Right Brain/Wrong Brain

Michael bought me this awesome book on how the new emerging Conceptual Era will be highly Right Brain, meaning the Left Brain society of the past is fizzling out for many reasons, and we artistic, empathetic, whole-picture seers will be stepping forward to head businesses and help society evolve. Here's a smidge:


According to the latest research, IQ accounts for what portion of career success?

50-60 percent
35-45 percent
23-29 percent
15-20 percent



The answer: between 4 and 10 percent. (Confining oneself only to the answers presented is a symptom of excessive L-Directed (left-brain) Thinking).


Read the whole thing: A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink

Just a quick thought...why are government or corporate organizations so illogical? And why am I, as a human, assumed to be acting *irrational* when I get upset? Psh. I have contacted the court about a traffic ticket I received and let them know I have not received my driver records. I told them "the website says they mail it out within 14 days". "We can give you an extension of 10 days" the clerk on the phone says. "But, it says here they will mail it within 14 days, 10 days isn't enough time". "We can give you an extension of 10 days" she says. Well jeeze, thanks lady. That makes sense. I may not recieve it until 14 days from now, so will give me 10 days. How nice of you.

time is on my side, yes it is.

For some reason when MJ and I got home today it looked as though a giant monster made of wind came through our neighborhood and tore a bunch of shit up. there were leaves and branches and stuff everywhere and then in the drive way we saw GIANT HALE. i mean, it was small enough to hold like 10 of them in your hand, but that's big for hale. anyway and so now theres this eerie constant beeping noise going on outside in the creepy aftermath of this imaginary storm that we only have seen the results of. weird. and all this came on a day when I was already all freaked out about time. i am reading a book called "in praise of slowness" and it's basically about how, as we humans sped time up by fractionating it all to pieces and allotting them tasks, we have voluntarily sped ourselves up, we sped our lives up, and none of us like being all sped up but the system we have created and the system in which we live revolves around the whole concept we hold of time. so, weird day for sure. in a good way.


also, I paid my tuition for teacher training today! i am so happy that this is finally happening. me, a young and liberated yogini.

anarchy is dumb.

Been reading/learning a lot about society/politics/social theories and sciences, etc. I think most of it is crazy nonsense. I watched a video for the Philosophy class i took at El centro. it was talking about how in some countries children are the only ones in their families able to work, physically able. and so,there you have that situation but, if you say 'child labor', child labor! people in the west believe it is wrong. no one remembers that situation, if the child is the only person in a family able to work, and the child works, he is providing for his family. he is ensuring the survival of his family. and in that case, who am i to say that it is wrong. I have never been in that situation, but if I were 7 and my mother was ill, I would want to work to help her feed our family. if i were not allowed because of a law or something and we had no money for anything, that would be a much worse situation. So anyway - that's child labor, just an example. some things are easy to agree with on the surface, but if you look a little deeper sometimes you are surprised how little you understand about what it is you are agreeing with. I believe it's in my best interest to constantly be challenging ideas, and especially my own. so i also just went to half price and got a bunch of books. one of them is about "slowness". i am going to read it now.

blogging is awesome/fun and theraputic

This 4th of July rocks. i got to spend time w/ so many people i usually miss, like my little sister Haylee and my aunt Tammy and my grandma, who is one of the coolest ladys. she tells awesome stories, like, to where you really feel like youre there with her, about gorwing up in the 40's and 50's. i would like to write a book about her, and maybe about all those women, her crew. She has had a very interesting and beautiful life thus far.
Also, today, I ate a gross amount of cheese. cream cheese corn, potatoes w/cheese, jallapenos filled with cream cheese wrapped in bacon without the bacon (mike ate all the bacon). also a cheese sandwich. eww. a cheese sandwich. and cheetos. wow. it seems like way too much cheese now that i am writing it all down. Laura is going on a juice fast. I should copy her. I have a vegetable-stained Jack lalane juicer that works so-so. wish i could afford a vita-mix but they're a million dollars and who has a illion dollars to spend on a juicer.

Happy 4th of July 2009!!

4th

Today is the 4th of July and I am going to the GUN RANGE. Yesm, me, a big fat PACIFIST is going to play with something who's soul purpose is to put holes in things. what can I say? you gotta live outside of boxes, challenge yourself, challenge your beliefs. that's how people grow and evolve. Plus I understand guns way more now after having messed with one, shot one, taken one apart.

After the range with K.Bow we will go to my moms, cook out, swim. Later we're going to my grannys lakehouse to watch fireworks with the rest of the fam. I am lucky! So many people to love, so little time. I was up until 1am hanging out with my gramma and my mom last night talking about everything under the sun. We talked about our addictions, our pasts, our politics, being women, being in love. I love them so much.

