Say, you look just like me! We're very pretty.

Firechicken: a retrospective

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:39:29 GMT

I got my bike almost exactly two years ago.

It has the words "Black Lightning" on the chainstay, but I called it the Firechicken (my friend [at the time] Morgan's idea because it looked like an old Thunderbird, all black and gold).

This is right out of the box -- Adam and I took it to the lawn of the shipping place in Washington and built it up right there. I rode it across the border.

Closer.

This is the photo my icon was made from. It's from the "King of the Juice" alleycat from July 2007. It was ~50km of utter hell. I got DFL (dead fuckin' last), but it was fun.

At Critical Mass last summer with Kim.

From same Critical Mass, with Ranae's boyfriend (front) and roommate (left). That helmet was also stolen, by the way. Enjoy my head-sweat, bike thieves.

I did not one, but two World Naked Bike rides on the Firechicken:

Last year (I'm somewhere in the middle, in my white helmet and white boy-briefs.)

And this year.

Adam hand-built my wheels. He also got me a really good saddle, black BMX pedals (good for wearing your regular shoes while riding), black short-reach levers, black Campagnolo Veloce brakes, and black bar-tape with that awesome gel stuff underneath. I also won a copper-coloured chainring at an alleycat (Jackie and Aiyana's ladies' race, I think), which I used as my smaller chainring. And I had a bell shaped like a teapot which I won at another alley-cat (Haley's ladies' race).

My bike was not expensive (I think $350 plus shipping) when I bought it, but it has a lot of value to me (besides all the costs of adding on all those parts) -- it was totally tailored to my needs. I had it just the way I wanted it. And it has a lot of sentimental value. I'm going to miss it very much.

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:58:30 GMT

Both my bikes were stolen from my apartment building. Just discovered it this morning. Am currently on hold with Vancouver Police Department.

Am still kind of in shock/denial. Don't know how the fuck I'm gonna get another bike.

I'm on a boat

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:14:49 GMT

I was on a boat, at any rate. On Friday after beers on Third Beach (for Adam's b-day) with Josh, Mo, Trent and friends, we were riding along the seawall somewhere east of Yaletown when Trent spotted what he was pretty sure was Drew's boat. "Drew!" he called, and Drew called back, "Hello!" So we went and hung out on Drew's boat for a while. People were eating ginormous freshly-trapped crabs, drinking beer, listening to music inside the boat and listening to Drew and his friend play guitar and muted trumpet, respectively, on deck. The view was beautiful and it was just generally a really fantastic fun time.

This weekend I played several more hours of Final Fantasy II (IV for the purists), and read a couple hundred more pages of Quicksilver. In other words, I was fairly sedentary. Quicksilver is pretty awesome so far, although people's (I think specifically trochee?) descriptions of his sex scenes are pretty accurate. They're all mechanical and physiological and overall extremely un-sexy. Sorry Neal, you win at a lot of things, including awkward nerd-sex.

My uncle is on the cover of the Vancouver Sun today, playing trombone.

Star Trek Fanfiction.

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:19:55 GMT

Anony(nony)mous wrote an amazingly epic HOT six-part Dr. McCoy/Nurse Chapel fic which is so amazingly perfect that it has consumed my brain. I admit that Karl Urban picspams at ontd_startrek may have contributed to my seeking out het fic containing Bones, but honestly I also just kind of stumbled over this one while trawling the kink meme and then spent several hours reading it and falling madly in love with it. The first three parts (one self-contained fic), "Jim Kirk's Limp Dick and Other Obstacles on the Path to Love" are from Chapel's POV, and its sequel, "Jim Kirk Is An Insufferable Idiot and Other Lessons Learned Along the Way," the other three parts, are from Bones's POV. The yin and yang interplay of the two is gorgeous. The author's characterization (read: invention) of Chapel's personality is genius, and Bones and Jim (nu-Trek versions, mind you) are spot-on. READ IT, DAMMIT.

Adam is in Victoria tonight and tomorrow and so I have a date with myself for the night. It's nice to have those once in a while. Tomorrow I have birthday-present shopping to do for a couple people. And then I'm just going to read (maybe at the beach?) alllll day, and it's going to be glorious.

Catch-22 is like a cross between a Marx Brothers movie and M.A.S.H. (the latter of which I assume drew a lot of inspiration from it). Hilarious.

The sky is still a little bit light, tinged greenish. I love that. Time to read Quicksilver till I pass out.

EDIT: OH SWEET MY 1500th ENTRY WAS ABOUT STAR TREK FANFICTION. THAT'S PERFECT ACTUALLY.

Oh Japan; oh capitalism.

