darths & droids

so, as promised, this post will not be about WoW in any way, shape, or form.  but it is just as nerdy, if not more so.  without further ado, i bring you the genious that is:

 so this web comic is hilarious.  i've probably spent about 10 hours of my life reading all of the back comics.  i highly recommend you do the same.  it's star wars mashed up with d&d.*  except that star was never made.  the d&d campaign is star wars.  the comic starts with the phantom menace, or as they call it "the phantasmal malevolence."  considering that there are some pretty strange things that go on, as well some gaps in plot and logic, during the "first" three episodes, having them explained by d&d players actually makes more sense than the movies themselves at some points.  the writers realized this, and just ran with the idea.  the result is an extramly hilarious nerdgasm** of a web comic.  to start you own adventure into what is the amazingness of darths&droids, click here, and be sure to start at the begining.  it's worth it.

* if you had to click the link to know what star wars was, you fail at life.  if you had to click the link to know what d&d was, then you win at life.  if you knew what both were, congrats, you are just as nerdy as i am.

** yes melanie, i am using that word again

rain, rain, go away

so i really hate the rain.  it has a tendency to turn me into an extreme hermit in the winter because most of this things i like to do (other than WoW) require things like sunlight and dry ground.  especially riding.  even if it's not raining tomorrow, i still can't ride because the arena needs about a day to dry out.  and even though my horse is blanketed, he will still have rolled, caking mud all over his face and neck, probably his legs, and there's a good chance of mud in the tail as well.  at least i like to believe it's all mud.  anyway, whatever it is, it will take me at least 30 minutes to get it off of him.  and by that time i'm too worn out from grooming to be able to ride anyway.  and i will probably need to hose off his blanket because i'm sure it's just as gross as him.  le sigh.

so getting back on track now.  since i have been stuck inside my apartment due to weather, i decided that in place of doing something useful like vacuuming or washing the dishes, i would play WoW all day.  and since the shattering already happened, there is something in game now that i have been wanting ever since i started playing.  the once class/race combo that has taken blizzard 6 years to give us.  probably the reason you will all start missing me in real life, and i will start to develop muscle problems from being in a computer chair for so long.  what might this be, you ask?  only the most amazing combo ever.  it's........

THE HUMAN HUNTER!!!!!!!

my particular hunter is named camma, after the welsh goddess of the hunt.  and with new beasts as a part of the new zones in the expansion, i have a hound dog as my pet.  and just for good measure, i added my cute little white kitten companion pet to the screen shot.  and in case anyone is wonder, i'm standing in front of the newly redone stormwind keep.  now, if you will kindly excuse me, i have forgotten the entire reason for this post and can only think about that fact that i'm 2 bars from leveling.  i'll try really hard to write a non WoW post tomorrow, but no promises. 

and you thought i was over this stuff

so the shattering happened yesterday in WoW.  pretty much changed the whole of azeroth as we know it.  which reminded me, i have more pics from blizzcon that were never discussed here.  so, since i figure those will be easier to describe to non-gamers than the shattering is, here we go.

this round: the blizzcon models

so these girl are employed by blizzard to walk around, wear cool costumes, and take lots of pictures with nerdy guys.  here are some of the few that i, a mere female gamer trying to muscle my way through a crowd of male gamers who were trying really hard to keep it in their pants, was able to capture.


the only thing these girls had going for them was that they were hot.  honestly, if i had hired them, i would have been pissed.  they had no presence about them.  they looked like they were bored and didn't want to be there.  they didn't pose for pictures, they just stood there.  if they hadn't been half naked, i'm pretty sure they would have disappointed a lot of the guys there.  and the girl on the right kept covering up the only thing she had going for her.





now this girl was awesome.  she's sarah kerrigan from starcraft, but in her human form.  she was way better than the above two.  you could tell she was having a ton of fun.  if she saw you trying to take a picture, she would make sure to look at you and pose.  and she was doing all of this in front of the "sarah-karrigan-as-the-queen-of-blades" statue, so it was really appropriate.





this last girl is the new playable class in the upcoming (maybe, if they ever put out a release date) diablo III.  she is the deamon hunter.  she had on really cool costume contacts, which you can kind of see here.  they were using her to do interview for the direct tv cover of the convention, so it was hard to get a good picture of her since she was being followed everywhere by a cameraman and a boom operator, not to mention having people in front of her that she was interviewing.  so sorry for the crappy pic, but she really looked amazing.  and she dual wields crossbows.








so those were the only good pictures i got of blizzcon models.  i have some more pictures of the art that was there, but i don't want to overload the non gamers that read this, so i think i'll hold off on those until next week.  and to all my readers in the states, have a happy turkey day tomorrow!

the fail nija fails again

so i took my cat to work yesterday to get her vaccinated.  no big deal, she had the same shots before without issue.  took her home when i got off, and all was well and dandy until i took my lunch break today.  now if you have ever walked in my door with me, you know that when my cat sees me she runs to the door and rolls over on her back.  today, she just sat hunched over in the middle of the floor.  i figured she was still just sulking since she really hates going to the office with me, so i thought nothing of it and went into the kitchen to make lunch.  i have to pass her food dish on the way, and i noticed that she still had about 1/3 of her breakfast in her dish.  this actually really alarmed me because my cat will literally inhale any type of food you put in front of her.  i got her to come over to her dish, and she turned her nose at it.  tried to give her a treat, and she wanted nothing to do with it.  she then made her way to the bedroom and hid under my bed, which is something she never does unless she is trying to hide a toy down there.  i was able to pull her out and look her over, and she was acting extremely uncomfortable.  so now i'm really freaking out, because even with my employee discount, it could cost some big bucks to get her better.

