the internet hates me

i was listening to my pandora internet radio again today and lately i have been really into merle haggard. it's been i guess over the last couple of months. there is this one hag song that comes on sometimes called I'm Always On a Mountain When I Fall, and oftentimes i will skip it without even letting it start because i can't remember what it is and, by the title alone, it sounds super lame. but today i let it play and it is awesome. so that set me wondering, why did i think this song sucked? what is it about the title that is so offputting? all i could think of was maybe it sounds a little like a gospel song. i am not averse to gospel music, i don't go out of my way to listen to it but i like it well enough, but i usually am especially apathetic when it is done by white people.

i have lately become addicted to this blog, ReadySteadyGo. i feel a kinship to the writer because she is my age and we seem to have very similar opinions on most things, except that she is mildly in love with bill buford and i hate him with all my being. she seems to be much more successful than i am in that her blog is nicer looking and i assume more popular and she has a job that sounds awesome that she loves. and she lives in new york city, which i kind of think of as the big sister of san francisco, in that san francisco is always trying on it's make up and stealing it's coolest shoes and wants to be JUST LIKE HER when it grows up.
in other news today i registered for the jeopardy online test. it is january 31st. it is my life goal to be on jeopardy. i need to be on jeopardy. i am so nervous just thinking about this test though. and i feel i have a right to be, it could be the impetus to the most important event of my entire life. and i think i will totally rock it out. i hope. this is helping me. and it is fun and totally addicting.
oh and i am sososososososo in love with this:

it comes in black and gold and white too, but i think i love orange the best. i wish someone would buy it for me, but it is 96pounds. a lot of money. sigh. it reminds me of a time when i told steve that he smells like dinosaurs.

mel

Very Helpful Lists

List #1: A non-comprehensive, off the top of my head, in no order top ten favorite beatles' songs:
1. I've Just Seen A Face
2. You Won't See Me
3. Do You Want to Know a Secret?
4. Back in the USSR
5. Wait
6. I'm Down
7. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
8. One After 909
9. Things We Said Today
10. Baby You're A Rich Man

List #2: steve's favorite beatles' songs:
1. Paperback Writer

List #3: top ten, in no order, my favorite pavement songs:
1. box elder
2. i love perth
3. spit on a stranger
4. fame throwa
5. range life
6. at&t
7. grave architecture
8. father to a sister of thought
9. here
10. gold soundz

List #4: my favorite soups:
1. pho
2. pho gai
3. hot and sour soup
4. sizzling rice soup
5. tom yum
6. beef barley
7. cream of broccoli
8. cream of asparagus
9. chicken noodle
10. vegetable
11. potato leek
12. italian wedding
13. matzoh ball
14. borscht
15. turkey barley
16. velvet lemon chicken with snow peas
17. tomato
18. chicken tortilla
19. black bean

List #5: my favorite albums of 2007:
1. Jens Lekman - Night Falls on Kortedala
2. whatever lil' mama's album was called

List #6: my favorite places to drink in san francisco:
1. jbc (rip)
2. victor's pizza
3. giorgio's pizza
4. edinburgh castle
5. mr. bing's
6. my house

mel

Big Country

If you know me even a little bit you probably are aware that I am kind of really into Pandora Radio. As if often the case, I was listening to it today at work and for the first time In A Big Country by Big Country popped up on my Jens Lekman station. I got totally psyched as soon as I heard the opening notes because a few years ago this was my ULTIMATE JAM OF THE YEAR. I don't know why I loved this song so much all of a sudden in the summer of 2003, but, before today, I don't think I'd heard it since then. Somehow it doesn't sound the same on computer as it did played from the tapedeck of my stereo. Still, it sounded pretty awesome. This of course reminds me that this year I saw a movie called The Big Country, starring Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston:

