conjurdude

There's a local business in the next town to the south of me that I need to get photographic evidence of. The internets will love it.

It's name?

ORLY Inc.

Yah, rly.

I have an iMix set up on iTunes that has some good stuff...I use it as ambient background music for reading, as it doesn't really "get in the way" of processing the words on the page. I get nothing from this, but I thought some of you might be interested. And if you're familiar with the artists, if nothing else, maybe rate it up? It'll boost my fragile little ego...

1. Big Fish (Titles) - Danny Elfman
2. Fare Thee Well Blues - Joe Calicott
3. At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas With A Shovel - Patton Oswalt
4. The Gods Love Nubia - Ensemble - Aida, Heather Headley & Schele Williams
5. Summertime - Janis Joplin
6. Can You Picture That? - Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem
7. Sway - The Blue Hawaiians
8. Gravy Drinker - Jim Gaffigan
9. Any Colour You Like - Pink Floyd
10. One Toke Over The Line - Brewer and Shipley

Weigert's Rule of Sociological Self-Queries: If you have to actually ask yourself "Are they really that stupid?" the answer is always an emphatic "Yes."

am in a bit of a grumpy mood, so...

"Love rescue me
Come forth and speak to me
Raise me up and don't let me fall
No man is my enemy
My own hands imprison me
Love rescue me

Many strangers have I met
On the road to my regret
Many lost who seek to find themselves in me
They ask me to reveal
The very thoughts they would conceal
Love rescue me

And the sun in the sky
Makes a shadow of you and I
Stretching out as the sun sinks in the sea
I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
Said, love rescue me

In the cold mirror of a glass
I see my reflection pass
See the dark shades of what I used to be
See the purple of her eyes
The scarlet of my lies
Love rescue me

Yea, though I walk
In the valley of shadow
Yea, I will fear no evil
I have cursed thy rod and staff
They no longer comfort me
Love rescue me

Sha la la...sha la la la
Sha la la la...sha la la...
Sha la la la...sha la la la
Sha la la la...sha la la
Sha la la la...sha la la la
Sha la la...
I said love, love rescue me

I said love
Climb up the mountains, said love
I said love, oh my love
On the hill of the son
I'm on the eve of a storm
And my word you must believe in
Oh, I said love, rescue me
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah...

Yeah I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
I said love rescue me

I've conquered my past
The future is here at last
I stand at the entrance
To a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me
Will soon have lost sight of me
Love rescue me"

-U2/Bob Dylan

Do any of you out there in LJ land have a working soda siphon/seltzer maker/charged water maker/whatever you wanna call it that you'd be willing to part with for cheap?

I'd love to get my hands on one, but the cheapest ones on Amazon are still $50. And I don't have $50.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.



The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,



When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.



We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain
is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.





He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise;
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to
their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their
friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction
of all ages, sexes and conditions.





In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress
in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by
every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free
people.



Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We
have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in
War, in Peace Friends.



We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America,
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by
Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and
declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free
and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to
the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and
that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for
the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

1. Jungle Drums (Canto Karabali) - Esquivel
2. The Last of Ida - Jerry Goldsmith
3. Do You Know The Way To San Jose - Christopher Scott
4. The River Of Dreams - Billy Joel
5. Vito and Abbandando - Nino Rota
6. Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians) - Danny Kaye
7. I Just Can't Wait to Be King - Hans Zimmer
8. Oh, Lady, Be Good (alt trk) - Oscar Peterson
9. Palace of the Tiger Women - Kava Kon
10. In Bed with God - Eddie Izzard

Foolin' Around - Patsy Cline
Al's Toy Barn - Randy Newman
Johanna - Sweeney Todd Original Broadway Cast
Boogie Man - Lee Press-on and the Nails
Pacific Ghost Highway - The Ghastly Ones
In the Devil's Snare and the Flying Keys - John Williams
Bell Bottom Trousers - Jack Hylton
Ebb Tide - Al Anthony
Monkeys and Guns - Eddie Izzard
Never On Sunday - Pink Martini

PS...it was totally still Friday when I wrote this, but then LJ went *kspltzy* for 10 minutes, and now it's Saturday.

