July 28, 2002
06:03 AM PST
... if anyone's looking for me ...
Here I am
[12 comments]
05:58 AM PST
I'm done! YA-FREAKING-HOO!
The sun is up. My pals have gotten up again to see me through the end of this thing, and to send me off to bed.
It's been a hell of an experience. P'rhaps I'll do it again next year.
Right now, I just want some sleep. Preferably of the uninterrupted sort.
Night, y'all.
:)
[186 comments]
05:29 AM PST
Oooh, I wonder if I can get through the rest of Gosford Park in the next half hour. If I can't, I don't know what I'll do.
[5 comments]
04:58 AM PST
Arright. I'm mumbling now. Which might be amusing if I weren't trying to say good night to people.
But I am. And so it's not nearly as funny as it might have been. Did that make sense?
This really has been fun. Honestly it has. But I think I'm ready for it to be over, all things considered.
So, a few more checks of the usual haunts, and then? Sleep!
[6 comments]
04:37 AM PST
Oh, come on. It's not that tough to click on the pictures and decide whether you like them or you don't. Really. This takes relatively little brain power, and seeing as that's what we're mostly down to, I thought it'd be easy.
I think I'm insulted.
So instead, I'm going to roll around on the floor and kick my feet and say 'ruction' a few dozen times. Hee heeehee.
Oh, and jaDed -- Gosford Park is really pretty clever. Take it in small doses. You'll be fine.
[9 comments]
04:00 AM PST
All right, it's time to play:
Am I hot or not?
You tell me.
[178 comments]
03:29 AM PST
I have reached that part of the night when I'm going to wax quasi-philosophical.
Why is it that, despite having a full bowl of clean water, cats will choose to drink water out of the toilet? Dogs do that too, I know. Or I think I know. Am I having a cat biased moment? Cat superiority?
What on earth would possess my neighbors NOT to yell at the guys playing music insanely loudly at 3:30 in the freaking morning?
I thought I had more questions than that. I appear to have forgotten them. It's interesting to watch people's coherency dissolve, though. I'm amused.
[6439 comments]
02:57 AM PST
What am I doing eating at 3am? No sane person eats at 3 am. Then again, we've established that I'm not sane, right? Gah. Now I'm going to feel stuffed while I sleep.
I do plan to sleep, though. I think I'll sleep well. I hope I can. I don't usually sleep during the day, so we'll have to see.
o/~ Rambling rambling .. I'll go no more a-rambling with you old cow ~\o
Yep, now I'm corrupting songs. Aie.
[56 comments]
02:30 AM PST
This is actually turning out to be a fairly interesting movie, if only for the commentary coming from the servants, and watching them interact with the upper crust. Maybe that's the point of the movie?
I used to work for 24 hours solid, and then sleep for 12, and work for 24, wash, rinse, repeat. I wonder now how I did it. My fingers are beginning to refuse to cooperate with me.
But I'm still awake! Tada!
[5155 comments]
02:04 AM PST
I settled on Gosford Park. Looks like there's an awful lot of characters I'm going to have to keep track of. We'll see if I can manage.
The cat is calm. The boy is calm. I am caffeinated at least enough to keep me awake for the next four hours. I'm going to pay for this at the gym. Ah well.
Lackluster post this half hour, but I really can't think of anything stunning to say.
[105 comments]
01:32 AM PST
I just noticed that my archive page is all screwed up. Oops. Guess I'll have to fix that some time. I am *not* touching it now. I'll mess up the whole site, and that'd ruin everything.
Wah, my company has departed. Well, aside from the boy, who's bound for bed soon, I'm sure. So, I must consider movies. I could watch Gosford Park. Wonder if that'd keep me awake. I think Don't Say A Word would freak me out, and I think the boy wants to see Ocean's Eleven, so.
Oh. About Evolution. I thought it was supposed to be a spoof movie. Apparently, I was wrong. It wasn't nearly as goofy as I expected. And the evolution thing was kinda cool. There are plot holes, don't get me wrong, but.
Oh, hey. If anyone wants to read the movie script that I wrote that placed in some contests, let me know and I'll gladly email it to you. Just don't try to run off with it and claim it as your own, yo. I have that sucker registered. One day, it's going to make me ph4t 100t.
Yes, I've entered stupid mode. You're welcome.
[101 comments]
01:02 AM PST
Whoo hoo! Only five hours left. I think I can, I think I can.
I have to admit. I'm yawning like a fool over here. And my eyelids are pretty darned heavy. I think I'll be all right, though. I've still got company, and I've got movies when the company is gone, so I think I'm okay.
