HUGO STIGLIIITTZZZ daa naaaahhhh

Just got back from another Midnight Movie at the Del Mar! This week's choice was Inglorious Basterds. The thing about my blog is I have a record of the past five years of my life, and I can go back and access the specific date that certain things happened. The first time I saw Inglorious Basterds was August 22nd, 2009 with Katie and Tom. Here was my then review:

"Inglorious Basterds had more action in the trailer. Seriously, all the action in the movie would take up about 7 minutes worth of footage. It was brief and sudden when it happened. Still, having a little violence punctuates the power of the moment. A lot of talk but good talk. Some random moments occurred that are clear indicators that it was a Tarantino flick (HUGO STIGLITZ!! comes to mind). I enjoyed it though I might not watch it again for a while. Good shots, good black humor."

I've watched it a few more times between then and now. It is true that the action happens very quick. The build up is very slow and intense, and when it pops it POPS and is gone. All the dialogue scenes are much more intense upon further viewings. Maybe because one knows when they are coming to an end. It was a good time, and I am glad I went out for it. I was going to meet up with Daniel and Ryan, but the former wasn't up for a midnight movie and the latter was stuck at a fair. Hopefully not stuck on a ride or something. That would suck.

At work I coated screens and did a good job of it. The bossman acquired a three wheel, one seater, with a truck bed of sorts little vehicle. Sort of like a tuk-tuk, sort of like a meter maid, sort of like a Reliant Robin but not really. It is AWESOME! There are plans to wrap it in awesome vinyl. I hope he goes bright. But to wrap, you must remove previous vinyl, which there was. So I learned how to remove vinyl! I us...okay my train of thought went elsewhere for a second. Anyway. I used a heat gun, which I very nearly burned my thigh with when I absent mindedly set it in my lap.

After work I worked on sketches and type and I ate pasta. Have some plans for tomorrow, and Sunday. Yay for the weekend!

get up, stand up

Just spent the night chatting with Ryan and Cassidy at The Poet, after seeing a chunk of standup at The Blue Lagoon. Lookit me, knowing people and going to places! Anyway, at The Blue Lagoon, every Thursday is stand up night, so that is pretty neat. Ryan, one of those online fellows, said that his friend was performing and invited me along, and since I had nothing else going on tonight I went. I sketched most of the performers and took note of a few of the jokes that I liked. Some of the stand up people were pretty dead in the water, but some were awesome. Cassidy, Ryan's friend, was really good. Afterwards, we three went to The Poet and I had a "Black Adder" which is Guiness and cider. Pretty good little drink. I managed to get some laughs, we talked about Doctor Who and other nerd stuff. I sketched a bit more. I made a really good drawing of Ryan that looks a lot like him, too bad I can't scan it. All in all, a really awesome night. Since the stand up is free, I'll probably go next week as well, and invite Daniel along. Tomorrow is Inglorious Basterds at the Del Mar! WHeeee!!!

At work we finished the jobs on the table, and I broke down the press. So a day spent half catching, half cleaning and reclaiming. It was a nice, warm day. I discovered some sugar at work, so my tea was much nicer. At least I hope that was sugar. And I hope it was fit for consumption...well, I'm not dead right now so I assume it was and is. I take a lot of minor unnecessary risks.

I wish I had a kitten. I wish I wasn't mildly allergic to cats. I just want something to cuddle right now.

But hey, I'm making friends! Awesome!

'ello there Claire

I've been having a rough time sleeping lately. Well not lately, just these past couple days. Very restless and I don't know why. I don't drink except in the morning.

Work was consumed with one job. Lots of learning happened! I switched the heat flash from 2 to 3, and the friction from tightening and struggling with the knobs has given me three lovely blisters. I've named the one on my palm Claire. Hopefully Claire heals all right and doesn't burst prematurely.

Ran the front on the job. Switched and taped the screens. Oh, the shift also started a bit late. I also registered the screens and did a pretty good job at it. I'm getting better! Whooo!

Had pasta for dinner. Now I'm tired. That day went by fast.

grumpy in SC

I got majorly sidetracked, after work, driving in circles around town trying to find that damn Safeway and eventually gave up. I executed a perfect parallel park between two cars, but even that didn't alleviate my grumpers attitude. I don't like going in circles, and all these stupid U turn/no turn lanes in California. So hard to get going in the way you want to go! Grrr argh. So the rest of the night was a bit of a wash. I've got a bunch of stuff in my hair right now because I'm testing out something, that hopefully will go the way that I want.

