tea berry-blue

So, I am not crazy about doing this, but since so many of my friends have been having problems with LJ (and I have, too), I feel like it's better to be posting from Dreamwidth so everyone can see my posts and comment back.

I still will be using LJ as my primary home, but from a technical ease perspective, this seems to be the best solution. I'd of course prefer comments on LJ (since I don't like to split conversations), but Dreamwidth is acceptable, too, if you can't get LJ to work.

You can add me on Dreamwidth at teaberryblue

And now some Top 5 lists:

Breeds of Chicken

All chickens are wonderful but these are my favorites:

1) Araucana (These are the ones that lay green eggs!)
2) Chantecler
3) Rhode Island (this is what I have!)
4) Wyandotte
5) Orpington

Top 5 Things I Love About Myself

1) My imagination
2) My ability to love almost everything and everyone around me
3) My curiosity
4) My resilience
5) My ability to parse situations rationally

Top 5 Animals I Would Like to Wear As Hats

1) Bees
2) Bunnies
3) Chickens
4) Fennecs
5) Unicorns

Top 5 Musicals You Would Like to Recast with People from Your Life

1) Into The Woods
2) Gypsy
3) Cabaret
4) Victor/Victoria
5) Chess

Top 5 TV Episodes

1) White Tulip Episode of Fringe
2) Citizen Max Episode of Tiny Toons
3) The first Lodge Episode of Twin Peaks
4) The "Shut the Door, Have a Seat" episode of Mad Men
5) The first Numbers episode of LOST

Top Places You Haven't Visited But Want To

1) The Ice Hotel
2) Prague
3) Antarctica
4) The Port Royale excavation site
5) The Sanya Nanchan Treehouse

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. It’s part of a philosophy I espoused a long time ago that setting goals can get in the way of living life.

Sure, goals can be good for some things. They’re important for business plans and for progress on specific projects, but for me, personally, I find that I end up focusing too much on things I once wanted to the detriment of new and more exciting things that may pop up onto the horizon when I least expect them.

The last year has been a combination of things I wanted and got (I lost twenty pounds, I managed to keep my apartment impeccably clean for approximately six months, I read an amazing number of books [for me] and I wrote tens of thousands of words) and things that I never saw coming (I made amazing new friends, I ended up getting a second job doing something I love with people I love that has transformed my life for the better in uncountable ways). Of course, there were things I wanted and didn’t get, and things I never saw coming that turned out to be bad, but hey, you take what you get, and I did get a lot of adventures and excitement and joy.

Anyway, one of the things I did last year that worked out really well for me was that I offered to help my friends with their resolutions. Just because I don’t make them for myself doesn’t mean that they don’t work out well for other people, and offering to help other people with theirs means that I end up learning new things and having adventures that I didn’t plan for myself. It also means that I end up fostering and building on some amazing relationships in ways that have really defined my year.

For example, last year, Connie wanted to get into better shape. I offered to go walking with her once a week to help her have an impetus to get out and get exercise where she’d feel more of a push to go because she would have a commitment to a person in addition to an activity.

We have gone walking almost every week for a year now. We’ve only missed it for holidays, vacations, and sickness. Even in inclement weather, we go to an indoor shopping center and walk there.

And the most important part of this for me is that Connie and I have become very good friends. We share a lot of things, we know about each other’s lives, and in general have a much stronger relationship than we had a year ago. And that’s amazing, and that is what I want more of in my life.

So, I will ask you now: if there is a thing that you want to commit to this year as far as your own resolutions, and there is a way I can help you, support you, or join you in it, please ask or tell me. And I will see what I can do to make that happen.

Happy 2013 to everyone! I love you!

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

It’s been a while. Hmm.

Years ago, when I first heard Christina Perri’s “Jar of Hearts,” I misheard the lyric “runnin’ round leaving scars” as “runnin’ round chasing stars.”

How? I have no idea, since those things really have nothing to do with each other. I realized almost immediately that I’d misheard the song, but sometimes I found myself singing that lyric anyway, because conceptually, I liked it better.

A couple of months ago, I posted this on Facebook one day when I overheard the song in a store.

