http://www.genaustin.org
http://www.anysoldier.com
http://www.livejournal.com/users/rothko/friends
http://www.travelerstales.com
http://www.aroundthebloc.com
http://wwiTV.com/portal.htm
http://www.pomegranates.org
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,4753,00.html#

happy thanksgiving, all y'all.

i'm thankful to thor for keeping us safe on the 2000-mile trip from massachusetts to texas.

i'm thankful to freyja for helping me learn to love myself, through all the love she has given to me.

i'm thankful for all of my wonderful, wonderful friends, especially schpahky. there are times when i couldn't have survived without you.

i'm thankful for my family even though they make me insane sometimes. especially thankful for my totally cool sister, who rocks the known world.

i'm thankful for mathew, for a million, million reasons.

so many reasons to be grateful.

love to you all.

I've been meaning to post for a while now, but just haven't managed it. Sigh.

On Sunday we went to the East Austin Studio Tour. There was a lot of really good stuff being created down here -- very, very talented people at work. One of the studios we stopped into was a metalsmithing studio, and the guy was inviting people in to show them the process of how he makes his stuff. It was pretty cool; we spent a long time there and bought one of his lovely creations for mathew's aunt and uncle. And I got the most amazing pair of armwarmers by Chia at the House of Taurus. Pictures forthcoming.

Still not much news with the house -- the rain has been so hideous down here (I'm guessing it must have made nationwide news at some point) that the engineer just hasn't been able to make it over there. Perhaps tomorrow. The sun is finally out -- as I got in the car this afternoon to get my new driver's license, I was nearly stricken blind. What is that giant, shiny, round thing up in the sky? Hopefully it will last.

i hung out with the lovely and talented catelin yesterday; our first time meeting face-to-face. it was just like picking up a conversation where we had left off the day before. very cool.

now all we need is for schpahky to come and visit, dammit. especially since i just visited a store she would adore. (featured in lucky magazine at some point, too, apparently.) you would so dig it here. everyone would dig it here. we need a schpahky and bohunk convergence right here, right now. everyone needs to come visit. we'll all go to the kerbey lane cafe and have delicious locally-grown food at groovy prices and then head over to amy's ice cream for entertainment and creamy ice-creamy goodness. (damn, man, i think i even saw something about shiner bock ice cream -- can it be true?!?!)

austin is a very comfortable place.

there will be structural engineers looking at the house "at some point really soon," apparently. frankly i'm not very confident about the whole thing, but we'll see what they say, i suppose.

i made the mistake of going to the pet store and playing with a 7-week-old ferret kit there. i almost took her back to the hotel with me right then and there. sweetest little thing i've ever seen. i'm gonna die.

also, today we went to solvent23's store, secret oktober. bovlb introduced us when we were down here in april so we figured we'd go in and say hi again.

and, i finally got a zip-up hoodie today -- black velour. my life is now complete.

from roadnotes:

My journal is called the end of the world as we know it because i'm an REM geek (though not nearly as much as kadenza). i change the title every once in a great while, though.

My subtitle is scorpionic maelstrom because well, that's just me.

My friends page is called leonard bernstein! leonid brezhnev, lenny bruce and lester bangs because [see REM above].

My username is rothko because well, many many years ago, probably when i was a sophomore in college (1991 or 92?), i was introduced to the joys of IRC. i needed to come up with a nickname other than my stupid and randomly constructed login, and the first thing off the top of my head was "rothko" as my obsession with his work began around the same time. now when i think about it, it sounds kinda pretentious, but the name has taken on a life of its own since then and i tend to use it in the non-internet world as well -- never did like my given name.

My default userpic is that little drawing thing that was going around LJ several months ago because i like it and it actually looks like me.

courtesy of redsonja -- walter reed army hospital in DC is asking for donations of phone cards for the many, many injured troops who are being treated there.

From: "Robert Seeberger" <rceeberger@houston.rr.com>
Newsgroups: alt.music.yes
Subject: How To Help Support Our Troops [Forwarded]

No matter where we each stand on the war in Iraq, we need to remember that there's a group of people who have paid a very high price for it. Here's a way to help them out a bit. Not that it's any real compensation of course. Just a way of making a bad situation a bit better for them.

It's for the wounded in Walter Reed Army Hospital.

The number ONE request at Walter Reed hospital is phone cards. Because the priority of our government is to continue tax cuts for the likes of Paris Hilton, the government doesn't pay LD phone charges and these guys, many of them amputees, are rationing their calls home.

Many will be there throughout the holidays.

Remember that most are from poor families. It is disgusting that they cannot keep in touch with family after what they have been asked to sacrifice, especially this time of year.

Support the troops. Bush and his buddies talk the talk but they don't walk the walk.

Send phone cards of any amount to:

Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

They say they need an "endless" supply of these-any amount even $5 is greatly appreciated.

And if you have an e-list; company or church newsletter; local newspaper; whatever, spread the word!

