bendy

How Long Could YOU Survive?

2009-04-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Continually, we learn new things about ourselves. Today, I learned how long I could survive while tied to a bunk bed with a unbreakable, seven-foot chain alongside a velociraptor. How long could you survive?

1 minute, 3 seconds

Before He was a Hero

2009-02-04T15:02:00.000-08:00

While doing a photo search on Getty I happened across these photos which I am pretty sure are of Ando Masahashi from Heroes. Before he was Ando, he was apparently James Kyson Lee, stock photo model.

"Every hero is on a journey to find his place in the world. But it’s a journey. You don’t start at the end. Otherwise, they can’t make a movie about it later."

"I wish destiny would lose our number"

"You start talking about capes and tights and I’m out of here."

Sweets on the Streets

2009-01-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

So last night Andy and I were coming home from dinner when I noticed a cupcake on the railing of my apartment steps. It was exactly the size and shape of a real homemade cupcake, with fluffy pink frosting and a little flag stuck in it.

A nicer, better person might have been curious but minded her own darn business and left the item alone. I've left boxes or bags on my front steps when going up to retrieve my coat or cell phone before, so maybe someone stopped mid-cupcake to go get their scarf or something. Or maybe someone had left it as a little birthday surprise for a resident. The fact is, I had no business picking up what looked like somebody else's pastry.

But I'm a jerk, so I totally picked up the cupcake to examine it. It was heavy like stone, and clearly not made out of sugar, spice, or anything particularly nice on the digestive tract. In it, I saw a little flag that said "You deserve a treat!" And I have to be honest, in my head, I was like "Yeah, I do! Where's the cake?!" On the back of the flag, it said Cakespy.com.

I happen to be a prior fan of Cakespy.com, the cupcake website with the cute little pink watercolor cupcake artwork which I've loved since before I moved to Seattle. I particularly enjoy their Queen Anne Cake Walk Guide and whenever Cyndi finally comes to see me I plan to take her on the Seattle Donut Tour. Although disappointed about the whole not-being-edible thing, I was right pleased to have found the adorable little cake. I'm jerk enough to inspect the frosted goodies of strangers, but I know better than to disturb public art, so I took a few photos of the sweet and then left it where I found it.

I went upstairs to check the website, and sure enough, there was a post featuring my own front door. They are running a little experimental Cupcake Street Art Installation by depositing plaster cupcakes with uplifting messages in neighborhoods in Seattle, and my apartment just happened to be a lucky recipient.

When I came home today I was sad to see that the cupcake was gone. I intended to move it to a new place, take a photo, and leave a comment on Cakespy. But hopefully someone out there has their Deserved Treat sitting on a desk or table and making them happy.

In LA I often felt like the art was yelling at me, competing for my attention and preaching a political message, but I like street art that serves merely to amuse and add whimsy. I like not knowing the exact intent of the work because it leave me free to make up my own meaning. I sometimes miss seeing the little Berds hanging at busy Los Angeles intersections.

Perhaps because of tighter geography, street art in Seattle comes knocking on my door much more often, and when it does, it's usually just to say some like

"Hello there..."

"Aren't people so wonderfully creative?"

"Isn't the world a strange...."

... funny place?"

"Isn't life full of the most exciting possibilities?

"And you know what? You deserve a treat!"

Andy Plays the Bethy Song for Bethy

2009-01-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

Apparently Andy has a little song for me, and apparently I have figured out how to use iMovie and upload videos to my blog. Double yay!

I Shall Not Want

2008-12-23T02:32:00.001-08:00

This is totally how Beth prayed when she was a little girl and she really really wanted something:

Dear Father God, Thank you for being such a nice God, and being so generous to me. Thank you for letting me have plenty to eat, especially rice because I love rice. God, if you let my flight not be canceled on Christmas Eve so I can go home and spend Christmas Day with my family and friends and people who love me I promise to give up Facebook for the whole month of January. Maybe February too. And I promise to stop biting my nails, and to always signal when changing lanes. Thank you again for being so good to me, and I also promise to call home more often.

Amen.

Hoping to Find My Feet

2008-12-18T08:50:00.001-08:00

It has snowed in Seattle, time to celebrate!

Before I could even dial the emergency number for my work, my boss phoned me to suggest that I stay home. What a dear sweet man! Safety first! As long as I send an email saying I am "working from home" I won't have to take a sick day to cover it.

I have yet to attempt to drive in the snow because I feel that my California upbringing lacked the chapter on "Using Credit Cards to Scrape Windows, Farting as a Defrosting Mechanism, and Other Useful Snow Tips." On Sunday I attempted to drive up a very slight incline on a very slightly slushy road and slid backwards maybe 20 feet and it left me a little shaken.

One thing, I need to start having kitty litter on hand at all times, because if you get stuck apparently:
1. Do not spin your wheels. This will only dig you in deeper.
2. Turn your wheels from side to side a few times to push snow out of the way.
3. Use a light touch on the gas, to ease your car out.
4. Pour sand, kitty litter, gravel or salt in the path of the wheels, to help get traction.

I personally believe this KOMO5 news report was generated specifically so that employees could send the link to their bosses and say "See? I better stay home!"

It says "Traffic was completely stopped at times on parts of State Route 520 on the Eastside as snow covered the highway, and some drivers abandoned their cars and began to walk down the freeway." First of all, that's like the number one thing that WikiHow says NOT to do in inclement weather, since your car provides shelter and is much easier to find than your small frozen body. Secondly, most of 520 is a two lane highway, and a lot of it encompasses a bridge that floats on Lake Washington. You put just two abandoned cars there, and pretty much no one is going anywhere, unless they're driving a Duck. Lastly, between the credit crunch and the possibility of the Big 3 shutting down, I don't know where those people think they're going to get a new car if anything happens to their good old Hybrid Roadblock LX.

Lucky for me, I live 5 blocks from 3 different price levels of groceries, so I'll be fine. The neighborhood record store, used book store and indie theater are also sounding attractive. I am wondering if Pike Place will be a mess today. Or there's always the monorail to the mall.

Nicole sent me this song which she randomly found and thought might be appropriate, maybe as a snow shoveling soundtrack.

Also from Nicole:
Is "working from home" what you kids call it now? Puts a new spin on "business time."

I eat filet mignon and I'm nice and young

2008-12-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

Best believe I'm number one
~ ~ ~

Once every 12-18 months or so, Wieden + Kennedy starts a new school year with twelve talented people from all over the world who are brought to Portland as a sort of artist-in-residency-meets-postdoctoral advertising boot camp. My understanding of the very mysterious and prestigious little “experimental school” is that you function as interns but collaborate on everything as a group, and get to work on actual W+K clients as well as special projects.

I would love to attend the program. I would love to soak in that creative whirlpool for a period of time and let it wash over me.

In order to be considered, I have to apply to the program by sending in something that fits into a 9x12 envelope. The brief specifically is “surprise the shit out of us!” but I know from looking at the last round of submissions that made the cut last year that one thing that tied them all together, aside from creativity, was wit. I can’t just send crazy creative shit. I need to prove I’m clever-ish.

The concept I like so far is:
“I like 40% of my ideas, and follow through o 20% of those. I hope by attending WK12 I can improve those numbers.”

The execution therefore will consist of 100 ideas, 60 of which are creatively and humorously bad, 40 of which are worthwhile, and 8 of which I will need to actually execute.

Bad ideas so far (and this should be easy, but it’s not):
Honey mustard cupcakes
Homeless chow

Ideas I liked but never executed:
Breakfastar Galactica made of waffles with sausage landing bays
Pencil skirt actually made of pencils

Ideas both liked and executed
Sending the mayor of Los Angeles elephant origami to ask him to send Billy the Elephant to a nature sancturary
Watercolor portrait cards of all my friends that hold matching earrings
Gun cookies, which we made for Andre for his birthday in March
My portfolio will maybe function as one “executed idea”

Idea leads
Something to sell ads through non-traditional outlets
Rock opera about the Smurfs
Finger puppets that are regular puppets that hang from your fingers by strings
Crafty stuffs: tea cozies, arigumi and felting and embroidery.

Or maybe it should be 100 ideas for what to send to WK12?

!!!!

Where are all my ideas?! I have more. Where are they?

The benefit of working in a collaborative environment is that the sum is greater than the parts. Being in class and working with a partner has always made my ideas better. But in this I am completely alone.

I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. I’m scared and excited, but mostly scared. Being timid is part of my personality too. I can’t really be someone I’m not, but I do need to be the best version of myself. Generating ideas for idea’s sake is exhilarating, but with a deadline like this it is only nerve-wracking.

Anyways, I do need to put pen to paper. When Andy flies out on Sunday I guess I’ll have the apartment to myself for the first time ever. I have to finish Twilight book one and make some presents, but mostly I need to actually work on this.

~ ~ ~

Yes, I am aware that this post makes no sense.

Solo

2008-12-17T14:33:00.000-08:00

This blog makes me sad because it was supposed to be joint, but clearly it’s just mine now. I sort of give up on sharing a blog with someone. It always ends badly.

Another reason why it ends badly:
andy: this is still my favorite youtube video of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0
me: You love the 70s
andy: sure. why not

Profundity

2008-11-06T11:24:00.000-08:00

me: It's bad news when the dictionary keeps defining all the words you don't know with other words you don't know.
me: Recondite: Not easily understood; abstruse. Abstruse: Difficult to understand; recondite.
me: I hate you TheFreeDictionary.com. I should just get a paper dictionary.
ben: haha. when dictionaries become relational databases

Don Quixote was a steel driving man

2008-10-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

Beth: It's 1234
Ben: What?
Beth: Andy likes to point out when it's 12:34. You know. 1234. He also likes to point out 1:23. He just pokes his head in and goes "1234!"
Ben: You've found yourself your own little Michael Cera.
Beth: I know, I totally have.

Squinched up your face and did a dance
You shook a little turd out of the bottom of your pants
I don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else but you

The Camera Adds

2008-10-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more challenging to ones ego than having to do photo searches on a stock photo website. Other than I guess going to a photoshoot with a bunch of hot models. But it's surprising the things that come up on Veer or Getty when you look for something like "plus size" "middle age" "overweight."

what do i believe, exactly?

2008-10-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a million years, and I'm not about to start now. Given how little attention I've been paying this blog, the reader will hardly believe me when I say it is my new goal to write and submit an essay for NPR's "This I believe" series. But it's my new life aspiration, and having just accomplished two major goals: Getting a full time job in Seattle, and getting into CMYK Magazine; I think I can accomplish this one too. Doesn't mean I'll get picked, but at least it gives me sort of an interesting writing prompt. Like college essay writing. I don't think it's ever a bad thing to get clarity on what you believe.

