In an LJ void... So, the IT guy at work has informed me that "livejournal.com" is registered as a porn site with our company's filtration software and that while *he* realizes this not to be the case and has explained as much to my boss's boss, said boss's boss will still get an e-mail every time I go onto LJ (that's one e-mail for every time I navigate from the main page to my friends' list, to read some comments, etc).
Needless to say, that is a bad thing. So, that is why I haven't been posting much lately and will be incredibly far behind in any sort of shenanigans that people decide to only post about here.
New Job Accepted So I received a call from one of the companies I interviewed with and they offered me the payroll position. I felt good about this place when I went in to interview. Now my commute will go from 100 miles per day to maybe 30 miles per day. Unfortunately, I am taking a small pay cut, but it should not negatively affect my family. The difference in pay should cover most of the difference in gas expenses from my long ass commute. My last day at this current job is August 29. I will start my new job on September 15. Happy happy joy joy! I haven't been able to focus at all today. I want to go home and just celebrate.
Thankfully I put the car in park... So my naseau has been insane. I get 'sick' all the time.
Yesterday, wilst driving home from class, I got 'sick' at a stop light. I couldn't pull over. (Thankfully) I threw the car in park, opened the door to the car and vomited- simultaneously my body convulted and my foot slammed down on the gas. The engine reved and scared the piss out of me. What if I hadn't thrown the car in park? Oi. I can't take being sick like this.
God bless you, Nikola Tesla There are a handful of significant advantages to working with the White Elephant Burlesque Society. There's the satisfaction of entertaining adults with a wide variety of sophisticated sexual tastes*. There's the refreshing fact that everybody involved understands the importance of professionalism and high-quality performances. There's rarely a significant backstage space, so I usually get to watch the shows I'm teching. The material rotates and refreshes constantly. The members are mostly nerds and kinksters, so the material often caters to my tastes. It gets me out and involved with people I like, when my hermitish nature ordinarily makes it hard to sustain relationships.
[* - I expect this from sexual subcultures, but you'd be surprised how many people in mainstream "subcultures" are happy and relieved to get the option of an all-body-types burlesque group. We've even gotten praise and good-natured envy from other burlesque performers who're fed up with the usual narrow, childish beauty standards that they feel like they need to cater to.]
But it _also_ means I get to go to a wide variety of awesome conventions that I couldn't otherwise afford to attend. This past weekend it was The Floating World, a well-run up and coming East coast BDSM convention. This coming weekend it's Pi-Con, a Springfield, Mass. gaming/comic/SF/folklore/lit/webcomic/art/technogeek con (which includes panels on polyamorous living and poly marriage!). We're doing this year's neovictorian Salon Con. Early next year, we're performing at the Rochester Kink Society's Erotic Art Festival. We do most Wicked Events. We've been with Salon Con, Floating world, and the Libertine Ball[ETA: I lie! See comments] since they started. And there're smaller events that keep us busy peppered between the big ones.
The admission fees alone for all these conventions and events would stretch our budget past the point where it should probably be stretched, and we'd never get to see them all. But when the event organizers give us free admission _and_ pay for our gas and hotel rooms... Well, we're getting all these opportunities for next to nothing even when we don't pass a hat or sell merch. It's great geekery-on-a-budget. No-cost participation in most of the subcultures we love.
...
At least, it was, until a Floating World class convinced us that our household is incomplete without a violet wand. I know what the three of us are getting the three of us for Christmas...
So, yeah....Ummmmmm...... I guess I'm turning 30 next month. I'm currently sending out evites for my epic birthday weekend, and if you haven't got an invite yet, it's not because I don't want you there, it's because I don't have your email address. Leave your address as a comment (screened privately) and I'll add you to the evite. Special thanks to Liz, because she is much better at organizing things than I am.
Even my brother is coming out from Indiana, so if you live far away, you should still send your email, if only to see what awesomeness is planned.
- Floating World went over great. People were there to answer our questions when needed, everyone was very nice, we made $45 in tips; and in the absence of chairs, people sat on cold concrete to watch us for 35 minutes. I felt loved.
