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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Rika Youngblood's LiveJournal:
| Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 | |
| 11:40 am | Norway Prime Minister: "The Answer to Violence is even More Democracy" Or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb2fTQO3 |
| Thursday, July 7th, 2011 | |
| 12:44 am | Hugh Grant, investigative journalist It's heartening to see someone with sufficient fuck-you money call out the Murdoch publications for their practices. No irony intended; I thoroughly enjoyed Grant's report and subsequent sparring session with an old adversary, not to mention the chance to hear Grant talk without his trademark stutter. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-140526 Could Paul McMullen, ex-"journalist" turned pub owner, possibly have been cast as more ratty and skanky? If he'd shapeshifted into a stoat on camera I would not have been surprised. My heart aches a bit when I think about the earnest ethical training we got in journalism school, then listen to the sniveling McMullen try to double down with "how could the highly paid Grant lower himself" and "it's all part of the game." Wonder what they teach in that school now. Current Mood:  ... |
| Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 | |
| 12:07 pm | Zombie Diana Fanfic Is Princess Diana doomed to walk the earth forever, until her memory melts into mythology and two millennia down the road our distant descendants will class her as a handmaiden to Marilyn Monroe? What is this doing on the cover of Newsweek? Why doesn't Tina Brown team up with Kevin Killian (the first playwright I saw using celebrities essentially as fanfic characters) so we can put this back on off-Broadway where it belongs? http://jezebel.com/5816206/undead-princ |
| Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 | |
| 3:31 am | |
| Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 | |
| 1:09 pm | How do they rise up? Here's to the last Ankh-Morpork revolution, to Towel Day, and to my morris teammate Karen Candlin. |
| Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 | |
| 10:59 pm | Thoughts on the Columbine anniversary from a survivor who knew the killers I look at Reddit once or twice a week now. The "Ask Me Anything" sessions, where various flavors of noteworthy people offer themselves for no-holds-barred interviews, always pique my interest. I recommend this one -- it doesn't rehash the old sound bites. He put a lot of thought into his answers, and you'll probably say Wow a few times. I was friends with the killers, a few victims, was scapegoated by the police as being involved, went on to do lots of anti-bullying activism for many years before I gave it up. AMA |
| Thursday, April 14th, 2011 | |
| 6:04 pm | Short liveblog of "telephone town hall" with Rep. Anna Eshoo And whaddya know, an immediate opportunity to talk politics. Our land line was randomly selected to participate in a telephone conference with our House representative, Anna Eshoo, on the subject of the proposed Medicare cuts. I'm listening to it now; sounds as though I came in near the tail end. I love hearing her say she won't participate in the dismantling of Medicare. Will see if I can liveblog a few things. Paraphrased material [in brackets]. Eshoo: "If in fact these cuts were being applied to lower the deficit, some people would say, well, okay, I guess we all have to sacrifice. But these cuts are being applied in areas that I find reprehensible [such as oil companies]. I think we can agree that oil companies are doing all right. Why should it be put on your backs and ruin a problem that has really worked well? "I think the body politic will take notice of this. There's a reason they haven't applied this to people enrolled in Medicare right now -- they wouldn't vote for it. People who aren't in the program now aren't paying attention to this. We have to be concerned from one generation to the next. I don't believe that doing this strengthens our country in any way, shape, or form." Medicare IS a single-payer system, she reminded one caller. Caller says the insurance companies are out of control; they're gouging people and forcing them to choose [between food and health]. Why can't we stop them? Eshoo: "That's a very good question. What we did was to rein in the cost of what private insurance companies were doing. Exchanges will be set up next year. You can see that some companies are raising their rates, some up to 39 percent [or more]. "Imagine seniors being given a voucher and being thrown out into the private insurance market to find something. There has been much discrimination against women [and seniors]; [that's why Medicare was created]. The private insurance market has not endeared itself to people. The [Obama] health care plan was designed so that you could keep your current insurer if you liked. What I take from your comment is