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[Patrick]

A friend of mine from Albania decided to move to Rhode Island recently. She called me tonight super upset. She apparently hates it there and has only spent one week there. Poor thing, she's gotta be going through some serious culture shock. I know I did when I moved to Albania, it's just as easy both ways. I know that all I wanted at the time was hugs from my old friends. I'm too far, so the phone will have to do. I'm glad she's calling me though. She's one of the ones I miss the most from back then. And I need somebody to practice Albanian with!

[valley_parade]

I think her main problem is that she moved to Rhode Island.

[Patrick]

I tried to tell her from the get-go that Rhode Island sucked but she wouldn't listen to me. Maybe she'll transfer to Berkeley next year.

[Patrick]

I saw Salt N Pepa tonight at the fair, you guys.

They were really really really really awful, I don't think I have ever seen a bigger shitshow. Less than half of the music played was actually Salt N Pepa songs, they kept trying to shout love to "Oakland and Pleasanton" (please just stop embarrassing yourselves oh my goddd) and hey wait what the fuck are you guys really playing the entire hook of a Black Eyed Peas song

Icing on the cake: literally everybody's favorite part of the show was a drunk and cracked out homeless man dancing. I am not even joking. A drunk crackhead got the crowd going apeshit before the show, and then Salt N Pepa themselves asked him to get onstage with them. There was never another point in the show where the crowd was louder.

If that is my musical career after the next 25 years, I am going to shoot myself in the head.

[Papersatan]

I spent the weekend helping one of my partner's and his wife move and now I am super tired and sore.  I am also sad because he has moved an hour away and so I am going to see a lot less of him.  Good news though today's mail brought both the check from Steve's parents to cover our rent and our Bridge card so that we can access our food stamps.  It feels so good to have food in the fridge!

[Jimor]

First off: FIRE!! Just a single outlet that shorted and fried, easily taken care of with an extinguisher and shutting down the circuit breakers, but FUCK. 

I had the fire department come and check it out to be safe, and it looks like the cause was the 6-outlet thingy plugged into the 2-outlet socket. There wasn't that much draw at the time, just the usual array of on-standby consumer electronics. Apparently these things just "go bad" after a while. Now to clean up the extinguisher dust and get an electrician out to look at things and fix it all. Again, FUCK.

On the positive side of the ledger, I've been putting together a live music TV show with friends and colleagues from the access station, and working with a local music promoter. We've had 2 shoots now, with 6 total bands, and I'm busy putting together the footage into individual episodes. I'm almost ready to turn in #1, and I've just posted a teaser clip. Once they air locally on cable, I'll put them online and share with everybody.

[Barmymoo]

I sang in Westminster Abbey yesterday! It was great I was disappointed because a friend was planning on coming to hear us, and then we'd go for a drink and catch up, but she had to cancel for a string of reasons leading to her inexplicably being in the Lake District (???). However! I got onto the coach with the rest of the choir, and then spontaneously decided to get off again and stay in London with a handful of people who were going for a drink. It was so much fun, and I made friends properly with a girl I've known since I started my degree (she graduated in my first year so it was great to see her again). Now I have to frantically finish moving out of my room... but it was worth it.

[Patrick]

I got pulled over in a car by a cop for the first time tonight! I'm so proud of myself. I was nervous as fuck and was scared shitless that it would affect the field sobriety test they gave me. It didn't, by the way, I was cool as a cucumber and aced it without trying.

This fuckin town, though, man. I was so nervous! It's the per-capita DUI capital of the entire U.S., and even though I had only one beer all night (ordered at 9p, we left at closing time which was 2) I still very nearly shit my pants when I saw red and blue lights in the rearview. I diiiid kinda have a weed pipe on me.

[Jimmy the Squid]

My band is playing it's first gig in nearly four years! I'm terribly excited. I guess if any of you are in Sydney, Australia feel free to come see it!

[Zingoleb]

I feel inexplicably okay, given that I collapsed a week ago and had to be rushed to the hospital, now need surgery, and am due to be homeless in three days. (Well, okay, I did try and kill myself there, but I'm okay now! Really!)

Trying to work out travel plans and couchsurfing plans now on the rare moment I have computer access. Things are weird but things are okay! Life is crazy but I'm alright.

I'm making porn tomorrow.

[Barmymoo]

Oh man, that sounds dramatic and scary. I am glad you're feeling okay, I hope you are actually okay (as in, as healthy and emotionally stable as possible). Please stay safe! Apart from anything, it would suck if you couldn't come to Boston.

