6:33 AM - Contagion
Current mood: amused
Category: Music

So, a few years ago I was given a quest - to name my favorite 100 songs WITHOUT repeating artists - I accepted it and formed one with love, thought and good humor. However, my dumb ass didn't save it anywhere, so here I am, years later, wondering what the hell I put on it aside from my obvious.

Then I started thinking that over a few years I think that my list has changed quite a lot. With some, the artist has remained my super-favorite song by them changed. Some new things crowded out some of my old things. Others I got over completely or forgot about.

So I did it again.

The weird thing is, as excruciating as it seems to not repeat artists (and it IS hard - really hard! - in some ways) I find it almost impossible to keep my list - even with no repeats - down to 100 songs....

So now I pose the challenge to everyone I know. Do it! It's teh fun, and a fun peek into your brain. And into your amazing (and not so amazing...we all have shameful choices) taste.

In no particular order at all:
*drumroll*

1. "City Girl" - Kevin Shields

2. "Romulus & Venus" - Tear Garden

3. "Too Young" - Phoenix

4. "Tenderness" - General Public

5. "You and Your Sister" - This Mortal Coil

6. "Wuthering Heights" - Kate Bush

7. "More Than This" - Roxy Music

8. "Just One Victory" - Todd Rundgren

9. "Crescendo of Fall Color" - Yasuhiro Mizushima

10. "Our Lips Are Sealed" - Fun Boy Three

11. "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" - YMO

12. "Superstar" - Lupe Fiasco

13. "Every Picture I Paint" - Teenage Fanclub

14. "Alison" - Slowdive

15. "Your Daddy's Car" - The Divine Comedy

16. "Fancy Footwork" - Chromeo

17. "New Years" - Asobi Seksu

18. "Lover You Should Have Come Over" - Jeff Buckley

19. "Cactus Tree" - Joni Mitchell

20. "When You Sleep" - My Bloody Valentine

21. "Girlfriend" - The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy

22. "Yoake No Etude" - Koyama Yuka

23. "Before We Begin" - Broadcast

24. "God Only Knows" - Beach Boys

25. "United" - Throbbing Gristle

26. "Venus in Furs" - The Velvet Underground

27. That one song that makes me cry - Corn Mo

28. "The Tears of a Clown" - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

29. "Simple & Clean" - Utada Hikaru

30. "My Whole Life's Story" - Holy Shit

31. "Tumbledown" - The Jesus & Mary Chain

32. "Acrylic Afternoons" - Pulp

33. "Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon" - Neil Diamond

34. "Such a Color" - Shugo Tokumaru

35. "Moonage Daydream" - David Bowie

36. "For All We Know" - Bettie Serveert

37. "Love at First Sight" - Kylie Minogue

38. "Feed the Tree" - Belly

39. "The Chemistry Between Us" - Suede

40. "Morning Coffee Hymn" - Tree Wave

41. "Jet" - Wings

42. "(Nothing But) Flowers" - Talking Heads

43. "Let Me Be The One" - The Carpenters

44. "Girlfriend" - Matthew Sweet

45. "Freak Scene" - Dinosaur Jr.

46. "Jolene" - Dolly Parton

47. "Girl From Germany" - Sparks

48. "My Finest Hour" - The Sundays

49. "Love Plus 1" - Haircut 100

50. "The Flowers She Send and the Flowers She Said She Sent" - The Magnetic Fields

51. "Dark Love" - Mission Giant

52. "Abdul Loves Cleopatra" - Jonathan Richaman

53. "Forever 16" - Stereo Total

54. "Now My Heart is Full" - Morrissey

55. "Farrah" - Action Biker

56. "Walk Away Renee" - The Left Banke

57. "Among Dreams" - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

58. "What a Fool Believes" - The Doobie Brothers

59. "If I Ain't Got You" - Alicia Keys

60. "That's All I've Got To Say" - Jeff Bridges & Mia Farrow

61. "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper

62. "Digital Love" - Daft Punk

63. "Namo Shirenu Hana" (Anonymous Flower) - The Indigo

64. "Untitled" - The Cure

65. "Birdie Told Me" - The Bee Gees

66. "So This Is Love (Cinderella Waltz)" - Ilene Woods & Mike Douglas

67. "Lightning Strikes" - Klaus Nomi

68. "Bittersweet Loving" - Deee-Lite

69. "My Love" - Justing Timberlake

70. "Take On Me" - A-ha

71. "Guess I'm Doing Fine" - Beck

72. "Deanna" - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

73. "Cool" - Gwen Stefani

74. "Being Boring" - The Pet Shop Boys

75. "Last Christmas" - Wham!

