Thursday 23 March 2006
Wednesday 22 March 2006
Anti-Quotidian Quotes
A Table of Quotes that inspire me, make me smile, send shivers down my spine, or otherwise move me.
------------------------------------------------------
Classic
"Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze;
I will not budge for no man's pleasure, I." ~ Mercutio, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene I. By William Shakespeare.
"If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down." ~ Mercutio, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene IV. By William Shakespeare.
-------------------------------------------------------
Gems of Friends
"Manna, how do you manage to cram 100 pounds of fun into that 20-pound body?" - Sarsie.
"It tastes like a fucking macaroon." - Jason
"Ok, wow, he looks a LOT cuter from far away." - L.B.
"Nuh-uh. I have ketchup anonymity. ...Wait...No..." - L.B.
"You are, like, SUCH a major road hazard." - Me and L.B.
"Actually, my hips are always covered in whipped cream." - Me
"With you, I wouldn't be surprised." - L.B.
"Cuz I have freeeeeeeeeeennz!" Said cheerfully by L.B.
"You'd cry at the drop of a veto." - Me, on L.B.'s West Wing obsession.
"Piscataway is that-a-way" *with the hand gestures* - L.B.
"Swedesboro... I like Swedesboro. That's where the Swedes live." - Me.
Me: "Big Gunpowder Falls? What happened to Little Gunpowder Falls?"
L.B.: "We already passed it."
Me: "DAMN it!"
"You, know, when Ian gets this, he'll say 'Arrrrrrooooooooo! Noooooooooo!" - Mr. 3am
Ian, two days later: "Arrrrrrooooooooo! Noooooooooo!"
"To the best of my knowledge, he's a big red dog." - LizArd
Me: "Say you're a pale, snake-like demon who's just been born covered in tomato sauce. What do you do?"
LizArd: "Kill?" *demon twitches in tomato sau-'blood'*
"...Uhp, nope. Twitch."
"Yes, yes, I am the greatest. Ha ha!" - Raj
"His name is either Matt or Steve." - Raj
"Matt or STEVE? Why not Matt or Mark?" - Me
Raj: *Panicked* "You think his name is Mark?"
"NO! No. It's just, that's a big difference. Why Matt or Steve?" - Me
"Well, I thought his name was Matt, he was in one of my classes, and I talked to him and called him Matt. You know, Matt, wait up, what was the assignment for Thursday? But then, his friends all called him Steve." - Raj
"That's...*laughs hysterically*...You're the best, Raj." - Me
Idiot at party: "Mandala told me to poke you."
Me, looking down at him: "I AM Mandala."
Idiot: "Oh, well, then...*gestures with cup* that girl told me to poke you."
Me: "Smoooooth."
"The miso's where the magic is...Bcanck!" - Salvo
"K...mmmm." - Emblem
Emblem: "Pointing to my pants pockets* "Why does one of your umbrellas have a string and not the other?"
*Long pause, me thinking*
Me: "You mean, my zippers?"
Emblem: "You guys read these and tell me what you think. I look at them when I'm alone, late at night, and it's fun." *Awkward pause*
"Aaaaaaaaaahhh-I don't know" *hand-raised-shrug* - Me.
More later.
Momentary Soundtrack: Let's play name that song.
Quote Trapped in My Head: Hello, see above.
What I Learned Today: Nothing useful.
------------------------------------------------------
Classic
"Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze;
I will not budge for no man's pleasure, I." ~ Mercutio, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene I. By William Shakespeare.
"If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down." ~ Mercutio, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene IV. By William Shakespeare.
-------------------------------------------------------
Gems of Friends
"Manna, how do you manage to cram 100 pounds of fun into that 20-pound body?" - Sarsie.
"It tastes like a fucking macaroon." - Jason
"Ok, wow, he looks a LOT cuter from far away." - L.B.
"Nuh-uh. I have ketchup anonymity. ...Wait...No..." - L.B.
"You are, like, SUCH a major road hazard." - Me and L.B.
"Actually, my hips are always covered in whipped cream." - Me
"With you, I wouldn't be surprised." - L.B.
"Cuz I have freeeeeeeeeeennz!" Said cheerfully by L.B.
"You'd cry at the drop of a veto." - Me, on L.B.'s West Wing obsession.