I was talking to Aleph about it for a while after and he encouraged me to actually write the rest of the lyrics. I started that day. I’ve been working on it on and off for months and I intended to have it done for his birthday, but…that didn’t quite happen. A bunch of you have heard me mention time spent singing into my computer lately, and…this is what I was talking about. I have probably spent a lot of time doing this when I should have been sleeping. Writing new lyrics to a song that already exists is hard. Writing them when they are not a parody is even harder.

It’s apropos because Aleph is one of the most persistently positive and imaginative and unconditionally loving people I know. He is the sort of person who really makes you believe magic things can happen. And on top of that, alternate universes. They’re kind of a thing for us. <3 <3 <3

Starchaser

So here you go. Happy belated birthday, and happy New Year, and all kinds of things.

The song in question is exactly in the weakest part of my range, so I fiddled with it a lot and angsted over getting the vocals perfect and then finally accepted that if I kept trying, they wouldn’t ever get there and this would never leave my computer. Fortunately there are a lot of karaoke tracks on Spotify. I suppose this isn’t technically a legal use of them, but I don’t intend to make any money off it and it’s a gift for a friend.

And it’s a good way to end the year. On a high note. That might be a little too high for me to sing. But it was fun to do and made me wonder about that other world.

Love you all!

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

Exactly one year ago today, I went to Industry City Distillery for the first time.

A year later, it’s become my second home. Everybody there is like family to me, and they’re some of my very best friends. I love you guys! <3

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

Here’s Day 2 of my Hurricane Sandy comic diary. That’s Monday, so the storm really starts hitting in the afternoon here. Note: at this point, my last actual interaction with a person I know (as opposed to people on the subway or on the street or in the grocery store and such) was at 6pm the previous day.

If you missed the first part of Cabin Fever, it’s here. Everything here happened. It’s slightly editorialized (I left in the interesting things, dialogue is paraphrased as best as I can remember) but nothing is fictional. The rules: no penciling, no corrections.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

My good friends know this, but I don’t do well alone. Like, really don’t do well alone. I start getting antsy after a couple hours without human contact. Ironically, I have lived alone since 2006. This somehow makes sense, really.

Monday night, in the worst howly-stormy bits of Hurricane-or-Tropical-Storm-or-Angry-Avenging-Weather-God Sandy, I decided it would be a good idea to document my hurricane experience. I didn’t lose power, but at the time, I didn’t know that my power and internet would stay on, nor did I know about the long-term effects that the storm would have on city transportation. I just thought it would be interesting and give me something to do. I started with the first rumblings of warnings that this was A Thing, last week, and went from there.

I gave myself rules: no penciling, and no correcting errors apart from crossing them out. The story is obviously edited, but I tried to be merciless and not edit out embarrassing/troubling bits.

Here’s Part One, from Friday through Sunday, when the MTA shutdown began.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

So I was in the art store at lunch buying some pens and paper and such, when this young man walks up to me and compliments my dress.

I say thank you and go back to browsing.

He keeps talking to me, and introduces himself. His name is Augustus.

Now, usually I tend to get really edgy when strange men come up to me and talk to me without context, because they generally, eventually creep me out, or act as if they are entitled to get my number or SOMETHING.

Augustus starts asking, “Do you have a…”

And I’m like, great, here comes the “do you have a boyfriend?” question. NO, FOR GOD’S SAKE, NO. (And of course I am straight and of course my interest in talking to strange men has everything to do with my relationship status and argh).

But he asks, “do you have a son?”

I’m totally taken by surprise. I say, “Err, you mean like a child?”

“Yes, a son,” he says.

“No,” I say.

“Well, do you have a brother or a dad or someone like that? Any men in your life?” asks Augustus.

At this point, I’m a little gobsmacked, because I’m wondering if this is Augustus’ way of circumventing the boyfriend question.

“Well, yes, I do,” I say.

He points to his collar. He’s wearing a…well, a bowtie. But a bowtie made of Scrabble tiles.

“Do you think they would like this?” he asks.

“Um. Well, I know some men who might,” I reply.

