In honor of the cat that tried to eat my foot last night*:



I declare it Macro Day! Give me your tired, your poor, your bucket-needing walruses, your funny-faced Karl Urbans, your fake inspirational posters.

Bring it on!

*No, it was Cante. No, really.

Last night David Cook played at the House of Blues Chicago. My knee and I had a slight disagreement that day (bitchy, bitchy knee), and the HOB staff was nice enough to put me in a box where I could sit down.

RIGHT HERE.

Why yes, that is a box right next to the stage, behind the curtain. And the box across from me? Was where Cook stood to watch the opening act. The stage in this picture is the setup right before Cook and his band took the stage.

And when they were playing, this was my view. (And it's an even better view when not seen through the lens of a cell phone camera with no zoom or flash.)

It was AMAZING. Actually, the funny thing was, since we were behind the speakers, I couldn't hear the vocals clearly. Not a problem when they sang something I knew, but when they did a cover, or when Cook talked, I got one word out of maybe three. I'm going to have to YouTube the whole thing just to find out what I was watching. *g* But I could see everything in minute detail. Like the time he licked one of Neil's guitar picks and tried to stick it to his forehead. Or how SRS BZNS he got when he was jamming on Barbasol. Or how he would stick his tongue out to the side for a second when he was catching his breath. Or how he wasn't wearing a necklace, but had a bunch of bracelets (including his orange one) and a black Sheppard-style armband on his left forearm.

In short: OMGWTFDAVIDCOOK.

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Does anyone have a recommendation for a good GP in Chicago, preferably female and in or around the downtown area?

*hopes*

Yesterday I knocked into the mail pile and two envelopes slid between the cube wall and the end of my desk, in the only place in my cube you can't get at. (Naturally.) I poked around a little, but I was stymied.

This morning, I worked on it a little, and ended up wrapping tape around my ruler, sticking it back there, and snagging the envelopes one by one.

I feel like the MacGuyver theme should be playing now.

\o/

If you're looking for creepy inspiration for a story, might I suggest the Dyatlov Pass incident?

( actually, this is kind of gruesome. Let's cut it )

Or perhaps the Dancing Epidemic of 1518?

It is not known why these people danced to their deaths, nor is it clear that they were dancing willfully.

(Or you could just read Things I Learned from Wikipedia on your lunch break.)

My landlord was watering the "lawn" outside my apartment with one of those sprinklers that arcs high in the air.

How high, you ask?

Oddly enough, about the height of my apartment windows.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Fortunately slodwick was there--she was in the next room and noticed it pretty quickly. But my windowsills were flooded, there was water all over the floor in the dining room, there was STANDING WATER in my kitchen, and her computer got wet. We don't know if it was damaged or not.

I've left a message for my landlord (although I lost the ability to speak partway through and was just stuttering "Not on!"), and slod has cleaned up most of it, so we're just left to worry about the computer. But I am PEEVED, internets. PEEVED.

...or not.

( images! )

Now I have "Fifth of July" by Eddie from Ohio stuck in my head. I'm now on my own for the first of my life on the fifth of July...now what?

( more bits of the song I'm humming )

I am at work--I volunteered to come in and be part of the skeleton staff today, partly because it's a great chance to catch up on my projects without being distracted by the day-to-day stuff, and partly because I never turn down a chance at a comp day. :D

So I'm sitting here with a to-do list longer than yesterday's (wtf), and in my head I'm like this:


Only I'm not Rachel Maddow and I have better lighting. (That's pretty much my desk, though.)

Right. Back to the chain gang!

Has anyone seen Public Enemies yet? COME TALK TO ME ABOUT IT. Especially if you've read the book, too.

( spoilers )

Guess who left her laptop at airport security this morning?

Guess who didn't notice for twenty minutes, and almost didn't notice at all?

Guess who got SUPER LUCKY and found it in the TSA's hands when she went gibbering back?

*slumps* ohman.

