« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 30, 2005

the hottest song i have heard in a long time

offa "studio one scorcher", "shockers rock" by an all-star cast of: Tommy McCook, Richard Ace, The Skatalites And Disco Height.

this makes me think of a room full of hot, sweaty people getting down so hard that the floor is bending underneath you, like that party at rick!'s old house.

it has this crazy break in the middle where it seems like the song ends, then immediately picks up into a new song that then becomes the old one. might be jarring to people who are seriously getting their groove on (as they should be), but nevertheless: hot, hot hot.

p.s., the thing about being drunk is that it may not get me to bed any earlier, but i just don't care anymore how tired and sleep-deprived my sorry ass am.

Posted by lisa at 12:33 AM

September 29, 2005

A VERY HOT PLACE

Saturday, October 29th - Halloween party at the Charming English Cottage of Death.

Costumes optional. Zombies welcome. The music will be vastly improved over previous years. You might even want to dance to it.

You're invited. If I actually know you, you'll be getting an email. But even if you're a blurker, you're invited. Might want to let me know you're coming, though.

Posted by lisa at 08:46 AM

the sleep, it eludes me

having had maybe four or five hours of sleep each night this week, you would think that at 1am i would be slumbering peacefully. exhaustion, a hot bath, and a full dose of melatonin and i am still awake.

my brain is in overdrive at night, but it's all i can do to push myself through the days. and work needs me all there, all the time. there are problems to be solved. i stared drooling like a human vegetable at a simple screen for three hours this afternoon and it was pushing the limits of my abilities to format it.

and, apparently, the radio station needs me all there too. there were rumblings today about the languishing web site re-design. you know, the site i did in 1997 that i've been promising to re-design ever since? it was the first site i ever did, and it's astounding that it still stands.

i'll admit, i've had an unusual source of intellectual stimulation lately. i know that's what's really keeping me awake.

Posted by lisa at 01:05 AM

September 27, 2005

all hair, all the time

it was like an herbal essence commercial up in the studio tonight.

:|:

young trainee: i just know i'm going to screw something up.
old geezer: well, i can't tell you how many times i screwed up tonight, and i've been a dj since 1988
metal show guy: in 1988, i was in second grade.
young trainee: in 1988, i was two.

Posted by lisa at 10:56 PM

my mom is awesome, episode #512

mom: here, do you want to pick the wine? (hands me the wine list)
me: i probably shouldn't have any wine.
mom: why?
me: because i'm trying to lose weight.
mom: well, i think that you should ALWAYS have wine.

:|:

in other family news, one of my brothers "kind of actually" has a girlfriend and wants the 'rents to meet her. aww.

Posted by lisa at 01:03 PM

September 26, 2005

on air tomorrow night

that would be TUESDAY. 8-10pm. 88.7fm or wxdu.org/listen. stalkers welcome!

Posted by lisa at 09:26 PM

SuperGeekyIdea

i was reading some patterns web sites today, trying to find some kind of standard for indicating that a new window will open when an action is performed in a web page.

the confluence of that with an IM conversation resulted in this idea: a pattern language of geeks.

silly geek patterns i devised on the spot:

SuperLazyGeek (that's me)
IndustriousGeek
HeadInTheCloudsGeek - the kind of geek who is all theory, no implementation.
BBsWereGreatGeek - the kind of geek that hung around on BBS back in the day and hasn't gotten over the fact that they are gone. A subset of RetroGeek.
RetroGeek - Geek that values old-school technology highly. Likely to be heating their residence with old Alpha boxes. A MacQuarium is not out of the question.

i could go on. i know there are at least a few geeks reading this, what are the Geek Patterns you can see?

Posted by lisa at 01:52 PM

highly efficient chicken soup

for when you need something cheap, fast, good, and not detrimental to your health.

take some of that frozen boneless skinless chicken you've got in the freezer, and that box of nice vegetable stock from the natural foods store, and poach the chicken in a little broth over very low heat while you go to the kroger and hit up the produce section for veggies that seem likely, such as string beans, an onion, and some mushrooms.

when you get home drain off the broth, which is now icky, put the chicken aside and wash out the pot.

heat some olive oil in the pot. chop the onion and sweat it in the oil with the lid on.

decide to add a tablespoon of minced garlic.

prepare the green beans. be happy the mushrooms are already cleaned and sliced. dump it all in and let it sweat with the onions while you...

pull the chicken apart with two forks. it's good that way, in soup.

put the chicken and the rest of the broth in the pot. consider that a little more salt would be nice, but decide that none of the herbs in the garden are quite right for this soup.

simmer. eat. feel good.

