WTF is up with UPS?

WTF is up with UPS?

So I ordered some photo equipment and here is the UPS tracking info so far:

Dec 29, 2005
12:59 P.M.
ONTARIO, CA, US
ARRIVAL SCAN
Dec 28, 2005
3:24 P.M.
DALLAS/FT. WORTH A/P, TX, US
DEPARTURE SCAN
10:13 A.M. DALLAS/FT. WORTH A/P, TX, US ARRIVAL SCAN
7:03 A.M. WATERTOWN, MA, US DEPARTURE SCAN
4:22 A.M. WATERTOWN, MA, US ARRIVAL SCAN
3:23 A.M. PHILADELPHIA, PA, US DEPARTURE SCAN
Dec 27, 2005
11:49 P.M.
PHILADELPHIA, PA, US
ARRIVAL SCAN
7:55 P.M. MASPETH, NY, US DEPARTURE SCAN
6:55 P.M. MASPETH, NY, US ORIGIN SCAN
Dec 26, 2005
7:38 P.M.
US
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

What a special way to route their shipping.

What would you do for a BlueBlood.com membership?

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I haven't quite finished my resolutions for the new year, but I know one is to get back in touch with what excited me about music.

Only Japan has all the really cool digital music players. Fuck iPod.

Marquis 36 is out, more Big in America coverage from Amelia G

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So, although I did get to eat some yummy food and exchange a few gifts, this holiday season has mostly been crazy work-around-the-clock time for me, but so many projects have been coming to fruition, that I am having serious workgasms, I am so happy. That last push was draining, but it feels so good to have this done. This past few weeks, a number of sites I've worked on have launched or relaunched, but Blue Blood is my baby and this is an all new digital Blue Blood. I feel like Blue Blood online is finally a proper descendent of Blue Blood in print. I feel so good about this site.



Commentary most welcome. I haven't slept much lately, so, if you point any typos or whatever out to me, I will most certainly appreciate it. Unless a typo distracts you too much from how truly from the heart this is.

Much love to Forrest and Ed and all the creative photographers and artists and writers and awesome people who got in front of the camera.

So check it out, check it out, check it out already, please :-) Thanks.

Ya know what is kind of ironically hilarious. A while ago, I wrote a long rambling stream-of-consciousness journal entry. Buried deep in it was a mention that I wished a two-faced person would get a headache from the cognitive dissonance of being so phony. It was a very minor part of a very general and wandering entry and someone would really have to read it with care to even notice that one part. Funny thing is that multiple people got all peeved thinking I meant them and multiple "friends" of each person who took it personally had to repeat that person's distress to me, whether or not said "friends" were sworn to secrecy.

Note to self: I know more two-faced people than I thought, but other people's guilty consciences are extremely funny.

Note to world: If I mentioned hoping ill would befall a bad person and your self-centered ass assumed I meant you, then I do mean you, whether or not I meant you to begin with. Ba ha ha ha ha ha.

Happy holidays! I have yummy leftovers for days.

You know what sucks most about being my own boss

I really want to call in sick for the next month. Or at least this week. And then I want a vacation. I've never been to Hawaii.

Cuddly

I met the talented Kristin Tercek through Ed Mironiuk who has been doing fantabulous artwork for Blue Blood projects since 1995 or 1996. But Kristin wouldn’t need nepotism to be covered here because I love love love her Cuddly Rigor Mortis doll collection.
Full article here...

Forrest is technologically godlike!

Vintage

If hypothetically I need to get something off of a 5 1/4" floppy disk and Kinko's doesn't have the drives for that any more, any suggestions on what I should do?

Why Dedicated Salesmen Are Often Disappointing

If everybody in The Apprentice LJ community knew the question was coming, how could Randal have been surprised when Trump asked him whether he should hire Rebecca too? For a guy who was so smooth in so many other situations, I was surprised and kind of appalled that Randal seemed blindsided by the question. I understand him not wanting his win diminished by news stories suggesting a tie, but Trump had made it clear Randal had won already. Now instead of stories saying Trump has two Apprentices (or Apprenti) or stories saying second place on The Apprentice got a prize too this season, the stories are Randal is kind of a jerk but apparently won The Apprentice. The front page of Yahoo is running the headline Randal denies Rebecca, wins 'Apprentice' and running a poll with the question Trump nearly hired both until Randal nixed the deal. What would you have done? where so far 46% of respondants say he should have hired them both and 26% have selected the Fire Randal for not hiring Rebecca option.