Swarley's Birthday Recap

2008-07-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

I feel like I should blog my birthday weekend in LA, but part of me wonders what for, since everyone who reads this was there. Partially I also feel sort of like I should adopt a Vegas attitude towards it, and let what happened there stay there.

It was definitely one crazy weekend. I think compared to an average weekend for my wild LA friends it was actually pretty normal, but to us converted Pacific Northwesterners it seemed like a lot. The short list of events includes a studio tour of Sony, hamburgers at Father's Office, karaoke and a lot of free alcohol at Rosen, fish tacos at Wahoos, Batman on IMAX at the Bridge, margatinis at Mexicali Cantina, laser tag at Ultrazone, breasts galore at V Lounge, food stealing at Google, sore feet at Glow at the pier, marshmallow ice cream and kittens at Cyndi's place, economic stimulus checks & hugs with my parents, barbecue & edible hedgehogs at the Wilshire Restaurant, victorious Ben & Beth in Imaginiff, tears at the airport, and sleeping all day Monday.

The first time I went back to visit LA in May I felt kind of disillusioned by it. I had missed it so much, and then there it was in real life, and it was not as shiny and magical as I had remembered it in my homesick daydreams. It was dirty, and grey with concrete, which is not the same thing as grey with rain, because rain goes away. It was colorful in a harsh way, warm in a cold way, and vivid in a deadened way. And I felt like a slobbery puppy who is overly thrilled to see her owners at the end of the busy work day. I was moved to tears at the sight of my friends, and they in turn seemed surprised to see me. "Weren't you supposed to move to Seattle? What are you doing here?"

I guess in light of that, it was kind of weird to elect to go back again so soon, but the thought of spending my birthday in Seattle seemed sad. By June I was missing LA again and ready to go back. But by July I finally began to hit my stride in Seattle too. Probably right around the time the sun came out.

I don't think I'm alone in that respect. All of Seattle seems to come to life around June 30. Outdoor cinemas pop up in every corner and project onto every flat surface in the city. I could spend the entire summer watching Hot Fuzz and Juno over and over for free. The baby farmers markets fill in the rest of the urban space not covered by ourdoor cinemas, and in between those weave all manner of parades and street fairs: Pride Parade, Solstice Parade, Seafair Parade. Seafood Festival, Folklife Festival, Beer Festival. Everybody who's ever made anything out of felt or glass or silkscreen is out selling their wares. Quick. Before the rain starts up again. It's not an abnormal amount of culture for a city this size, but it's an abnormal amount of culture for a season this short.

And then there's the mountains. And the rivers. And the oceans white with foam. You can climb, ride, kayak and fish in all of them. Everyone is in good spirits and it seems easier to make friends. The Seattle Thaw you might call it. Endless beauty and sipping wine from a pouch will make you fast friends. Something about being locked up in a tent with yourselves and your hiking socks bonds you together. It's the next best thing to a summer of intensive military-sci-fi geekery for discovering accord in your souls. Almost as good an ambrosia as touching toes in a bed in a free suite that looks out over the Bellagio fountain, giggling after a drunken night making out with strangers.

Not that that ever happened.

For my birthday, I thought it would be a fun social experiment to take my new friends in Seattle, combine them with my old friends in LA, douse them with alcohol, shake them, and then expose to Glow. Actually, I just selfishly thought it would be a nice way to make up for two seasons of loneliness by overloading on wonderful companionship for 72 hours straight. Nothing in moderation when you're two years away from 30-year-old doomed adultdom.

There were some standout moments:
Ben & Dorina performing a knockout duet of Come What May; I sort of stood there watching with a glass of soju and hated them both for being so damn talented and hot. It was wonderful to see Courtney burst onto the scene in her blue dress, all fresh and bright and delicious like blueberry pie. I treasure the few moments of one-on-one that I had with people at dinner and wherever else we could spare them. I loved watching Benji dance DDR, exchanging numerous amused looks with Spaznik, and laughing at Andrea's little witticism during Imaginiff. Although I use to argue that movie-watching is not a good bonding experience, it made me very happy to sit in the IMAX surrounded by my favorite movie buffs close enough to overhear their gasps and quips. And I don't know what it is about Andy and Allen and Jana, but they have the ability to make even the most mundane activities like mini-golf and Battleship seem like epic adventures.

All in all it was a seriously memorable birthday. I loved it, and with the wisdom that can only come from someone embarking on her 29th year of life, I can say that I wouldn't have changed a single thing or person or detail, because all of it was precious.

I am most of all grateful to Jean for hosting us and coming up with the idea to begin with. And for being one of the people I feel the most missed by. I have so many things I need to thank Jean for. I wanna end this sentence with a proposition too to. I'm sure I should be thanking her for concrete things like loaning me her car, driving us to the airport at 5am, lending us her towels, letting us hook up on her sheets (kidding!), inviting people, keeping us fed and inebriated, and planning and coordinating the whole ordeal. And of course Dorina for co-hosting us (and by that token Brennan as well), and Ben for everything and He Knows What. But really, the thing I am most grateful to Jean for is just the simple fact that she wanted me there. That she wanted to see me, and Andy, and that she is someone who will always be glad to see me. We had a great time, and we always have a great time with Jean, and hopefully many more to come, including Thanksgiving Birthday Cake – Now With More Turkey!

Cooking with Beth

2008-07-29T01:28:00.000-07:00

Beth: I made the chicken with red wine because you refuse to throw it away. Let that be a lesson. If you don't throw it away, I'll feel compelled to cook with it.
Andy: That's why I always flush.

The Budos Band - Live at the Nectar Lounge

2008-07-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

This is a tad over-due, but back on June 27th, Seattle was treated with a visit from the Budos Band. I was quite excited (pretty sure Beth was too). Over the past year and a half I've become quite a fan of their brand of afro-soul/funk and wasn't going to pass up a great opportunity to finally check them out live. And thanks to the wonders of Beth's Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digi Efph, you can too.

The Budos Band - "Scorpion"

"Black Venom"

"Unbroken, Unshaken"

"Aynotchesh Yererfu"

We were quite lucky to snag the seats we had. Front and center on the balcony with a comfy place to eat too. It was a great night and I felt very lucky to be able to share it with Beth and Andre.

Senseless Acts of Beauty

2008-07-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

So before there were camping and hiking in the Olympic Peninsula, there were beer and circus acts at Artopia. The event was a free street fair and arts exhibit showing emerging talent in dance, theater, art and music. You kind of just showed up in the area and walked around, and art just kind of happened to you. There was life-drawing in the comic book store, interpretive dance in the molding bottling plant, music in the parking lot, interactive cello performance in the warehouse, power-tool racing in the alley, and beer and wine everywhere.

I think that wandering the dusty streets and alleyways of Georgetown in sweltering heat and encountering random displays of theater and art reinforced our appreciation for each other's companionship. Artopia was such a free-form experience, you had to be in the mind-set to enjoy it openly, which I think is something I tend to forget in the daily grind to rush places, meet deadlines, procure parking, pay bills, clean house, and find my place in the grown up world.

Eff 'em Danno!

Fantagraphics Comic Book Store

Flowers in the vending machine graveyard

Cello

A serving of "Scumbo" I was handed as a promotion for a play being performed later that evening (actually just lime jello)

Probably my favorite part was the dancing in the old brew house, because the building was so gorgeous with the yellows and greens and all the lovely textures from the rust and mold and peeling paint. We happened to walk in just as the dance was beginning, and the dancers would move about the structure while the crowd kind of angled itself around to watch and maintain the "stage." There were a couple times where I found myself so enthralled by the building that I would be stuck in the middle of the dance space because the whole crowd had left me alone and the dancers were spinning around me. Truly magical.

Peeling ceiling of the old brewery house

Beautiful rusty stairs

Members of BQ Dance

More dancers

Dream Big

2008-07-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

Beth: What are you gonna do when you're older and richer and you have a nicer car?
Andy: I'm not gonna get rid of the El Tribudanté
Beth: Ok, but you'll be able to trade up for a big busty girl.
Andy: But we'll have the money, we'll treat you like the starter kit. Then we'll get some lip injections, hair extensions, rhinoplasty, shave off your eyebrows just to be weird... and then we'll get some rocket launcher boobs.
[A few seconds later]
Andy: No. I don't want you to change. Well maybe the rocket launcher boobs...

Nothing Comes from Nothing

2008-07-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

I always thought this song from the Sound of Music was kind of interesting... maybe because I think of myself as a Maria, twirling on a mountain top and causing mischief, getting kicked out of the convent. I guess it says something about my perception of myself as a child, and maybe I'll come to terms someday with being that bad willful kid who never did what she was supposed to do. In the meantime, I think that this sums up how how I feel about Andyroo sometimes:

Perhaps I had a wicked childhood,
perhaps I had a miserable youth
But somewhere in my wicked, miserable past,
there must have been a moment of truth