His eyes light up. He reaches into his bag, and holds out something wrapped in a paper napkin. “Well, then I have one for you!” he says. He unwraps it, and it’s another Scrabble-tile bow tie. “Yours says ‘fireproofed,’” he says. “I think that suits you.”

And he gives me the bowtie.

Thanks, Augustus. I, er. Might be keeping it for myself?

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

It’s raining, after a day where we “pastured” the chickens (read: let them roam around the yard), and I fooled around making contest entries for hogwarts_elite most of the day.

I had fun working this blog post for work (about an exciting thing coming to our subscription service) along with Clare, who wrote the text for it, and who is awesome. (I took the photos and did the photoshopping).

I’ve had bad allergies this week, which means I’ve been drinking a lot of Coke, which I would prefer not to do, but helps immensely. I’ve also found that gin seems to help a lot, moreso than other liquors.

Right now, I’m drinking a cocktail from my great-grandfather’s book, circa 1935, called a “Boulevard.” It’s gin, red and white vermouth, a dash of grapefruit juice, and I added some bitters (Cocktail Kingdom Wormwood and Urban Moonshine Citrus). If you look a “Boulevard” up online, you’ll find many, many cocktails by this name, which is always interesting. For example, Difford’s and almost every other cocktail repository on the internet has a Manhattan-like whiskey drink, while Cocktail DB has a slightly similar gin and orange juice recipe. This is one of the things I love so much about using recipes from the 1930s.

I also made tarragon-lavender marshmallows last week that were absolutely stunning. I love making marshmallows and it’s so incredibly easy– it takes less than an hour. I really wonder how many people would make marshmallows if they knew how simple it was. Oddly, I keep hearing things about there being a “marshmallow craze” right now, but to be honest, I haven’t actually seen homemade marshmallows anywhere I go, so I’m a little perplexed. I’d love to try other people’s marshmallows, but I suspect this craze is more in theory than in practice.

I’ve been very busy, socially. I keep getting to a week and not having a single evening free. And sometimes I have to miss something or choose between things. I’m not used to this!!! I like it but sometimes I want to sit at home and just make myself a cocktail and watch TV. I’ve actually had to consciously cut back on my TV watching and choose shows not to watch for the first time in my life. I decided to put off watching Person of Interest. I enjoy it, but it’s not as engaging as several of the other new shows this year– Alcatraz, which I hear is getting cancelled (too bad), Touch, and Awake. It just seems like in spite of the science fiction aspect, it’s much more of a typical police procedural, and while I love Michael Emerson and want to watch everything he does, I’m just not as engaged as I am with the other shows. Plus, it sounds like PoI is getting picked up for another season, so I will wait and see if it fits in better next year after the new-show-culling…and some shows I already have on my docket will be gone next year, like House.

I’ve been writing a lot. A lot of my writing is in direct response to some discussions that I’ve read lately, where I’ve seen people talking about why X-story isn’t being told, or why stories with certain types of characters aren’t out there. And I was reading these things and thinking, wait, that’s one of my stories. And knowing that these are things people are looking for and not finding kind of inspired me to work harder on them. I need to just pick one and stick with it, though, since right now I have four novels in progress. Who does that. Well, I have one finished but it needs a lot of editing, and I had a major breakthrough in terms of storytelling and a character change that will fix the storytelling problem in a way that embarrasses me that I hadn’t thought of it before, because it seems so obvious.

I have one book that has a scene that so perfectly mirrors the fan response to Amandla Stenberg’s performance as Rue that it was very surreal for me. (It’s a fantasy novel about fandom, so.) But that book is the one that needs the most work in terms of revising the outline (it’s at that stage, yes). I’ve been working a lot on my fairytale adaptation story, which is coalescing nicely, but I have this other newer story that is kind of demanding it be told and I don’t know what to do with it.

I really really can’t wait for the chip in the brain that will transfer what I am thinking to paper.

Also! As of tomorrow, my cleaning system will have (mostly) worked for two months. I’m really proud of the fact that I have a clean apartment and it’s been that way for two months. I have a living space where I would not be embarrassed to ask a friend over on the spur of the moment! I know where things are, and nothing looks sloppy (except my kitchen, a little). I’m thrilled with myself.

