i'm getting really excited about the bbq this weekend. weather report predicts sunny and 85 degrees (!!!), there are now a ton of people who want to dj (dubstep, house, downtempo, minimal techno, various indie rock stuff), 70 confirmed attendees (and that's just the ones who bothered to rsvp, half of you still haven't even though i know you're probably coming =P) and it's generally going to be awesome. i still need monitor speakers, though. if you can bring monitors or know someone who can, we would reward you with a drink of your choice and much gratitude.

the seattle cheese festival is this weekend. i had so much fun the last time i went that i rescheduled some stuff in the hopes of attending again this year. so sunday my goal is to be there by 3pm gobbling delicious cheese samples and then head to zig zag afterward for delicious exciting drinks.

i only just noticed the dizzee rascal show on monday also features el-p. damn, that's a show and a half. i think i'm gonna have to go. some of you have probably noticed that when you call me instead of a ring you hear el-p.

also, figured i'd repost this for those who don't read seattle - there's a new program where they'll give you $20 in vouchers to have a 'trial separation' from your car for a month or $200 in vouchers to commit to not using the car for a year. they include other benefits... membership in a bicycle club, resources about how to get around sans car, etc.

this accompanying picture of stereo99 and kyle from prosperity has no relevance other than amusing me.

prosperity was quite awesome. when we first arrived my exboyfriend was riding in the bed of the truck in front of us. we'd talked about it beforehand and he told me he wasn't going. the idea of being trapped in that situation at a small party hours from home completely freaked me out. i panicked for awhile and got very sad and then started drinking. i spent most of the party hiding in a dome far away from the dancefloor. luckily the dome was filled with a large group of extremely awesome people, so it was really like we had our own miniparty within the larger party.

i took a few
pictures, mostly of us preparing to go and then the drive along the way. but my friends conveniently took pictures of the things i didn't. kyle's
pictures show all of us partying, and chris's landscape pictures show where it took place. due to my anxiety i spent a fair amount of time hiding from the dancefloor, but i absolutely loved my LED hula hoop. here's a shot of mary demonstrating it in the morning.

still not sure what the movie will be for tomorrow's movie night, but the time will be 7:30pm. i'm going to do my best to get things started on time 'cause i'm perpetually exhausted due to sleepdep. so although you can always feel free to be late, i'm not going to wait until everyone arrives to start the show. previews will begin at 7:30pm and the movie will follow ;)

thanks to this instructable for the laptop compubody sock, none of us need suffer again. pr0n in public forevermore!

also, tonight = salon of shame. if you're going, let me know... i'm hoping to get enough of us together to justify a booth =)

crappercraps, does anyone have an inflatable mattress (full size) that i could borrow for this weekend?

movie night's going to be on thursday this week 'cause on monday night we're having a burning man meeting.

i only just discovered these bicycle classes for things like how to ride with traffic, how to use the bike racks on buses, techniques for group rides, etc... hooray! i'm going to sign up for some of these. my goal is to be able to go on a group ride with my real bikeriding friends before summer is over, even if i totally suck and am last in the pack the whole way :)

if any of you guys want to try brightkite, the newest whrrl/dodgeball/etc. competitor, i've got some invites. overview of brightkite.

speaking of which, tonight = whrrl drinks @ chapel. be there by 7:30pm at the latest if you signed up for whrrl because of me and want to get your prize ;)

tipper is also playing that night.

i changed my last post to friendsonly 'cause it occurred to me that posting our house address might be a little sketchy. but if for some reason you aren't on my ljfriendslist but want to come to a sweetawesomeparty at zhouse next saturday the 17th w/food & djs, you should reply to this post ;)

dizzee rascal's seriously improving my work day. i'm tempted to go see his show on monday the 19th.
i love his new album.

just discovered that another crew of ~15 friends is heading to prosperity this weekend. hooray! does anyone still need a ride? i think a few people i know may have room. a friend also warned me that the place to donate for directions doesn't work on IE, so you'll have to use firefox/safari/etc. the internets say that it should be sunny and ~70 degrees :)

if all goes well, we'll be staying at the auberge alternative in downtown montreal post-mutek. it sounds like a pretty sweet hostel - they provide a guitar/musical instruments for guests, organic breakfast buffet, have rotating local art, etc.

