Below are the most recent 18 friends' journal entries.

Friday, May 24th, 2013
cz_unit	1:38p	Balticon HO! Ok, it's time to get going to BALTICON! Coffee party tonight, with homebrew after hours. We will see how it goes, need to get all the stuff out. C (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013
coyotegoth	9:45a	Looking for a room in the East Bay area? A room is open in my live/work space. Decent sized 12' x 9.5' room with large closet & carpet & additional storage nook (6'x6'+weird) unattached. Two shared bathrooms, shared kitchen, living room, lounge & shop. Space is shared with 3 other people and a cat. The room is completely internal (no windows) and is a bit rough, needs a little work, mainly a door (suggest french door for natural light) and possibly an extra window to the living area if desired (basically, no problems making it your own). Space is available now and rent is $650/month with $1300 deposit. Water is free, util & cable/internet are shared. Our household is ideal for those who work in technical & creative fields. It does best with intelligent responsible & mature, easy, individuals. We have a decent amount of tools & fabrication equipment in our shop if you enjoy creating things with your hands. It's not the fanciest place but if you like Black Rock you'll like it here. If interested please feel free to contact me here; I'll put you in touch with the head tenant. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013
cz_unit	11:17p	Ow. Working on that three chime Seth Thomas 124 movement. It needed cleaning, bushings, all that and apparently putting one together is exceptionally tricky. So of course I got it together, got the chimes synced, and most importantly they actually run all the time. However this evening I was winding it and the click let loose. Result is the key sprang back and whacked my thumb *hard*. Ouch. Some blood, but I cleaned up, took it apart, fixed and lubricated the click springs, and put it all back together again. Oops. On the other hand, it's a very nice little working Westminster chime mantel clock. And since it works properly I can now take apart and fix chiming clocks as well as striking clocks and grandfather clocks. And 400 day clocks, and year clocks, and little clocks, and of course pocket watches of all sizes above zero. Wish I could make a real go of it though. Hm. C (Comment on this)
Monday, May 20th, 2013
virginia_fell	7:06p	Women in Secularism 2: Breaking News: Even at WiS, we have to defend the purpose of WiS! Okay, this is too long to reproduce it all here, but if you want a linkdump for all the clusterfuckery going down as a result of Ron Lindsay (apparently) being deeply ambivalent about the reason we all came together and expressing that in his introduction, here is what I have. This entry was originally posted at http://xenologer.dreamwidth.org/1066219.html and has comments. Comment here, or there using OpenID. Current Mood: annoyed (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 19th, 2013
cz_unit	9:39p	Oh great..... Just what the world needs: My little pony characters turned into teenage girls with miniskirts. Hm. Well, the animation is plate, but isn't bad. And this is different from Lum... how? C (1 Comment |Comment on this)
cz_unit	4:31p	What a day.... So last night Tara came back from a school trip to NYC at 11pm. And Bri stayed up to greet her. Sort of, she fell asleep by the back door and missed Tara coming in. So I went downstairs to get her up to bed. I tried to pick her up, but then said "Wake up Bri, Tara's home". At which point Bri sat up, said TARA! and ran to the stairs to go up and see her. I got up and followed only to hear a serious *THUMP* as Bri fell down the steps, followed by a lot of crying. Apparently Bri wasn't awake, got half way up the stairs, and either shut down or tripped on her blanket and fell down the stairs. We took care of her last night, her arm was ok but her wrist hurt from the fall. I slept in the room with her and she fell back asleep. This morning she was still crying so we went to the hospital. HoCo general is a pretty good place, they checked her in, checked her out, gave her motrin stuff, and took X-rays. Sure enough she has a fractured radius and ulna right at the wrist in a way that everything is together but there is a bump on the side of the bone. Poor thing. So they put her in a wrapped bandage, and we will be getting a cast in the next few days for a few weeks. Poor little Bri, she's fairly upset by the whole thing, but is doing much better once she saw her X-rays. She's a brave little girl, it's just kind of crazy. I'm just glad it wasn't worse. And I wish I had just picked her up and carried her into bed. I forgot that kids can do things while asleep, and that my sister used to sleepwalk all the time. Sleep is a weird thing, no doubt. She's ok now. Eating cookies. Points out what is important in life. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
phoenix_glow	7:11a	how Into Darkness carved out my heart with a spoon and served it up for lunch I can't tell you how excited I was to go see Star Trek Into Darkness. Not only was it TREK, but it had Benedict Cumberbatch added in to the mix like sprinkles on a six-layer cake. You know - major fangirl squee and all that. Gah. I came out of the movie feeling like my best friend had stabbed me in the back and left me to die on the pavement by the theater. Benedict was amazing. I could have watched a string of clips documenting every time he opens his mouth. I thought all the actors were competent and did a good to fabulous job of inhabiting these iconic roles. As one reviewer said most of the cast were doing karaoke playing these characters - so well-known are they. I found the last ST reboot to be weird, but enjoyable. As a long-time Trekkie, I was open to reinterpretation of all things Trek, and tried to see