76. "Against All Odds" - Phil Collins

77. "Seriocity" - The Chameleons UK

78. "Birthday" - The Sugarcubes

79. "Rhiannon" - Fleetwood Mac

80. "It's My Life" - Talk Talk

81. 'Paris and Rome" - The Cranes

82. "Year of the Cat" - Al Stewart

83. "Airwaves" - Thomas Dolby

84. "Outdoor Miner" - Wire

85. "Do You Remember Love" - Mari Iijima

86. "Halah" - Mazzy Star

87. "Rush Hour" - Jane Weidlin

88. "Regret" - New Order

89. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" - Elton John

90. "Tear in Your Hand" - Tori Amos

91. "Question of Lust" - Depeche Mode

92. "Evangeline" - Cocteau Twins

93. "Fernando" - Abba

94. "Variety" - Hello Fever

95. "Mystic Lady" - T. Rex

96. "Hey Ya" - Outkast

97. "Girl Don't Come" - Sandie Shaw

98. "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" - The Smiths

99. "Twin Falls" - Built to Spill

100. "96 Tears" - ? & the Mysterians

Currently reading : Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) By Stephenie Meyer Release date: 2008-08-02

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7:05 AM - Bear with me while I sow my oats, baby.
Current mood: mellow

Today began my (what the hell is the word for this - not biannual, that means twice a year?) every other year cleaning of the upstairs.

Fuck.

Can someone just kill me? I should have taken before pictures so everyone I know can tell me how gross I am so that I won't ever let this happen again. I don't know why I just can't be bothered to not live in several-hundred-square-foot clothes pile. Srsly.

I've never understood why I'm not compelled to be tidy. It's been a lifelong issue - I have, my whole life, organized in piles and piles within piles and then more piles. My shoes are in piles, my toiletries are in piles, my 'work' supplies are in piles, my accessories are in piles, even my books are in piles. There is no obvious order to any of my belongings, but I never lose anything - I know where almost every piece of my stuff is. Any time I do lose anything, it is almost always because someone else went through my pile and pilfered said item or borrowed it and then, of course, didn't know how to properly return it because only I understand my own piles.

I once read an article uncovering that this kind of behavior was actually a really valid way to organize even though it seems like the ultimate display of disorganization to those who don't operate that way. I lose things when I put them away. I have no use for traditional order.

Now, my current effort at tidying, coupled with an experience I had the other day with my dad made me think - he asked me about something that happened a long time ago and I thought for a few seconds on the subject and was then able to tell him exactly when it happened and who was present, etc down to some fine details. He asked, surprised, how I remembered that and I gave him my usual response: "I remember everything."

I mean that. I remember everything. It might take me a moment to get there, but I will remember *almost* everything, as long as it was something that happened to me or that I was present. I won't remember every detail of a history book, or of another person's anecdotes, but if it happened to me or with me, I know.

My dad sort of shook his head and I told him how I went through my internal filing system to pull up the details of that account and he was still surprised, but reminded me that my fake Japanese brother has the same kind of memory and had once told my dad what that was called....ironically he couldn't remember. :)

I've been trying to research and figure out what it is called because while I doubt that it's terribly unusual, I'm sure it isn't completely common, either. In my research I never figured out what I was looking for because I'm horrible at internet/reference searching - I can't figure out how to ask why I am trying to ask or say what I'm trying to say....and so another 'special' feature of mine slaps in face: I've recently come to believe that I exhibit certain characteristics of dyspraxia (as well as dyslexia, which I might have mentioned in a previous blog).

I won't bore with my intense self-analysis on that subject, but it is interesting that in coming to terms with why certain things are so, so difficult for me (articulating in conversation being the most challenging, closely followed by my absolute inability to distinguish left and right or spell correctly), the same source might be credited with my excelling in other areas and my severe perfectionistic streak in the things that I do do well. And why I understand my piles...

Currently reading : Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) By Stephenie Meyer

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7:19 AM - 100 (the number for posterity)
Current mood: adored
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

Another totally self-indulgent blog concerning my crafty endeavors:

I made my 100th Etsy sale yesterday and promptly made 5 more in just over 24 hours!