Learning Things

I can not express in words the awesomeness of my life. I know I have been sad, and I know I have had my reasons and excuses to stay sad. But i realized today, and i should keep this in mind, that there is always a reason for everything, and if there's not a reason, you probably still learn something from pretty much everything that ever happens to you ever.

I have unquestionably found the love of my life. The One. The man with whom I want to share my life in its entirety. I don't care if my life isn't like a movie or a fairy tale. I don't care if I never win the lottery or even make a lot of money doing anything. I am so grateful for the things that are good, and especially for him. Have you ever felt completely isolated from other people? Or that no one in the world would ever understand you and that maybe there was no one you would ever understand? I have been feeling like that a lot, and have felt like that throughout the whole course of my life. But right now, as i sit here on this old torn up couch in this tiny living room, with my cat at my feet and my bear sleeping soundly in the room over there, I can feel nothing but love and gratitude and obligation to live my life, long and happy and content with the simple things; food, shelter and my familys love. This whole house, all my shit, everything could be taken away from me right now and I would still be glowing with appreciation for all that has been and all that will be. I am finally fucking learning how to love myself and let other poeple love me and its so amazing i almost don't feel like it's real. more like surreal. little glimpses of synchronicities are starting to happen again. i will think of a song and it will come on the radio. and not a shitty song either, like stevie wonder, or i will be thinking about someone immediately before they call me to say whats up. weird things. things that make it appear as though i am on the right track, or i am making the right choices. life is so strange. one day last week i thought i was going crazy, worried about my sanity, day dreaming about doing fucked up things like jumping out of the 5th sloor window at work, but even in my daydream i had a mini parachute , not like i could kill myself falling 5 floors, id probably fall into that pond thing by my building without the parachute but with i could excape and run away to a far away land where there is no chase bank or global warming or bad anything. just run away. that always seems like a great idea when theres a problem i cant figure out an answer to. but now, i mean, i am so completely in love and i have such awesome people in my life. so what if work isn't my dream job, i have a dream home. i have a dream life with a dream dog and a dream boyfriend but theyre real so that's even better! so thankful and rambling because im still not tired. why am i so on fire and gay for life all of a sudden? i think i was inspired by a series of seemingly unrelated events (that im not going to type about yet).

"Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all life really means." Robert Louis Stevenson.

p.s. MJ, if you are reading this, I have "Robert Loggia" stuck in my head.

Dissapointment.

This last week was sad. Judy died. She just went on vacation and didn't come back. I have sat next to Judy for the better part of the last five years. She taught me most of what I know about my job. She knew our processes backwardss and forwards, prompting another co worker of ours to lament her death, saying " you know what's really sad, we really could of used her here today, we're unbelieveably busy." I have to hold my toung constantly at work because of comments like that. Just ignor them. That was a fucked up thing to say, still.

Judy passed away on a wednesday on her way back to Dallas from Branson, MO. She had gone on a long planned family trip with her parents and sisters and brothers. She had been excited about it for months. On their way back through Arkansas, the driver drifted over into oncoming traffic. He and Judyr both died. When they told us at work on Thursday, they closed down our phone queue so we could all take in what had happened. They called in a grief counsuler. I went home. The whole situation had made me physically ill. At home, I cried and cried and cried until I had one of those crying headaches. My boss made me use sick time for the time I was home that day. That's just another reason I need a new job.

I miss Judy now. Every day at work is depressing. I know you are supposed to go on after mourning but it's just so surreal and unfair. I will never again see a 55 year old woman skipping around our office, or probably anywhere for that matter. I don't know anyone else who can saw and weld and build and fix like she could. And I didn't even know she had gone to flight stewardess school until her funeral. So many things I wish I could ask her and talk to her about. It's amazing how someone can become a fixture in your life like that and you don't even really realize how important they are to you until they are gone one day. Kind of makes you want to grab the people you love and make sure they know it. because you really never know when you won't be able to tell them anymore.

No Farms, No Food.

This is a repost from my other blog about why I want to homestead.



2.27.2009
No Farms, No Food. And here is why I care.
1) I can remember wanting to live on a farm often as a child. I romanticized old stories my granny told me about growing up when people still grew vegetables and any neighbors a person may have had were at least a mile away. 2) I never could understand why people didn't barter in 1994 like they did in 1794. 3) I can't tolerate the idea of factory farms, genetically modified food, or animal "science" as opposed to animal husbandry. 4) It has come to my attention that most of our so called "modern conveniences" are actually very much inconveniences for the rest of life on earth. 5) I do not feel that we are living the right way as a whole. 6) I love being outside and don't mind manual labor. 7) In fact, I actually prefer it.

So, farming and homesteading just seem to suit my personality. I admire small farmers and people who are striving towards the goal of self sufficiency. I believe it is a good, right honest way to make a living. Men and women who are providing fresh, wholesome food to their local communities are the kind of people I look up to. Not to mention, how refreshing it would feel to not have to work for a corporation who thinks of me as a disposable nine digit number.

