Here I Am & Astoria

Here I am - this is me
There's no where else on earth I'd rather be
Here I am - it's just me and you
And tonight we make our dreams come true

It's a new world - it's a new start
It's alive with the beating of young hearts
It's a new day - it's a new plan
I've been waiting for you
Here I am

Here we are - we've just begun
And after all this time - our time has come
Here we are - still going strong
Right here in the place where we belong

I've been feeling mushy today. It's about 6:11 pm, and I haven't done anything today. In about 5 minutes or so, Rodney will be finishing stuff up @ work and be heading uptown to check out an apartment in Astoria... anything I've heard about/read about this city is great! I'm crossing my fingers and hoping he gets it...

We found it on Craigslist last night. 1 bedroom, $1200/month, and the pictures looked nice. There's an Open House tonight so he's jumping on it. I'm awaiting anxiously at home for news about what is going to happen.

In the meantime, I've been listening to Bryan Adams like crazy on imeem.com. Nothing new to talk about other than that. Just randomly looking for something to do, so I blogged.

Tattoo Lust

This might be the most exciting thing I've discovered ever... UV Tattoos!

They are tattoos inked with FDA approved blacklight reactive ink and are virtually invisible in normal light... seriously, how cool is that? Feel free to sponsor my quest for one :)

Here are some pics:

To Rodney

I haven't been very active on blogging all week, and this will continue into the weekend because Big City Boy is coming to town for Valentine's Day and I don't plan to be around my computer.

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

The Vagina Monologues

I'm working on a draft for my Musical Identity paper, when out of the blue this pretty girl taps me on the shoulder and asks me if I have 10 minutes to spare. Sure, why?

"Well, we want to interview you and your vagina."

Huh?

I just did a brief interview in an exchange for a free ticket for a local production of the Vagina Monologues. Their trying to tape all these women answering questions about their vaginas to show during intermission. I chose to go uncensored (no blurred face) because I guess I don't care.

1) If your vagina could say 2 words, what would it say? - Respect me.
2) If you vagina could wear anything, what would it wear? - Leather.

Funnily enough, they can't get any women on campus to do this! I'm actually a little shocked. I wasn't offended by the questions, they were funny and they serve a purpose. I'm happy to help. But what is every other girl afraid of? I can't wait to go see TVM on February 21. It'll be a nice birthday present to myself :)

So, what would yours say? What would it wear? (If you're a guy, pretend.)

World Village

What I Learned in Cultural Anthropology Today

If the Earth's population could be shrunk to a village of 100 people, the community would be composed of:

• 57 Asians
• 21 Europeans
• 14 People from the Western Hemisphere (North and South)
• 8 from Africa
• 51 Females, 49 Males
• 70 Non-White Peoples, 30 White Peoples
• 70 Non-Christians, 30 Christians
• 50% of the wealth would be in the hands of 8 citizens of the United States
• 80 would live in sub-standard housing
• 70 would be illiterate
• 50 would be malnourished
• 1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth
• Only 1 would be college educated

How does this make you feel? I know how this makes me feel: very small, and yet larger than life.

I get to be from the North-Western hemisphere, female, white, wealthy, (assuming because I'm "wealthy") live in a decent home, have food, read, write, and be college educated.

I represent 1% of that community; one out of 100.

Wow.

Consider the wealth part alone... 50% of the entire communities wealth only in 8 people? Only one of us is college educated? Only 30 literate? How did Americans get this way, and at what cost? I'm not ungrateful, and I know that social, political, and biological stratisfication makes certain truths uninevitable - but to this degree? Hm. Makes you think.

What do you think?

Home From Work 2.8.09

Less than a week until Valentine's Day.
{I miss you.}

My birthday is coming up. That's depressing.

Not much good happened this year. Graduated with no friends to speak of (but that changed for the better by June), sprained my ankle while moving, spent my whole summer working and suffering under the tyranny of my aunt, broke up with then boyfriend, got kicked out by said aunt, failed a college class...

