sugizo's Friends

skeets

Subject:	#1 Threat to America: Bears. With Flu Germs.
Time:	1:48 pm.
Mood:	silly.

My stupid body is trying to get sick. Sore throat and fatigue, gotta love that. :p

In other news, I seem to be progressing in acro: now, instead of landing on my head due to my own blunders, I'm getting dropped on my head by other people! XD

But in all seriousness, I actually did do a handstand into a bridge yesterday, which I hadn't done before, and I did other stuff better than my usual. :) I'm gaining more trust in my somewhat-less-wimpy arms, but man, getting dropped onto my face didn't go a long way towards boosting my trust in other people!

Oh well, it's a process, and I didn't get hurt. My neck is a little stiff today, but that could just as easily be evil germs doing their fiendish work.

I'm thinking I may bail out from work early today, which I'd be 100% happy about it wasn't so freakin' busy here. Peeewwww.

Comments: Add Your Own.

skeets

Subject:	Girls on the run
Time:	12:42 pm.
Mood:	bouncy.

Man, I don't use this icon enough. Of course, that's probably an indicator that bad things aren't happening such that it'd warrant me using the icon.

Yesterday was a rad, rad, rad fashion shoot. The designer punched me up a month or two ago and we hatched plans to tell a story of fabulous ladies who ran away from their high-profile lives, and took a trip through the run-down pockets of the city. I love shoots that tell a story, so I was totally pumped to do this one.

We went to a crappy motel on Interstate Ave. for the first bit, and god, scouting out the place was a bitch. I went to several dive motels the day before, and every time I got to talk to the manager of a given motel, said manager was a cranky East Indian dude who tried to squeeze every penny he could out of us. I'm convinced that dive motels are the new Kwik-E-Mart. (yeah, that's a stereotype, but dude, I've noticed a definite trend over the past year or two)

The shots we did after the motel were a trip, though: we went up to a laundromat on Lombard, and started doing some shots outside the place. The manager came out to see what we were doing, and he was TOTALLY into it. XD He let us go inside and basically have our run of the place, and all he asked in return was that we take a picture of him with the models in front of the shop:

( candid silliness )

And he wasn't even a lech about it! What an awesomely nice guy.

There are a ton of shots that I haven't even begun to sort through yet, seeing as there were ten outfits, but I did crank out these two group shots:

( sneaky preview )

I went for a more aged look with the edit--kind of like old photos from the '70s--to go with the more run-down and dive-y locations. (I even thought about adding grain, but decided against it) I also used harder light, and both the designer and I liked the raw look it gave to the shots.

I also had my reservations about the cropping on the motel shot at first, but I actually like it better than I thought I would, and it shows the bloomers, which was the whole point of the shot. :) I have to remember that I can actually crop out parts of a model for fashion stuff, as long as it shows the clothes and works compositionally.

Speaking of, there are rumblings of potentially exciting news for me and my fashion editorial flailings... not sharing until I have concrete details, though, but if all pans out, yeee!

As for the other parts of the weekend, I wushu-ed (naturally) and we also caught Iron Man at the beer theater! The movie certainly lived up to y'alls praises; I'm no Iron Man fangirl by any stretch, but I really enjoyed the ride. :)

In other news, I weight trained earlier, for the first time in forever! They added a new gym to the building here at The Job, and it's got just enough equipment that I can actually go and do a nice 30-45 minute session during lunch, instead of wanking around on YouTube or something. ;) I hope the results turn out as expected.

Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.

tropigalia

Subject:	mundanes
Time:	1:47 pm.
Mood:	melancholy.

I re-subscribed to World of Warcraft so I can ignore the fact that I don't have a social life. I definitely can't marathon play like I used to. I seem to max out at 2 or 3 hours and I hope it stays that way. Then again it's not particularly better to lie in bed thinking about how I have no social life.

I had a nightmare about my dad last night. He called me and I thought, "I guess I should pick up since I haven't talked to him in a while". Then I realized I had thought he was dead, so I started freaking out. He said, "Mary, I'm so sorry..." And I asked him, "So you're not dead?" And he screamed, "No, I'm dead!" And I woke up. It was the first time he had ever said it in a dream. I wasn't really able to go back to sleep for four hours after that.

