walking on the beaches, looking at the peaches

Things I have gotten totally pumped about within the last few hours, end to end, causing me to kind of want to tell everyone about it despite being surrounded by squares:

• Pose Drawing!!!! I've been doing 90-second stints, and am already feeling a lot more confident in my grasp of anatomy. Especially drawing heads with the egg-shape method.
• The following songs:
  - Ratatat - "Alps"
  - Queen - "I Want to Break Free"
  - The Everly Brothers - "Cathy's Clown"
  - Homestuck - "Crystamanthequins" and "Three In The Morning (RJ's I Can Barely Sleep In This Casino Mix)"
• David Lynch's Blue Velvet (feat. Kyle MacLachlan. Jegus.)

• Getting a new computer through a combination of Brock's enduring generosity and forking some cash over to the fine fellows at Newegg. I WILL DRAW SO MANY THINGS ON MY NEW LARGE MONITOR SCREEN! Note: the last time I acquired a new computer was in 2004, hopy shit.

Lately my favorite activity at work has been not doing work, because there is none to do. That's fine with me. I just wish bringing in my Wacom tablet was acceptable, to say nothing of potentially functional with these shit computers.

OKAY PEACE EVERYONE

INTERNET CONNECTION

1) The title of this tumblr... blog... whatsit expresses my general feeling about work and/or most of my life a lot of the time!

2) via the above:

Ohhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

voracious appetites for the following

For the past two days there's been little work to do in the office, and I've been exhaustively consuming internets. Main topics of focus:

1) Graphic design. [see: ffffound.com]
1a) Especially wedding-related graphic design. (Part of my broader wedding obsession.)
1b) Typography.

[Hnnggngnghrhghghggh LOOK AT IT. Semilia, via designworklife.com]

2) Fashion.
3) Names. NAMES!

I want to muse about 3, and also bring in a smattering of 1a. Most of the sites that discuss names have a baby naming focus, which I sometimes feel slightly self-conscious about. I own a book called the Baby Name Wizard, but I'm not in a hurry to pump any kids out in the next half-decade or more. The thing is, most people only have occasion to give names much in-depth thought when they have a freshly birthed child - or one still ripening in the baby cave - who really needs one (by societal demand, it's generally not considered okay to refer to your infant as "the baby" or "that dude" exclusively for any appreciable length of time). So, the outcome of this is that naming trends are discussed with very close ties to babies and the world of child rearing. Of course, there are other occasions on which a person might give names a lot of consideration - when naming a character in your novel, or creating a roleplaying persona, or researching your family's geneaology - but I think it's safe to say that most of these other instances apply mostly to giant nerds. [As a name nerd, I have named more of my material possessions than I think is typical: my laptop, both automobiles I've owned, several pieces of wall art, a ceramic owl figurine, a non-ceramic owl figurine, and a smattering of other objects.]

In a sort of related way, I can almost make the claim that graphic design, decorating style, fashion elements, and photogenic food are all tied together most frequently in the world of wedding planning. But, in actuality, the internet and Martha Stewart have generated shit-tons of blogs dedicated to Pretty Things all converging together for other purposes, like baby showers and whale releasing parties. The reality is that I just like weddings. I like sentimental speeches and emotional convergences of entire lives, and I especially like fancy shoes and party dresses (and parties).

[from bubblesmcgilicutty's flickr set "bird and squirrel wedding"]

So, while I can do a lot of hand-waving and back myself up as a non-child-wanter who just really likes musing on the comparative popularities of Zenith and Charles, I got no excuse for the wedding obsession. I want one, some day. The fact that I have designed several different versions of theoretical wedding invitations in the past few years is only partially excused by my love of graphic design and fonts. The only thing I solidly have going for my defense here is that I ain't in it for the fancy show without any care for the meaning and the marriage to follow. I relish the glitz and the energy of weddings, but I am powerfully moved by the commitment of marriage. I ain't in a hurry to make either of these things happen in my life just yet, though, so for the meantime I just get real excited about being a wedding guest, especially when there's a lot of joy in the celebration. And when there's booze.

waiting in this bush

I take it back. The amount they are offering for my salary is well beyond what I expected, so waiting another month isn't totally unbearable. Granted, my expectations are habitually incredibly low (see also: pessimistic realist), but as someone once said one time or another, that just makes it mind-blowingly awesome when you get offered a salary $5k better than your last full-time job.

I am ready to get my cat's matted fur all groomed out, buy a new bed, outfit our apartment with all the cleaning supplies I've been neglecting to purchase, update my closet, donate to some worthy causes, and buy everyone who's taken pity on me in the last year something nice and/or a few rounds of drinks, PLUS start adding to my savings account rather than slowly starving it. But I still have to wait another month.

it's not exactly a revelation that i am a huge and desperate loser.

I should probably update about the beach and other fun activities. But.

I just watched the full trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and admittedly, I got kind of excited.

I haven't been much of an HP fan for a few years now - basically since book 6 itself came out. Context must be given to realize where I'm coming from: I used to be head over heels for this shit. Circa 2005, I had countless discussions with my then-roommate S. regarding the likelihood that Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were lovers before Sirius was imprisoned, or whether or not from a cold-hard-facts perspective, every relationship Harry Potter might have as an adult would be predicated on bizarre perceptions of the world [raised in a closet, self-esteem issues from horrible family members, made to be the savior of the world, manipulated by grandfatherly bastard head of school, etc.] and therefore doomed to fail. Countless discussions. I also read fanfic. I will not disclose how much.

Anyway, I really fell off the wagon after book 6, because the writing seemed to tank - particularly where teenage romance was concerned - and because I didn't like how determined J.K. Rowling was to pair off all her characters in the most heteronormative fashion possible. Book 7 brought me back home for a visit, but I was basically out of the fold (and that epilogue was just a bad aftertaste). BUT.

I am excited for this movie, because of the following things:

- Jim Broadbent (even though I think he's not the best fit for Slughorn)
- Harry v. Draco (is the Room of Requirement scene cut? that'd stick in my craw.)
- Tom Riddle background scenes look really chilling
- I want to revel in Dumbledore's manipulative bastardom, even while it is meant to be perceived as kindly and wise direction

The main problem is that I am afraid to see this movie with Brock, because he will sneer and jeer at me when my latent fandom eagerness boils up in squeals. Ideally, I would love to see this movie with S., but Brooklyn and Pittsburgh are farther apart than my funds can bridge right now. ALAS.

Perhaps I can convince Anjani to see it with me.

pretty basically

The following things can get fucked:
- unmitigated nostalgia
- tiny cat wounds that hurt more than they should
- the temperature in my apartment ever going above 78 degrees Fahrenheit
- tax problems
- weird hip pain all day & the ill-fitting shoes that exacerbate it

I am in favor of these things though:
- earl grey tea in the mornings
-Tenochtitlan by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
- time with dear old friends and family
- having dear old friends (and family)
- having cats to give me dumb hurty wounds
- Dan Savage's dirty mouth

and etc. I have to go do some things now.