Trump prizes loyalty and Randal just really actively didn't show it.

In my opinion, I think Randal should have expressed that he knew Trump was busy and had limited time and he hoped to benefit from Trump's guidance and wisdom as his Apprentice, but there is no reason why Rebecca should not also be hired to work on the project she chose, just not as his Apprentice because Randal was really looking forward to being Trump's Apprentice. Yes, I've had time to think about what the "right" answer would have been, but surely Randal had to have considered it.

If Randal didn't realize that question might be coming up, when everyone watching the show knew it was, then maybe he is just a salesman and not much of a businessperson. I had not realized until the final video about him tonight that the job he has at BCT is as sales outreach. Sometimes salesmen seem really nice and people make the mistake of thinking they are really good friends. So it is a shocker when seemingly warm and nice people suddenly turn on their friends and allies, but that is not the most uncommon salesguy move in the world.

I think Randal is just a very different sort of person from what I had thought. I'm disappointed.

Snarfed from speedytomato

take the "why did you get in trouble?" test.


and go to mewing.net. because laura's been in trouble on the first day of kindergarten on.

Thanksgiving

So I mentioned the Blue Blood Boutique to my mom and she acted like it was really weird that I would get into clothing. I pointed out to her that we sold thousands and thousands of Blue Blood T-shirts and such when I was doing the magazine version, so launching a similar project to go with the internet version was hardly a major departure. I was really excited that the hoodies totally sold out and had to be reordered almost immediately after launch. I wanted to tell my mom about a good thing which happened and she somehow managed to imply that me continuing successfully with a successful business was irresponsible. In case anyone was wondering why I am a workaholic, there is your explanation in one easy anecdote.

For some reason, this Thanksgiving time period was a weird alignment of planets such that I received really surreal emails and phone calls from more than a dozen people from various time periods in my life. The gist of all of them was more or less to check on our connection, emotional, artistic, or professional. A lot of them asked hard questions.

Only I took one day off for Thanksgiving and gave myself a few days slack around the time of Thanksgiving on messages or email. Plus my cell phone has been kind of jacked up. I should buy a new one, but I want to keep my number and this always involves me showing my cell company the error of their ways and compelling them to let me keep it. And I just don't have the time or energy for that right now. So, anyway, I took a few days where I didn't immediately compose responses to hard questions and every single one of these people started contacting me repeatedly. It kind of freaked me out.

I wish people could wait for others to think for a fucking minute before responding. Either that, or be more chill about what might be said off the cuff, without contemplation.

I feel like, in this digital age, a lot of people do everything under an anonymous cloak and deny responsibility. But somehow I didn't foresee the way most people would interact and every fucking thing I say goes down on my permanent record. Like other people can be egregiously two-faced and say the worst fucking things, but somehow it was just their internet avatar or something being a cunt, so all should be forgiven. But, if I am a bit short with someone one day, I will have to hear about it for fucking ever.

And here is another thing I hate about internet modes of communication. I feel like I can't type a list of my blessings here, but I can stand up and complain about my curses.

Which reminds me, speaking of curses, this chick I used to be friends with said something really stupid and hurtful and fake and I wished that being such a selfish phony two-faced idiot gave her the headache it would give me, if I lived in such a constant state of cognitive dissonance. And I just heard she has had a migraine for months, starting when I wished that.

I don't believe in magic, but I do get what I wish for pretty often. Except sometimes if I wish for the world to be a better place.

Sometimes I am really sad about lost human connections. I've moved so often. I wish I could go to a high school reunion, but my various high schools don't have them. At least, I don't think they do. I just got put on my university mailing list, but they mostly just ask me for more money and I kind of think the dough they got was already too much.

Anyway, I had a really great Thanksgiving with family and friends. And some damn good turkey and sides.

