Monday, June 28, 2004
just another picture
I found another image from the Forgotten Opera! I think this one is pretty cute.  Yeah. This was actually a very active weekend for me, hung out with Lauren and CiCi on Friday and then again for Pride. I saw part of the Pride parade, went shopping and almost bought a cute purple jacket (except it clashed with denim?!? yeesh) and then hit the Pride street party with Lauren... It was very crowded and not much actually was going on, besides people groping at each other. We decided to hit the Asian Art Museum instead. I had been there before, but it was still very cool to be there again, and the current Geisha exhibit was definitely worth a look. Hopefully this week will finally be back to "normal".
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
It's finally time for the long-winded version of this weekend! Friday I got my hair bleached and silvered by Kennedy, and then had an awesome dinner in the Castro with Lauren and CiCi. Lauren's visiting from Maui and thinking about moving back to the Bay area. Yay! Then I rushed home to finish costuming. I was up until 4:30 am Friday night, trying to finish the unicorn costume. "It's almost done, the rest is easy..." I kept telling myself, which is why I hadn't gotten things finished. Eventually I got everything done, grabbed a couple hours of sleep, and headed over to the city to take pictures with Lauren and CiCi. Lauren's never taken my picture before... she just got a new camera and this was a great opportunity to test it out. Lauren is amazing. I like this costume anyway, but seeing pictures... whoa. CiCi led us to Golden Gate Park and also the Palace of Fine Arts, setting the mood and organzing the poses. She was awesome. At one point, she started telling me a story to help me get in character. So yeah, Lauren and CiCi make an awesome team. I went home to touch up the paint on the horn and grab a nap before the Forgotten Opera Saturday night. I had originally wanted to have dinner, but I sacrificed a fancy dinner for sleep. I was so sleep-deprived that the hour nap only seemed to exacerbate my confusion about what time it was... I got to Nessie and Laura's house and started getting ready. Laura started snapping pictures, which I'm re-posting here in order to save myself from using Ofoto.com *grumble* 
zombie makeup
Attaching the horn. This thing fell off once, then felt loose when I re-applied... It was all very frustrating, since the spirit gum worked very well for the photo shoot. In the end, I resolved to use super glue if the horn came off again. It didn't come off again, and my skin thanks it.
Friday the Kitty!
Laura. Laura's outfit was a really neat Gothic Lolita dress. I we had a picture of the white stockings, too! And sadly, we never got pictures of Nessie's outfit and mask, either. After we arrived and the horn actually stayed attached, we got to look around. The place was visually very spectacular. The Regency Center was once a Masonic lodge, and the rooms were very theatrical and ornate. The sets from the San Francisco Opera's summer season were set up throughout the rooms. The main floor had a Cinderella castle on stage, with working fountains, garden benches, and bushes on the dance floor. There were also super-neat statues peering over the balcony. Upstairs was a more intimate red room with an Inferno theme (but the DJ was kinda cheesy). The people were also really neat... Tons of interesting costumes (AJ pointed out several that were inspired by Chinese Opera) and people were generally very friendly and having fun. 
Sexay Farmer Tan!
Lime Gothic Lolita AJ and me
Other revelers
The event had a couple of organizational issues... Kennedy had gotten us onto the VIP list, but the organizers had booched on setting up a VIP room. Also, the hedge maze (which had been the most eagerly-anticipated attraction for Nessie and me) was shut down by the police. Makes sense: if the building catches fire, there was no easy way out. Oops.
At about 1 am, they stopped all the revelry for a quick performance by two opera singers. They both were great singers, and it must be nice to get such enthusiastic applause during an opera performance. I'd imagine that more civilized opera audiences are a bit more restrained in their applause. In any case, the second performer was (again) plagued by sound and technical issues while he was performing a unique opera-with-techno song.