For here you are standing there loving me,
whether or not you should
So somewhere in my youth or childhood,
I must have done something good

~~~
For 4th of July weekend we went camping on the Olympic Peninsula with Andre and our new BFF Nicole. We literally said "Hey let's go camping!" on Tuesday, bought a map on Wednesday, bought a tent on Thursday, bought beer and wine in a box on Friday, and hopped in the car on Saturday. I love that I live in a place where I can do that, and that I'm friends with people who would think it was a good idea, because I grew up in a family where we always said "We should go to fill-in-the-blank" but never did.

We saw this ridiculous crystal clear lake where you could see the bottom, and huge sequoia and spruce trees, and parts of Mt. Olympus, and deer and grouse and banana slugs, and walked under these crazy moss trees, and had a guided tour of the tide pools. I feel like a little kid telling the story: "And then... and then... and then.." But it was just endless beauty all around. It was my first camping experience ever and I got to sleep on the beach in a tent with my boyfriend in the only rainforest in the continental US while leftover fireworks were going off on the Indian reservation.

Camping is so cool! I wanna camp all the time! Hiking and fishing and taking pictures and smelling bad and eating beef jerky and telling stories and seeing beautiful things.

Anyways, it'll be a bit before I upload all 200 of my photos from the trip and 4th of July, but here's my favorite of Andy and Andre:

too big? or perhaps too small?

2008-06-30T11:52:00.003-07:00

jean: i found the PERFECT bday cake for you
me: YAY! does it have whales or squirrels or penises on it?
jean: umm.. no. those have all been done
me: what about whale penises?
jean: i'm not eating that cake

With Nonfat Vanilla Soy!

2008-06-30T11:52:00.002-07:00

ben: http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/funny-graphs-californians.gif
me: so true! i do live in coffee!!!

At Trader Joe's the Only Thing in My Salmon is Red Food Coloring

2008-06-30T11:52:00.001-07:00

ben: yesterday i went to the new ralphs in downtown la. man it's so nice. so urban.
me: that's what i like in my grocery stores.
ben: shush
me: i like a little cement in my cherry tomatoes. real grit in my grits
ben: inside it was a very nice upscale ralphs. but around it was urban
me: perhaps a dime bag of cocaine in my salmon filet
ben: a dime bag of cocaine?
me: isn't that what they put cocaine in?
ben: i think you need to check your drug prices
me: i'm not urban enough to shop at your ralphs apparently. i guess i better stick with trader joes

Whatever is dreamed on this night...

2008-06-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

... will come to pass. - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A couple weekends ago we attended the Fremont Solstice Parade, primarily because of the promise of naked bicyclists. I feel ashamed to admit that, but I suppose it's the truth. It's how people have been telling each other about the parade for as long as it's existed: "They have naked people on bicycles!" That's how they get you.

We met up with our friends Mileni and Alec, who have a lovely condo in Fremont and had been reserving a primo spot downtown since 10am. Around 11, a giant crew of naked cyclists came by in a rainbow array of body paint with themed "costumes." They would wave as they went by, then turn around at the end of the street and come by again. I thought that was it. I was kind of shocked that so many people were around to see a crew of naked bicyclists, but then not so much. That's why I was there, right?

The rest of the parade then came as kind of a bonus. A huge huge cherry on top of an ice cream sundae which had been served on a naked person's butt, on a unicycle. (I'm wondering why that didn't actually appear in the parade. Next year maybe...) I think the thing that most impressed me, aside from the great use of papier maché, was the creativity in the concepts. It inspired me to want to think of a way to participate next year.

My current idea: To go as a "Singing Telegram." Four people could dress as a barbershop quartet, maybe carrying balloons and using a tuner to tune. A few more could just go as mail, with envelopes and hearts stuck to them. One person would be dressed as a postman and chase everyone else. We would all sing "Hey Mr. Postman" and run around.

Who's in?!

The tail end of the naked bicyclists

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Making a Sandwich

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed

Wind Up Toy Doll Girls

The Ridiculously Pink Mob of Bellydancers

Dancing bakers and poodles from Ooo La La

After the parade, we walked down to gasworks park to hang out with the parade participants and hear live music. Most people were kind of just sitting out on the grass, intermingling naked with clothed, painted with papier machéd, drunk with high, and everything in between. The scene was very surreal, as is Gasworks Park itself, but it was a beautiful day and the smells from the food vendors were amazing. We retired to Mileni & Alec's for BBQ burgers and then went home to sleepy-sleep. I dreamed about blogging the event, and here we are.

Less-blogger friendly photos can be found on my flickr.

Approaching Gasworks Park

Graffiti artists

Time For a New Me

2008-06-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

I read about this makeover site Taaz where you can actually get realistic looking haircut demos, so I thought I would give it a shot. There are about 50 different hairstyles to choose from plus each one has a half-dozen color variations and you can maneuver the style to fit your head shape or flip it. You can do makeup stuff too, but I don't really wear makeup. The hair looks astonishingly real. I've been debating a new look to help myself ease into my 30s, and these are my favorites:

My first choice

Second choice

If I decide to try something new

Summer 2006 Beth

Hipster Beth

High Fashion Model Beth

Japanese Pop Star Beth

My mom Beth

How was prom Beth

Betheequa

Five Dollar Steak

2008-06-26T00:20:00.001-07:00

A couple days a go I was cramming for my final homework for class, so Andy decided to cook dinner from a recipe. The recipe came from a book called "The Best 1001 Short Easy Recipes" and it was chicken made from a can of lemonade concentrate. You basically marinate the chicken in lemonade concentrate and soy sauce and then bake it for 45 minutes. I was a bit dubious, but grateful to be getting fed.

The recipe is called Lemonade Chicken, and it was indeed Short and Easy. I am not used to all this truthfulness from my cookbooks. I am used to Martha Stewart trying to tell me I can make my own buttercream frosting by churning my own butter, or Rachel Ray trying to tell me that she makes all her food in 30 minutes for $40. But Lemonade Chicken was the most delicious chicken ever, so much that Andy and I are quitting our jobs and opening a Lemonade Chicken stand.

When life gives you lemonade concentrate...

...make chicken

~~~
I was mentioning to Ben that I was slightly disappointed that I only had 6 or 7 responses to my birthday dinner email, so he sent me this lovely tidbit, and I thought it needed to be posted for everyone's enjoyment:

Dear Beth,
I am very excited for this event. I will be there absolutely without a doubt 100% confirmed yes for sure. I've created a little advent calendar filled with chocolate sculptures of you to help countdown the days until this occasion.