Just posted a new set to Blue Blood's GothicSluts.com which I'm pleased about. Second, potentially NSFW shot at this link and of course the whole series is on GS. I like a certain wild untamed quality of hers which I feel we were able to capture in this image.

I Am Lord Vader

I've been watching The Apprentice this season, both the Martha Stewart and Donald Trump version. Trump is so out of patience that he is 4 or 5 people ahead on the firing process. I wonder how they will deal with it when he runs out of job candidates. The last two contestants have five weeks of competing head-to-head? Four clip shows? The Star Wars episode was not the best episode they have had by far as the contestants just were not very creative or teamwork-oriented on either team and I like episodes which I feel teach something more than this one did. But the trailers for it on the show's site are awesome. Gotta love the Death Star project and costumed characters in a corporate business setting.

Someone who I adore (who I work with) called me "Lord Vader" the other day. I think I am flattered. Not sure if I should be, but I am.



I'm pretty sure I should be.

Argh

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Please Remember to Vote

Hey there, Californians, please remember you have until 8pm tonight to vote on a number of important ballot initiatives. You can find your polling place by going to LAVote.net and entering some address information for where you are registered.

There are a number of initiatives which would amend the California Constitution, including one, #73, which would add the language "unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born" to the state Constitution. There are a number of initiatives which could have a huge impact on education in California, as well as initiatives on alternative forms of energy and unnecessary and expensive redistricting.

You can check out the pros and cons for all the propositions, along with helpful links to partisan websites from both sides of each issue, at CalVoter.com.

Please remember to vote. You might feel like a drop in a bucket, but you are an important drop, and voting is a small price to pay for all the benefits of being part of a free society. Maybe it is corny for me to feel that it is everyone's civic responsibility, but voting is everyone's civic responsibility.

Hottie Blue Blood Chaotika Represents!

Full free gallery of photos of everyone's favorite Vegas pixie at the Blue Blood Boutique.

Doggie Tees!

Due to Kellie's influence, the Blue Blood Boutique now offers badass doggie tees for adorable doggies like Pika!

Ernie You scored 35% Organization, 68% abstract, and 52% extroverted!

This test measured 3 variables. First, this test measured how organized you are. Some muppets like Cookie Monster make big messes, while others like Bert are quite anal about things being clean. Second, this test measured if you prefer a concrete or an abstract viewpoint. For the purposes of this test, concrete people are considered to gravitate more to mathematical and logical approaches, whereas abstract people are more the dreamers and artistic type. Third, this test measured if you are more of an introvert or an extrovert. By definition, an introvert concentrates more on herself and an extrovert focuses more on others. In this test an introvert was somebody that either tends to spend more time alone or thinks more about herself. You are more sloppy, more abstract, and both introverted and extroverted. Here is why are you Ernie. You are both sloppy. You might not always know where everything you need is. Perhaps you don't even care. Ernie sure doesn't. Hey, when you got a best friend that is anal about cleaning you can afford to not worry about it. Sure Ernie likes taking baths, but that's just to spend time with his ducky. You both can be abstract thinkers. Ernie is a dreamer by nature, always making up songs while he plays. He comes up with fanciful adventures. You definitely are not afraid to take chances in life. You only live once. You may notice others around you playing it safe, but you are more concerned with not compromising your desires, and getting everything you can out of life. This is a very romantic approach to life, but hopefully you are also grounded enough to get by. You are both somewhat introverted. Ernie enjoys spending time with others, but he is also quite content to be in his own fantasy world with his duckies. Unlike Bert, he has other friends to spend time with. Like Ernie, you probably like to have some time to yourself, but you do appreciate spending time with your friends, and you aren't scared of social situations. The other possible characters are Cookie Monster Big Bird Snuffleupagus Oscar the Grouch Elmo Kermit the Frog Grover The Count Guy Smiley Bert If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also if you want to tell me your favorite Sesame Street character, I can total them up and post them here. Perhaps your choice will win!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 9% on Organization You scored higher than 91% on concrete-abstra You scored higher than 30% on intro-extrovert

Link: The Your SESAME STREET Persona Test written by greencowsgomoo on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Halloween Blues

Click if you are stressing about Halloween when it should be your very favoritest day of the year.