The cat finally quieted down. That's a small blessing. (Of course he starts quacking again as soon as I type that. Sigh.)
Looking back at what I've blogged today, I'm pretty darn impressed with myself.
[706 comments]
00:29 AM PST
On second thought, I think I'm just too fuzzy to cook anything complicated tonight. Maybe I'll have cereal and frappucino.
Er. Not together. That would be ... weird.
Besides, I still have biscotti left over. So. No brownies!
See, Kit? All better!
[1921 comments]
July 27, 2002
23:56 PM PST
I should probably make brownies. I should do something that requires me to get up and move. That would probably help with the attack of the sleepies. If I make brownies, when it's 3 am, I can have warm brownies and Frappucino. Mmm. That sounds good.
[87 comments]
23:28 PM PST
I can feeeel the fog creeping into my brain even now. I should go and have some caffeine or sugar, or maybe both, if I'm going to make it another six and a half hours. Oof.
Someone say something witty to me in email. Or in IM. Make me laugh. shadowhawk AT shadowwings.com. RedEyz32 on AIM. Hep! Hep!
[170 comments]
23:01 PM PST
My cat is driving me batty at the moment.
He's a very cute little black critter. And he has moon eyes, as I like to call them. Big, and bright, and they're very often all that you can see of him.
But once he outgrew kittenhood, his voice changed (kitty puberty?) and now, instead of meowing like a normal cat, he quacks. It's the best way to describe the sound he makes. It's gravely and not particularly pleasant, and he's capable of dragging one quack out for *hours* on end. It feels that way to me, at least.
He's sitting on my desk quacking at me, at the moment. I want a stuffed animal to bonk him with.
[97 comments]
22:31 PM PST
Just a reminder of what I'm doing, and why.
I'm blogging for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest US-based AIDS research organization. I'm doing it to help some friends. I'm doing it to try and do SOMETHING about keeping the research on finding a vaccine or a cure going.
And I'm not above giving something back in return. I'll even lower my price. $50 would be nice, but I'll take $35. Heck, I'll even take $20. If you're willing to pledge $20, I'll devote my time toward making a critter, your color (or multiple color) choice, your choice of base animals (from the ones I've got). I'll pay the shipping and supplies and everything. You can keep the critter. You can give it to someone else. I might even be willing to knit or crochet a scarf or a hat or a sweater for the little guys.
The critters are down toward the bottom of the page.
Think about it.
Thanks. :)
[206 comments]
21:59 PM PST
The last part. Y'all can expect randomness from me again. :)
Part the eighth:
David laughed again. "Have some patience. There's more. One thing at a time."
"No," Steven said, and laid the rose across his knees to reach for David's hand. "I meant, that's it? A kiss on the forehead? The birthday boy's supposed to get kisses. Real kisses."
"I thought that was spanks." David winked, lacing his fingers with Steven's.
"I like kisses better," Steven reported, and gave David's hand a light squeeze.
David shook his head a little. "You're impossible." Not impossible to kiss, however, as David proved. Not a long-lived kiss, it was not a simple peck, either, but an honest press of lip to lip. "Happy birthday," he murmured as he straightened again.
Steven unlaced his fingers from David's and reached instead for the back of his neck to pull him close again, and steal another kiss. The gentle insistence of his tongue parted David's lips and their tongues met. When the moment's shared passion ended, Steven had to clear his throat to say, "Now it's a happy birthday."
[3 comments]
21:30 PM PST
(One more part after this. Means I'll finish up just as we hit the two-thirds mark. I kind of like that.)
Part the seventh:
"I can show it off at dinner. You could give it to me early," Steven called from the other room.
David laughed out loud. "I could." He poured out the cold coffee, rinsed the mug and refilled it, and poured himself another. He then plucked one of the roses from the vase, put it between his teeth, and made the return trip to the living room and Steven's window perch.
"Oh, so that's where you're keeping the stash, huh? You going to keep me out of the kitchen all day? I thought you might want help with dinner." Steven reached for the coffee cup, hand emerging from folds of soft crocheted wool.
David plucked the rose from his teeth, and handed that over too, smile as bright and as broad as Steven's. "I thought," he said, "the whole point of a birthday was to be spoiled horribly, not have to do any work, and have everyone tell you how wonderful you are anyway."
"I am wonderful," Steven joked as he tilted the rose to his nose and took a deep breath. "It's beautiful. Perfect."
"Mmm," David answered, and leaned over to kiss his forehead. "Not as perfect as you are, but it'll do. Happy start of your birthday."
"That's it?"
