serviceable

My old best friend/sister is getting married this weekend.

Strangely enough...

So over the past few months i've been working on a wedding gift for her and her guy. I started by buying a large quantity of fimo, primo and sculpey clay, in many colors, and two sets of pigment (12 jars each set), and a cheapass wooden jewelry box. And two kinds of grout.

I've never done anything that needed grout, so I just bought two bags of dry stuff.

Then, I made a big ol' margarine bucket full of tiles that I made with the clay, all about 2 x 2 or smaller, and some in odd shapes. Into the clay I stamped little designs, some from stamps, some from jewelry, some from traveling around friends' houses and squishing it onto things with interesting textures. Then I cut them all into neat little shapes. Glued them onto the box (ok I know now that I should have actually used mastic), then grouted the whole bugger up. Fabulously messy. The grouting was the best part.

I don't know how durable this is going to be, but it's a custom deal with their names on it and stuff I made all myself, and it is signed, but they will have to find the signature. It's encoded on its own tile. I will try to remember to get some pics of it and add it to flickr. I still have to paint the inside though.

just thinkin

that I hate people who sign their posts, emails, comments, etc with "Just a thought".

More passive-aggressive "I know more than you do" bullshit, attempts at snide superiority and all that.

Finals are over, I have a week free before school begins this summer. Grade update: Took a W in math earlier in the term.
A in writing (from a teacher who "doesn't give anyone As", from what my fellow students say).
A in the Health class.
B in Excel class.
A in the GPS & Mapping class.

Also was recommended for the tutoring center to tutor the writing students in the class I just finished, as well as the three under it, and am wanted two days a week in class by the teacher who doesn't give anyone As but gave me one.

bwahahah.

Seriously, though, math has been the only class that's challenging. I got the low grade in Excel for a few reasons- total chaos during the class, a teacher that was like sandpaper on a sunburn and sheer frustration with a program that just makes little sense to me. I can see where it's useful, but don't give a crap about learning it.

And so ends year one at Klamath Community College.

good stuff, maynard

The more I listen to middle eastern dance music, the more i love it. It's so free sounding. I think that's the polyrhythms but man, if there's something that makes me want to dance, this stuff is it. A ended up with a promo from a few years ago put out by Putumayo Records called Turkish Dance Groove. It doesn't have any artist info, but it says "A musical mix of Balkan, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern flavors mixed with sophisticated global pop and dance music". Whatever. It's good shit. I'm especially enamored by Gulseren and Bendeniz. I think both of these are Turkish..

I dig the different scales and vocal styles (different compared to western music), how the instruments are used differently than we would, and how seamlessly it meshes with techno stylings.

nuthin no how

I don't live in a "community", if one defines "community" as a group of disparate people working to make life better. Every effort to make it a better place is stonewalled, plastered with blame- every step a battle with city and county government, neighbors and economic interests. This is a town full of bitter, angry people who hate each other. "Stupid" is a cloud that hangs over it. Bush 1's "thousand points of light" are so dim and weak and browbeaten they can barely be seen or heard anymore. Everything is someone else's fault, someone else's problem, someone else's mess, drug problem, poverty or hungry kid. This is the "me" generation as it begins its daily regimen of Geritol.

just gross

will somebody do something about all the tooth-whitening ads online? They're really gross and I'm really sick of looking at other people's gross teeth.

Limpin' ain't easy

Saturday night, while trying to do my part for the environment by hanging blankets out on the line (ok and also because i'm cheap and it cuts the power bill a lot) I fell down the back porch stairs and sprained an ankle. At least the blanket hit the ground before I did and the landing for most of me was pretty soft. But damp.

holy cow

there's a happy cow commercial with two cows that have my first and middle names. how weird.