Alex & Kelly Are Awesome

Alex and Kelly had a pumpkin carving party.





Kelly is building cool stuff in his backyard.



Alex made spooky snacks. Let's hear it for severed finger sugar cookies and conglomerated munchie tarantulas (plus damn yummy ginger cookies!)

What creepy dessert goods will you be eating this Halloween season?

Fleshbot got excited with me about the Eros Zine feature!

Fleshbot got excited with me about the Eros Zine feature!



Eros Zine stays up for a “late-night chat on horror and hoochies, porn and perversion” with Blue Blood mistress Amelia G, who shares her thoughts on horror smut and explains some of the inspirations behind her stable of altporn and fetish sites: “I have a huge monster-fucking fetish … I think the notion of something which is so powerful it could destroy you—but chooses not to do so—is very sexy. Really it is a paradigm for love and I find that very hot.” (Which doesn’t really shed much light on the accompanying photos of various Blue Blood beauties dripping with stage blood. But we think they’re pretty hot anyway.)

Marquis

CLICK KELLIE'S LOVELY ASS WITH ANDY TO SEE A FULL DIGITAL PREVIEW:



Sometimes I find working on my Big in America column for Marquis really really hard. I mean, I love when the magazine comes out, but I find working on the project super tough.

Snarfed from Forrest's Journal

Just added some new t-shirt designs to the Blue Blood Boutique, in both regular, as well as super hot baby-t styles. I'm really pleased with the new designs and it's really cool to see folks out rockin the new stuff out on the street and in the clubs already.

Amelia G Hearts Thomas S. Roche

Whoo-hoo! An interview with yours truly is the lead feature on Eros Zine today!



The interview was conducted by the fabulously witty Thomas S. Roche. Here is his intro:

I first encountered Amelia G through Blue Blood, the magazine she and Forrest Black published starting in 1992 -- in other words, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. In those days, the idea of combining horror, goth, sci-fi, comix, firearms, gaming, pornography and fetishism was just about unheard of. In fact, there were only a few dozen of us doing it.

Back then, I had like two professional publications plus a couple dozen pseudonymous porno novels and a substantial wad of published gay leather porn. The latter two categories I rarely bothered to tell anyone about, mostly because I kept writing porno books and stories and then forgetting about them as soon as I'd cashed the checks. I was far from being a high-profile writer. But the fact that I was so quickly welcomed into the fold -- despite my dorky eyeglasses and the fact that disks by Billy Joel sat between Jarboe and Joy Division on my CD shelf -- was testament to the fact that the goth/fetish/porn/BDSM/sci-fi/horror crossover community, in those days, was a very, very small world.

To be sure, sci-fi/horror and sex had enjoyed a long, lush flirtation, as had goth and horror -- the phenomena would explode over the next ten years precisely because fetish, fashion and fantasy are so undeniably right for each other. The BDSM community -- in San Francisco, at least -- was already overrun with comic-book-obsessed freaks of all genders whose pasts included frenzied adolescent wanks spurred on by everything from John Norman's Gor novels to Ziggy Stardust to Boris Vallejo to the Borg Queen to Frank-N-Furter to Darth Vader's erect syringe to Japanese anime to Philip Jose Farmer's Flesh. But at the time, the explicit connection of perversion, counterculture and science fiction/fantasy/horror drew puzzled looks from some fans -- and quivering streams of drool from others.

Blue Blood, along with Cecilia Tan's Circlet Press, Lisa Palac's Future Sex and Nancy Kilpatrick's The Darker Passions, among others, paved the way. Following close behind in a hurricane of mouth-breathing fanaticism were about ten bazillion pervy nerd boys and saucy geeksluts secreted after hours behind the gates of Ren Faires everywhere and locked in basements trying to rewire their N64s to shock their nutsacks. May the dark gods of science fiction fandom and eternal safe, sane and consensual torment just, oh, shower love upon you all. It makes me misty.

Anyway, screw the visit to the old folks' home. Let's talk monsterfucking.

