it's the first word

It's "Calzado" on a ladder,

and the Russian alphabet,

which you found confusing

as you tried to learn to read.

As you lay down to sleep,

you saw the word, "crib"

which you remember now

as the first word that meant something.

Don't stick your lip out,

be nice to the neighbor girl.

Stop acting like a brat,

just because you find her quite inane.

Get out, I tell you.

Don't speak in the car,

I told you not to speak,

so why are you asking about conditions?

Puppets sing on Sesame Street

and a cheerful, assertive

little girl talks to them,

repeating words dancing on the screen.

it's 19

It's a blue turtle neck shirt, sweater, call it what you will.

It's a haircut that reminds me of Sliding Doors, or aimed to look as such.

It's a Duncan Sheik song, though I can't remember it now.

It's the last one on his self titled album.

And Nina and I drove to Ebor city one night

And we went to a small venue called the Sapphire something.

I was 19 and we were exploring.

And concerts in towns off our path led us to sad people and who would have guessed, the audience was made up of lots of cripples, sad with their prosthetic limps and various ailments.

Where had we wandered to?

Where had we come?

I felt deja vu,

like a reincarnation of my mother,

chasing a dream in a white linen suit

down the coast.

A musician who drew her,

and whom she unabashedly followed.

Ending in Miami,

she introduced herself,

"I've thrown away Ivy League to follow you and all my heart possesses?"

"But I'm already attached," he replies.

What a pity.

"Here is my brother, you should meet."

"Life advice I have to offer, but you're not my cup of tea."

"Goodbye," she said, and continued her adventure.

Now in a new place, with a new future on horizon.

I sat on the edge of a bed,

in my blue turtleneck sweater.

And the insane heat of the moment,

blurred all senses in my head.

The depth of sincerity, clarity and surety,

I found so overwhelming.

It's 19,

and we'll move on,

I know it.

But now, in this moment, I can't fathom how.

Though I'm myself enough to know better,

than to commit to this so.

Yellowstone Vacation

Were I to go to Yellowstone for a Montana cowboy adventure, this one with Flying Pig Adventure Company does sound quite fun.

Song from Citizen Dog

This music video captures the feel of Bangkok.

Citizen Dog - Thai Movie

We watched this movie last Sunday -- thank you Jack, good recommendation.

It was so bizarrely hilarious. Fantastic visuals.

InfoComm09 Article

Article I photographed for Bizbash went up.

Amy got engaged

Okay, despite myself, I enjoyed the cheesiness in this video. She's hilarious. Congrats!

InfoComm09 - Press Shoot

I went to InfoComm09 AV event as a photographer. It was pretty fun. It showcased incredible technology being released. Companies (and a wide array of attendees) from all over the world came to showcase (and gawk) at Star Trek like inventions. Photographing holograms is not an easy task, however.

This audio visual event at the Orange County Convention Center had amazing new technology. This guy pushes a piece of paper off his table, and onto another table in another country instantly.

RAW

I finally started shooting in RAW images. Yeah, what took me so stinking long. Amazing difference. Another example of my moving at turtle speed on some things.

krish, meagan, sarah

krish, meagan, sarah, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

sophie - deland art venue

sophie, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

mademoiselle nina schumann-whittlesey, next to herself

mademoiselle nina schumann-whittlesey, next to herself, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

Caleb Muller - Independent Canvas Art Show

caleb muller, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

Ben & Tom - Deland Art Show

Ben & Tom, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

my tomato plant

my tomato plant, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

it's great to keep something alive!

oh, Friday it is

Well, I'm delighted that my two week free subscription to the New York Times has lasted 6 months. Though it only comes on Fridays and Sundays now, which is fine by me. I can hardly keep up with reading that much newspaper. I constantly have to stash it around our tiny apartment so that Ben doesn't toss it out. Well, he doesn't really throw it out -- just asks with with raised eyebrow, "Are you done with this yet?" It's an unopened newspaper, from last Sunday. Of course not. I haven't started on that one yet. 

I love the NYT movie reviews page on that last page of the Friday Arts section. It's just one or two line scathing summaries or approvals. "This a mediocre film to take your children to if you're craving a nap. Moral messages stay on par." Or the review for The Proposal. "If you feel like seeing Sandra Bullock play a type a (rhymes with) witch, see this regurgitated formula of an obnoxiously sexist romantic comedy."

Women's voices help plants grow!

(Useless news from NPR today.)