"Piscataway is that-a-way" *with the hand gestures* - L.B.
"Swedesboro... I like Swedesboro. That's where the Swedes live." - Me.
Me: "Big Gunpowder Falls? What happened to Little Gunpowder Falls?"
L.B.: "We already passed it."
Me: "DAMN it!"
"You, know, when Ian gets this, he'll say 'Arrrrrrooooooooo! Noooooooooo!" - Mr. 3am
Ian, two days later: "Arrrrrrooooooooo! Noooooooooo!"
"To the best of my knowledge, he's a big red dog." - LizArd
Me: "Say you're a pale, snake-like demon who's just been born covered in tomato sauce. What do you do?"
LizArd: "Kill?" *demon twitches in tomato sau-'blood'*
"...Uhp, nope. Twitch."
"Yes, yes, I am the greatest. Ha ha!" - Raj
"His name is either Matt or Steve." - Raj
"Matt or STEVE? Why not Matt or Mark?" - Me
Raj: *Panicked* "You think his name is Mark?"
"NO! No. It's just, that's a big difference. Why Matt or Steve?" - Me
"Well, I thought his name was Matt, he was in one of my classes, and I talked to him and called him Matt. You know, Matt, wait up, what was the assignment for Thursday? But then, his friends all called him Steve." - Raj
"That's...*laughs hysterically*...You're the best, Raj." - Me
Idiot at party: "Mandala told me to poke you."
Me, looking down at him: "I AM Mandala."
Idiot: "Oh, well, then...*gestures with cup* that girl told me to poke you."
Me: "Smoooooth."
"The miso's where the magic is...Bcanck!" - Salvo
"K...mmmm." - Emblem
Emblem: "Pointing to my pants pockets* "Why does one of your umbrellas have a string and not the other?"
*Long pause, me thinking*
Me: "You mean, my zippers?"
Emblem: "You guys read these and tell me what you think. I look at them when I'm alone, late at night, and it's fun." *Awkward pause*
"Aaaaaaaaaahhh-I don't know" *hand-raised-shrug* - Me.
More later.
Wednesday 15 March 2006
Slow and (When the Hell Have I Ever Been Steady?) Wins the Race
Pezzo, I am SO going to kick your ass into next year. Consider this your only shout-out, just for that.
Many mysteries of the universe - or, at the very least, my own huge corner of it - solved this weekend. Such as: Who texted me (Pezzo...you devil, you), exactly how loopy I can get after not sleeping for two days, how to get more jeans, and whether or not I have a heart.
If you don't know the answer to the last one, you haven't been paying attention.
Trotting along, moving toward equilibrium, epiphany, or euphoria, whichever raises its ugly head first. Working on my 3D animation in 3dsMax 8.0, moving the mp3s - only 500+ to go! Huzzah! - already missing winter, and hopefully getting a little more myself again.
As the Irish would say in one of my story books, well and good. (Changes the topic and gives the taleweaver time to think). My mother has decided on chemotherapy to err on the side of caution; her test came back with a medium to high chance that the cancer might return. So we thumbed through the catalogue of high-fashion caps, wigs, and sunhats (which I always mentally call sunflower hats) and picked out some nice options for her.
...Not too much I can follow that up with, is there? Slip down a side street then: Emblem and I bought the first season of Veronica Mars and have been having Marsfests since it arrived last Tuesday. We have yet to do slow-motion on any scenes, though, as we are especially wont to do with Angel or Buffy.
Momentary Soundtrack: "On the Bound" from When the pawn... and "Never is a Promise" from Tidal, both by Fiona Apple, are taking turns in my head.
Quote Trapped in My Head: "in the morning-after light // in the night of bitten lips // before the curtains raise on dreams..." From a poem I am working on, tentatively titled Prepositions.
What I Learned Today: This client I've been talking to for over a year but never met was born in Nicaragua. He was delighted to learn I speak Spanish.
Many mysteries of the universe - or, at the very least, my own huge corner of it - solved this weekend. Such as: Who texted me (Pezzo...you devil, you), exactly how loopy I can get after not sleeping for two days, how to get more jeans, and whether or not I have a heart.
If you don't know the answer to the last one, you haven't been paying attention.
Trotting along, moving toward equilibrium, epiphany, or euphoria, whichever raises its ugly head first. Working on my 3D animation in 3dsMax 8.0, moving the mp3s - only 500+ to go! Huzzah! - already missing winter, and hopefully getting a little more myself again.