Also, I hope this place has a gigantic $50 steak to make bets on, cause that tradition needs to continue.
Love always,
Benjamin Scott Ackerman, Esquire

~~~
Tonight was the single day between my last batch of Portfolio classwork and my Flash class which starts tomorrow, so to celebrate Andy and I went down to REI and checked out bikes, and had dinner in South Lake Union at the Southlake Grill. We were walking around near REI and I noticed a sign that said "Wednesday is $5 Steak Night!" and it was a done deal. It was only a 6oz steak served with bleu cheese and fries, but that's actually about the size of my fist, and therefore probably a good sized serving for me. No winning $50 steak bets for Beth.

I am not fond of South Lake Union. It reminds me a lot of Bellvue, which in turn reminds me a lot of LA. I love LA, but I'm talking about the bad parts of LA. Maybe more like the OC. I dunno. Every guy in the Southlake Grill was wearing some sort of buttondown polo or striped shirt, and every woman was wearing some generic patterned dress with a leather purse that could have been real leather or could have been from Ross. Everyone was in their 30s and seemed really generic, like they belonged in a real estate ad. I guess South Lake Union basically is a real estate ad. But it's like they saw the ads and were like, "Hmm, I need a Labrador and some slacks, pronto. Now, where did I put my martini?"

At REI (and also at Target actually, and probably most sporting good stores) they have tiny scale models of tents. They also have regular sized tents, which confuses me, but I like to put the tiny tents inside the big ones. The tiny tents make me happy, and so we always have to go see them. Someday I hope that if I get proposed to, my engagement ring will be in a tiny tent. Then when I get married, I hope it's in a tiny tent, and when I conceive my firstborn child it will hopefully also be in a tiny tent. Later, I will put my child in the tiny tent, mainly because they seem like a good way to keep a baby ventilated but confined. And when I die, I want my funeral to be in a tiny tent, and a tiny tent placed over my tombstone. To keep the rain off.

The Story of Fifi the Loofah

2008-06-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Sometime in May, a little baby loofah named Fifi was left behind in Seattle. We're not sure who the negligent parent is... Beth bets on Nicole, although it seems unlike Nicole to leave something behind. Andy think it was Jean, but I think it's because he likes to imagine Jean showering. I dunno. It could be Emily or Kim or Andrea. Even though Ben stayed at a hotel, he's not completely off the hook.

Poor little Fifi had some abandonment issues in the very beginning, and it was hard for her to get used to life in Seattle. She is such a tiny little loofah, alone in a strange new place with strange new friends. But she has been quite brave... and she's doing better, although she would be happy to travel home to LA if someone wants to claim her.

Here is her story:

Fifi feels sad and abandoned in Seattle.

Fifi attempts to make friends but finds it can sometimes be difficult to connect with strangers. Perhaps it's the Seattle Freeze?

Disheartened, Fifi contemplates ending it all... Don't do it Fifi!

Beth tries to comfort Fifi and help her adjust to her new life in Seattle.

She invites Fifi to join the family for supper... Fifi uses a booster pillow at the dinner table.

Fifi licks her plate clean.

Beth thinks Fifi might be tasty... although, perhaps a little spongy?

Just kidding Fifi! I would never have you for a snack!

Fifi aims to get the triple word score.

Fifi enjoys trashy television. Notice the wagging tail...

After a short adjustment period, Fifi finds acceptance with her new family, Lulu and Louie Loofah

Ladies: Don't Give Things to Andre. Especially Not Things Involving Your Womb.

2008-06-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

me: i have a present for you
andre: really? I get more presents from you than anyone. is it from Wajis?
me: no
me: andy and i made it
me: it's a baby
me: we made you a baby
me: surprise!
andre: wow, exciting
andre: I can hardly wait to sell it

(I think I'm gonna start posting funny quotes again. They make me happy.)

Call Me Tuts

2008-06-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I went into work feeling pretty bummed out. You know the feeling, when your job pays you well to sit and do nothing, and you feel sort of useless and listless... you spend a lot of time looking at YouTube videos that people send you or reading blogs about cupcakes or chatting on AIM about Battlestar Galactica. Right?

Thank goodness for AIM chat with Jean. Two days into her new job and she is already full of great wisdom and advice (even moreso than before). She reminded me that the benefit of a freelance gig is in flexibility. My hours are, after all, *my* hours. If there's anything Beth is good at, it's using the internet, and within a few minutes I had discovered a new way to charge value into my day, in the form of Photoshop Tutorials!

I had completely forgotten about online tutorials and the inherent bliss of learning something new. I had forgotten that along with baking blogs, Battlestar Wikis and Movie Spoiler Websites (which have saved me from many an M. Night Shyamalan Crappening) the internet is full of new somethings to learn that actually pertain to my job. Because while it's great to be able to keep up hours long conversation on why there's no 7th Cylon (Yeah, why?!), no one is gonna pay me for that skill.

My new goal for building a better Beth-brain is to complete one PSD tutorial per day from the PSDTUTs site, until I've completed every single one. The site has some pretty amazing tutorials that actually showcase things you would really want to learn, along with links to articles and inspiration. Also good are Computer Arts Magazine, Tutorial 9, and abduzeedo.

Having attended a few Photoshop seminars through Adobe, I find I only learn from doing, regardless of how great my notes are, so it's key to actually follow step by step. The tutorials on this blog are also great because the beautiful end product is taunting you at the top of the page like a carrot on a string. Here's what I've done so far. Not amazing, but I learned a few tricks here and there.

Watercolor Seattle: this is actually a fairly simple layer masking process, which I got from the Viget design blog.

Windows Vista-style light-rings using layering masks & gradients: Fairly simple, just time consuming, but you learn a bit about layer styles

Grassy type: Very very time consuming, but a cool effect to know, and easy to reproduce using any texture you'd like.

Back to Blogging

2008-06-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

It has been such a long long time since I've blogged. I've thought about blogging at least once or twice a week, usually as I'm climbing the stairs to my apartment after a long drive back from Redmond. But once I open the door to my home and find BSG dvds to watch, fun new recipes to try, and a cute boy to cuddle on the couch, all my ambitions disperse. So it goes.

May was also a pretty insane month, as we:

Adopted a new vacuum

Visited family & friends in LA

Went to New York for the Stationery Show

Hosted Kim & Emily for the weekend

Recorded a hit single with the Seattle Six.

A lot has been going on.

I was recently reading through my old blog from my college years, and it's insane how much I would put out there in public all my thoughts and feelings about *everything.* I was a steady blogger from 2001 to 2005, averaging 15 posts a month at least. And in the early years I didn't have a digital camera, so it was all words. Sometimes I would post results of internet quizzes like "which Harry Potter character are you?" (Remus Lupin), but mostly it was just a daily recital of my innermost thoughts.

And it seems like I had more personality back then. I guess by that I just mean that I put more tang and pizazz into things. I was oh, tremendously emo, and everything moved me, everything had such great significance. I think I thought that if I didn't blog it, reflect on it, and really glean from each experience its deeper meaning on my walk through life, I would fail to understand or grow. I would be at a standstill.

I don't still have that mentality, but some of that must dwell in the far corners of my brain, otherwise I wouldn't still be here, blog blog blogging. I feel more content now to just move through my life and hold onto whatever my body and mind choose to hold onto. But the world of blogs and the blogging community has changed so much from what it was like in 2008. What is the ultimate function of a blog now to me?

This blog, Bendytime, was initially conceived as a way for both Andy and myself to keep in touch with family and friends in both Minnesota and California. But a blog cannot possibly perform that function. The only way to do that is to put phone to ear, pen to paper, butt to airplane seat. So where does that leave us? With a document of our lives that we are too busy to update.

I don't really know what I am getting at here.

It is a beautiful Sunday night here in Seattle. Today we changed my license plates from California to Washington, and part of me was sad, but part of me was resigned to it. If I plan to live as many different places and travel as much as I hope to, little things like changing license plates will have to become commonplace. Another step: hopefully getting our passports soon.

Andy is cutting his hair in the bathroom sink and I am preparing a big pile of tshirts and totebags that I plan to silkscreen for friends. I stayed up till 3m drawing up a Space Needle birdhouse, and if all goes well, my nearest and dearest will be getting homemade presents from me for my birthday.

Today in Los Angeles, my brother graduated from college and I was not there. But I think he knows I'm proud of him. And graduating from college is not really biggest milestone or accomplishment he will ever achieve. The ones that will make an impact will be–or already have been–quiet and solitary. Most likely he wouldn't even notice until much later, and then look back and go "oh yes. that was a big moment. something changed."

And it was Father's Day too. I bought my dad a card at Bartell's, and I noticed how many of the cards said things like "Even though you don't say a lot, you've done so much for me" or "Although you're a man of few words..." or "The way you tell me you love me is in actions not in words." Is that really a reality for fathers? Not talking? Enough that the writers at Hallmark have found a dozen different ways to say basically the same thing? Or is it that the kind of kids who buy their dads beige and brown Hallmark cards with long-copy and photos of fish and golf carts on them are the kinds of kids who don't know their fathers very well. I have a Hallmark campaign in my portfolio where the tagline is "Feelings are complex. Cards are simple." The Father's Day cards I read made me want to revise it to "Feelings are scary. Cards are safe."

But more than anything, it makes me sad for families and children everywhere. At least in my family, the sentiment is true. Since moving to Seattle, I've found it impossible to talk to my Dad, while my relationship with my Mom has gotten much better. I called for Father's Day and we spoke for barely 3 minutes. I don't know if it's because he's mad that I moved, or worried about me, or just that he's so emotional about it he can't even talk. But the point moreso is that I don't know. Because he won't tell me. And I don't even know why he won't tell me. If he would even just tell me why he won't tell me, I wouldn't ask any more questions.

My life would be much better if my Dad had a blog. Or a Facebook.

And otherwise, life parades onward. Speaking of parades, the summer solstice parade in Freemont this weekend promises naked people galore, I am looking forward to posting photos on my Flickr. Not to be missed!

What Makes the Good Stuff Good

2008-04-16T02:34:00.000-07:00

Here's an essay I wrote for ad school on "what makes good advertising." I haven't written an essay for school in like 5 years. And isn't this what copywriters are for? But since I went through the trouble of writing it, I thought I would also blog it:

April 15, 2008
School of Visual Concepts
Intermediate Advertising
“What Makes the Good Stuff Good”

What makes the good stuff good in an advertisement is made up of so many things, including good design, a clear message, a well thought out strategy, and lots of other nuances that I hope to pick up once I'm a real life art director. But mostly what I think it comes down to is identifying the core feeling or insight into what drives a person to choose a brand or product, and the ability to say something novel.

Novelty is a good way to describe it because what works or interests people is constantly changing, and what is novel to one person may be passé to another. Therefore one's taste in advertising can evolve with exposure as much as one's taste in fine wine or old school reggae or highly-paid exotic dancers. It also works to explain how advertising as any other art form can have periods where certain styles are in vogue, but that what qualifies as good advertising stays the same. But mostly I choose novelty because the newness and freshness of an idea is what makes it elegant and meaningful, and what pays back the audience for spending time with the brand.

Unfortunately for my essay, the idea of novelty as being the measure of a good idea is itself not at all novel. Humor theory is based on the premise that amusement occurs when “an alternative or surprising shift in perception or answer is given, that still shows relevance and can explain a situation.” (From Wikipedia. I don't know how to do footnotes anymore and I've misplaced my MLA handbook.) So what makes a good ad is the same as what makes a good joke. Furthermore, smiling and laughter evolved as the mind's way of adjusting to surprising events in the environment and as a way to cope with expanding realities, so really, good advertising is as beneficial to the brain as fish oil or Mozart.

Novelty does not just refer to the newness of the actual words or visual, although it can and often does. A lasting ability to impress and amuse comes from the rareness of the connection being drawn, the sense that of the multitude of ways to relay a message the one laid out on the page before you is truly innovative and unusual. That a hundred monkeys with typewriters might not have stumbled upon it, and yet here it is, simple and tidy. So simple and tidy in fact that you could have come upon it yourself. But you didn't. Damn it.

Of course good advertising has to make sense, and be accessible to the target, and hopefully be well art directed and written. And it has to sell something by delivering a message using the various mediums and tools and techniques available. But the best stuff will always be the stuff that is the most novel to you, however you define that. It will always feel unconventional and surprising, and it will always make you smile.

BSG Catch-Up

2008-04-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Recently Beth and I started to watch Battlestar Galactica on DVD. It's catch up for me since I haven't seen them before, but for Beth it's just out of love. And let me tell you, she really digs the BSG too. I can see why she likes it though. The basic story line is quite simple and intriguing; Humans invent robots (cylons), robots rebel and try to wipe out humans, the last fifty thousand humans band together against robots and search for Earth.

The cinematography is also done really well with an interesting use of handheld camera action during complete CG shots by using sporadic zooms and pans. It's really pretty smart to make those shots seems realistic and a bit more engaging. I also really like how they cut the sound when the camera is outside the ship since there's very little sound in space. The other cool thing is the way the fighter ships fly just like in Asteroids. This may sound like a joke, but it seems very realistic.

Screen shot of a Viper Mark VII Fighter doing some Cylon hunting.

BSG is a good show. People should watch it, especially since the new season four episodes are airing right now. Friday's 10/9C on the SciFi Channel.

Holding the future between each breath

2008-03-28T16:37:00.000-07:00