The Royal Horticultural Society in Britain found that plants that were exposed to a woman's voice grew up to 1 inch more than plants that listened to a male voice. Some plants that were exposed to male voices actually grew inches less than plants that heard nothing at all.

Women's voice, oh yeah!

Song of Sparrows

This also looks like such a good movie.

Paper Heart...looks like one cute movie!

I love the kid from Arrested Development, and Paper Heart looks like such a fun movie.

Alice on the Horizon...

It reminds me of the time I started chiding myself for cheating at croquet,
even though I was playing with myself.
But what's going to happen when you start cheating yourself.
Really, where will that get you?

I'm listening to a radio show version of Alice in Wonderland. Man, hilarious. All the sound effects are almost overwhelming. I love children's books. Let's not kid ourselves to think this is a children's book though.

Speaking on Alice in Wonderland...it's gonna be a MOVIE!!! Yae!

I'd say I love you, but I hate this city

The new Sunset Rubdown album is deliciously good. It's available for a listen -- in entirety -- on NPR.

I discovered all their music lately, and it's been fun.

Something about Frog Eyes/Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown just has this energy and tension in it that builds, and builds, and just makes you want to jump up and dance -- or be very productive in some way, shape or form.

It was nice to expel the mounting ball of irritation I was carrying around yesterday at Belly Dance! Yay! Finally made it there. Inhibitions out the window as the petite and (appropriately exotic) Middle Eastern woman shouts "shake more!" in a room full of girls with skirts covered in coins dancing to fast Arabian music.

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me

Man, the show of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me this week CRACKED me up. I'm so glad I figured out I can stream it/download podcast.

Regina Spector on NPR

The new Regina Spector album is available to listen to (in its entirety) on NPR today.

Fun stuff.

(from Laughing With)

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God

When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor /

No one laughs at God when their airplane
Starts to uncontrollably shake

No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love hand in handwith someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken /

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke  /

When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

night time musings...

Man, it's sad. I work with web/marketing stuff, and my own husband struggles to get my time for his own projects. It seems like the bread & butter make-some-money-now projects always get priority.

I read a good article on time management and it said we really need to schedule fun/creative-projects-we-love/etc. Will do.

We had dinner Friday with a family from Guyana. They buy their chicken's alive near Silver Star road at this place, and they kill them on the spot. Nice to have fresh chicken I guess. I did read some crazy article the other day about how our meat in the store is killed in USA, then shipped to China to be packaged, then sent back to our stores. So our meat has gone thousands of miles. But they can still label it "grown in the USA" on the package. Hilarious.

Played some cards tonight. Nice round of Hand & Foot. I like.

you know you had a permanent piece of my median sized American heart...

So throw from your window your record collection.

I sat in Dan Roldan's garage for a good chunk of my day. Figured I should seize the chance to fix my sputtering car while I was there. The only two books I had to read were Soup - 101 Gourmet Recipes and Is There a Creator books.

I stared at the soups and realized the great pictures were making me even more hungry, as I sipped a diet pepsi (the contents of Dan's mini-frig.)

Reading about the electromagnetic forces that hold everything together from our cells to our house and our neighborhood and planet is so cool. Everything is so precisely tuned. If not, it would all just fall apart. The universe would implode, or we'd float away. 

sleepy friday

For instance I don't have to try
I'm falling over all the right lines
We only have to leave this last
Resist all falling at the wrong times

I've been listening to the Delgados - Pull the Wires from the Wall. It's kind of nice and melodic.

Everything seems so incredibly busy lately. Just keeping up, but a good busy. I went and got some free bricks yesterday. I passed a brick factory place and noticed them throwing them away. So, I drive back a few hours later, and as soon as I drive up a torrential downpour descends, and naturally continues for 15 minutes. Eventually, I gave up and loaded my car with bricks in the pouring rain. Since the workers couldn't "work" in the rain, everyone threw a couple in my backseat (which is now a total mess.)

Ben built a waterfall outside with rocks and a pond, so I'm trying to collect enough things to make some kind of patio around it. Those "free pavers" on craigslist are gone in about 3 hours, so it's a bit of a chase.

jazz improv of independent women

independent woman

Kittens playing it.

A Very Fun Soundtrack

Anyone want to trade an x-Box 360 for a Wii? We're going to put it on craigstlist for a trade. It's a good deal, since the Wii is actually less expensive. Since it's Ben's, of course the x-Box is in pristine condition--dusted daily.