[Lines]

My boyfriend's sister and her friend got into a car accident today. (They are both ok!) Also I just spoke to a friend of mine and her sick grandmother and her boyfriend's cancer-ridden father are both doing awful and both will most likely die by the end of the week. Today has just been an awful day of bad news.

But my boyfriend's sister and her friend are coming over for dinner, so hopefully that will brighten up my originally dull turned dismal day.

Edit: They didn't stay for dinner and the sister is pretty banged up (she has a giant gash in her leg), but otherwise she's ok. Her friend only left with soreness and a bruise. So today pretty much blows.

[Zingoleb]

Eek, I'm sorry Linds! That really sucks.

Oh man, that sounds dramatic and scary. I am glad you're feeling okay, I hope you are actually okay (as in, as healthy and emotionally stable as possible). Please stay safe! Apart from anything, it would suck if you couldn't come to Boston.

I am as emotionally stable as a unicorn can possibly be. So, in a state of constant anxiety that I may not actually exist. Metaphysical terror has never been so real.

But other than my breakdown (which was at a party, no less, at my sort-of-partner's apartment) I am doing okay and feel good. I have income, I may be getting insurance soon (I just got the hospital bill for the ER visit - $3,000, and a charity covered $1,800 of it, ugh, ugh, ugh), and I've a couple ways of getting some chunks of money soon. The first one is doing a porn shoot in Seattle (sex work seems to be my only form of income for the last two years...) and the second will be for the HIV vaccine trials, which I've heard pays decently well. Also, you get a vaccine against HIV. So yay!

[jwhouk]

Dunno if I've actually submitted this here, but here ya go:

http://jwhouk.blogspot.com/ is my little corner of the Blogosphere. It's not updated terribly often, and it got stunted after my exile to the Great North Woods of Wisconsin (which is explained in said blog).

[Papersatan]

the HIV vaccine trials, which I've heard pays decently well. Also, you get a vaccine against HIV. So yay!

It pays reasonably well, over a period of time, though I think month by month selling plasma is a better pay out, and I know that doing anything that requires 24 hour observation pays better (like the flue vaccine trial I did).  It is also worth noting that you do not get a vaccine against HIV.  You get a series of shots which MAY vaccinate you against HIV, but probably will not. So, please do not adjust your protection habits on the false assumption that you are protected.  You will not find out if it was a working vaccine for YEARS later.  Steve did one when his hair was still above his chin and we found out last year that the vaccine didn't work.  While you are waiting to find out you also cannot get rapid HIV tests, because on the off chance that it does work you will be a false positive (as you will have antibodies to HIV even though you do not have the virus) and getting yourself off whatever registry your state has is a pain. 

[Patrick]

Zing: On the off chance it does work, though, hell yeah, 'cause HIV is a terrible thing and I support the pursuit of eradicating it from the face of the planet (because god damn it, Paul Rodgers is NOT Freddy Mercury). That and cancer. Fuck cancer too.

Also, I am glad you're doing okay, it's been too long since I heard from you. I'm sorry things have been rough for you!

Dear blog,

I have no idea how I'm gonna make it financially over the next 2 weeks but dammit I will. I bloody well will.

[pwhodges]

How to write music:  Work in progress

[Patrick]

Speaking of works in progress (interesting link, Paul, never seen anybody actually write it out in notes before), Beat Les Troubador is going to be released later than expected, but we've been hard at work the last couple of days trying to get it all laid down. Then it goes to our producer, where he will work with us to make it sound as amazing as possible. Then we will hopefully release it!

[Zingoleb]

the HIV vaccine trials, which I've heard pays decently well. Also, you get a vaccine against HIV. So yay!

It pays reasonably well, over a period of time, though I think month by month selling plasma is a better pay out, and I know that doing anything that requires 24 hour observation pays better (like the flue vaccine trial I did).  It is also worth noting that you do not get a vaccine against HIV.  You get a series of shots which MAY vaccinate you against HIV, but probably will not. So, please do not adjust your protection habits on the false assumption that you are protected.  You will not find out if it was a working vaccine for YEARS later.  Steve did one when his hair was still above his chin and we found out last year that the vaccine didn't work.  While you are waiting to find out you also cannot get rapid HIV tests, because on the off chance that it does work you will be a false positive (as you will have antibodies to HIV even though you do not have the virus) and getting yourself off whatever registry your state has is a pain.