Since last month, I bought myself new furniture, I’m trying to decide what to do to congratulate myself this month. I’m thinking about other things I can do that will both be gifts to myself but that will also improve my overall lifestyle. Wall art is one thing I’m thinking about. A carbonator thingy is another, as is a nice tea kettle. Any thoughts?

I think that is all for now. This is a sort of discombobulated post of thoughts, but sometimes that is okay.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

So! Hunger Games!!!

Hansi, who is making the fanfiction documentary I have mentioned taking part in a couple times before, actually came to my apartment to film me and Jess getting ready. She wanted to do it cinema verite style, which basically means filming us doing what we normally do.

I’m used to being on camera for interviews, and I’m used to acting on camera, but trying to just do what you normally do when you’re aware you’re on camera is a really weird experience, because it makes you very conscious of things like the fact that conversational speech is nothing like anything sensical, especially when it’s people like me and Jess, who know each other so well that we talk in a lot of common assumptions. But it was still fun and I hope it’s useful for the film. We went out to the theater together, and Hansi filmed us in Times Square for a bit. She wanted to film inside the theater, but was worried she’d get kicked out with the camera, so I offered to go inside and ask someone.

I walk in, and I immediately get completely gushed over by three of the AMC theater team, who were like “OMG EFFIE.” One of them was like “HI I AM A CAREER TRIBUTE FROM DISTRICT THREE!!!” And they asked me for a photo, so I asked if we could come in and film. One of them was a manager and he was only too happy to let us in to film, as long as we didn’t get AMC logos on anything. Plus, I told them Katniss was there, too, and grabbed Jess for their photo as well. So that was great. While we were in there, a girl making a documentary for her NYU student project also asked to interview us, so we did that.

We also got asked for a bunch of photos from other people, which was super fun!

We had been told they were going to let people start lining up around ten, so that had been the plan to meet up, and since we had to do the stuff with Hansi, we had figured we’d go get some food, and then get on line, but just as we finished the interviews with the NYU project, we heard they had decided to let people line up early, so we got on the line. Jess was starving so she went back out to get some food, and then I needed to stretch my legs from sitting on the floor, so I went out just to walk around a little. I went outside and immediately more people wanted photos! So I did a bunch of photos, and then went back into the theater– when Jess texted that they had decided to let people hang out in the theater.

So we got in, got settled with pretty excellent seats, and then I went out and got us large refillable soda. I don’t normally do that because $5 for a soda, but I shared mine with Kate and we refilled it and stuff, because, two hours waiting in the theater? TOTALLY. Kate got there pretty soon after, and then Darryl did, and Darryl was kind enough to go out with us to take some photos of our costumes.

Which meant more people asked us for photos. I seriously don’t think I’ve done so many photos in my life. Plus, pretty much everyone kept squealing at me and saying “Happy Hunger Games!” and stuff, so it was kind of adorable. There were a lot of people dressed as Katniss, and a couple people in Capitol wear, and a couple people dressed as Peeta, but no one else dressed as Effie, so that worked out nicely. One of the Peetas actually had a loaf of bread he was running around with which was kind of adorable since he seemed to be a very energetic young man and was kind of all over the theater with the bread before the movie started.

Then was the movie!!! I was mostly pleased with it. There was one pretty major character moment that I wasn’t crazy about how they interpreted it, but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn’t the best movie ever, but it was pretty solid as far as I’m concerned. Without doing anything that is really a spoiler (although I suspect there will be spoilers in the comments), I have to say that the single most impressive major change to me was how they portrayed Seneca Crane, who is an extraordinarily minor character in the books, and Wes Bentley just did a phenomenal job expanding him.

After the movie, we immediately got stopped by a guy from some website who wanted to interview me. It was three in the morning, dude. I was like, “sorry, but I need to get up in the morning, so I need to go home.” I guess people who do interviews like this are so used to people being excited about being on camera that it didn’t register that I was saying no, because he kept trying to explain what he wanted me to do. Finally I was like, “look, lots of people talked to me before the movie, and I would have been happy to talk to you then but now I need to go home and sleep.” He still seemed kinda incredulous.