Posted by lisa at 12:39 PM

September 25, 2005

yes let it be fall

after the movie last night, sarah announced, "okay, it is offically fall now."

i think as of today, i will grudgingly align myself with that statement. i have a much, much stronger desire to be outside than i have all summer. i have started walking daily again and it's not a struggle, it's lovely.

i took a hard look at myself-- my physical self-- and i wasn't happy. a summer of depression and out-of-control hypoglycemia has taken a toll. it's time i reclaimed some things that i lost this year.

i feel a strong need to be outdoors as much as possible.

Posted by lisa at 05:30 PM

September 20, 2005

today sucked but there was a frog

today sucked but then christa invited me over to swim in the pool and there was little tiny frog on the ladder the whole time, he was cute.

for the record, this whole year has sucked so far, and although i can intellectually see good things that i got out of every broken bone, heart, and near death experience, i am just not feeling it. not today, and not most days.

i just wish it would rain.

Posted by lisa at 07:47 PM

September 18, 2005

something weird happens every time i go to bahama

"I don't even know where this is," said b. i was starting to recognize things, though. "it's b.. b..." then we passed the bahama fire department and i said, "oh, bahama! hey, the last time i was in bahama this weird thing happened..."

and then b. hit a curve a little fast and i shut up so as not to distract him. the tires squealed and another car was oncoming, so he corrected a bit and-- told me later-- lifted off the gas pedal. the problem is that when you do that in a light, powerful rear-engine car, such as the one we were in, the rear end suddenly becomes lighter and tends to swing around. this is not good when you're also on a curve and heading into it a little fast.

b. corrected a couple of times and i thought he had it, but then finally the back end swung all the way around, we crossed the other lane and i could see some trees coming. i thought i was screwed-- the trees were on the passenger side.

but the crazy thing was that we were ok. we landed in a nice, soft ditch, between some pine trees and a telephone pole-- ass end down, of course, since the back end is so heavy. b. asked me if i was ok, and i said i was. i never even let go of spacepod's keys or lost my glasses. i didn't even get the shakes. just laughed about how lucky we were after we got out of the car and looked at how intact it was.

then we were kinda stuck for a while, waiting on a tow. the fire department came first, then a couple of state troopers.

the tow truck took us up to hillsboro, to b.'s mechanic. there were some awesome cars in the yard, including a rusted-out citroen 2cv, which i was pretty excited about.

anyway, it was a long strange day; i didn't eat lunch until about 6pm (i was about to go get some when b. said, "wanna go for a ride in the porsche?") but except for the whole near-death experience it was actually kinda fun.

i probably need to get out of the house more.

Edit: b.'s photos from the scene.

Posted by lisa at 09:13 PM

September 16, 2005

BPAL - Fruit Moon, Numb, The Star

MORE...

Posted by lisa at 02:09 PM

September 13, 2005

one hot show

holy sweating dj's batman! it's gotta be at least three hundred degrees up here in the main studio!

i really didn't have my wits about me to come up with something that coherent during my show tonight, but if i had, i would have.

obviously, i still don't really have it together.

also, one of the web streams was fuxored, so on the off chance that any far-away people tried to listen to my show, i apologize if you were unable.

also, i cannot speak the good english. i know this. you should have heard my voice breaks.

toward the very end of my show, i started to feel dizzy. that's how hot it was.

i am home now and resting comfortably with a tall glass of ice water. what i can't understand is why i didn't get any chocolate product of any sort when i went grocery shopping last. i'm actually having serious thoughts of sallying forth to find some somewhere, although i am sure that would be very unwise and i should just stay home.

but i really want some chocolate.

i have this whole thing i'm going to write about how my record collection sucks, but maybe i'll wait until i can sort of put together sentences again.

Posted by lisa at 10:29 PM

on air tonight

from 8-10pm et
88.7fm
wxdu.org/listen

playlist here.

Posted by lisa at 12:36 AM

September 12, 2005

she lives!

jason! came over this evening and we successfully jump-started the westy. i got to drive her around the neighborhood! yay!! i love driving her.

so, now i know i need a proper charger (turns out my charger doesn't actually charge-- and isn't strong enough to jump the westy), some jumper cables, and i might need to fiddle with or replace a wire.

anyway. yay! and once i get her charged back up again, i promise to leave her unplugged and drive her regularly. because she roooolz.

