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July 31, 2005

BPAL: The Living Flame

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Posted by lisa at 03:09 PM

BPAL: the fabled Snake Oil

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Posted by lisa at 10:32 AM

Too clever by half

So I guess I can't get through a summer without driving somewhere and pointing a webcam at a funny looking car while i'm doing it.

I was telling Joe about how Sarah and I were thinking we'd try and run web cams during our caravan up to Louisville on Thursday. He suggested that, rather than using a computer-to-computer wireless network to have a live cam in each car with only one cell connection, I should see if I can share my connection with an Airport base station connected to my laptop via Ethernet. The base station would have much better range than a computer to computer connection.

And it turns out I can. In fact, it works beautifully. If Sarah gets out of range, her computer should automatically re-connect when it's back in range. Or so we hope.

So Joe gets the "too clever by half" award this week for giving me that idea.

For those attempting to follow along at home, this is how it works:

dualcar.gif

And for your enjoyment, as long as we're talking about creative geeks hard at work: The Kegtenna.

Posted by lisa at 09:45 AM

July 30, 2005

Plywood sighted

Just got a call from one of my agents in the field-- he reports that the screen at the Starlite is now mostly covered in plywood. This is a dramatic change from one week ago, when I drove by and saw new cross-members on the telephone poles, but no plywood on the screen or fence. He says there are lots of people and equipment out there working.

So we may be having a movie outdoors this summer, yet.

Posted by lisa at 04:51 PM

i know something the spammers don't know.

to heck with viagra, bring on the pumpkin pie!

via the BPAL forums, of course. scroll down for a chart entitled, "Effect of Perfumes and Scents on Blood Flow in Male Sexual Tissue".

Posted by lisa at 12:20 AM

July 29, 2005

BPAL: Phantasm, Cathode, Burial, Has No Hanna

I got a little package from Singapore today with lots of good scents! And some little packets of tea and exotic candies. In addition to the reviewed scents, it contained Embalming Fluid, Hurricane, and Sea of Glass. I only wish I had more arms and legs to test them on!

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Posted by lisa at 07:19 PM

the spammers know something that we do not.

i often get spam sent from the future.

i think the spammers have time machines.

Posted by lisa at 12:41 PM

BPAL: Skuld

onward..

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Posted by lisa at 08:59 AM

July 28, 2005

BPAL reviews: Yog-Sothoth, Katharina, Spellbound

lay, lie, something like that...

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Posted by lisa at 11:05 PM

this is my boring blog all about weather. and brains.

BEST. WEATHER. EVER. it has literally dropped almost 30 degrees over the course of the day.

also, vancouver has the best flash mobs ever (via jason!). i am insanely jealous. brrraaaaaiiiinnnnnssss.

vampires are sexy but zombies are PURE COMEDY GOLD.

finally, i scored two hits of Tulzscha today, which will mean nothing to anyone but sarah and alicia. suffice to say that i eagerly await minty goodness.

Posted by lisa at 10:59 PM

July 27, 2005

One man's personal history of silly goth haircuts

A personal history in haircuts.

Adorable.

Posted by lisa at 09:54 PM

Like a big, moist wall

This is what it feels like when I open the door to the outside. Replacing my heating and cooling system? Best idea I ever had. That a/c system was sure to die this year.

Checked Weather Underground at around 5pm; the heat index was 112f. One Hundred and Twelve.

Even The Fat Man Walking is in more hospitable conditions.

Tomorrow will be better; the heat index is only predicted at 105f. This weekend will be downright civilized.

Posted by lisa at 09:33 PM

aspartame

Aspartame side-effects.

Dunno if this is a crock but aspartame was one of the things I got rid of for the most part over the last month, and I certainly feel a lot better now, sleep a lot better now.

It's hard to pinpoint any one thing, though, especially since aspartame and caffiene usually go hand-in-hand, and caffiene can certainly be responsible for trouble sleeping and other stuff.

Update: This is probably a crock. Snopes.com, Truth or Fiction.com.

Posted by lisa at 11:56 AM

There's one thing that's troubling me...

It's not the heat. Ok, so seeing 106 on Spacepod's temp gauge is a little unusual, but I've seen it before. Just... never in NC. But no, it's not that.

It's not that my manager hasn't yet approved my vacation time. I mean, it's probably fine. He'll probably let me go.