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:35:34 GMT

I needed new sneakers because my New Balances (M574s for the win, forever) are four years old and are starting to wear out because I wear them almost every day. On ebay I found some sweet green, blue and white ones, which I later discovered are part of a series of convenience-store-themed New Balances. They have 7-11, AMPM, and Family Mart shoes, which are the ones I got. Check it (found this pic on flickr):

Yes that's right. My shoes are convenience-store-themed. I can strut with pride 'cos I'm wearing the colours of 24/7 access to snacks and cigarettes.

The whole limited-edition-sneakers thing so is fucking stupid; an obvious manipulation (it's not like the world is short on dyes, fabrics, or dirt-cheap labour) -- the manufacture of scarcity in order to bolster sneaker-fetishism and collecting. A lot of the shoes look fucking awesome, but I just want shoes with cool colours. Who gives a fuck how rare they are.

The only advantage of buying sneakers overseas is that you can buy small men's sizes (I wear a men's 6.5), because apparently women's tastes don't vary outside of fugly pink, baby blue, or grey.

Fetishistic aside: these are sweet too:

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:34:10 GMT

I got Catch-22 on audiobook. Some books are just better to listen to -- I've tried reading this book several times, I can tell the audiobook is going to be a breeze. It's from Books on Tape, and the reader sounds like a 1950s radio announcer, which definitely adds to the listening experience. Thumbs up so far.

I need to buy this shirt:

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:18:08 GMT

Critical Mass on Friday was a gong show. If you don't have people with smarts leading the group (especially in June when thousands of people turn out), bad shit goes down. We were bottlenecking and then spreading out way too thin. And we took over the Lions Gate Bridge for at least 30 minutes, which only served to enrage motorists in the extreme. There was also way too much unnecessary hostility and confrontation, on both sides. I hate that people try to provoke drivers. It's retarded.

Adam and I left after a couple hours. During the day I did errands and listened to a lot of Life of Pi. I just finished listening to it this morning. The end is really what makes it such a great book. I ended up really liking it. It's powerful stuff. It would be a good one to discuss in an English class.

My favourite song that Skream played last weekend was his remix of the song "In For the Kill" by La Roux. You can listen to it on Youtube here. It's not really dubsteppy at all -- more trip-hop and then with some drum and bass at the end.

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:02:04 GMT

Received the USB-SNES controller adapter in the mail yesterday! Guess what I'm doing this weekend? Adam even got an extra controller when he got the SNES, and it has an extra-long cord. Ka-KOW!

Hanging out with a bunch of ladies at Kim's house last night, I never really realized before just how many crazy rave-camping things there are in the summer. Like Soundwave and Shambala and of course Burning Man and seriously I heard them mention like 10 other parties like that. It would be nice to have lots of money and access to transportation for them all. But I'll settle with just Burning Man this year. In future, we'll see. At least I live in the city so we have dubstep parties here fairly regularly.

Final Fantasy II is like GRINDFEST 1991: ALL GRIND ALL THE TIME. Seriously, so much random battle, not near enough towns or walking around or random silly side-quests. I've also found (at least in this game, the one time I've played it) that after your Dark Knight Cecil dude (who I've named Zuul) becomes a Paladin and you're with those stupid mage twin kids, battle is suddenly way harder. 'Cause you've got three mages -- Tellah the old Jew (I dunno, the name Tellah just sounds really Hebrew to me, or like Tevye maybe?) and then the twins -- so you end up using MP like crazy during battle, and they keep getting hurt so you're casting Cure1 and Cure2 like there's no tomorrow and suddenly you're like totally out of MP and stuck in the middle of a dungeon. Fighters are so much simpler. Give me a bunch of brutes and then one white mage to cast Cure and I'm fine. At least I've got Yang the karate dude. And no Spoony Bard for now -- oy, how annoying is HE?

Quicksilver continues awesome. So does the Life of Pi audiobook (I had no idea what it was about, so every turn of the story is pretty thrilling).

June Critical Mass (bike FRENZY) tonight, Gothtrad tomorrow. YES.

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:37:24 GMT

I saw some graffiti this morning that said "Decreasing Property Value."

I was also thinking last night about how it would be funny to "vandalize" buildings by making them prettier. Like, to paint over an old tacky sign on an old business and make a nicer-looking one with the business name. Or to paint pretty embellishments related to the business (flowers on a flower shop, etc).

Tomes

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:31:09 GMT

Also apparently there are a lot of massive tomes in my future (on top of Stephenson). Because my dad lent me a GIANT book on the Punic Wars. And I also kind of want to read The First Man In Rome. Well, Adam tells me to bring books to Burning Man for downtime. I do tend to read a lot when I'm on vacay.

