In case you didn't catch them all

BARENAKED LADIES LYRICS

"Who Needs Sleep?"

Now I lay me down not to sleep
I just get tangled in the sheets
I swim in sweat three inches deep
I just lay back and claim defeat

Chapter read and lesson learned
I turned the lights off while she burned
So while she's three hundred degrees
I throw the sheets off and I freeze

Lids down, I count sheep
I count heartbeats
The only thing that counts is
that I won't sleep
I countdown, I look around

Who needs sleep?
well you're never gonna get it
Who needs sleep?
tell me what's that for
Who needs sleep?
be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War

My hands are locked up tight in fists
My mind is racing, filled with lists
of things to do and things I've done
Another sleepless night's begun

Lids down, I count sheep
I count heartbeats
The only thing that counts is
that I won't sleep
I countdown, I look around

Who needs sleep?
well you're never gonna get it
Who needs sleep?
tell me what's that for
Who needs sleep?
be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War

Who needs sleep?
well you're never gonna get it
Who needs sleep?
tell me what's that for
Who needs sleep?
be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War

There's so much joy in life,
so many pleasures all around
But the pleasure of insomnia
is one I've never found
With all life has to offer,
there's so much to be enjoyed
But the pleasures of insomnia
are ones I can't avoid

Lids down, I count sheep
I count heartbeats
The only thing that counts is
that I won't sleep
I countdown, I look around

Hala Hala Hala

Who needs sleep?
well you're never gonna get it
Who needs sleep?
tell me what's that for
Who needs sleep?
be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War

[Repeat]

Barenaked

I'm in a BNL kinda mood today, and surfing YouTube again, so this is what you get:



These guys are TOO funny:



And my SL theme "Who Needs Sleep?"

It almost steams

Animusic. I've seen these back in the days when we had cable... it has a steampunk feeling, but without the steam. Perhaps just mad science, totally CGI with lots of mechanical parts. In any case, here's a video from YouTube with an Animusic "Drum Machine" sequence. We can imagine our instruments rocking themselves.



now I have to go find some Kodo... en route to other things, one I must show to Cefin, and remember to call his drum teacher to get his lessons started up again. Cefin is 11; this kid was 12 at the time:




And a video for one of my favorite Kodo songs, Irodori:



ANd Wadaiko Yamato: Drummers of Japan, who are like the punk rock version of Kodo:





Happy happy now! And already wondering how I can make taiko happen in Steelhead.

Myfi

Hello from Max!

Myfi got tired of me sending her photos from fun events she could not herself attend, so she gave me access to her blog. I will periodically weigh in with commentary, but more likely will just dump photos here instead of on her. She is also getting tired of me leaving books and bookshelves all over the treehouse, but soon Boomtown will land and I can begin work on my own home in the hill. If you don't know about Boomtown, you should! It's Steelhead's newest sim: Steelhead IS its residents, and they are absolutely the best on the grid. Check us out, you'll see! (A few plots of land are still available but not for long. Contact Managers TotalLunar Eclipse or Tensai Hilra to learn more).

Allium Sativum Maximus
Allium or Al or Max, to you

Dreary Monday

At least it has stopped snowing. After nearly an hour of gaping at big fat wet snowflakes plopping down in earnest. This slowed, becoming mixed with rain until now outside I see mainly unrelieved grey, reflected from the sky throughout my rather limited view. Appropriate for a Monday morning, I think.

The weekend was certainly not without color. I was out and about at a number of events this weekend, most notably the "superheroes" and "jellicle cat" affairs on Saturday. Otherwise, I worked on inventory - organizing and reducing primarily but with a few choice acquisitions. Following the tail of a freebie, I wound up on a very silly train ride on Mackinack Island. 'Twould be nice to have company on these excursions, but I am growing accustomed to being more solitary. The only danger in accepting my life as a solitary person here is that I tend to become altogether eremitic. Even speaking becomes an unwelcome burden.

In any case, I have photos I took and Max sent me some from his weekend jaunts, which I will work on this morning and post here later. Must be off for now, though.

Myfi

Even though I wish I were HALF as pretty as him, Happy Tom Welling's 31st birthday!