1. If you can only hear one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"
2. What one song would you like to be played on your funeral? Oooh, tough one. For sheer appropriateness and proper levels of rockitude, I'd have to say Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky"
3. What one song that is best to describe your feeling right now? "Nocturna" by the Tosca Tango Orchestra
4. What one song would you like to hear when you're sad and depressed? "Heretics" by Andrew Bird
5. What one song that you wished you have written? "Tubthumping" by Chumba Wumba, as it would have netted me a buttload of money when it first came out, continuous royalties from various sporting events it's trotted out at, and then I could have gone into hiding from everyone who wanted to see me drawn and quartered.

Reply to this meme by telling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

Words from pyat

Acting!: If I could get paid to do anything, it'd be to act. I love being able to shift into a different mindspace. One of the greatest acting tips I got in college was not to act like the character, but react like the character. I was working on a scene from "Julius Caesar" in class, and both my partner and I were being way too presentational. My professor sent both of us out of the room and told us to come back in as any person that we knew well. My partner went in as his sister, I came in as my grandfather. When I walked in, I had his limp from polio, his voice, his speaking patterns, and his mindset. It was at that point that the little light bulb went *ding!* There's an element of playing "dress-up" in acting to be sure, but there's also the desire, as Hamlet put it, "to hold, as 'twere, a mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." Sure it's fun to run around on stage and pretend to be someone else, but if you can do that AND make the audience think, however briefly, then it's really something to get excited about.

Wisconsin: My home state. About as exciting as watching a cow poop, but at least you can get some great cheese here. Preferably the kind uncontaminated by cow poop.

Renee: a.k.a. renface...we met doing high school forensics. I was pretending to be French, she was a vampire at a dentist. We hit it off, as we're both remarkably goofy. When I unceremoniously moved back to Wisconsin, she was there to take me to George Webb's, drink coffee with me, and tolerate my smoking. Happily I've kicked the smoking, but sadly, she and her husband Brice moved about 90 minutes away, so I don't get to hang out with her and heckle the real world as much as I might like. But we talk most every day on the phone, heckling things over the airwaves, so that helps!

Gaming: I don't game much these days, apart from the goofy little table games I play with Renee and company when we get together. I'd say "Gloom" is my current favorite. In my younger years, though, round about age 12, my friend Wayne and I would play AD&D when I was on vacation with his family, or he with mine. Good times.

Art: I bought myself a Wacom tablet a few months back...the über-cheap model, the Bamboo (not the Bamboo Fun, which apparently is slightly fancier and comes with software) and since then, I've drawn a bunch of goofy stuff. The most fun has been Renee's Etsy shop logo, and the seasonal variations thereof. She just put up the first, in the run-up to July 4th, and there's three others waiting in the wings. I may devise a few more...bwa ha ha ha! Art is something that I'm okay at...I'll never win any awards, but I like doing it just for the sheer creative aspect of it.

but for now, four glorious dark days of the show. I'm washing my costume pieces right now, to get the stage makeup off the collars, and I've really got to mow the lawn sometime this week. Hopefully tomorrow, weather permitting.

And now I must see if my pork chops are thawed. If so, I'll be cooking them with Penzey's Rojo Sauce. If not, I'll either hit the grocery store or order a pizza.

The 'stache and goatee have been dyed. Not as dark as I expected. I'll check with my director tomorrow and see if he wants me to reapply the dye and try to get it a little darker.

Happily, I do not have medium-dark brown blotches all over my face. I managed to avoid getting any on my skin to leave unsightly stains.