It's not that the Westy won't start. I'll work it out. It's not like she needs to be somewhere.

No...

No, it's that the second season of Dead Like Me, while still laugh-out-loud funny with three-dimensional characterizations, rich and complex story lines, and all that good stuff... just doesn't have the food that the first season had.

They still spend lots of time in Der Waffle Haus, but they hardly eat a thing! And Georgia orders oatmeal with raisins every freaking day. I happen to know that Der Waffle Haus serves all kinds of stuff. And no one is eating it.

I have to get my vicarious excess carbohydrate somehow. Someone order a cruller for chrissakes.

Posted by lisa at 12:03 AM

July 25, 2005

walk!

The Fat Man Walking makes me happy.

Walk, Steve, walk!!

Posted by lisa at 07:34 PM

BPAL quickie reviews: Whippoorwill, Kingsport

Just arrived, a few samples from Springtime in Arkham...

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Posted by lisa at 06:32 PM

seven

seven more days of work until vacation. well, six and one hour and fifteen minutes.

Posted by lisa at 04:46 PM

little blueberry thingies

in response to something i put behind the password, i had one person ask how to make a nut crust, so i'll just post the whole recipe here since some folks might be interested. note that it's not perfected. i improvised this last night.

fill a muffin tin with little paper muffin cups.

nut crust:
in a food processor, process a couple handfuls of nuts (any kind). i like to add a sweetener, like splenda or a sugar free flavored syrup like hazelnut or caramel. process until it starts to clump up.

press a little nut stuff into each muffin paper. (at this point, i would recommend trying to bake the crusts. i didn't, and they absorbed a lot of the moisture from the filling.)

filling:
on top of the crusts, pile a bunch of whole fresh blueberries. i think frozen could also be used.

mix together some whole milk plain yogurt (mmmm) with hazelnut or vanilla sugar free syrup, or the sweetener of your choice, until it tastes good to you.

ladle some of the yogurt mixture over each pile of berries.

bake at 350 for 20-30 min.

mmm, yummy.

Posted by lisa at 12:35 PM

July 24, 2005

lists of things

i like lists of things.

list of new herbs i planted today:

reasons i think 'dead like me' is awesome

Posted by lisa at 10:22 PM

two. thumbs. up!

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Posted by lisa at 10:03 PM

July 23, 2005

what good is middle management, anyway?

middle management gets a bad rap, right? the people who have to take orders and give them at the same time. they're stuck in the middle.

suppose there were a middle manager.
suppose he were also a compassionate person.
suppose he got involved in a relief organization working in indonesia, perhaps through his church.
suppose, after the relief workers stabilized life in a few villages, helped provide basic shelter, clean water, and medical care, they realized it was time to rebuild.
and suppose that they needed more people to plan and organize the rebuilding.
people with experience in planning and organizing and negotiating contracts.
what sort of person would be ideal for such a job?

then suppose this compassionate middle manager were left in charge of things while the usual relief organization leaders were called off to a meeting in singapore.
and suppose he negotiated contracts and made plans and when they got back-- a man whose house had been torn off its foundation had gotten his house back.

maybe we should give middle managers a little more credit.

Posted by lisa at 01:44 PM

funny, minty little dream

i had a funny dream that i went to visit minty so that we could go for a walk, and brought moses too. she was getting ready to take a nap when i came over, so she set me up with something to read in her living room. I wondered why I had come over without calling first. How rude of me! Teen Girl Squad and the Professor were not in effect. for some reason, i put moses in a police car that was floating in a lake with many other cars.

while minty was asleep, another woman came over and rang the doorbell. minty came down and answered the door and talked to the woman for a while.

i realized that i'd left moses in that police car for far too long, so i swam over to retrieve him and couldn't find him! then i realized that a cop was carrying a tabby cat with white feet and belly.

:|:

i think the reason i dreamed about cars floating in water is because yesterday i saw some video footage of the tsunami coming into a village in indonesia. more on that later.

Posted by lisa at 09:15 AM

July 22, 2005

all glass, all the time

i love philip glass. well-- his music. his early music. i've seen him perform live twice, i went to that terrible 3-d film that he scored, i even met him (sort of) when he brought powaqqatsi to duke. i've got a pristine first press of 'Einstein on the Beach' on vinyl that i scored at Ameoba in Berkely. there's a part in EotB where i swear they're saying my name over and over again. i'm a fan, although i don't listen to his stuff so much these days.

so today...