Post-Nerdiness Posting

Allium has been hogging up all the bandwidth lately, but he was kind enough to send me photos of his latest exploits in Second Life. Yesterday was June Wozniak's birthday (didn't ask if it was her agent's actual birthday or the av's rezday) and by sway of celebratin, she set up a "Nerd Dance" and invited all of Caledon through the ISC chat. The event was DJ-ed b the fantastic Mr. Zenmondo Wormser for the Caledon Independent Broadcasters. He served up a right tasty helping of quirky nerd-centric music, and from the looks of the photos, it was a great party. Since Al doesn't blog at all (I only blog sporadically but at least with sufficient poking and prodding and nagging, I DO get it done eventually) so I uploaded the photos he took to flickr. Here is the link to that particular set of images. You can probably poke around the others if you are so inclined, I don't think any of them are restricted.

http://flickr.com/photos/24096854@N08/sets/72157604729266729/

I hope that turns into a live link when I post it, cause I know if it doesn't that one extra step will make it impossible for some to see them. :)

Tonight is Steelhead's periodic formal dance. Thank all the gods that a Steelhead formal is NOTHING like a Caledon formal. WHich means that the term "formal" is loosely applied, and everyone has fun instead of standing around unable to move because of the lag so they bitch about the lag except that the chat is lagged too so they bitch about that as well.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Steelhead? If not, let me state once again for the record that I LOVE STEELHEAD!!

I have already gotten my outfit for tonight ready to go. So, except in the entirely too likely event that I change my mind about what I feel like wearing, I'm all set for tonight.

Can't wait for Boomtown to land, that should happen within the next few weeks apparently. Allium will be very happy to have a place to change his clothes and dump his books (he hadn't planned to bring so many back into this plane but then again, he hadn't planned on spending as much time here himself as he has). I think he's planning to dig a hole and launch a skybox, and leave the surface of the mountainside mostly parklike.

I have been very lonely in Steelhead lately, though I love my neighbors, friends and family there. With Ioan out of the picture for the long term (perhaps permanently), I find myself at loose ends, and too often wanting male companionship when there is none to be had. I am not sure what to do about it but I feel like my shine is growing quite dull. Of the men in my life, two are just out of the question, one is very much preoccupied, and the third is just never there. Not that any of these are candidates for a relationship, but who else do I have? The problem is, as I have said before, that I want a lover but don't need sex. A perplexing concept to some, but what it boils down to is that I need someone who prefers me above others and spends time making me feel cherished and appreciated. It's not about getting naked and attaching weird talking body parts... it's all in the mind. Do other women have the same problem, I wonder? So what I do instead is go shopping.

Perhaps I speak too frankly and openly, but I have few outlets for dialog so anyone who has bothered to read this far is just getting the monolog. Seems to be the story of my lives.


On the other hand, I did some prize camping overnight and this morning. Spent enough time to work on my inventory some - got the total down below 28K! Tanarian will be very proud of me But for now, my outworld agent is demanding a catnap before Cefin gets home and any chance for quiet is gone. Au revoir, my invisible audience.

Do you love your mutt

From Cait, alert about a Bad Law proposed in Texas that is setting up to affect animal owners across the nation:


http://www.ncraoa.com/TexasAlert.html

Includes a link that will eventually take to you to the text of the proposed law.

Myfi

TrekSims

By popular demand, Star Trek Meets the Sims, this is the ORIGINAL video for the Picard song by...DarkMedia, I think:

The Hobbit Movie

A few links to sites and pages featuring news about the Hobbit movie... in 3D?!?!

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Peter_Jackson's_The_Hobbit

http://www.thehobbitblog.com/?p=41

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/category/hobbit/hobbit-movie/

http://derhobbit-film.de/indexengl.shtml

The latest from Cefin

Well, he did finally get to hear the Jean-Luc Picard song and watch the video I posted earlier. Now, he is singing to Samwise:

Cap-tain Sam-Luc Picard of the Bone SS Poopentise

This, after I caught him earlier singing a refrain from a Godsmack song.

With a brain like his, it's no wonder they can't get him to sing in school. They haven't so fine an appreciation of his oddities as I have, unfortunately.

A Maya Angelou poem

Did this PowerPoint presentation for a class, trying to insert it here for the enjoyment of my reader. :p Don't know if it will actually load up from my hard drive, since it is not precisely a photo nor a video.


Rats. Upload failed. Will have to try something else, somehow.

So, anyway. Cefin is home sick today, generalized "not feeling good"... no fever, no vomiting, but he has actually been lying very quietly in his bed all morning, even sleeping some. So I guess I made the right choice letting him stay home from school.