...such as

it's a brand-new house and we're buying from the builder, so i don't imagine there will be any huge problems getting in the way of closing and such.

you know you've had a shitty day when, after your home inspection, your realtor says "well, i know a really good structural engineer -- let me call him tonight and see if i can get him down here tomorrow."

word to the wise: even if you're buying a brand new home, get it fucking inspected. otherwise you might not notice that, say, the roof of the garage is pretty much held in place by gravity and a couple nails, or that the column that supports the upper and lower porches doesn't transfer the load all the way down to the ground (and because of the way the porches were constructed, the water pools and the porch will rot out from under the column and suddenly bring the roof down a couple inches), or that instead of a steel plate between the house and foundation, there are little wooden shims that transfer the entire load of the house onto tiny points that have already begun to crack the foundation, and on and on and on.

one wonders why one would risk one's reputation as a builder by doing this shit, but apparently there are enough suckers who will buy a new house without an inspection to make it a moot point.

so realtor lady is trying to get this engineer dude to come look and figure out how much it would cost to fix this shit -- she's actually optimistic that it won't take too long and won't cost too much, and she has enough experience that one could probably trust her, but dude, i am devastated.

yesterday i saw the most offensive bumper sticker i have ever seen.

"straight pride" is one thing, mind you, but bringing the flag into it is a whole 'nother. as if the rest of us are patently unamerican.

ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!!!!!!

they accepted our offer.

it's a brand-new house and we're buying from the builder, so i don't imagine there will be any huge problems getting in the way of closing and such.

fuck yeah!!!

i think a lot of people need to read this post by the amazing catelin.

A few things:

1. I've never been able to talk very intelligently about politics, and I really have no plans of attempting to do so right now. I'll just leave it at this: I'm very sad, but not surprised. Honestly, it was too much to ask that the Red Sox win the World Series and that a democrat (any democrat) could beat Bush this year. (and yes that's a flippant answer that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the whole thing, but leave me alone today; i'm delicate.)

2. I can see myself going stir crazy in this little hotel place very quickly. Mathew is working; I have very, very little to do. There's really nowhere to sit and do stuff outside of this room, unless I get into the car and drive somewhere. I did that yesterday and it was good, except that it means he's here completely stranded all day.

3. I think I forgot to take my meds last night.

So yeah, we made it. We woke up in Nashville on Thursday and realized "oh shit, it's Thursday!" We wanted to arrive here on Saturday, and we'd been spending lots of time in Virginia and Tennessee. So we hopped in the car and moved on, stopping only briefly in Memphis for some Elvis goodies. I was a little bummed to miss the Center for Southern Folklore, but we were feeling pressed for time. We ended up at Little Rock and spent the night there.

We hightailed it out of Little Rock early in the morning, planning to spend one more night between there and Austin. We made a small stop in Texarkana, where my nose ring was apparently a hot conversation topic among all the teenage waitresses there. In fact, we got some major looks everywhere we stopped in East Texas; at a gas station (where I noticed a dude in a set of red Halliburton coveralls -- oh, the temptation to ask "So how does it feel to work for Satan?"), some guy at the counter looked at my nose and asked the tired old question "Did that hurt when you did that?" We soon realized that there wasn't anywhere along the way we'd be staying at, and also realized that if we kept driving, we would actually make it to Austin by a reasonable hour.

So that's what we did, and managed to find our way to our little hotel thingy without any trouble. Oddly enough, it's right next to this home-building company that we spent a little time at when we were here in April. It's basically a hotel room with a sofa and coffee table, plus a kitchenette with a sort of breakfast nook type thing. We even managed to get all our stuff in here, which I consider a fairly big accomplishment, given that the car was packed so full that you couldn't get one more thing into it, and this room is fairly small.

So here we are, home sweet temporary home. The realtor will be called shortly.

well, we made it. got in around 9:30 last night. completely exhausted, but need to say one thing right away:

if you've sent me email over the last week or two, there's a good chance i never got it. things with comcast and pobox.com got all fucked up and until i can fix everything, please use [ rothko999 -- at -- fastmail -- dot -- fm ]. my cell phone will be good for a little while but not much longer; gotta change numbers and maybe even providers soon.

more later when i'm no longer part of the waking dead.

1. gatlinburg, TN is without question the worst, most appalling rape of nature for the sake of tourist trash i have ever seen in my life. and i think it's all dolly parton's fault -- it's the home of dollywood.

2. once you get through there, though, you get to one of the most stunning views on earth ever, at clingman's dome in the great smoky mountains.

3. nashville is a really fucking cool place to be. i could see myself living here. it's cool.

So we left Harrisonburg yesterday and made a few touristy stops along the way south, opting to take US-11 rather than the interstate for a while. We walked around downtown Lexington briefly, drove past Foamhenge (I promise to post pictures of that later; we didn't bring the card reader in from the car last night), stopped at Natural Bridge for about two minutes before deciding it was a hopeless tourist trap and completely overpriced. Then we headed on south to Bristol, which actually straddles the Virginia - Tennessee border. We're at a gigantic brand-new Holiday Inn here and about to head for Tennessee and all things groovy.

So if we can ever get the Holiday Inn's Internet connection to work, this will be my first post from the road.