the movie with fresh eyes. This latest  installment in the new ST franchise  felt like watching a zombie wearing your sister's face shuffle around and show up at Thanksgiving dinner. Classic lines, tics of the characters pushed to parody, FUCKING PIVOTAL scenes like Spock's death as he sacrifices himself to save the ship get rehashed and served up like one big microwaved joke. Then there's the lack of story. I kept waiting for the twist, for the reveal, for something clever that explained something. Nope. Bad guys. Good guys. War. Running around. Fights. Credits. sigh. I think I speak for Trekdom when I say it was a complicated brew that made this series such a compelling world to vicariously inhabit when the screen lit up. We had true science fiction (what if . . .) morality plays, a soap opera of characters compelling enough to care about, and a clever pushing of what was "normal" social restriction. An idea that humanity had survived our primitive baser selves and risen to form something as good and noble as the Federation was heady stuff. I can speak from personal experience when I say that Star Trek gave me hope when I lived through the cold war era of the 80's. Maybe we DIDN'T just blow ourselves up as a race and actually grew the fuck up at some point in our development. That was just as attractive as Kirk's ripped uniforms. J.J. Abrams took this wonderful body of work and ripped it to shreds for a summer action flick. I hope I am not spoiling anything when I say that Benedict Cumberbatch's villian named John Harrison is actually a reboot of Khan, a well-explored baddie from the original series. I wish they had just made Ben's character someone totally new, but no, they had to take the lazy route of RELYING on all the backstory of this character to serve up a character that they barely explain in this latest movie. As I watched this movie, I kept thinking okay, who the hell is this guy? Why is he blowing shit up? Why do I care about his frozen crew I never get to meet? I just didn't. In the original story with Khan, he is a leader, a genetic superman, a master manipulator. It's his great intellect and persuasive talents that make him as fascinating as his brawn and force. He gets inside your miiiiind, and you have to ask yourself if you are so much better than he and his people are. You have to question what is right and what is wrong, and who deserves to have a life and who doesn't. This new Khan just kicks you when you're down, grabs a gun and shoots you in the back because it's simple and expected. Yawn. I think it's interesting that the movie spent more time investing in the emotional life and story of a minor character who appears for five minutes in the film. to aide Khan in blowing up a ST facility than it did with any of the major roles, Khan included. Ack.  Sorry guys, in this brave new world, the Bad Guys run the show, no one has any idea what they're doing, and any noble ideas of truth, justice, communal good, and  human dignity are blown up for a good ride. It's like the Cold War came back and actually nuked my home town. Thanks Abrams. Thanks alot. Beam me out of here Scottie. The bad guys just won walking over our poor cold corpses on their way to the box office. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
coyotegoth	1:16a	goodbyes (for now) Last moments at the house of my late friend Beej and her family, before I get back on a plane, back to my West Coast life. It's been hard- lovely- unforgettable being back here, the home where she had hoped to spend the rest of her life- did spend the rest of her life. At one point, I was shown, in the downstairs knick-knack cabinet, the canister that contains her ashes; decorated with Peanuts characters, it was one she herself selected. (The last time I came here, during her final illness, there was a large inflatable Snoopy doghouse on the front porch; it's gone now.) Talking to Darin about how he's been doing since Beej passed, and cars, and plans for future visits; talking to Morgan about college, and music, and a girl she likes, who spent graduation night dinner here at the house, which was a lovely occasion. On an impulse, I'd brought with me a book of Paul McCartney lyrics Beej had given me once, with a personal inscription; I had Darin and Morgan both inscribe it, as well. They both wrote hugely touching messages; both of them said how much I'd helped with all of this, and both named me as family. Especially now, with my blood family so far away, that's a rare and precious thing. Home now, as soon as I wake up Darin, although a part of my heart will always be here. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 17th, 2013
cz_unit	9:54p	New Trek II Fail. ( spoilersCollapse ) Ah well. (Comment on this)
coyotegoth	8:49a	( Me, with my chosen-family niece Morgan at her high school graduation yesterday. YAY!Collapse ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
cz_unit	8:46p	I want those 20 minutes of my life back So I watched the Amy's kitchen video, like about 40% of the Internet. And yes it's completely terrible. But I am sure it will put traffic through the roof at that restaurant, no point in thinking otherwise. It's like the viral anti-Abecrombe & Fitch videos, the only thing it winds up doing is driving more sales through completely free publicity. Ah well :-) Also it looks like LJ is back again, which is nice. Backing up my journal here, I wish the old ljarchive could do comments, but it doesn't seem to work. C (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 14th, 2013
cz_unit	9:46a	Status Things still bats, no real other update. C (Comment on this)
Monday, May 13th, 2013
