A Mad Vox

Too cute!

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:51:52 -0800

This was done by an artist named Pogo from Australia: "Video for my track 'Upular', composed using chords, bass notes and vocal samples from the Disney Pixar film 'Up'. Enjoy!"

I love how this composition turned out and yes, now, I want to watch a Disney movie.
More of these songs are here.

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Christmas Eve. Feast (for the eyes and tummy)

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:08:20 -0800

Christmas Eve. Menu
dressing w/ vegetarian stock
apple chicken sausage stir-fry w/ fresh green veggies
carrot souffle
panettone bread
vanilla maple tea

It took 1.5 hours total to prepare the whole meal.
It took 4 minutes total to polish off a plate.

Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season to all.

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NaNoWrimo 2009: Pwned!!

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:05:31 -0800

Nano '09 Winner

Congrats to the participants of NaNoWriMo 2009! I just finished my novel with a couple hours to spare and it feels so good-- just not at the moment. I'm so tired right now, but I'm sure it will really feel good tomorrow!

If you want to know what my story is all about, you can view my profile page here: KwaS

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Spared

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:42:20 -0800

What is your driver score?

You know of those rear-enders that you can see coming in your rear view mirror? I saw one coming in my rear view mirror this morning on The 101 freeway.

I saw a damaged off-white older Toyota pickup with a shell on the back approaching way too fast. The driver hadn't noticed that my lane had slowed to a stop for a few moments, even though all the other lanes were still moving. Next, I heard screeching tires and saw the smoke from the pressure applied to the brakes. I watched the car sort of veer from side to side in order to slow down but not enough to leave the lane. I remained calm and just prepared for impact.

Then it was quiet.

The car behind me stopped mere inches behind me and a couple seconds later, my lane started moving again. I drove on and watched my rear view mirror and I as drove away, untouched. The driver changed lanes and as the guy passed me (quickly) on my left, I was left with the smell of burnt rubber.

I am a defensive driver and I try to give cars, especially visibly-damaged ones, a wide berth on the road. Even this doesn't prevent all possible collisions. Sometimes I can't do anything but trust others' ability to either pay attention to where they are going or react in time if they don't. I can do that or I can figure out a way to get one of these for my next car.

I can haz Batmobile?

Fully-loaded WITH the voice-activated Bat Shield.

Batmobile from the front

You know you want one too.

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A week of A+ live music

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:39:13 -0800

First, I want to state that I have this lofty goal to eliminate my credit card dependency. However, my compulsion to support certain 'why-are-these-people-still-under-the-radar?' musicians @ established music venues makes it quite difficult.

Tuesday night when I saw Ari Hest play at the Hotel Cafe I knew the online ticket purchase was worth it-- as are all my purchases, of course. The opener from Ireland, Declan O'Rourke, told the audience that this was his first time playing (or first tour playing?) in America. He had a great sound and one novelty song stands out. It's about an old black crow and it was highly entertaining because there was a fun song introduction and then part of the chorus was him cawing. Not counting that particular song, to me, live, his style was like an Irish version of Ari's so it shouldn't be too surprising if he gains a large following here fairly quickly.

"I can make you move against your will. Don’t it make you sad to lose control?" Broken Voices by Ari Hest

Ari was fantastic with his band, and played a bunch of songs from his early material and CD The Break In, plus newer songs from his project, 52, which included my favorite song, Broken Voices. At some point Amy Kuney came up to sing Cranberry Lake which she co-wrote and sang in a duet with Ari. That was great because I've been wanting to see her live for a while now too.

Ari's vocal ability is amazing. His tone ranges in his songs from baritone to falsetto with impressively flawless lung control. It bowls me over me every time I see him live.

I ran into @KristinJuel during the evening which is always refreshing. Sitting with her I discovered my new favorite bass player, Rob Calder, who has an interesting way of dancing to the beat while he plays. Very entertaining to watch!

The only downer of the night is that there's a rule that non-flash photography is allowed in Hotel Cafe, but video recording is not. Kristin got busted for taking video with her digi cam at some point. That was too bad but at least they didn't confiscate her camera. She had also taken a bunch of still photos. Overall, it was a good night for live music.

"You're the song that I sing that I don't need to practice." from In the Creases by Amber Rubarth.
Tomorrow is Amber Rubarth's show @ The Mint-- http://themintla.com is their site. I refuse to hyperlink to it because it has music that auto-plays and defaults to the loudest volume setting. Way to facilitate an obnoxious user experience.

I love Amber's lyrical ambition and like Ari, she is now based in NY so I try to see her whenever she's playing here. Can't wait to hear her new songs and old ones again that I like. A lot.

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Have you caught the (Google) Wave?

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:26:42 -0800

I received an invite this morning for Google Wave and with no idea what to do with it. So, I'm watching a Google video on what the intended use for Google Wave is. The video is an hour and twenty minutes long. *smh*

At first glance it seems like a glorified e-mail account, which is what I thought G-Mail was.

