1) Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
2) NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
3) They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
4) You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.



( Trick-Or-Treat... )

OKAY SO I AM SITTING HERE WITH SARAH AND JEI AND WE ARE THINKING ABOUT HARRY POTTER AND HOW THE ACTORS ARE ALL OLDER AND WHATNOT. BEHOLD:



BUT WHEN WE STARTED, THEY LOOKED LIKE THIS! REMEMBER?! DO YOU?!











BUT HONESTLY THE BEST MOMENT OF THE NEW MOVIE (NO SPOILERS I PROMISE, JUST A STRANGE GIRL IN A HEAD...MASK...CONTRAPTION...THING?) IS WHEN LUNA POPS UP WEARING THIS FOR A QUIDDITCH MATCH:



♥

Feel free to explain, elaborate, or disagree in the comment section. Also, I hope you midnight kids have fun tonight. :D

Poll #1429909 Harry Potter
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which Harry Potter Book is Your Favorite?

Which Harry Potter Movie is Your Favorite?

I didn't finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. :/ Ah well, I hope to finish it before Sarah leaves next week since she lent me her copy. (Oh Lao, I really really don't want to think about that.) I guess that will just make the movie more exciting for me tomorrow night! I am looking forward to seeing it, then going home and using my new kitchen torch to make creme brulee.

This week has been/will continue to be incredibly busy. Friends, work, scoping out job prospects, boom de yada, Bijouing, movies, bus riding, egg dropping, time traveling, late night disco cello sessions. Whew. Crazy summer.

New profile table, mostly because I was a little bored with what I had up and I am so in love with these photos from last night. Try denying our cuteness! You cannot, it is too overpowering. :D I want there to be more photo booths in this world.

Fun times. Round Two tonight, y/y?

I have to get ready to head over to College Green; let's hope I do not fall into any time rift paradoxes on the way over! ;)

I am finishing up here at the Bijou a little early today, it turns out, and this morning was waaay too srs bsns for my taste. Yeah? Yeah. I haven't done one of these in a while...

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Do not repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My Life According to (BAND NAME)"

Are you a male or female?
"I Bleed"

Describe yourself:
"Tame"

How do you feel:
"I'm Amazed"

Describe where you currently live:
"Planet of Sound"

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
"All Over The World"

Your favorite form of transportation:
"Wave of Mutilation"

Your best friend is:
"Is She Weird"

Your favorite color is:
"Silver"

What's the weather like:
"Stormy Weather"

Favorite time of day:
"Lovely Day"

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
"Where Is My Mind?"

What is life to you:
"Gigantic"

Your relationships:
"La La Love You"

Your fear:
"Winterlong"

What is the best advice you have to give:
"Dig For Fire"

If you could change your name, you would change it to:
"Velouria"

Thought for the Day:
"Distance Equals Rate Times Time"

How I would like to die:
"Break My Body"

My soul's present condition:
"I've Been Tired" / "Oh My Golly!"

My motto:
"Vamos"

Ladies and gentlemen, it is your lucky day...because it is LEE PACE PHOTO DAY here on my LiveJournal today. Let the swooning commence!





( Are you trying to save my soul? )

Lee Pace is awesome, doesn't he know he's my dream ideal? Indie darling, check. Great eyebrows, check. Lover o' bright colors and fanciful storytelling, check. Cares about the environment, check. ♥ Lee, I like all those things, too! And I just learned how to bake expensive cheese into pie crust, isn't that exciting?!

Yesterday was a good day. I went to the mall early in the morning with Jei so I could put in a job application and she could purchase the first season of Deadwood. I applied for some other jobs online too. I really hope to get something lined up soon. I enjoy eating food, and living in an apartment, and having electricity. :O

I went into the Bijou for an hour or two in the afternoon and hashed out some plans with Zane to finish up the invoices we have to close this week. We are almost done with them, in fact I should be working on those right now, but I am taking a break because I am super excited about...um...my hair.

Wa-bam! Not just one photo, but three. Super vanity away!