As the Irish would say in one of my story books, well and good. (Changes the topic and gives the taleweaver time to think). My mother has decided on chemotherapy to err on the side of caution; her test came back with a medium to high chance that the cancer might return. So we thumbed through the catalogue of high-fashion caps, wigs, and sunhats (which I always mentally call sunflower hats) and picked out some nice options for her.
...Not too much I can follow that up with, is there? Slip down a side street then: Emblem and I bought the first season of Veronica Mars and have been having Marsfests since it arrived last Tuesday. We have yet to do slow-motion on any scenes, though, as we are especially wont to do with Angel or Buffy.
Tuesday 14 March 2006
We, and our shado-whoa!
Sheared image of Emblem, Chris, and Me- our shadows, that is. Morris, CT. Meica's first day on the job.
Friday 10 March 2006
One Little, Two Little...Ten Little Quirks of Mandrake!
Keeping track, are we? Well, here are ten odd little things most people do not realize about me.
10. I refrain from calling anyone by name as much as possible. The only real exceptions are my parents and sister (who I usually call Emblem), and my boss, whose name I need to call to get his attention.
9. I will sometimes set my alarm for one, two, or even three a.m., get up, take a warm shower, and go back to sleep.
8. As a child and teenager, I would spend hours counting the strokes it took to make letters and numbers. My mother also does this. I liked names that ended with even strokes, especially fours and zeroes, and stared at digital clocks to figure out how to maximize the number of tick marks without ending up with an odd-numbered sum.
I would also count letter frequencies when I was bored, for fun, or to distract myself from unpleasant situations. Another alternative to this was to make lists with the alphabet - name vegetables and fruits or birds from A to Z.
7. If I take any sort of nap, for any length of time, I immediately wake up nauseous and remain so for the rest of the day, until I go back to sleep at night.
6. I like doing crunches. I like stretching for long periods of time even better. I, ahem, also liked The Old Man and the Sea. Oh, the masochism!
5. I am a bit obsessive about my hands always smelling good. I also cannot stand when they are overly warm.
4. I have very good hearing, so much so that I would get extremely frustrated as a child when loud, persistent noises were bombarding me. Supposedly I had fluid in my ears a lot, and that helped cause my problem. But, I now realize I also hear sounds that are farther than 15 feet away from the precisely opposite direction that they come from.
3. I only sleep with socks on when I am sleeping outdoors. I often sleep in a skirt and sleeveless top, even in winter. I always sleep in full underclothes.
2. I can recite phone numbers I have not dialed in 5 years, recall names of people or characters I have not thought of in years, and have at least seventy passwords in my head. But if you tell me where you went to school, what you studied, or where you work, I will forget it within a day - maybe even less.
1. I still do #8 unconsciously. The letter frequencies are useful for figuring out cyphers, and the other word games are a sort of restless habit.
Momentary Soundtrack: The theme song to Have Gun, Will Travel, which we gave to my dad on DVD for his birthday.
Quote Trapped in My Head: "He's a crotch killa...Whoo!"
What I Learned Today: Lynn from Carnival of Song commented on my blog. You should have heard the ecstatic mess that was me when I found out!
10. I refrain from calling anyone by name as much as possible. The only real exceptions are my parents and sister (who I usually call Emblem), and my boss, whose name I need to call to get his attention.
9. I will sometimes set my alarm for one, two, or even three a.m., get up, take a warm shower, and go back to sleep.
8. As a child and teenager, I would spend hours counting the strokes it took to make letters and numbers. My mother also does this. I liked names that ended with even strokes, especially fours and zeroes, and stared at digital clocks to figure out how to maximize the number of tick marks without ending up with an odd-numbered sum.
I would also count letter frequencies when I was bored, for fun, or to distract myself from unpleasant situations. Another alternative to this was to make lists with the alphabet - name vegetables and fruits or birds from A to Z.
7. If I take any sort of nap, for any length of time, I immediately wake up nauseous and remain so for the rest of the day, until I go back to sleep at night.
6. I like doing crunches. I like stretching for long periods of time even better. I, ahem, also liked The Old Man and the Sea. Oh, the masochism!