1. dj BC (the same fellow, i believe, who brought us the Beastles) hit boingboing with a set of Philip Glass / hip-hop mashups. yeah, ok, boingboing earned its keep today. and it was even xeni who posted the link.

2. the new Battlestar Galactica ep that aired tonight featured a Glass piece quite prominently. i knew it was glass; had no idea which piece or even which album. happily, the BG message boards not only had an ID on the song, but a link to a free d/l. thank god.

those songs get in your head like a virus.

Posted by lisa at 11:41 PM

July 21, 2005

BPAL: Blood, Vixen, Dirty, Danube

Reviews lay lie herein. (hmm, i need have! an editor)

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Posted by lisa at 09:10 PM

BPAL: items purchased; items received.

a great deal of movement occured on my BPAL spreadsheet today..

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Posted by lisa at 07:47 PM

July 19, 2005

bracing

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Posted by lisa at 11:05 PM

a boring entry about what i ate for dinner

i am happy to report that i've been diligent about always making dinner for myself for at least a week and a half if not two weeks now. only exceptions have been dinner out with friends on two occasions.

so for some reason, i alway feel really tired and logy after these dinners i make for myself. tonight, however, marked two weeks since i last worked on the westy and it makes me very uncomfortable to let that project sit idle for weeks at a time. so i forced myself off the sofa after dinner and headed on over there.

physical activity was definitely the ticket, i felt great and energized after a brief sanding sesh. so much so that i did some grocery shopping after.

i've kept my caffiene consumption low for the last two days, and no alcohol since friday. i've been steering clear of aspartame too since it can cause blood sugar crashes.

i'm really hoping for a good night's sleep tonight not interrupted by yelling neighbors, whining dogs, or cats horking up hairballs.

i'm loving the weather right now though. spatters of rain, some grumbling but nothing huge and crashing. perfect.

Posted by lisa at 10:57 PM

reasons i can't wait for fall

1. The weather.
1. a) Being able to wear my boots.

2. Halloween.
2. a) Enacting my new ideas for a halloween party.
2. b) BPAL seasonal limited edition scents.

i swear there was another reason, but right now i can't remember it.

:|:

remembered the other reason on the drive in to work:

3. New Tim Burton animated feature film, "The Corpse Bride".

Posted by lisa at 08:25 AM

July 18, 2005

BPAL - mi-GO!

came home to find a leetle package from the Netherlands today-- containing mi-go brain canister (yes, that is the name of a perfume) (no squishy brain inside, sadly, but i can't blame her for keeping it), and three gift imps of katharina, gomorrah, and baba yaga.

on the back of my wrist, mi-go smells damned similar to pink moon, which is the only other bpal i've bothered to get 5ml of so far (not counting pending orders to the lab for glasgow, dublin, and love in the asylum). so that's a good thing.

oddly, the back of my wrist is turning out to be a good place to put scent. a small drop of even a light scent lasts extremely well, and i can still lift my hand and smell it if i want to.

:|:

oh my. i just looked up the scents she gave me-- baba yaga is an unreleased, experimental. it looks like she picked things that have fruit notes, since mi-go is very fruity. wow, i can't believe how kind that was-- the unreleased scents are not exactly things you can just buy. amazing.

Posted by lisa at 06:27 PM

reluctant

i'm feeling very reluctant to discuss the harry potter book, because the few discussions i've been privy to on LJ have been speculation about future plot-- not analysis of the current book-- for the most part.

i really enjoy coming at the books with my own, completely disengenuous take on the plot. almost everything is a surprise to me, and i like it that way. i don't think very hard about what might happen in the next book, nor do i want to.

i guess when the last book came out, the blogosphere didn't really exist, or not the way it does now. so i didn't have any avenues for stumbling across conversations about it. most of my friends turned their noses up at it and i read it, long after many other people had, while i was on the road for several weeks by myself. discussion of the book was a non-issue for me.

some vague spoilerish stuff under here:

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Posted by lisa at 12:37 PM

miscellaney

1. Twelve days until I go on vacation. Oh thank god.

2. I wonder what it would take for me to live in Seattle for three months next summer?

3. Did BoingBoing jump the shark the moment they added Xeni to the editorial staff, or did The Problem With Xeni only become apparent later?