Being self sufficient, relying on nothing but the land you live on and depending on no person but yourself, sounds like a dream come true. I feel as though what I do now on a daily basis is of offensive consequence and who really is happy in a situation like that? Who can force themselves to become contented? The food we eat has to come from somewhere. And what better place than your own back yard, where you can see what your growing, exactly how you are growing it, what goes into it, and know that you are providing for yourself, purely and directly.

I can't understand for sure what it means that I want to build a homestead and farm the land like some Appalachian pioneer. Am I totally nuts or something? Am I simply going through some fucked up phase or quarter-life crisis?
I mean, I am an adult. I can't just opt out of normal society, of popular culture, of TV and advertising and modern ways of keeping myself fed, can I? Do I really have any other choice than to work in a cubicle doing whatever it is? I have no clue where to even begin and can I even fully comprehend what such a lifestyle change would entail? Am I not as capable as the people who have done this before me? Am I not able to till soil and plant seeds and take care of chickens and make my own dinner and sew my own clothing? I think I am.

I understand that there are people in far away places who could mentor me or provide kinship and advice. I would like there to be some here in this city. That would be awesome.


The Buddha said "However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?"

Good question.

Will Amazon Natives Like My Tattoo?

I want to get this tattoo I've been talking about getting so bad. But also, I want to meet an indigenous tribe in the Amazon one day, before they're all gone. I have always wanted to travel over there and see how they live but what would they think of a phonograph sprouting flowers tattooed on my arm? I think I would probably just tell them that, in my culture, where I live it is a form of self expression to have something tattooed onto your body. In my case, a phonograph sprouting flowers is a way for me to pay tribute to myself for growing up and being happy despite everything I have been put through or have put myself through, both being quite a lot.

When I was a kid, I didn't have a lot of fancy toys. At 5, my favorite thing in the world was the radio. I've always had one around the house. My parents were very into Hair Metal of the Poison, Def Leopard, Guns and Roses variety. (At this time, my mom even has an Aerosmith tattoo. I wont tell you where.) I knew every single word to Paradise City by the time I was 3 years old. Some of my most prominent memories of being 1-6 years of age include bits and pieces of MTV, tapes my parents had and NKOTB. At the age of 10 I became obsessed with Mariah Carey and wanted so badly to be able to sing like her. I would spend all of my time in my bedroom singing into my pillow as loud as I could. At 11, I discovered the Smashing Pumpkins Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness, the album which eventually came to define the part of my life I had spent in Houston, TX.

At 12, moving to a different city took quite a toll on me. I had moved around so many times as a child. Every time I was in one place long enough to make a single friend, we were moving again. I had just gotten comfortable with myself there and so moving after 5 of the most stable years of my life up to that point, pretty much broke my heart. And no one knows more about Broken Hearts than Kurt Cobain. So, I slipped into a long love affair with Nirvana. I learned how to live being completely full of angst & confusion. I had found an outlet. Something for me to release things into.

From there, every phase of my life has seemed to have it's own soundtrack. I can't remember a party, a person, a situation, without also thinking of the band, or album, or concert surrounding it. Even my and Mike's first date was a Morrissey show at Will Rodgers. Music has been so interwoven into my life and has become so important to me that I want to get it permanently symbolized on my arm in a beautiful, pristine work of art. So, I hope that will be a good enough reason for those natives. And if anyone knows a good tattoo artist, call me. :)

Art Party

We get bored around these parts. While all the hipper kids are constantly getting belligerent at every bar within a 10 mile radius, and other not-so-friendly neighborhood dwellers stalk innocent shoppers at the gas station, begging for change, we decided to hole-up. So we had an art party. Bryan played music. Mike decorated the attic. Chris talked theory. We philosophised. I made a pea monster and a lamp shade.








Good times.

BONNAROO

Oh. My. God.

You have to check out this lineup.




Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Phish (2 shows) Beastie Boys Nine Inch Nails David Byrne Wilco Al Green Snoop Dogg Elvis Costello Solo Erykah Badu Paul Oakenfold Ben Harper and Relentless7 Jimmy Fallon The Mars Volta TV on the Radio Yeah Yeah Yeahs MGMT moe. Public Enemy Andrew Bird Band of Horses Gov't Mule Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Presents Bonnapoo 2009 Merle Haggard An Evening (or Afternoon) with the Daily Show featuring John Oliver, Rob Riggle & Rory Albanese The Decemberists Ani DiFranco Girl Talk Bon Iver Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate Rodrigo y Gabriela Galactic The Del McCoury band Michael Ian Black & Michael Showalter of Montreal Allen Toussaint Coheed & Cambria Booker T & the DBTs David Grisman Quintet Lucinda Williams Aziz Ansari Animal Collective Gomez Neko Case Jenny Lewis Amadou & Mariam Santigold Robert Earl Keen Shadows Fall Heartless Bastards Tony Rice Unit Citizen Cope Femi Kuti and the Positive Force High On Fire Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 Grace Potter and the Nocturnals Kristen Schaal Kaki King Grizzly Bear King Sunny Adé & the African Beats Okkervil River St. Vincent Zac Brown Band Passion Pit Raphael Saadiq Arj Barker The Dillinger Escape Plan Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Crystal Castles Tift Merritt Todd Barry Brett Dennen Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue Toubab Krewe Wailing Souls The Dirty Projectors People Under The Stairs Alejandro Escovedo The Itals Vieux Farka Touré Elvis Perkins in Dearland Cherryholmes Yeasayer Wayne Federman Todd Snider MURS Chairlift Portugal. The Man Nick Thune The SteelDrivers Midnite The Knux The Low Anthem Nick Kroll Delta Spirit A.A. Bondy White Rabbits The Lovell Sisters Alberta Cross Janelle Monáe Hockey Kurt Braunohler Amy Schumer Pretty Lights Kumail Nanjiani Pete Holmes Katzenjammer American Princes Belleville Outfit Ben Sollee Black Lillies BrakesBrakesBrakes Cotton Jones Dan Dyer Dear and the Headlights Dirty Guv'nahs Dirty Sweet Erin McCarley Everest Fiction Family Jedd Hughes Jerry Hannan Jessica Lea Mayfield Jets Overhead Joe Pug Julia Nunes Justin Townes Earle Ki: Theory Kuroma Madi Diaz Moonalice Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band MyNameIsJohnMichael The Nikhil Korula Band Outernational Phoenix Roger Alan Wade Russian Circles Sons of Bill The Features The Giraffes The Heavy Pets Those Darlins Tobacco Turbine Vertigo William Elliot Whitmore Zee Avi More Artists to Be Announced!

In the Mouth of a Desert

Sunday, I arrived back in Dallas from the beautiful mountainous landscape of a West Texas ghost town. The first thought I had when I saw the sky line of downtown was "I just want to turn around. I just want to turn around and go right back." The technology detox did mounds of good; No TV sucking away my attention from things that really matter, no Internet social network drama, no billboards yelling at me to buy things I don't really need and taking away from the awesome beauty of the sky. I was saturated with peace, quiet, good food and friendly faces. I slept under the stars. I drank beer with musicians around a campfire in the middle of nowhere. I washed my feet in a natural cold spring off a random desert road. I completely fell in love with the desert. And it's all I can do now to hold tight to the idea that I will be there again, someday very soon. And permanently. I'll be drinking cold drinks on a giant porch overlooking the mountains with some of the kindest and most genuine people I have ever met. I want to live that life so badly I can taste it and smell it and feel it like silt in between my toes. I have finally found my life's calling in the quiet heat of Terlingua, TX.

thank you Haylee for turning me onto this beautiful band

Okey dokey.
Three things.

1)I finally realize how getting older isn't as bad as it seemed even a year ago. I don't mind growing up.

2)I agree about psychedelic drugs, but not all drugs are productive (i.e. think anything man made)

3)I <3 this band. I wish they were my friends. They're only a year older than me. That makes me want to start a band.

Today is not the greatest day...

My dog Occy threw up blood all night and then again all day today. We took er to the vet this morning who said she simply ate too much. It seems as if I have seen dogs eat quite a bit and have never once seen it take such a toll. I suppose I should trust the man who went to veterinary school as opposed to my intuition, right?

Occy is doing well now comparatively.And Corgan thinks the whole thing is lame because no one will play with him.

In other news I am having a garage sale this coming Saturday from 6AM - 2PM or so. Should be great. Try and not be too jealous.

Goodbye, basic human rights.

If this bill gets passed I will be moving out of the country.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875




** Update. I can not subscribe to the idea that if this bill gets passed I will move out of the country. After attempting to read the monstrous thing, I see that this bill is extremely vague, which makes it hard to say anything about it really. Why it's so vague I do not quite understand but that leaves plenty of room to take a section and run with it and that is never good. In any case, If I do move to another country it will probably first be Canada.

Frankly, Mr. President, I am dissapointed in you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/question-for-obama-how-ab_b_179272.html


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-sweeney/taking-the-pro-pot-positi_b_179653.html


For anyone who thinks that there's anything wrong with smoking pot, try living with an alcoholic. (Alcohol, now there's a life-wrecker. And that's perfectly legal for consumption by masses.)
Try having cancer, glaucoma, lung problems, stress, anxiety and having to take pills with terrifying side effects. Try 20 million people have been arrested for a marijuana related charge...mostly for simple possession.