5. I am a bit obsessive about my hands always smelling good. I also cannot stand when they are overly warm.
4. I have very good hearing, so much so that I would get extremely frustrated as a child when loud, persistent noises were bombarding me. Supposedly I had fluid in my ears a lot, and that helped cause my problem. But, I now realize I also hear sounds that are farther than 15 feet away from the precisely opposite direction that they come from.
3. I only sleep with socks on when I am sleeping outdoors. I often sleep in a skirt and sleeveless top, even in winter. I always sleep in full underclothes.
2. I can recite phone numbers I have not dialed in 5 years, recall names of people or characters I have not thought of in years, and have at least seventy passwords in my head. But if you tell me where you went to school, what you studied, or where you work, I will forget it within a day - maybe even less.
1. I still do #8 unconsciously. The letter frequencies are useful for figuring out cyphers, and the other word games are a sort of restless habit.
Thursday 2 March 2006
Of Tunes and Tribulations
Simply put, that is what my life has consisted of in the past few days - nay, weeks. The tunes were mine, the tribulations shared.
Let's review, shall we?
On the side of Tribulations:
1. Emblem fell and hurt her wrist - terribly bad - on an errand for her job. Then she fell again today. Poor Nemma - she's almost done with her job, so she has to get work done, but she's in a lot of pain. Cheer her up, people. NOW. *Patented glare*
2. Mum might need Chemotherapy - as opposed to the radiation + harmones treatment her doctor had espoused before. It depends on if they find genetic markers for breast cancer while doing their tests. She's recovering nicely from surgery, but as of now faces at least five years of hormone pills and six weeks of radiation, or 13 weeks of chemo if she's not lucky.
Oh, and, ummm, genetic markers? Not so good for the Mandrake either.
3. A friend of a friend - let's call her Ronron, shall we? - has been in a progressively more dangerous relationship for a while now, and is making her first overtures for help to my own friend. It's at that stage where Ronron is scared, but not enough to make that leap and leave the ^#&@#&&I$)@$@!.
4. My credit card information was stolen, or so my bank called and informed me today. Luckily my bank stopped the identity thief before any purchases were made, and have taken steps to re-secure my account. Joy.
Meanwhile, on the side of Tunes:
1. A large part of my free time this week has been taken up moving my Apple encoded mp3s from 1999-2003 off of my Blue iMac and onto my beloved Thinkpad. All 1200+ of them. This involves the following steps per 120 MB of songs: (skip below if not in an extreme state of ennui)
A. Download iTunes 1.1 for Mac OS 8.6 (do not laugh - do n- DO NOT- Screw you.)
B. Download patch for installer and application to make both work right. Install iTunes and patch.
C. Convert a folder of songs using iTunes 1.1.
Note: before I freed up more than 500 MB of space, I had to go about deleting the pre-converted versions as my machine chugged along.
D. Copy 120 MB worth of converted songs onto flash drive. Wait at least twenty minutes.
E. Trash Flash Drive, plug into PC.
F. Copy songs from Flash into my iTunes Music folder called, appropriately, "new".
G. Arrange the songs in my iTunes Music folder - remove unnecessary FINDER and other Apple-generated files, move into already existing artist folders, create new artist folders, etc.
H. Open up my lovely new version of iTunes on my PC. Add files (or folders) to library as needed.
I. Rename songs, plug in artists, put in album names, fill out genre field (if I'm feeling particularly OCD).
J. Repeat steps C through I until I DIE.
2. For Shrove Tuesday (o Martes Glotona, si prefieres), I joined my two friends for fun at Bourbon St. bar. Live music from an okay band. My friends are now dubbed Beth Bacardi and Xan Malibu. No reason, just because they needed secret agen-I mean, barfly names.
3. On Ash Wednesday, our organist did not show up at church for the night service. So I stepped up and plucked out a one-handed tune. First hymn: three flats. Second hymn: four flats. Third hymn: Sigh: five flats. What the-who really needs to put in a G flat? Seriously? I know, I know. Fourth & fifth hymns: thank gosh, only two sharps. At least I still got ashes.