4. Why can't I stop reading BoingBoing, even though it annoys me so?

Posted by lisa at 11:53 AM

July 17, 2005

damn.

i had a pretty bad crash this evening. and i really didn't see this coming-- i've been eating my veggies and tons of protien and regular meals and no sugar... too many starches i guess. so exasperating. at least now, i'm prepared for it. i started cooking when i started to feel a little funny. by the time i was done, it was all i could do to force it down, but at least it was good healthy stuff.

on the other hand, i did get a lot done today... had a look (a real look) at what's going to be involved in the playlist manager features i need to add and i'm trying to work out in my head the best way to accomplish it.

i spent some time trying to make dividers for my perfume tins, but they really didn't work, so i'm back to square one on that one.

i cleaned the hell out of my bathroom and attempted to install my new, unbroken shower curtain rod, which turned out to be too short. square one to the second power.

i got my wireless high speed functional again although it involved removing the gigabit router from my LAN setup. this only matters if i want speed faster than 802.11b, which i rarely do; on the up side, i should be able to use bitorrent now. do you think they have the addams family?

i ran outside into the small amount of rain we got and weeded the herb bed. although my neighbors, if they had a chance to observe this, must think i am certifiable now, i was all happy nature girl and stuff. and now the weeds are out.

Posted by lisa at 08:10 PM

maybe it could rain... just a little...

i seriously think that summer depresses me. all the heat, the glaring sun. it's so hideous.

it's thundering right now, but i still see a glare of sun out of my window. oh, please let it rain! let it cloud over and get dark, and cool, and let the rain come down in sheets. that would be fantastic.

Posted by lisa at 04:18 PM

i'm on top of all the new stuff

in the last 24 hours, saw charlie and the chocolate factory and just completed my reading of... you know, that book. it took longer than three hours.

i also ate, slept, showered, perfumed, cooked, tended the feline in various ways, ran errands, finally completed my bit of the creative postcard exchange, worked out dividers for my perfume tins, set foot in starlu for the first time (and left quickly), and drank beer at jo and joe's. completely not in that order.

i suppose tomorrow i had better get serious and stop having fun and stuff. if i don't complete the playlist manager, i'll have a revolt on my hands. and that van isn't going to sand itself... the grass isn't going to mow itself (this time)... herbs won't weed themselves... etc.

:|:

oh, what did i think of the movie and the book? gee, i dunno. i'm going to need a few days to digest it all.

Posted by lisa at 01:31 AM

July 15, 2005

ungh.

well, french night did me wrong. i woke up far too early, feeling rather unwell. i feel somewhat better now, just sleepy and a bit off.

don't mind me as i sit in my office trying to understand the use of <xsl:param> while yawning and completely indulging in feeling sorry for myself.

and smelling oh-so-faintly of tulips, grass, and water.

Posted by lisa at 12:18 PM

July 14, 2005

BPAL - sloth

"Vetiver, black myrrh."

selected because someone commented that it could cure insomnia, i wore this one to bed last night in the crooks of my arms.

deep, dark, and, i think, indolent. not necessarily a cure for insomnia for me, but i think i enjoyed the experience of sleeping with it.

Posted by lisa at 09:43 PM

the internets, they h8 me.

sigh. internet access down this evening. lisa very sad.

but! i was ecstatic to find that my cellphone connection reconfigures itself.

it'll do.

Posted by lisa at 09:27 PM

BPAL - the dormouse

"Four teas brushed with light herbs and a breath of peony."

ok, due to French Night, i'm simply not capable of haiku.

this scent is delicious, but really i think a little too masculine for me. it starts out sort of pungent and clean, but now at the end of the day i'm smelling something just like... old spice? but really, it doesn't smell like old spice. really. just, right now, it does.

Posted by lisa at 09:17 PM

French Night!

uunnnnggghhhhh, i am so full. i don't normally have a problem with portion control, but apparently French Night brought out the worst in me.

so it was...

mushrooms cooked in white wine, butter, and rosemary from the garden poured over a chicken breast and steamed broccoli.

mmm, yummy. i might have had a glass of the wine... or two.. too..