AJ and I watch the performanceWe headed out shortly afterwards, and I stopped by Nessie and Laura's just long enough to de-horn before driving home, crawling into bed, and staying there for most of the rest of the day. The most important part of the whole experience was this: I got to spend my birthday dressed up as a unicorn, with my friends who were also dressed up, in a fun enviroment with a lot of cool people who were -all- also dressed up... Well... That and I had Haagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream on my birthday, too. That was neat. I'm doing a major website update. Hopefully I'll have it all neatened up soon, but for now, at least take a look at the unicorn pictures from Lauren and CiCi, as if you hadn't had enough of it already!
Sunday, June 20, 2004
it's my birthday
Ok, so I just got home from the Forgotten Opera, and there's a lot to write but it's 3 am. Here's the quick summary: Happy Birthday to me, I had fun, and here are some pictures since I know Mochi can't possibly wait another minute. Hopefully I get the full set of pictures soon and be able to add a full-fledged costume page! 
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
doom, doom, doom
10pm. Building "quiet hours" begin, at least according to our lease. 10:01pm. Music -blares- from directly downstairs, where some new tenants have just moved in. Partygoers pace up and down the third floor. I seethe. I'm afraid to go talk to these new people, based on nothing except that it sounds like they play similar music to the nasty violent people I've been having trouble with for a year. -Please- don't make this start all over again. Please. I call the landlord. No response, as fucking usual. 10:15pm. I decide to sleep in the sauna, where I can't hear the music. I used it earlier tonight, and it's hot in there, but quiet. I don't normally go to bed this early, but I am pissed off and can't do any work or relaxing anyway. 10:30pm. Co-worker Marty calls. We both want to take tomorrow off of work. I offer to go in tonight and do tomorrow's work so that we can both take Wednesday off. Beats sleeping in the sauna. I seethe some more. 11pm. Breaking point. I pick up a giant heavy pot, previously home to a kumquat tree, and pound it deliberately against the floor three heavy times. The music stops immediately. 11:02pm. Knock, knock, knock. The two new guys from downstairs introduce themselves. They apologize, I apologize. They were celebrating their birthdays... They invited me to come down to join them. Of course I feel extra bad because I am also celebrating my birthday soon. Both of them were very rational and reasonable and I felt like an asshole for allowing my experiences of the past year to let me get too angry too quickly with these new people. I think I'll write a little note in the morning, just apologizing again, thanking them for being reasonable, and explaining that I work some night shifts, etc., etc.... Wow, reading this post again, I have a high frequency of impolite words, at least for me. And wouldn't you know it, I hurt my wrist from slamming that pot into the floor.
Monday, June 14, 2004
ribbons and sparkles and fur
I spent most of the weekend sewing. I am a bit stressed out-- there are 10 pieces to this costume and I only have 3 of them done. Luckily, they are the three big pieces: shirt, pants, and mask. Everything else is just decoration, although the decorations are pretty important too. If you are going to the Forgotten Opera party that I've been excited about for weeks, please let me know! I am trying to coordinate Saturday (with the two brain cells that are not currently devoted to figuring out how to construct a belt that has a tail and a built-in wallet)... One-track mind....