Nowadays, horror porno is de rigeur, baby, de freakin' rigeur, but Amelia and Forrest are still crankin' out high-class commercial erotica with a countercultural edge and the flavor of damnation. In addition to Blue Blood, their sites include Gothic Sluts, Barely Evil, Rubber Dollies, and Scar 13, among others.

I caught up with Amelia for a late-night chat on horror and hoochies, porn and perversion.

You are going to have to visit Eros Zine to read Thomas's hysterically funny questions and my answers to 'em. Go there now.

PS The free photo gallery shot by me and Forrest Black which is featured with the interview is exclusive to Eros Zine for this fine holiday season, 2005. You gotta go there to view it.

Too Much Halloween

I love this time of year, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I know I should just be happy, but it is a little too much. We sold out of the new Blue Blood Boutique hoodies the first week. I had to reorder everything and hope I get everything in time to keep people whose orders I haven't been able to send yet happy. I've got a deadline this week that I really don't feel like making. Actually, I've got four deadlines this week and one of them is cleaning up the mess made by someone else's shirking their responsibilities and one I just don't feel like doing in the midst of everything else. Had a great time bowling Friday. Was fun seeing Kellie while she was in town. Love my comfy hoodie. Have some great photos I just need to post. Am bleeding like a CSI episode. Had a nightmare last night which was sort of a cross between Martha Stewart: Apprentice and Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS and when I used to do contract design work. It sounds funnier than it was to experience. Started my day off-kilter. A bunch of people I like are having their relationships break up right now and I feel sad for them, even though, in some cases, I'm sure they will make positive new beginnings from the lemonade. Went to too many parties last night. Have too many parties and shows I want to go to this week and more work than I feel like I can do. Feeling overwhelmed is making me lower energy than I would otherwise feel I think. That and bleeding like a CSI episode. (I just had to say that twice.) There is just so much going on both workwise and funwise that I feel like I am always dropping the ball right now. I've got friends helping me with stuff and that is awesome. I should really just chill for a day and try to recharge. But I probably won't. Fuck I have a lot to do, but I just spent precious work and fun time freaking out in type instead. Blargh.

Cool Cityscape

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Announcement Snarfed from Forrest

Hey folks, I'm very excited to announce the opening of the
Blue Blood Boutique!
We're working on adding lots of cool stuff, in addition to the awesome new Blue Blood hoodies (as seen on the lovely Scar, below), stickers, and pins!







Free shipping available for larger orders too!
Check it out: http://www.BlueBloodBoutique.com

Chaotika is right thinking she is cool and sexy!

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Battle Hymn

I have PMS. I generally try to avoid anything which could be ruffling at such times. Apparently the world did not get the memo. LOL Can a journal be considered a memo to the world? Probably not. I hope not. I really don't post my ready-for-primetime thoughts here. I wish fewer people used this medium as a memo to the world generator. I really enjoy the concept of a diary which can allow feedback. But a diary does not equal a site. If I want to communicate a finished thought to hundreds of thousands of people, this is not where I would post it.

Late late night last night. Feeling very crusty today, but slept really well.

Actually, it is not just PMS. I mean, I do try to avoid conflicts if I fear my own reaction might be too strong or otherwise off. For a long time, I was holding my tongue on a lot of things because I wanted to avoid conflict. Not sure those two things go together though. Something for me to think about. In general, as time goes on, I like to reserve my energy for conflicts which matter and not just any old thing. I would rather create than battle, unless the battle is for something important i.e. good cause gets a battle hymn from me but baseless drama does not.

Pink!

There is a leopard-spotted pink paddle in my suitcase from Comic Con. I wonder who it could possibly belong to . . .

Funerals

I can't decide if I should go to the funeral. I had kind of decided I couldn't do it, but then I woke up early this morning from one of those horrible nightmares where you are racing to get somewhere you never arrive. And I was trying to get some friend of my parents who was kind of like Eddie Izzard to get me to the DC airport so I could catch a flight to make it to the funeral, only I'm not even in DC right now and my parents would be very unlikely to be friends with anyone who was anything like Eddie Izzard.