Posted by lisa at 09:16 PM

July 13, 2005

mexican night!

i was tempted to get takout, but i talked myself out of it. helps that i had a plan already and knew it would take less time to fix food at home than to run out for it-- and besides, i didn't really feel like driving around either.

and dinner turned out very yummy and satisfying! the nice thing about cooking for oneself is that you can make it all just the way you like it.

i cooked a frozen chicken breast in some oil with chili powder, onion powder, cumin, and salt. i cooked some brown rice with similar seasonings, then added some ro-tel tomatoes and chilies to the rice. when it was all finished, i put it all in a big bowl and covered it with a handful of grated pepper jack. the cheese melted into the rice and it was so wonderful.

tomorrow is supposed to be eastern european night, but i feel a little lost at the prospect of improvising eastern european flavors, so i may have to skip to the next one.

Posted by lisa at 08:16 PM

evil grapefruit in the hizzouse!

arrived today, not one but two BPAL packages:

currently sporting r'lyeh on my left wrist, the dormouse on my right, and smidges of everything on my right index finger.

r'lyeh was often described as "evil grapefruit" but honestly i'm not getting much grapefruit from it. although, since i put it on my wrist, which is Where Scent Goes To Die, rather than in the crook of my arm, i'm not getting much of anything from it.

in the bottle, the dormouse made me roll my eyes back with pleasure and inhale more deeply. beyond that, i can't say.

although i now realize that i feel as if i am sitting in a light cloud of clove dust. maybe that's the r'lyeh.

Posted by lisa at 06:26 PM

radio, radio

looking like i'll be doing the wrrld show this saturday from 1-3pm. it'll be a chance to break out the funky reggae i couldn't use for FDDF, because it was trapped on a dead hard drive. thanks to steph i've got my iTunes fully restored to the state it was in before the crash, including the ratings i'd put on songs from d.'s massive collection, so i know which ones i wanted to play.

i was also on air last night but didn't feel like publicizing it in advance.

slow night.

oh, except for rick! visiting briefly and the fact that Baby Huey (who does DEAD OF THE NIGHT, our (gasp) metal show, after me), got erstwhile xdu training director p. lee to sub for him. snork. those of you priveleged to know mr. lee will appreciate how humorous this was to witness. happily he also brought a pal, a scrawny milquetoast sort of fellow dressed in something like a beige t-shirt, beige close-fitting athelic shorts, fully extended white athletic knee socks and trainers, and who bore something like fifteen different piercings in his ears.

mr. lee said to me, "and the new Harry Potter needs to come out RIGHT NOW." some of us are getting a little impatient, are we??

i have to admit, although i won't be going to the regulator at midnight or anything, well, i might stop in there saturday afternoon...

Posted by lisa at 08:47 AM

installing a new habit

been meaning to post this for a week now. via lifehacker, an excellent article on how to install a new habit. this is basically what i'm trying to do by cooking dinner for myself every night now. if i can do that for a good two weeks then i should have at least somewhat established the habit.

then we work on getting to bed before midnight...

Posted by lisa at 12:15 AM

July 12, 2005

italian night

dinner was...

wow!! and now i have sauce to put up in the freezer for later, and a snack for later (leftover pasta and meatballs).

oh, and WINE. i mean, i had to open a bottle to put some in the sauce...

Posted by lisa at 07:08 PM

July 11, 2005

health before beauty

i commented to sarah yesterday that i think i have been successful in one dietary change i've made-- i'm definitely good at being moderate in my sugar consumption. that means that i can eat sugar without having to have it be an all-or-nothing proposition. just something that i enjoy every once in a while.

now, let's just see if i can do the same thing with french fries! my other great downfall.

i decided to try something new this week. i've got some good basic ingredients for dinners, but if left unchecked i'll just make the same dang thing for dinner every night.

in the enchanted broccoli forest there's a couple of pages devoted to just the essential flavors of different cuisines. The herbs, spices, oils, cheeses and wines most commonly used for chinese, mediterranean, italian, french and other kinds of cooking.

so i typed all of those up on little slips of paper which i've tacked to my refrigerator, and each day i'll improvise dishes using my good basic ingredients, seasoned according to the day's chosen style.

finding ideas online is quite easy; today i entered "mediterranean broccoli" into google and found a nice simple recipe for broccoli aglio olio (which is just a fancy way of saying broccoli with olive oil and garlic and herbs).

anyhoo. it's been working for a few days now. and aside from a trip to char grill friday, i haven't had french fries in... i dunno. a week? maybe? that's not bad.

being forced to think in terms of what will make me feel energetic and healthy, rather than what will cause me to lose weight, is, i think, an excellent change in perspective. i feel motivated to eat my vegetables and cook for myself. maybe some weight loss will come of this, but that's not my concern right now.

