Year End

Happy Thursday! It's the very last one of 2010, now isn't that special. Of course it is, all Thursdays are special.

Today's was a lazy wintry type Thursday. Sleeping in and mailing stuff and watching anime and playing video games. I'm still so sleeeeeepy.

Christmas was pretty darn awesome. I baked two pumpkin pies and a batch of pumpkin cookies. I'm good on pumpkin goods for about a year or so. And is it just me, or is Thanksgiving food and Christmas food pretty much the same stuff? Although, this time we made this Germany-style vinegar potatoes, which were a lovely way to shake things up. Here's the recipe so I don't forget it.

We opened presents practically all day. We started at nine and took a break for eating when my aunt and uncle arrived. Then we chatted and whatever for a couple hours, and then it was back to the present dregs when they left in the early evening. It was a big-haul Christmas. I went and updated my wishlist after, and now that thing's pretty bare.

My folks got me all this stuff I've wanted for a long while, like Rock Band 3 (and the keytar!) and the full Cowboy Bebop set and Virtuality and The Prisoner miniseries from last year. AND FIREFLY ON BLU-RAY YESSSS. And so many books from everyone! My sister got me this cool Asiany cookbook and a couple other books from the publishing company she works for, and my brother sent along Dragon Age Origins.

My friends all got me cool stuff, too~ Carolyn got me a pillow which is soooo soft like a dream. Dreaming on a dream about a dream. Also a new lock pick set (hidden in a fake credit card lolol) and Sunshine on Blu-Ray. Jacqi got me Keith Richard's Life, which was a lovely surprise. I'm on chapter four. Steven got me a Buffy scriptbook and a slide for my guitar. I tried it a bit, and it has so much folksy bluesy promise. Now if only I knew how to play the guitar.

Thanks, everybody! You're all much too kind.

My sleepy is a hanger-on from Tuesday, when we got up super early and went out to watch some whales. We caught a couple pairs of gray whales migrating down to Baja, some sea lions, and a blue shark. The swells were pretty high on the way out of the harbor, and there were a few drops that reminded me of why I hate planes and roller coasters. But the rest of the day was smooth and perfect, if a little chilly. But I've never been out whale watching, and we ended up going around the back side of Anacapa Island to find the second group, and that's the farthest I've ever been out to sea.

It was crazy on the other side, nothing but ocean from there on out. It's not that I'm agoraphobic, more like a claustrophile, if that's anything. When I look out at the ocean, I expect to see islands, alright? If there was nothing out there, like most other people's coasts, it would freak me out.

So yesterday I did a repeat of last ... Thursday, going straight from work to LAX and back, this time to send my sister away and back up to the great frozen north. We had really nice weather this week, yeah? None of those crazy rains, a lot of sun. Oh but I just checked my phone, and it looks like the new year is starting up with rains again. A green 2011.

So my 2010. I got to know the Beatles. You might remember that Beatlemania was how I spent the full first half of this year. Rolled gently on to Bob Dylan, the master; became aware of the greatness that is the Rolling Stones; discovered Eric Clapton's Layla was a integral piece of my childhood; found out that the things I'd always loved, quietly in the background, had names like "slide guitar" and "bossa nova."

This year I obtained two bass guitars and an acoustic; I dusted off my old harmonicas and finally, after 13 full years, bent my first blues note; I wrote and recorded my first song with my new band, MDMB; we've written several more; I took a guitar class and can play two or three songs.

In addition to songs, I wrote some straight-up poetry after rediscovering T. S. Eliot. I conquered NaNoWriMo for the second time in a row. (During the same time I wrote my first Batman fanfic and outlined a story called The Ashmonger's Daughter.)

My very first phone finally gave up the ghost and I joined the ranks of the future with a new HTC smart phone. The future didn't stop me from enjoying the past, and this year I did acquire two Stones albums, two CSN(Y), a Beach Boys, a Styx, two Dylan compilations, Crossroads the history of Clapton, and I'm sure there's more I forgot in that stack of vinyl.