I started listening to the soundtrack for 2 Days in Paris today. Julie Delpy sings a really fun dance song and there are some tango'esque horn songs that are quite good too.

oh, nettie moore

I put a couple of Bob Dylan songs on a play list to jog by last week and have listened to them since. Nice stuff. I find him quite uplifting.

The bright spark of the steady lights
Has dimmed my sights
When you're around me all my grief gives 'way
A life time with you is like some heavenly day

Oh, I miss you, Nettie Moore

Everything I've ever known to be right has been proven wrong
I'll be drifting along
The woman I'm loving she rules my heart
No knife could ever cut our love apart.

The sooner we realize we live in a Dickens novel, the sooner we laugh about everything and move on

Well, Ben finally did his talk. That was a relief. He put so much work into it, it came off almost uncommonly polished sounding, so Alice said. Good job. 

This weekend was rather intense with two funerals to attend. We were discussing who would do our eulogies by the end of Saturday. It's good to reflect on how we're counting our days.

While sad for the occasion, I savored my chance to chat up some missionaries about their recent assignments. It's so interesting to learn about what's going on in the day-to-day of foreign countries.

I saw Paris 36 last night with a bunch of girls. I loved the vaudeville French singing. I wish I could sing like that, in French. I have challenged Ben to find the key I'm best in and write a song that makes me sound good. Hah! He says I've gotten better with Rock Band. I admit, I wasn't a Rock Band fanatic to begin with, but there is a "certain pull" as Sarah puts about it. Once you get drummin' it might be a while before we quit -- okay, it's until we're kicked out by people sick of our cacophony of ruckus.

work, or no work

It's always feast or famine. I have nothing to do, and I'm madly hunting for work and selling anything worth anything on ebay. Or I have too many things to do and I am up all night trying to finish them all. 

Such is life, I suppose.

I have been "making time" for StarTrek, as Ben is determined to catch me up before the new one comes out. Dear goodness. I begged to switch gears and watch some Reality Bites last night. Nope. We did the one about time travel and bringing extinct whales to the future so that the orb which was causing bad weather in 2300 would go back to space.

The Wrath of Kahn had some action, which made it a little more endurable. The one about the whales last night just had a terrible whinny actress who was so overly dramatic you willed her to die. Austin and Ryan seemed quite into it, however. ;-)

Saw Nina's graduation from Physical Therapy school  last night. Go Nina! 

She was so cute in her little outfit, chatting with her medical buddies. That was a long haul of school for her. We love you Nina! 

ethnic veggie markets

Man, I thought the Asian fruits and veggie market was cheap down the street; then I went to the Spanish one. 

Banana are .20 cents a pound! (okay, they are slightly ripe) Do I live in South America? 

This is great stuff. Makes grocery store prices kind of nauseating.

I got two huge bags of vegetables for $6 the other day. I felt like a bandit. It rocks having one within walking distance of my house.

book review today

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book. I am listening to the audio version in my car. The guy is a cynic, and he basically mocks the history of nutrition in American -- as the sham it is.

I've learned more from this book than I have from so, so many other random pieces of health advice I've picked up over the years.

The end of story, is: EAT REAL FOOD.

Don't eat things that are processed. Stop trying to get your vitamins in pills. Eat fish, eat some meat, and eat whole foods and plants.

He talks about all these cultures around the globe -- cultures that eat Greek food, Chinese food, Indian food, horse blood and greens, in any nation people did great eating their cultural diet. They were healthy and great. The Western diet of processed foods -- lots of empty carbohydrates etc -- is the only diet in history that people have gotten so sick on in all of history. We need real food to be healthy. That's the summary, but the break down of why is amazingly interesting.

There was this one experiment with Australian aborigines in 1982 - a nutritionist took them all out in the bush to try hunting. These diabetic overweight guys all made amazing improvements in 7 weeks, just be eating their native wild kangaroo and fish and field greens. Their diabetes was virtually off the tests.

I have no time to read, so I get audio books from the library and listen to them on my commutes. Request this one from your library, it's great!

View all my reviews.

Newman's Coffee - Nell's Organic Breakfast Blend

It's really good coffee. I recommend it. ;)

photo gig

Hmm, I got offered an event photo gig. 

Interesting. Hadn't expected anything back from that random email I sent out. That's rather exciting. 

Let's see how it goes!

Oh, and I started watching The IT Crowd. It's like a raw British sitcom from the 80's. Unforgivably unappealing characters. That basement is really trashy. I like the non-glamorized feel of it though. I dare say I'll waste a few more hours of my life on it this weekend.