it occurred to me last night that everyone who signed up for whrrl but already had dodgeball has been getting duplicate text messages from me each time i check in. but dodgeball has a feature to set up groups of friends, so i set up a group only for people who aren't on whrrl. so now i'll just check in using that and you won't get two messages from me anymore. sorry if that was getting annoying :/

last night luke brought over sitcom and we ended up watching that instead of either of my potential movies. it was absolutely hilarious. however, it was not as hilarious as what happened later in the evening. webwig got an IM from a random guy who wished to touch himself via webcam. we hooked it up to the projector and informed him that he now had a large mixed-gender audience. it didn't seem to deter him any so apparently he's an exhibitionist. we tossed around the idea of having all ten of us take him on a date since he seemed to enjoy interacting with us and sharing a special moment despite not really having any idea who his audience was.

movie night tonight = 8pm. i haven't decided the film yet... perhaps you'd like to vote :) into the wild vs. the cement garden

only some goals were accomplished this weekend.

sleeping early = not so much. i went to bed at 9am friday and 4am saturday. can't say i didn't have a wonderful time both nights though ;)

financial aid shit = not so much. i'm scheduling a night this week to go to remedy and work on that.

cleaning = w00t. zhouse had a huge cleaning day on sunday which was quite successful. i found all the camping gear i'll need for prosperity. i also accidentally poured out the drink of a man who'd set his 'joose' in our yard and had apparently planned to come back for it.

i got the footie pajamas primarily as a silly thing to wear to burning man. i thought they were kinda expensive just for a funny outfit, but i figured they'd be comfy and practical. they're actually way more comfortable than i expected and i've started wearing them all the time around the house. i'm frequently cold, and mary accurately describes them as similar to wearing a fleece blanket. dom says they make us look like teletubbies. stereo99 says it's my tanuki suit.

tonight i want to go to the party at nectar but i also want to go to the mcleod no pants party. rrrrr. what i really need is a chauffeur whose weekends consist of driving me & friends around to parties. perhaps i can come up with a costume for the grilled cheese judging that will work for all three events.

i really need to take it easy this weekend. i've been partying all night and having breakfast at 7pm on the regular. that's fun and all but i desperately need to submit the fafsa and research student loan crap. i also have a bazillion projects to work on around the house. so saturday's plans are yoga from 4-5:30, visiting the bottleneck for dinner 'cause apparently skillet's gonna be there, potential hairdying party with webwig and then hitting the parties of endquote and ersatzsuperjew before going to bed early. to help achieve the early-sleeping goal, i made brunch plans with dom for 10am on sunday. afterward our house is having 'cleaning day' where we'll all consume lots of stimulants and scrub zhouse from all angles (we're all terribly excited about this prospect. :P)

people who live nearby should go to the prosperity desert party next weekend. it's a free camping party which has been happening for years. some of the people involved threw my first rave-y party 14 years ago. it's in a lovely location in eastern washington. most of zhouse is going but we think it'd be more fun if more friends were there to camp with us. we will of course be bringing copious amounts of s'mores ingredients, food & intoxicants to share as well as my glorious new LED hula hoop.

here you can read some reviews of previous years with pictures. at the prosperity website you can make a small donation to get emailed directions.

i've been given permission to spread the news to the hungry about a thrilling duel this friday night. many will battle for your heart via their grilled cheese sandwich skills. rsvp if you plan on attending so i can give them an idea about the quantity of sandwiches needed.

anyone can eat, but if you want to judge, you are heavily encouraged to wear a costume of your choosing.

update: new contestants are now being accepted! do you dare to test your culinary masterpiece on the drooling, hungry masses?