4. Looking at my iTunes list, here is a sample of my eclectic tastes: 10 songs, chosen in alphabetical order from the mid-Ms, have the following artists all in a row:
Counting Crows
Cabas
Queens of the Stone Age
Godsmack
Beethoven
Chisel
Shakira
Glamma Kid
Sweetwater
Rokia Traore
And another set of 10 in the Cs, starting from the first C song I have:
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Ludacris
State Radio
Patty Griffin
Ensembe Huseyin Turkmenler - Belly Dance
The Mamas & the Papas
Shani
Enigma
Garbage
Fabolous
Wow.
Momentary Soundtrack: "Motherless Child" by Sweetwater.
Quote Trapped in My Head: "Sí, sí, sí que este amor es tan profundo // que tú eres mi consentida // y que lo sepa todo el mundo..." - from "Fruta Fresca" by Carlos Vives, a song that I danced to ages ago, at school.
What I Learned Today: The lyrics to "Volare" by the Gipsy Kings.
Let's review, shall we?
On the side of Tribulations:
1. Emblem fell and hurt her wrist - terribly bad - on an errand for her job. Then she fell again today. Poor Nemma - she's almost done with her job, so she has to get work done, but she's in a lot of pain. Cheer her up, people. NOW. *Patented glare*
2. Mum might need Chemotherapy - as opposed to the radiation + harmones treatment her doctor had espoused before. It depends on if they find genetic markers for breast cancer while doing their tests. She's recovering nicely from surgery, but as of now faces at least five years of hormone pills and six weeks of radiation, or 13 weeks of chemo if she's not lucky.
Oh, and, ummm, genetic markers? Not so good for the Mandrake either.
3. A friend of a friend - let's call her Ronron, shall we? - has been in a progressively more dangerous relationship for a while now, and is making her first overtures for help to my own friend. It's at that stage where Ronron is scared, but not enough to make that leap and leave the ^#&@#&&I$)@$@!.
4. My credit card information was stolen, or so my bank called and informed me today. Luckily my bank stopped the identity thief before any purchases were made, and have taken steps to re-secure my account. Joy.
Meanwhile, on the side of Tunes:
1. A large part of my free time this week has been taken up moving my Apple encoded mp3s from 1999-2003 off of my Blue iMac and onto my beloved Thinkpad. All 1200+ of them. This involves the following steps per 120 MB of songs: (skip below if not in an extreme state of ennui)
A. Download iTunes 1.1 for Mac OS 8.6 (do not laugh - do n- DO NOT- Screw you.)
B. Download patch for installer and application to make both work right. Install iTunes and patch.
C. Convert a folder of songs using iTunes 1.1.
Note: before I freed up more than 500 MB of space, I had to go about deleting the pre-converted versions as my machine chugged along.
D. Copy 120 MB worth of converted songs onto flash drive. Wait at least twenty minutes.
E. Trash Flash Drive, plug into PC.
F. Copy songs from Flash into my iTunes Music folder called, appropriately, "new".
G. Arrange the songs in my iTunes Music folder - remove unnecessary FINDER and other Apple-generated files, move into already existing artist folders, create new artist folders, etc.
H. Open up my lovely new version of iTunes on my PC. Add files (or folders) to library as needed.
I. Rename songs, plug in artists, put in album names, fill out genre field (if I'm feeling particularly OCD).
J. Repeat steps C through I until I DIE.
2. For Shrove Tuesday (o Martes Glotona, si prefieres), I joined my two friends for fun at Bourbon St. bar. Live music from an okay band. My friends are now dubbed Beth Bacardi and Xan Malibu. No reason, just because they needed secret agen-I mean, barfly names.
3. On Ash Wednesday, our organist did not show up at church for the night service. So I stepped up and plucked out a one-handed tune. First hymn: three flats. Second hymn: four flats. Third hymn: Sigh: five flats. What the-who really needs to put in a G flat? Seriously? I know, I know. Fourth & fifth hymns: thank gosh, only two sharps. At least I still got ashes.
4. Looking at my iTunes list, here is a sample of my eclectic tastes: 10 songs, chosen in alphabetical order from the mid-Ms, have the following artists all in a row:
Counting Crows
Cabas
Queens of the Stone Age
Godsmack
Beethoven
Chisel
Shakira
Glamma Kid
Sweetwater
Rokia Traore
And another set of 10 in the Cs, starting from the first C song I have:
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Ludacris
State Radio
Patty Griffin
Ensembe Huseyin Turkmenler - Belly Dance
The Mamas & the Papas
Shani
Enigma
Garbage
Fabolous
Wow.
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