Posted by lisa at 09:40 PM

September 11, 2005

get 'em where it will really hurt

as most of you know, i've been using the Nerve online personals for many years now.

this entry was going to be all about how not to introduce a new web app to a group of users whose trust you already have. last week, the nerve personals converted from Spring Street Networks to FriendFinder, a company that bought out Spring Street. The transition has been... rough.

so rough that a group of devoted Nerve users have started a LJ community to bitch and try and find a way to make it better or an alternative.

well, it turns out that the people who run FriendFinder are total crooks. and they've got the personal information-- including credit card, birthdate, full name and e-mail address-- of thousands of people who trusted SpringStreet over the years. it wasn't just Nerve that used SpringStreet-- it was The Onion, Salon, Bust, and many more.

i'm fortunate-- any credit card number they'd have for me is at least five years old and invalid now. i've been warning my friends that i know may be affected by this. for some people this is probably going to be a total nightmare.

i'm sad for the loss of this online place i'd gotten used to over the years, even though i haven't been interested in anyone there in a while. i feel completely betrayed by SpringStreet.

Posted by lisa at 08:41 PM

September 10, 2005

yet more car-related fun

i have to say that the drive-in was pretty awesome. the starlite was packed and it is really good to see it that way again.

the vw turnout was better than i anticipated. four new beetles, two old beetles, and the transporterwerks double cab transporter, which is a very cool vehicle. the vintage vw folks were very friendly and i got to know a couple of them a little. the owner of transporterwerks was interested in discussing biodiesel, as were a lot of the other vintage folks.

i had heard a rumor that he put a TDI in a vanagon once, so I asked him about that. he said that he never has, and talked about how it's always problematic to do that, takes a lot of time and creates a domino effect of issues. so i think i'm going to table the idea of putting a TDI in the westy someday. he's probably the only person locally who would do something like that.

he said that if there is eventually a standard way of doing it, and it's relatively simple, only then would he consider it.

i didn't expect to enjoy the movie as much as i did. i dunno, something about seeing the little beetle racing the big cars affects me. i'm a sap for a cute vw.

i did stay for part of the second movie so i could hang out with my pal b— who i'd not seen in a long time. he gave me a sip of the new super-mega-alcoholic beer, damn that stuff is good. despite the fact that b— is a fairly entertaining person with whom to watch a silly movie, i didn't stay for the whole thang.

on the way home i met two girls walking down the street. they stopped and told me all about how cool it was to hear the blues from the stone bros parking lot.

Posted by lisa at 11:42 PM

adventures in the industrial zone

seems like a good time to finally switch to b99 biodiesel. that's fuel that is 99% made from recycled vegetable oil.

tried to call the local guy who got the tank put in in durham, then tried to call the co-op. no answer, so i just went on down to the tank to see what's what. figured i'd walk away empty-handed but it's close, so that was ok with me.

oh, how i love the industrial zone. the combination of nature and junked cars and cement plants and unexpected businesses (a funeral parlor, f'instance) makes me excited.

the tank is behind the fence of a mechanic's yard. the mechanic was there and he explained-- you join the co-op, call the local guy and he gives you a key code so you can fill up any time the yard is open.

all pretty cool. i can probably get it all arranged before my current tank runs out.

plus i got those photos of the english car place. they totally need to get sarah to model for them with that mini for an ad.

Posted by lisa at 01:25 PM

September 08, 2005

sigh

ok, now i really, really, really, really, really, really want to go to NY.

before i only just really, really, really wanted to go.

Posted by lisa at 10:04 PM

History of federal disaster response in the US

A history of federal response on msnbc.com.

This is a little too glossy for me to feel as if I know I'm getting correct, validated information from it, but if it is correct, it seems to demonstrate that well-funded, well-organized disaster relief from the federal level can be a tremendous, tremendous boon. Bush wanted the feds out of the disaster relief business, and wanted it to be handled on the state and local level-- but either the states didn't get that memo, or it simply doesn't work well that way.

Over and over I have read accounts of resources that did not get to the people that needed them because of red tape, beaurocracy, and no one being in charge. 300 ambulances from Florida that never could get permission to go to NOLA. Resources from Chicago, offered but never accepted. Jets from West Virginia, that flew to LA and returned empty because no one would fill them. A Navy hospital ship that happened to be in the Gulf Coast area, sitting empty days after the levee broke. Buses sitting by the side of the road, within eyeshot of refugees, empty and unmoving. I don't have the links for all of this, you'll have to take my word that I have read all of this over the last few days.