Try science instead of politics, for a change.

Thank you MBV or Dallas Is Lucky

We should all be appreciative of this:

My Bloody Valentine has booked only FIVE U.S. tour dates and guess where one of them is????

DALLAS, TX!

I need tickets! Josh (Venable) was apparently giving them away all LAST week and I had no idea until today. So I emailed him and begged him for a ticket. The last time I emailed Josh Venable, I asked him to be my junior prom date. He said no because he couldn't bring his girlfriend. So, if that little begging doesn't do the trick, please, god, someone give me a ticket. Please. Otherwise I guess I'll just have to shell out the $50 that I technically do not have. This show will not be missed by me. I so <3 this band.




***Update - This was the loudest show I have ever seen. Ever. Also, very very awesome. But loud. the bartender said they had ebnough ampage to play Nokia, all right there in that little ballroom. Good job, guys.

Hamlet 2

Mike and I just watched this brilliant gem of a film last night. I noticed the "little drama critic" wearing a T-shirt that read "Donald Judd" and under that MARFA.

Donald Judd spent a lot of his life in Marfa after renting a house there in the early 70's. He had fallen in love with the desert landscape (I can relate). That whole region down there is just magical. There really is no other place so beautiful.
This is taken from Wikipedia:
He displayed two pieces in the seminal 1966 exhibit, "Primary Structures" at the Jewish Museum in New York where, during a panel discussion of the work, he challenged Mark di Suvero's assertion that real artists make their own art. He replied that methods should not matter as long as the results create art; a groundbreaking concept in the accepted creation process.

So, really, the fact that this shirt popped up in this movie seems like no random coincidence. I mean, that's basically what the film was saying. Who needs talent when you have enthusiasm?! So, if you're ever in the mood to be inspired and laugh your ass of all at once, I'd recommend Hamlet 2.

Fashion!

A homemade jacket covered in band patches and anarchy symbols used to be a way of saying "eff you!" to the Man. Now you can buy one for $3,000 at the Galleria, pre-ripped and patched up FOR YOU. Funny how anti-fashion has become the new fashion. It's trendy to look like someone who doesn't follow trends? You can't even tell who's really a rebel anymore these days because it's become so trendy to dress like Mick Jagger circa '68 plus a lumberjack beard. Kids are shopping at Forever 21 and then whining about sweatshop labor. Hmm. What does that mean? Are you a fundamental part of the counter-culture... or do you just appear to be? You should never judge a book by it's cover, that's for damn sure.





For more information on Forever 21 being crappy, see the below Huffington Post blog, or just google it. :)


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-black/boycott-forever-21_b_147973.html

never ending love equation

Music is what has saved me so many times from freaking out and leaving town/jumping off a building/losing my mind/etc, etc...

This band, this beautiful beautiful band, Modest Mouse, is one of my all time favorite bands ever. I'd like to recognize Isaac and the rest of them for the years and years of genius songwriting that they have so graciously shared with the rest of us.

weekend

I can't believe a regular normal working person only gets two full days off per week! It's insane! Really, for every day you don't work, you work two. So, one third of your time is free time while the other two thirds goes to work. It's not at all balanced. Even if we had a three day weekend it wouldn't be balanced. How can a company report to care about the work/life balance of it's employees when it isn't even balanced on the most basic level which would be time-wise, right? The times aren't even even. I took Friday off work and it's already Saturday night. I feel like I need a three day weekend every week to not go crazy from working. So....

I have decided to go into business with myself. We (I) will be making: prints of my fine photography, skirts, cupcakes, decoupage vintage diner ware, music, etc...maybe even some salsa once the babies grow up. I'm tired of the Man having such a tight hold on my free time without paying me adequately, so this seemed to be an appropriate reaction.

Lets see, what else is new. Oh yeah! I didn't get to go back to my sisters party last night because no one would take me. My friends are all old and lame now. I thought about throwing her a second party so that I could attend, but that should wait until there's better weather. I miss parties like that. Where your friends are still your friends and still live close enough to come to your birthday party. I am so thankful that I live so close to Haylee Jo. We need to hang out more.

Well...today was supposed to be "drunk by noon and acting like a douche bag" day AKA St. Patricks Day celebration day, because the actual holiday is during the week (how boring). St. Patricks day is notoriously shitty so we're holing up. I have a whole floor full of musical equipment and all night and day with no obligations.

no title for you, blog.

Today I took photographs of random things.










urrg. I can't wait to go to Terlingua with Jess and MJ. Can't wait!! Can't wait!!

This thang don't work.