You know, Rudyard Kipling's "If" is one of my most favorite poems, and something that helps me feel better when I'm sad, and a very very good reason to buy Dr. Bronner's Lavender Liquid Soap so you can read it while taking a shower. But I wonder sometimes if its last line has given me any gender identity issues.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

According to Alice Walker, "A woman is not a potted plant, her roots bound to the confines of her house," but internet job searching certainly makes me feel like I might turn into one.

A woman is not a potted plant,
her roots bound to the confines of her house
A woman is not a potted plant,
her leaves trimmed to the contours of her sex
A woman is not a potted plant,
her branches espaliered against the fences of her race,
her country, her mother, her man, her trained blossom turning this way and that
to follow the sun of whoever feeds and waters her
A woman,
is wilderness
unbounded
holding the future between each breath
walking the earth only because she is free and not creepervine or tree
Nor even honeysuckle or bee.

Gun Nut Cookies

2008-03-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

Andy's copywriting partner, aside from being an excellent headline craftsman, is also something of a gun enthusiast. So we thought it would be fun to make him some NRA-approved birthday cookies for his celebratory dinner at a local sushi restaurant.

We started out by cheating and using premade sugar cookie dough sheets which were on sale for Easter and came with atrocious purple and yellow frosting. We googled some images of guns and Andy used his childhood memories of hunting in Minnesota to create a duck decoy and some bullets. We cut the cookies by hand using a butter knife and baked them up the night before.

The undecorated shotgun, bullet and shotgun shell cookies. The next day I used ass-loads of red, blue and yellow food coloring to create gun-like shades of grey and brown frosting. When Andy came home we piped the frosting out of plastic baggies with holes cut in the corners and decorated up a full gun cabinet of delights.

Some spring flowers that Andy picked up for me on his way home. Seattle is all of a sudden completely in bloom with all kinds of beautiful local flowers and trees that I don't get to see in the converted desert that is LA. I've been meaning to go on a photo excursion and do a blog post about it, but for now here is a preview. Ok, back to disturbing cookies.

The wood detailing on the handle of the handgun is really what sets it apart.

The completed set of Gun Nut Cookies which includes two of each gun plus various sizes of bullets, and Andre's initials. There were supposed to be some target cookies, but they somehow got eaten by someone. We could have added some dead animal cookies, but I've already had some bad experiences with that. It never turns out pretty.

We used the leftover frosting to make mini cookie sandwiches. Andy wants to share.

Andre can't believe his eyes! We also got him some beer and wasabi peas and Pocky for Men, and Andy got him a nice compass and a book about cooking with beer.

Happy birthday wishes!

There is no waiting period to enjoy these delicious sugar weapons.

The Ototo Sushi Seattle roll and California roll. My two homes come together on one plate.

Andy and Andre pretend to share some house sake at Ototo.

Andre should know better... the frosting safety is on.

Face to Face

2008-03-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

One small freelance gig that I recently did was as a hired performance artist of sorts, if you can believe it. The creative staffing agency I work with was having an open-house type reception and they asked me to come in and illustrate the party theme on a white board for an hour while guests were mingling around me.

It was kind of short notice and I was completely freaked out about it, as you can imagine. I've never had to draw up a mural in such a short period of time, and in front of a live audience, using white board markers no less. I really wasn't sure I could do it, but it seemed like fun so I said yes.

I kind of created an outline of what I would draw, with some little motifs and elements that could easily be moved or reproduced in different areas. The idea was that there were 3 illustrators altogether who would draw in succession using the same space, kind of like that game where you write one word of a sentence and then the next person writes a word and pretty soon you have some mangled up grammatical nightmare that makes no sense. Like that, but on a white board.

The day of the party I got a confirmation email that said that one artist had dropped out, leaving just me and another illustrator, whose name I googled and found his beautiful portfolio of paintings and storyboards. Ahhh! I felt the need to write back and remind the project manager that I am not a professional illustrator, I merely have a knack for drawing that I like to implement in design when budgets don't allow for commissioning real artists. I'm a, you know. What's the word? "Hack"? Ok, "amateur" maybe.

I didn't really get a response, probably because they were like, Look we've got a bar to set up and caterers on the way, just suck it up lady and we'll all be fine.

So I went in there with my little sketches, and as you can see, it turned out fine. I'm glad I prepared something because it would have been impossible to fill that space without something to start with. The theme was "Face to Face" so my interpretation had to do with the human designer's interaction with typefaces, thus "face to face." I also like birds and flowers, so...

Working with whiteboard pen is really the worst though. Chalkboard would have been much better. Whiteboard is so unforgiving and difficult to use. I should have just stuck to one or two colors and done more shading. Knowing what I know now I think I could do better the second time, but hopefully I won't ever be asked to use whiteboard again so it won't matter.

The other artist came in later and did a continuation of the flowers at the bottom with a pretty cool Seattle skyline and a "Rain-bot" that sprinkled the city with water. He was ultra-cool and fun to talk to, and we chatted as we drew. Other people came in and talked with us and the food was good and I had a glass of wine which surely helped.

I tried to dress cutely, so that maybe it would distract from the appearance of my mural. It sort of worked.

This is a story of courage more so than anything else, because it was difficult to go into that situation and get up in front of people like that. Anyone who knows me knows that while I can chatter away one-on-one about pretty much anything, group presentations and public performance is hard. Having my work judged doesn't necessarily get easier over time, I just get better at recovering. It ended up being quite fun, and a great experience, and looking back I can honored to have been asked.

I would even do it again. I think I would have used a different concept for the drawing, perhaps "Face to Face with My Fears" would have been appropriate.

826 Seattle

2008-03-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Photos from our visit to the 826 Seattle Space Travel Store. When I go to LA I am definitely going to check out the new Time Travel Store in Echo Park. The copywriting on the packaging there is amazing. The Seattle Space Travel store is small and cute but not nearly as interesting.

Chicken Hekka and Razor Scoota

2008-03-23T18:44:00.001-07:00

Beth has no job, or at least no consistent work, so to pass the time she blogs and cooks. My most recent adventure was cooking a traditional Hawaiian dish for Andy and his partner. The recipe called for rice noodles, which are a new cooking medium for me and I had a rather tough time getting the noodles to the right texture. After all that, I neglected to take a photo of the completed Chicken Hekka dish!

Appetizers and beer awaiting my man-guests' arrival. I felt very housewifelike, cooking dinner for my dude while he was at work, and having some chilled beer and soda ready for when he came home.

No photos of the food, but here's an unnecessary picture of me & Andy. Unfortunately I think I turned out better looking than dinner.

Later we went into Andy's office so they could finish some work and I could put together my portfolio. I got Andy a Razor Scooter for Christmas to help him get around the office quicker and thus meet his deadlines with lightning speed and flair.

I quite like the scooter, and am considering getting one for myself.

Andy is hard at work and needs peanut butter fuel to get him through the night.

Savor Seattle

2008-03-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

For Valentine's Day (yeah, I've been a little behind schedule in my blogging), Andy took me to a nice dinner and to see Persepolis which I had been dying to watch for months.

For my gift, I treated Andy to a little local food tour of Pike Place, called Savor Seattle.

They took us to a lot of the famous Pike Place stalls and stores, like Market Spice and Chukar Cherries but they also introduced us to some places we hadn't tried yet like The Confectional for hot chocolate and Etta's for coconut cream pie. At the famous fish market where they throw the fish over the counter we got to taste salmon jerky and gawk at the handsome fishmongers. They're the like rubber-overalled version of firemen, except instead of smokey, they smell fishy.

The tour guide and owner of Savor Seattle is the most upbeat adorable little woman named Angela. She uses a pink "Savor Seattle" umbrella to guide tours through the bustle of the market, and chatters away in your ear over the headset.

My favorite stop was the Beecher's Cheese Shop where we got to sample some of their artisan cheese AND...

... their "World's Best" Mac & Cheese! I'm not qualified to say whether it's indeed the best in the world, but it was pretty damn gooey and delicious.

Next we sampled Piroshky Piroshky, which is another of our new favorite foods at Pike Place. Hot, inexpensive and tasty. Oh, and I almost forgot the mini doughnuts at The Daily Dozen, which also exemplify the street-food-triad of deliciousness. No pictures, but if you come visit us in Seattle we'll take you to get a bag.

I loved the smoked salmon piroshki. I dunno if it's spelled with an "I" or a "Y" at the end. I prefer Y for "Yummy!" Ha.

The view from Etta's near Pike Place. A beautiful clear crisp day in Seattle.

One of our last stops, Angela told us about the art exhibit drain pipe system in one of the Pike Place alleys.

Andy enjoyed the piroshkis so much that later we visited Piroshki on Broadway in Capitol Hill and had these cute salmon and turkey piroshkis. Definitely not as good as the ones at Pike Place, but much cuter.

Cupcake Royale!

2008-03-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

Andy knows I love cupcakes (and of course he loves em too) so on his way home from the DMV a while back he brought home a box of treats from Seattle's Cupcake Royale.

They were supposedly ranked in MSN's Top 10 Cupcakes in the Country. I like them better than Sprinkles in LA, but maybe that's because I hated all the hype and long lines. I think these were also better than the ones at Lark in Silverlake, but not as good as some giant ones Jean once had or some that Ben shared from a place down the street from his house.

Andy picked on appearance only, just like a boy. He got me one with lavender frosting and himself a red velvet (of which I am not a fan) and a mini baby vanilla one to share.

I think Cupcake Royale mostly makes very tasty vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and focuses their flavoring attention on the frostings, which to me makes a lot of sense, from an information architecture point of view. Simplicity is good.

The thing that made these cupcakes so great though was the oversized muffin-tops. I think they protect the bottom part from drying out somehow. The bottom cake part is nice and moist with a lot of good vanilla flavor and just sweet enough. And the muffin top is a nice size with a little bit of carmelizing of the sugar in the batter, so that each bite can stand on its own and has just enough frosting. I always felt like they overdid the frosting at Sprinkles.

The lavender frosting was delicious and somehow really worked, flower bits and all. Plus it was adorable. Andy's red velvet was okay, but I've already established my dislike for red velvet. Seeing the pile of empty food coloring bottles after a friend made some red velvet was enough to turn me off for good.

All done!

Delicious, but not so sugary that you feel gross afterwards. Just sweet enough to make your day happier! I think I'm now a fan of the Cupcake Royale.

I Love a Man That Can Make Me Laugh

2008-03-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

The viewing public has long been divided between Andy's resemblance to Tony Hawk or Seth Myers, but I am personally in the Seth Myers camp. During long stays away from each other I would watch SNL and make out with the television during Weekend Update. Mainly I think it's because I love a man that can make me laugh.

When Entertainment Weekly came this week, I thought I would take the opportunity to prove my point by doing a face to face comparison.

I think we can all agree that Seth Myers and Andy were separated at birth.

I'm having difficulty telling the two apart...

SoDo Claypool

2008-03-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last night Mr. Les Claypool came to town to the Showbox SoDo and he brought some friends with him. He had a somewhat unique quartet featuring Les on bass, Skerik on sax, Mike Dillon on percussion and a new drummer I haven't seen him play with before, Paulo Baldi.

All in all it was a fine show and Les was in good form. They played some of his current stuff off of Whales of Woe and some old Primus stuff too. Fisticuffs was a big surprise and brought a smile to my face. Although, for some reason I never quite dig the midway drum solo (aka Les' lunch break). It always leaves me with a headache.

After seeing a Claypool concert, or any concert for that matter but especially one with Les, it's always very inspirational. The next day I pick up my bass and can play with a rejuvenated spirit and passion. Also there's always a song of his I haven't fully learned to play and I'm forced to investigate a little further. I've seen him live probably eight times now and while I've never been quite as amazed as the first time I saw Les play, he always manages to inspire me musically a little more.

Here's the set list as best I remember it:

1) Ding Dang

2) Fisticuffs

3) Some song I wasn't familiar with.

4) Long in the Tooth

5) Precipitation

6) Drum Solo followed by Whammola

7) Filipino Ray

8) Vernon the Company Man

9) John the Fisherman

10) Rumble of the Diesel

11) One Better

Encore

12) American Life (on bass banjo)

13) Iowan Gal (on bass banjo)

14) Morphine cover

Unemployed Again, Naturally

2008-03-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up at 10am and for a while I just lay in bed and stared at the hair on my knee and then I got up and sent job application emails and looked at Facebook and then I went and had lunch with Andy and Andre at the Pyramid brewery, where none of us drank any beer. We talked about our positions in society as the supper-bell-ringers, signaling the world that it was "Time to consume!" and thus, of course, causing the downfall of civilization. I had chicken chili though, which is better than beef chili and so it all balances out.

Not having a freelance job to currently attend to means that I am free to do all sorts of fun/meaningless things. After lunch I went to the bookstore and bought a book about user interface design for my web design class and then came home and learned how to play the world's slowest online scrabble game.

I should be really excited about all this free time, but I think work brings me meaning. Work equals producing, and at its best, producing in my job means creating, and I somehow value creating above all else as the meaning and purpose of life.

All I am creating right now is a lot of emails in my friends' mailboxes and a lot of scribble on their walls and nonsense on their voicemails.

I really must stop whining and get off my butt and do something. Creativity doesn't need employment to be employed. I have a million ideas and now is the time to implement. But first, more whining...