I am a big believer in social services, because I believe they make the world a place that we would all actually like to live in. I want to live in a world where people's basic needs are met, and where education is available to all who want it. Government can help and serve the people who fund it. FEMA is a government agency that has served us well in the past, and can again if we elect a President who is actually capable of feeling compassion for the American people.

Posted by lisa at 12:37 PM

we are TOTALLY gonna get down

i'll be hosting Funk Disco Dance Friday tomorrow evening from 6-8pm ET.

88.7fm if you happen to be in Durham, NC, USA, Earth at that time. wxdu.org/listen if not.

live playlist will magically appear here.

Posted by lisa at 10:19 AM

September 07, 2005

dreaming of pools

the other day, i bought one of those discount pools. i'm going to store it in the basement until next summer.

last night i had two dreams about swimming in pools.

in the first, i wanted to apply for a job, but had to swim in a pool to get the application, which was at the bottom of the pool.

in the second, i visited an acquaintance. he had an amazing late 60's era house that had never been changed or renovated, but was extremely well-preserved. it was such an amazing place. it had two swimming pools, in-ground, under a roof but with live grass growing between them. we swam in the lap pool. i was wearing a little dress and didn't have a bathing suit to change into but got into the water anyway.

my acquaintance had an amazing all-over tattoo, but not one of those solid ones, there was skin space between the images, which were very bright and started running in the water.

anyway, dreaming about two different pools in one night would seem to indicate that i have made a good call by obtaining one for myself.

Posted by lisa at 09:38 PM

Perhaps the worst of all

This personal account from a NOLA refugee/survivor is, to me, one of the worst things I've read so far in all of this.

Posted by lisa at 07:22 PM

The Katrina timeline

Via Steph, and as she says, it's utterly damning.

The Katrina Timeline.

Posted by lisa at 06:40 PM

September 06, 2005

the world we made

i finally went back to the westy tonight. i've been feeling some irrational anxiety about my upcoming physical, and working on the van helped me work some of that out. there's something about power tools that helps me feel like i'm in charge of things.

i'm sure my anxiety is about more than just whether they're going to find some horrible disease when i have my physical. there's that awful feeling like it's the end times, too.

if i wasn't so sure that the storms were worse now and that the summers were hotter, and that global warming was behind it all, well, i'm sure of it now, and that gives me a deeply out of control feeling.

and then there's the fact that our country seems to sort of be unravelling at the same time. i've read a lot of stuff over the last week, stuff about how we have resources, but can't seem to get them to the people who are starving, dying of heat exhaustion and thirst, chronic medical conditions gone untreated, and drowning. the thing that sticks with me most, though, is this piece on how Cuba handles evacuations. The sentence about how we have "zero social capital" is what really sticks with me.

i don't have any great points to make here. i'm just sad, and i fear that our country will unravel into chaos before my lifetime is over. we made this world, and i don't know that we can fix it.

i've done as much as possible financially for the katrina rescue efforts, both for people and for animals. people in the neighborhood are talking about going down to mississippi with supplies, i don't know if i'll do anything like that, we'll see. there's some debate as to whether they will be allowed in.

in the meantime, i lead my normal life. i get to have three nice meals a day and sleep in my big soft bed. i have health care on demand. i'm quite fortunate. i do feel guilty but...

maybe we will be the next victims of nature. we have been before, and i am sure we will be again.

i think that if you have a normal life to lead, and you've done what you can for the people who don't, you should at least take a little joy in leading your normal life while you have the chance to. be happy that you are running errands and bored at work and sitting in traffic. really.

Posted by lisa at 09:52 PM

Herbie at the drive-in!

I mentioned to the Starlite folks that if they booked the new Herbie movie, I'd promote it to every VW club I could find in the area. Initially they told me that they only book first-runs... but they changed their mind and booked Herbie anyway!

This Saturday, September 10th, I'm encouraging all local VW folks to come out in force for the screening.

If you know anyone with a VW who might be up for this, tell them to git on out there!

Of course, Friends of VW's are also quite welcome. You know who you are!

Check out the fab new Starlite web site for lots of details.

Posted by lisa at 06:21 PM

September 05, 2005

The Catcher in the Rye Glossary

I got it into my head to read 'Catcher in the Rye' again. I must have nearly memorized it in high school, because every sentence seems deeply familiar.