I can't get the fiddle to make noise!! (I got the violin in the mail today) I must be totally retarded or something. Everyone at work today kept telling me to play something, but all I could do was laugh and say "heh, ohhh". Also, I have been realizing more and more lately how weird people think I am. My mom told me that my uncle said he would like to spend a day in my world because it must be similar to some sort of acid trip. At first I laughed but then I realized that, hey, everyone thinks I'm weird. That kind of sucks. I mean, one one hand it make it's difficult to feel like I can even relate to anyone I know or don't know for that matter, or if I am the only one who thinks they type of thoughts I think and feels the type of feelings I feel. It's sort of an isolation-type feeling. But on the other hand it's exciting to know that I, for some reason, cause people to pause and think about things that they would normally never think to think about :)

Now, I am going to go take a picture of my refrigerator. The inside and the outside. You can learn a lot about a person from the looks and contents of their refrigerator.

Whazam!

Guess what?

I ordered my first fiddle!!!

I got it from an online company, the instrument, the rosin, and a carrying case for the superb price of $32!
I have been thinking about this for a long time, and although I wanted to continue on my instrument learning journey with a dulcimer, I really, really want to learn how to play Four Winds and this is the perfect thing to get me going.

Love, love, love.

Just sayin'...

Dumbest invention ever: Canned Air.

Seriously?

Anyone else feel me on this one?

Cabalistic things bands get into.

Everyone knows that Led Zeppelin was really into the occult.
And Conor Oberst wrote an entire album after visiting the psychic-populated town of Cassadaga, FL.

But have you ever heard of a band becoming so into a ouija board that it actually became an obsession that eventually wreaked havok on their band and tour and upcoming album ("that did not want to be born")? That's exactly what happened to the Mars Volta after Cedric found an old talking board in a random curio shop in Jerusalem. Those boys never cease to amaze me. Read on children...at your own risk. Mwahahahaha!

http://www.musicemissions.com/artists/Mars+Volta#biography

Oh, friends.

I miss this. I love these girls.

Thankful for Mike.

Let me tell you, kids. I am one lucky lady. I have somehow, some way, managed to find an honest, hardworking, intelligent man to bare witness to my life. Somehow, some way in the mess of personalities that converge to make up the thriving metropolis that we call Dallas, Texas, I finally managed to find a man who makes me laugh consistently, treats me with utter respect daily, tells me sweet things softly and gives me back scratches to help me fall asleep. I'm not trying to brag, I just believe in giving credit where credit is due. And since I've starting blurting out my whole life on this darned blog, why not continue on about the greatest person ever? (Mike. duh)

I knew another man like that once. His name was Jack and he was the greatest Paw-paw anybody could ever ask for. He took care of me when no other man in my life would take on the responsibility of a wild little red-headed girl with crazy ideas and a knack for getting herself into trouble. Once, he let me mow his lawn (I thought I was cool using a lawn mower at 10) and as payment he made me a hand fan out of a Popsicle stick and 30 $1 bills. I had a weird obsession with fans at that age (shut up, we all had our thing). He drove this old, red Ford pickup truck around town and probably wore out tapes of Hank Williams and Roy Rogers in the tape deck. In over 30 some odd years of work, he never missed a day. Not once. He used his life savings to bail out members of my family, more than once. And he made the afternoon walking around in the park with a metal detector seem like a lifetime of adventure. He was the rock in our family for everyone to lean on and I never heard him complain about anything. Ever.
He made me feel loved, and safe, and comfortable. Well, he made everybody feel that way.

That type of character is hard to come by these days. Seems most men think they can impress the pants off of you with an asymmetrical black mullet and some sleeved up arms. They will try and coax you out of your comfy bedroom with Puerto Rican rum and house parties and schmoozy compliments. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of everyday life, the type of man I really want sticking around is the one that's as decent a man as my paw-paw (and those kind are NOT easy to find). I want a Mike Lunos who wears khakis and polo's everyday and yet has a better music collection than any uncomfortably tight-pants wearing hipster kid with an mountain-man beard. I mean, it puts my entire lifetime of a collection to shame. Why go for the shiny plastic dishware from Target when your grandma's old china is classic! Also, of better quality, and feels more homey and will never melt into something different when you put it in the washer.(if you even have a dishwasher, which I do not) And will more than likely last much longer anyhow. I'm just sayin'. It's the substance, ladies. The substance. Or maybe I am just biased because I think Mike is so dreamy. *sigh*

I think we should all be looking for quality when it comes to the people we give our time to. Also, there's no shortage of good people to befriend. Once you realize how awesome it is to live your life more and more outside of the work-to-couch-to-bed-to work pattern, and try to duck some of the pop-culture throwing itself in your face at every corner, you find all sorts of other fun things (and people) to get into. For example, before I realized how amazing MJ was, I always thought my "type" was a shaggy haired rock and roller with a sad disposition who could play the Pumpkins on guitar. Now that idea seems so generic to me that I just used it as a cliché in a blog. So, what I'm trying to say is that trying new things is important, but more so that I am so very in love with Michael. But I guess that's obvious by now.