At work we ran some jobs. I coated some screens.Weeded some stickers. Not the most involved of days, but its all good.

Finished off my tuna for lunch.

Tonight was a bit of a wash.

Whistling Karla

A video I recorded last night. Such an amazing talent!

Work started late, and it was just me. I cleaned some screens, weeded some vinyl, tidied up, cleaned the stuff in the sink. Brock stopped by, but he is now working as a screenprinting rep! So he won't be working the weekends with me! Noooo! I liked our occasional weekend shifts. He gave us a free degreaser sample. It smelled like flouride bubblegum. Which is to say that it smelt better than the chemicals.

It was a shorter day. Monday's typically are. Ahhh yay, work is now in a "typically" time. Falling into a rhythm. Listened to mostly music.

Got home and didn't feel like the game night. Boo anti social me! I cooked up the rest of the fish, ate it, watched Parade's End, and kicked back. I'm kinda sore from all the Sunday salutations.

awesome day!

Had an awesome wonderful day! Was all up in San Francisco with my favorite people: the band members of Odd Owl and their friends who are becoming my friends slowly but surely.

Alarm went off at 7, was out of the house at 8:20. Magic! Filled up my tank and away I went to the great North. Well, the great slightly more northern. It was a nice ride and there was parking on the street. Boom, easy!

Carmen took a nasty spill on her bike, so I helped her haul some stuff into her car. Then we were off to Steve's! From there we rode to the venue (the street outside Candybar) and unloaded the car, and Carmen took the car back to Steve's because it was Sunday Streets, which is where they shut down some of the streets to cars. So we quickly unpacked and got the car out of there. Then we moved the stuff to the back and once it was all secure we went back to Steve's (which is Steve and Erin's and their roommate....ohh I've forgotten his name, he is German but it isn't a-FABIAN! He is name is Fabian. Okay). Anyway, it is multiple people's place. Because like many dense cities, there are as many people as possible crammed into houses.

Hung out there. Phil arrived. Josh showed up. We chatted and snacked and chatted some more. It was nice.

At 1ish we went back to Candybar (everything was all in the same neighborhood, just a few blocks from one another, OOHH earlier we dropped a speaker and stand off at the house that the second gig of the day was to be held). I mostly held guard while things were getting set up, and hauled this and that.

The set was awesome! Some of the tunes sounded different live. They played on the street, and lots of people congregated and listened to many of their songs. I danced a bit along with Erin and Dina and Robert. Dina petted many dogs. It was fun. It was warm. It was outside. And Odd Owl ROCKED! They always do, but yeah.

They broke down the set, and we hauled the equipment the couple blocks to the Wigg Party House Party Party thingy? It was another instance of getting things to a place and going back to Casa Steve and Erin to chill for a bit.

The Wigg Party shindig was full of nice people, though I mostly hung with those I knew. Steve had set up the entertainment and Julia, a street performer, was first. She has a beautiful voice, is talented on the accordion, is a superlative whistler, and can juggle AND balance on a ball? Her set was lovely.

Steve played some awesome diddys on his guitar.

The next guy whose name I have forgotten was also swell.

Then Odd Owl! Though it was the same set just about. OH! They had a cover of Very Superstitious which was awesome. So quality. It was quite chilly in the backyard of the house, where the show was happening, so we danced to get warm. I had my arms around Erin and Tanya and we did a three lady kickline. That was fun. I danced and ate corn and chatted and they sold some merchandise and I gave out my card. All was awesome. It was corn on the cob. Dina, Robert and I cheers'd each other with our corn, though it turned into a bit of a sword fight. My kind of party!

All was awesome today. Josh dropped me off at my car. I got back at a reasonable hour, and since I don't work till noon tomorrow I get to sleep in a bit.

Yay!

GH w/ D.L.W. & OO & G

Oh maaan. I went to Pizza My Heart to meet Daniel for lunch, and while in line this guy just rubbed his shoulder against mine and when I gave him a clearly "what the fuck?" look he said, "you haven't been harassed that much, have you?". I just sort of sputtered and looked around for Daniel to show up.

Uhhhgg creeper. There are some weird burned out people in Santa Cruz. Too much sun.

But after that, lunch was nice. This is the same Daniel I met at the game shindig and later met for We burgers. We chatted about families and linguistics and television and Japanese game shows. I never thought about the differences between the words holiday and vacations. The former is typically for days off and the latter for trips and relaxation, though I use both interchangeably, whereas some don't use holiday at all. It was a nice afternoon.