Carolyn and me beat Borderlands like a hundred times. Rock Band 3 introduced the keytar as a new challenge to master. I explored the western deserts in Red Dead Redemption. I conquered the first Final Fantasy for the PS3 (one of the reasons I wanted the system in the first place). I finally purchased Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories for the PS2 and, 30 hours in, am about to finish that sucker off so I can continue 356/2 Days that I just got for the DS for Christmas. Still waiting for the someday Kingdom Hearts III, which was the other reason.

This year I started wearing jeans and graphic tees. I discovered that the boys' large at Old Navy is my perfect size shirt. I got a pair of corduroys that are now my official Thursday pants.

I survived my first official all-nighter at work. I went to my first concert, Bob Dylan the elderly. I met my first online friend in real life the same day! I baked my first successful pumpkin pie (and the second, third, fourth, fifth......) I sewed my first set of curtains for my room and the kitchen window. I gave Donnie his first dance, which is something I've wanted to do since we met.

The tree trimmers came and ruined all our trees. (but they're starting to grow back!!) Several pieces of cabinetry etc. were dislocated from their historic positions in my house. (But we did get an HD flatscreen). Beth moved away to New York. Summer didn't come until November.

A busy year, indeed. Here, have this stat-filled picture of my top artists and tracks of the last 12 months. No surprises. Well, I'm a little upset that Nilsson is still in the top 15. Bleh. I got over that real fast. A little sneak-peek of some MDMB stuff in the tracks stats. Can't wait til those are really done.

2010, signing off. Here's to 2011.

-Steph

Merry Krimble

Happy Thursday! Today was rather epic, since I went to work in the morning and then went straight there to LAX...and back. Gotta rent movies, you know!

So that means my sister is home for the holidays, right now she's trying to dig up a fun game from the closet to dissuade us from the puzzle we just started. Because last fall she promised she'd do this puzzle with me at Christmas...last Christmas. I'm just taking her up on it.

Did you hear about our epic rains? It rained for what, five days? My car has smelled like mold since the first signs of mist. :< Mudslides down south. LA got its annual amount of rainfall in one month, that sort of epic. Everything's green now, it looks like Washington.

Yesterday in the library parking lot, I found a quarter right outside the car. And the little library bookstore was open, so I bought a Batman novel for 25 cents. Thanks, the library!

There was something else this week that was particularly blog-worthy, but I don't remember. It rained. Played PokePark with Carolyn.

We watched Salt and Easy A. Salt was strikingly average, and Easy A had some spectacular laughs. The latter was also shot nearby in Ojai, so it was cool to see a lot of familiar places.

Haha, I hear the sounds of Trivial Pursuit coming from downstairs. I think I will return to my puzzle. Have a happy times Christmas and I hope everyone you know is safe and well!

-Steph

Forever Rain

Happy Thursday! I hope you enjoyed our sunny summer days, because my phone says it's going to be solid rain for the next however many days my phone can see at one time.

Today was my day off, but luckily I got called in to work, lol. But it's cool. Need to start recuperating from this Christmas season. But there's no last-minute shoppings for me! I'm all wrapped and ready to go!

The other day I read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Eclipse I don't really remember (sort of like the movie), but I do remember liking it quite a bit. I think what really won me over was Edward backed off a lot and stopped making ludicrous demands every other page.

But Breaking Dawn. What WAS that?? Those are gonna be two really boring movies. And a lot of it was really...off putting, to me. In content and style. The second half struck me as particularly rushed, like not too much thought was put into allll those thousands of words. No one's personality shown out, even people I had previous liked. It seemed too distant. And then it just ended, but by that time I was really like "good riddance."

Oh well, what did I expect?

Let's turn to other media.

This has been, hands down, the song of the week. Watch it. Rolling Stones' You Got the Silver, with Jagger singing. That sliiiiide guitar work....! I could listen to it forever, and practically have.


And as long as we're throwing pictures around...



The one on the left was this evening, the second one was actually last Friday. Them's from my phone! So handy, that.

Catch ya laters!

-Steph

Jazz Hands!

Happy Thursday! Tonight my dad's Jazz Band class had their semester's end performance. It was cool! Good job, pops.

They played Autumn Leaves, which just made me think of Clapton's version from his newest CD, and how I heard Cream at the record store today, and how much I love British blues rock? I love jazz, too, but I think slide guitar beats out a horn section these days. I've become more Cowboy than Bebop.

