Don't Much Feel Like Writing Lately
Sep. 15th, 2009 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howeirdNot writer's block, just kinda in hermit mode. Dropped out of the NorCal Peace Corps alumni group, have stopped going to BASFA meetings, withdrew from the Silicon 2009 art show. Pulled out of all the photo meetup groups which do group model shoots.
Been watching America's Got Talent on Tivo. The first 10 minutes of each show is crap & commercials, so FF gets used a lot. I have come to cherish Piers' comments. He mostly thinks like me, though he's way too soft-hearted when it comes to the Everyman entrants. The show is not called "America's Got People Who Sing Flat" or "America's Got Derelicts Who Clean Up Okay". And I want to shoot the producers who have torpedoed some real talent by over-producing their numbers, putting them in horrid costumes, and making them do numbers which don't suit them. My Way as a trio? OMGWTFBBQ. Backup singers for a child trio? High School Musical production numbers for solo dancers? And worst of all, IMHO, making the reincarnation of Paul Robeson sing tacky contemporary with backup singers and sexy women violinists. The only person they have done justice to is one Barbara Padilla, who sings opera so beautifully I have cried during each and every one of her performances. They have costumed her perfectly, and let her sing in her own genre. Her voice still needs a wee bit of work, but she would have fit right into one of Pavarotti's master classes.
Friday's trip to the nail parlor was a disaster. She cut me in two places with the dremel tool, pulled up an old acrylic piece so roughly it split the nail, and generally did a crappy job. Monday I went to my old place and had them make repairs.
Saturday's boat ride on the Bay was scuttled due to the WTF lightning storm. Spent the day mostly indoors, watching rain's effects on clumping kitty litter. The litterboxes are under an overhang, but the wind redistributed the rain a bit.
Spent a lot of time with a friend making DVDs from her videos of Fiji and from home movies and photos she'd had transferred to VHS.
Sunday's steam train ride I posted photos of already. It was a little disappointing, they pulled us downhill on diesel, with the steam engine following a few minutes behind us. They hooked it up at Niles and pulled us back uphill with it, leaving the diesel behind. The steam engine has a lot more power than their little diesel rig.
Today's adventure was going to almost Los Gatos, the Samaritan Hospital complex, for a consult on getting tooth implants. Going back for a full exam in a couple of weeks. I don't think I can afford it, but it's worth knowing whether or not it can be done. Today's prognosis was "probably".
That was after taking Domino in for a follow-up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
farmount. Her thyroid is out of control again. Domino's, not farmount's. I wore my "Better Living Through Chocolate" T-shirt, but she didn't get the hint. farmount, not Domino. One of farmount's parental units makes artisan chocolates.
Got an interesting bite from the contract agency which I worked for my last gig at MSFT.
Fiji friend has reservations at Yosemite for next week and her date bailed on her, so I'll go along for the ride. Never been there before, which is the main hook for me. I'm a bit nervous about being out of interview range for 3 days, though. After almost 4 months the urgency is somewhat damped, eh what?
Been watching a lot of football. Two comments:
1. There have been more game-changing bad calls by officials at both the college and NFL levels than I can remember seeing in a single week
2. What idiot decided it would be a Good Thing to put the teams in those pug-ugly old uniforms, and dress the officials in red stripes? Gag me with a candy striper.
Been reading Mainspring a lot. I am finding it very slow reading. Part of the problem is the name of the main character. Hethor. That name makes my eye stop. It makes my brain freeze up too. You know that theory Mel Brooks has about "some words are funny, some aren't"? Hethor is just one of those words which does not look like a name for a character in a book set in British New England. And since he tells the story in the third person, it's on the page early and often. Did anyone else have this experience, or is it just me? Other than that, I'm torn, because it's certainly a very creative setting and story, but I keep running into phrases which stop my eye, or just make me wish he'd called it something else. Anyone know if Jay owns an astrolabe? That would explain a lot. I'm almost done, I may or may not write a full review. Yosemite's reading list will include Sherri S. Tepper.