Doctor Who was fun. Did my laundry. Went grocery shopping. Worked on some sketches. I've feeling quails. Quails are in right now for me. That and echidnas. Still working on some sketches, though I have to be in San Francisco by 9:50 at the latest tomorrow. It is a hang out with Odd Owl and other cool people day! Hurray!

Ohh I'm yawning. Sleep soon.

where is Hank Hill when you need him?

Today was a very short work day due to some sort of unforseen circumstances. Nothing bad! It just abbreviated the day. Monday should be busy though.

We got some shirts done. I cleaned some screens. Like I said, short day.

Got out early but didn't get a lot accomplished with that time. Bad!

Ate a tuna sandwich for lunch. Talked to Madeline.

Are there no 40 foot smoking distance laws in California? Every time I am on Front and Pacific I always leave feeling choked out by the smell of it. Bleh. Saw Natural Born Killers at the Del Mar. Midnight showing. Talked to a couple foreign students in the line. Got to use a bit of my much neglected Japanese.

It was quite a weird movie. Weirdly shot. Just...odd. Violent but I'm pretty desensitized to stuff now so err.

I feel funky. Damn that cigarette smoke! In the future, I won't arrive so early to the showings.

fishwife

I pan fried up one of the tuna fillets. Go me! And it cooked through and through. And it was tasty. And I squeezed a bit of lemon over it. Go Trillian, being all learning new cooking stuff even though she is 24 and a half. When did I become 24? That seems strange.

Anyway. So I did that. And I felt good about doing that.

Work was work. But isn't it nice to say that? I've settled in, I know how things go, I am part of it. I still ask questions and confirm things. We ran a couple shirt jobs. I burned and taped some screens. Since I found out my new mp3 player saves your place in audiobooks (there is a separate menu for them! and it saves your place! perfect for me!) I've been listening to Brideshead Revisted at a slower place. I am almost done though. Might go back to a Discworld book. In the mood for something light hearted.

Weekend coming up. I have some plans. Midnight movie probably. Go up "over the hill" as they say in reference to going from Santa Cruz north on 17.

Kelly Green

Oh maaaan. Janet made a mudslide cake thing. And she saved me a slice! It was so good! Ohh she is awesome. Joey was looking at it expectantly, so I told the doggie that it was horrible. But that was a lie. It was so delicious. Best housemate EVER.

So apparently you can get a working visa for New Zealand? Like you can stay there for a year and work....sort of tourist but not really? Something to consider as a means to get to another country.

Work was good. I ran the press. Printed some shirts. Talked to Cara (Kara? Carah? Karah?) who was catching. Ran some towels as well. Coated screens. Patched some screens. Weeded vinyl. Helped with the laminator. Full work day. Have lots of gunk under my nails. Wasn't the cleanest of work days.

The boss gave me some smoked tuna, so that was my dinner. Need to cook that uncooked fish he gave me. Tomorrow, I'll cook it tomorrow. And hopefully not give myself food poisoning from undercooking it.

I need to work on some thumbnails for a drawing. Yup yup.

something smells fishy, actually it doesn't because fish doesn't smell until it goes bad

Just moved my clothes into the dryer. So awesome having laundry on site.

My boss went fishing over the weekend and gave me some of the albacore tuna that he caught! What an awesome dude. Some of it was cooked already, so I had that for dinner. Booyah. I'll cook up the rest of it in the next couple days. Just have to figure out what method. I called mom and dad for recipes, but they had conflicting responses.

At work I cleaned and reclaimed screens and weeded vinyl. A mellow short shift, and it started later in the day so I had time to consume a big breakfast.

Work, called ma, ate tuna, laundry. That was my Tuesday.

"grr grunt" was all he said

Labor Day, Labor Day! Gaaah I'm no good with three day weekends. Give me work! Thankfully work is tomorrow.

I did stuff today, which was nice. I got out! And my housemate saw me leave, which is good. Because when I go out and in when she is gone, and she comes back and never sees me leave...well I don't feel judged by her at all, just that no, I am social to an extent! I leave the house!

Anyway. Was meeting another of those online fellas for a movie and food. Steve! We caught the 4:30 matinee of Lawless at the Del Mar. The movie was pretty neat. Guy Pearce and Tom Hardy stole the show a bit. The costumes were awesome. The dialogue was good. Hardy's character's lines were a bunch of grunts and expressions. That man is built like a slab of beef. Just, massive. Good actor though.

