soulsmiles

layers, from the bottom: bread, butter, balsamic vinegar, tomato, chopped basil, mozzarella.

toasted in the toaster oven till the cheese browned a bit, just a bit.



( One more, close-up )

So I've got some books I'd like to give away before I donate them in mass. See something you want email me your address and I'll mail it to you.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins (young adult poetry story about meth)

What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (novel about dead end jobs and a missing girl)


( more under the cut )

Key:
1. username
2. favorite bands right now
3. draw a heart
4. favorite person of all time
5. recent favorite person
6. tag people

school: all consuming, drowning
gender project: being theorized
san francisco: bright
conference: awkward
queer theory: hot
katie: angry chipmunk with a magic wand
ruby: likes dirty underwear
spike: victim of corporal cuddling
dallas: all sass, no games
emotions: sorta mostly maybe stable
therapy: helpful
job: cool
lansing: love
winter: over it
spring: tease
summer: fest...
daydreams: scooters and cupcakes
food: vinaigrettes and aiolis
obama: dude, wtf?
tv: lil' rounds v. adam lambert, college basketball
bedtime reading: jPod by douglas coupland
music: k'naan, quantic soul orchestra, mary j. blige

Hey! Someone I love had an abusive, fat phobic experience recently with a "doctor" and we're pissed off about it. Please comment below with the names of any fat-positive and fat-acceptance newsletters and information. We're going to send them to their office.

Please repost.

Add to original post: http://meaning-making.livejournal.com/59919.html

So I am presenting The Gender Project (the series of documentary shorts I made last semester) at this big-ass conference (C's)

in SAN FRANCISCO!

My presentation will be on Saturday, but K and I are flying out to Cali this Wednesday. We are also on spring break. In short...spring break in San Francisco. Yes, please! And I got a little kish-cash from my program. Wurd.

Check my twitter feed for San Fran updates - twitter.com/soulsmiles.

p.s. I thought my folk song was funny...I know that I can't sing, but I have passion!

Sitting at my cleanly cluttered desk. A half empty heart-shaped box of chocolates is next to me. I got it 75% off from Walgreen's last night. I'm working on my second cup of coffee, listening to Ani, thinking what to type next.

My desk looks out a window, but the blinds usually stay closed because the neighbors house is about 10 feet away. I don't trust the Witnesses.

I'm waiting for FedEx to deliver my medication. It comes packed in an inflatable cooler and ice packs because it has to stay refrigerated. So, I have to be home when they deliver it. It's the rules.

I like Thursday mornings cause I get to sleep in, which just means I don't get up at 6:30/7 to take K to campus. She doesn't teach on Thursday mornings. I've always wondered when the transition from staying up late to getting up early would take place. Here it is. I am not a morning person, tho I've been getting myself up by myself since the 3rd grade (when I got my first alarm clock). If I could communicate with grunts and head nods in the morning I would.

Ani Radio on Pandora is playing "Fast or Faster" by Bree Sharp. I love this song, and only know about it cause of Pandora, which is a fuckin' sweet web app.

I haven't been on LJ in days, maybe a week. I try to give LJ a respect I don't give Facebook or Twitter. LJ is more important, more invested. Although I do enjoy the intimacy of Twitter.

That's all I got.

capitalism is in control now, marketing engagement rings to men who love women and to women who love men. thus begins the back and forth, to and fro, passive aggressive, hint-dropping, mall walking, red-rose-buying madness. diamonds are dug by brown and broken hands recieving heavy coins in return. capitalism's pocket change. spike tv alternates commercial blocks with cage-fighting and engagement rings. round and round we go, spinning on a paradoxical axis. man. woman. right. wrong. black. white. up. down. yesterday. today. tomorrow. forever.

friday, february 13, 2008

another conversation with the moon
bouncing from star to satellite
a whisper, a scream,
a memorial sent floating
floating away
journal entries deciphered with a clock
turn the dial back to another big sky,
another conversation with the moon

-cm, today

thinking about...