- A random, impromptu performance occurred on Sunday. A connection through Regina mentioned an open-mic/cabaret-type evening and we were invited to do a few numbers. Very much an unofficial gathering (the attendees were all regular to the club, Pianos in Bloomfield), it was great to get word out to people who didn't know, and the adulation received from the emcees and the venue(!) with a possibility of going back... And I got to sing.
- Pi-Con rehearsals full crash this week starting with tonight. Honestly, it's getting less and less daunting every show. Within 8 days, I'll have been Viktor 3 times. I love it.
- Still not sleeping very well. Living off of general adrenalin this weekend, I find myself not falling asleep until after 2. Taking my meds at 9 or taking them at 12 don't seem to be making much of a difference. I was warned about insomnia; they are correct.
Current Mood: tired Current Music: Annie Lennox -- "Why" Tags:burlesque, sleeping
City of Ember Yesterday I started listening to the audiobook of City of Ember which is going to be a movie. http://www.cityofember.com/
So far its an AMAZING kids book. I think its definitely better then the first Harry Potter book mostly because of how dark and bleak it really is. Its actually a damn scary book about a underground city. For anyone that is looking for something to read I think you should check it out. There is also a sequel and a prequel. I hope the movie keeps its dark feeling. We'll c.
Emma Frost is a former enemy of the X-Men but has joined them. She finds certain rules about not reading minds without permission to confining, and she still retains a bit of a bad-girl side. Some x-men are not certain of her alligence, and for good reason. Powers: Telepathy, Can turn her skin into Diamond, Psychic persuasion
We all float on. Yesterday was pretty eventful. Jon came over, we spent the afternoon lounging about until he got some annoyed texts from his dad. Apparently his computer was sparking...
I got ready for Floating World, and he made me macaroni and cheese. We watched the Simpsons and he was like "Shit, you really have to get going..."
So I hopped on the road to Edison, and when I got on 287 this huge thunder/lightning/the world was ending storm hit. It was an amazing sight, I'll honestly say... I saw this one bolt that went completely horizontal and just split the black and cloudy sky completely in two... it was amazing and ridiculous.
I arrived at FW right when Angie got there, and we held hands and went and changed. We had a bathroom changing room this year, complete with urinals. Yum!
The show went really well. Every time I perform Down with the Sickness I love it more and more. Seriously, it always gets good attention and stuff... I just love it. Can't say anything else about it. Even though I think I performed it best in Dingbatz, I think. The only thing holding me back from spinning on my bottom and stuff was that it was a rough wood floor. Didn't want splinters!
OH AND BEST PART OF THE NIGHT.
Angie and I were coming out of the DressingBathRoom and we hear screaming (not unusual for FW). I turn around and all the curtain dividers between the "corral" and this "corridor" were fucking falling down like dominoes. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen.
After the show Angie and I went to Taco Bell (we have decided it's our new tradition that after we take off our clothes for a crowd of people we will now consume mass amounts of Taco Bell) then came back to my house.
Cesar was having his 40th birthday party last night, and it was still in waaaaay full swing when we got back around quarter to 12. My mom warned me that people were smoking pot in the house... I thought "okay, how bad can it be?"
HOLY SHIT.
Thank god my bedroom door was closes. Holy shit. Cuz the house smelled DISGUSTING. But anywho, Angie and I pretty much drank ourselves stupid and had ridiculous epic drunk talks and drunk dialed Mike.
It was a good night.
This is my week's schedule!
Monday: Working, then Pi Con rehearsal, then sleeping over at Jon's. Tuesday: Going to a flea market, then Newhope with Jon, then hanging out with Henrique for the first time since fucking March. Wednesday: 6 Flags! Thursday: Beach Trip! Friday: Pi Con!
"There's no time for us." Tough day. A lot going on. I'm on medication that makes me feel a heightened sense of everything. I thought I was easily bruised or excitable before... Shit, that was nothing. I feel like I'm a few inches off my skin, about the pounce.