that there's a lot of money to be made by private insurers, and no confidence in [how they apply it]." She's signing off with a suggestion that we look carefully at what Obama proposed in his recent speech. Don't forget to write or otherwise tell your representatives what you think of it; write letters to the editor, talk to your friends and community. "No senior in our country, or no one that will become a senior, should be thrown into the arms of the private insurance market. Real deficit and debt reduction, yes, but not on the backs of the people [who have built this country.] Medicare and its promise of being a guarantee should be preserved." Rhetoric, to be sure, but rhetoric from someone who's consistently represented my views. Good to have heard her back all that up in a real-time conversation. Current Mood:  pleased |
| Wednesday, April 13th, 2011 | |
| 9:25 pm | Inspired by a discussion in another journal (from which this post is a reworked comment), I'm considering posting more political content here. Even though my physical health has improved to the point that writing seems interesting again, I've shied away from the current state of politics because it's so fucking appalling. I'm afraid of steam blasting out my ears like a cartoon steam-whistle. And backing off to write about my views of the underlying causes often makes me angry *and* leaves me feeling like a conspiracy theorist. That said, it's marginally easier to discuss these things on LJ than on FB, where my major friend base centers around a relatively apolitical interest. I'm better off not knowing what opinions some of these people hold, because Studies Have Shown that friendships are not improved when you say things like, "Okay, you say you're a Christian, but you don't follow anything actually taught by Jesus." On LJ my friends list more closely mirrors my own views. So occasionally I'll cowboy up and dump my rage on LJ, perhaps after, as suggested, I toss it in a salad bowl with some fresh-cut humor and irony. Sometimes I'll include the ratings on my special "how far up your crotch do I want to kick your balls" scale of retribution. For example, right now Rep. Eric Cantor's testicles would be lodged firmly in his retropubic space, if I were there, wearing my special shoes. |
| Saturday, January 29th, 2011 | |
| 3:09 am | Back from the ded The last six weeks marked the least festive holiday season I've experienced in decades. The majority of my time was spent in bed or propped up on the living room couch. Christmas and New Year, down the drain. As far as I can tell I got hit by four or five things in succession, probably hormonally amplified. Can't tell now whether allergies hammered me hardest or whether I caught the flu-thing that's going around. Whatever the source, the end result was "down for the count." My stamina still hasn't powered back up to full. My lungs still hated today's chilly fog, not that they've ever liked that kind of thing, and my plans to hit the gym for something a bit more strenuous than standing on the vibrating platform fizzled out after I spent my full session staffing the recording studio (fortunately, nobody there today) and actually spent time in the piano practice rooms. I'm definitely used to a steeper angle of recovery. Because of all this enforced downtime I'm going to have to drop my intermediate music theory class for the quarter. Just too far behind, in a class where there've been online assignments nearly every day. Maybe the teacher will let me hang on and withdraw from the class at the last possible minute so that I can soak up as much online knowledge as possible. What I need to create now with some of that newly freed-up time is an actual physical regimen to rebuild strength and staying power, as opposed to simply putting in the gym hours (which is what my school gym class' structure encourages, access in return for hours logged). It's also time to try anything that might reduce my allergizability (yes, that's a word, because I say so). As time, money, and vigor permit I've been giving myself little treats, lunch at a favorite restaurant here, a movie there, a brief visit with friends, a short massage, even an SF Sketchfest evening, since the last few weeks have been so freakin' bleak. Not too much fun yet for the quivering beastie, but enough to draw my California-spring crocuses out from the earth. Over the last three days I received some bad family news (not health-related, at least not this time). There's nothing I can offer them from two states away, absolutely nothing I can do except wring my hands and tell them they're in my thoughts. I hope they manage to pull a rabbit out of that hat. Wishing you an easier time too. |
| Monday, December 13th, 2010 | |