I'm aware of all this! But still thank you for saying it all anyways because it's still useful information. I've already gone through and read the FAQ section on the wobsite. (I don't do sex without protection, except with the monogamous couple I play/cam with, 'cause I'm terrified of getting something like herpes or HIV or chlamydia (sorry Pat, you are never touching my junk))

I talked to my friend who did it; she says she got paid $30-200 per visit depending on how long it took and over the course of a year only made about $1,000. I'm getting over my needle phobia problems - I've found out that IV don't trigger me in the same way so I can handle it. I've not yet looked into plasma donation (I could do that! Probably! Maybe! I hope!) but I'm not sure if my being on medicine (spironolactone) would adversely affect that.

Ooh, just looked into that. "I just went to donate plasma for the first time today and I am taking spironolactone. The doctor told me that spironolactone is a diuretic and thins your blood and so in conjunction with the blood thinners they use in the donation process, it is not safe to donate. So I will not be allowed to donate until 48 hours after I have stopped taking spironolactone." ...I um, I really cannot go off this for two days at a time. That would wreak hell on my hormone levels. So so much for that. ><

[Carl-E]

So, what do you do when temperatures are in the mi-to-high 90's (35+ Centigrade), with high humidity and bright sunshine? 


Hold a charity carwash, of course.  Brought in a little over $200 for my daughter's charity, we help provide trasportation to families that need to get to Children's hospital in Pittsburgh.  Got thje idea when we had to rent a car to get to the Mayo clinic, and found that a lot of people rent vehicles to get to the Pittsburgh hospitals.  We've set up a non-profit contract rate that any family with appointments at Children's can use, and we can offset some of the costs for more some of the families.  So far, three families have used the service for a total of 5 rentals since April.  All from an offhand comment of the rental lady. 

6 hours in the sun.  I have a red neck, and got pretty dehydrated.  Spent the rest of the evening in the pool. 



Totally worth it. 

[pwhodges]

Yesterday was concert day - details (and link for listening) here.

Highlights: when the bell tolls during the Purcell funeral piece (!), and Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens (just because...).

[Patrick]

I am kind of psyched and have my credit card lying in front of me waiting.

<---- you just made this guy smile a lot. Instrument tracking's done by the way! Everything sounds pretty good raw, so we're jazzed as fuck to bring it to our producer who will turn the sow's ear into a silk purse (and believe me, he is incredible at what he does).

(sorry Pat, you are never touching my junk)

I am clean, and I'm not even queer!

[Zingoleb]

Whatever, I get straight dudes hitting on me all the time, manslut.

 


(I'm super excited to hear your album, and I will totally buy it)

[Thomas Edison]

I moved house using a BMX yesterday. It was long and tedious but at least now I have a bedroom to myself instead of sleeping on the sofa of the living room.

Also the music video I produced for my uni course a few months back got uploaded two days ago, but I swear the artist has edited it because the lips are no longer synced and there's a couple shots I don't remember seeing in the final edit, but oh well, it's just under 900 views now and only has one dislike to 57 likes so I guess it's doing alright for a small time thing?

[LTK]

I spent the afternoon cleaning microscopes and now I have a headache from looking through small lenses all the time. Oh well, at least I'm getting paid again. For the rest of this school year that is; the subsidy for my job has been cut so they can't afford to pay me next year. Guess I'm going back to tutoring?

[valley_parade]

Happy day, America. You may not be the best, but you're the only one we've got.

[Patrick]

'MERICA

[The Seldom Killer]

MERCIA

[Patrick]

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[Patrick]

Oh yeah Troubador's 4th of July show went amazing

I'm drunk as fuck, I got paid. The girl I met last night as my waitress at a great southern BBQ place didn't show up, but I figured she wouldn't. Oh well. The show was live recorded, so as soon as the recordings come through I'm posting them. I did the Hendrix version of "The Star Spangled Banner" tonight and it fucking rocked, yesssssssss I've never played a solo before anyone before!

I AM DRUNK AS FUCK HAPPY FOURTH

[schimmy]

Was going to put this in the confessions thread, but figured it was a bit too heavy.

My girlfriend's been doing pretty great over the past few months; she's been eating normally and been motivated to do things.
Over the past couple of days, though, her eating disorder has reared up again. She's not been eating, and she's been sleeping all day. I'm trying to talk to her about it, but I am at breaking point. Even when we're not talking about it, it's obvious what she's going through. She cannot think rationally about anything at all, and it's getting to the point where trying to maintain a conversation without me shouting at her is pretty much impossible.