Very pumped! Ready for the next 95, so I can have my next Centennial Special. :D

Currently playing : Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition

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7:05 PM - Akon
Current mood: ecstatic

Oh, my friendly friends, I am a tired one today. I'm still sleeping off my wacky and exhausting weekend at Akon – it was full of cracking up, oohing and ahhing (in both good and bad ways) at costumes, feeding the parking meter, hawking my wares, butt glimpsing and spending way too much money on little anime-centric trinkets....not to mention Laura and I stuffing ourselves to sickness with Japanese snacks/chocolate mushroom pocky.

The good news is, despite it being totally nerdy and potentially a tad embarrasing, it was also probably the most fun ever! The meager $65 for a vendor's table in the Artists' Alley would have been totally worth it just for a place to sit and watch the crowd go by, but even better than that, I ended up very nearly selling COMPLETELY out of every single bit of my merch. I honestly couldn't believe it, but I made a ton of money and it didn't even seem like work because I was having so much damn fun with my babes, Jermy and thousands of quirky and lovely Anime loving strangers that passed by my table all weekend. Besides, how can you complain with endless fuel for the best cutting of of the year?? Come on....I was 2 boothes down from the oldest, baldest man vendor there and he was dressed in a vinyl EGLolita dress for 3 days – the sources of amusement were endless!

My table looked super cute, if I do say so myself:

My mom, Laura, Delinda and Nicole helped me work my table all weekend and it was all we could do to keep those olive trays of kanzashi singles full and the sake cups full of combs and pins and people really loved picking out their very own happy gyoza and onigiri out of the penny candy jars. Also, only one of those handbags in the second picture came back home with me.

Jermy came along on Sunday to get in some girl watching and do some mega-shopping. He and Laura and I all came back with full bags of spoils in the way of more plushie toys than people our age need and enough hello panda cookies (milk cream center, of course!) to make us sick. Jermy's girl watching apparently ended up causing what he calls "boner schizophrenia" - I'm sure you can imagine what that's about - and he's declared that he wasn't thoroughly prepared for the experience at all. Next year, we're trying to think of something for him to cosplay as that involves sunglasses to insure hours of uninterrupted booty viewing. I think he and I might go as MinMei and Hikaru (mmmmm, Robotech nerds) for one of the days and Laura and I are pondering some possible Lolita outfits for manning my booth.....believe it or not, it actually was that fun! Already planning for next year. :D

Highlight of the experience? Laura shouting "There's my Toad!!!!!!" every time this guys came within view:

Hahahahaha!

A special thank you to all of my pals who came out to help me through the weekend and everyone else who was cool and encouraging to me about it. It worked out as one of the best times ever and a huge success, so I smoo you, all around!

Currently playing : Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Release date: 2008-03-25

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3:56 AM - Laryngitis
Current mood: sick
Category: Life

I has it.

....poignantly, I have nothing else to say.

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2:48 AM - Self Important Blog - Take Deux
Current mood: happy
Category: Blogging

First things first - SO SORRY for all of my good buddies that are blog subscribers - some ugly MySpace demon crunched up my last entry and spat it out into your blog alerts several times and then none of us could even see it. Not even me. So I am now, sadly and accidentally a spammer. :(

Anyhoo, the reason for my posting of an indulgent and self-important blog is that this month I am the featured kanzashi artist on a very cute kanzashi information site and blog called Kanzashi Garden. I thought I'd put the link here for posterity and so that you guys could check it out if you feel like it.

My interview is here: Interview

My favorite part of the whole thing is the cute photo editing of all of my cupcakes and crafty-things done by the interviewer/site author. heh! I have to say, the cupcake montage tickled me very much.  I also liked the strangeness that comes from confustion between my flickr profile name (Regynx), my flickr profile registry (Reginyx - wtf?? Even I'm lost on that one) and my Etsy shop name (Little Cookie)...

Anyhoo, so that's that.

General update stuff goes thusly:
The Maple Point fucking rules and if you don't love it yet you're a god damned clown. Period.
Busting ass so hard and having so much fun with my friends that I don't even have time for video games anymore, which is kinda sad.
Nibby is still live and kickin'.
My hot tub rules this hemisphere.
I love my awesome lady-friends. And my dude friends, too...but especially the ladies. A special shout out to all my bitches that I got to spend time with this weekend and some special ones I didn't (ehem, Becky...cough).

*puts "Tell Laura I Love Her" on repeat*  ;)

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11:03 PM - R-I-PK :(
Current mood: grateful
Category: Pets and Animals

After a little under a week of knowing that the end was near after a severe and quick degradation of quality of life - mainly manifested in the form of neurological breakdown that rendered her unable to walk and caused intense vertigo - our PK, the world's Prettiest Kitty, died today.

