Category Archives: goodness

goodness, life, manfolk

Disneyland!

I was so scared of her and her crow

Boyfriend and I went to Disneyland last week for our 4-year anniversary.  It was totally exhausting but super fun.  He had never been on the teacups!  I got video of him turning the wheel and getting dizzy.  I got to sit in the driver’s seat at the Indiana Jones ride (which broke down on us the first time).  The Haunted Mansion broke down on us, too; there was a hitch-hiking ghost sitting right between us on the way out.  We ate a turkey leg and a pineapple soft-serve ice cream and gumbo and a churro, walked through the princess castle, rode Pirates twice, shot lasers on the Buzz Lightyear ride (I got a way higher score than Boyfriend!), and saw no fewer than 34 little girls dressed up as princesses.

Boyfriend and I have discussed how Sleeping Beauty is probably our favorite of the old Disney cartoons.  The thorns, the green flames, the sparkly sword, the giant black dragon!  It’s just the best.

Mom asked if he and I had a “big talk” since we’ve been together so long.  I said, “No.  Our plan remains the same: Stay together as long as we’re happy.”  She didn’t seem satisfied, but Sister got a text from some boy she’s smitten about and distracted us by grinning stupidly 🙂

Boyfriend has been really busy with work recently.  He did a 9-day shoot in K-town, then we did Disneyland, then he left for San Francisco for a few days.  He got back last night, and left again this morning for a shoot someplace else for a few days.  I’m not super jazzed about it.  We slept apart last night.  I can’t get all attached if he’s just going to leave again.

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goodness, life

Sky art

We’ve had some really heavy rain yesterday that cleared up by afternoon to create these gorgeous clouds as I left work in Redondo Beach.  We don’t get clouds like this much.  That was something I love about London; I was always looking up.

poofy and moody and magnificent

Even when it didn’t rain, the sky was just beautiful.  I wish we could have clouds like this all the time.  Below is the view from my balcony as of Monday afternoon.

sunshine and electrical wires

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goodness

Melting bunnies

How could I have forgotten about this?  I can’t believe I let Easter come and go without posting this.  I was totally hypnotized by this video and it’s haunting music when I first found it.

Have a look at the Lernert & Sander website for other simple-yet-awesome videos.  They do really weird, fun stuff.

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badness, goodness, life

Oh, Imaginary Thing, please protect me from this other Imaginary Thing

faith's all, CHILL, I GOT THIS

What I love (read: despise) about religion is that it claims to be the only cure for a problem it creates.  That’s like stealing everyone’s light bulbs, then “helpfully” selling them flashlights.

Leave it to the Flemish painters of the 16th century to illustrate this idea perfectly.  Check out this drawing by Maarten van Heemskerck, entitled “Man Protected By the Shield of Faith.”

As if the devil (whose penis is a forked tongue, and knees are capped with beast heads, because being the devil isn’t enough, apparently you really have to illustrate it with messed up genitalia and patellas) isn’t a fabrication of the very faith that claims to protect man from him.  Without religion, faith and the devil disappear, and this illustration becomes a drawing of a man playing a game of “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.”

But then, without  the talent of Flemish artists to freak us out, and religion to freak them out, we wouldn’t have paintings like this one by Joos van Cleve, where Jesus is totally ripped and wearing a Superman cape while squashing some poor fat putti (tiny pudgy angel kids).  I recall from my art history classes (which I loved) that Jesus is often depicted as physically fit when placed in a Last Judgement scene, which this is.  Still hilarious, though.  “He died for your sins, then went to Gold’s gym to pump iron and check out the ladies on the treadmills.”

meanwhile, everyone in the foreground is all, WTF WHY DID WE BRING OUR BED SHEETS TO THE APOCALYPSE FML

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goodness, humor, life, nerd

It is a silly place

magnificent

Diminutive Roommate had a medical scare recently, and was super stressed about it.  Teacher Roommate offered to do a puppet show to cheer her up, and she took the offer seriously.  I decided we should do a musical, and the first song that came to mind was “Knights of the Round Table” from Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail.