For those curious, I have done the facial-hair-dying for a show in the past (actually two consecutive shows), but both were in college. "The Elephant Man" and my "on-stage for 45 seconds, say nothing, and get frogmarched down a flight of stairs with my hands cuffed behind my back" role in "A View From the Bridge" (they needed a couple extra bodies...I used darker makeup and played an Italian)

Now I am a scant year away from entering my thirties. Ah well.

I did have a good, albeit uneventful birthday. I got a couple DVDs, Jim Gaffigan's "King Baby" and, at long last, a copy of "Sleepy Hollow" (Growling Christopher Walken FTW!), a copy of The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out, a new canvas belt, and, what will be tremendously fun, a pair of silicon ice cube trays. Emphasis on "cube"; they each make 15-1" x 1" x 1" cubes that look very classy. Even if you're swilling down something decidedly un-classy (like the Vanilla Coke Zero with bitters I'm sipping on right now).

And now, I'm gonna make another attempt at reading Neal Stephenson's "Anathem."

EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot...the show opens this week, and because of that, I need to dye my facial hair a bit darker so that it reads better on stage. You may all commence snickering at that notion.

Lily is quite irritated with me because I dared to pluck at the scruffy tufts of fur sticking out from her rump.

Quite displeased indeed. I received several foot-flicks intended to express her disapproval.

I made this one since I like to pretend to have delusions of grandeur (or maybe I'm so awesome I don't even need to pretend that I have them!)

Off to rehearsal soon. Huzzah!

Despite craptastical, un-June-like weather (um, 55º should be the LOW, not the HIGH!), I still had fun in Madison with renface. I also forgot my wallet at home (I was wearing shorts yesterday, and jeans today. bah!) so that kinda put the kibosh on anything too crazy. Watched "Mystery Men" (my guilty pleasure) and went for a walk with Ren, having indulged overmuch on pie earlier in the afternoon.

All in all, I rate the day an A- on a scale of 3 to awesome. If I had remembered my wallet, it would've scored a Q+.

Tomorrow (well, technically today) I'm headed to Madison to hang out with renface, her sister-in-law, and various and sundry others that may show up. You see, Ren's husband Brice, to commemorate D-Day, hosts an Axis and Allies game that lasts all freakin' day, and while I did play D&D in my younger days, I will be attending to help Ren keep what little remains of her sanity. So we're gonna gallavant around Madison and do stuff.

I look forward to it! For now, I will sip my discount bourbon and try to make "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" capture my attention, though it's not done too well so far. Shrinking attention span and all that.

A week ago I went to the Blood Center of Wisconsin with the intent to donate a couple units of double-red cells. I'm O+ so while I'm not a "universal donor," I can donate to anyone with a positive Rh factor. Well, something went amiss, and when the machine started to return the plasma and citrine (an anticoagulant) back into the vein, it hurt. A lot. Like a deep bone/muscle pain. We think the needle stick must've gone amiss, and the plasma was going back out around the needle and into the surrounding tissue.

Well, we at least got one unit out of me, so it wasn't a total wash. However, my arm has been unusually tender for the last few days, and aching a bit, as well. It also doesn't help that this past week in rehearsal, we've been working a stunt wherein I have to put a fair bit of pressure on that arm. So I've got pretty bruises in a few spots (though most are starting to fade) but still, between the aches and the strange colors, it's been an unnerving week. Happily, the aches are fading as well.

Anyway, I figured I could tell you this story to make up for the utter lack of content lately.

In other, non-blood-donation-related news, I made a kickass chicken curry and served it over Balti seasoned potatoes this week, and found it to be delectable. I also caught the attention of the company that makes an ingredient I used in my Memorial Day cocktail blog post, and they liked what I did with their product.

I also have half a bag of cheese curds left, so I think I may nibble on a few of those after I finish my martini. Or maybe I'll just make another martini.

It is my considered opinion that precisely 99.7% of all wars are senseless wastes of money, resources and, most significantly, human life.

That does not, however, make the sacrifices of those who chose to serve their country when asked any less remarkable.