trinkets & treasures

From left to right: Jess, Anna, the cindy sign, jb, vignetta, me, sean, chris, steve. circa 1993.



as part of my move to seattle i'm consolidating all the junk i own... it's not an easy process as i am quite the packrat... here are a few notes on things found:



above: picture of my friends from school (and today!)

tossed: jr. high / high school rolodex...did everyone have a rolodex in HS or was I the only neurotic one?

kept: kings quest I-IV guide/introduction books. these things were a serious part of my computer life!

found: blue glass bracelets from my 1987 trip to india.

donated: plastic french fry "fashion" earings. never worn and not sure what i was thinking...

treasured: panda bear pin from their 1984 visit to the SF zoo.

gifted: little caesar's "pizza pizza" guy - i know she'll thank me before she tosses him into the trash...

washed: now-vintage "freshjive" t-shirt

reading: my copy of the "APT" - the American Political Tradition...

we have nothing to fear, but fear itself

Photo Credit: Democratic Underground



I am sickened by this statement from dick cheney:

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," (AP)



Complete FUD -- and exactly the type of BS that has characterized the bush administration. leading by fear is NOT leadership. The fact that he rolls out this statement at the same time that we cross the 1000 US casualty mark is just crass. (note: 865 soldiers have died since President Bush declared, "Mission Accomplished.")(1).



I’m not the leftist-liberal i used to be, but i will say this: voting for john kerry is the right thing to do for America.



if you have yet to register to vote, register NOW.



UPDATE: Reason #465 not to vote for bush: sovereignty.

black rock city

Photo Credit: Karen Riley



i'm off to burning man in a few hours, so i really need to get to bed! it will be my first time. i'm excited, and a bit anxious. dreading the long ride...but i've "iMixed" a bunch of CDs so the ride should at least *sound* good.

i love kinko's!

i have been running around today preparing for burning man. it's been craziness - but i am totally loving it. i made signs for our camp the other day, and now i'm feeling crafty...sooo... i decided to create a reflective tent-cover in the hopes of keeping my tent cool... in order to make this tent i am piecing together silver-mylar emergency blankets -- which posed a problem. how can i keep the corners down and secure? my solution - add grommets to the corners so i can tie rope through the grommet and secure the tent. with this agenda in mind, i went about gathering grommet materials...and bought a home grommeting kit. oh my. grommeting is NOT easy work, in fact, it's really freaking painful to hand-punch a grommet. so...my step-dad brilliantly says, "you know, kinko's has a sign-making shop and they put grommets on their signs."....oh oh oh. so i called kinko's and asked if i could have grommets put onto my mylar sheets and they said yes! i just got back -- and the grommets are lovely. i am so happy.



on another note, i learned today that walmart sells live pet fish. ick. that store is utter craziness, i much prefer target.

i'm a teddy bear

i took the new "better relationship" quiz on jenny turpish slapped me (where i previously took the better personality quiz). I once again found the results to be interesting -- and telling. This time i came up as a XSIG - Expressive Sentimental Intellectual Giver which makes me a Teddy Bear. I particularly found these two statements to be true:

- It is *critically important* that you are able to respect your partner. The moment you lose respect for him/her, you lose everything.

- When you make friends, you make them for life -- you can go without speaking to a friend for years and pick up right where you left off. You are completely faithful, both physically and emotionally.



In my life, I've had a few relationships where I was absolutely passionate about the person, and then, something happens and I lose respect for the person -- somehow they fall from grace. As a result, I can no longer see them in the same light. In only one case has that person truly ever come back into my heart...i've been thinking about this attribute a lot lately, as I generally believe that deep relationships are about discovering not only a person's strengths, but their weaknesses and accepting -- and loving them -- regardless. hmmm.



Take the quiz.

ugh, this is disturbing.

i've been reading reports (from BoingBoing and MetaFilter) about a girl in Iran who was executed due to "engaging in acts incompatible with chastity." the whole story makes me sick - the girl has been said to be mentally retarded, and she also lacked legal representation. what's worse is that the local news didn't cover the event -- so it is hard to know what really happened, and harder for people to react quickly -- although a number of bloggers have been covering the event providing ground coverage. Amnesty International has a press release expressing their outrage.



The thing that makes me frustrated is i feel helpless. there's nothing i can do here, and i'm although i'm bothered by this -- i sense in myself a feeling of resignment. this scares me even more. am i becoming tolerant of this type of injustice? i sure as hell hope not.

firefly links

I've decided to create a blog just for posting links of interesting things i come across. i read a lot of webblogs and i've lately felt that my blog was on the road to getting just link posts (post with a link, minimal content) and i'd rather use my blog as a vehicle for more developed expression then one-liners. So, voila: Natala's Links - note the actual url is: fireflylinks.blogspot.com



There are a few links there already, including a link to the new Pantone Colostrology page -- where i discovered that my birthday color is Cactus (Pantone 18-0130) and i've been missing out on reaching my mood potential because i don't own anything in a cactusy color... perhaps this explains a few things.



Enjoy!