I really don't like mortality.

There is something wrong about funerals. Like the person you are going to see won't really be there.

Morbid

I used to look forward to autumn every year. The last four years in a row, however, I've had a death in the family around this time of year. Every damn year. If I never pick up for my mother calling before noon again, will my family live longer?

Thanks!

I have a leather jacket and preserves from someone with extraordinary taste in spreadables. Thanks, baby! :-) Next time, I promise to go barefoot in your garden. Topiary pets rule.

Kellie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Contest

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Photo Stuffs

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Dreaming in Apocalypse

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Profiteering Creeps, Good Charities, Pain & Optimism

It really bugs the hell out of me when there are people who try to profit off of something like the Katrina disaster. I'm talking about the sort of people who ask you to buy their products and they will donate a portion of profits. Note that most of this profiteers offer a % of profits and not actual gross proceeds. Then they just make enough expenses that there are no profits. Most of them do not have real businesses either i.e. they are thinking of throwing a club night or making arts and crafts or something and, despite lack of experience in that arena, asking other people to support their fledgling business because, although they are not a registered charity, they are planning to give later. Yeah, right.

If a genuine going concern of a business decides to donate part of a regular ongoing profit stream, I think that is decent if they are doing it that way just to make sure they are giving what they can afford. If they are doing it to make people buy their products, I think that is vile.

A Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance spokesperson pointed out that, even if the middleman asking you to give through them is legit, the middleman is taking a skim. If you want to give, you should give directly to the charity.

I'd like to add that of course giving directly to someone you know needs help makes sense too. For example, a lot of people in the Houston gothic scene are providing temporary housing to people from the New Orleans scene. There is a town in I believe Tennessee where the local churches and suchlike basically paired local families with their counterparts from a stricken town so that people were assisting each other on a personal and direct level.

You should research what charities you want to support. Besides the BBB folks, Charity Navigator the guide for intelligent giving has a specific guide for the Katrina disaster at this link. None of these is a be-all-end-all instruction manual, but I think they have good tips.

The following is the list of charities I have been supporting:


I think that housing is going to be a really important issue for recovery. I believe the people who run this charity truly intend to do good and have a track record of success.


This is a service created by MoveOn.org for the purpose of matching up people able to put up victims of the storm with people who need a place to stay for a while. I think this is a wonderful and immediate concept to help with the immediate problem. Those donating housing can state preferences for who they would be most able to give shelter and support to i.e. gender, children, families, orphans, pets, smokers, nonsmokers, etc. Those seeking housing get an intuitive interface for searching by location and so forth.


I know some people oppose their Christian message, but I think the Salvation Army actually embodies a lot of the good love-thy-neighbor stuff which the political Christians have robbed the religion of in the public eye. I saw the Salvation Army spokesperson on CNN and was impressed with his compassion. Can't say the same for everyone I saw speak during my compulsive news-watching this past week.


Again, I was impressed by the spokesperson for America's Second Harvest on CNN. Obviously figuring out how to get food shipped to people is an immediate need and these people have a track record for doing this successfully.

I'm incredibly impressed with everything Magic Johnson has been doing as well, although the Magic Johnson Foundation is not specifically a Katrina charity. For example, he has been feeding the displaced at his Burger Kings and giving them new shoes to replace the disease-ridden cardboard some people have been walking around in. A bunch of other stuff too. I feel good that it seems like the majority of people really do want to see the right things done and so many are helping in the ways available to them.

What charities do you all like and why?

WTF?

It is starting to sound like FEMA was worse than ineffective; they were actually damaging. They reportedly stopped Wal-Mart shipments of water and turned away fuel and boats and, according to the following video, even sabotaged communication systems. WTF?

At this link and this torrent mirror

This is just so much worse than merely not mobilizing on time or efficiently. How could FEMA or anyone human block other people from mobilizing help? I just can't imagine what goes through someone's head when they stop someone from handing a bottle of water to someone who is dying of dehydration. I'm no bleeding heart, but Broussard sure as hell does not come across as one either. It makes me so sick and angry and I can't even imagine how it must have been and still is for people down there sworn to help.