But I'm doing better. School's better, living situation is better, love life is better. I hope by this time next year, I'll be reflecting on a happy year as a new CUNY student living with Rodney in a cozy apartment in the Upper East Side. Mmm... wonderfulness indeed. I want to have a nice couch that I can get comfy in, wearing big fuzzy socks and blogging by candle light... atmospheric with a Rodney snoring in the distance in the bedroom, tea steaming on the coffee table, and some light music gently playing from the stereo. Oh, let's make it better... I'm blogging, and Rodney is massaging my feet! I could go for some of that right now - owwie toes :(

I genuinely enjoy daydreaming about living with Rodney. I've never lived with someone I care for. People change when they share their lives 24/7... I hope we can withstand that :\

I'm about to go enjoy some more House M.D. and fall asleep, but I'd like to leave you with a song to listen to today if you get the chance: "Grave Digger" - Dave Matthews. Apparently, Willie Nelson has done this song, too, so I don't know who's covering who... Telepathin, you're a Dave Matthews/Willie Nelson fan, do you know?

Oh, listen to this too: "Nothing On But The Radio" - Gary Allan. I'd be cool with being with a certain someone right now with nothing on but the radio. And for the special someone, Dave Koz does a song by a similar title "Nothing But The Radio On" and I think you'd really enjoy it. Love you.

"Two people meant to be together
Two lovers dreaming of forever
And it just keeps on getting better
With nothing on but the radio
Feel the music playing soft and slow
You and me and the lights down low
With nothing on but the radio"

Goodnight All.

2.7.09

Today was blah. Laundry. Watched more House MD, downloaded Season 4 - waiting on Season 3 to finish up. Lots of Facebook action. I feel (+1) more social I guess. I still need to do taxes, complete my FAFSA, write my English paper, call about my glasses, and (finally) send in my laptop.

Sounds like Rodney is having fun at Comic Con NY 2009. Also sounds like he spent mad amounts of money, but hey, it's once a year. Maybe next year we'll go together and I can understand more about comic book collector enthusiasts?

Later in the week when I'm feeling less blah, I'm going to upload an interview VLOG entry I did featuring Valerie and her love of Webkinz. Check back for updates.

{Oh, and my father called me today. Double blah.}

8-Bit D & D

Dungeons & Dragons = <3

I love this epic game, I really do...was never very successful at keeping a campaign going, but I hope to one day achieve this feat. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the byproduct of the D&D rage... comedy directed at D&D geeks!



The BEST spoof of D&D has to be this 8-bit creation by CyberMoon Studios.



I'm attacking the darkness!
I love it!

Also, I'd like to add this song by Stephen Lynch, which this video reminded me of:



And when we put on our cloaks and tell warlock jokes we're the coolest kids at the school...

{No we're not.}

I know.

Playing Dressup

"eLouai" is probably my most favorite waste of time on the web.

eLouai.com is the invention of Louai Munajim, a freelance artist from Montreal. While the site itself definitely lacks design (and in my opinon a user-friendly interface), it makes up for it in that the dollmaker programs are very diverse in their components. I'm always impressed when I go through the hundreds (literally, almost thousands) of options I'm given to dress and surround my avatar, making her unique from head to toe.

There is a strong Korean-Anime influence in Louai's digiart and there are lots of "kawaii" elements; expressive and exhaggerated eyes, pastel, soft lines, girly, fun, and cute. Also, the combination of dreamlike and realistic pieces make it possible to create a fairy princess on Madison Avenue, as well as put a schoolgirl underwater.

eLouai.com has several dollmaker programs, as well as "room makers" where you can create doll houses and "puzzle makers" which are jumbled pieces of art that you put back together like a jigsaw. I'm not so impressed with room maker because of its limitations as far as design and keeping realistic size aspect ratios.

The true highlight IMHO is the Candybar Dollmaker, which allows you to create a doll and corresponding environment that are about the size of a candybar. I play with this ALL the time, and I like to save my creations or e-mail them to friends. Candybar Dollmaker has such a following that a Candybar's Next Top Model simulation community has emerged, begging the question "Who will blossom?... Into Candybar's Next Top Model!". This "competition" has made some users create YouTube videos depicting CNTM "footage".