[115 comments]
20:57 PM PST
Part the sixth:
Steven grinned again, wide enough this time to dimple. "Rush hour sucks. Where'd you go?"
David rolled his eyes and stood. "Yeah, no kidding." He shrugged a shoulder. "Out. I went out," he tried as he headed back for the kitchen, with Steven's coffee cup in hand.
"So what'd you get me?"
David stopped mid-stride and turned back. Steven's eyes danced, and his eyebrows rose, a silently amused prompt. David laughed. "What makes you think I got you anything? And since when do you drink coffee in the morning?"
"Since I was trying to stay awake and wait for you to come home," Steven answered, and yawned into the blanket. "And you got me something," he added, "because it's my birthday, and you don't want to disappoint me."
David snorted and continued into the kitchen. The balloons, tangled together above the table, bobbed in the breeze his entrance made, and he couldn't help the smile. "Have I ever disappointed you? I thought your present could wait until dinner, though. You know, so you can show it off?"
[6 comments]
20:30 PM PST
Part the fifth:
Concern and confusion melted away as David, smiling himself, crossed the room. He moved the coffee cup out of the way, and sat on the edge himself. One hand found a foot-shaped lump in the blanket and squeezed, lightly. "Hey you."
Steven woke with an inhaled breath, lashes parting slowly. Eyesight fuzzy, it took a moment for him to register the familiar face; when he did, he smiled again and stretched, then curled the blanket closer to his ears. "Hey yourself."
"I thought you were going to sleep in late today," David teased.
"I was. Someone got up and left his half of the bed cold. Not fair." The sleepy little smile widened.
David laughed. "Mea culpa, my fault. I'll make it up to you. Go back to bed if you're still tired."
"You gonna come with me?"
David shook his head. "Not right away. I have some things to do, and I'd just keep you awake anyway."
"I wouldn't mind," Steven promised, then grinned at David's arched eyebrow. "I know. Behave. If you're staying up, then I will too. I'll stay here. Sun's out."
David looked over his shoulder out the window. Gold fell again, this time into the water of the bay. "Yeah, I noticed. You wanna take a walk, later? It's not so bad out. Just in the neighborhood, though. I'm not driving again."
[12 comments]
20:01 PM PST
(Is this cheating? It feels kind of like cheating. But it's blogging, right? And it's such a cute story.)
Part the fourth:
The cup was abandoned as David padded out of the kitchen again, and toward the bedroom. Hadn't he closed the bedroom door behind himself when he'd gotten up? The curtains were closed, but further investigation proved his suspicion right; Steven was not in bed.
"You blew it," David murmured to himself, eyes closed for one brief moment. "You blew it," he said again as he made the return trip down the hall, passed the kitchen, and headed for the living room.
Only to stop again. Steven, wrapped in the throw blanket from the back of the couch, was tucked into a corner of the wide bay window that made up the better portion of the front wall of the condo. On the seventh floor of a building that stood atop one of San Francisco's many hills, it afforded a fantastic view of the bay. It was Steven's favorite place to sit, and sometimes to nap, like now.
Head propped against the window, he was sound asleep. Dark hair, tangled from slumber, framed his face and spilled over blanketed shoulders carelessly. As though he knew he was being watched, a little smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, then was chased away by a frown that tugged dark eyebrows together. A cup of coffee sat on the window seat by his feet.
[8 comments]
19:33 PM PST
Part the third:
He tucked the picture frame under his arm, hooked a finger through the handles of the paper bag full of groceries, and gathered the shiny ribbon tethers on a dozen ballons into one hand. Pushing the door was the easy part; wrestling his armload inside was not. "Don't pop, don't pop," he whispered as a smiling mylar face snagged on the corner of the doorjamb, then bobbed free.
David nudged the door shut with his foot until the rocker caught with a quiet snap. One obstacle down, only a few more to go. He ducked into the kitchen, balloons trailing behind, and lifted the grocery bag to the counter, then set the picture frame on the kitchen table. "Right. First things first."
The roses, complete with their spray of baby's breath went into the condo's single crystal vase. Champagne fit neatly on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, and the box of pizza rolls on the top shelf of the freezer. David dusted his hands together neatly. "Perfect."
Glancing around the kitchen, his gaze fell on the coffee pot, and the inviting orange glow of the heating plate light. The pot was still warm and nearly full. Grinning, David poured himself a cup, inhaled the rich, earthy scent . . . and froze. "I didn't make coffee." He lowered the cup, staring into the dark depths as thought an answer might float to the top of the cup, then stiffened. "Steven."
[17 comments]
19:02 PM PST
Part the second.