Posted by lisa at 06:42 PM

July 10, 2005

BPAL - the sniffing, and Zephyr

sniff-fest this evening. well attended by myself, leesh, sarah, erin, and pinky.

one of the most interesting moments was when folks worked up their courage to smell black annis. lots of deep sniffs off the vial, and puzzled looks. a very strange and dark fragrance.

alicia was kind enough to give me her imp of Zephyr, which handn't worked on her. i'm wearing it right now, and from a soapy start, it has dried to a wonderful light musky floral that's a sort of "second skin" scent on me. love it right this moment.

my collection seemed small and odd and i didn't have anything to give away, sadly. i look at the 'paid' page on my spreadsheet and it's frustrating. so many things i want to smell and try, and they are coming, but it will be so long.

i also got to try a tiny dab of mi-go brain canister and it smelled lovely after drydown. i think i've found a full 5ml bottle-- possibly complete with brain!-- for a very fair price.

hope, hope, hope the evil grapefruit is coming my way tomorrow.

note to self: ultraviolet might be a good thing to wear to a show. not too girly, not too overpowering, but very interesting. although something with musk would probably get me noticed more.

Posted by lisa at 11:53 PM

grandma went to a rock show last night and boy does she feel old

yup yup yup. it was one of those "out of the woodwork" shows, wherein everyone comes out of the woodwork, and says, "hey, there's so and so."

and so, there was so and so. and him and her and that one. that was pretty fun.

upon reflection this morning, i realized that an old acquaintance of mine is totally annoying. he was too busy being mean to the cute guy i've seen all over friendster and nerve to introduce us. and he was really being mean, too! honestly.

after the always-entertaining wusses, i told pj that, although i enjoy this sort of thing, it makes me miss the days when i would go out to see totally fucked up shit. the kind of show where it was me and twelve guys and no one talked to each other because we were all a bunch of social misfits. the kind of show where i would have been ashamed to show up a nicely accessorized, flattering outfit. (no wonder i dressed the way i did back then.) and the music was really interesting.

and yeah, i know nightlight often has stuff like that. and i'm romanticizing the part about how everyone was a social misfit and no one talked to each other.

so anyway. it just made it clear that i need to go to more shows, things that are not already well-known to me. i have been lax in this regard.

:|:

i've been on a bit of a tvland kick lately. i started with the munsters, but although the theme song really cooks, and herman munster kind of looks like a half-dead version of my grandfather, really the addams family is entirely superior. the writing is actually funny, and morticia addams' fashion sense completely trumps that of lily munster.

green acres just makes me angry with its utter stupidity, but bewitched is ok on a sunday morning. except for all the God commercials.

:|:

BPAL snufflefest is tonight! yeaaaahhhh!

Posted by lisa at 11:15 AM

July 09, 2005

BPAL Haiku - Dana O'Shee, attempt #2

faintly almond and
there is almost nothing there
verging on play-doh

Posted by lisa at 03:29 PM

this and that.

weather. glorious.

powerbook back in hand-- already! they installed the same OS as i had before on the new hard drive, so i've dodged the issue of paying for an upgrade, happily. hey, that's $100 i can spend on my vacation instead.

i'm starting to ponder what i'd like to do with the rest of my vacation time. the first half is pretty well planned out; the second half is rather open-ended. i feel a little more relaxed about finances than i did when i was first planning it. the savings and debt repayment are going really well. maybe... i could find my way to NYC? via plane or train from chicago or indy? that might be a little nuts... but just think, two fluevog stores in one week :)

the powerbook and cube are on the fast connection, the little amber light next to 100 is lit up on the router. the data is transferred and now i'm re-loading apps.

but... well, i like using the cube. i like having desk space, a chair, an open window and sunlight pouring in in the mornings. i've straightened up the no-man's-land of the back bedroom a bit while working back here, and maybe my nose is dead, but i can't smell the litterbox at all.

i'm rather attached to this space. i find myself reluctant to transfer my email back over to the powerbook.

ok, i'm going to hide the rest of this under the MORE link, cause it's about BPAL and only a few of you are interested in that.

MORE...