The movie theater, who had done an AMAZING job with crowd control and managing lines for the wait to get in, utterly FAILED on getting people out. They clearly didn’t think about the fact that they had people for nine screenings all arriving over a three hour period, and then all leaving at THE EXACT SAME MOMENT. The escalator landing got so crowded people were running back up the down escalator. We decided not to risk it and instead waited ten minutes for an elevator. I felt a little bad for that interview guy, cause I could have done his interview, but I also would rather not appear in anything that involves people gawking at people who dress up in costumes, and you never know someone’s angle.

Anyway, we got outside, and more people wanted pictures, while we hailed a cab, and then took a cab just a few blocks across town to Kate’s car, as she was kind and lovely enough to drive us home, which also gave us time to discuss the movie.

Then I went ZZZZZZ and today was another day with less makeup!!!!

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

This past weekend, _samalander came to visit for the first time.

The visit began with a conversation the night before. We exchanged phone numbers. I said “In case there are a lot of big-haired ladies, I will be wearing a pink raincoat with a Mockingjay pin. Also I have a halo and am followed everywhere by a heavenly choir.” I think that helps people pick me out in a crowd.

Anyway, we found each other okay, if a little belatedly, at the bus station, and went back to my apartment in Queens. I had planned a little get-together than night, and had a bunch of friends coming by.

I have a very bad track record with parties. In elementary school, I was not only the bottom of the social ladder, but my birthday was in the summer, so I think I had a few parties where I actually had guest attendance in the negatives. I don’t know what that means, maybe that I had to go to their houses or something? I don’t know. When I turned 21, 20 people RSVPed yes to my party. Five people showed up. My parents had spent a ton of money on food and drinks, and I ended up calling my brother’s friends to round out the party. I kind of felt horrible about the whole thing. Anyway, I have a little bit of a complex about parties. So, I was sort of shocked when this one was extremely well-attended, and I assume that is because everyone heard Lauren was going to be there.

Anyway, it was a freaking awesome time. I made some awesome foods, including friend wontons full of PBJ as well as friend wontons full of nutella and bitter orange, and those were kind of the star of the party, even though I think the edamame spread I made was the best thing there. I made lots of drinks, and let my friends attempt to make me drinks, which ended in hilarity. There were also a whole bunch of H_E people there, which was kind of awesome: all four houses represented!!!

 
 

Anyway, party was a blast. The next morning we slept in pretty late (we being me, Lauren, and Jess), and then we went downtown to Jim Hanley’s Universe, and then to The Strand, where Lauren acquired a copy of Diary of My Secret Life, Volumes I-VI. This was quite exciting. When a clerk asked if she needed help, Lauren turned around, and said, “No, thank you, I’ve already found the best book.”

WARNING: This book is extremely graphic and uses a lot of HILARIOUS SEXY WORDS LIKE “DOODLE” AND “GAMAHUCHE.” IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO TAKE EROTICA SERIOUSLY WHISLT READING THE WORD “DOODLE” ALOUD.

We also went to the costume shop, where we found Dobby:

And shoes for pikacharma

And a Clawbot:

Then we headed back uptown and dropped into Dutch Kills, a bar in Queens, for a drink, before making our way out to Flushing for Korean food, and bubble tea.

Then we went home and ate the ice cream sandwiches that Jess had given us when we had gotten in on Friday:

After we ice cream sandwiched, I taught Jess and Lauren how to make a sazerac, and then we did dramatic readings from the aforementioned “best book,” and finally went to bed.

The next day, we got up and went down to Katz’s Deli for lunch

And then, walking around, we found a place that had a sign about hibernating Puffs:

Oh, yeah, and Jess bought an amazing purple hat.

And we got some cream puffs at the Hibernating Puffs place:

Lauren did some science:

And then we went to the giant Toys R Us in Times Square, because it is apparently tradition for visiting H_E members.

Jess played DDR:

Lauren was Iron Man instead of Batman for like ten seconds:

and communed with Her People:

And I’m not sure what she did to the Candyland King

Or to me, for that matter:

Then it was time to send the Lauren home, and Jess came back to Queens with me for a little while before she departed as well.

So, all in all, pretty awesome time.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.