I may get to go a folk festival in Lyons, and Ani DiFranco’s playing. I am so excited.

I’m angry.

This isn’t a bad thing. It just is. I haven’t felt angry in much of my life.

I feel motivated. Frustrated but not stuck. Willing to work hard because I’m angry.

I get angry at a TV show making a character do something I think is against their nature. I feel angry at a friend for leaving. I feel angry at an old friend for not being here.

Anger is just impetus to change.

baileyjordan asks “How does tickling work? Why are people ticklish?”

People are ticklish because when Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, God poked Adam in that spot where his rib used to be, and said “You. You are so gonna think of all the eternal bliss you could be having right now, but instead it’s gonna be slightly uncomfortable, and make you slightly crazy and squirm. Just think, it could be orgasmic, but you’re gonna spend most of your life seeking that feeling, and you just had it.”

mathwhiz78 asks “And TV? How do the sound and pictures get from some studio into a little box in my living room?”

Mike, TV was invented after scientists in the 1940s figured out how to shrink people. They stuff ‘em in the box and torture ‘em into performing. That’s why there’s a whole profession of shrinks. They’re really secret talent scouts. It’s the most exploitative industry in the world.

Mike quips “the news anchor just gave a “shout out” to her friend who was married today. yay professionalism!”

To that, I can only say “See what torture gets you?”

James gasped and asked “So when i go to my shrink he’s really trying to figure out if i belong in that box?”

Exactly.

mathwhiz78 asks “How do microwaves work?”

High power microdildos stimulate a tube of lube and stored electromagnetic radiation, which causes some of the radiation to spray all over the inside, bouncing around until it knocks up your food, making it all hot and steamy.

Yesterday at the thrift shop, I scored 11 issues of Kabuki, in pristine condition, and three CDs, the best of which is an on-air live-music CD of a bunch of artists I love: Tori Amos, the Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, the Cowboy Junkies, and a bunch of artists I think I’m gonna love, because they’re in the same somewhere-between-country-folk-and-bluegrass genre and really amazing singers and songwriters.

elliotpp just pointed me to a gorgeous slideshow of Thomas Hawk’s photography, which is generally amazing

I went swimming today with my sister, in the river again. With her around to drag me out if I hit my head or something, I was brave enough to try the big drop this time around. Our river just had a “restoration” project that added three drops to make the otherwise flat water interesting to kayakers, so we have three chutes of rock with roiling whitewater at the bottom, spaced a hundred or so feet apart, right near the bridge carrying the highway overhead and its accompanying pedestrian bridge.

It’s nearly as good as fluming in Ouray, minus the public spectacle part. The big drop is about eight feet long, four high. The water at the bottom is easily seven feet deep, enough that I couldn’t touch the bottom before the current pushed me half way to the next drop.

I’m bruised, sore, cut on my toe, and happy.

I’ve been thinking about future plans agan. My goal is, one year from now, to be able to live on the left coast and here, flitting back and forth as I please.

It might mean downsizing here, since my place is not the cheapest one I could get here, if I was willing to reconfigure my cooking a bit. I don’t know how I feel about that. I probably won’t, though, if I can get sporadic roommates to drop by here and there, on a short-term basis. That’s definitely possible here in the summer and sometimes in winter. I wish I owned my place, because then there could be all kinds of fun arrangements to make with it.

I need to grow my business just a bit, so I can afford an employee more like full time. I’m close. Just not there yet. Being able to let go of some tech support would be excellent, and I should really get around to automating a lot of the account maintenance tedium I do right now by hand thanks to my control-freak sysadmin tendencies.

I’d love to just have a room on the west coast, in a house with a decent kitchen. I realize now how much I want to have a place where I can live without most of my stuff, and I’m ready to live in a situation where sharing really makes sense, and actually works thanks to having enough space for everyone. That’s not really happened to me before, but I think I’ve finally grown the needed skills to make it work.

Before I do this, I suppose I’ve got to get a lot of little things worked out: Get on a schedule and actually stick with it for payroll taxes, instead of waiting until the last minute and panicking a bit; legally changing my name. Perhaps coming out (again!) here in town. It’s funny how those layers keep on coming. Maybe get a car or motorcycle. The hardest part of getting from here to the west coast is the 25 miles between my home and the bus station.

Unrelatedly, LJ finally let me nuke the silly subtitle on my journal. About time. Thanks, 6Apart! That only took months!

Aria: You get done with stuff just as I need to start.

Caleb: lol

Caleb: I live in the future!

Because wolftracks gave me such goodness, I must now do the same. Besides, she’s awesome.

1. I’ll respond with something random about you.
2. I’ll challenge you to try something.
3. I’ll pick a color that I associate with you.
4. I’ll tell you something I like about you.
5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I’ll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I’ll ask you something I’ve always wanted to ask you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours.

Drawn! Blog told me that some of my favorite animations by the Canadian National Film Board, like The Sweater, Mindscape and The Sand Castle are all available for free online viewing.

Yes, I really did wear a skirt to the bar last night. Yes, it really was okay. No, I didn’t get hassled. At all, really. Which was odd, considering Richie was there. Huh.

I am spending today quietly grieving while I work.

Goodbye, Julieclipse.

Random dumps can be fun.

[17:26:18] mike says “it’s always morning in arialand!”

[17:26:41] mike says “kinda like it’s always happy hour somewhere, but more orange juice and less alcohol”

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Bryan: I do have trouble comprehending how people might get put to sleep by ode to joy :-)

Aria smirks.

Aria: I do, by a bad rendition.

Aria: But the full thing? no way.

Bryan: it is relaxing to hear I suppose in some ways but also fairly invigorating.

Aria: Beethoven at top volume is a lot like an orange juice and coffee enema first thing in the morning.

Bryan: heheh

Bryan: :-)

Bryan: and there aren’t a lot of artists of any era that you can say that about

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

— Bertrand Russell

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International standard date and time notation

Transgender professor defends female scientists

Animating Fearsome Robots for everlasting splendor and prominence

I slept poorly to say the least. The light made it hard to get to sleep, then the cat woke me up to be fed, not by a miao near the food, but miaoing and curling up on me, then restlessly getting up a moment later, and repeating this a hundred times until I figured it out in my sleep-deprived state.

Then a fly landed on my face. Again and again and again.

Something about the full moon makes everything crazy.