Suri & Coltrane

Our Tuesday study night is going really well. The time flies by and we glance at the clock surprised. It's nice to have time set aside to get lost in research--quite refreshing.

I had Coltrane on today, and Suri Cat just went nuts. I mean, she had her fat self off the couch and was chasing lizards and zipping to the beat of very chaotic jazz. 

I will certainly play it for her more often again in future. We've really bonded since the work-at-home thing started. She is such a bizarre little talker. She'll come sit next to me on the rug and just start to meow at length -- almost as if she's telling me a story. She wants me to look at her, so I do, and she just talks, for lack of a better word. She doesn't need food, she doesn't want to go out -- she just wants to be looked at.

She was never so interesting when Picasso lived here too. After I got over my initial objection to having him relocate, I saw Ben was right, and Suri was a totally different animal without him. It's hard to live in the shadow of the more outgoing, more affectionate, more demonstrative sibling. She's thrived with the sickening amount of attention she's gotten lately.

Library Delights!

I got a new name recently, and LIBRARY PRIVILEGES came with it. Oh, yeah baby. Out from under the weight of the fines of my past life! 

(Let's face it, I was just never going to have an extra $87.50.)

I've got Shakespeare and Composing Music for Dummies...and I've got to get back to work.

Gosh, I hate optimizing websites for SEO at 11:26. I mean, it's not bad. The hours just start to drag.

I want to go work on a farm, or a camel tour, or serve tea, or do something that doesn't involve the stinking internet.

It's not that bad. It's good to have (any) job.  Be grateful.

Eat Like the French, the Greek, the Chinese...anyone but us

I've been listening to the hilarious audiobook In Defense of Food - An Eater's Manifesto.

Okay, it's not just a health food book (I know what you're thinking -- anyone who might actually end up reading this.) 

Pollan's dry humor is dead on. And the reader does a great job with it -- conveying the subtle wit. Riding in the car, Ben hits pause to predict what the author will say next, and he's usually right. It's amusing to watch him listen attentively, despite himself.

Americans (of course) have the worst diet in the world -- every culture gets sick as soon as they adopt it -- and they spend the most on "nutritional" science.

It delves into diabetes, auto-immune diseases and more. Interestingly enough, the food industry can't say "eat more spinach" but they will only say "eat more vitamin A" so they can PUT vitamin A in all kinds of junk food and sell it as  healthy. When a study shows that people who eat broccoli have less breast cancer, they just call it the "vitamin" or the "antioxidant" in green tea. They don't say --what some people who study food would like to say -- that it might be the food itself, not its chemical components. And you can't replicate food and its health benefits in labs and pills. The evolution of our current food verbiage, I found quite fascinating.

French people are not fat, and they eat shameless amounts of delights. 

All diets, from all countries, have always been fine. The stupid American beef, pork and sugar companies were dead set on defining these things called "vitamins" separate from actual food, and that led to "health benefits" of processed (and expensive) foods being marketed. The history of Mr. Kellogg was pretty amusing. 

On that note, I'm going to make myself some more melted cheese on toast and have some wine!

rather motivational

I like this one by Kav too.

Bring the Lions Out

What a sweet little song I heard today.

And you can't even know, how many times I told myself "I told you so"

I found this picture the other day of Nina, Sophie and Sarah walking though a park in Sydney, Australia. The intense expressions crack me up.

elusive tornados and playing catch up

Awaiting the tornado, I dragged all the plants in the house. It got dark, but not much wind arrived.

Since the travel and web business industries have been slow, I found work doing bookkeeping from my house a few hours a week to supplement our lack of projects coming in. There is a certain satisfaction, I must say, in making all the numbers in the checkbook equal $0--even if it takes hours of researching back invoices and crapola to figure out why things are off.

Not to mention, who are these people who think they can just get manicures weekly and not pay their bill for 5 months? It's not like it's a staple people--it's a luxury item. I don't feel sorry for you all, as I can't afford manicures myself. Don't even dream of complaining to me about how "expensive" your bill is. People are too funny.

Well, hey, this is kind of fun. A site Easily Amused did got a webby nomination for the Made for Denim blog. I think we took the entry money out of our personal paychecks that week--two weeks before we shut down the office. It's still a functional company, though run remotely now.

I did some copy writing for a sign business a few weeks ago. Quite fun actually. I didn't know sign companies offered different kind of colors and textures on braille signage. I learned a lot about materials, durability and design elements that go into signage. After reading and writing about it for hours, I do tend to compulsively mediate on it.