I don't know if I like the 'view text while typing' feature being a default setting. I'm a bit of a messy typist. I also wonder about the implications of data mining for users of this service. I am mostly concerned about how Google is planning to use, archive, catalog, and ultimately monetize this potential goldmine of user generated content (UGC) with a EULA (by using this product you consent to *anything the company wants to do*) agreement. I'm going to give it a chance and see what happens.

G-Wave users, what are your initial thoughts?

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An expected NaNoWriMo path next month

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:10:32 -0700

Nano '09 participant

begin
stop
get behind
assess

begin
catch up
stop
get behind

begin again
stop
get really behind
begin again

begin
once more
don't give up
end.

If you're doing National Novel Writing Month in November, feel free to add me to your buddy list! I'm KwaS on the nanowrimo site.

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LA Chocolate Salon: A Sublime Time

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:40:52 -0700

mmm... Chocolate. Last Sunday was the 3rd Annual LA Chocolate Salon in Pasadena. I've finally come out of the sugar shock enough to share my experience but my hands are still too shaky to type it all out, figuratively speaking. So I'm going to do the next best thing.

Here's A Salon of Indulgence, Luxury and Chocolate, an article from the Occidental paper, Oxyweekly, which details the event in a way that was fairly close to my experience.

If you missed this event, the next Chocolate Salon is in San Francisco. Chocolate lovers planning to be in the Bay Area in March, don't miss that one. There will be as many as 50 chocolatiers in attendance to LA's 35-- which had one more sample table than this chocolate fan could handle.

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Goal for October: read a book!

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:35:43 -0700

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Barbara Ehrenreich

Read a book in a week or less. Read at least two books this month.
That will be twice as many as I read last month.
It is an attainable goal.

This weekend I finally had a chance to replace my (stolen) library card from summer. All my cash was spent at the previous stop-- wait for it-- the cleaners, and this library doesn't take credit cards. I didn't have enough pocket change to pay for the new card, but the clerk said I could take my replacement card now and pay next time, which was a pleasant surprise.
I stopped at the reference desk and inquired if the book, Nickel and Dimed, was available. The library's two copies had already been checked out. An extra copy will be sent to the branch so I can check it out by next weekend. This works out nicely because I have another book (a YA novel) to read while I'm waiting. Also, I found out that they take magazine donations. I have a few dozen that would be better off donated than chucked into the recycle bin.

Goal for next month: write a book!

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Happy Coastal Cleanup Day

nobody@vox.com(madeline) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:10:51 -0700

We can do it!

I'm heading over to Venice Beach for the Annual Coastal Cleanup Day, but first I'm going to talk about picking up others' trash.

I started going to these beach clean up events back in elementary school when I was a girl scout; The big takeaway from my particular troop was always leave a place cleaner than I've found it.

This means, on a hike pick up little bits of trash on the trail that I can see and safely reach. At the beach, dispose of all my trash and look around for some extra that I didn't leave. As a guest in someone's home, I should offer to help the host clean up. A gracious host takes responsibility for cleaning up after me, their guest, and a big part of being a good guest is being a tidy guest. And so on. As a result I've learned to dislike lounging in trashy environments, but having a low tolerance for trash is a bit of a two-edged sword.

It bothers me when eating at a public place and the only table available is covered with napkins and straw paper from the last diners. If I choose to sit there to eat, then I essentially inherit their trash and I will feel like a jerk if I get up at the end of my meal and leave their trash behind.

I also worked in a movie theatre when I was a teen and I can tell you that there are likely rats in every theatre that serves food. Though ushers don't actually get paid specifically to clean up trash after attendees they end up having to do damage control lest the rats go on a brazen binge amongst the drink cups and half-eaten snack bags left on the floor and in the seats when the show is over. Most people don't think anything of leaving their trash around when they leave. Without any intervention from ushers it wouldn't be a shock for rodents to eventually start to crawl along the seats during the show. So props to ushers for picking up others' trash and keeping the rats at bay (thus preserving the environment). Think about that next time you put your popcorn bucket on the floor.

I get that it's not a big deal leaving just one bucket on the floor, but perhaps the person in your seat before you left nachos under their seat and the person before that left some sticky candy under the seat in front of you. Multiply this by 300 seats and it all adds up to giving rodents an incentive to enjoy the trashy feast all around you and who really desires to enjoy that quality of life? [/rant]

Back to the beach
All of us are ushers of our environment. Whether we accept that role or not is the key to upping our standard of living. Though it takes a little bit of extra effort, the end result is that once a year we get this opportunity to help preserve the environment and bond with others who are doing the same.

The clean up is from 9-noon all over LA. The official event page is http://www.healthebay.org/ccd and there is the
CCD event page on Facebook.

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