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
unicorns optional
Back. Ok, I am back in town after an amazing weekend. I'm going to try to (ha!) make this as concise as possible, distilling all the good stuff into a potent mixture that you can then digest at your own rate... just add water. Like frozen concentrate or something. I left Friday morning, taking the BART to the airport. I was behind schedule, and then really behind schedule, and barely made my plane. The plane was cramped, and the lady in front of me insisted on leaning as far back as possible and then getting frustrated and trying to convey annoyance with her floppy blond hair. News to Floppy Lady: if you are going to try that with with someone who is 6'5, you are going to get a spine full of knees. I have nowhere else to go, and I don't have any more shrinking mushrooms. That was all forgotten, though, the moment I saw Karen at the airport in Rochester. We caught up on old times, grabbed my checked backpack, and gathered some Family Style Tofu (my favorite) from a decent nearby Chinese place. I ate it at her house and washed it down with some strawberry rhubarb cobbler and some political griping with Karen's awesome husband, Dave. I'll save you the content of that discussion, since most of you already know how frickin' liberal I am. The next day was really fun too. Apple-Walnut-Cinnamon pancakes in the morning (yum!), and a relaxing day to try to compensate for my 2 nights with almost no sleep, plus jet lag. I learned the joys of Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, which is especially joyful with Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream. Nummy. That night, I took Karen and Dave out for Vietnamese/Thai food (and learned that I really enjoy warm soymilk with my Phat Nutty) and then we saw the next Harry Potter movie. It was an early night because Sunday was the wedding..... When I was in school, I lived in a castle with about 200 hundred good friends. Risley was the first time that I ever seriously encountered creativity, and this experience eventually dislodged my notion that I could only ever be "valid" by pursuing astrophysics. On Sunday, two close friends from school held their wedding there. It was an incredible opportunity to re-connect with people that I had neglected or even forgotten about, many of whom are growing and doing amazing things in their lives. Getting to spend time with all these people again was awesome. Every time I saw Sharon, the bride, I just wanted to steal her away and talk for hours. Sharon is brilliant, creative, wise, and we had some of the best and most interesting conversations of my time in college. Every time we made eye contact, it could feel, "we really need to sit down and Talk...." but being the bride made her obliged to about 5000 other guests. Sharon has always had a very sophisticated look, but in her dress (a beautiful custom-designed piece that incorporated parts of her mother's dress), Sharon seemed like an empress. The ceremony was touching. Karen was generous enough to let me stay for the after-party (we still had a long drive home, and Karen was working in the morning!), and after the ceremony and photographs we wandered around campus a bit. We stopped by Stella's for one of my favorite Ithaca treats: a Midnight Silk Mocha. I hadn't had one in 6 years. I need an espresso machine. At the after party (after a little adventure in a serpentine commercial park), I finally got to have some of the conversations I had been hungering for. Sharon and I got to talk about our times spend in China, which we had needed to do for years. I reconnected with several really awesome Risley people. I even had a few minutes to talk with Sharon's Mom, and in those minutes I remembered that we used to have very great, very intense conversations together, too. So now I am committing myself to stay back in touch. Karen drove me to the airport the next morning, loading me down with goodies and the hopes that she will visit San Francisco soon. Goodbyes are so tough, especially when the trip was so short. I just need to keep working on coaxing her and her husband to move out her permanently. Seriously though, I am grateful for the time we had together. On the ride home, I was seated next to a young family with two small children. My first reaction was, "oh great, screaming children! I hate planes..." but the experience proved me wrong. I had a really fun time connecting with the mother, and her almost-one-year-old daughter Lily was very smart, inquisitive, and charming. Maddie, who is 3, drew a lot of pictures and even drew a portait of me (which I will scan and post soon, hopefully!). Both girls were very sweet, and I had a great time getting to know their Mom (in between diaper changings, feeding, and lots of playtime!). There was only one little bit of crying near the end of the flight, too. I don't know many young parents, but this family really seemed to be happy and doing very well for their children. In other news, the unicorn horn mold was successful, so in a couple days I will try actually casting the horn. I need about 50 of these snaps, so I'll be making a tour of every fabric store in creation very soon. Like, tomorrow. And in the best news, I heard from the landlord that the scary/dumb/inconsiderate/violent people who live downstairs have been asked to leave and have agreed to be gone within the next few weeks. Huttah! As a closing for this novel, tonight is my last class of the season with Terry Sendgraff. It's been a great class... I need to try to find a thank you card before tonight!