After the movie we got some burgers and chatted about travel and games and things. We spent the rest of the night walking down to the boardwalk and up and down the beach. It was a nice night for it. A bit hazy. The lights of the boardwalk were quite pretty. Steve's in computers. Nice guy, nice evening.

Breaking Bad had an awesome finale.

Work tomorrow! Yaaay! Cleaning, reclaiming, probably burning. Booyah.

I miss work. I don't like three day weekends.

Spent a bit of the afternoon sitting on my porch and drawing my neighborhood from my vantage point. That was enjoyable. The drawings are in the post, headed to some destinations. I don't like to hold onto my art. Hahah. I also wrote up a few postcards and those are in the mail. It is good to keep up correspondence.

I need to buy more stamps. Have stamps, will mail.

I cuddled with Joey the dog a bit.

Near the end of the day I started to feel a bit weary and poorly once again. Not quite a cold. Just a sort of weakness. Need to eat more vegetables or protein or something like that.

Oh the shirts I ordered came in the mail yesterday. They are REALLY COOL. One is glow in the dark. So cool. I don't have a picture of me wearing any of the shirts and I can't be bothered to link to an image of what they look like. Either way, I am happy with my purchase.

I'm going to go to bed. If I am tired, why force it?

Check out my sheeeeelves

My current Tetris shelf set up.

Woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. Well, 9am ish. I was showered and fed by 10. Weird. Still felt really tired. Probably because I was up late and up early.

I watched the new episode of Doctor Who. It was good! Scary, a bit relationshippy, but it seems to have a lot of promise in this new up coming season. Had some pasta for lunch. I went grocery shopping and got my usual staples.

Today I was feeling very Marvin the Paranoid Android. Just sort of tired and glum. Not getting out didn't help. Ah oh well. There is tomorrow. And the day after. Then back to work!

I like work.

Man, almost 1am already? Time really flies when you take a nap.

out and about, and then back, and then woosh out and about again! twice! in one night!

Just got back from the Del Mar. Went to see a midnight showing of Super Troopers with this guy Ryan, who I met on that site with the people on it that isn't Facebook. We met a bit before hand and walked around downtown and he pointed out this and that. He has been in Santa Cruz most of his life, so he knows whats up. There are midnight showings every Friday and Saturday, so I think I should make regular appearances and get in with the locals and make friends. There were two Taylors and an Adam who sat behind us and they were chatty and nice. The movie was pretty silly. A good thing to watch late at night.

My shift at work today was a short one. Caught shirts. Broke down the press (a term for removing all the squeegees, floodbars, and screens), set up the next job, caught and boxed that. Cleaned the squeegees and floodbars, removed the tape and scraped the ink from the screens. I left them to be cleaned on Tuesday. Three day weekend!

For dinner I met up with Daniel, one of the guys from the Monday night game group. We met at Betty's, though we both showed up at DIFFERENT Betty's. Oooops. He is really nice. We showed each other our sketches, talked about language and Japan and tactics for making friends in a new city.

I accidentally took Seabright back (on my bike) instead of Murray, but I know Seabright runs parallel to Ocean, so all I had to do was turn left on Broadway and that intersects with Ocean and zoom I was home. It wasn't that far out of the way. Glad to know I know how to get around a bit.

The late night movie wasn't planned till after dinner. It was a nice impromptu thing.

I still want to see Cosmopolis and Lawless.

Thursday already?

Did some uber taping on a job. And some tandem burning. Seems like we have a big job coming up! We normally don't tape like that unless it is a high volume. I caught shirts. I listened to Jeremy Irons read Brideshead Revisited. Damn that man has a nice voice.

Had a salad for dinner (turns out my lettuce had been moved to a veggie drawer. Thankfully I noticed this BEFORE it went bad). Hard boiled some eggs to make an egg salad sandwich. I've had so many pb & j sammiches. I'm not sick of them, but I want to add variety before I get totally sick of the easiest thing to make in the morning.

Yesterday, and the day before, it was pretty hot in the studio. Today it was a bit chilly but I was near the heater so whatever. Movement warms the body!

Tomorrow I have some evening plans. Hurray! With someone else! Hurray!

I need to draw something. Well, I have some things on my slate to draw. I really need to to-do list the stuff I have to do...BOOM just made the list.