David's hands tightened on the wheel as the light for the cross-traffic turned yellow. Turn signal flashing, he adjusted his foot a little on the gas pedal. Traffic slowed to a trickle as the cross-traffic turned red, then David's turn green. "Finally." A little gas.
And a lot of brake. A fire-engine red Trans Am, heedless of the red light, blasted through the intersection, missing the front fender of David's VW by scant inches. Knuckles gone abruptly white, and his heart -- when it began to beat again -- pounding in his chest, David stared in the direction the sports car had sped. Then, against his will, his eyes drifted back to the light facing him as traffic once more began to move.
Red. "Fuck!" David dropped his head against the steering wheel. "I'm buying a horse."
The key turning in the door was much louder than David had hoped it would be. Tumblers clacked and the bolt slid back with a click that he could feel vibrating through his hand. It was a good, strong lock, at least.
He toed the door open, leaning in from the hallway to look to his right, down the carpeted passage that led to the bedroom. The door was open, but the curtains were still drawn shut. Good. This could still go off without a hitch.
[5 comments]
18:33 PM PST
Actually, the piece I want to post is part of something I wrote about David and *Steven*. Kit and I, some time ago, for reasons I don't really remember, came up with two boys, David and Eric, and built a world around them.
David, however, had had a partner before, and had lost him to AIDS. Kit and I were writing scenes together, and somehow, we ended up writing part of each other's characters into scenes. I don't remember whether it was a challenge or whether we dared each other to do it. We might have.
*Anyway*.
This is a part of the bit that I wrote, with her characters. Hopefully, she won't flay me for putting it up. :)
Winter in San Francisco meant grey skies, overcast with the threat of rain. Winter grey was different than the soft grey of fog that sprinkled streets and windshields with moisture. Different than the grey-brown haze of smog on summer days. No, somehow winter grey was cleaner. Colder, certainly, but clean.
It made those few moments when the sun parted the clouds and revealed blue sky behind them all the more impressive. Golden fingers of sunlight stretching through the gloom could make even the drifting agnostic believe in a higher being, painting the world as it suited his whims. It made almost anything bearable.
Almost anything. "Come /on/," David muttered at the stoplight, fingers drumming against the steering wheel. It had been a mistake to try getting anywhere during morning rush hour. Despite street-widening and repaving, San Francisco's roads were still made for trolley cars and horse-drawn carriages, not the tens of thousands of cars that traveled over them at least twice a day. Bad timing.
The timing on this light was off, too. For the last half-hour, it had flashed a brief green that was just long enough to let one car sneak through the intersection before it sped through yellow to red. There it remained while a flood of cars rushed pass, crossing in front of the next in line.
More to come.
[4 comments]
18:01 PM PST
Made it through twelve hours of this anyway. My cats are being needy and my boy is not, but that's pretty much par for the course. I am starting to feel a little groggy. Had some green tea, though, so perhaps that will help perk me up.
I think ... that next update, I'll post the beginning piece of a story that Kit and I keep writing and reworking. Maybe I'll post the whole thing. Donno. We'll see how long it is, and how generous I feel. ;) Maybe that'll keep me going for a while.
It's a story (of a lovely lady -- no, no no.) It's the story of David and Eric.
[3 comments]
17:31 PM PST
I appear to have burned the roof of my mouth on reheated Chinese food. I hate it when that happens.
I'm watching Evolution, at the moment. You know, the aliens come to earth movie that David Duchovny and Orlando Jones did. Thus far, I'm not *horrified*, but I'm certainly not impressed, either. One of the bad things about learning how to *write* movies is that it's impossible to watch them the same way ever again. You start thinking about plot and pacing and you have to actively turn that portion of your brain off.
We'll see if the movie continues to entertain, or if the plot holes get big enough to drive fleets of semis through.
[3 comments]
17:00 PM PST
I need to get off my butt and go watch a movie or something. Primarily, though, I need to *eat*.
I've added a couple more journals to the side bar over there. Keep an eye on them. I am finding myself amazed at the quality of the things people are writing in their journals. Informational, or funny or just, you know, a peek at the person behind the words. I guess that's what blogging's all about, but it's pretty damned cool.
Maybe after I watch a movie and have some food I'll have something witty to say again.
[7 comments]
16:41 PM PST
Now I know what the entry is from.
I entered the Southwestern Writer's Contest. Amusingly enough, despite the fact that my entry got a 57 out of 60, I didn't make the finals.
More amusingly, despite the fact that I've been told by a romance publisher that I don't write books with enough focus on the romance, this contest seems to think that I don't write mainstream books.