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:17:58 GMT

I finished reading The Diamond Age. It was really good, save for the lack of an actual ending. Like I said to sainfoin_fields, Stephenson had everything leading in the right direction and then was like OH I'M TIRED OF WRITING THIS THING, I'LL JUST END IT HERE.

He's still awesome enough that I'm getting hooked on him, though. I started reading Quicksilver yesterday, which so far seems to be a fanfic about Isaac Newton. I am entirely okay with this. Really liking it so far. The fucker is 971 pages and I spent about 3 hours reading it yesterday and I'm like only 100 pages in. So it's gonna be another Anathem / Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - type read. Which I totally love.

Also Adam and I have been playing tons of SNES. Cohen (Adam's roommate) got Final Fantasy II at Salvation Army for 3 bucks. I've been in RPG heaven lately -- I'm like partway through Secret of Mana, Lufia II, AND FFII. Worrrrrrrrrd.

Oh, and the ontd_startrek party post on Sunday was fucking epic. Broke the comment threshold. I wasn't there posting, but I've been trying to just read everything since Monday. I'm still only on like page 85 (of 122) or so. Lots of funny shit.

There's another epic dubstep party this weekend -- Gothtrad is playing. w00t. So, in all, lots of things to be stoked about and look forward to.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:15:36 GMT

Yay, good weekend. I'm kind of braindead today though.

On Friday was our Indian buffet dinner with my boss & co. The food was good, company was good. Her kids are so nice and smart.

Saturday I cleaned house and played Secret of Mana. Then in the evening we went to see Skream at Richard's on Richards, which was super fucking awesome. He played dubstep, but he also played some bassline (which I also really liked). And he played forEVER -- people just kept cheering and he kept playing until something went wrong with the sound system. The whole set was excellent (he played lots of his "hits" which I've heard many times at other parties and on mixes). Taal Mala and Max and Ben Ulis played beforehand. Oh, and Daega Sound System. And Kim and Nicole were there, too. I spent lots of time talking to Kim -- I haven't seen her very much lately and it was good to hang out again.

We went to an afterparty with Kim at the Dollhouse and stuck around till about 4. Michael Red was playing. I think the Skream guy was actually at the party too.

As you may imagine, we slept most of the day yesterday. And I played a bunch of Lufia II, which is a really awesome fun game. I like the puzzles, although some of them are, like, impossible. The story is cute, and the game-play flows really well. Recommended.

I'm about 50 pages from finishing The Diamond Age. I'm also listening to the audiobook of Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Not bad so far. I've got Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson on hold at the library, which I'll pick up today.

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:37:31 GMT

I realized I have seen Soul Blazer before. I haven't actually played it, but I do remember watching somebody play it for hours. I think it was Toren, but I can't fully remember.

Tonight Adam and I are going out for Indian buffet dinner with my boss, her kids, and a friend of hers.

Last night I dreamt about Zachary Quinto. There was, like, a possibility that he and I were going to date (!). And he was in some really weird theatrical production (in my head it had something to do with the Shanghai theatre in The Diamond Age).

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:55:38 GMT

Secret of Mana is pretty darn good! I played it on the emulator today. It will be even better when I get the SNES controller hooked up to my computer. The store on Fraser and Broadway was no good -- he wanted like $60-$120 dollars for games. No price tags, he just quoted me prices on each game I asked for. Hate.

I am nostalgically listening to Mr. Bungle.

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:01:10 GMT

I got a Dreamwidth from florence_craye (THANKS!). I haven't done anything with it yet.

The Star Trek ONTD meetup on Saturday got cancelled/postponed. :( Ah well, I still get to go see Skream, so hell yes to that!

I've been drinking tonnnnnns of (brewed, black, unsweetened) iced tea these days.

Yes I am obsessive

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:21:21 GMT

I can confirm that the following SNES games suck:

Battletoads (ONE FUCKING ATTACK BUTTON.)
Maximum Carnage (seriously, why did you bother, there are only 17,000 arcade games just like this one)
Killer Instinct (like a bad Mortal Kombat)

Also, Earthworm Jim is too hard and confusing to be good.

We've been playing Mariokart over and over again. Going to the store near Fraser and Broadway tomorrow.

Also I bought the SNES-USB adapter on the internets today.

