ghosts are good company

actually, when i came to add a post to the blog, it was to say none of those geeky things. it was instead to share with you the fact that

I HAVE FIGURED OUT WHAT I WANT TO BE FOR HALLOWEEN.

if only i had realized before 5am on halloween that I WANT TO BE A GNOME for halloween.

because, i mean, they are round and cozy and perhaps the best ever. all i need is… a hat. which i could knit if i had time. and a belt. which i could knit if i had time. and a beard. which i could fashion if i had time.

we’ll see how it goes. for now, look how much cuter this child looks as a gnome than i ever will (i just looked at that link as if it were a parenthetical, and said to myself “for now, look how much cuter than i ever will” doesn’t make sense as a sentence!!”).

for now i am studying up on my gnome puns just in case i dress up and go out somewhere.

anyway, whatever happens, may this day be full of at least a little magic and peace for you all. gnome what i mean?

other things:

+ you have probably realized by now that i am safe from the fires. a lot of people aren’t, and if there’s a way for you to donate/help out that you feel comfortable with, please try.

- amsterdam application is still pending based on three items which are all out of my control. in fact, these are the same things that it was pending on two weeks ago. and the program is full. apparently if those things show up at the study abroad office soon, i should be able to get on the waitlist. yes, i *have* actually been in touch with people about these things.

+ i should be able to get back on my skates soon. i need to remember to start shuffling around the house on them, so that i don’t panic the second i get on skates at the rink.

first off: i have possibly not mentioned here how awesome my webhost is, but they are. greendinosaur.net is hosted by laughingsquid, which is the best web service i could imagine. like, everything i want out of webstuff? right there. with super customer service and good community.

i’m bringing this up not because i just felt like making a random promo, though – i’m actually brought to it attempting to promote something else.

i just updated the wordpress for this blog. it used to take an hour or so to update, but i have recently started using the wordpress automatic upgrade plugin, and it is great. which is to say, it does it all for me while i write this post. so i haven’t actually updated yet, but i will have by the time you r-never mind.

the moral of the story is that this plugin is great if you’re managing wordpress blogs, and scott beale, who runs laughing squid, blogged about it here and that’s what i found first on google when searching for the plugin for you.

another plugin that i’m loving is the comment email responder plugin, because i grew up with diary and journal services online that told me when people responded to things that i said in their journals. it’s not working 100% perfectly for me, but i think that it’s at least working for you – you’re getting comment notifications, aren’t you? i hope so.

in final geek news, i have a big crush on this really gay pointless thing.

so it’s official-ish. i just submitted my application for the amsterdam program this spring. i’ll need to make sure that all of my other things are in, but we should be pretty much on track.

i’m petrified. i’ve been panicking about and procrastinating on this final step – the “give them fifty dollars and then not be able to edit your application” step – for weeks now. but it’s done. and maybe sometime they’ll call me and go “hey, wanna give us lots of money?” … and maybe they won’t.

i joined a new library system today, so that i could check out knit a square, make a toy. it is for absolutely brainless knitting, and is an awesome book. cubbie (and as such really, i, because i inherited his knitting books when he stopped knitting) had a copy, but then our delightful cat butter (who i miss soooo much) peed on it. it’s out of print, and only sixteen libraries in the u.s. seem to have it. handy that one of them is seventeen miles from my house.

speaking of knitting, i am now a ravelry member! i’m puckish there. they’re chugging through invitations fast, if you want to be a member but haven’t signed up yet.

tweedle dum. i’m sitting on a phone book, because my butt still hurts. i’ve been singing “my butt hurrrts,” to the tune of cute overload’s “i et too moishe.” i’m pretty sure that i fractured it on the right side, because… that’s where it hurts the most! i took this week off of (telling my temp place that i’m looking for) work, because it hurts to sit for a long time, but i need to go back to work next week because, hi, amsterdam? i have 1300 saved, and that’s not going to get me far. i should get one of those little thermometers for how much i’ve saved. i wonder where on the internet i could do that in a lazy fashion. i don’t think i care enough to code my own.

i think when/if i hope when the time comes for amsterdam, i’ll create a new blog here for that. because everyone needs many many blogs. and why did i buy myself a fancy domain and stuff if i’m not going to fill it up with stuff? cubbie has, unsurprisingly, stopped using his blog here – and that makes me feel lonely.

want a blog, people i know? i’ve asked you this before, i’m sure.

not too long ago, i posted about how fantastic my experience with the buffy musical on the big screen has been.

i went again for its second night in san diego, and it was even more awesome than the first – there had definitely been a lot of word of mouth at work, and the crowd was super pumped. it made me happy, and glad that i had sat in the front row and as such could see everything.