Is it any wonder that I question my sanity sometimes? :)
[4 comments]
16:02 PM PST
Well, the boy has his game, and this makes him happy, which makes me happy in turn. Didn't get a game for myself, but that's all right. I got *mail* instead.
Is it sad that I like getting mail? I got the newest copy of my Romance Writers' Report, and I got a forwarded copy of the newest Strangers In Paradise comic book. And I got a contest entry back, though I'm ... not exactly sure who it's from. Guess I'll find out shortly.
And I don't really *need* a mindless PC game. I have movies to watch.
[4 comments]
15:34 PM PST
Remind me not to ask the boy for writing topics again. He's just given me eleventy-seven. One of which I will use now.
I am going to take him (and myself) out on a brief shopping trip. To possibly get that mindless PC game I want to play. To get him ZooTycoon. He wanted to get it yesterday, but the store we went to didn't have it. Given that he wrecked yesterday, he deserves something to cheer him up.
OH! And I got a call from Terlan, who is an old old OLD friend of mine. We go waaaaay back. We reminisced a little. We laughed at each other. I got the low down on his poor car. It was very cool. It was great to talk to him, since I haven't, for years, quite literally.
And now I'm gonna go. Shoop!
[10 comments]
15:06 PM PST
Kit is online! Yaaaaay! Hi Kit!
Kit keeps me sane. Most of the time. Okay, maybe Kit contributes to my insanity sometimes too, but most of the time, she is a good and helpful Kit!
She is the most awesome writer *ever*, and if you like Highlander-related fiction, particularly having to do with Methos, you must must *must* read her novel, Immortal Beloved.
She is my writing partner and RP partner and I cannot possibly gush enough about her.
But she also does bad things, like drag me into geekdoms. Like the aforementioned Highlander, and its fandom. I had never even heard that there was such a thing as a Highlander tv show before Kit. And when I found it, I happily lept into geekdom. We even went on a couple of Highlander *cruises*!
And before that, it was X-Men. Who knew there was a sexy Cajun waiting to be discovered? Kit.
See, it's alllll her fault!
[3 comments]
14:32 PM PST
Whaaaaat am I going to talk about for the rest of the day? A lot of my theatre stories are sort of context dependent. Hm.
Can you blog about not knowing what to blog about?
Can I say random things like: I miss acting.
Back exercises are probably great for my back but *man* do they make my back feel tired.
I need to clean the kitchen so I can make brownies. Yum!
I want to play a mindless PC game.
Is that okay?
:)
[8 comments]
14:01 PM PST
Here's an interesting story:
Sesame Street Considers AIDS Muppet
When this whole issue first came out, I was a little dismayed by the fact that government officials were threatening to remove funding for PBS if the AIDS muppet showed up on US tv. Matter of fact, I'm *still* dismayed about that.
I did calm down a little when it sank in that the character never really was intended for US audiences. South Africa has a much larger problem with AIDS than we do in the US. Which is alarming and saddening and just plain frustrating.
However, I'm not sure of what I think about this news. On the one hand, it's nice to see PBS sticking up for itself. On the other hand, I think it's sad that in order to get a positively-viewed muppet on US TV, we have to make an epidemic even worse.
[5 comments]
13:30 PM PST
I like to use big words. I haven't been doing it here, really, because I've been trying to be marginally succinct (ha! see?), but usually I do. This comes from being raised by college professors, being friends with my parents' friends, and being married to a guy with a huge vocabulary, even though English is his second language.
I am regularly used as a walking thesaurus. I mention this because the boy was just asking what the little indentation in the curb when you pull into a parking lot is called. You know, the little divot doohickey that's at street level so you don't have to drive over the curb? I'm at a loss.
But I once said, at a former place of employment: 'I don't like to use big words around you guys. I'm always afraid it makes me sound pretentious.'
Oops.
[2 comments]
12:59 PM PST
Okay, last one for a while.
Did you know that it is common practice to say 'break a leg' to actors before they go on stage to perform? It is considered *bad* luck to say *good* luck before a theatrical performance.
I've sort of warped that for my own sanity. I once said 'break a leg' to a fellow actor in a show in Monterey, California. He smiled and thanked me, then headed for the stage. He was delivering his lines, he went up the three steps to be fully on-stage, and his legs collapsed out from under him. He's been in a wheelchair ever since.
So I, ah, don't say break a leg anymore. Yes, it's superstitious of me, but that's the way it goes. Break a fingernail, split a hair, but not break a leg.
Don't ever say that to a dancer before a performance, though. They won't appreciate it.