Jermy had nursed her in his bed since last Thursday and we tried to make her as comfortable as we could - after her initial vet visit we were told to keep her confined. He fed her from his fingertips and we gave her a heating pad and she got to sleep in a real bed with a person next to her for several days - instead of on the convertible tops in the garage - like she'd always wanted to. Despite the garage being everything a classy feline could want (it's heated and cooled, full of fancy feast and had the finest car tops in the world to roll around on), her biggest wish was to be a true housecat. I'd known her half of my life.

. . . . .



We took her to be euthanized this afternoon. I had to stay in the car because I was too upset, but Jermy held her in his arms and she wasn't scared and then she was gone.

* * * * *

Sadly, this also can't go without another eulogy because it's now painfully apparant that my beloved Kupo has also perished.

She was a surly cat that I tamed from feral. It took me over a year to even get her to talk to me, but once she began to trust me, she loved me. She took our back porch as her home and we relished furnishing her with a heated cat house beside the back door and watching her sun in the afternoon on the stone patio. After still hissing at us every time she'd see me coming in from the car for 3 years, regardless of knowing that we were the source of her food, eventually she took up sitting in the garden while we were out and when we arrived back she walked us into the house like our little sentinel. Despite her salty exterior, when she felt a soft mood she'd concede to a good pet and eyebrow rub. And sometimes...*sometimes*, she'd try to relax enough to curl up on my feet instead of just look at them longingly while she'd try to talk herself into it.

When I looked out the back window and saw her, sleeping curled up against the door, I knew that she was my fox and that I was the Little Prince:



About 6 weeks ago she disappreared without a trace. She had been in seemingly perfect health - good appetite, still completely physically fit, and with knowing how cautious and even paranoid that she was, I can't reconcile a possibility of her just moving on. We've pretty much deduced that she must have suffered some terrible fate while out for an afternoon wander or something.



I loved them, and I'm glad that they were mine.

Thanks to everybody that has been so kind and supportive this week. It's been really hard to deal with all of this stuff. Thanks so much.

An extra big thank you to Jermy. We're not often mushy, but I can't tell him enough how important his response in these circumstances has been. We've lived together for a long time and helped each other through lots of tough things, but I really couldn't have done this without him. Thank you for making her your reading cat and for being with her when I couldn't and for helping me and mom cope. You are the greatest friend I can have.

Currently listening : Four-Calendar Cafe By Cocteau Twins Release date: 02 November, 1993

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2:44 AM - Be Verbs
Current mood: amused
Category: Life

So, in my life-long quest to attain star status as a punctuation and grammatical stickler, as well as my more recent goal to start learning conversational Japanese, I came across a bit of information (subjective, though it might be....surely it's given from an educational point of view) that tickled me in reference to myself.

Apparently, my years old blog headline says it all for me. I'm written all over my own face here:

"Be" verbs are am, are, was, were, is, being, have been being. . .

Some people call them "taboo" words and try to get students to avoid them in everything they write. But don't give up your "be" verbs--know when you want them and use them.

Take a look at your "be" verbs. If you use a lot of them, you may be wordy. You may be loading your sentences with nouns (often in prepositional phrases), too. But then you may need those "be" verbs to say what you need to say.

1. Do "be" verbs replace stronger verbs?
   
   

   • John is the type who thinks he's right. [John thinks he's right.]
   • His facial expression was an indication that he was wrong. [His face convinced us that he was wrong.]
   • It was an exaggeration. [Jones exaggerated.]
   • It was a commitment that they had shown. [They showed a commitment.]
   • John was in an aggressive frame of mind. [(maybe) John aggressively attacked George's opinions.]

   
   
2. Do "be" verbs delay your point?
   
   

   • It was true that he was a late-bloomer. [He was a late-bloomer.]
   • There was occasionally a hamster in the basement. [A hamster was occasionally in the basement.]
   • It was difficult for him to go. [He couldn't find the time to go.]

Currently watching : Maison Ikkoku TV Series Completed Collection Boxset

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1:07 PM - MySpace Deletes Largest Atheist Group in the World.
Current mood: angsty
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Cleveland, OH.— Social networking site, MySpace.com, panders to religious intolerants by deleting atheist users, groups and content.
Early this month, MySpace again deleted the Atheist and Agnostic Group (35,000 members). This deletion, due largely to complaints from people who find atheism offensive, marks the second time MySpace has cancelled the group since November 2007.