Why do I have to be at work

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:22:19 GMT

SNES GAMES I HAVE NEVER PLAYED BEFORE AND WANT TO PLAY
(YES I LIKE RPGS)

Secret of Mana
Yoshi's Island
Soul Blazer
Illusion of Gaia
Terranigma
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom and Lufia II
EVO: the Search for Eden
Super Mario RPG
Earthbound

SNES GAMES I NEED TO PLAY AGAIN RIGHT NOW

Zelda
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy III

NEW TINGS

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:18:06 GMT

I did the World Naked Bike Ride on Saturday. It was better than last year - sunny weather and more people. Car-free day on Commercial Drive on Sunday was pretty sweet too, especially the 5pm lolarious day-rave. Dancing barefoot in the street to silly techno is fun.

Adam got an SNES off Craigslist and now I want to buy a shitload of RPGs to play. I've never played Secret of Mana, Soul Blazer, or Illusion of Gaia. And I want to re-play Chrono Trigger, FFIII, and Zelda. What SNES RPGs do you like? (Other game recs are good to, but keep in mind I suck really hard at sidescroll/platform games and don't have much fun playing them.)

The Diamond Age is really, really good. I'm about two-thirds of the way through. I'm totally stoked about the development of the story, the focus of the strong female character being nurtured and educated. I am wary of the weak ending, but we'll see how it goes. Am I becoming a Neal Stephenson fan? I have Quicksilver on request at the library next.

This Saturday there are many cool things happening, but I can't attend all of them. I will attend the Star Trek meetup that's happening for Vancouver members of ontd_startrek. I'm stoked about that. The fandom is hilarious and non-wanky and just generally tons of fun. After that I'm going to see Skream at Richards on Richards. He's one of the giants of dubstep and I think it's gonna be pretty sweet.

I listened to the Star Trek audiobook (read by Zachary Quinto). Nice filler-y thing to listen to while I was riding my bike and doing housework, just added a couple scenes not seen in the movie and explained a few apparent plot-holes.

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:48:27 GMT

I knew this before, but I always manage to forget. June is not only bike month: it is also every-Saturday-is-insane month. Everybody has parties and there are concerts and I'm riding my bike from one place to another pretty constantly. It would be nice to be Quantum Marlo and attend two functions at once. Alas.

Sometimes my new hair reminds me of Gozer on Ghostbusters:

People were right, Season 2 of Heroes is kinda dumb. But Elle is pretty dope, and Peter is hot, and so's Sylar. I also like Matt Parkman, but he's getting lamer as the show progresses. And I like Claire, but she wears too much makeup. Her crusty eyelashes are distracting. Oh and Hiro's rad too, but the whole ancient-Japan thing is faily. Especially because "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN ALL OF JAPAN" is weird-looking. There are like a zillion beautiful Japanese girls, NBC. What gives.

Adam and I are also watching the anime Planetes, and it is thoroughly kickass. Adam's undying love of anime in general has made me a pretty harsh critic of the genre because I've had to sit through some pretty boring shit, but when it's good, it's good.

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:24:28 GMT

Work has been mayhem-y lately. In a good way. Much better than sitting around trying to look busy. Everybody is buying/selling property and/or refinancing their mortgages right now. 'Cause the economy is in flux, and it's early summer and everybody buys shit around now. Plus we have a client buying a French restaurant downtown, and business purchases are always tons of work. He's been in and out of our office like 4 times today.

I got my hairs cut on Saturday. Like, really really short.

I'm liking it, but of course the way the hairdresser styled it looks much better than what I did this morning. Ah well. It'll take time for me to learn how to do it properly.

Nothing super-eventful this weekend. Saw the family, some friends, watched Heroes, cleaned up. The usual. (How would you spell the abbreviation of usual? "Yoozh"? We don't really have a set (of) consonant(s) in English for that final sound.)

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:58:05 GMT

SWEET! I just finished reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle yesterday evening, and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson is now on hold for me to pick up at the Public Library. Perfect timing. The Murakami was a bit disappointing at the end: he set up all these labyrinthine problems and questions, and at the end a great deal of them weren't solved or answered. I am sure that was his intention -- he wants the reader to do all the work, and honestly I did like the David Lynch-iness about the whole thing -- but I feel slightly dissatisfied. It's not his best book, but still a good read.

I'm secretaried out today: I'm wearing a white ascot blouse, a pencil skirt, and my hair is up in a bun.

I got a big GST cheque and the $100 carbon tax credit cheque in the mail last week. So for the first time in a good while, I have spending money. It's not enough to make any big purchases, but at the same time I don't want to piddle it away. So so far I've only bought this ascot blouse which was on sale at Club Monaco for $30. I do need new work shoes, and I'd like to perhaps buy a tent and other MEC-type Burning Man camping supplies. And maybe get that haircut. But we'll see.