It's not the thrill ride it used to be; I guess I was a whiny, depressed teenager when I first read it, which prevented me from noticing what a whiny, depressed teenager Holden Caulfield is.

What is clear to me now is what a distinctive vocabulary Caulfield has. I learned many words, most of them useless, by reading this book. Useless, because most are offensive, misogynist, and homophobic, and I guess even at a young age I realized that on some level. Or just really dated.

The one thing I remember distinctly still is the passage where he talks about riding the bus next to the headmaster's daughter. He says she wore "those falsies that point all over the place", and I remember I could never figure out if he meant false fingernails or false boobs. Both would, of course, be pointy. I realize now that he definitely means boobs.

Here are some words that this book either introduced me to or clarified for me in a particular way.

phony: I'm sure I knew this word prior to reading this book, but I was probably more familiar with the Scooby Doo meaning, ie, phony twenty-dollar bill, phony ghost, phony monster... reading CitR made it very, very, very clear that a person can be phony.

goddamn: I knew this word, too, from when I would make my mom very angry. Reading CitR was a great way to ensure that I really knew it, and had some idea of the frequency with which it could actually be employed.

Gladstone: I had no idea what a Gladstone was the first time I read this book. From context, I determined that it is some kind of suitcase.

grippe: I think this might mean the flu?

flit: Well, that's a fairly offensive one. I'll let you take a wild guess at its meaning because I'm frankly embarassed even writing it here. Fortunately, it appears that I had the good sense not to incorporate it into my vocabulary.

Phoebe: I had no idea how to pronounce this name the first several times I read the book. In my mind I said "fobe", with a long O.

give her the time: I think this mainly refers to having sex, but it might also refer generally to heavy petting.

a throw: It was fairly clear from context that this meant a single act of love. Well... not love exactly, I guess... since it was supposed to be with a prostitute.

that just slays me: This was a phrase I loved immediately and have long since incorporated it into my repertoire, but I often get the feeling that people have no idea what I mean when I say it, so I don't say it very often out loud.

Posted by lisa at 10:09 PM

...and here's one i didn't think of

Gas Prices Drive Man to Commute by Horse

Posted by lisa at 12:22 PM

September 04, 2005

want to improve your fuel mileage?

This is an issue i've been concerned with since i bought my first new car in 1993. This week I've had a lot of people want to discuss biodiesel with me, many more than usual. People are waking up to the fact that we can't live the way we've been living. Sadly, a hit to the pocketbook is the thing that got everyone's attention, even though the larger picture of air quality, global warming, and finite resources has been well known for decades.

I don't do all of these things myself, but it is good to at least know and be aware of the ways in which an individual can reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, particularly fuels for transportation, which is what I'll be focusing on here.

drive less

the best way to save fuel is to drive less. we all know that staying at home, walking, biking, carpooling, van-pooling, and riding public transportation are good ways to drive less. here are some things that most people don't think about doing.

idle less

be a better driver

drive a more efficient vehicle

we have a fairly skewed idea of "need" in this country. there are families, businesses and even individuals that need the towing capacity, passenger space and cargo space of an SUV. but we all know that many, many people who drive large vehicles do not really need them.

when selecting a vehicle, assess what you really need. what did your parents drive while you were growing up? during my childhood, my mom drove a '65 vw beetle, then a '78 honda cvcc, then moved on to small station wagons. even with four kids in the house at any given time, she didn't need anything more than that.

driving one of the slowest vehicles on the road-- an '82 diesel vw camper that gets 50hp on a really good day and weighs two and a half tons-- has been eye-opening. how much power do i really need? if i'm willing to avoid interstates, not very much. ok, most people aren't willing to avoid interstates and i'm one of them, but the truth is that we don't need lots of power under the hood. it can be fun, but it's wasteful. i've also come to appreciate that on short trips, driving slowly down back roads is damned fun and oddly, does not take that much longer. on long trips, it's still damned fun. last fall's drive into the VA mountains was one of the best drives of my life and damn, i sure miss driving her these days. slow is nice.

here are my suggestions:

biofuels can help, but be careful

I've been using commercially produced biodiesel for a few years now, but i recently found out that the fresh vegetable oil stock that it's produced from is grown using petrochemical fertilizers. So it's kind of a wash in terms of reducing dead dino usage.

Biodiesel, for those who haven't read my car lately, is diesel fuel made from vegetable oil. Vegetable oil + lye + methanol + agitation = biodiesel and glycerine. You can do this at home in a blender on a very small scale; to produce more fuel, i've met people who just used a big tub and an oar, or hacked something out of an old washing machine from the junkyard.

