[ beautiful things in foreign lands ]

1. work work work. i have a new part time job in a photography shop/gallery which is ace. i get to leave my house AND speak to people! i'm learning to use the colour printing machine which is exciting enough, but the thought of having all that control over the printing of my own photographs nearly makes me wet my pants. another part of the job is helping ot organise a photography festival which will be a challenge to say the least, but an exciting one that i'm looking forward to. all this plus i am still juggling freelance work in there, along with making lots of stuff for a christmas art market. not enough hours in my day!

2. i have been cycling to my new job & back. it isn't massively far but it is by myself and through the town centre [lots of scary buses] and at night and involves hills so i'm quite proud of myself. i can't believe it's taken me this long [6 months] to start riding my bicycle. i am a fool.

3. mmmm boys. for too long now my heart has been idle but finally i have a crush on someone. one of those butterflies heart pounding ones even. i'm so looking forward to bumping into him again soon.

4. fresh granary bread & butter.

5. tonight. the sky is getting dark, i'll have to switch my light on soon. i'm torn between venturing out of the house to somewhere with actual fireworks & a bonfire, or staying high up in my room and watching the whole city sparkle. hmmm. bonfire party tomorrow night, yay!

my recollections of last year's ATP remind me that many of you are fans of the immense 'total eclipse of the heart' and therefore may be highly amused by this literal version of the music video for it. happy thursday!

when i was looking up nonexistent {the negation of being}in the online dictionary it suggested that i might like to see a map of "nonexistence".

how could i not click? apparently nonexistence is located somewhere between existence and a nonentity, along with a red dot representing the state of not existing.

man, what an awesome site, i'm loving it. similar words, opposite words, different meanings, invisible connections represented by lines, language spreading out in all directions. how beautiful is touch? scrofulous is also a winner for me today but more for the word itself rather than the look of it. i can see hours being wasted here, hours.

i thought i'd missed out but no, i get surprise things made for me by at least two people, hurrah! so then, as required by the rules of the game...

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

My choice for you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make you. But I certainly will try.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It will be done this year (2009)
- You have no clue what its going to be, it may be a story, it may be a painting, crochet or I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

The 'catch' is that you post this in your journal as well. Come on, we can all make something!

update: many thanks to keyl's dad who suggested a torx key... total success!

dear internets, please help! especially anyone who has ikea flatpack experience, p_dan_tic i'm looking at you?

so i got this awesome shelving unit off freecycle but they forgot to give me the allen key to put it together with. chas improvised and used... a screwdriver maybe? dunno, but whatever he used or did has ruined the hexagonal allen keyness of some of the screws and now they won't come out. i'm moving tomorrow so they need to come apart, else my amazing shelves are lost & gone forever which i do NOT want to happen. do you know any awesome trick not involving a hacksaw that might help? i have got the proper allen key this time around...

ta!

you all know bestival was muddy, i also know it was ace. despite getting arrested [wtf?] on the way in, falling over in the mud six times and leaving my phone in the car rendering me unable to reach any of my friends at all, then having to leave earlier than planned, i had a bloody good time. it did take me several hours to completely de-muddify myself & my belongings, and my pack & tent are currently out on our deck being rained on but i am showered, rested, fed & pretty much recovered.

tomorrow we go to berlin for five days, is there anything you think i need to see? we are already going to leisure system at berghain and honecker's bunker and the fleamarkets at mauerpark and boxhagenerplatz... kann ich dein gesicht lecken, bitte? ein bier bitte. do you think it matters that i don't know any other german?

speaking of beautiful men making excellent things...
i went to see subtle play live a few weeks ago and oh boy were they good. all of them dressed in white, each with multiple instruments, a plinth with black & white striped skulls centrestage [which turns out to be representative of their own invented character, Hour Hero Yes], friendly mockery of the crowd at the front, plus dose one who has the honour of being my new musical crush. something about the way he moves, not to mention that low rhythmic voice of his.

since today seems to be all about the videos, go look at this animation for one of my favourite subtle songs, F.K.O, which apparently stands for 'fvck kelly osbourne'. ha! the love just keeps on growing.
also you can get a free subtle song here, a free dose one track here and the subtle website has a music player with a whole bunch of songs that you can stream. go listen!

the other part of today's internet procrastination revolves around the Codex Alimentarius. nothing to do with any music making people we know, it's actually a bunch of laws due to pass in December 2009. this article explains it much better than i can but it basically means that 'nutritional supplements' like vitamins, homeopathic remedies, and even some herbs will become illegal, lots of food will have to be irradiated before it gets to us, and dairy cows have to be treated with some monsanto growth hormone. it sounds totally hideous to me, and i'm really not very happy about the idea that it might go ahead. i'm not entrely sure what actions i can take about it right now other than to TELL EVERYONE I KNOW about it, and keep an eye on the alliance for natural health's campaign against it. you can sign up for their newsletter thing here which i'm hoping will keep me informed of any action i can involve myself with. anyway, now you should go off and tell everyone you know about it too, so that maybe we have a chance of stopping these crazy laws from being passed.

no need for stewarding it seems as my friends are the best ever. they've gone in together and got me a real proper ticket of my own for my birthday, how awesome is that?!

don't suppose any of you lot have got a space in your car for me then?

contrary to my previous knowledge, i've just discovered that there are still stewarding places left for SGP! i've just applied cos i badly want to go this year since half of you lot are, and a whole bunch of my other friends too. fingers crossed they say yes! yay, they said yes! SGP here i come!

anyway, if you know anyone who wants to go for free [though there is a £160 refundable deposit payable before you go] then go to http://peopleandplanet.org/festiva… to sign up,
and when it asks for your shift group select 'the scruffbags' if you want to hang with me.

i live in bristol now, it's only been two days but i've already racked up three pub outings and one hideous hangover. still, i think i'm going to have fun here. i'm most excited about the live music really - unfortunately i have to miss ove naxx tomorrow night but i get to see subtle next tuesday, and i saw one of my best friends singing last night.

speaking of which, my friends the Trans Fatty Acids are doing two shows in london this weekend. friday night on the battersea barge and saturday night at the comedy pub, you should go. i'll be at the saturday night show cos i think i'm going to rock steady on friday. will you be there? are there any other exciting london events on this weekend that you think i should know about?

in other news: i just cooked an amazing chili vegetable risotto, it always amazes me how just dumping loads of things into a big pot and leaving it to simmer for ages can produce such spectacularly tasty results!