Floating World is tonight. We may or may not be down a performer (a once sick Regina is well, but without ID and the venue may not let her in), so I may be performing in her stead for her number with Dante. I'm nervous about the sound system, as last year was a debacle when we arrived and they had no CD hook-up and we had to use a boombox. This time we've been assured it will hook up to an mp3 player, but it's the unknown that will get me until they hit pause the second time and the tracks start again after a monologue.
Don't be nervous. Heightened nervous would be bad.
Current Mood: stressed Current Music: Sarah Brightman -- "Who Wants To Live Forever" Tags:burlesque
"It is a delicate position..." Currently, I'm reading Stephen King's "On Writing". It's quite good. Now, I've never read anything else by Stephen King and truth be told, I'm not terribly inclined to start, simply because I don't really like reading horror. Yes, I know there's more to his bibliography than horror and if anyone has something to suggest that you particularly liked that I might, feel free to mention. I'm always up to expanding my reading list.
All that being said, I like it. I'm fond of how it starts with a mini autobiography, focused on how he developed as a writer, starting from boyhood. It showcases the things that shaped him into an author and how he handled hardship, a family life, and addiction while still struggling to be a writer. The common, every man kind of voice makes me cheer. I've picked up a couple of writing reference books and very quickly got lost in all the technical jargon and went screaming for the hills, to hide in further intimidation, even more convinced that I could never write a paragraph people would want to pay to read, let alone whole books. "On Writing" is a refreshing change from that.
Yes, he (frequently) quotes and references Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" and yes, once the wee King history is over, it's pretty much right into technical aspects of the craft. But it's friendly, without being patronizing.
This is paired in my brain with trying to figure out what to write next. I'm already working to improve my erotic writing. I know my book needs massive edits. Probably a complete overhaul. Some of the characters are good, but a core premise of the book has to be revamped. And then, I also want to write about other things. I have a character for The White Elephant Burlesque Society and while I'm happy with how she's doing, I don't feel I know her too well. Since writing helps get me in touch with myself and other people, I want to try to get in better touch with her, especially. Right now, though, I'm just glad I'm writing.
Current Mood: artistic Current Music: "Have to Drive" - Amanda Palmer Tags:reading, writing
The Pontani Sisters kicked my ass. A few weeks ago mostlybent and I were emailing about the sudden proliferation of burlesque work out videos and after some related web surfing, she introduced me to the Go-Go Burlesque* stylings of The World Famous Pontani Sisters. I've been enamored ever since, and recently purchased Go-Go Robics II (the first dvd being apparently out of print).
I've gotten in the habit of doing a work out dvd on my days off so that I'm not just sitting on my butt on days that I'm not biking. Today I popped in my brand new Go-Go Robics dvd, and I loved it. I heartily recommend it to my friends in WEBS and HoH. The stuff they teach you could fit into RHPS as a really neat sound drop or preshow on beach night, if nothing else, and I just generally think it's a good idea for people in a troupe like White Elephant to be constantly exposing themselves (no pun intended) to new types of movements.
All that being said, if you're thinking of picking this up, be warned of a few things. First, the production quality is very low. Second, they don't do an especially good job of explaining the moves they're teaching you. They're all simple moves--the work out comes as they build onto each other and eventually form a full length routine--so I expect the kinds of people I'm recommending this to will have no problem picking them up.
Even if you're not doing the moves perfectly (as I'm sure I wasn't all the time) it's excellent cardio.
*Much more Go-Go than Burlesque, but burlesque and related nostalgia is much more on the rise than go-go and related nostalgia, so three beautiful women dancing in their skivvies naturally get lumped in with the whole new burlesque movement.
"He asked if I was all messed up again." Writer's Block: Six-Word Story
Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” He is believed to have called it his greatest literary work ever. Can you write a story in six words?
Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” He is believed to have called it his greatest literary work ever. Can you write a story in six words?
So the other day at school the Argentinian student offered to divulge the sex of my baby. She said, "All I need is scissors, a knife..." Insert my look of horror. "... and two cushions" The sit on a sharp implement said I was having another boy. Then she did some ring on a string thing which also said I was having a boy. So we'll see... If it's a boy, I'm thinking Aaron Judson. What do you all think?
(Judson is pretty much a definite for the middle name as that was Matt's dad's name.)
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