Meanwhile, I am still waiting for the Dell technician to come to work on the laptop. I am checking out some online radio stations, making a list and checking it twice. Will save as a Google document and probably a notecard to myself for the treehouse land. Mostly Asian/middle eastern stuff. WickedKarma.com has twelve distinct and very good streams - the Baron had that on the COnsulate land in ANtiquity so I nipped the site from there. He has that set to "Classica" which is orchestral soundtracks and themes for the most part. I wonder if they play the music from Firefly/Serenity?

Myfi

Picard Song

I've been listening to the Picard Song at Steelhead events for months, and have asked a certain DJ repeatedly for the MP file since my own searches proved fruitless. Well, tonight I finally found it, downloaded it, AND found a couple of funny videos to go along with it. This one happens to be my favorite:

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

HOpe it works, hope someone other than ME is reading this blog... after SO MUCH kvetching from a few people (and you know who you are if you happen to READ this), I'm actually fairly certain nobody is reading it. At least nobody who bothers to post a response. Harrumph.

The question is WHY did it become imperative at 1AM on a Monday morning that I find the song IMMEDIATELY? Simple answer: EBAY. I found myself surfing ebay for garlic to grow in my garden (organically, of course) trying to figure out how I could finance a purchase. BAD MYFI!! Been on the wagon for six months now, can't fall off at this point. I had some grocery store garlic that sprouted, I planted a handful of cloves in a makeshift starter pot tonight while waiting for the naughty dogs to come back to the house (long and boring story).

Gaaarrrrrrrllliiiiiicccc..... to paraphrase Homer Simpson, is there anything garlic CAN'T do?? I'm looking forward to sauteed garlic greens on my baked potatoes. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Well....

I stared at the accusingly blank screen of the blog for nearly an hour before starting. Many thoughts came and went, none of them stuck around long enough to be committed to the ether. I know there were some specific things I wanted to say, but... oh, well. Maybe next time.

It's been a long weekend, many negotiations. Set out a chart of jobs to be accomplished, assigned each a monetary value, with columns for checking when done and when paid. All this in an attempt to get Cefin to do his chores without having a nuclear-type explosion AND to get him to a basic understanding of the concept of gainful employment. I never liked the idea of giving him an allowance - Ioan would just empty his pockets and give him money at random and call it allowance. We'll see how this goes. Part of the deal is that he has to accomplish the job without a shouting match AND without me having to stand over him to make sure it is done right, or done repeatedly before it's done right. I had to break down laundry into two parts - the bringing down/sorting/washing and drying, and then the folding/hanging up/putting away. I set it out so that there are daily and weekly chores which he MUST accomplish before being eligible to earn extra "big bucks" - $2.50 each for such jobs as washing the windows downstairs or upstairs, washing walls, etc. I didn't even write down anything for the jobs outside, other than walking the dogs.

I hope I have the energy to follow through on this. I have a packet of 20 one-dollar bills and a stack of quarters. I'm trying to explain how much he =can= earn and get him to understand that it is HIS choice to have money or not to have money. Other incentives: hot lunches at school cost $10 per week; I am giving him the option of taking the ten dollars in to school to get the crappy food, or saving the money and making his own lunches in the mornings.

Another financial incentive is paying for good grades. My parents never did this for any of us kids, because we were good students if chronic underachievers. I never saw the value of paying kids for grades but Cefin has FINALLY gotten to the point where I am not all stressed out about his social and behavioral issues that I can actually look at his grades. This is actually a huge step forward for both of us. I told him I would give him five dollars for every A on his next report card. We did not negotiate for a B or C, but I guess we will deal with that later. I'm not sure it's really in him to be an A student, regardless of any financial reward. He's certainly smart enough but the system works against him and I haven't yet figured out the best way to kick the system's ass.

And speaking of the school system, I sent in my resume for two separate jobs at the local school system. The first is to be an instructional aide in the elementary school, the second is for a secretarial position at the high school. Fingers crossed. I need to have some income to support my Second Life habit.

That's all for now, I guess.

After the FUglies

Last night's Ugly Avatar Dance in Steelhead was quite amusing. despite computer problems which delayed my arrival at the dance and resulted in a precipitous departure not long afterwards. My good brother-in-law Allium, at least, was able to get some photographs which he kindly sent to me to post in my blog. I doubt I will be doing this in the most efficient manner, but I'll include some here.