I have no idea what to do. I can't see her for another week, and in the absence of someone to talk to, she's almost certainly going to spiral further into it. But I can't keep it up. I just can't.

[Patrick]

Shit dogg. I'm sorry to hear it. But there's only so much helping others that you can do before you have to help yourself. She needs to seek professional help on the matter, because there's only so much you can do.

[dr. nervioso]

I agree with patrick. If it's to the point that the people close to her can't help, you need to get her to a professional somehow. Getting her to a therapist or something like that doesn't sound feasible since she is sleeping all the time. But maybe you can go contact one yourself to see what your options are?

Is there anything she has been doing or taking in the last few months that seemed to help her?

[nekowafer]

Is it possible to get her committed to a mental hospital? It may seem kind of harsh but it seems to me like she needs it.

[Patrick]

Having spent a night in a big ol' room in Oakland getting evaluated alongside some REAL crazies did me a lot of good once upon a time. Showed me a pretty significant bit of perspective. It's not a step I should have needed to take, but I should have seen a therapist for years before it happened. Easier to remove a mole than a melanoma, you know?

Dear blog,

Please tell me why people come to an open mic playing the original single version of Party Rock Anthem (vocals included) over the PA while they sing along to it?

It was pretty awesome when a little kid did a dope-ass dance routine, and him singing was alright. There's not a lot of little kids that play instruments and sing simultaneously, so that's acceptable. But when a 24-year-old does it, that's where I really just wanna smack them in the head. I should ask them to find an instrumental-only backing track, learn to to a rudimentary job of performing it with an instrument, or sing without accompaniment. I want people to learn or improve, not do what you do in the car with your favorite radio smash hit.

And most importantly, why in hell did I have to have a hangover? I drank water like mad, I had coffee, took aspirin, ate well, all of that and I still felt like complete shit. I shoulda just cancelled for this week.

[The Seldom Killer]

Water isn't that good for rehydration if you've got proper drunk. Aspirin and coffee won't help too much either. Salty food, carbs, juice and ibuprofen work better. Sports rehydration drinks will also help.

[bainidhe_dub]

We had two fireworks shows this week, and one more tomorrow. The first one, last Saturday in Harper's Ferry, WV, went well. The second was in Suffolk, VA, on the 4th, and we did setup in Fulton, MD, today. The show on the 4th went pretty well we thought. A cake fell apart and shot some little 1-inch shells along the ground, and we found 9 duds during the breakdown that had gone up but not exploded. Today though, we got a call from the fire marshal in Suffolk that somebody had "found" another dud by running over it with a riding mower and setting it off, and they had found 4 more in backyards that back up to the shoot site. There was really nothing we could have done, short of what they're doing now, going door to door to search all the nearby yards, but Robert and I are still feeling bad about it. The guy with the mower wasn't hurt thank god but it's scary to imagine.
Here's the cake that broke apart (three guesses which side I was standing on)

And here's the bucket of duds we did find in the shoot site


Edit: We just got more info, all the duds they found were salutes (the ones that just have a big boom, no colors) and our supplier has been getting reports from all over about those same shells, so it was definitely the product. Dude was almost certainly saved by the mower deck.

[valley_parade]

At least it wasn't a repeat of San Diego.

[bainidhe_dub]

Yeah, that looked unfortunate. Not likely on our shows though, we hand-fire unless the site or shell size requires it to be electronic.

[Omega Entity]

Got a call from a mutual friend last night informing me that my other friend's son was killed in a car wreck July 4th. The woman whose son died has already had tons of health problem shit thrown at her, and she's one of, if not -the- absolute nicest person I know, and she and her husband sure as hell don't deserve this level of horribleness. Not only that, but her husband's birthday is also the 4th; now he's forever going to have to remember that as the day his son was killed.

Having had my father die in an accident, I know firsthand that it's an awkward situation - nothing seems to be adequate, when giving your condolences, and it's a whole level of suck when people go way before their time. Their son was within 5 years of my age, if I recall correctly (I'm 28, and I think he may have been 30 - the friend is about my mom's age, maybe a couple years younger. I'm trying to figure out what to say, but honestly I think the best thing I can do is just go over there and give her a hug.