| 11:53 pm | Allergies on the march This is the worst trouble I've had with allergies ever, with symptoms more extreme. It's near anaphylaxis. (At least that explains why Sudafed helps.) I've taken to wearing a particle filtration mask when I go outside, and that definitely makes a difference. It weirds people out, so I briefly pull the mask down and explain it's just because of the pollen, which always makes them smile in relief. But how long will this go on? The new antihistamines just don't work well for me. I'm going to start hiding in air-conditioned buildings during the day, now that school's out and I have a choice of where to spend my time. |
| Saturday, December 11th, 2010 | |
| 6:21 pm | More relevant to my life than I'd like Good to remember. Always check your sources. Edit: In fact, I'm cranky enough about the relevant material that I'm posting a unicorn chaser for myself. Maybe you could use one too. Neil Gaiman's white dogs bounding in the white snow: Current Mood: cranky |
| Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 | |
| 2:09 pm | |
| Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 | |
| 8:52 pm | Finals week: the musical, part I For once I am not crazy batshit worried about whether everything will work out at the end of the quarter, for what may be the first time in years. The music-theory test was my last written final. The instructor did his level best to make sure everyone knew what would be on the exam. Gah, so many fiddly bits. This class has forced me to zero in on the details again and again. So many, many little footnotes that change everything. (Curse you, enharmonics!) I was very glad to get my last quiz back just before the final, because the sprinkling of errors there came entirely from inattention -- e.g., did I make sure the pop chords matched the Roman numerals? Apparently not. Whether I'm wrong or right in this final, at least there'll be fewer half-right answers. I signed up for the intermediate theory course, even though it's an hour earlier. Morning people, imagine what gyrations you'd have to go through to attend an important class that only met at midnight -- that's what a 9 a.m. class is like for me. The good news is that I was already trying to arrive that early, because the parking lot I use fills up so fast that I have to be there around 9 to get a parking spot in time for the 10 a.m. class. |
| Thursday, November 18th, 2010 | |
| 11:43 pm | Return of linkspam I'm sitting here doing a production run on the laser cutter at TechShop, and so have a lot of time on my hands, and so here are some of the tidbits I'm digging up. Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 (For anyone who hasn't read "Dogs in Elk": http://web.mit.edu/munch/Public/humor/e Grandma's Superhero Therapy (18 photos) - My Modern Metropolis http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blo (for more pictures: http://www.myspace.com/frederikagoldber The Great War of the Californias : Sandow Birk http://www.sandowbirk.com/paintings/t Last Man in Blackface: The World of Pigmeat Markham - WFMU's Beware of the Blog http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/11/t |
| 3:07 pm | After agonizing over an upcoming music-theory test for days, I took the test today and discovered I might actually understand the material. We'll see next Tuesday. After missing two classes because of my previously mentioned car trouble, I'd feared for the worst. But despite his rigid insistence on maintaining particular classroom forms -- an understandable trait in someone who teaches music minutiae -- the instructor really does want students to learn and gives them every opportunity to do so. He sat down with everyone, me included, over a set of practice questions and spent as much time as we [thought we] needed. It's still not clear whether my car can go the distance to school and back, so my housemate has been driving me to school this week. This means that he and I share the sleep deprivation I used to suffer alone on Tuesday and Thursday mornings -- we are such decided swing/graveyard shifters. We're past the testy phase and into a sort of rhythm, though our sleep cycles haven't shifted. I go to bed at, say 2 a.m., but lie there till 3 or 3:30. Aaand that's enough lollygagging. Now I have to whip something together for the video editing class. My current project is a documentary on Stan Freberg. He's been working since 1944, fresh out of high school at 17 years old. Do you know how deep and how varied his resume is? Thank heaven this can be a work in progress. So far it's mostly been a piece of work. I've cut and cut and cut back on my focus, and finally decided to approach his CV in bite-size chunks. Right now I'm in the "Time for Beany!" years. All hail YouTube, without which I wouldn't have known that the Cecil the Seasick Ser-Pent voice I knew as a child probably came from Irv Shoemaker. Freberg's voice in the early series is unmistakable. |
| Tuesday, November 16th, 2010 | |