Piedmont biofuels is a co-op in Pittsboro, NC that makes biodiesel and it's increasingly available around the triangle. check out their web site.

Any diesel vehicle can run on biodiesel without modifications. Diesels can also run on straight, unrefined vegetable oil, kerosene, and a variety of other things. Biodiesel, petro-diesel, and vegetable oil can be combined freely in the fuel tank. The diesel engine was originally designed to run on vegetable oil, the intent being that farmers could be self-sufficient and grow the fuel they needed to run their tractors.

Many diesel owners are retrofitting their vehicles to run on waste vegetable oil, or WVO. A second fuel tank is added to the vehicle to store the WVO, which you can get for free from any restaurant that has a fryolator and a friendly manager. The car is started on a refined fuel (diesel or biodiesel) and then switched over to WVO. The driver switches back to refined fuel at the end of the trip, so that's what's in the fuel lines when the vehicle is started again. VO tends to "gel", which is why it's not ideal to start the car on it.

There's a Piedmont Biofuels pump in downtown Durham and my next task along the path toward eliminating petrochemicals from my life is to go check it out and start filling up there.

I also plan to more seriously consider the dual-tank WVO conversion for the Westy, and possibly for Spacepod as well.

hybrids aren't automatically the answer

be sure to consider the total cost of ownership of any vehicle. maintenance prices, reliability, even tire costs can surprise you. the cost of replacing the big battery in a hybrid can be $1000 or more, and recycling of the old battery isn't necessarily guaranteed.

the only hybrid that interests me personally is the insight; a golf, beetle, or jetta tdi will get comparable or better mileage to all the rest of them and can be run on alternative fuels. hybrids have the advantage in terms of emissions-- they are, essentially, zero emissions vehicles. does biodiesel run through an efficient, modern diesel such as the TDI improve the emissions? yes. is it comparable to a hybrid's emissions? probably not, but the debate rages on. nevertheless, less fuel in means fewer emissions out. that's basic.

here's what biodiesel proponents have to say about emissions. here's some more.

what am i doing?

the main things i am doing now are: planning my driving for max efficiency and driving reaaaallllyyy slowwwlllyyyy. yesterday i had a large SUV stay at a safe distance behind me for several miles as i was tooling down the Durham Freeway with my cruise control set at 55mph. maybe by driving slowly, i can lead by example.

Posted by lisa at 08:33 PM

BPAL - sniff-fest #2, Swank, Dorian

MORE...

Posted by lisa at 03:45 PM

September 02, 2005

snifflefest! tomorrow!

want to sniff pretty things? anyone is welcome. sarah, alicia and i will be meeting at caffe driade saturday at 3pm to share our bpal. i have tons and tons of stuff that i am ready to sell or swap, too, so even if you are a bpal neophyte, you needn't walk away empty-handed.

:|:

coming later this weekend, a blog entry on how i justify the triviality of my life in the face of total disaster in my own country. short answer: i don't know. also, how to really get better fuel mileage in your car.

Posted by lisa at 10:31 AM

September 01, 2005

ooh, update

i woke up quite early this morning, not due to my alarm going off or needing to pee. just.. woke up.

laid in bed.

checked the clock: hey, it's early.

thought.

then realized: ooh, the update!

as i got out of bed i noticed i'd forgotten to set my alarm last night.

:|:

the update is, of course, the bpal halloween scents going online. i had long since figured out that anything i actually wanted to have by halloween i'd need to order today. today is 2 months plus one week til october 31st. fortunately, the lab figured this out, too, and just barely made them available in time.

i recall as i was contemplating my order that i came up with some kind of gun metaphor, but i don't recall what it was. maybe something about shooting my credit card or myself or a smoking gun or... i dunno.

but, i knew it would be this way. i have such a deep attachment to halloween that i knew this update would empty my bpal coffers. what i didn't bargain on was the Poe-inspired limited edition set in addition to the halloween stuff. i can't even process that yet... my head is swimming with notes and descriptions... patchouli, neroli, clove, pumpkin, dry woods, pine forests...

to be quite honest, i think this is a hobby that will be declining a little after today. or hibernating a bit. i need to process the sensory overload that's sitting on the music stand in my bedroom, and i need to let my credit card rest and recuperate, and i really really need to spend more of my time on things like the BRSP, the van, and the hizzouse. i smell quite groovy enough already.

Posted by lisa at 08:54 AM