Myfi

Poem by Francesca Lia Block

Some of you know that I like Francesca Lia Block's work; in addition to her prose she does poetry. This one was posted today in her MySpace blog http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=235036127&blogID=381337615



Friday, April 18, 2008


the red shoes part ii

lydia gave me the pink satin la boutin's with the shiny red soles
but i only got to wear them once
hobbling up the drive lined with candles and christmas lights
in my tight pearl-covered wedding dress
that i hadn't worn in nine years
but donned in spite of stains and memories for the winter ball
i could barely stand but i danced anyway
in a room full of teenage swans and their boys
and older couples in tuxedos and cocktail dresses
there did not seem to be any of the single men i expected
graying screenwriters who'd been punk rockers
by the end of the night i could not walk
i took off the shoes and held sera's hand
with each step down the drive
pain shot up through my body like an injection of red satin poison

i went to the doctor who told me i would need new plastic toe joints
and that if i wore heels again i'd be hospitalized
and every time i left his office
the pain only got worse
as if i stepped on shards of glass
as if he'd cut off my feet
and left me stumps

i thought i could never hike or dance again
let alone wear anything besides sneakers
i thought i'd have to burn the shoes
along with my wedding dress
and what would i wear to present that award
in front of a thousand people?
shoes matter especially for a woman
who has always relied on them to distract people from her face

in my despair we spoke again
i met you in the softly carpeted hotel lobby
and you told me i looked good in sneakers
and you told me i could go barefoot to present that award
"like a fairy," you said, "that's how they see you anyway"
and i remembered how when we used to spend time together
you had rubbed my feet and made me swoon from it
and once you had revealed a secret
about a woman with a toe ring in a café in new york

when you got the room you undressed me slowly
and you took the time to notice that the color on my toes
was darker than before
but you didn't look too long into my eyes
or kiss my mouth that much
or touch
my feet or tell me secrets

still i ran down the stairs with you afterwards
light as air into the night
and for a few days all the pain was gone

"i'm not ready yet," you said
"it's too soon, i didn't expect…"
and though i understand
i had wanted you to take away the pain again
to paint me like you promised
like my father always said he would
and never did

once before we fucked
you seduced me with a nude by lucien freud
her legs spread wide in hard light
i wonder if you'd make me look like that
if you'd show the pain in my feet
and the judgments made upon my body
or if you'd only show
the love and uncertainty
in my eyes
and also your desire

i've found a different doctor now
a kind one who told me i would be all right
and told me it would hurt
when he put the needle in
it did, so much i screamed
but afterwards i walked painlessly again
as if you and i had just made love
and who knows?
maybe the pain won't come back
and i won't need you desperately
but want you still
i will

i want to knock on your door
barefoot in a fairy dress
i want to lie on your bed and put the red shoes on
and dance on my back with you all night
and never stop
we're both artists born
the imagination never scares us
and neither does a nice little fetish once in awhile
i think they can be healing actually
like that poet i knew with the rare and painful disease
who married a dominatrix and before he died
she saved his life

7:22 AM

More Computer FU

OK, that was supposed to be "fun" but the typo is really closer to the mark, so I am leaving it as is. THe desktop is still ailing but not yet dead nor even comatose, so I continue on with it. Once I get the laptop all squared away, I will turn my attention to the the CPU at the desk. Today's fun with helpdesk involves many hours on the phone waiting for tests to run, updates to download and install... at least the Indian national puppy I talked to today was pleasant. All of the Dell people I've had contact with have been extremely pleasant and good at what had to be done. Today, Arvind was the lucky representative. Started on the phone with him at around 10:30 this morning...and here it is nearly 5PM and JUST finished with the last more-than-an-hour-long call. And guess what? STILL no sound! Replacing the hard drive did not solve that particlar problem, which is what we addressed today. At length. At present, the latest Microsoft update is 23% complete... 23% after over an hour in progress. OH! Just went up to 24%, how exciting.

So, the upshot of TODAY's remote diagnostics is that I need a new MOTHERBOARD. That is being sent, and a technician will be at the house either Friday or Monday to install it and check the physical speaker connections. Arvind updated my graphics card while we were waiting for other things, too, so I am now re-installing Second Life for like the sixth time this week.