Alas, must go drop off some mail.
Good excuse to put the rainboots back on.

Suri Cat

The Suri Cat

i've got a suitcase of sparkling wine...

The haunting piano music in a track I heard in Not As We off Flavors of Entanglement is so pretty. It's a beautiful break up song. I can still appreciate them, even if they're not so much my take right now. I love all the music someone dumped on my computer recently, though I could live without the irritating Word virus that came with it. Lately I've liked the free downloads from Indie Rock Cafe. The Boy Least Likely stuff is cute.

So much to do tonight. Work is challenging when it's in so many directions, so many projects. Keep lists, but I still jump list to list.

Heard back today about Mexico. Didn't expect that. It was...my fifth choice? Would be fun though. They have lots of temples and jungles. Ben wants to go somewhere we can zipline.

I took a bookkeeping job part-time for extra money. I am HORRID with all banking management. Which is good, this will improve my ineptness hopefully. I'll get better at finance and learn to manage my own money (what's that?) too. Sarah made the relevant point today, that even though we both have three jobs, we can choose when to not go in to any of them.

If only I could get paid for writing film noir. It's good to have goals.

I was given the most disgusting 80's dress yesterday. Peach atrociousness. I love it. It's hilarious. It's motivating me to do a photo shoot.

Adam & Ingrid's White Leather Sofas

I'm trying to sell these for Adam & Ingrid. They're leaving for Ecuador in two weeks. 

Anyone need a white leather sofa set for $675 OBO?

green lights

I love the green light of the cross processed photo. It's got an element of mystery in it.

Today I watched the comings and goings of Austin's, all day. I got a lot done (in my mind), but as Ben says, "You always seem to be on the verge of so many things." Yes, but it's my optimism that keeps such things alive, I try to explain. He laughs. Hmm.

My week has been divided lately in the droll mind-numbing numbers job and the totally abstract, communicative job of collaborating on a Bosnian branding project. Monday it's one thing, Tuesday it's another. Wednesday is another day all together, outside all day, then around again. I'm sure it keeps my mind alive.

I've been meaning to get to the library to look up books on making hand-made books. I'm seized by the desire to make a book with materials that I've been collecting and stashing. I need to give someone a very particular gift.

I have the laziest, fattest animal in the world. She is always lying there, staring at me--utterly oblivious to anything I may say or do...until she wants attention. Then she parades over and FLOPS dramatically on her back, tummy up for a pet. I love her, especially after hearing Tilly's "in heat" complaints.

I saw Duplicity late Saturday. One of the most entertaining parts was the crack on Clive Owen's role in Beyond Borders by the Southern woman, "it was the way he talked about the children, I did it for the children." It's fun to see people make fun of themselves.

Who knew guess-that-hum was such a fun game. Especially with incompetent hummers such as ourselves.

Julia gave me some dandelion seeds she claims will grow to be enormous. I suppose 10:11 is as good a time as any to go plant them.

if you can't say what you mean, keep your lips shut

Reading articles on Benin and Sudan is so distracting. I heard something about Obama's appointing a Darfur representative and got curious. I get started, and there went two hours...back to my to-do list.

Had a great afternoon today with Jemma. Had some terrific conversations. It's great to feel like we're in the right place at the right time.

My dear Ben's pretty sad with mono. It's a life sucking thing.

Last night I went and loaded my car with bamboo for free. Found it on craigstlist. Ironically, I filled my Jetta with it right after I did the annual detail, super deep clean. Now must work on the saw dust. It was great fun driving home with all the bamboo fluttering in the wind with the windows open. The sunset twilight, the smell and the fluttering leaves made me feel like I was in Thailand.

I'm really excited about my bamboo. I have tons of it. I'm thinking of all the things I can build with it. Fences, trellises, pathways. I also found a couple of antique lawn chairs in the trash I plan to refinish. Many projects, little time.

I was reading articles on Benin and Morocco since Ben was too tired to study. I'd still love to go to Morocco. French and Spanish are the main languages. The climate is like California. And lots of mint tea.

Well, I have two little broccoli plants outside...and they're getting bigger. It's quite exciting. Who would have thought.

Apparently, there's also going to be a white house garden too. Kitchen Gardeners International will be planting (most likely not organic) herbs outside the presidential layout.

I've really been enjoying Samoa lately. Reading about Micronesia and Samoa makes me want to pack our suitcases and take off.