coyotegoth	6:51p	update The more I think about it, the more I think that moving out here was a hard, Spartan sort of wisdom. There aren't really words for what it's like to hug your parents (separately), knowing that you may never see either of them again (Dad's 87, with a history of heart trouble; Mom's 73, with generally poor health); nor for saying goodbye to 99% of the people you know and care about; nor for what it's like to move across the country, with no real idea of what you'll do for a job (an issue I'm still working on), or where you'll be living (in which I consider myself to have been staggeringly lucky- Melinda Himel- thank you, again and always). That said, this move has forced me to deal with a great many issues which have always been problematic for me- not least, a pronounced tendency to live in my own head, with a minimum of interaction with the outside world. I've been doing a fair amount of socializing, and even some community work (I've been to two neighborhood group meetings, which is two more than I ever attended in NYC; I also patrol one of the safer (to put in bluntly) stretches of the neighborhood, gathering trash). I've been on a few job interviews (although breaking into the San Francisco copy editing field, with no real connections out here? Yeah; probably going to be getting some other sort of job while I continue to put shoulder to wheel on that one). Also, I've been dealing with some general body/health issues: I walk about seven miles a day (not a shabby beginning, IMHO), and have a loaner bike I'm about to take in for a tuneup (must also get new helmet); am also looking into swimming locales in the area, and perhaps yoga; am also looking into general healthy eating-type things. Beyond that, I'm forcing myself back to creative endeavors, including some fanfics I've been letting hang since forever: my 65,000+ words on my non-Deathly Hallows-complaint version of Book 7, featuring OMG ALL THE EXPOSITION; my Albus Severus fic, with only three installments, but a narrative hook of which I'm quite proud; a Harry Potter songfic (I regret nothing!) featuring Lucius and Severus; even a Torchwood/Buckaroo banzai mashup (see previous note re lack of regret). Also, an original idea- an embryonic thing, so far, but we'll see. In a lot of ways, I'm dealing with issues that, if not depression, are close to it; I'm working slowly, putting shoulder to wheel, trying to make my life more of what I want it to be. Wish me luck, OK? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
coyotegoth	2:20p	Tomorrow night, I hop a plane to Tennessee, to attend the high school graduation of Morgan, daughter of my beloved friend Bobbi. I'm a little anxious: it's the first flight I've taken since arriving in San Francisco, and it'll be my first time at the house since Bobbi died- but I'm also delighted to be able to see her and Darin and the rest; I'm proud beyond measure at the way she and Darin have borne up, and continued to live life, not merely to survive it. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 12th, 2013
cz_unit	9:59p	What a college-level mess :-) So this evening I sat down and took a look at the total wreck that is my college "career". 2 years, one University that kicked me out for hacking and fucking in the music rooms, one and a half years at a community college that was about to kick me out because I got a real job and dumped my classes. God I was great. However in looking over the wreckage I did manage to pull out some interesting debris: I actually passed systems and circuits, physics, chemestry, engrish 101, comp sci II, and fortran/cobol. I even managed to pass Statistics/analysis and Calc I although I bombed Calc II three times in a row. Must have been a fucking spectacular record.... Point being though that I amassed 48 credits. And really I could cobble together an associates for Computer Science (information systems management) if I just took six courses. Engrish 102, Econ 201, 202, mgmt 105, and accounting 101,102. That's it. And I should be able to place out of mgmt 105 given my advanced knowledge of "shut the fuck up and involve HR with great care". That's management, by the way. I know quicken, so I could probably pass accounting 1/2 in my sleep. I know how to write, so I could probably pass engrish 102. So if I took accounting 102 and Econ 202, tested out of accounting 101,econ 101, and mgmt 105 then I would um have 60+ credits and an associate's degree. Which is of course a joke, but it would be kind of funny. If. CZ (4 Comments |Comment on this)
coyotegoth	5:35p	A wonderful thing A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
cz_unit	9:21a	Weight is still a bit low 212. Still somewhat low from 215. I do need to remember to eat more. C (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 11th, 2013
coyotegoth	9:32a	Luhrmann's Gatsby Gatsby vastly better than I expected (although the use of contemporary music1 never ceased to grate on my nerves; trying way too hard to attach it to *this* time, rather than simply trusting in its setting); Baz Luhrmann definitely understands the idea of someone being in their own movie, as it were. Di Caprio generally excellent (some reviewers call his performance affected, although seen in context, it's pretty clear that that's the point); Maguire generally okay; guy playing Tom nearly steals the movie; ditto actress playing Jordan; Carey Mulligan affecting, but not as much chemistry with Di Caprio as, say, Kate Winslet. May well rewatch. 1I was generally okay with the contemporary music in Moulin Rouge- if you can dance on clouds, why *can't* you sing Elton John? Here, it just seemed like he was trying way too hard for contemporary resonance. As for "living in (one's) own movie"- creating a hyperromantic, stylized reality around oneself, in a manner not at all unlike what Baz Luhrmann himself- a kid from a small town in the middle of rural Australia- has done. (There was one flashback shot in particular of the young Gatsby where I was like, "Herons Creek (his hometown) much, Mr Luhrmann?" (1 Comment |Comment on this)