Posted by lisa at 10:03 AM

July 07, 2005

i like long walks in the rain....

so long as they result in the van getting sanded.

i figured, you know, a little rain never hurt anyone. and indeed i was not hurt. and that door looks good.

next time i gotta remember some more dust rags, and a stepstool so i can start reaching the high up places. so very anxious to be able to say that i completed one side.

hands feel kinda funny, gotta stop typing now...

Posted by lisa at 09:53 PM

BPAL error!

i pretty much smell like pine-sol today.

i apologize to my co-workers.

nocnitsa

Posted by lisa at 12:57 PM

London

picked up from Sarah, the flickr photo pool from London.

don't go to stupid CNN for news on this, IMHO the best, most organized and comprehensive source is the BBC.

Posted by lisa at 11:08 AM

July 06, 2005

the meat of the day was HAM.

lunch: grilled ham and swiss on rye. SO GOOD.

dinner: federal ham and gruyere on toasty baguette. SO GOOD.

Posted by lisa at 10:10 PM

BPAL SniffFest - Sunday, 7pm, Caffe Driade

Myself, Sarah, and Wordnerdy will be bringing our BPAL collections to Caffe Driade in Chapel Hill at 7pm this Sunday. If you're curious, we'd be happy to share the BPAL love with you!

Note that we have plenty of masculine scents, too-- don't be shy just because you're a guy!

Posted by lisa at 12:06 PM

July 05, 2005

BPAL - Dana O'Shee and some re-assessments

Posted by lisa at 11:01 PM

BPAL - Miskatonic University

"A venerable New England university, whose vast library holds many rare, diabolical and obscure arcane works, including one of the few surviving legitimate copies of the Necronomicon. Home to innumerable scholars of the esoteric and the occult, and the notorious Dr. Herbert West."

"The scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls."

I'm no Lovecraft scholar, and many of the Springtime in Arkham references were lost on me. But I loved Lovecraft films when I was a teenager and I knew just what Miskatonic meant when I saw the name of this scent. After I read the description, I was eager to smell this one for myself.

Three scents came in a package today-- this one, Dana O'Shee, and a 5ml bottle of Pink Moon. I quickly dabbed Miskatonic on the outside of my arm between feeding the cat and heading out to take my powerbook to the Apple store.

The entire time I was standing at the Genius Bar, I kept getting wafts of something like a decadently rich, sweet, creamy dessert. So delicious-- and fairly powerful.

Back in the car, i sniffed my arm more carefully. Behind the fading sweetness, I could get a whiff of something dusty-musty, maybe a little pipe tobacco, or the remnants of pipe smoke.

Certainly not a spring or summer scent, but come autumn this will be a fantabulous room scent for the Library, and I can see myself wearing it from time to time as well. Though I may have to fend off those with a sweet tooth.

Posted by lisa at 09:06 PM

July 04, 2005

mostly not about perfume

so after a week of total hypoglycemia hell, i feel really great, and even feel like socializing for the first time in at least a month. it has once again been made clear to me the effect that diet has on my mood and energy level (duh).

saturday i stopped by santa salsera's awesome vintage yard sale, and got an evening bag (for all those fancy dinner and dance clubs i go to, in my sequined evening gowns), and small brown leather-covered suitcase which actually will be perfect for the times when i take my karmann ghia convertible through the Alps, top down, scarf on hair Grace Kelly-style, on my way to summer skiing with the "fast" set.

what can i say? i lead a rich fantasy life.

later on i dug a mint plant out of my garden and took it to loteria. i came away with a crappy promo cd, which is not exactly a fair trade, but i supposed that is not why one goes to play loteria with one's friends. i enjoyed very much talking with b. crews, savior of wxdu, minty, various other people, and sarah and georg. sarah and i unfortunately dominated the conversation with BPAL talk at one point... but other people seemed genuinely interested. it spreads virally.

after, i took georg and sarah by to see 9 westy, then by my place to sniff a few things. one of the funnest parts of scents like eggnog, hearth, and graveyard dirt is watching other people smell them for the first time, because it really is kind of amazing.

i started daydreaming about a summer party, things i would do with the back yard now that it is somewhat tamed down. i guess i should leave those things as a surprise but i think it could be very cool, provided i can get the mosquito population under control.