Today it was actually warm/hot out. ! It was like spring. Optimistic spring time now??

I wandered downtown to some used book stores and had a nice time in the sunshine. I think the best Thursdays are the ones where I just wander around downtown. Should be a Thursday tradition.

This week I hung out with Carolyn a bit, had some driving and soldering adventures. We drove into Oxnard which was covered in a creepy fog, but in Ventura the fog would descend and clear on alternating blocks. Very strange. I think we also watched Eclipse on that day? It was so bad.

On Sunday, though, I got a new phone! You see, I got my first phone, what, eight years ago? Maybe nine. And I've had the one allllll this time. What a sweetheart, my little blue flip phone. But the flip did it in; the last month or so it's stopped being able to tell when it's open. Sadday, phone!!

So I got a new one. Thanks, mom and dad! I took a huge jump forward in time, from my little Motorola flip phone to a HTC Aria. But I love it. It has the internet and a camera and everything. My old phone couldn't even download ringtones.

It came in really handy the other night when I was sitting there reading the collected works of T.S. Eliot and my computer was spontaneously taken over by mal-ware. So I still had the power to remotely surf and chat whilst my desktop was undergoing scan after scan. (We're all better, now)

So T.S. Eliot! I remember reading The Hollow Men in tandem with The Great Gatsby in whatever grade we read The Great Gatsby, and that poem was the only thing for which I have that book to thank. I finally found the poetry section at the library (it's a shelf to the left of where it looks like it is), and grabbed this book. My memory does not deceive! Insta-fave, T.S. Eliot.

Cool! Have a nice week, keeds.

-Steph

December

Happy Thursday! Don't you all wish you had a five dollar bag of walnuts from the boys and girls club? You really do, you just don't know it. They're reaaaally good. The walnuts.

Today was a remarkably pleasant day. It's been slightly warmish lately, which is fantastic. It was my day off, and I had planned an epic walking adventure. I didn't end up walking, but that's okay.

I picked up Jacqi from the street, which is something I do. We went to that little Mediterranean/Italian/Argentinian deli and I tried their empanadas, which were alright. But I got to eat all of Jacqi's olives, which are my fave.

We wandered into Fabric Town, which was playing old lady music as usual. I think while I was checking out, an old lady tried to have a conversation with Jacqi. Then we went to the used book store next door and got some yellowed sci-fi paperbacks.

Next stop was Starbucks because it was either that or naptime. Their gingerbread latte is gingery. After that I dragged Jacqi to some thrift stores which is where I'm getting your Christmas presents!!

Fisherman Albert, of all people, was lurking outside of one, but I pretended that I didn't recognize him. But that's okay because I actually didn't, I didn't figure out who it was until much later. But he does exist! Downtown.

Then Jacqi went to work and I went home to wrap Christmas presents. Oh but first I walked to CVS in a lovely sunset for wrapping paper. And the 10 minutes of 30 Rock I saw was funny, and so was The Office (which was also unexpectedly touching). So today was really chill.

So November ended, along with NaNoWriMo. I did finish, although the last week was pretty stressful. I got to the real important stuff just as the deadline was looming and I was still days behind in word count. So I'll admit I did spit out quite a bit of trash just to catch up... so I don't feel bad about including my Batman fic or notes on another story as part of my word count.

Because if the act of writing 50k words in a month is going to cause me to hurt my novel (by not caring about what I write) then to keep forcing that novel idea is defeating the purpose. I'd rather include other, non-story words, because I did write them during the time allotted, you know? And just finish 50k words however I manage to, and save the novel writing for when I can give it the focus it deserves.

I thought that writing a novel last month would take up all my time. And it did, some days, but I also found time to write three songs, a Batman fanfic, a story about princesses, a backstory for the one princess, a new adventure for Pancakes the Unicorn; play video games; bake; have Thanksgiving; and even hang out with my friends once or twice. I also discovered a love of bossa nova, and learned a little four chord tune on the guitar.

So it was a successful month, all round.

Oh and Eclipse comes out on Saturday, so hopefully I'll be able to rent that sucker tomorrow and BASK in its glory. It's gonna be the most hilarious day evar.

Until next time, kiddies~

-Steph