P.S. Does anyone else ever feel like Doogie Howser writing in this thing every day?

Moooove over, grain-fed beef!

I am a strong believer in "voting with your paycheck".

By that I mean what you purchase with your money directly keeps certain business, and in effect, those business's practices, going.
For example, if you go to the supermarket and buy a package of grain-fed beef, you are purchasing beef that was fed corn.
Your money is then directly funding factory farmed, corn-fed beef.

Now, corn makes cows sick.
Cows were designed to eat grass. Their four stomachs are superbly able to digest grass and turn it into everything their bodies need. Very few animals can exist on grazing grass. A cow is one of them. Feeding a cow corn feed for it's life is like like feeding a human nothing but corn syrup colored with yellow # 5, all day, every day, for the life of that person. It's not natural, and it doesn't provide all the nutrients that the cow needs.
In fact, the corn is so bad for the cows digestive system that it actually causes liver abscesses, which is why cows are fed antibiotics like candy in factory farms. They need the antibiotics to survive because the food they are given is so harmful to their digestive system. Then, in the factory after slaughter the meat is pressure washed with detergents because it's so dirty, and then it's radiated to kill any e. Coli leftover from the wash. Then, that meat is ground up, slopped into a Styrofoam container and shipped to your local supermarket for consumption by - you guessed it - you and your family.


I know this is disturbing. But knowledge is power and there is something you can do about it. :) Vote with your dollars and buy grass-fed, free range beef. Those cows are much healthier, happier animals than factory farmed cattle.
I'm a vegetarian, but I hear they taste better, too. Now wouldn't you feel better knowing you're eating a happy, healthy cow?

I'm all growed up!

I brought up my credit score! jeeze that took forever, but hey! I made a plan, followed through, and now I'm better for it! Woot! It feels good taking care of things. It feels good not having debt.


Here's some pictures of the beautiful day we had today.



Coffee.



Corgi!



Alley cat!



Red head. (that would be me.)



Day.

I LOVE alphabet magnets

This is what we did last night.

You CAN handle the truth!

My favorite web page and daily morning ritual - The Daily Grail

If you've ever wondered why on Earth the massive amounts of UFO sightings that happen daily are never in the news, or why you hadn't heard about that lost civilization being rediscovered, it's because mainstream news organizations have decided that you don't need to know that information. They would rather focus on more mainstream topics that don't question the status quo and don't cause you to really think about your belief system. Here are some example headlines you may run across on your journey through the Grail:

New artificial DNA points to alien life.

Have DMT’s shamanistic qualities been demystified?

UK public learns nuclear power station near London has been leaking radioactive material for 14 years.

Cows with names produce more milk.

Turritopsis nutricula, the world's only known immortal creature, is silently invading oceans, swarm by swarm.

Now you can get SMART with The Daily Grail! Covering new discoveries in science, life, and consciousness.

Enjoy!

www.TheDailyGrail.com

Optimistic (Sick of road ragers.)

Hello friend! Or possible friend or at least someone who would be friendly to me in the case of any interaction or whoever you happen to be, there, reading this blog that I am about to write or, in your case, have already written.

I have been eating candy and chocolate and Bailey's ice cream all day. I have been off work since Thursday and we've (Mike and I) just been celebrating. Sleeping in late, listening to music and dancing and laughing and cooking and eating all this awesome food. It's been just like a holiday but for some reason we haven't called it a holiday. To me vacation has a connotation of going somewhere to do nothing or to relax. Holidays include fun activities and can even take place in your own home in between your favorite TV shows ('cause I know how much you kids love your tv sets)! Obviously, we should all be taking "holidays"! Maybe then people would chill a little. So much time is wasted by being pissed off about something or another or worried about a stream of interchangeable problems that never cease, when there are so many things that can make a person happy in a second. For example: The fact that you have running water and a cabinet stocked with food, something the other two thirds of the worlds population does not have. Go take a bubble bath in the middle of the afternoon. Insta-happiness! Listen to good music, dance randomly like an idiot and not care, eat chocolate cake and feel sexy about it, make some yummy coffee (grind the beans yourself), watch hilarious movies with your best friends- who wouldn't immediately feel awesome? How would you like an empty afternoon and a big yummy bowl of whatever you like bowls of? You got it. It's the simple things in life that make every day worth slowing down for, you know? So, go take a holiday and do a bunch of stuff that feels good and makes you happy. It's fun! And you probably deserve it.

February 14th has at least one redeemable quality.

For the record, I can't stand Valentines Day. It's dumb. Usually the only cool thing about this day is that it gives people an excuse to have fun parties, but this year it gets a little more interesting.

http://www.realitysandwich.com/aquarian_valentine


(I <3 RealitySandwich.com)

swoon!!!