feeling renewed energy yesterday, perhaps because of socializing or perhaps it's just the absence of feeling crappy, i worked on the van for a couple of hours. the first time in three weeks. i think i should probably set myself a quota of hours i need to spend each month.

last night i decided that two parties in a row would be too much, so i stayed home and received a call from Team Whig Hill. we had a bit of a walk around then retired to the Library for refreshing drinks which lead naturally to huffing (perfume, not glue, dummy!) and fiddling around on the organ.

watching chris hold vials up to his nose, draw deeply then contemplate for a moment, i was reminded of that scene in 'harold and maude' where maude is demonstrating her "odorifics" machine to harold. "Snow!" says Harold, on his final, satisfied whiff of "New York Subway in Winter." "Moldy basement!" says Chris after a deep sniff of "Graveyard Dirt." heh.

anyway, there's an Elvis marathon on TV and I have a westy project that i can do at home. plus, i got hot dogs and bacon at the store yesterday. and there's a halfway decent chance i'll make it to Yet Another Party today.

and props to the cube, the little mac that could. i am feeling very comfortable using it now. it even has vpn installed, so i can handle oncall issues from home.

Posted by lisa at 11:57 AM

July 02, 2005

bpal - black annis

"Vast talons, foul with human flesh, there grew
In place of hands, and features livid blue
Glar'd in her visage; while the obscene waist
Warm skins of human victims close embraced."

"The blue faced hag of the British Hills. She lives in the Dane Hills, Leicestershire, in a cave called Black Annis' Bower Close, which she dug out of rock with her own iron-strong claws. Dozens of huge cats prowl the Bower with her, and it is guarded by a great pollarded oak in which she hides so that she may catch lambs and small children to eat. She carries her victims back to her cave, where she flays them alive before devouring them. She drapes their skins on her guardian oak to dry. Her skirt is fashioned from the skins of her prey, and her bed is a high-piled bed of their bones. Black Annis' perfume is a mixture of damp cave lichen and oak leaf with a hint of vetiver, civet and anise."

i worked up the nerve to try this one today.

in the bottle-- anise on top, something dark and dusky underneath. it has some promise to be an interesting scent, and it's not classically "perfumey" really at all.

on me, i definitely got anise and some other interesting stuff going on. unfortunately, the other stuff quickly turned to baby powder, which is bad enough, but with anise on top.

in a word-- gag. this one is not for me. i think my swap pile started today.

Posted by lisa at 11:34 PM

bettah

MORE...

Posted by lisa at 12:47 PM

July 01, 2005

target disk mode roxx

was able to boot the powerbook to firewire target disk mode and got mail, documents, and most of my music off of it before the hard drive got stuck. i'll let it cool down overnight and see if i can get more in the morning.

anyone know where my itunes playlists might live?

things i'm real glad fer:

there is one thing i could probably use a hand with. my recording of FDDF tonight failed. i tried to copy down the ogg stream and couldn't get it to download (update july 2: got it!); even if i can, chances are not good that i can get it converted to a format that iTunes likes (this is still true). is there anyone with a way to convert ogg to mp3 who would be willing to try and pull down the show and make me an mp3 of it? it was from 6-8pm tonight.

anyway, i've got Mail kinda configured so i can feel like i'm reading it somewhat normally, and i'm getting "moved in" to my temporary digs on the cube. all of this makes me want to do something about the hard drives on the ibooks. would be nice to have a laptop right now!

Posted by lisa at 10:11 PM

DO YOUR BACKUPS!

came home today to a hard drive failure on my powerbook. i'll try and recover data myself over the weekend but who knows?? my elaborate BPAL spreadsheet-- and the mailing addresses of everyone who wanted to participate in the postcard exchange-- may be lost.

anyway. back up those computers, people! don't put it off! and if you don't have a place to back up to, google for a way to use a gmail account as a backup drive. it's slick.

quote on hard drive replacement isn't too bad-- $316.

Posted by lisa at 05:13 PM

on air tonight - Funk Disco Dance Friday

my first foray into Funk Disco Dance Friday will occur tonight from 6-8pm ET!

too bad we're not actually broadcasting... on the airwaves anyway.

wxdu.org is the only way to hear it. playlist will be accessible from the wxdu.org home page.

i have pulled many of my own records (yes, RECORDS) for the occasion. i do not know if it will be more Funk, or more Disco... but regardless, there will be Dance.

Posted by lisa at 02:00 PM