[11 comments]
12:35 PM PST
Yet another one. (I've got a million of these.)
Once, while performing As You Like It, and playing the part of poor country bumpkin Audrey, I had a serious accident.
Touchstone, the clown character, says to darling Audrey, 'Trip, Audrey, trip!' Which means, basically, 'come along, dear'.
My blocking was that I was supposed to leap over a piece of cloth that was a river, giggle, and run off stage and out through the audience, following him.
Only, when I 'tripped', my toe caught in the hem of my skirt and I quite literally tripped. I jumped the river all right, and the entire rest of the stage. Landed on the concrete floor about a foot below. On my knee.
Oh my god, did that hurt.
But, because I am an *ACTOR* -- thank you -- I stood up (after skidding into one of my friends in the front row), giggled as I was supposed to, said 'excuse me' and ran out after Touchstone.
I collapsed in the lobby. Broke my kneecap. But I finished not only that show, but the run of the show afterward.
Ah, the things we do for the love of theatre.
[4 comments]
12:01 PM PST
Had to take a break to get the boy some painkillers and neosporin for his roadburn. Blech. At least he'll have a shot at sleeping tonight.
I wonder whether grocery store clerks appreciate being asked how they are in return, when they say 'how are you'? I wonder if they appreciate thank yous and smiles. I know *I* appreciated the people who said thank you, and meant it, when I was doing phone support. People today are in such a hurry and can be so rude and abrupt, that it's not often that you actually get a thanks when you do something good.
I just sometimes wonder if anyone notices.
[4 comments]
11:36 AM PST
Here's another one. Same theatre company.
The men playing MacBeth and MacDuff were both really good actors. One night during the run of the show, during the climactic swordfight, MacBeth's sword snapped. Now, these are blades made of real metal. Luckily, we were working in an outdoor theatre where the stage was packed dirt. So the blade snapped, it flew, and ended up in the ground. Not, mind, that MacBeth knew where it was.
But the fight went on, after a moment's pause, because these guys were good actors. MacDuff toppled MacBeth, like he's supposed to.
Only MacBeth isn't supposed to slice his side wide open on the broken half of his blade.
We didn't know he'd done it. He disappeared when he came off stage, as at that point, MacBeth is dead. When he came back out for curtain call, he took his bow with his hand clapped to his side, and promptly fainted.
I don't remember how many exactly, but it was something-teen stitches.
Owtch.
[6 comments]
11:07 AM PST
All right. Theatre story.
Most theatre people will tell you that naming the Scottish play (that'd be Macbeth) aloud in a theatre is bad luck. We'll tell you to turn three times and spit. We'll tell you to stand on your head and whistle 'Give my regards to Broadway'. We'll tell you to do any number of weird things. One of the major rules of the theatre is that you never say the name of that play in or backstage of a theatre.
Why?
Because it's cursed.
You laugh, but it's true. I do not know a single actor who has been in a production of MacBeth, myself included, that hasn't had something bad happen. That may be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it's still true.
Case in point: In a theatre I worked in after my freshman year in college, we did MacBeth. During the scene in which the ghosts come in to sit at dinner, and torment MacBeth (trust me, it's in the play) the actors playing the ghosts were told to the food on the table as if they'd been starving for years. Unfortunately, the props department only had the budget to buy one (1) turkey for the entire run of the show.
It was a summer show.
It was hot.
The props department, having nothing else to do, shellacked the turkey and it was used every night.
Except that the first night we actually *did* a show, one of the actors thought, reasonably, that the turkey would be replaced.
Not.
So when the dinner scene rolled around, she sat down at the table, tore a leg off the turkey, and proceeded to chow down.
While the director was screaming into the backstage crew's ears through the headset: Don't let the cast eat that turkey!
Too late. By the time the actor got offstage, there was an ambulance waiting for her. She was rushed to the hospital, had her stomach pumped, and did it all in ghostly, ghastly theatre makeup.
True story.
[3 comments]
10:35 AM PST
Yay breakfast! Finally. The boy woke up because work called him by accident and wanted me to swap out the towel that's on his road-burned arm. Poor guy. We just went and bought a new tire for his bike yesterday, and now it's all dinged and twisted up. Sad, really. At least he's not *badly* hurt. Contacting pavement at 20 mph, though, that's not good for the skin. Excellent exfoliant.
Did some more cruising of the webring. There are some people out there who aren't participating, which is kind of sad. There are lots more who are, though, which is very, very cool.
Maybe I'll tell a theatre story next time I update, just to keep things interesting.
In the meantime, check out lizzamayhem.com.