~~~
When people talk about milestones growing up they never mention the fact that the first time you get really truly all out bed-ridden green-snotted low-grade-feverishly sick without access to your family or readily available healthcare, you will certainly panic and think you are going to die.

I'm sure they mostly don't mention it because afterwards it seems silly, but I'm sure if everyone thinks back to the worst and first time they were sick and out on their own, they will recall that they were a little freaked out.

Last week Andy was stuck on a presentation meeting and worked all weekend, and I had no one to call because as I've already mentioned I have no friends here, and since my COBRA health insurance is Aetna of California, I could only really count on coverage if I went to the emergency room. And my paycheck hadn't come yet, and I had a fever and blood in my snot and cramps from my period. And it was 11pm and there was no Tylenol in the house and I didn't know what to do.

I called my mom in tears and told her I had a fever and that I was scared of getting brain damage. I'm sure she must have wondered how she raised her daughter to be 27 years old and worried about brain damage, but luckily I have a wonderful mother so she was only supportive and loving and offered to send money or fly me home.

Hearing my mother's voice seemed to calm me down somewhat, and Andy came home for a break to bring me hugs and Tylenol, good sweet boy that he is. Five days later I woke up one morning and felt all better. The end!

~~~
I have been reading up on typography because I find that typography is the easy way out for some people when they are assessing your design portfolio. Like when someone is giving an ad critique in class and they say "But that ad could be for any product, it's not differentiated enough." Sometimes that's true, and sometimes they are just blowing bloody green snot out their nose, but if you don't know enough to know when they're wrong, you'll fall prey to their all-purpose nitpicking.

Same thing goes for typography. Typography is such a complex art form that involves so many practices and so much fine-tuning, that to look at a portfolio and say "your typography could be better" is like reading a book and saying "your grammar could be stronger." More importantly, it drives at a general skill level and not at a specific piece or issue.

So studying type seems like the best way to call their bluff, and I've been reading typography books until the wee hours, and having typography dreams as a result. The other morning I woke up with what I was sure was the best new idea for a video game ever based on the Gutenberg Bible where the point would be to decide a character's path by deciphering between printed pages and identifying key glyphs and character-space to determine which ones were fake. Each fake page would take you to a dangerous world full of intricate type-puzzles and each real page would transport you to a reward level.

I thought it all brilliant and was ready to start making up keyframes or something when I realized that this was basically the idea behind the computer game Myst, and then I went back to sleep.

Heroes Season One

2008-03-13T21:35:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Beth and I started watching season one of Heroes and now it's like crack. We can't pull away. Our whole lives evolves around one known truth, "Save the cheerleader, save the world." As soon as an episode ends we instantly look at each other and say, "should we watch another?" Because of this we've been flying through DVD's like nobody's business. Now we're getting near the end of the season and I'm beginning to worry what's going to happen, both in the show and in my life. First there's the obvious questions of what's going to happen for this thing to wrap up in some sort of way that makes sense and then the other is, when the hell are they going to pump out season two. It better be fast because we may not be able to stand the withdrawal pains.

Hiro after taking a poop in the future or something.

As for now we have a few episodes left and things are getting pretty juicy. It been a little frustrating thinking something is going to happen in the next episode (so we watch another) then it doesn't. This may be part of their scheme to keep people on the edge of their seats, but it's a let down sometimes. Partially because we guess wrong and partially because now we have to wait another episode to find out. In the end it's nothing to complain about because it's all good stuff.

Snip Snap

2008-03-04T23:24:00.000-08:00

Move to a new city, cut your hair in a new fashion. It's a test. If I look different and I'm located in a different place, can I still hold true to the things that I think make up the central core of who I am? Probably. Afterall, I still hate it when someone asks me if I put "product" in my hair, I still have a combined pathological curiosity/fear of changing my hair color, and I still can't wield a hairdryer for crap.

But next time I intend to get super super short bangs.

I Like the Lichen

2008-03-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

I guess looking at lichen is really a solitary pasttime anyways, and here in the Pacific Northwest there is even more of it to look at. I dunno if these qualify as lichen or moss or both. But they're pretty!

Out & About

2008-03-03T17:54:00.001-08:00

And I do mean out... Andy tries on my skinny jeans

Dear Journal: as I write I am sitting in my bathtub with my new aromatherapy bath caddy, spilling candle wax on my naked private parts while combining alcohol and a hot tub environment. Pure genius!

Space Needle seen from a street near our house.

Drinks from the Japanese supermarket Uwajimaya. Join the Coffee Mafia and receive free mustache and pipe!

After helping Andre unpack his newly purchased art work as seen on the wall, Beth decided to create some art of her own using biodegradable packing peanuts.

Thanks Emily!

2008-03-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

During my first couple of weeks here I was the lucky recipient of some very thoughtful cards and packages, and in particular this one from Emily helped me get through some sad tears. She sent me a pile of yummy Japanese goodies and knitted me a fuzzy pair of leg warmers!

Fun snacks!

Mmm... Chomp?

It's not ice cream! It's chocolate!

Full of goodies and with warm leggies.

And be glad that you're there

2008-03-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

I had only been in Seattle for around 5 days when I had my first "You're On Your Own" type grown-up day. It started out badly when the clothing rod in the hall closet which sort of functions as my wardrobe collapsed as I was getting dressed to meet Andy and his writing partner for lunch in South Downtown. The whole crash knocked me backwards and the rod fell on my thumb as I was pulling off my jacket, leaving me with a bruised thumb and a huge pile of crap. The photo makes it seem much less catastrophic than it felt when I was falling backwards into the closet door. Mostly I was pissed because I had just finished unpacking my clothes that morning.

Rushing down to SoDo I was happy to see some sunlight. I wondered what all the fuss about Seattle rain was about. Andy and Andre met me in the parking lot across the street from their work. The parking lot is attached to some weird little diner/smokehouse. I can't quite decide what's so weird about it, but apparently someone on Yelp is in agreement. Andy and Andre are pretty convinced it's a front for drug ring, kind of like that suspicious gas station on the corner of Prairie and Redondo Beach in Torrance where the gas costs like $8 per gallon.

We went to a little SoDo BBQ joint called the Pig Iron and I immediately felt better once I had ordered some jalapeño spinach casserole and creamed corn and taken a look around at the vintage Hatch Show posters on the walls. I especially enjoyed their collection of pig-themed decor.

Hanging out with Andy and Andre is always a good time, and it was nice to get to know them better over some yum BBQ. We talked about harnessing the power of advertising to Save the World, and how Tivo is actually contributing to the downfall of society, etc etc. The food was pretty tasty, and they had a good sweet tea which supposedly gets implemented in a delicious sweet tea mojito.

I dropped the A team off at work and sort of felt sad and lonely. Everything still did/does feel raw and reminds me of the people I love and have left behind. A delicious BBQ lunch served to remind of Jana and her passion for pork, and I felt that Cyndi would have appreciated the side orders. I felt bummed and full of self-pity diluted by sweet tea.

I decided to try to cheer myself up by visiting the Goodwill store near their agency. I had good luck there a few days before with a $10 dresser, perhaps today I might find a clothing storage system that wouldn't let me or my tunic dresses down. The downtown location is huge and endless with aisles and aisles of used sewing machines and discarded VCRs and an entire section dedicated to old joysticks. The furniture area is constantly in flux, but that day I was not as lucky. I glared enviously at the smug woman hugging an upholstered footstool to her chest as she flipped through used records. She obviously found what she was looking for. I couldn't take her superior air, so I slunk back to my car and calculated the distance to the U-District Buffalo Exchange. If all my clothes were going to reside on the closet floor, what difference would a few more tunic dresses make.

But it was not to be. I twisted the key forward and nothing happened. The pedals moved fine and the radio lights would blink on and then off, but nothin else. No quiet whir of the engine and no response except for the little red engine light and the little red check fluids light. And I freaked out.

I had let my AAA membership lapse in January of 07, but I had my oil changed every 3 months (mostly). It had just been changed and my tires rotated before driving up to Seattle though. Normally in such a situation I am ashamed to say that my first response would be to call my Dad. For as long as I can remember, emails and phone calls from my Dad are signed off with things like "Please take care of your insurance" or "Did you get your oil changed yet?" and to me that is how I know I am loved. It's not that I can't take care of my car on my own. It's that having my father help me with such matters brings me a sense of connection and security.

But now I'm 2 states away, and a phone call to my father would do more harm than good. There was no point in worrying him, and nothing to do but sit quietly and figure out for myself the best thing to do. First of all, call my boyfriend and whine and freak out. Check. Next, confirm that my AAA membership truly is expired and useless. Check. Next, jiggle key uselessly in ignition and read a few meaningless chapters of car owner manual, looking for magical enlightenment. Check. Next, get out with owner's manual in hand and poke around front of car looking for way to open hood, tripping through parking lot planter and groaning. Check. Next, call back boyfriend and continue previously truncated whining. Check. Next, cry.

I'm not proud of myself for all that. I was not the picture of grace. I was ashamed to ask for help, and mad at myself for not renewing my AAA card. I knew my Dad would have been disappointed in me. Andy left work early to come join me so that I could use his AAA card (unethical? yes or no?) and while sitting and waiting for him and fumed at myself for being so careless. In preparing to move there were so many things I was careful to attend to, and yet here was something completely preventable that I had neglected. I questioned whether I was truly ready to enter the adult world.

Andy came and we sat in my powerless car in the cold for about 45 minutes waiting for the tow truck. I fretted about the possibility of replacing an alternator and Andy maintained that it was probably my battery. I watched the sun set in the rear view mirror and missed my friends and family and felt sorry for myself. Andy was graciously silent and gentle. He showed me the oil change stick again and reassured me that the fluids looked fine.

Eventually the tow truck came and we found out that it was merely the battery, not something I could have done anything to prevent. We paid for a replacement battery and drove home in dusk.

In the days since then I have certainly had harder times emotionally, but that was a day for obstacles of the physical world. In retrospect, the moral of that story was that things are not as bad as they sometimes seem and they can certainly be worse. When we got home Andy drilled the closet rod back in place while I renewed my AAA card online, and a few days later we bought a clothing rack and purse hooks that hang behind the door for my million purse, and everything was fine.

But if the way that I understood love from my Dad was always looking out for me, then the way that I understand love from Andy is always being there for me. It's hard for me to accept help because I don't want to seem helpless, so it's important that I don't feel like the help is being given with a feeling indebtedness. But I do need help because clearly there are a lot of things I have yet to learn and challenges I will have have to overcome on this new adventure, and even great heroes have partners and sidekicks and soul animal demons and elven gifts to give them special powers. There's no shame in admitting that I can't do it alone. And I'll get better as time goes by.