I am still at work at 6:09 the day before my vacation, with a THIRTY-EIGHT page stack of legal requests to work through--some of which may have already been fulfilled, but apparently it's no one's job to keep track of that!--and I still have to go home, do my laundry, clean two rooms of my house, pack, do my own nails now (*grr*), and be ready to take a plane tomorrow to the wedding.

*shakes tiny fist at universe* WHAT IS THIS JIGGERY-POKERY, I ASK YOU?

I have set up a fundraising page at RAINN.org (the Rape, Abuse, and Incest Network).

Why I Support RAINN: Because everyone needs one safe place where they can be listened to and believed and helped.

Please help me raise $500 by July 22 (my birthday) in order to help RAINN in their efforts to create and maintain that safe space.

I'm going to put together a Chicago fangirl game night as a local fundraiser, and if you have any suggestions for an online fundraiser, that would be awesome! (Unfortunately, I already promised all my garage sale stuff to the Holocaust Museum fundraiser. Well, not unfortunately. You know what I mean.)

Thanks!

Warning: the links below are from a post that contains potentially triggery content (specifically warnings for "Very explicit discussion of sexual assault and the nature, anatomy, cause & effect of triggers. Is itself triggery."). My apologies for not labelling it originally.

"I am saying that, having suffered trauma, the victim is elevated to a privileged rank because of that trauma - the privilege would not exist without the trauma... one might make a case for the "privilege of the victim" here."

I've been trying to stay quiet in the discussion of fic warnings (particularly the ones for sexual assault) because my reaction to it all is so personal that I don't think I can say anything helpful. But I have to say that making a statement like that, or questioning the truth of an abuse survivor's account of her own actions, all to win an argument, is unacceptable. It's cruel.

I'm leaving comments open (although screening anonymous ones), but a note: I know some of you enjoy playing devil's advocate and poking at statements like these to see if you can bring another perspective to the table. Normally I'm good with it, but I will probably not be receptive to a comment along those lines today.

* Stepping from the heavy, humid heat of a Chicago summer into a slightly too air conditioned building. Ahhhhhhh.

* The first hit of caffeine in the morning.

* Fancy dresses.

* Being smarter than your email.

* This TOS memo. I understand that you science fiction people with your technical jargon have a word to describe this happening. It is known as a "mistake."

* Shaved cats.

* David Archulta.

* Did I mention air conditioning? Because it is a thing I never stop appreciating.

I think I'm actually angry enough at the world to do this meme without falling all over myself to apologize - so if you want an unpopular opinion from me (or at least a SUPER CRANKY one), throw me a fandom.

Things I am doing today:

1) Researching air conditioning accessories, to make the annual ritual of nearly dropping the AC out the window a little less stressful. Because it's too monday-through-friday HOT for just fans in my heat trap of a place.

2) Ignoring the latest "debate" entirely, because my blood pressure can't take it.

3) Making a list of all my online billing sites, because I had to cancel my bank card this weekend and I have to change all my info. *groan*

4) Avoiding my betas, because I haven't been writing.

5) Contemplating how to best convey the awesomeness of taxfic.

The only picture you get today is my cliche-bingo card:

( image! )

Whee!

Also, I've seen a lot of people asking about the taxfic cliche (*ernie laugh*), so I'll do a post about it later that y'all can point to if you hear anyone express bewilderment.

You guys! You guys! The Cliche Bingo challenge is open for signups.

And on the list of possible cliches, they have "taxes" listed in the crackfic category.

I'm such a giant dorkface, I totally teared up when I saw that. (It's been...a day.)

*sniff* *beam*

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good way to learn Modern Standard Arabic? I'm planning a trip to Egypt in the next year or two (meep), and right now I can say four things:

* peace be with you
* and with you as well
* no!
* bag (because it's pronounced the same as my cat's name)

I'm looking into either in-person classes here in Chicago, or online classes.

Thanks! :)