I made my mom a big breakfast yesterday: a mozzarella and mushroom omelet, french toast with plum jam, sliced cantaloupe and strawberries, and a pot of black tea. I forgot the scrapple, though! D: She liked her massage gift certificate though.

I guess I just need cuddles...

Comments: Read 14 or Add Your Own.

skeets

Subject:	Free money
Time:	10:25 am.
Mood:	annoyed.

I'm annoyed on multiple levels by the whole stimulus check thing.

When I first heard about the stimulus checks, I was *not* happy. The dollar is weak, at least in part because we keep printing more dollars, which lowers the value of an individual dollar. Printing *more* dollars in order to send out stimulus checks? Fixes NOTHING. As far as "boosting the economy," the stimulus checks are pretty much like slapping a band-aid on a sucking chest wound.

On a personal level, however, my only complaint about my free money is that it's not here yet. I wasn't sure if I'd get a mailed check or a direct-deposit, so I used the "where's my stimulus check" utility, and it didn't give me an answer. WTF, federal government? If you're going to make an economically stupid decision by giving me free money, at least give it to me fast, so I can start using it.

Of course, I don't plan to blow my check on consumer frivolity like they're hoping, anyway. It's going straight into the bank, y'all. I will not play into your ~~evil~~ stupid plans, government fools! Bwahaha!

Comments: Read 10 or Add Your Own.

tropigalia

Subject:	a declaration
Time:	11:36 am.
Mood:	lonely.

I can't take being quiet anymore!

I love him! I'm sad and heartsick without him.

He is brilliant and he is handsome and he is hilarious and above all, he is kind.
He is the only one in the world for me! He is the only one who would refer to a cute dog as a "fluffin' guy".
Sometimes in the car he suddenly hums a song I love that I had no idea he even paid attention to.
He imitates the way David Bowie says "Oh, yeah!" in Queen Bitch perfectly.
He knows what the ultimate compliments to me are and he uses them liberally.
He has faith in me, faith that I will love him and faith that I will get a driver's license and faith that I will do well in my classes and he is the only one who thinks of me in the way I'd always wanted people to see me.
I don't embarrass him. He wants to show me off to everyone. He wants to kiss me in the middle of the store even when I get embarrassed because I always hated when other couples did it.
He genuinely cares about my little brother and never treated him like so many other people did, as if he were a pet or something to ignore.
In his new job he's starting to see the advantages of his friendly extrovert nature. He hugs old people and talks to them for three hours.

I want to cry sometimes because he'll get the impression that I still have affection for somebody else or that I don't think it'll work.

But who in the world could talk to me about anything like he can? As well, he can hug me about anything. He can kiss me about anything.

As he goes door to door offering free quotes on new windows, or $5 Subway coupon books, I hope he never sees a girl he likes better than me. And when they holler at broads in the Wal-Mart parking lot, he better not holler, too.

I'm willing to risk feeling stupid or heart-broken or bitter later on. He is worth it to me.

Comments: Read 14 or Add Your Own.

tropigalia

Subject:	pretend stress
Time:	9:14 pm.
Mood:	greedy.

This guy looks like it wants to be stretched all over my boobs.

My mom is awfully cute. She keeps saying I NEED A DAY AT THE SPA I NEED A MASSAGE OOH LOOK AT THIS MP3 PLAYER. Lucky for her, even before she started large-scale hinting, I was scoping out spa packages and prodding at my sisters to figure out monetary distribution for gifts.

I really wish I could buy her a trip to San Francisco, or even better, Salzburg.

I got a 94 on my Italian final and I even though I can't see my portfolio grade, I can see I have 431.5 points out of 465 for my final English grade. I feel like I worked really hard and I want to be proud of it, but there is the ever-looming voice going COMMUUUUUUNITY COLLEGE! COMMMMUUUUUUNITY COLLEGE! THAT IS LIKE GETTING AN A FROM HAMBURGER UNIVERSITY!

I'm worried about my Asian Civ class even though I got As on both my document analyses (fuck you spell-check!! 'analyses' is right!!) and on my mid-term. I missed two quizzes. I even did an extra-credit presentation on Hare Krishna, which I bombed at the end by not being able to answer why the practitioners are supposed to wear orange robes, why it's not a cult, how their enlightenment is different from the Hindu, and where it has a high population of practitioners besides the US and New Zealand.