I wonder if I have a three day weekend? Hmmn. I don't really care if I don't.

breezing through them books

Weeding! That is the term for peeling vinyl. Weeding vinyl. That thing. I did more of that. I almost drove up to San Jose for a pick up, but that didn't happen. I caught and boxed shirts. I picked vinyl off these signs. Not the most eventful of shifts.

And not the most eventful of nights. Talked online with people. Washed dishes. Washed my sheets. I need to start taking some further initiative. Sunday and Monday were initiative taking days, why not Tuesday and Wednesday?

I finished Whose Body? I like the character of Wimsey and will probably listen to more of his adventures and mysteries in the immediate future, but now I have a copy of Brideshead Revisited that is read by Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons wins all. Such a great voice.

peeler

Today I learned how to remove cut vinyl thingies from their vinyl! And I learned whilst peeling the excess from our really complicated logo. So many little bits, so many ways to muss it up. Vinyl trial by fire. Still, good to acquire even more skills. I finished The Light Fantastic and started Whose Body? a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel. Wanted a change of pace.

Earlier in the shift I burned and taped some screens and coated a fresh batch. Getting better at it!

But most of the day was spent peeling vinyl. It went by pretty fast actually, once I got the hang of it. There is still more to peel. I'll also learn how to put them on the other stuff, to make them transferable to things, though I think I've figured that out.

Back at home I chowed down on carbs and put my feet up. We have all these screens taped, but no shirts are in the shop. Either a weekend shift is coming up oooor....I don't know.

game on!

Guess who was social tonight? I was social tonight! But thanks to a different website. On the Santa Cruz sub-forum on Reddit, someone posted about things to do and ways to meet people, and someone mentioned a board game group that meets at Woodstock's Pizza every Monday, and lo and behold, Woodstock's is a quick bike ride from my house. So I decided, provided I got out of work not exhausted or too later, to check it out.

I worked a three hour shift today. Just clean up and reclaiming, and it started late.Very mellow. After work I washed my car, and now it looks quite pretty. It was getting a bit pollen-y.

So yeah. I rode my bike over to the pizza place. First time riding my bike in this city. Not two minutes was I out before someone said, "I like your helmet." Polka dots win again. There is a bike path along the river, which keeps one off San Lorenzo, which is nice. Really easy bike ride. Not really anything in the way of hills.

Oh, in regards to the cable bike lock (responding to Dad's phone message in my blog instead of calling). You could mail me another care package, or put it in Nathan's luggage when he visits. Either way.

Anyway, back to today's narrative. The table of gamers was obvious, mostly on account of the games they were setting up. There was Alan, Andy, Jeff, Jim, Chris, Daniel, and Kathleen. Boom, remembered their names. We split into two groups. Daniel, Andy, Alan and I played Evo, while the others played some other game that I've forgotten the name of. Evo is this sort of complicated dinosaur evolution thingy thing. It was fun and I won! I had a lot of dinosaurs on the board during game play, so I got a lot of gold from that. We played Seven Civilizations next, at least I think that is what it is called. I came in last. Still, it was fun. I like these sorts of games, though they take a lot of instruction. But now I know two games! And if I have the time, I'll be back next Monday. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, and the pizza was good (feta and chicken, my usual pizza order).

Rode my bike back. A really easy ride too. What a nice night! I'm being social! Yaaaay!

what I hinted at yesterday is...

Okie dokie. Soooo. I decided to give online dating a try. All though more for the meeting people/getting out of the house and checking out the area aspect of it than the finding someone to date part. Went with OkCupid because it is free, and if Carmen met Josh on it, then there should be some really awesome people? Anyway. I have good instincts and know how it goes: meet first in a public space, let someone know where you are going, set a good end time. Among other cautious things.

So today I hung out with Amir in the Stanford Library. Amir is a TA for the English program at said fancy college, and is starting work on his dissertation. Smart stuff. And he showed me the tea cupboard, and let me have as much tea as I wanted. I only had one cup, but I could have had two. It was a beautiful day, and we walked around the campus and talked about books and perception and travel and linguistics and all sorts of topics.

Not a bad little meeting, not a bad one at all.

Afterwards I went to Redwood City and hung out with Nathan. Ate a burrito, drank soda, talked video games, saw what my painting looks like matted and framed (it looks GOOOOOD), and watched an episode of Breaking Bad.

All in all, a pretty good Sunday. Now I await Breaking Bad.

Tomorrow I start work a bit later, so an extra sleep in day is nice.