I LOVE THIS BAND!
They just won a Grammy for Wax Simulacra which is genius.






Dear Omar and Cedric,

Please come to Dallas and hang out with me.

Fondly,
Anonymouse

fake blog.

This is not a real blog.

Things That Are Awesome Part I

Fabulous!



This is a nasty habit.



When's the last time you visited your local library?



"Oh Dallas, you shine with an evil light. (And why am I drawn to you tonight?)"



greatest feeling in the world.



Q-tip and Common

not american tv...

This song follows me everywhere.

Black Mirror

The Burlesque show was a bust (no pun intended). It would have been more aptly named the "Dallas Burl-ish Festival" or perhaps the "Dallas Burl-ing Festival"? Either way it was kinda disappointing. It was so far from what I thought Burlesque was supposed to be. The first thing we saw when we walked into the Texas Theatre was a group of girls taking turns dancing on a pole. Is that femenism? I can't tell.
One group appeared to be a hip-hop video back up dancer drill team type of thing. Those chicks were pretty scary. Also, the models were totally gay for themselves.
I was really expecting slapstick humor and a chorus of barely-dressed ladies doing the can-can but that was totally not what happened. So I guess the short-and-sweet of it is that I didn't stay the whole time, but I'm glad I went.

Also, Big J (Dallas's own!) hosted this thing. I would like to personally thank him for saying that " man, all yall lookin’ so purdy tonight, man, we got some purdy ladies in here tonight". I took that as a personal compliment and left with a way bigger ego than I should actually like to have.

a humorous and provocative stage show featuring slapstick humor, comic skits, bawdy songs, striptease acts, and a scantily clad female chorus.

I think I am going to a burlesque show tonight for Ellena's birthday. When she told me that's what she wanted to do I said "cool! Do we get to dress up?!" Unfortunately however, this is not the sort of burlesque show that audience members get to participate in. We just get to be tricked into drinking a lot of expensive beer! Yea!

Make ART

Today is gray and quiet except for the crazy, flapping wind. It's a good day for Bowie and Iggy Pop and making those posters I've been thinking about.

MAKE STUFF = FEEL HAPPY!

Dreaming is weird.

Creepiest dreams ever! I woke up this morning remembering running frantically all over a creepy asymmetrical mansion with red carpet owned by a creepy rich couple. Michael was there, but the zombies weren't after him! I tried to jump out the window but there was a flood or something outside so it was just this sea of traffic signs and random people floating away into the distance.



I never remember that I can actually control my dreams while I am having dreams like that. Recently, I dreamed that I was in my moms house with Randall and I was packing to move out. I randomly looked down and I had seven strange fingers on my right hand, which indicated to me that I was in fact dreaming. So I then proceeded to fly out the window because that's one of the most awesomely liberating things to do in a dream. But I can't ever do it when I'm terrified. Maybe that's the problem. I have to be unafraid.



When I was actually pursuing lucid dreaming on a nightly basis, I dreamt that I was with some friends in the woods and we were about to be captured by some tribe of kids who worked there (in the middle of the woods) and one of them was Brandon, a kid I met in college. I convinced him to not hold us captive by realizing that it was just a dream, and convincing Brandon that we were in his dream and that there was surely something else he would rather be doing. He flew away and I was grateful to have been in Brandon's dream. When I woke up, of course I realized that I was in my own dream all along, and I could have just made it into a different dream. So frustrating.



It's difficult for a person like me to keep a dream journal. I start things and never finish them all the time, I love procrastinating, and in the morning, when I first wake up, I'm usually thinking about peeing, drinking water, or some other basic human need. Rarely have I ever woken up, kept perfectly still and rehashed every single thing I could possibly remember out of a dream only to then tried and write it all down really fast before the whole thing totally left my memory. It seems unnatural but I guess that is because in our culture people don't take their dreams as seriously as they do on the other side of the world.

In some cultures, the first thing they do when they wake up is share their dreams with their village. Everyone participates. And from those dreams, they collectively have a blueprint of weather or not they should travel, if they should go hunting, if they would have visitors or if a storm was coming. Here, I tell my mom I had a dream about a giant purple fork trying to make friends with me and to to her and probably to me, I'm just weird and it means nothing. I wonder how many profound messages I have totally missed because I decided to blow it off instead of looking for a deeper meaning.

I guess that I missed you.

Three things.

One! I am kind of drunk for the first time in an extremely long time. I am AWESOME!

Two: Michael Phelps, I guess that I am proud of you, and I am sorry that cereal company dissed you.

Three: The people who make up the senate are all creepy in their own little way. I wish they made decisions quicker and better.

The FIRST blog!
Again, I would just like to reiterate that I am in fact awesome.