[214 comments]
10:01 AM PST
The time is going too fast! There's not enough time between postings to think up something witty to say. Scary.
Um. Okay.
More with the fundraising. See, Kit and I are insane. We are honestly thinking about doing a marathon (or maybe half a marathon) in February in New Orleans. This is all part of the wacky new fitness kick that we're on. We were originally going to try to do the Rome marathon, but then we remembered that Rome is called the City of Seven Hills for good reason. We've never run a marathon before. Yeeeeah. Starting in a nice, flat city like New Orleans seems wiser.
The major bugaboo, besides having to train ourselves to run 26 miles, is raising the money to go. The fundraising requirement, or so I was told, is $3,500. That's not bad, since it apparently covers travel and lodging, too. But $3,500. Yow! I have *no* idea how I'm going to raise that kind of money. Lots of bake sales. Lots of critters I guess. :)
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09:34 AM PST
This is cute!
At the moment I'm just sort of cruising around the ring, seeing what's out there to be seen. I'll get back to more 'meaty' posts eventually, really. But I need to eat, and I need to stretch my legs and then perhaps I'll have something clever to say.
Oh! As far as the critter thing goes: If anyone wants to donate $50 to the AIDS Health Foundation, send me an email or IM me, and I'll make you your very own critter. How's that for a bargain? Considering the fact that it takes me somewhere between 12 and 15 hours to make one, I'd say that's pretty good!
[3 comments]
08:58 AM PST
Does anyone else feel like they ought to be sitting on PBS, with the cameras on them, waiting for people to call in their donations?
I remember sitting in the basement at my dad's house as a kid at, oh, 1 in the morning, and watching scary looking men with glasses and beards trying to get money for Dr. Who's scarf and stuff, in order to support the station's programming. That's what I feel like now.
'course, it'd probably help if I actually, you know, had things to offer. Hm.
I suppose I could offer to make critters for people, if they wish to pledge money to my charity. The charity I'm supporting, not me, that is.
Critters are stuffed animals that I make. They're .. well, here.
Those are critters. The last one had his picture taken when he wasn't finished, hence no legs. Oops.
That'd be a pretty good pledge gift, wouldn't it?
[3 comments]
08:36 AM PST
The bike-wrecked boy actually managed to go to sleep, despite having a severely roadburned arm. That's a good thing. This means I don't have to race for sleep aids. At least not right away.
So why AIDS research? Why did I pick this charity? For starters, they're US-based. Avert is listed on the Blogathon site, as a suggested charity. I think Avert is great. It's UK based, though it's help goes international. But I was feeling the urge to support a US AIDS organization.
And being a theatre fag, I have made several very good friends who are HIV+, and in one case, who have AIDS. It's devestating. It's heart-breaking. It's not fair. And AIDS isn't over. People are getting careless and taking risks again. More people are being infected, not just in South Africa and 'third world countries lacking education', but right here in the good old US of A. This isn't something we can just close our eyes about and wait for it to go away. It's not going to happen.
So I'm doing what I can.
And that's why.
[3 comments]
08:03 AM PST
See? Toldja:
Neri sat by the bathing pool, fingers caught in the tangle of her mane, and gaze locked on the rippling reflection that watched her in return. It was moments like these, moments of utter stillness, that warned her of what was to come. More than the passing of ages, more than seeing the children of the den grow up. Those things happened, would happen, no matter what anyone did.
No. These quiet moments meant that Neri was changing. Her mind, which was always racing, always puzzling through the challenges that life presented, always searching for the answers to a thousand questions, was still. Calm. She knew all of the answers. She simply had to let them come. Her mind was completely at peace.
And she was terrified.
Okay, so that's not the most inspired beginning, but it's *a* beginning, and that's what counts.
Must go and see if my bike-wrecked boy needs anything. Hence the short post. I'll be back.
[9 comments]
07:33 AM PST
You would think, for someone who writes a lot, and who wants to try to make a living doing so, that I would have a wealth of things to write *about*. I probably do, and I just haven't come up with them, yet, so I'm still following Kit's list.
So. Writing. Hello, I'm a writer. Anyone want to start a Writers' Anonymous group? What do I write? A little bit of everything. I've written two screenplays (one of which has placed in some good-sized contests -- and some smaller ones -- though it hasn't won anything yet) and one of which should live happily forever in my drawer. I've co-written one entire romance/romantic historical novel. I've got tons and tons of pieces of stories and novels on my computer, everything from fantasy to sci-fi to mystery and romance. I'm actively working on a romantic suspense novel. I have several plays in various stages of completion.
I just like to write.