I'm pretty close to getting my Associates Degree but I've been taking way more history and language courses than I needed, and I flunked that one semester in 2006 because I just stopped going when I was depressed. I should already have it so I feel dumb. I need a political science, Math 100 (like what most of you took in 8th grade lol :(), and a lab science. I am freaked out about the prospect of a lab science. It's terrifying to me! I am incompetent and every time I look at slides under a microscope I am like, "Hmmm... It's purple... Very purple... Oh fuck I spilled all the iodine ok that's why".

Mary is not a scientist. :(

Here is a list of ridiculous things I should really not wear but really want to anyway:
-really short denim shorts
-a fuckin' denim jumpsuit YES i want it
-a cute bikini

Sometimes I just want to be ridiculous and trashy in a non-ironic way. As for the bikini, it's half about offending people and half about how they're just kinda cute.

WELL. MY birthday is in less than three weeks and maybe if you feel generous you can get greedy Mary who is greedy a present:
thethingsiwant is a comprehensive list of greediness
Torrid fats wishlist
Alloy

Comments: Read 18 or Add Your Own.

skeets

Subject:	Thick and thin
Time:	5:09 pm.
Mood:	restless.

Being thin-skinned really blows. Maybe I just had too many people being mean to me when I was a kid, but I take things personally.

Things that aren't said with the intention of being hurtful? They still hurt. People offering me advice when I haven't asked for it? Makes me feel like I'm being regarded as an ignorant person with bad judgment.

It's not as though my judgment is that BAD, either. I avoid substance abuse, I pick good friends, I don't invite senseless danger into my life. But, after having "a certain somebody" trying to tell me what to do for the past 28 years, my ability to take advice from *anybody* is pretty thoroughly squashed.

I want to be understood and respected, like anyone. I want to be listened to. I want to be trusted to make choices based on my own judgment. I want to ask questions when I decide that I need help, not simply have people thrusting advice upon me when they don't know the whole story.

When I don't feel listened to, trusted, or respected, I get mad. I could try not to get mad, but then I wonder if I'm just letting myself be stepped on. Staying quiet and holding in the negativity doesn't work either. So where do we go from there?

This probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but we all know how good I am at explaining things (i.e. "not very"), so there you have it.

Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.

skeets

Subject:	"Lord... I am SO tired! How long can this go on?"
Time:	11:37 am.
Mood:	busy.

I responded to a Craigslist ad yesterday, and got a reply back. (I'm guessing it was cut-and-pasted, after closer inspection) The client said she was interested, but she clearly didn't read my e-mail very closely, and the greeting at the beginning of the e-mail was "Hi Susan."

At that point, I said to myself, "ugh, my name is NOT Susan!" And that made me think of that old Whitney Houston song, and I felt slightly ill for even having remembered it.

Ugh. That lady should pay me money just for putting me through that. XD

I think I may have to kick the person who told me about Etsy, because I'm currently poking through the site and slobbering over cute dresses. Cute dresses have been a rarity in my wardrobe, largely because Ma was always convinced that I needed to "hide my legs" because they're too big or whatever, so she bought me overly-long grandma skirts. ::eyeroll:: Way to give me a complex about it, jeez.

But now? Oh, cute cute Etsy dresses! YES. Fortunately, most of these Etsy designers make clothes for tiny people, so I won't be breaking the bank on this stuff just yet. Seriously, how can these people make any money cranking out nothing but Size XS/S clothing all the time? Talk about limiting your market.

Anyhoo, I have a meeting, so I must dash.

Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.

skeets

Subject:	It's a matter of life and death!
Time:	3:32 pm.

So here's a question: I bought a sandwich on Friday, and only ate half of it because I wasn't that hungry, so the other half has been in the fridge here at work since then. There's no meat or dairy in it; just hummus, veggies, and bread. Would it be safe to eat it for lunch tomorrow?*

I'm still broke down and exhausted from the weekend, but it was a moneymaking weekend, so I can't complain too much. Of course, one of those moneymaking things involved me getting up at 5:00am, so maybe I *can* complain a little. ;) It seems like multiple events always seem to fall on the same date, so we invariably run around like crazy people all weekend and somehow have to pull it together for another week's worth of work after that. It's a beast, I tell you.