I went to Kris & Austin's place last night with Jei and Austin bleached me up proper and then we tinted it purple twice. I am quite pleased with how it turned out! Ha ha, I tried to take a picture of it this morning outside and I found it really throws off the white balance on my camera. XD I could still get rid of a little gold in it, so I am going to use the silver shampoo this week and maybe sometime over/after the weekend, tint it hardcore once more. (Any other advice? I am wondering if blue toner might be useful...) It might turn lilac. Whatever. :)

I am excited about watching The Fall tonight with Spencer. Lee Pace, ilu, you should come take me away from all this. I would make you pies and pet your pretty eyebrows and curse the network gods for canceling Pushing Daisies with you.

9½. Living Dead Girl
10. "Uptight" vol. 3

Living Dead Girl is all kinds of fucked up. I grabbed it at work the other night when I was shelving the Young Adult Fiction. I read it in a night, and it's one of those books where I quickly realized I wanted to stop reading, but it went so fast I figured I might as well finish it. I guess it is good prep work for American Psycho, which I will be reading as soon as I finish the sixth Harry Potter book. I have heard a few excerpts of it and I think my soul is going to fall out...

I am interested in exploring some new music this week. Post your favorite bands or songs, current obsessions, old standards, etc. I am pretty game for anything.

If you are curious about my current music selections, I have been biking around listening to Ida Maria, The Mountain Goats, Lou Reed, a few choice songs from Watchmen, and "Same Old Drag" & "Energy" by The Apples in Stereo.

What is a moment?

Is it that perfect duration of time when nothing could be better? Are they big or small, encompassed or glorified by the value of the things surrounding it? I honestly can't say. I am inclined to think that the moments that define my life, and potentially everyone's, are unplanned and inexplicably refreshing, extraordinary only in their ordinariness. Mine are marked with a good deal of surrealism; it's the only way I can process them, reliving them like a dream in Technicolor or stark sepia over and over again.

I think moments are those rare glimpses of ourselves when we realize who it is we are, and where we belong. Running down the street as lights flash behind trees and whiz loudly through the dark. Ducking under yellow caution tape with gusto. Scrambling up stairwells to meet up on a soaking wet roof under crackling fireworks singing through this Midwestern town. Laughing and screaming that the world is ending! The world is ending: quick, grab my hand Delia, I promise it will be beautiful.

There is no pretense. There are no expectations. There is not a conversation waiting to happen, or a bill waiting to be paid, or the sum of all the things you've never done holding you back. It is just you. And a street. And a sky. And the people you love - the ones who are always willing to meet you on a rooftop.

Happy Independence Day...I don't think I've ever felt this free.

Tri-Stat role-playing, complete with Cheetos and auto-cannibalism, is probably one of the best ways to spend a Friday night. :)

Mistimed bleaching is mistimed: one more bleaching & toning session sometime next week to *hopefully* finish these fun hair experiments. (eleraama, are you game for Tuesday or want to wait until next weekend?)

I have learned insanely hard lessons this week. Chiefly, everything has to fall the fuck apart for me to figure out how to fix it. But, at least I know I can fix it. Oof.

This is terrible weather for a holiday. But we're still going to celebrate.

The process of making my hair silver/white has begun! Wednesday afternoon, I used the Feria 3x Lightening Kit to bleach my hair. It got really, really light, but was still blondey. From what I have read, I am led to believe this is just how bleach works though...is this true? Like, you can't shock it white with bleach, no matter what, because when the pigments are gone there is still actually some color left in your follicles. This is why you have to use toner. (I ask because I am considering bleaching it once more as per eleraama's suggestion. More on that later.)

After work, Delia and Jei came over so we could have ourselves a hipster hair party. And brownies. XD A lot of people were over with Lissy, and some more folks joined in throughout the evening. It reminded me of living in the dorms again, random happiness with friends. ♥

Oh also, if you were wondering, I am still a bit sick, but feel mostly better today. My voice sounds sort of wrecked, but eleraama tells me it's good; I sound like one of Those women, apparently.

It was a fun time, although I spent most of the evening afraid that my hair would turn lilac after toning. I used 20 developer creme and Clairol Creme Toner with a violet base to zap the yellower bits out of my hair. When I first dried it after rinsing, it was quite silver, and now it has settled into a platinum/silver color twinged with yellow.



It is really hard to photograph, actually. It is translucent enough to pick up the color tones from any and all lights.

Jei picked up some one 'n only Shiny Silver Ultra conditioning shampoo yesterday, and I used some before I went to bed last night. It's basically a big bottle of purple citrus juice, very good for the lightening and brightening. I can already see a tiny bit of difference, it has neutralized some of the darker sections. Apparently after five or six washes, silver shampoos are supposed to really brighten up the color. We will see.

