've seen (especially on the big screen) in a really long time. It was really fun to go opening night too, as everyone was cheering and laughing and was just generally excited and emotional and REALLY IN TO IT. As was I.

-- New Coat! After 6 years in seattle, i finally decided to actually buy a raincoat!


OK. Phew. That was long. Now you know everything. What a load off.

energy begets energy?

Long time no type!

Anyway, i'm pretty freakin' happy lately. For the past week or so i've just been peppy and dance-y and energetic all around. There are multiple causes, i think:

-- its finally warming up a bit in seattle which is nice. makes for an overall improved disposition in everybody.

-- I had a good movie weekend (6 movies last weekend) and that always boosts my spirits a bit.

-- my turning into a 13-year-old girl who is love with zac efron (seriously, how can you not be?) means i've been listening to musicals (of the high school variety - arguably bad, but still damn catchy!)

-- energy shots! like the 5-hr energy stuff? but not. other brands. its just a nice kick in the pants when i'm at work in the morning.

-- remember all those musical numbers i've been listening to? that means i've been dancing ALL THE TIME with my headphones on, often without self-conciousness (even at the office) as a result of the energy shots!

-- then i've also got my Improv Acting class on Mondays, which is super fun usually. I've decided i really do need to act or dance or something. because i'm insanely happy when i do.

OUTDOORS:
-- yesterday, heidi and i found an abandoned playground like 5 blocks from our house*. Its fabulously secluded (read: riley danced around with headphones on like an idiot in the middle of a field for an hour and a half) and it has a REALLY cool jungle gym thing with a slidey arm thing that i don't know how to describe.
*there was also a run-in with an amazing bulldog named Deuce during this outing. if i ever get a dog, i am so getting a bulldog. they are like running barrels of hilarity. seriously. so good.

-- today, we were going to go canoeing, but when we got there they weren't renting canoes as it was the first day of boat season and so it was too crowded. instead, we walked for a bit and found a tree to climb. we made it up. and then i tried to kick the tree's ass. but it kicked mine instead**:

THE KICKER:
The Egyptian Theater is showing Terminator (the first) tonight at midnight. Seriously. I've never seen it on the big screen. The universe loves me lately. And i love it back.

My life is really pleasantly full at the moment. My life is really pleasant at the moment. :) I feel like there are even more things i was going to talk about, but i've forgotten about them! Shame!
I hope everybody else out there is in a similarly good mood.


**Dude. i SO love having wounds. i like blood. i kind of bruised my hand under the cuts, so its like raised injuries... and yeah. they're just awesome. i feel like i've accomplished something when i have nature-fight injuries.

How Awesome is This? Seriously.

i've been extra consumed lately

with facebook and films.  facebook dominates much of my time at work when work isn't so buys (like now).  and i DO really like the 25 things thing.  i just like reading them, like seeing what random shit people choose to put out there.

but back to the films.  also as a sign of my lack of work at work, i started a spreadsheet almost a year ago where i tracked all the movies i watched (and where, if i go to a theater).  my average for 2008 was 21.4 movies per month, with an all time high in october with 32 films.  but something about january (maybe the weather?  maybe my lack of reading ridiculous fanfiction on-line?) inspired me to break that record.  

the 42 films i watched in january are as follows:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 
Misery
The Darjeeling Limited
Wristcutters: A Love Story
The Golden Compass
Monster-In-Law
All About My Mother
Lord of War
Across the Universe
Valkyrie
I.Q.
Hannibal Rising
Hitman
Don't Mess with the Zohan
Talladega Nights
Persuasion
History of Violence
Hancock
The Women
The Life & Death of Peter Sellers
Empire Records
Revolutionary Road 
Superbad
The Notebook
Little Big Man
Wanted
Nancy Drew
Juno
Gandhi
Sleeper
The Dirty Dozen
Picture This
The Age of Innocence
Ordinary People
Sophie's Choice
I Love Me, I Love Me Not
Synecdoche, NY
Lars and the Real Girl
21
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Scanners
Dogville

there was actualy one more in there, between IQ and Hannibal Rising but i cannot for the life of me remember what it was.  i do have qualifications for this list - i have to watch at least 90% of the film for it to count (coming in at the end of something on tv wont count, for instance), and i can't be doing anything too distracting while watching it (knitting, yes; cooking from the other room, no).  

i am both ridiculously proud and mildly ashamed of this list.  thats a LOT of time on a couch, i know.  luckily i restarted yoga after Nancy Drew, i think...  thats helping.  And i do get a lot of knitting done, which is nice.  and i'm finally putting my netflix subscription to good use.  yes.  many good things.

ka-bear

i'm bad at scrabble

Go to Pogo to play 100s of Fun Games!Go to Pogo to play 100s of Fun Games!

some cakes and other arts

The Barack Obama Cake. Made for election night, but pretty damn poignant for today.



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A christmas present for Jill, who loves green.
I've been knitting a lot, and have made quite a few hats and scarves and cowls,
but this is the only one i have pictures of, sorry.


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the beginning of my christmas card printing phase.
i should throw pictures of all of those up, as well.
(especially as the first batch was much tamer than later prints...)

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for those of you who didn't see it -
the TERMINATOR cake.
perhaps one of the greatest crowning achievements of my life thus far.
more pictures can be found on my flickr,
or my new kind-of website in the cake gallery.

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the HIGHLANDER cake.
for the "beautiful, sexy, and hilarious" jill,
who left me all alone at work. :(


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a very special birthday cake for Max,
whose vast imagination turns even the mundane magical.