What's unique in this case is that the Atheist and Agnostic Group was the largest collection of organized atheists in the world. The group had its own Wikipedia entry, and in April won the Excellence in Humanist Communication Award (2007) from the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University and the Secular Student Alliance.

"MySpace refuses to undelete the group, although it never violated any terms of service," said Bryan Pesta, Ph.D., the group's moderator. "When the largest Christian group was hacked, MySpace's Founder, Tom Anderson, personally restored the group, and promised to protect it from future deletions."
"It is an outrage if Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and the world's largest social networking site tolerate discrimination against atheists and agnostics-- and if this situation goes unresolved I'll have little choice but to believe they do," said Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain of Harvard University. News Corporation, Murdoch's global media corporation which also includes Fox News, purchased MySpace in 2005.

"My personal profile was deleted as well, and despite weeks of emails to customer service, plus a petition signed by 500 group members, MySpace won't budge. I think these actions send a clear message to the 30 million godless people in America (and to businesses whose money was spent displaying ads on our group) that we are not welcome on MySpace," said Pesta.

For a Wikipedia article on the now defunct atheist and agnostic group, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist_and_Agnostic_Group

* * * * *

I have yet to find any official way of complaining to MySpace (as if it would do any good) but if I do hear of any route I'll put out another bulletin. If anyone has any ideas, lets hear them!

Currently reading : Madame Bovary: 150th Anniversary Edition (Signet Classics) By Gustave Flaubert Release date: 05 November, 2001

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1:51 PM - The Devil is in the Details
Current mood: good

I try to write these blogs when I'm feeling particularly funny, or feisty, but I've been so ill in the face for so long now that I think I might never get my zip back. I contain buckets worth of snot every day and can't laugh without starting to cough. Boooooo!

The other night, Mona from Germany, Jermy and I stepped into another dimension and I'm pretty sure we all came out mostly alive. Our friend Nicole works at a bar - sounds simple enough - but we had no idea that it was like cossing over into some strange, anonymous, dank karaoke abyss, complete with old bar flies drinking red wine singing classic love songs and young collegiates in izod sweater vests named Preston and what I can only assume to be 'Blaine', 'Blaine' and 'Blaine' doing Journey songs as a quartet.

It was wild! And as strange and potentially uncomfortable as it kind of was, we already can't wait to go back. I'll knit and drink a coke and Jermy can begin his secret karaoke carreer as Hot Pocket - the Entertainer of All Time.

Next time, I bring the camera.

The holidays went over as smoothly as possible, I suppose. There was a love tirangle showdown over New Years dinner between my crazy old aunt and her 3 boyfriends from the seniors sinlges club, but that was about as interesting as it got. We're still waiting for the Christmas cheer to show up in the from of a hot tub, which is due to arrive tomorrow, I think. I have to hurry up and make my clown swimming suit!

I'm getting ready for the Etsy Dallas Valentine's Trunk Show at Southside on Lamar. Fortunately I didn't actually have to make a whole lot of anything to have stuff to show due to my leftovers from the last show, but I am going to work on some new bags and things anyway. I've also got to get serious about ramping up for A-Kon (provided I get a table - I should be hearing about that soon).



The etsy endeavor is starting to go well. I've made a good little handful of sales and have had several inquiries about custom work, which is always fun for me. I've been trying to get really involved in the community aspect of it and it's really nice! Lots of fun.

I'm also completely obsessed with one particular Etsy product - Savor Soap!!!!
Yummmmm. I lovelovelove it. I ordered the Spun Sugar whipped soap and can't wiat to pick out a new one when it starts running out.

So, I'm totally addicted to my drop spindle now. I love it. I can't wait to really start making some complex yarns with it, even though I'm still just trying to master the basics. Fortunately, Wells is a total gem and she came for a visit to give me the run down. She cut out a months worth of trial and error for me by letting me in on the trade secrets I would have cried myself to sleep over.

This is what my first attempt looks like:





I kinda love it! It is un-dyed, but I might not even worry about it and just hang on to it for posterity. It's all silk, plied on itself. The batch I'm working on now is wool and I'm excited to get finished with it.

I hope everyone I haven't talked to since has had a good holiday or is glad it's over and moving on in style. Lots of smoos to one and all. :D

Currently playing : Warhawk (No Headset) Release date: 31 October, 2007

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