Now you can feel all the knots in your stomach they start to untie
And suddenly it's not so hard to say you're alright

Oh, love is real it is not just in poetry and stories
It is truth and it will follow you everywhere you go from now on
So if you just cast all off your doubts then your lips would answer for you
Oh, my darling when you smile it is like a song
And I can hear it now

Seattle Freeze

2008-02-23T10:27:00.001-08:00

I haven't written in a while, and while I'd like people to think it's because I'm busy, the truth is it's because I'm depressed beyond words. Blog entries written by people depressed beyond words probably are themselves depressing, so fair warning.

It's not the weather. The weather has been gorgeous. I've been lucky to have work at the best firm in town, and I love my apartment and I love Andy. Everything would be great if I had even one person I could call my friend.

The title of this post refers to an article that was published in the Seattle Times (and we all know I'm a big fan of the Seattle Times) talking about something called the Seattle Freeze. I read the article before I moved up here, and I sort of Pish-Poshed it. It seems silly, everyone in every city listens to headphones in coffeeshops. That's the entire basis of the iPod campaign. But since moving here, I've had people talk to me about the Seattle Freeze on numerous occasions, and one has to wonder if it's a chicken-egg situation, or if Julia Sommerfeld (who now writes for MSNBC. meh.) was actually onto something.

I've had people tell me "Seattle is a hard city" and "Seattle is impossible if you're in your mid to late 20s and not single." The later proved true during my first week at work, where what I thought was a potential friend ended up being just someone's search for some fresh company ink to dip into. Truthfully I felt pretty dejected about that though because I felt like we were connecting and then I realized we were connecting because one of us wanted to date the other and overall I just felt foolish.

But I tried again anyways. I went online and joined a book club through Craigslist. The listing called for women in their mid-20s and they were reading the Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time, which I own but hadn't finished. I read the book in 3 days in order to be ready to talk about it, and I baked a plate of cookies. But I discovered that the supposed book club was not actually about books. It was about socializing, and mainly centered around chatter about weddings, doggy day care, and babies/children. All things in which I have little experience or interest. Despite all that, I was optimistic. I listened and tried to contribute where I could, although with 15 women babbling about their weddings, there's not much room to contribute. I know that it takes time to connect, so I emailed the chairperson asking about the next meeting. And I didn't hear back. And then I looked on Craigslist and saw that the same group of people had put a new listing out.

How do you get rejected from a book club!?!

Other times the rejections are not so overt. Sometimes it's just a little pulling away, or closing an emotional door. If I had to make a statement about Seattle it's not that there is a social freeze. It's that the city is full of people who are trying to act like grown ups. Grown ups don't cry about their problems, they don't make scenes, they are tidy and responsible and they respect boundaries. Grown ups have a glass of wine with friends and chat about politics-lite and where they take their dry cleaning. But I want to talk about zombies and lichen and have adventures at 2am. So where does that leave me?

I know that friendship takes time, but I haven't felt a glimmer of connection with anyone here yet except for Andy's writing partner, and you can't have your only friend be your boyfriend's coworker.

I guess rejection will never feel good, but I feel like it's easier to bounce back from romantic rejection and tell yourself "he/she just wasn't the One" or "he/she is just blind" or "he/she was looking for someone to share their proclivity toward farm sex and I'm allergic to sheepskin." But what do you tell yourself when someone just doesn't want to be your friend? I know it's only been like a month, and I need to give it more time. But I feel helpless. I'm the type of person who tries her hardest at everything, and to that end I've tried my best to put myself out there in as many ways as possible in this short amount of time. But there's not much I can do to make people like me.

I honestly don't know what to do or what's wrong with me. I know I'm a quirky person, but so are all of my friends back home, and that's why I love them. Truthfully I don't think any of them are that much more quirky than average, they're just courageous enough to be open about it. I'm a little shy at first, and I'm hesitant to carry on about myself and my problems to people I don't know (that's what blogs are for), but I am always open to hearing about other people's problems. I don't like to push myself onto people, I think that friendship takes time and openness. But I think I am open to all people and all things, and if you are my friend you know that I love you fiercely and will go to the ends of the earth for you. I don't want to change or be someone I'm not and I don't think I should have to in order to be loved back.

And yet I am changing. Maybe the one thing is that I'm trying to act like a grown up too. It's a new experience and so far I'm not a fan. I'm excelling at my job, I buy organic, I read the newspaper which I then promptly recycle, I save money, I go to sleep at a near-reasonable time, I've stopped drinking because I feel it's rude to Andy, and I don't let myself be myself because I'm afraid of being the loudest person in the room. But I'm losing something in all this, and it scares me. I can't have my 2am adventures because at 2am I am asleep. And no one looks at the lichen with me so I walk past it. I don't think I like it. I know I don't like it. And I don't know what to do about it.

somehwere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

2008-02-06T01:22:00.000-08:00

Never-before seen shots of Bendy's home in Seattle!

Our living room and doors to our kitchen

Desk/coffee table/dinner table with tripod/mini lamp in background.

Bass and sofa with stuffed animal foods and squishy panda pillow from my brother.

This is how you entertain yourself when you don't have internet access.

Toys on display on top of the Zenith Space Command. It's not HD, but it does have fake wood paneling.

Banana, our housecat. He's looking a little thin lately.

A Pantone kitchen says: designers are cookin' here

Bedside & $10 Goodwill dresser, eventually to be painted with green trim. Items to connect me to the people I love: Super bunny from Nicole, Mariners hat from Ben, BSG bag from Dorina, kitty slippers made by Cyndi

Photes of friends, bowl and Pisa statue from Jana.

Little islands of clutter here and there... Still a work in progress

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city

2008-02-03T02:46:00.000-08:00

I have a new job! Or rather a new freelance assignment. It will last through the first week of March and pays me enough to keep me in all the $1 Starbucks coffee my little heart desires. Best yet, it is at a design firm whose work I have long admired and I am learning a great deal from some really talented creative people. I was unemployed in Seattle for a total of 5 days, for which I feel very fortunate. Of course when the assignment ends I might have weeks and weeks of unemployment, but for right now it is helping me adjust and meet new people.

Parking downtown costs about $16/day, so I have been riding the bus to work. It's a short 15 minute ride and costs about $1.50 each way. I think the experience of taking the bus makes me feel like a real grown up in a real city, but I suspect the novelty will wear off soon. It is comfortable to come home and make a little dinner for me and my roommate, chat with a few friends, and close out the evening with the Colbert Report. I feel all domesticated. But it's only been a week.

Weekends have been spent adventuring in such places as the landmark Seattle Central Library and the giant retail city of Tukwila. Poor Tukwila seems to exist purely as a location on the outskirts of metropolitan Seattle where cityfolks can drive a short distance to the giant Ikea, Ross, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Guitar Center and Westfield Shoppingtown, a shoppingtown within a shoppingtown. It's as though the city of Seattle has taken the garish landscaping that embodies the suburban strip mall and swept it under the carpet that is Tukwila. That way the neighborhoods of Belltown, Magnolia, Fremont, Queen Anne and Pioneer Square can stay as charming as their names might imply.

The best thing so far really has been our location within Lower Queen Anne and down the street from the Seattle Center. This is my first experience of living in the heart of a metropolitan area. I enjoy hearing the shouts of drunk people down the street. It's sort of similar to the feeling of being all cozy inside when it's raining outside, which I've also been enjoying a lot. We are like a 5 minute walk from two grocery stores, a really good thai food place, the local indie movie theater, a used book store, a pottery studio, a record store, the Key Area, Seattle International Film Festival Theater, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Experience Music Project, some crazy looking big top circus dinner theater place called Teatro ZinZanni and a bunch of bars and restaurants. It reminds me of visiting friends at Berkeley in that everything is walking distance and I am excited to go out and try it all.

The only drawback is that with so much to do, it's been difficult to find time to blog...

Enterprise Enterprise

2008-02-03T02:38:00.000-08:00

Does not the logo of the Pita Pit bear a striking resemblance to the starship Enterprise? Is hummus therefore the final frontier?

Los Angeles Adventure

2008-02-03T00:40:00.000-08:00

This post ins't really about Seattle at all, but how can I talk about where I am if I don't spend some time remembering where I've been?

Before departing LA for my new life in Seattle, I spent the month of December and early January seeing good friends and doing my favorite Los Angeles things, squirreling away fond memories of things and people I love like. During my last week there, my geek hero and punning role model Ben proposed a Los Angeles Adventure in downtown.

Ben is the nerdiest person I know other than myself. I am so glad we became friends because he makes me a better nerd. He is always up to dork-out, and he even lets me cuddle his cat.

So a plan was hatched to ride the metro and visit some classic LA spots: Olvera Street, Chinatown, Cliftons & the Observatory. Another famous nerd pal Cyndi came with us and together we set out to enjoy the multitude of quirky charms that downtown Los Angeles has to offer.

Some shark cigarette posters to start things off. I think the ride from Union Station to Chinatown, which is actually walking distance, completed the Metro portion of our adventure, sadly enough. Even when purposely using public transportation we couldn't manage it.

Lanterns in Chinatown. The Chinatown metro station also has a The feng shui compass which I failed to photograph. It had no informational plaque so we had no idea what it was, but when I stood on it the needle moved. I guess I'm magnetic.

The Chinatownland sign, which was apparently created in 2002 as an art installation.

Cyndi is attempting to act as the arms for this angel statue outside a boba place.

Moving to Olvera Street, which was eerily quiet, we grabbed a quick bite at the stall serving what's widely considered to be the best taquitos in LA.

Union Station at dusk from Olvera Street.

On to Clifton's. I had never been, so I took a lot of photos. One of my partners in ad school had written a series of headlines about Clifton's which really piqued my interest, so I was glad to finally see it in person.

Given the cafeteria-food menu, the colorful variety of desserts was the most appetizing looking area.

I ended up choosing the chicken and dumpling fricasee and strawberry dulce de leche cake.

With the silk flora, animatronic fauna and high dining perch, one can hardly help drawing a connection between Clifton's and Club 33. Similar and yet so opposite.

Gravy makes us giddy.

A transfat free zone.

The view from the street

Now only a blur

After Cliftons we had some mexican hot chocolate at Weeneez which was attached to the Red Dot gallery. Then we walked down the block and saw some amazing sculptures in a downtown hotel window.

After dropping Cyndi off at the Metro station, we headed over to Griffith Park for the final portion of the Adventure. I hadn't been to the Observatory since they remodeled it, and I was excited to see it before leaving.

The Foucault pendulum in the lobby is such a great opening exhibit. When the little peg fell down, it gave me such a sense of awe for the planet and the world. People applauded. Gravity took a bow. You might call it a latitude adjustment.

Ben and I made our way to the telescope on the roof, where we got an amazing view of the moon. But nothing could top Leonard Nimoy's narration in the introductory film for the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater.

My beloved home city. A perfect end for a great adventure.