I do expect that I'll post some writing here later on. I went to sleep last night having just come up with a fantastic new world that is still nibbling on my brain.
So stay tuned!
[8 comments]
07:03 AM PST
I'm gonna beat the clock this time, I just know it.
LYFA! LYFA stands for Lose Your Fat Ass! and started out sort of as a joke between Kit and I. After some talking and deciding and 'what the hecking', we decided to make a go out of it, and we created LYFA!.
This is a bulletin board support system for people who are trying to lose weight, have been struggling to do so for a while, and want other people to cheerfully kick them in the can to keep them motivated and going to the gym, eating better, etc.
And it's not just for girls. We have some guys on there too, though they're being veeeery quiet. Me, I think they're intimidated by us girls being chatty, but hey, we're proud of our accomplishments.
I've personally lost 7 pounds in the last two weeks, just by modifying how I eat, and getting to the gym (almost) every day. Not bad, eh?
So swing by, check it out. Register and hang around for a while, if you're interested. We'd love to see more people over there. We're having fun!
[2 comments]
06:39 AM PST
Man. It's going to be really easy for me to miss update times. I wonder if I can set up an alarm on my machine to beep or something, when I'm supposed to post.
Right. Ahem.
So, as Kit so *graciously* gave me topics to talk about, I suppose I should follow them.
And so we'll start with the cutest one. Did you know that the myth about lemmings being suicidal and occasionally diving off a cliff was all a big Disney conspiracy? No really, it's true!
And we thought Disney was family friendly and telling the truth! Well, okay, some of us did.
[6 comments]
06:01 AM PST
Now let's get this party started off the right way!
How and ho! are things the crowd might say!
I admit it. I'm a child of the 80s. But that's beside the point.
Good morning! Here we are, on this beautiful, early, Blogathon morning. I'll be your host at this site. Please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times, and remember not to feed the animals. They get terrible indigestion. Not pleasant for any of us.
I'll try to keep this sweet. You're here reading my ramblings, probably because you're bored. Maybe because you're curious, and hopefully because you think some of them are interesting. I'm participating in Blogathon 2002, blogging (weblogging) for 24 hours for my chosen charity, the AIDS Health Foundation.
If you wander in here, like what you see, and want to support me, you can sponsor me all throughout the blogathon. Simply click on the 'sponsor me' button on the upper left-hand corner there. Feel free to post questions, comments, and to generally pester me. It'll help keep me awake. Want to email me? The address is shadowhawk AT shadowwings.com. Want to IM me? My screenname is RedEyz32.
Please be polite. Please be friendly. If you can be funny, so much the better. If not, well, just say hey. And by all means, tour the ring. There are a couple hundred of us, at least, doing this. There should be something there for everyone.
Now, on with the show!
[6 comments]
July 26, 2002
12:44 PM PST
I have yet to come up with a suitable theme to follow for this site tomorrow, so I suspect I will ramble. I may post pieces of short stories. I may wax poetic about characters of mine. I may post dialog from plays I'm working on. I might tell theatre stories. There's no telling. Hopefully, it will be of interest to those who stop by.
[10 comments]
July 25, 2002
10:49 AM PST
After twiddling and tweedling, I've decided to leave the site just as it is. It suits me, I like it, and since I'm the one who has to look at it a lot, it'll just have to do. I thought, briefly, that I was going to go in and help my boy with work while blogging, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so, I will rent movies, and attempt to think up something witty to talk about for 24 hours.
[41 comments]
July 22, 2002
11:17 AM PST
Did some site tweaking, fixed the comments page, added a link. You know, all little things that lead up to The Big Day. I still think the page needs some more decoration or flash or sparkle or something, but I'm not going to kill myself getting to it. I'll get there when I get there.
[42 comments]
July 21, 2002
15:01 PM PST
I've been informed, and I feel really bad about being obtuse and not getting this, that they're still taking sponsorships, but there was a cut off of three by midnight last night. Which I made, thanks to my awesomely cool and generous friends *little smile*. Sorry about that.
[1357 comments]
14:38 PM PST
Just thought I'd put some real links over on the side there for folks to take a look at, if they're interested. They're webpages that I thought were interesting, for causes that I think are interesting. Check out the webring, too, especially on the day of the Blogathon, and see what's going on around the net.
[88 comments]
13:38 PM PST
Yep, I'm being bad and building a site that's white text on a black background. Pretty boring looking right now. I'm hoping to change that Real Soon Now. I'm just thrilled that I got the damned thing to work at all!
[21 comments]
12:15 PM PST
Boy, I'm having fun messing things up. Whee!
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