I am going to try the silver shampoo for a few days and see what comes, but I suspect more haircare is required. I am not opposed to more bleaching (I am really mean to my hair, I don't mind frying it one bit) but I am not sure that is the right path to take. I am leaning more toward using more toner, but with a stronger developing creme, like 30. Now that I have used it once, I am not so afraid of it. I admit to being very cautious when I bought it and applied it.

Okay, hair maestros, I know you are out there: what should I do to make my hair totally silver/white?

I feel a bit sick today so I have strong suspicions I will be entirely unproductive. *flop*

I have mostly caught up on writing everything I wanted to say about my trip home. My first weekend was good, my week was good, my last weekend was good. Oh, but I forgot to mention that on Monday morning, before my flight back, my parents took me to the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City. It was pretty cool. Like I said, it feels great to be back here with all of you, but I do miss my family and friends there. I feel like ten days was really not enough time to spend with everybody. (Although I saw them the most, and I always see them the most when I am home, I feel like I am *never* able to spend enough time with my parents.) It is probably the perfect amount of time for a vacation, though. I wasn't bored once. It also reminds me that soon some of you will be gone too and...ugh. No, change of plans, all of you stay here, okay? Korea is overrated, I hear tell. So is Leeds. So is China. So is Chicago. Just, stay here and I'll make you cupcakes forever and ever. Deal? ♥

I highly recommend everyone go watch Sita Sings the Blues either tonight or tomorrow at the Bijou Theater. If you are in the know, you know there are other ways to watch it. But this way, Nina Paley is getting some money for her hard work, as is a very industrious little indie distribution label (Shadow). She is really making me question my views on copyright law, though. Open licensing seems like the only thing that is going to save our money-grubbing souls in the end. Yet here I am, in the business of making money off people who make money by making money for other people. No matter what the scale, the business of moving picture shows is a complex one.

My friends are a fleet. Claim your starship. Do it now!

Also, if you're in Iowa City tonight, I hope to see you at Old Chicago roundabouts 10:00. I have missed you all; I went on a short trip and then a longer trip and I just realized I have not seen most of you for almost two weeks. :O

I had a weird flight out of Denver last night. It requires elaboration, I think...

If you have anxiety about flying, this will definitely be triggering.

Takeoffs are always spiritual experiences. There's that screaming sound when the plane picks up speed, the sound of air crashing into the wings before they are in their proper position. Maybe it's the screaming of your consciousness, wondering why you are sitting in such a strange machine about to hurtle yourself into the sky. I notice this for the first time in a long time, the sound. I notice that the flight attendants keep saying the flight number of the plane. I settle in for the two-hour flight.

Glancing out the window as we go higher and higher, I see a huge block of darkness with many jagged peaks in the distance. It is the range of mountains, not clouds. It's staggeringly beautiful in its large disproportion to the cities below it and the sky above it.

A black, black cloud is dripping weird tendrils into my mighty mountain majesty. It takes me several moments to realize we are going to have to fly through the massive black cloud to break into the altitude we need to reach. I am not afraid of flying, but the thickness and darkness of the cloud are disconcerting. The seat belt sign comes on again.

I idly ponder what it would be like to die in an airplane crash.

The plane drops a few feet and rocks left right left. We are now totally inside this cloud, the lights on the plane reflecting off its puffs and peaks like ambulance lights through a dark alley. The plane lurches left. The seat belt sign dings four times, despite the fact we are all wearing our seat belts and looking out the window with concern. The flight attendants have calm voices but one runs to the back of the plane to strap herself in.

I ironically muse what it would be like to die in an airplane crash.

The plane is jerking not just left and right, but up and down. I have been on dozens of flights, and I have never experienced such turbulence. The plane drops again. My purse slides across the floor and the woman across the aisle drops her book.

I uncontrollably wonder what it would be like to die in an airplane crash.

Finally, we break the clouds and regain balance. I breathe a sigh of relief. The black cloud is drippy and ominous, a strange floating death, as we move away from it. I settle back into my seat and feel a little ridiculous being so panicked. Surely the pilots know what they are doing. Commercial domestic airline crashes are not incredibly common. I think back to the...

Flash.