| 3:34 am | You don't miss the water till the well overflows This last week or so has been a collection of mini-hells on wheels. Maybe roller skates. Second biggest glitch of last week was the collapse of the water heater just before the weekend. Out of nowhere the heater produced rushing, gurgling noises, and eventually nothing else. It took me a little while to find the turnoff valve, which for some reason wasn't in the spot shown in the manual, but I shut off the spigot before the garage was flooded. That's the good news. The irritating news was that although my housemate's home warranty payments were up to date, so the cost of replacement or repair shouldn't have been a problem, the insurance company's central office had chosen the weekend to do a computer upgrade that didn't allow the adjusters access to customer files. This meant that we couldn't find someone in network to do the repairs, and the adjusters could only allocate the minimum reimbursement amount for any out-of-network contractor, an amount that wouldn't even cover materials costs for a cheap, undersized heater. So we had to wait till Monday evening to get hot water in the house again. This isn't easy for people who dance, sweat a lot (in my housemate's case), go to the gym, and otherwise lead moderately active lives in a Mediterranean climate. We were each able to use outside showers once, but overall we stayed sticky. A few minutes ago I took my first long, hot shower in several days -- feeling clean and warm is an undersung pleasure. Biggest glitch of the week, though, is that my car blew a head gasket. At first I thought it was just a heater hose, as did the repair shop, but the compression test told the rest of the story. I was able to drive the car for short distances before it heated up while on the way to the repair shop. The mechanic at the desk, who used to race Honda Civics like mine, says that the engine may be able to stand a bit more driving if I pay close attention to the coolant levels and pull over to top them up whenever the temperature starts to rise. I haven't given this theory a serious test yet, though, since on top of the water heater woes I was quite under the weather for most of last week. The cost of repairing the car would be nearly three times what I paid for it (yes, a very good deal on this vehicle), and I'm in no position to shell out that amount right now. So until we find out how much driving this baby can take, I'll be relying on my housemate to drop me off at school during the crucial mid-week classes. Fortunately there's only a few weeks left. Had to drop my screenprinting studio class at the last moment because, especially with the car situation, I just can't guarantee enough in-studio hours to pass. The instructor was very understanding; next quarter I'll give it another go. The music theory class alternately delights me and kicks my ass. Freakin' triads, man. ...Would write more, but I have to catch a few hours of sleep before the (for me) unseasonably early Music Theory. TTYL. |
| Thursday, November 4th, 2010 | |
| 11:10 pm | Children of the night, what music they hope to make So I've been reading Livejournal more lately, but it's still hard for me to make myself post. I don't feel as comfortable writing as nakedly as I did in years past, and that's the truth of it. Perhaps writing more often and less nakedly would prove more fruitful. Here's the latest fully-clothed news, then. School continues on, and in terms of getting an actual degree there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. The courses I need to get my AA in Music Tech will be offered next spring. Did they announce this generally? No, I had to hear it completely by chance as the instructor mentioned it to another student nearby. Fine, whatever. Now I know. Next I'll check to see when they'll offer the classes I need for the Pro Tools certificate. This quarter the class that consumes most of my attention is the Music Theory class, for better or worse. I'm learning tons of stuff that heretofore had stayed perpetually out of focus, which feels exciting. All the detail plucks my magic anxiety twanger. I have to reassure myself every few days that I jumped this far down the rabbit hole because I *like and care about music*. The other aspect of the class that makes me jumpy is simply getting there. The class already starts early by our household's standards. The short form is, wow, are my housemate and I born to work the swing or graveyard shifts. I.e., my housemate and I are completely comfortable going to bed at 3 or 4 a.m. My housemate's body clock works on even more of a swing-shift/night-shift rhythm than mine does, and he slips back to his preferred schedule even in the face of work repercussions. My bedtime clock goes off earlier than his, at maybe 2-3 a.m.; he'll often stay up till 5 or 6 a.m. Why this matters is that we enjoy each other's company, and late is often the only time our paths will cross. In addition to that, the parking situation, and the allergized and mildly asthmatized state of my lungs at this time of the year, means