- nationalism - a society's desire for heroes
- love is as imperfect as I am, as uniquely beautiful. as rare.
- code - xhtml and css. words as structure, typing to build, then design. code as creativity.
- water conservation. i am starting a research assistant position this semester. i'll be working on a project designing a social network for water conservation groups within the Great Lakes region. my role is surveying these groups so that the social network will serve their needs - web 2.0
- rational vs. irrational thinking/thoughts/feelings

I don't considered myself an overly organized person, but I do enjoy organizing. While some of this winter break was spent seeing family and friends, Katie and I also resolved to organize!

But first, I present Noshing New Years: Party of Two. Rather than digest another.huge.meal I made small bits to nosh throughout the evening.

Me and cucumber cups filled with hummus and sprinkled paprika and lemon juice.



( More of...the spread )

Some of this story can only be told in pictures, and some only in words. My first semester of grad school ended with a shot out of a cannon. I spent the first week of winter break floating, unaccustomed to having nothing to do.

I cooked...

chicken & dumplings


( the story continues... )

A screenshot of my laptop's desktop - my google gadgets, rocketdock at the bottom, and a jaded christmas wallpaper.

The last person in our house to get some Midol literally shredded the plastic off the pack.









whuddn't me.

This morning I sent my last final project of the semester off to the professor. Which means...

I'm done with my first semester of grad school!

Wow. I made it. I didn't fail quit panic or freak out.

The documentary project I've been working on the last two months was a huge success. It has been altered from a linear-based documentary film to a web-based collection of gender stories, which will expand the meaning of gender AND documentary. I'm excited and humbly intimidated to get this project off the ground.

But first, winter break. I have plans for cleaning, baking, organizing, IKEA, poetry readings and reading poetry, the holidaze, and not doing any schoolwork.

from rearviewmags

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, preferably from something around the house.

2. Real tree or Artificial? All my life we had a real tree, and then when my sister and I lived together we got a real one too. But, my lord were those needles hard to clean up! So...I get the artificial vibe. Currently, I have a little foot and a half tall fake tree. I got it for, seriously, two dollars.

3. When do you put up the tree? It has varied over the years. Sometimes it's a mad dash the day before Christmas, other times it's around Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? WELL into January.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, no, and no.

6. Favorite gifts received as a child? Gosh...I don't remember a "favorite." I do remember waking up to a lot of our gifts set up and in working order. It was like waking up to a toy store!

7. Hardest person to buy for? Probably my mom. She's a lady who takes care of herself.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Katie, cause she makes it easy.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Hahahaha...no. Tho I could make a really offensive one. Hmmm...

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, if I get around to it. I usually find a humiliating picture of myself and print it on a lot of sheets of paper, then stick it in an envelope with a non-religious holiday greeting.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Anything pink. Actually, I am remembering a bright pink sweatsuit with a built-in vest that my grandmother gave me when I was a kid.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Straight up, Home Alone.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually pick a weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas to get it all done. But this year the semester has to end before I can even think about it.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? At my mammaw's - Scalloped Chicken (which isn't scalloped at all. It's this long process that involves rending chicken fat. But fuck me is it delcious). And then, um, I have my way with the sweets.

16. Lights on the tree? Yep! Even my little guy will get some lights. I prefer the variety of colored lights. Katie does not.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Classic - Winter Wonderland. Otherwise - Wonderful Christmas Time (yes, the one by Wings).

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Nowadays we stay home for the actual Day, and travel to Arkansas either the weekend before or after. After my parents got divorced and we moved to Michigan, my sister and I always spent Christmas with my dad.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes, I can.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star! We had to retire the star we've had since we were kids. But we got a new one. It lights up. But it's not the same. Ho hum.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning! "The sooner you go to sleep the sooner morning will come." - my Nena

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The frickin' Christmas songs on the radio after Halloween (I agree!)

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Just throw it all on the tree!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Something with easy clean-up.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? An iPod Touch, 2nd Generation.

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Grayson!

Free to take, please attribute.

Kuala Lampur, Malyasia - Yoga is forbidden

Malaysia's top Islamic body fresh from banning tomboys issued an edict Saturday that prohibits Muslims from practicing yoga, saying that element of Hinduism in the ancient Indian exercise could corrupt them.

That National Fatwa Council's chairman, Abdul Shukor Husin, said many Muslims fail to understand that yoga's ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion - an explanation disputed by many practitioners who say yoga need not have a religious element.