Categories / Rules:
The Missionary Position White bread, orange cheese (Cheddar or American) and butter or margarine only.
The Kama Sutra Any kind of bread, any kind of butter, and any kind of cheese (or blend of cheeses) plus additional ingredients.
Prerequisites:

If you would like to compete please bring your own pan, spatula, and ingredients. A gas-based heat source will be provided by the house. If you prefer, you are also welcome to bring an electric skillet.

the party will begin at 7:30pm at the home of xamichee aka snackpalace, 1528 18th ave.

remember when i was trying to get you guys to sign up for whrrl for a contest? well, i won. =] so if you signed up because of me, let me know if you want to come to the celebratory event. i'm guessing there are enough people that i won't be able to afford to get everyone dinner, 'cause it's only a $100 prize. but i could likely at least get everyone a drink or something :) i'm going to make it next thursday night (the 8th).

from the twitter newsletter:

Bucking The System

Last weekend CNN lead with a big story about James Buck, a graduate student in journalism from the University of California-Berkeley who was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt while covering an anti-government protest. Thinking quickly, James was able to send a one-word Twitter update: "Arrested." His followers in Egypt and back in the US reacted by contacting the university and the consulate on his behalf. Before long, James was updating Twitter with another one-word message, "Free."

CNN Story: http://tinyurl.com/4b4hsg

i was late to work today partially because i had to get the new notwist album and put it on my ipod to listen to while commuting. and then i didn't even love what i've heard so far. dumb. dumb.

movie/projector night is tonight at 7:30pm. we're going to show shaft (the original).

i've decided that going to the ellen allien show tonight is not even remotely responsible 'cause i've barely slept this week and feel horrible. but the idea of not going is also quite depressing, so i might end up getting talked into it. perhaps i should rephrase it as: i'm going to attempt not going to the show.

i need to meet nordic_soul to pick up flyers, though. he's going to try to get me a mutek ticket in exchange for helping promote some shows. but friday night let's go outside is playing a show with him at nectar, so perhaps i'll just go to that instead. it'll surely be good.

dom: before you go to work, do you want to see something disgusting?
kyle: *enthusiastically* of course!

i really ought to check voicemail more than once a week. i just checked it and had a bunch of messages from different people about hanging out, where was i, and whether or not i was currently busy taking it in the pooper. d'oh. i actually do like/want to hang out with you guys, i'm just terrible about responding to anything that isn't a text message.

learned via this philip sherburne interview linked by mkb_technologie that the carl craig remix of junior boys' 'like a child' was nominated for a grammy. i love that remix so, so much. when i first got it my wonderful ex jeremy was loaning me his car because mine had been stolen. he has a great sound system. i turned up the bass and would drive around playing that track over. and over. and over. and over. i doubt anyone nearby enjoyed it as much as i did, and it really didn't even make any sense to be doing that because it too cold. but i couldn't help it 'cause driving really fast with the wind in my hair and that track blasting makes me so, so happy. since then i've tried to force it on other people but few of them have gotten as excited as i did. possibly 'cause it's really long, drawn out, epic, etc... which is in my mind the equivalent of sex for hours vs. a quickie ;) there's audio here in the event that you like long thumping tracks that go on for eons and want to give it a shot. for ideal conditions it should be played very very loudly with a lot of bass.

i kinda forgot how much i love this track. *listening on repeat*

our camp needs the following things for burning man:

- a generator (as quiet as possible)
- a projector
- a van that at least 5 people could fit in, preferably more

if necessarily we'll go out and buy/rent them, but that gets pretty expensive. so i figured that before we do that i'd ask whether anyone i know has any of these items that they'd be interested in loaning. we'd of course pay a rental fee and be grateful.

burning man is hard as hell on gear, so this is absolutely not something that you'd want to do with something that's expensive/high quality. but if you have one of these things in reasonably functional condition and could part with it for a week, we'd of course pay a rental fee and would do our best to return it in as good condition as we found it.

(the photo is one of my roommate kyle's 'reconstructed' stuffed animals. he enjoys taking them apart and performing upgrades.)

a bunch of us tried to go to that relatively-new combination art gallery/bar/crepe cafe grey gallery place on 10th and i discovered they won't serve you crepes until 4pm. it's not at all atypical for my first meal to be after 4pm on a weekend, but alas it was only 3pm, so we had to go to b&o instead. it looks pretty sweet in there though.

my solar-powered LED collapsible hula hoop is on its way. he even added some stars to its carrying bag upon my request.

i ordered a bunch of travel books for nyc/montreal (mostly free from bookmooch, but a few used via addall). looks like we'll probably be couchsurfing in montreal from sunday-tuesday night. i want to go to ninja new york even tho it's totally expensive and cliche and cheesy. i want food that requires you to rip a katana out of it before eating.

i really love the new lyrics born album. it is joining m83 on the things-i-play-too-much-in-2008 list.