Outrage

I am having trouble getting anything done. I normally avoid the news, except for Jon Stewart (even though I think Anderson Cooper is one sexy boy), but I can't stop watching CNN this week. I am so appalled at how long it has taken to send the proper help. The reports of volunteers being turned away from troublespots make me sick. Everyone from private US citizens to foreign governments to the Salvation Army have been stopped from rendering aid. I don't even understand how there is aid which couldn't get there from our own American government resources. That people were stopped from helping just makes me so angry, makes me feel so impotent. I am so digesting my stomach lining. The handling of the Katrina disaster is such a travesty even the newscasters on FOX and CNN are taking over the job of shouting at the TV for us. I just found out that the last of my personal friends from NOLA showed up more or less okay yesterday. That is some relief, but, as a patriot and a human being, I am still so angry and so sad. I normally make it a policy not to post about anything remotely political online. But most of what I've been doing since this happened in watching news on TV and the web and reading message board and journal posts about it and making posts myself which I normally wouldn't, but this is just too much. How could this happen in America?

I ordered a home gym, but apparently it is going to take eight fucking weeks to ship to me. Who knows if I will still even want to be in shape then.

New Orleans being 80% underwater is creeping me out.

All work and no play makes Amelia something or other.

I kind of miss school.

Youth really is wasted on the young.

I want to go somewhere autumn is happening.

I feel sort of depressed for reasons so random and strange, I want to smack myself.

Is it hot in here?

I've had a fever for the last couple days. I don't feel sick really. Just feverish and kind of delirious.

Wow, I've been staring blankly at the screen for some time since I typed the first part of this. I bought like everything in the get-well-soon juices section of Ralph's a day ago. Maybe I will drink some juice and read a novel now. I'm not sure too much more work is getting done today. I did get to the post office which I really needed to do, so that's cool. I want to be functional by Saturday.

I've been feeling really positive and upbeat and optimistic lately, but that completely freaks me out. Is that gothic or what?

I said a cheeseburger, motherfucker!

Letters I've Writtten . . . Oops, I Pressed Send

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Bleah

I've managed to find every time-wasting activity on the internet tonight I think.

I should pull the network card out of my machine when I have writing to do.

I guess tomorrow is another day. Bleah.

Zeus

I wish the drunk people outside would all be struck mute by the wrathful hand of some deity. Right about now. I'm having enough trouble concentrating and they are really not helping. I really want to yell out the window:

DUDE, YOU DIDN'T GET LAID. SO WHAT. GET OVER IT. CALL A CAB. GO HOME.

Sometimes living in the heart of Hollywood kinda blows.

Yay! Forrest and I shot the cover of Spread

Yay! Forrest and I shot the cover of the new issue of Spread. We still need to get the mag, but I'm really pleased about it. This is from a shoot we did with author/performance artist Michelle Tea where the shoot was really expensive and ended up sort of SNAFUed and I am super pleased to have it turn out as a cool magazine cover. Whoo-hoo!



I heart film.

Guin Turner

Forrest Black and I shot screenwriter/actress Guinevere Turner for both this month's Girlfriends and this month's On Our Backs. Sexy and talented Blue Blood Mary Jane did Guin's makeup for both shoots and she posed with Guin for the On Our Backs one.

Molly has some interesting factoids about Guinevere Turner at Guinevere Turner in On Our Backs

I'm really having trouble getting into a real writing headspace after dealing with techie computer stuff all week.

Marquis 34

Got the most recent issue of Marquis in. Forrest just posted thumbnails of some of our pages from it at this link.

Harsh Mistress

I had a great time at dinner tonight. I finally had a coffee and my headache is much dissipated but still lurking in the back of my brainpan.

S, who really is a science fiction writer, peer-pressured me into taking this quiz. I am apparently:

I am: Robert A. Heinlein Beginning with technological action stories and progressing to epics with religious overtones, this take-no-prisoners writer racked up some huge sales numbers.

Which science fiction writer are you?

I think not.

Heinlein probably would not have procrastinated the way I am procrastinating the article I have to write right now. I mean, right this instant, while I am blogging instead.