I'm still obsessing over Star Trek. Adam and I are still watching Rome (Adam has a thing for Cleopatra now ;)), and I'm watching Heroes. I'm listening to lectures on the history of the Renaissance and the Reformation -- much more interesting and upbeat than the Middle Ages, which was more than enough Christianity for me.

My last sewing class was last night. My blouse isn't finished, but it's getting close! I got the sleeves in. All that remains is putting the armbands on the sleeves, buttons and buttonholes, and finishing the bottom hem bit. I think this one is wearable too, unlike the skirt. I met some really cool peeps in my class, too. I'm looking forward to seeing them in the next class in September. :D

Sun, 31 May 2009 08:11:15 GMT

I made iced tea today and drank like 5 glasses of it this afternoon while I watched up to episode 10 of Heroes. So now I am WIDE FUCKING AWAKE. Adam fell asleep at like 10:30 because he worked today (and he works tomorrow).

I feel bad because my typing is making noise. Maybe I will try laying down. I'm not used to not being able to sleep. Usually I'm dead to the world about 2 mins after my head hits the pillow.

I jizz right in my pants when you're standing next to me

Fri, 29 May 2009 22:13:11 GMT

I have been in UBER FANGIRL MODE for the past week or so. ontd_startrek has been keeping me very entertained. Adam and I have been watching episodes of Star Trek Original Series (as well as episodes of Rome), and last night I started watching Heroes for the first time, eagerly anticipating Zach Quinto-ly goodness. I watched the first two, and I know Sylar doesn't show up till episode 7. Honestly, I haven't been this silly since probably Lord of the Rings. I can't stop! Nor do I want to.

The weather is fucking awesome! It is supposed to be 27 degrees outside tomorrow. That is beach weather motherfuckers, and it's only May!

Yeah, everything else is pretty much continuing as before. I'm still reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and it's still awesome, I'm going to the art gallery and then to a dubstep thing tonight (just a regular Friday night thing they have at Goldie's), and I'm almost done my blouse for my sewing class (next class is the last one).

Oh, I am considering cutting my hair pixie-cut short. It's almost in the middle of my back at its longest point right now. I like that it's wavy, but I don't like that the ends get dry and it gets tangled and I often don't know what to do with it so I put it in a ponytail. But short hair accentuates the roundness of my face, which is a drawback. I'll think on this more.

Thu, 21 May 2009 23:40:01 GMT

I'm at work, eating diabetic chocolate, surfing the intermesh and brainstorming what food to bring to Patrick's wedding (the reception is potluck, you see).

I feel foolish for not having read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle earlier. I can totally see why it's one of Murakami's most loved books. I think I understand him and his style a lot more now than I did even 5 years ago, though. So maybe it's good I'm reading it now. Anyway, I'm not very far in, but I already think it's fabulous and fantastic. Surreal and dreamlike, and I always just want to jump right in the book and be there, 'cause the way he describes food and music and the mundane details of everyday life is so alluring.

Adam and I are watching Rome. HBO shows are so... HBO. They can't make a show without there being nudity and fucking in every episode. That's not a complaint, but I do find it funny. The show sticks faithfully (to my knowledge, anyway) to historical events. I'm liking it.

STAR TREK FANNISHNESS FOLLOWS. I (re-)watched the Star Trek episode Amok Time last night. It's the one where Spock goes into Pon Farr. It's a great episode. I've had the Kirk-fights-Spock-to-the-death music stuck in my head all day. Boy, was T'Pring a hottie (and an asshole!). I would like to wear her silver dress with the cool hemline. And Nurse Chapel really digs Spock, doesn't she? I don't blame you, honey. I recently found some old LJ entries of mine where I was gushing over Spock (Original Gangsta Vulcan indeed!).

status

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:14:28 GMT

Currently reading:
Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño (will I finish it? Undecided.)
The Punic Wars by Adrian Goldsworthy (borrowed from my dad)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (just got from the library today)
Whatever fic gets posted to spock_uhura

(Star Trek aside: I am fangirling out here big time, although seeing the film a second time on Monday helped cool my Fangirl Plak-Tow some. My friend Chris called it being in "Fangri-La". I'm disappointed I missed Toren's Star Trek convention on Saturday, but Patrick's stag was higher priority and I did have hella fun at that too.)

Listening to:
History of the Early Middle Ages (another TTC series, which nicely follows the Roman Empire)

Looking forward to:
Patrick's wedding on Friday(!) - celebrating, dancing, eating, wearing a dress, yay!
finishing my blouse for my sewing class
summer weather!
Skream on June 20th
Burning Man at end of summer (I could start planning costumes around now, actually!)