It's been fun sharing eLouai, but now I just want to go play it! Check out my latest:

Love from cold, wintry Ohio!

Gorillaz!!!

Gorillaz is a great band with a great story. How could I forget them? I guess I was too busy buying into vintage... Oh well! If you haven't had the opportunity to check them out or hear them, I'm providing you with a Free Starter Kit, containing:

1) Playlist of songs off their debut album "Gorillaz" (2001) collected from imeem.com
2) Link to a place where you can buy their albums and albums of underground groups similar
3) The Wikipedia article about Gorillaz*

My favorite songs from their first album "Gorillaz": Slow Country & Punk

"Slow Country" is cool, calm, & meaningful. It's the serenity of "getting away from it all" and it has this groovy organ melody. And I like "Punk" because I wrote a Coca-Cola Ad to it for a 7th grade English assignment and KICKED ASS! Oh, "Re-Hash" & "19-2000" are catchy tunes, too.

Actually, I don't pick favorites. I love the entire album and every song is something different and haunting. These guys are great and experimental, and now I'm going to make an effort to reconnect with this groups music. Goodnight.

*Yeah, I know... I could do better than Wiki, but I'm tired and not in the mood to cite more... :(

Birthday Shirt

Yesterday (formerly known as Today) I received a nice little soft package with a note:

"Happy Birthday Alyx! I love you more than this T-shirt*, lol. Love, Rodney"

Delight!

The shirt is called "Follow It" and it's distributed by Threadless. I love this t-shirt site! They're an interactive design-to-screen-print company. Users submit designs, vote on favorites, even provide Threadless with the catalogue pictures of the consumer wearing the product! It's pretty genius I think. I've joined the site, but no real activity to speak of. I'm waiting until a novel idea hits me so I can try my hand at designing my own tee for submission.

I e-mailed Rodney this tee a few days ago, thinking it was an extremely clever and (for me) romantic design. I like following "IT" (when "it" is my heart, not a scary Stephen King invention...*shiver*). Rodney is my boyfriend and bestfriend and he lives in Manhattan while I wither away in Ohio, so the subway reference is double cute.

Aww... ain't he special? :)

*"I love you more than..." has been an ongoing inside joke between Rodney & I to see who can zanily out do the other in the love department. It all started when I StumbledUpon! a site called I Love You More Than (Blank) which is the brainchild of Paperwhite Studio who "wants to depart from the cliche Valentines sentiment and found out the real things we use as a measuring stick for love." Some of the entries are hilarious, others insightful and a little sad at times. Really cool, totally worth checking out and even adding to. (I did, can you find it?)

Garbage v Nikka Costa

I'm not sure how to really begin a blog but with a neat discovery, so I'm skipping introductions for now and moving right along. I was listening to some Garbage a few weeks ago and found a song I wasn't familiar with, Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) from their album Absolute Garbage. This particular song has some bars of a very upbeat, electronic tune.

So there I am, laying down on the floor tapping my foot to the beat and getting all zen with Garbage, and this feeling of deja vu sweeps over me...Haven't I heard this melisma somewhere before?

All of a sudden, it hits me. I won a CD in a karaoke contest at a mall overnighter and I remember this song. Flipping through the CDs in my disc book, I find it - New Noise. It was some compilation album from 2002 that FYE produced. I'm all excited, knowing that I have a hard, legal copy of this great song in hand... but when the disc loaded on my laptop, I get a totally different song that's eerily similar: Everybody Got Their Something by Nikka Costa.

*blink blink*

Here, check them out yourself:

Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) - Garbage

Everybody Got Their Something - Nikka Costa

Bizarre, isn't it? I'm going to do some research on these two; compare the actual notated music, see who is REALLY behind the music, official release dates, etc. Foul play or cooky coincidence? Encyclopedia Alyx is on the case!

(For the record, I like them both: Cherry Lips is good to just listen to, but Everybody Got Their Something makes me want to get up and move!)