The thing about this movie is that it is SOOOOO long. It's like three hours long. The other thing about this movie is that it has the best fight scene in cinema history. I used to give that distinction to Class, with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy, but The Big Country's fight scene is in a whole other category. It's in a whole other galaxy for that matter. Just a The Big Country is an almost ridiculously long movie, the fight scene, between Peck and Heston, is ludicrously long. As you're watching it and it's going longer and longer you're thinking, "what the heck is going on? This is insane. How much longer can I watch these two grown men tussling about in the dim light of evening? There hasn't been a close up since this thing started." But as it goes on and on and on you slowly come to realize that it is the greatest fight scene ever comitted to film. I can't explain it. You just have to watch it. I know I haven't been painting the most flattering picture of the movie, but it is one the best movies I've watched this year. So, to recap, I am recommending Pandora.com, Big Country the band, and The Big Country the movie. Now it's all up to you.

mel

I Heart You, Porkins

Sigh. Ok, geeking out alert! I don't know why, but I am having some nostalgic Star Wars withdrawals. I guess watching Star Wars used to be a pretty common occurrence for me; my roommate and I both loved it, she had it on DVD and I had it on VHS. You know what though? My roommate moved to Sacramento and took her DVDs with her, and we got rid of our VCR and all our (my) VHS tapes when we moved. For the first time in probably 10 years or more, I do not own the original Star Wars trilogy! I can't just watch it whenever I want, which is pretty sad. Something must be done, or my once formidable store of Star Wars trivia will dwindle out of existence. I'll have to check out netflix and see if Star Wars is one of those movies you can watch on their website. Probably not I guess.

Anyway, enough of that geekery! Sorry for that. So, oh my gosh you guys, we have so much catching up to do! Obviously, I failed at NaBloPoMo, but that's ok, because while I was doing it I had so much fun. I have total faith that next year I will succeed! I'll be training all year. The awesomeness of the Jens Lekman show was enough to make up for my failure. It was sooooo good. I am so glad that I was able to go, and that I got my tickets early because it totally sold out! I recommend to all of you, if you get a chance, go see his show! He sounds awesome live, the energy is so high, and you can tell that he loves music, and the joy is infectious. I don't want to go on too long, especially since I don't have any pictures to share, but I will post this link to a song from his new album, and I hope you'll all click and listen to it. Click Here Y'all.

In more "music" "news", I am seeing two more shows next month! Both are at The Great American Music Hall, which is a super awesome venue that is only a few blocks from my house! First is Jonathan Richman (love love love) and second is Stephen Malkmus. I am a little leery about the SM show. Pavement is my all time favorite band, and I have been known to embarrassingly, drunkenly call Stephen Malkmus a genius, and I love the first SM solo album to DEATH....but I kind of hated the last two albums. So...it's kind of a shaky proposition. I hope it doesn't suck. And Steve is going to go with me! Even though he never goes to shows! I'm going to be keeping my fingers crossed. I know Jonathan Richman will be awesome, I saw him once before, actually twice, and I'm sure this show will be even better because it's not at some douchey bar in the Mission.

Let's get to the crafting, shall we? After all, this isn't a music blog, dude! There is some exciting crafting stuff to discuss, first, I made a sale! Very surprising, because I hadn't listed since the beginning of October and I was sure no one was even looking at my shop. I guess I was wrong. People are looking at my shop a bit now, because I finally posted new items! Two new notebooks, take a looksie:

Well, people aren't really looking that much. I have a bunch of new notebooks just waiting to be listed though! I'm really excited because I haven't had new stuff in so long, and I'm really proud of these notebooks, I think they're really cool and well made.
In case you were wondering, things are coming along very well with my homework. I'll post a picture when it's done, so y'all can let me know if you think it sucks.
love ya!

mel

countdown - tomorrow

Sipping on the Sweet Nectar

mel

countdown - 2 days

Ok, I'm real tired, but I just wanted to let y'all know: I am so excited for Jens Lekman! The show is day after tomorrow! I'm so so psyched.

It's going to be so awesome! In the meantime, check out these pretty flowers my boyfriend sent me at work.

Aren't they so pretty? I hope they're still ok, I was homesick from work today and I think they probably really needed their water changed. I love looking at them, they're so vibrant and so unlike the rest of my office, I find myself just staring at them for really long stretches. I'm thinking I should always have flowers on my desk.