Dairy Air on Your Derriere

2008-01-27T02:48:00.000-08:00

As an addendum to the post about living the the Herpes Triangle, we finished our cheesecake cookies following an easy little recipe in a book that Andy's best friend Katie had given him as a housewarming present. The recipe calls for plain cream cheese, and Andy had the inspiration to sub in strawberry cream cheese and make them strawberry cheesecake cookies. As we were baking, we noticed a little note on the tub that read: "For cooking use regular cream cheese"

This could easily be interpreted as "For cooking use. Regular cream cheese." The break really makes the difference, or maybe a comma between cooking and use would help. They turned out yummy and buttery and delicious, but a little flat and chewy. We have to wonder if the texture would have been better with "regular cream cheese."

Thank Goodness for Valtrex

2008-01-26T01:27:00.001-08:00

We live in the Herpes Triangle, according to a recent article in the Seattle Weekly. Which means that things are prone to mysteriously disappear and then later reappear in the form of a watery blister on your mucous membranes.

The best thing about that article is how it barely seems to qualify as news. Maybe it's my out-of-townerness, but to me it seems like a waste of newsprint (and a waste of newsprint is a tough thing to achieve because it's pretty much the worst paper ever) to detail the adventures of the local bar-hoppers, even to go all undercover and pretend to be single in order to gather research. To push the fact you're not actually single, just playing one in your column, as though being single was an experience as foreign to you as being say, a gay porcupine or an erudite journalist. And to present the results of your exposé in such a boring manner. The North High North Wind staff, on its worst most self-indulgent day wrote fake letters to the editor that were more hard-hitting.

Anyway. We do see a fair amount of drunken mumblers and slutty high-heeled tumblers in our neighborhood. A few months ago we heard a bunch of frat boys crossing the street and looked out the window just in time to see one fellow take out his penis and wave it around. Assumedly this is how the herpes is spread in Lower Queen Anne, so a good raincoat provides protection from more than just the rain.

Part of me wants to get down there and join in the party, because I've never lived in such close proximity to an actual bona fide party. Courtney often touted the benefits of living walking distance to bars and clubs, so that the toilet you collapse into will likely be your own and you'll never have to call that guy with the tiny motorcycle to save you from a DUI. But we've got our old-married-couple bedroom slippers on and instead we're opting to stay in and make cookies on a Friday night. Strawberry cheesecake cookies.

And nothing on our mucous membranes but sweet sweet mucous.

Chicken Soup For the Sad Girl in Seattle's Soul

2008-01-26T01:25:00.000-08:00

The food that your mother gives you the morning you drive away and leave home for the first time to set out on your own in a new city will taste different than any other food you will ever taste. Is it a combination of the way it was hastily and tearily packed and offered and what it seems to symbolize: the desire to continue to care for you, to protect and nourish you. It's been 27 years since she gave birth to you, but does the bag of grapes she washed and put into a baggie for you come as close as you'll ever know to what it was like to be connected by your umbilical cord and fed by her directly? I guess they're just grapes after all, but having them in the hotel that first night made me feel loved more than anything else I can remember in a long time.

The road goes ever on and on...

2008-01-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

...down from the door where it began

I think moving from Los Angeles to Seattle was the most emotionally draining and logistically daunting thing I've ever had to do in my life thus far. And although I say Los Angeles, most people know I actually mean Torrance, California, city of my childhood, playground of my youth, and the house that I grew up in.

I prepared for a full year, even so much that I went through and quit my old job and got a new job in order to make more money and gain experience that would allow me to start my career in a better place in the new city. I put everyone through what Emily termed "the Longest Goodbye Ever" and exploited my imminent departure as a way to get anything from free meals, to wild adventures in the city, to my choice of songs in Rock Band. And I almost got a lap dance.

But with all that preparation, I still found myself overwhelmed when the time came. The actual physical move went better than I had anticipated and cost less than I had budgeted. But I was not emotionally braced for the reality of leaving everyone and everything I know behind and running off into the great unknown. It was a strange thing to hug my family and friends goodbye and then get onto a freeway that I had driven on every day, and somehow end up in a different life. It was very Lord of the Rings-ie:

[Bilbo] used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."

So yeah. The first night in the hotel in Redding I cried at the sight of the marshmallow roses my mom had given us, at the snowglobe Jean made me, at every little thing. A lot of the time I wondered to myself if I was making a huge mistake. Most of the time I just tried to allow my mind to float in space and not feel, because feeling was painful. And it was easy to do this because the landscape was beautiful: snowcapped mountains, silvery lakes, and a lot of roadside adult stores in Oregon for some reason. It was a nice drive, but it hurt like hell. Even at this moment it's just easier for me not to think about it. Talking through it a few days later with Andy, it seemed like a dream, and I think for a long time, the journey between point A & B, or rather CA & WA, will remain a numb blur.

I do remember we had a lot of coffee and beef jerky.

And now I am here, in Seattle! It is an exciting new place, and I think if I had to choose a city to start a grand new adventure I could not have found a better place than Seattle. Or a better navigator/tent buddy/Samwise than Andyroo. He's the cheese to my macaroni, as the saying goes. I miss my friends and my family, but in that I am fortunate also, for they have all been enthusiastic and supportive and they all know that I will still be there for them, just a phone call or text message away.

Into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge.

At goodbye dinner, Jana shows us her Jana Face

Marshmallow flowers from Mom

Empty closet

We are attempting a sad "Hey!" Mine is very over the top but Jean's sadness is achieved through one or two fewer twinkles in her eyes than normal.

One last hug goodbye

Where it began

Andy and his Double Double

I'll miss you!

The littlest things keep me grounded

Cologne dispenser in a truck stop restroom

This photo is like time traveling: seeing the past & the future

Mt Shasta doesn't wanna come out and play

Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can

The Hills Have Eyes

2008-01-17T23:32:00.001-08:00

Tonight the AIGA of Seattle held a fun little shindig down at the Evo Gallery called "The Hills Have Eyes." They got a pretty good panel of designers from in and around the snowboarding industry to show a little bit of what they do and give a run down of what they think of the industry. Dave Barton (Metajive), Stephan Hofmann (Spacecraft), Ryan Schmeis (K2), Mike Styskal (Dept. of Energy) and most of all, one of my favorite design personalities, Aaron Draplin (Draplin Design Co.) were all there.

Aaron Draplin was by far the best part of the evening. I have sort of gotten to know him through his blog on his website over the past year and some and it was good to see he holds true to exactly the way he comes off in his writing. He even wrote about the event on his blog the next day and posted the picture he took as he got up front.

I'm the dorky kid in the back with the green jacket and dumb smirk on his face.

After the lecture, Andre and I went up to meet Mr. Draplin and he was even cooler. We were met with a hardy handshake and a friendly smile. Also he started handing us free swag instantly. First he gave us each a free DDC key chain, and after telling him I was a fan of his Gocco expertise (which he claims to have a black-belt in) he gave me an official "DDC-007 Plectrum Set" just because he used his Gocco to print the card they're on. All and all he was as nice and friendly and anyone could ask for. So nice in fact I had to buy a t-shirt from him too (I've had my eye on it for a while).

Strange Work Week

2008-01-14T21:08:00.001-08:00

It was a pretty strange at work last week. It started off well with a fresh new batch of business cards. This came about because the agency is now switching to the name TMA for 2008 after the merge with T:M Advertising in Dallas. Although I haven't been too impressed with the new name (or the logo for that matter), it has been good for both agencies coming together to make each other stronger.

The real strange part happened when we walked into the office to find all our computers were missing. For good. Some fine citizens decided that they needed our computers more than we did, so they took them, the big screen TV and whatever else they found on four other floors. The only thing with an Apple logo that got left behind (completely by mistake since the monitor was gone and all the cords removed) was my tower. I was pretty lucky. The other good thing that came out of this is that security has been bumped up so in the end we'll be safer. It's not quite the perfect route to take, but I guess it works.

Broadcast Yourself

2008-01-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

So back in April I purchased the CVS One-time-use digital camcorder for research for ad school. The camcorder can film up to 20 minutes of video, has youtube-quality picture capability and pretty much only picks up the voice of the cameraman, or sometimes the loud barks of killer seals within a close vicinity. For instance, Andy is being quite witty while paddling the kayak up front, but the mic only picks up Beth's high-pitched squeals.

Once you've filled up your 20 minutes, or as in my case, used up the internal battery, you take the $30 camera to CVS and pay an additional $15 for processing. You end up with a $45 CD of crappy little videos that you can subject people to via email or youtube. Or your blog.

I think the most popular use of the camera is for kids to attach it to rockets and film the ensuing explosions, or do things like tie it to their dogs or tape it to bouncing balls and launch them down stairs producing very amusing headache-inducing films. Computer nerds are also fond of doing computer nerd things with it like hacking into the little hard drive and finding a way to access the videos without ever taking it back to CVS. Way to stick it to the man, computer nerds!

The video above was shot during Andy's spring visit to LA. We went on a kayaking excursion in Marina del Rey and took the camera along.

In the end my partner and I focused on the practical aspects of a one-time-use camcorder. Looking back, it would have been more fun to do some parody projects involving famous viral videos or create a fake character who got famous thanks to youtube and CVS. Something connecting the trashy videos and the disposable nature of the camera.

Oh well.

You can view the final print campaign here.

Photo blogging because I'm lazy

2008-01-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

I think in the beginning here it's gonna be a lot of photos of stuff and crap. I've spent basically the whole day designing the header for our blog, I'm feeling tired and my wacom pen feels like lead. So here are whatever photos I have lying around on my desktop:

An old picture from 4th of July in Venice. Before we discovered the magic of the "heeeey" photo.

The view of Lower Queen Anne from our living room window.

A tail of two cities: Long distance animal cracker love.

Some of my most favorite LA people on a random night out

A portrait of Ben and Beth; Hey, I didn't know we were supposed to be trying to look cool.

The second place winner for the annual family Christmas card. My brothers are so adorable!

Bethy the Brave

2008-01-02T23:54:00.000-08:00

Today Beth made a brave and bold move. She made the decision to resign from her post as resident Art Director at Motta in order to pursue her Seattle life. Even though it's something she wants to do, it's still a difficult thing leaving a place that she still likes and has many friends and family.

The good thing is that friends stay friends, and we all know you can't get rid of family no matter how far you travel. So it made me very happy that Beth took a chance and chose the opportunity to try a new life adventure.

So let's all wish Beth the best of luck on her new journey. Fun will be had, regrets pummeled and anything resembling an ass will be kicked.

Pretzel sticks & gingerbread mansions

2008-01-02T23:43:00.001-08:00

Here's some leftover goodies from the holidays:

A photo of some chocolate-caramel covered pretzels by Beth

And Andy wants to move to Dallas and live in this gingerbread house

2008 is here

2008-01-01T23:30:00.001-08:00

2008 is here and it's going to be a big year for Bendy. Full of big moves and crazy hijinks for a whole year. Bendy is very excited about all the prospects.