The lights on the plane are bouncing off the clouds again. Wait, no they're not. Lightening is cracking through the sky in a huge cloud bunch directly ahead of us. Every ten seconds, more light pierces the sky. The seat belt sign dings. I almost cry. I am eye-level with a lightening storm. The plane is not changing course.

I don't want to die in an airplane crash.

I had just made all kinds of resolutions to myself a few hours earlier, how I would live my life more vigorously and watch less TV and call my brother more. How I wouldn't care what people thought of me. How I would produce things and believe in things and be things.

Flash.

As I sit motionless glancing out the window, we come closer and closer. The plane vibrates with each flash of lightening. All I can think about is my fifth grade science teacher. Lightening loves metal. I am sitting in a large metal box with wings and lights. Why am I sitting in a large metal box with wings and lights? I don't want to fall out of the night sky somewhere between Colorado and Iowa.

The plane lurches and sways, and someone across the aisle gasps. After one mind-racking vibration, we break the sky right before we actually hit the storm head-on. I look around the plane. Everyone on my side is looking out the window. Everyone across the aisle is trying. The flight attendants are casually filling cups with water and Coke and vodka, but giving each other tense looks. I look out the window.

It might be one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We are right above the storm clouds. They are surprisingly puffy and cute right above the lightening. Puffs of cloud light up brightly in a hauntingly rhythmic pattern below me. People with overhead lights on turn them off so they can better observe the phenomenon.

It looks like the world is ending, but it reminds me of a lullaby.

We reach our ideal altitude and, after over an hour, the seat belt sign goes off. All I can do is rest my head against the window. It is an exhausting experience, thinking you are about to die. I spend the rest of the flight wondering if I over-reacted. Perhaps this is more standard than I realize, careening in a tiny regional plane through a series of terrifying storms. Once we land and I leave the plane, the flight attendants kindly say good-bye. The pilot is standing in the doorway to the cockpit too, leaning his right shoulder against the side. His shirt is stained with sweat and he nervously nods to the passengers. We briefly make eye contact as I hop onto the jet bridge. The look on his face makes me feel afraid all over again. I have never been happier to be at a baggage claim in my life.

I sit on my suitcase as I wait for Spencer outside, chewing clove gum and contemplating my mortality. It is just after midnight. There is a light breeze that tousles my hair, and I can't help but look up. There's not a cloud in the sky over Cedar Rapids.

If the world ends, I hope it ends in a lullaby of light.

Here is a sneak preview of my "Searching for Stanley" comic for Wednesday. Since almost all of you follow donkeyhotel anyway (don't you?!) you might not find this a great lure for the webcomic collective or anything. But, I am tired of always being behind, so I decided to be a little bit early this time.

Artists' Note: Pentel EZ#2 0.7mm.



This is one of the more delicate drawings I have ever done. I wish I always had this kind of focus. (Also, thank you to your_lake_como, who not only is a great, great friend who has been sacrificing her sleep schedule to facilitate this trip for me, but apparently a constant source of inspiration for my comic serials.)

Friday: Flew home, saw parents, & hung out with theo_the_honest.
Saturday: Saw Jena at work & hung out with Crystal and Jena.
Sunday: Father's Day shenanigans & hung out with Allen and Shannon.
Monday: Went shopping with my parents, said hey to Jena, saw Up, and hung out with Sally.
Tuesday: Hung out with theo_the_honest and went to a baseball game with my parents.
Wednesday: Hung out with Allen and Shannon & spent quality time at Atomik Pop.
Thursday: Saw Transformers 2 with Crystal and Jena.
Friday: Hung out with Jena, took her to Pops with my parents.
Saturday: Hung out with theo_the_honest and saw Transformers 2 again.
Sunday: Hung out with family, hung out with Jena and her boyfriend.
Monday: Hanging out with parents. Flying home.

:)

I have had a fun time in Oklahoma. I have had a confusing time. I once again wonder where home is. I talked to Lissy on the phone the other day, and we discussed geographic amnesia; when you're one place, it feels right and the other feels alien, but then when you're back it's vice versa and on and on and on. I used to think my home was always going to be determined in the biggest way by where my immediate family lived. But there are a lot more variables than that. I think about what the two places mean to me, in different ways. I no longer question what would have happened if I had never left, like I did the first two years of school. But I have found myself this week questioning why I chose not to move on.