that there's only one campus parking lot that doesn't require me to hike up a steep hill to get to class. And to get a parking space there it's necessary to arrive an hour early, at 9 a.m. for a 10 a.m. class. Which means getting up at 8 a.m. or earlier. So I'm frequently dealing with sleep deprivation when I go into class -- the class sessions are 3 hours long, twice a week, by the way. Edited to fix my embarrassing E.g./i.e slip up there. Anyway, it appears that there's one class per quarter that freaks me out, and Music Theory is the one. It's a three quarter course if one chooses to sign up for that. Next quarter the class will actually start at 9 a.m. The instructor calls roll at the minute class starts, not even waiting five minutes, no breaks for anyone, so that means arriving even earlier. I'm trying to decide whether to take the class online next quarter. If I do, I miss the solfege, sight-singing, and ear-training aspects of the class. On the other hand, I'll be awake. |
| Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 | |
| 11:46 pm | Had a lucky day today. I was assigned a new Volunteer of Record spot in the recording studio, which was an unasked favor, since other people needed to submit resumes. The guy newly in charge of assigning VORs, someone else from the Music Tech program, noticed that I hadn't submitted a resume and checked in with me to see if I wanted to stay on the list. I did and he did. Couldn't get the absolute maximum convenient time for myself, but still something workable. EDIT: I should add that I've already been a VOR for most of a year, and that apparently other ongoing VORs didn't need to submit resumes either; in other words, we didn't need to requalify. What else felt lucky? Oh, making all the lights, getting a lot of amusing texts, jumping back into work on a project from last quarter that's carrying over, having an especially good sandwich in the cafeteria. It just felt like a good day. Not lucky for everyone though. Greg Giraldo, a favorite comedian of mine for several years, apparently died of an accidental drug overdose today. I first encountered him on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn (six years since that show was on, really?), in which Quinn and four other comedians talked about current events & issues, played in sketches, performed semi-impromptu short monologues, and generally attempted to be interesting, funny, and politically aware all at once. Greg Giraldo was one of the few comedians who always hit that mark. Giraldo graduated from Harvard Law School, but he only practiced law for a year before turning to comedy. Smart, smart, smart man, always articulate and informed, and *always* funny. You can develop funny monologues, you can hone your sets to a bright, sharp edge, but being naturally funny is a gift unbound to politics or maybe even intelligence. It's all in the rhythm and the timing. I'm glad that I got to see Giraldo perform live once, at Cobb's Comedy Club in San Francisco. Afterwards he hung out in the lobby hawking his CDs -- you'd think he didn't need to do that any more, but we all know how glamorous the life of a working comedian is. He stood there covered in sweat, waiting for CD-autograph requests and compliments, both of which I could give him. Comedy's a hard profession, not much given to peace, but I hope he has some now. |
| Saturday, September 25th, 2010 | |
| 5:24 pm | Burn rate Here in the TechShop hub at the end of the afternoon, after finishing my first session on the laser cutter in a couple of months. I made some relatively simple cards on luxe coppery paper in a mini-production run. Feeling kind of relaxed for a change, now that that nasty cold is over. I'm surrounded by quiet bustle, people chatting over their projects at the worktables, the buzz and whir of machinery a room away. Life is for the moment okay. |
| Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 | |
| 6:32 pm | After-hours and during-hours linkfest Technically I should no longer be in this building. And yet I am, thanks to the kindness of strangers who knew they'd be here for a while anyway. Why not pile a couple of links into this text-hole, then? Starting the entry now, adding more links when I get home. Single Ladies - The Pigs with John Williamson on Jaw Harp An Australian (?!) country band covers the Beyonce hit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf4__-xW How to Talk Like a Pirate Best language video I've seen in a long time. Harrrr! http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/v ETA: 200-lb Octopus Cake Don't know what the heck it is about cake design these days, but it's worth it for pictures like this. http://jwz.livejournal.com/1289510.h The Party Don't Start Till I Vulcan Ah, the joy of Star Trek remixes. http://intertuberecords.cheezburger.c Auto-Tune the News #13, with non-gratuitous Weezer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KucV8ren |