Teacher Roommate is quite the artist, so she was on sock puppet duty.  I learned the basic chords on the ukulele to play the song so we had some instrumental to sing along with.  The guy who got us into ukulele came to play with me, and another friend came to play the king puppet and one of the little knight puppets.  We needed a castle to use for Camelot, so Teacher Roommate got her postcard from Harry Potter World and propped it up in front of the pot we used for the bridge where people’s helmets get banged on with a wooden spoon.

It was… total chaos, but Diminutive Roommate was super pleased.  We had a blast, ate some strawberries, drank some beer, and humiliated ourselves to put on a ridiculous show for a friend.  Worth it.

the bureau made for a fine stage

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goodness, humor

Still str8 against H8

This collection of pro-gay marriage protest signs made me smile today.  Nothing like a sense of humor to invigorate your cause.

My personal favorites:

LMAO

"get back in the car, honey."

finally, irrefutable evidence

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goodness, humor, work

Free food!

A meeting I organize every other month went well yesterday, and as usual, we had a ton of food left over from the catering.  We did what we usually do: we took it back to the office to feed the starving students.  Sometimes people don’t understand that food left on the counter in the small kitchen area we have in the office is free-for-all, so I was sure to make a sign everyone would understand, and, more than that, would flood the onlooker with warmth and a sense that this food really was meant for general human consumption, devoid of any financial commitment.

mission accomplished

When I was a student, I used to get a calzone and salad with a drink almost every day I had class for at least a year.  The line was obscenely long around the lunch hour, so one day, since I was in a hurry, I just walked out.  I was in a hurry, and almost broke anyway, so I figured what the hell?  If anyone stopped me, I would say I was just saying hi to a friend, and jump back in line.

I ended up getting away with it, only to discover that stolen food tastes better than food I’ve exchanged for currency.  This is not a fluke; every item of food I’ve ever stolen has always tasted better than when I pay for it.  How fucked up is that?  But I didn’t make the rules.  These are FACTS.  I’m just acutely aware of them.

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goodness

Holy shit, I’m such a fucking adult right now

I had the inexplicable urge to see The Phantom of the Opera today.  I had such a craving to hear “Think of Me” that I found it on YouTube and played it at my desk at work.  I’m listening to it right now.  What a voice.  Holy shit.

I saw the play when it was at the Ahmanson Theater downtown as a child.  Of course I remember the part where the chandelier goes over the audience, but more vividly I recall when the phantom loses his mask, and the woman he has captured picks it up and offers it to him.  I was struck by her kindness in the face of his… well, obvious lunacy (and, let’s be honest, hideousness).  I recall the moment with perfect clarity; her extending the mask to him with her right hand in a pale, overflowing gown, him crouched on the floor, hiding his face in shame.

It’s playing in Las Vegas.  I might have to make a weekend out of it (if I had a weekend).  MIGHT HAVE TO QUIT KARATE JOB ANOTHER WEEK EARLY MUAHAHAHA.

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goodness

Ukulele case!

My ukulele case arrived!

on our brand new couch/giant chair

It’s so cute and soft, and it does an excellent job of holding my ukulele for me.  It came all the way from Thailand via Etsy!  It has a shoulder strap that I’ll use when I ride my bike to the beach to play my ukulele on the sand, in the sun.  It arrived in a brown paper package tied up with string.  I shit you not.  See?

Maria was right after all

It’s much better than the cardboard box it was delivered in, although I must admit, I will miss it a little.  I even decorated it a little 🙂

look at how pleased armless me is

 

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goodness, humor

Teacher Roommate made my day

Teacher Roommate can be very… blunt and to the point with herself.  This comes out in little ways like how she writes little reminders to herself in terse little messages on the back of her left hand, or in the titles of the alarms on her iPhone.

Her dad is in town on a visit.  They are the drinkin’est family I have ever heard of (aside from the Australians I encountered when I visited my family in Tasmania).  Naturally, when I get home around 730, they’ve already been out drinking for a while.  We texted back and forth for a bit about the internet debacle (now fixed), and how her dad helped her set it up (thanks dad!).  Then I receive this non-sequitur gem:

her awkwardness is my LOL

And my day has been made.  Thank you Teacher Roommate.

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