and it was good.

and it is gone.

the curator, if you will, of the buffy musical sing-a-long has been notified that “Fox has pulled the license for ALL their TV shows from theatrical exhibition.”

and that pisses me off, because these things have been bringing together some awesome community. usually i hate online petitions, but i signed this one.

in non buffy news, i can’t go skate tonight because of my broken butt.

grr. arg.

hoo boy, internets.

i have my first official Derby Injury*. i landed smack dab on my butt today, and yowch. it hurts a lot. i’ve been icing it, and tomorrow i think i’ll start with pain pills. it’s my tailbone, but my back has been hurty also. i’m hoping that’s just from new postures i’m learning, rather than also from the falling-on-butt.

mmm,yeah. so there’s that.

big news in my world lately is that eve 6, the band about which i obsessed for many a year, is reuniting. kind of. frankly, i’m a little confused – two of the members have been playing together in a band called the sugi tap, and now those same two members are instead turning their sights to a eve 6 reunification – with the blessing of the old guitarist to have someone new on guitars. at any rate, they’re in los angeles on the 26th, and i’m hoping i can get up there.

my grandfather is town, and that’s nice. we had dinner with him and my aunt, which – other than my butt complaining, and it’s started to hurt so much more since then – was healthy and tasty. food is so good.

i have been watching heroes** and ooh, i enjoy it. i am excited about this tv season, there is lots going on and it’s entertaining. i’ve never really followed tv like this before, so it’s weird.

my favorite awesome baby is walkin’!

*so, i’m the newbie in derby boot camp. this means that i’m re-learning how to skate, and building up my stamina, and then will join the boot camp folks in learning turns and stops and things like that. after people master those things they move up to training camp where they actually learn derby-type things like contact and (better) falling. so i have trouble calling what i’m doing derby, but it’s a start.
**and ugly betty and grey’s anatomy and private practice and pushing daisies.

dear buffy musical,

i kind of love you.

i’m just sayin’. i was petrified about last night, about going by myself, until i saw that they were looking for people to assemble goody bags (“i used to do this all by myself, until i realized that people might be willing to help me!” / “when did you start having people help you?” / “oh, about three shows ago.”), and so i did that and met people and then i wasn’t all by myself! which is awesome.

and while i was the only one really injecting the musical with the overabundance of lewd that it so obviously deserves, it was still full of the sauce of awesome, because everybody was having a great time and being clever.

it also plays tonight, and i am hoping hoping to go again (that would be, um, my third time?). hurray!

wow, monday was a place for a bunch of new things.

my mother bought a car on sunday – traded hers in, actually -  so i spent some time in the new car, getting to know it and its quirks.  it’s pretty lovely, a 2007 civic hybrid, and seems to like me as well.  it’s cars.com “best car for first-time drivers” (here) which is an interesting category to even exist – and which i’m not, a first-time driver, but…  hmm.

one of the places from which i drove was derby bootcamp.  i finally made it there, and on the right day so that i wasn’t the only brand new kid!  the derby dolls have it set up so that there’s this bootcamp, and there’s also training camp – once you’ve mastered your skating and stopping skills, you then get to move up to training camp and work on your contact and falling.  i think it’s an awesome setup, and i’m super excited to be in a city that has such a through program.

bootcamp wiped me out.  i could only skate for part of the hour – because i am completely out of shape, which we already knew, and being careful to not spin into anxiety-mode.  i’m coming early next time, so that i can skate for longer, but with breaks more regularly.  so much sweat!  i haven’t participated in team sports in ten years, and i remember how much i hated it – but also those pockets of enjoyment.

after bootcamp i decided that it would be an awesome idea to go to the gym?  but the pool, truthfully.  there i had the dreadful surprise that i couldn’t swim a whole lap without feeling like i was going to sink.   a large part of this, of course, is just exhaustion from derby, but it’s unsettling.  still, i got to sit in the bubbly spa and then the sauna for a while, and talked to some folks there.

there was a crazy amount of womanness in the day – first “the girls” and “sisterhood” at derby, and then the women’s locker room.  i feel like such a foreigner in these kinds of places, but at the same time i know that i need to take advantage of how i do fit in, and not isolate myself when i don’t need to.

all through roller derby, i had a few bits in my head of a song that i don’t know.  on the way home i was playing with the radio controller on the steering wheel (this new car thing is crazy, guys) and kt tunstall’s “hold on” came on – the song that was in my head, of course.  what timing.

[[speaking of songs, i added the tracklist to my seattle mix-cd post, since the person it was a surprise for has now received it.]]