We left Cambridge on Friday about quarter after four. A bit later than we had hoped, but not like we really had a timetable. Or at least, not an exact one. I went to one last bioenergetics class at noon, and it was an excellent class that really had me feeling great when it was over. More relaxed than I had been in a very long time.

So we headed out onto the Mass Pike and took it all the way out to New York State, mostly to avoid I-84 through Hartford. Yeah, it was quite the detour once we finally rejoined 84, but I understand it was well worth it to avoid construstion nightmares.

We made very few stops the first day, ultimately spending the night in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Saturday, we drove more or less straight through Pennsylvania and on into Virginia, where we stopped at Luray Caverns. I've seen that sort of thing before, but this one was very, very cool. Then we set out to find a hotel; I think we got the last room available in the entire area. It's a very small town and a very big tourist trap.

This morning we left and made our way to Skyline Drive, a small road winding through the Shenandoah National Forest up through the mountains. It was foggy in the morning, but cleared up as the day went on. It's an absolutely beautiful place. We took one "small" hike; we went to see the waterfall closest to the drive, about .6 miles down a steep trail to see the bottom of the falls. And then it was .6 miles back up to the top. It wasn't actually that bad, but it was a small workout. We saw a few senior citizens head down with their families, and I couldn't help but think that if I had read "some may find the steep ascent challenging" in the park guide handed to everyone upon entering, I certainly wouldn't be taking my 60-year-old mother down that sort of trail...

We left the Drive at US-33 while it was still light so that we could find lodging a bit earlier this evening, landing here in Harrisonburg. There is a jacuzzi tub in the room plus the Internet connection, so we're living in comparative luxury. Here are a couple more photos.( Read more... )

My life has been nothing but pure and utter madness the last few weeks.

We got a car (a 2005 Toyota Prius -- it fucking rocks the known universe). It's very, very strange; I haven't had a car at my disposal since I've lived in Minneapolis, which was just about eight years ago. I'm not sure i'll get used to it until we're in a place where we have to have a car -- I'm just so used to taking the T or walking around here.

Not like I'll be here for that much longer...

We haven't quite decided when to take off, but it will either be Friday afternoon or early Saturday. It still hasn't really sunk in, even though the house is nearly bare, even though I watched a flatbed truck take away our crates of stuff yesterday morning. I keep going to the kitchen table to find stuff only to realize that there is no table anymore, and that my calendar and my cell phone are instead sitting on a small heap in the bedroom along with a backpack, a duffel bag, and a box of things I want to have with me for the next month or two while we try to find a house.

We'll be staying in a place called Homestead Studio Suites; basically a glorified hotel room with a kitchenette, laundry access, and supposedly wireless Internet. One might think that would be expensive until you consider that a month there will cost between one-half to two-thirds of our rent here in Cambridge.

My next task is to get dressed, and start figuring out which of the things I need to get rid of will go to the AIDS Action store and which will go to Goodwill, and then load it up in the car (we have a car!) and deliver it all. And then I need to go through all the toiletries and grab those things I'll need immediately at hand and chuck the rest into a big box. Then I think I might be done. Scary fucking thought.

I may be updating from the road if we find wireless along the way.

Wishing rm a fabulous birthday and major success in the upcoming year!!

I haven't been reading much here lately, and posting? Forget it. I've been ill for at least a week and I was completely voiceless for two or three days, so in addition to not being able to type, I was also unable to dictate. How much does that suck?

I would like to announce the that director's cut of THX-1138 rocks the known universe and you should all go out and get it right now. Lucas patched back in the bits that the studio took out and so the story makes more sense now, and he put just enough CG in the right places to improve on what he couldn't do in the 70s, without overdoing it (much). It fucking rocks and you all need to get it.

I need to find some sort of paper shredding service that caters to individuals. I only have maybe three or four grocery bags full, but it's way more than the shredder we have could ever hope to handle. Once I get rid of all that, the computer room will look a lot better, but I'm not very hopeful of finding a place that will do such a small job.

The weather has been beautiful here; high 60s mostly -- fall is finally arriving. And you have no idea how much more energy I have and how much my mood has improved.

Dude, I got a letter from fuckin' Serbia today! We love International Pen Friends, oh yes we do.

Yesterday I was on the Red Line headed back to Davis, and I was seated near the door. There was a woman directly across from me dressed in nice business clothes next to the other door. When we got to Harvard and the door opened on her side, she turned her head and spit her gum out onto the platform.

I was utterly appalled.

We have gradually started to pack. Or rather, Mathew has been packing at this point, putting all of our CDs and books and DVDs into boxes. So far, I think he's filled about 15 with just these things alone. I'm so frightened. As for my part, I've started sifting through all of my crap in the computer room and all of my papers and shit. I've got a lot of stuff to sort through, way more than he does. My arms can mostly handle sorting OK. I just need to be smart.

L. suggested today that perhaps there are Tufts students willing to help out with this shit for whatever money they can get. I may have to look in to that. Either that, or perhaps I can bribe my friends with pizza, dinner, or other goodies...