Ah well. Tonight is acro, and I will go and jump around and feel better about things. :)

* I normally wouldn't wonder, but our veggies have been spoiling ridiculously fast, and since I can't usually smell if things have spoiled unless they're really rotten, it's kind of throwing my perspective out of whack. Sigh. It's probably just the fridge being a piece of junk. ;p

Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.

lunatic_slave

Subject:	hide memorial summit - LUNA SEA set list
Posted by:	luna_robot.
Time:	8:48 pm.
Mood:	grateful.
Music:	LUNA SEA - ROSIER.

1. Precious...
2. G
3. Slave
4. Déjàvu
5. Scanner
6. In Silence
7. Blue Transparency
8. Rosier
9. Tonight
10. Wish
11. Up to You

I think we all expected Scanner, but I have to admit that I never imagined they would play 10 more songs. Definitely Luna Sea is here and back again. BTW, all hail In Silence, such an underrated song at their live performances.

In addition, after X Japan was done with their songs Luna Sea joined them and played Believe. At the end of the concert the entire crowd performed "X".

( "X" clips under cut )

Source: lunaseaforever

Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.

tropigalia

Subject:	WHEN WILL YOU SEE THAT I AM CARRYING THIS STUFF
Time:	5:15 pm.
Mood:	melancholy.

I MISSED THE BUS FOR A PAD THIS MORNING

I WOKE UP AT 7:50 AND TOOK LIKE 90 MINUTES TO WASH MY FUCKING HAIR BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH OF IT AND THEN I LOST MY BUS MONEY BUT IT WAS ACTUALLY IN MY POCKET

SO I RAN DOWN THE STREET AND OUT OF THE CORNER OF MY EYE I SEE THE BUS APPROACHING THE CORNER AND I WAS ALMOST THERE AND I WAS GOING TO MAKE IT

AND FROM ACROSS THE STREET I HEARD "YOU DROPPED SOMETHING!" I WAS ALL, "WUT!" SO THEY SAID IT AGAIN AND I TURNED AROUND AND A PAD HAD FALLEN OUT OF MY BUSTED-UP SCHOOL BAG (I REALLY NEED A NEW ONE) AND AS I WAS TELLING THEM "IT'S OK!" THE BUS LEFT THE CORNER

I ALMOST CRIED IT SUCKED SOOO BAD

AND THEN THE DUDES WHO HAD ALERTED ME WERE LIKE "LOL WHOOPS SORRY"

MY HOUSE IS SO CLEAN!!! WE HIRED SOMEONE TO CLEAN THE DOWNSTAIRS AND OH MY GOD LIKE I COULD HAVE PEOPLE COME OVER WITHOUT BEING EMBARRASSED. SO COME PLAY WITH MY HAIR, DAMMIT!

PEOPLE I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO A LOT LATELY:
-SIA (HORRIBLE VOICE, SOME AWESOME SONGS)
-ROBYN (ALMOST SAW HER AT THE TLA A FEW DAYS AGO, WUSSED OUT)
-EMILIE SIMON (THANKS TO

blasphemina)

I DON'T NORMALLY POST MUSIC VIDEOS BUT I LOVE THIS ONE A LOT

SIA-"THE GIRL YOU LOST TO COCAINE"

SHE IS SO BIZARRE! I LOVE PEOPLE WHO AREN'T AFRAID TO TOTALLY UGLIFY THEMSELVES
HER FUCKING LOGO WAS MADE IN MS PAINT SHE IS BRILLIANT

I SAT ON THE BUS WITH THIS GIRL I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH AND SHE WAS ALL, "MY SISTER'S PROM IS TONIGHT HERE IS A PICTURE OF ME AT THE PROM OH HERE IS A PICTURE OF MY 1 YEAR OLD BABY AND THAT GUY IS HER DAD I HAD TO TAKE HIM TO COURT FOR CHILD SUPPORT"

SHE'S THIS CUTE LITTLE LIBERIAN GIRL MY AGE AND I GOT REALLY SAD HEARING THAT SHE CAN'T GO TO SCHOOL BECAUSE SHE HAS TO GO TO WORK AND TAKE CARE OF THE BABY

CONDOMS
USE THEM

FATTY IS RONERY.