I'm off to bed, but I'll leave you with a pretty crappy picture of the last book I made. I know, I finally made another book!

Nighty night!

mel

Strangeness

Hi, I am back. Back to blogging. I've been out of town for a week. I've seen some people I haven't seen in ages and ages. It feels very strange to be back home. Everything is a little bit surreal. I figured, what better way to get back in the swing of things than to do a little bloggity blog bloggy? So, what is up with me, you ask? Well, things are going better than I ever expected. My notebooks are selling surprisingly well. Tonight though, I am not working on notebooks, I'm working on buttons. The Sampler is doing a new thing called City Sampler where they feature products all made by artists from a certain city, and the first city is San Francisco! Since I've lost a week, I really need to get to work so I can make the deadline for submissions. I'm really excited about this because I had been planning on getting something together for the next Sampler anyway, but it will be much cooler to have my first sampler be a San Francisco sampler.

Other than that, I am just relaxing, trying to get ready for the shell shock of going to work tomorrow. I'm downloading music by Mika and Mickey Avalon; my sister introduced me to their music while I was away and I liked it, which is odd because my taste in music and my sister's generally do not overlap. I guess I'm just feeling the dancy trashy stuff these days. Also, I am shopping on Etsy of course! I'm really considering buying jewelry from one of my very first favorite shops, Marshatoh. All of her pieces are so gorgeous, I'm just worried that, if I were to buy something, it would become another of my jewelry casualties, because I almost never wear jewelry. For some reason I am super self conscious about it. But just look at these, how can I not obssess over them?

So pretty, right? I just love the lariat necklace. I like the polished wood, it makes the pieces look so light and cool. Decisions decisions....

mel

Being Bad

Today I am being bad. I am listening to Adam Green sing Kokomo and looking at shoes on UrbanOutfitters.com. And I ate chocolate cake. Mmm, delicious delicious chocolate cake.
And yesterday I was mean. I registered a complaint against a muni driver. But he was mean to me first! I've been talking about complaining for a while now, because at least once a week I get screwed by someone driving the 2-Clement bus, and the other day Gavin Newsome was on Forum talking about muni problems, etc, and he mentioned 311. That was still fresh in my mind, so even though I was so so so mad, I could remember to call that number. I am so glad I did! The lady was so nice that eventually I just couldn't be a crazy pissed off person anymore. The whole experience was such a relief that I wasn't even hardly mad at Steve when I tried to tell him about it but he was too busy to pay attention, because I already got to vent to that nice lady. So, yes, try 311, it rocks.
Speaking of Gav, I was very excited to hear him on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer today. He was featured in a story about bottled water vs. tap water. I am glad that I jumped on the contra-bottle bandwagon earlier this year, though I had been a real slave to bottled water before. It seemed to be the only way I could get myself to drink water, because if I had a bottle I would be strangely compelled to drink the entire thing as quickly as I could. Now though, I have myself a nice nalgene bottle that works the same trick. I would recommend one to everyone, it may seem expensive when you first buy it (they are about 5 to 8 dollars) but just think how much less that is than what you might spend on bottled water in just a week. Also, the Brita filter that hooks on to your faucet is very handy if, like me, you are sensitive to the taste of tap water sometimes.
The digital camera search is going pretty well, I should have one soon, I hope. I am so eager to get my etsy shop opened up! Last night I stayed up much much too late making magnets with little sculpy beads. I wish I could show you pictures!
One last thing, this is from the Craftzine.com blog, and I think it is such a cool idea. It's a project by artist Kirsty Hall called The Diary Project. She is drawing a picture on an envelope, putting a secret treasure in it, and then mailing it to herself, one a day, everyday for this entire year. She has a blog here showing each drawing, a bit about it, and when she received the letter again. The letters will remain unopened until next year, and then the public will be able to see all the items inside the envelopes. I think it is such an interesting idea, and I love Kirsty's drawings. They are so deceptively simple. You should also check out her other blog, Up All Night Again, if you are a blogger yourself, she has some really good advice.
mel