Iowa City has changed me and everywhere else has changed everyone else, and these things run parallel, not in collision. I know my life is in Iowa City, but I also know that is only true for now. I know I am a crazy, happy kid who struggles to pay her bills and plays tag every weekend in Iowa City. If I were to really settle in there, it would not be the same place for me. Although, five years does seem a lot like settling in, doesn't it?

Iowa City is a humid adventure in July and an icy heartache in November. It's the ground where I cut my teeth as far as being on my own and hell, being myself. It's beautiful and cold and funny and tragic and in my head its all asphalt and daydreams and neon pink sunsets over city parks. Sometimes when I dream about it, it's flooding even now, but I would be lying if I said last summer was not the best summer of my entire life. It's bike rides through wet grass. It's late night walks through alleyways while rain and flowers fall on our heads. It's midnight movies organized to the point of absurdity, and Chinese food afterward. It's people I never thought I could meet. It's a chance I never thought I would have. It's like suddenly I've broken out of the geographic amnesia! I love who I am when I'm there. I think the reason I like coming home so much now is that I seem to bring it with me.

I never thought I would be the kind of person to have memories like the ones I have. I never thought I could love a place like a person, crave it and feel better just by knowing it was out there. But, in a lot of ways it is too much like loving a person: the exciting part is that it's fleeting.

My brother wants me to move home. Sally wants me to move home. Jena will be happy when I move home. My parents subtly bribe me to move home. ;) Certain decisions in my life, regardless of the outcome, would be not just easier, but actually possible, if I had chosen to move home. (That last bit is not very veiled, I realize.) And after weeks like this, I really wonder if maybe I should have planned on doing that. I am stresssssed about money. I am stresssssed about winter. I know my parents and my brother miss me, have missed me, for four years. In fact, I am looking forward to moving home next year. I will get to spend some long-overdue quality time with a lot of people in my life, and by that point most of my Iowa City cohorts will be moving on as well. My brother playfully shook my shoulders yesterday at lunch, "We can go to the comic book store everyday and hang out with Joey [our comic book dealer; yes, we have one, and yes, we're tight like that] and talk about B-movies!" "I want that!" I declared. And I do. And when that happens, it will be awesome. I think next year, it will feel right. I think I'll be ready. At least, I hope I will be.

I am sad that I am leaving. But I am not sad that at midnight tonight I will be back in, for me, what is currently my home. I apologize for the length and contradictory sentimentality of this entry. It's just something I really had to work out.

We are typically too interested in television shows, nanobots, or Nikola Tesla for this to ever really occur...

I got to spend time with my brother yesterday, and it was classic Abele Sibling tomfoolery. He came to pick me up and we ran by Atomik Pop, where I picked up an issue of Uptight and Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean's Signal To Noise. Have any of you out there read this? I hadn't heard about it, but it looks so awesome! I almost bought a Clive Barker comic called Son of Celluloid about an essentially evil movie palace. I decided against it last night, but I may change my mind. With a summary with lines like, "They gave up God for Garbo long ago..." it is a bit hard to resist.

I also almost bought Wonderland (about Mary Ann, the White Rabbit's housemaid briefly mentioned in Alice in Wonderland). I am a little weird about what is basically Wonderland fanfic though. I told Allen that I was too selfish with my perceptions of Wonderland to invest in other people's visions of it. I mean, I love artwork of Alice and her other Wonderland companions, and all kinds of alternative versions of her. I even draw things like this myself. But full-blown storylines about it bother me. Does that make...any sense?

Anywaaay, so, after we hit up the comic book store, we stopped by the Starbucks Allen works at on the way back to his apartment. He made clam chowder while we watched hours of Futurama. It was lovely. :D


♥


Jordan Crane does Uptight, and he does absolutely beautiful prints. This is the cover of the comic I bought yesterday, for instance:



And more...



Today, I am supposed to go see Transformers 2 with Jena and Crystal. That is actually one reason I came home this week, to coincide with the release. I should call them soon to see when exactly that is happening. :) I know the movie isn't getting any good reviews, but surely some other people are excited about it. (Amirite, magicalmartha?) We will see. WE WILL SEE INDEED.

Inspired by today's LiveJournal question...


POST YOUR CUTEST VIDEOS. GO ON, DO IT NOW!