Thursday, June 03, 2004
out of control
Hee hee hee twiddle twiddle! (Trust me, you may never again see a blog entry that opens that way, so go back and bask in it while you can....) I have just finished building a mold of my unicorn horn. I made the horn itself out of Sculpey one night/early morning while I was at work, and after a visit to Judy in San Jose and TAP Plastics in El Cerrito, well... I just made my first attempt at making a mold. I am going to be really cranky if it doesn't work, because this one is so beautiful, both the shape of the horn itself and the mold... It's all inside a clear plastic tube with this translucent amber-colored rubber forming the mold on the inside. Near the bottom, you can see white reflections of the spiral shape of the horn, and it's all on a wooden base. It's so pretty I almost don't want to move on to the next step. Speaking of next steps... I have -no idea- how long to let the horn sit in there before I start prying everything apart to get the Sculpey horn out of there. It's either gotta be today or 5 days from now... so... *help?* In other glorious news, I saw my landlord in the parking lot today (as I was coming home from my night shift at 10am), and the inconsiderate tenant was parked there again. Yay! Not only did he see it firsthand, but I also got to ask him in person for a new parking spot, which I got!! Now I'm in a covered space (no more parking my car -underneath- a birdie outhouse, that was the yuck) and all the illegal parking in the world can't keep me from my own car. So... hopefully the landlord will follow up on the other parts of the letter, but at least I -finally- don't have to worry about getting to my car any more. Yay. Ok, I have a lot to do this afternoon. If your name is Therin, please stop reading this blog and call me-- I still don't know if you need a ride to tonight's adventure.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
TMI TMI TMI TMI
If you aren't big on medical/athletics/body TMI, then skip the next paragraph. - - -When in crud's name did I lose 16 lbs?!? Let me rephrase that: at -least- 16 lbs. Did someone chop off a foot I don't know about? I remember being all disgruntled the last time I weighed myself, so admittedly it's been a while. And maybe in that time I exercised, so I lost some weight... but yeesh. And if I lost so much poundage, -where- exactly did I lose it from? If someone had told me, "Congratulations Tony, you've just lost 16 lbs!!" I would expect to look in mirror and see jet-pak abs, each with an individual carbonadium thruster. But no, I feel like I look almost exactly the same, which probably says a lot about my self-image and about losing weight over time. And finally in conclusion, I can only do 2 pull ups at the moment, down from 4 a couple months ago, but considering that I did two today and I am still trying to be very sensitive about my possibly injured tendon, I am actually doing pretty good. Ok, I am very pleased. I hope that someone sees me in my stretchy unicorn costume and says, "Why Tony, you look so trim and svelte!" Ahem. - - -Ok all you body-shy people can start reading again. My unicorn costume still needs making. Any volunteers?? I am serious. If you can't sew, I could also find menial household tasks for you. Act now and you'll also receive the rare opportunity to cook my dinner and help me organize my paperwork. :-P In other news, Bill Cosby seems to be at the center of a controversy. Oh yay. Margaret Cho vs. Bill Cosby. I will say that I listened to the audio clip, and it clears up a lot of the controversy that comes from seeing the quotes out of context and in print. And while I will say that our society as a whole should value education more, paying teachers a wage that shows respect for their time and effort and the future of our children, it's also very effective for families to teach their children the value of education starting in the home. I know that not every child was as lucky as I was, but I think part of my success as a student comes from the efforts of my parents when I was very very young, teaching me with magnetic letters and simple math, and supporting me all through high school and even college. Every person needs to learn reading and critical thinking skills, at a minimum. I feel like the current system is designed to simply produce unthinking, easily controlled laborers, and I think the high dropout rate is evidence that many students already realize that the system is not helping them. In any case, maybe the publicity and controversy over Bill Cosby's speech will actually help motivate change. Even before I heard about it, I was thinking it might be worthwhile to volunteer as a math tutor at a local school. But I don't know if I am ready to face the reality of seeing and working with those schools and those students. Which is probably what keeps a lot of people from thinking about the problems in public education for too long.... because if you don't look at the problem it doesn't really exist. Right? And don't even get me started on that idiot in charge and his "education policies" and stuff.... Crikey. This was such a good post when I started. What happen? Somebody set up us the bomb.
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