ALL MY FRIENDS ARE RETURNING FROM THEIR FOREIGN COUNTRIES SO I HOPE THEY WILL HANG OUT WITH ME, MAYBE SOMEDAY

Comments: Read 22 or Add Your Own.

skeets

Subject:	Bye bye weekend
Time:	11:29 am.
Mood:	tired.

While looking for info about the local show I'm supposed to appear in, I found an online video of the segment! It's in two parts, so check out both. (my hero Master Chen is the guy in all-black with the sword, btw)

I'm only in maybe 5 seconds of it (look for the big white bandage on my left hand), none of it shows me doing anything particularly awesome, and the production team basically pulled their wushu "facts" out of their collective asses. But, you can see my crappy southern fist and hear me yell, hurhurhur! Ken and David are also lurking in the background on some of the shots, too. Hooray for tee-vee.

I'm supposed to be shooting some additional photos for the UberProject here at The Job today, but one of my models is running half an hour late, and my next one reports in at Noon. She's from out of town, so I can cut her a bit of slack on the lateness, but jeez, I *do* have a schedule to keep! Well, if the quality of her photos suffers because we're rushing to fit it in before the next model, she'll know whose fault it is. :p

I've been going to a local dance studio and trying out some classes, but I think I've found the one I'm going to stick with. I tried their hip-hop classes, and they were fun, but I didn't get as much of a workout because I got bogged down in the technique. The street jazz class I did yesterday, however, was also fun, it tapped into some of my jazz dance experience from many moons ago, and it actually got me sweating. I'm basically casting about for any cardio-ish activity I can find that gets me moving in ways that aren't mind-numbingly repetitive (like running or cycling tend to be), so this could be the ticket. W00t!

This weekend is going to be crazy. Event shoot tomorrow, networking event tomorrow evening, and another event shoot on Sunday (in Eugene, no less). Whoooof. No weekend for meeeee.

On a related note, if anyone's up for a late lunch in Eugene on Sunday, holler at me! I'm not sure exactly when, because the event is a race and it might run late, but we're hoping to be done by Noon or 1pm.

Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.

tropigalia

Subject:	till your fool comes home
Time:	2:43 pm.
Mood:	discontent.

Some cute guy at school did a double-take, pointed to my chest, and said "That's so cool!"

( i wonder if he was referring to the neck straps or my rack, + 1 photo )

Man I said to myself, "That's so lame when people take pictures of what they're wearing on a daily basis just so they can show the internet they wore lolita today."

Mary is lame!

I watched "Apt Pupil". I think some day it will be like Rocky Horror, and people will go to theatres dressed up as old Nazi guys or Brad Renfro or David Schwimmer with a mustache and scream, "My dear boy, we are fucking each other!" and "You have NO IDEA what I can do." It was such an incredible farce, I can not believe it. I hope Ian McKellan went into that movie with the intent of camping it up. Brilliant of Bryan Singer to introduce subtext where Todd gets an enormous boner for an old guy in a Nazi uniform ("Or maybe you just don't like GIRLS!").

My favorite food is definitely chicken curry salad with grapes and I want it every single day of my life.

I really want to make music with someone. My heart is breaking! I need this outlet. I don't ever have any ideas anymore because I never have new life experiences. I need to travel, too. I think my depression is circumstantial rather than chemical because I am programmed to be singing in choirs and bands and going to Germany and Mongolia but I am at home fiddling with GarageBand with no results.

Comments: Read 41 or Add Your Own.

skeets

Subject:	HAY GUYZ
Time:	10:17 am.
Mood:	silly.

So I was informed by Sifu that the videographers who taped us the other day are apparently putting some of that footage on TV, and it airs this weekend. I'm grumpy that it'll be footage of me with my sliced-up hand, because I know my wushu wasn't up to par while I had that injury. But still, w00t for being on TV!

Of course, we don't have cable, so I don't have a way of actually seeing the blasted show. Not to mention this weekend is full of event gigs, so I probably couldn't watch the show even if I *did* have cable.

Could anyone here in town possibly tape or TiVo it for me? It's a local Portland show, and is supposed to air this Saturday @ 4pm, on the CW affiliate.

Comments: Add Your Own.