[Welu]

My boyfriend dropped my camera. Now it won't focus and is making an unpleasant stutter if I try to focus the shot. A bit of research makes me think it's just the lens but damn. I'm so upset and I'm feeling like a complete bitch because it was an accident and I think I should be thinking, "It's just material worth. It shouldn't matter." but it bloody does. It cost over £500, the most expensive thing I've ever bought and I spent so long deciding if I deserved to spend that much money and I've used it near constantly since I bought it, including making two films and it just really hurts.
I want to hug him for comfort but I'm so angry at him for dropping it. Told him I wanted to be alone and he's gone down to the shop. I hate feeling angry. It's a disgusting feeling.

[Carl-E]

Welu, some diagostics are in order.  Is there a camera shop where you can try a different lens to see if it's just the lens or the camera itself?  If it's the lens, it can probably be repaired at the same shop. 

The same can't be said for the boyfriend.  Remember, it's natural to be upset about something like this, whether it was an item with monetary or sentimental value (or both).  You'll be able to forgive him soon enough, ad he'll probably be understanding and be able to forgive you for being so upset with him. 

After all, he'll be reliving that drop for a long time...

[Omega Entity]

Being angry is understandable. It's perfectly normal to be upset.

On his part, the polite thing to do would be to offer to pay for the repairs, or worst case scenario if it can't be fixed, buy you a new one. But then I come from the standpoint that, you break something, you damn well better buy it/fix it.

[Welu]

He's back. We hugged and made up. He genuinely is so sorry and feels awful about it so I can forgive him easy enough. He offered to get it fixed or replaced if needed. There's no camera shops in town but I'm gonna try a couple places and ask friends with better knowledge to see what they think is definitely the problem.

I know it's normal to be angry and upset but anger especially is a difficult emotion for me. I'm feeling a bit better though. Upset that it happened but we're resolving it the right way. Decided to try and not worry till Monday when it can be found out what's wrong.

In happier news, I have rediscovered Sims2. Again.

[Redball]

Perfectly pointless: pocky. I found it in a newly enlarged Asian supermarket Saturday in Ann Arbor and bought a pack. Not as good as the first time I found it in Arizona in the spring. I should check brands next time. Never heard of it until I read QC. It won't likely become my favorite chocolate.

[Welu]

I don't know what I did but after some fiddling with the lens, I managed to get it going. Before it was stiff and locking when I tried to turn it but it's moving smoothly now. Even was focusing no problem and refilmed the sketch we were trying to make when it got damaged. So yay!

[Barmymoo]

I am not sure whether I'm being silly here or not. I don't know if you guys know this or not but my "sister" (elder daughter of the people I lived with for a few months five years ago, who is three years my junior) has been going out with my ex-girlfriend for the last couple of months. They met at my birthday party in March and I am 100% happy with them being together.

But I am feeling a bit muddled. My sister hasn't really been in touch with me - she never has, she's always been totally hopeless at replying to my emails. But the fact that she's in a long-distance relationship with someone who spends a great deal of time online makes it pretty clear that she does actually communicate other than face to face, just not to me.

The awkward thing is that I end up asking my ex, who is still a good friend of mine, how my sister is doing. Generally I don't mention her unless my ex brings her up in conversation, because I feel like it's not really my business (but I'm not sure how I would be behaving if my ex's girlfriend were not my foster sister), but if she is mentioned then I'll ask how she is. I'm often told how she is, and then advised to ask her myself. My ex keeps offering to give me email addresses or mobile numbers, but my thinking is that my sister has my contact details and we've emailed recently - I emailed most recently in reply to an email she sent, so it was an active address - so it's not fair to abuse my history with her girlfriend to harrangue her.

Am I massively overthinking this? What should I do? If my "sister" isn't bothered about being in touch with me then that's fine, she's not actually my sister and we'd never been as close as I am with her younger sister. But it just feels weird to have two indirect links to her but never actually speak.

[Redball]

The most direct solution is to pick up the phone and tell her you've missed talking to her, hearing her voice. You can probably tell from the enthusiasm in her voice if she's cooled. Not that I think I'm a relationship expert.

[Barmymoo]

I don't have her phone number! I have the number for her family but she's at uni now (presumably home for the holidays though, I guess). I dunno. I think this is mostly only an issue because it feels odd to get updates on the girl I call my sister from my ex-girlfriend, not from my sister herself, but I also don't want to just pretend they aren't together.

[Redball]

Your ex has the mobile number?