Looking forward to Thursday's band rehearsal. It's what got me started on the implant thing - it can hurt a lot to play Baritone or trumpet without real teeth. One of the other older bari players suggested it to me.
Been watching America's Got Talent on Tivo. The first 10 minutes of each show is crap & commercials, so FF gets used a lot. I have come to cherish Piers' comments. He mostly thinks like me, though he's way too soft-hearted when it comes to the Everyman entrants. The show is not called "America's Got People Who Sing Flat" or "America's Got Derelicts Who Clean Up Okay". And I want to shoot the producers who have torpedoed some real talent by over-producing their numbers, putting them in horrid costumes, and making them do numbers which don't suit them. My Way as a trio? OMGWTFBBQ. Backup singers for a child trio? High School Musical production numbers for solo dancers? And worst of all, IMHO, making the reincarnation of Paul Robeson sing tacky contemporary with backup singers and sexy women violinists. The only person they have done justice to is one Barbara Padilla, who sings opera so beautifully I have cried during each and every one of her performances. They have costumed her perfectly, and let her sing in her own genre. Her voice still needs a wee bit of work, but she would have fit right into one of Pavarotti's master classes.
Friday's trip to the nail parlor was a disaster. She cut me in two places with the dremel tool, pulled up an old acrylic piece so roughly it split the nail, and generally did a crappy job. Monday I went to my old place and had them make repairs.
Saturday's boat ride on the Bay was scuttled due to the WTF lightning storm. Spent the day mostly indoors, watching rain's effects on clumping kitty litter. The litterboxes are under an overhang, but the wind redistributed the rain a bit.
Spent a lot of time with a friend making DVDs from her videos of Fiji and from home movies and photos she'd had transferred to VHS.
Sunday's steam train ride I posted photos of already. It was a little disappointing, they pulled us downhill on diesel, with the steam engine following a few minutes behind us. They hooked it up at Niles and pulled us back uphill with it, leaving the diesel behind. The steam engine has a lot more power than their little diesel rig.
Today's adventure was going to almost Los Gatos, the Samaritan Hospital complex, for a consult on getting tooth implants. Going back for a full exam in a couple of weeks. I don't think I can afford it, but it's worth knowing whether or not it can be done. Today's prognosis was "probably".
That was after taking Domino in for a follow-up with
farmount. Her thyroid is out of control again. Domino's, not farmount's. I wore my "Better Living Through Chocolate" T-shirt, but she didn't get the hint. farmount, not Domino. One of farmount's parental units makes artisan chocolates.Got an interesting bite from the contract agency which I worked for my last gig at MSFT.
Fiji friend has reservations at Yosemite for next week and her date bailed on her, so I'll go along for the ride. Never been there before, which is the main hook for me. I'm a bit nervous about being out of interview range for 3 days, though. After almost 4 months the urgency is somewhat damped, eh what?
Been watching a lot of football. Two comments:
1. There have been more game-changing bad calls by officials at both the college and NFL levels than I can remember seeing in a single week
2. What idiot decided it would be a Good Thing to put the teams in those pug-ugly old uniforms, and dress the officials in red stripes? Gag me with a candy striper.
Been reading Mainspring a lot. I am finding it very slow reading. Part of the problem is the name of the main character. Hethor. That name makes my eye stop. It makes my brain freeze up too. You know that theory Mel Brooks has about "some words are funny, some aren't"? Hethor is just one of those words which does not look like a name for a character in a book set in British New England. And since he tells the story in the third person, it's on the page early and often. Did anyone else have this experience, or is it just me? Other than that, I'm torn, because it's certainly a very creative setting and story, but I keep running into phrases which stop my eye, or just make me wish he'd called it something else. Anyone know if Jay owns an astrolabe? That would explain a lot. I'm almost done, I may or may not write a full review. Yosemite's reading list will include Sherri S. Tepper.
Looking forward to Thursday's band rehearsal. It's what got me started on the implant thing - it can hurt a lot to play Baritone or trumpet without real teeth. One of the other older bari players suggested it to me.
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