I'm just TIRED.

Myfi

photos from last night's town meeting

 
 
 
 

The Day After.. on learning and Libraries

Here I am again, finally, live and totally unmedicated. Spent most of the last three months getting OFF medically prescribed prescriptions and guess what, folks? I feel 100% better than I did before. Not 100% sane but I don't think I've ever been that. We shall see how it all turns out in the end, but for now I feel more like ME than I have in YEARS. No more Pink Floyd songs floating around inside my head while I lie on the couch and stare at the ceiling.

So.

Last night, instead of attending what was certain to be a most excellent celebration of Second Life's Justice League's 2nd anniversary, I completed the application for admission to Northern Illinois University. Since I am a transfer student, I am not required to submit a personal statement with the application but I think I may include one anyway since I have missed the deadline for the particular colleges I am most interested in (early childhood studies and early childhood education), but there is still English, and anthropology which don't have earlier deadlines. I marked my major as undecided which is completely true. I don't know if Ioan, patient though he is with me, would understand my desire to be a perpetual student. He is rather more practical than that, and would like for me to contribute to the household financially again at some point and sees my education as a way to secure a better financial future for all of us. As for me, I see a =real= university as a candy shop of knowledge and I have a terrible sweet tooth.

Bottom line for university is that I have to sit and talk to an advisor and see how many of my 48 Indiana credits will transfer here, and which will be most applicable to ANY major and go for that first. I don't believe any of the education classes I took there will transfer at all, so my net total for transferable credits may be substantially lowered. Not that I regret any of the classes I have taken. See aforementioned sweet tooth.

Yesterday was also my very first attempt at leading a discussion group. Riven Homewood and CeAire DeCosta allowed me to introduce a discussion series at the Steelhead library. I had helped with the children's section at the library's grand opening, and I seem to have fallen quite happily into the role of children's librarian for Steelhead. It amuses me that I am librarian for a nonexistent segment of the SL community but that is a whole different subject. Truth is, doing this is PERFECT for me. Yesterday's discussion was about the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Since this was our first session, I tried a number of different venues for delivery... the single notecard giver was probably the least effective since there were four different versions given out that way. The Thinc book Tanarian set up was undoubtedly the best - especially since everyone could take a copy for themselves. That one was a 1869 version of the tale, selected for that format because is one of the likeliest versions the good citizens of Steelhead might have actually had access to during our time period of play.

I didn't get any photos of the discussion - Riven did, so I will post at least one here when I get those. CeAire came as a gorgeous black wolf and her husband Hawc came as a Robin Hood sort of hunter/woodsman. We actually had another wolf in attendance - Nonesuch Ra. I was delighted! A number of Consulate employees and extensions thereof attended (the Baron as well as his sister Melanippe, Annechen, Searra, and my own sister Tanarian), and our sturdy Steelhead citizens (Riven, CeAire, Hawc, Lumina Elvehjem, Kara Timtam. There were also some people I had never met before, which is an extra bonus! Bill Friis, Nonesuch Ra, Codex Kamenev, and Magdalena Kamenev stayed until the end; I know there were some other who had to leave earlier whose names I did not write down, so please forgive me! I would like to personally thank everyone who attended. The conversation was animated, and quite well spiced with great information and differing points of view - everything a good discussion should be!

I took suggestions (and solicited notecards with ideas, comments and suggestions) for future discussion topics. My hope is to have ongoing discussion series on children's literature, covering the different literary traditions. I chose the fairy tale for the first series and Little Red Riding Hood as the first of the series... Beauty and the Beast and Snow White were suggested in the discussion. Probably the most discussed suggestion was Robin Hood, which is actually considered a "Legend" rather than a fair tale... I don't want to kill the fairy tale topic by lecturing on them incessantly ... and honestly, Robin Hood sounds like just TOO much fun to wait on. So perhaps two more fairy tale discussions then Robin Hood. After that I want to move on to strictly American tales... I have more thoughts on Rip Van Winkle than you can even imagine.

Thanks for your patience in waiting for me to get my head back into a place where I could even thing about blogging again, and thanks to Tanarian and Corgi who have learned that unrelenting nagging about something actually works with me. :D

Until next time, when I hope to discuss some of my recent shopping ventures, to all readers I bid au revoir and remind you to PIMP STEELHEAD BOOMTOWN!!

Myfi

P.S. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Steelhead??