i kept debating with myself if i should bring her back to work with me or just wait and see how she was when i got home.  i realized that i would just worry myself about her all afternoon if i didn't get her checked out, so a quick heads up call to the office and we were on our way.  once there, we took her temp and it was 104 (a high normal is 102).  so now i'm really worried, and doc is out to lunch.  i just did a lot of busy work until he got back and was able to check her out.  luckily, he didn't think it was anything serious.  he didn't find anything weird on her physical exam, and didn't feel that blood work was needed at that time.  he's figuring she was having a delayed reaction to the vaccines.  not the bad allergic reaction, but just being very, very sore and achy which was probably what was caused her not to eat.  so one shot of kitty pain killer later, and she is now back to her normal self.  wolfed down her dinner when we got home, has been climbing everything, and is now curled up sleeping comfortably on my bed.  as long as she's acting normally tomorrow, everything should be ok.  that is until she decides to eat something weird :- /

some tips for the fellas

this is just based on some of the conversations and interactions i've had with a few of my guy friends lately.  apparently some of you out there need a little refresher course.  so boys, pay attention, as this will help you with the ladies.  and maybe bookmark this page for future references.

1) NEVER skimp on the foreplay.

2) all girls are crazy, it just varies in type and degree.  the secret is finding a level of crazy that you can live with.

3) lying to girls is bad.  she will find out.  and it will be very ugly when she does.  (want to know why it will be ugly?  see point 2)

4) if a girl answers you with "fine." and nothing else, you better just start praying for forgiveness now, or get ready to pack your bags.

5) NEVER skimp on foreplay.

6) almost as important as point 1 and 5, always make sure she's finished before you roll over and go to sleep.

7) if you just sit down and really listen to what we are saying, we are not anywhere near as confusing , complex, or complicated as you seem to think we are.  in fact, we are far more confused by you than we let on.

8) be nice to our kitties (and i'm talking about the 4 legged feline variety here).  if you can get in good standings with the cat, chances are you can get in good standings with us as well.

9) a lot of times we don't care about sports, cars, the type of music you listen to, the games you play, etc.  we try to care about them because we care about you.  remember to return the favor and do shit that we like that you might not be too keen on.

10) NEVER skimp on foreplay.

nom nom

both my ankles are sore today.  i have to not wear heels for a while.  it keeps ending poorly.  anyway, not in too much of a writing mood today, so i just wanted to share a funny picture of the woolly beast chowing down.  if you have ever seen my horse right before he gets fed, he makes what we have lovingly termed "the grain face."  pretty much, he puts his head down, tilts it sideways, and starts chewing at the air and drooling.  it's actually pretty funny.  and he's so intent on getting back to his stall to get his grain that i don't even have to walk him back there.  i can take his halter off at the tie rack, and he will trot back to his stall.  he's come pretty close to cantering a few times, but i think he's too cautious to do that.  doesn't want to run past his pen by mistake.

fail ninja

so my cat fancies herself a ninja.  problem is, she's not a sly as she thinks she is.  and she wears a bell on her collar.  and about 1/3 of her is white.  so yeah, she's a fail ninja.  but that doesn't stop her from trying.  she likes act all sneaky and steal random things of mine.  especially hair ties.  i'm pretty sure there is a stock pile of those under my bed since they seem to go missing a lot.  she also tries to hide behind things that she is much bigger than.  one of the most common places to see her before what she thinks is a well thought out assault on my slippers would be crouched down behind  my converse.  she also thinks it very clever to try and eat things she is not supposed to when i'm not looking.  i'm pretty sure that she forgets that she has a bell on and i can hear it when she jumps onto the counter.  the best is when she doesn't hear my come down the stairs.  she thinks she is getting away with being a bad kitty.  the look of shock on her face when i come up behind her is priceless. 

the other reason she fails as a ninja is that she is very easily distracted and/or bribed.  all i need to do to divert her attention from her covert operations is to shake the treat jar or get out the laser pointer.  last time i checked, ninjas were not supposed to be able to be corrupted and bribed.  neither were they allowed to be distracted by a small red light. 

the songs of my life

so lately i've been relating my life to my playlist on itunes.  it's actually working out far better than i would have expected.  here are a few of the songs that are currently depicting my view on my myself and the things around me.

song: "the devil's best dress"

artist: corb lund

what it relates to: how i am currently feeling about myself

song: "the spirit of jazz"
artist: the gaslight anthem
what it relates to:  my current feelings on love and what i'm looking for in my partner




song: "the ghost inside"
artist: broken bells
what it relates to: how i'm feeling about money



another good song for how i feel about money would be "suffer for the trust" by ike reilly, but sadly there is no video for that one

song: yeasayer
artist: madder red
what it relates to: my life in general right now, but in a very abstract type way



song: whole new way
artist: scissor sisters
what it relates to: my feelings on sex


as a side note, this was not the video i was intending to use.  but it made me laugh, so what the hell

song: i got a thing for you
artist: jim bianco
what it relates to: absolutely nothing, i just really want to do a dance routine to this song
CAUTION this video is NSFW

thwack!

so if i were to imitate the sound of my arrow hitting a target, i think thwack would just about cover it.  (i also like how apparently thwack is a real word because my spell check doesn't think it's wrong.)  but if you can't guess, i went shooting yesterday.  even though it's been months since i shot anything, i killed that raccoon.  killed him dead.  never mind that he's made out of foam.  he's still dead.  pretty sure i punctured a lung or two.  and he deserved it, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  he just sat there, with that smug little look on his face, thinking he was better than the foam boar because there were less holes in him.  and in all honesty, that boar is pretty fucked up.  can't even recognize his face any more.  but that makes the raccoon even more of an asshole because now he's mocking a fake animal with physical deformities.  and then he just sits there, taunting the archers because he's a smaller target, harder to hit, and apparently not enough of us can hit him because he's still pretty unscathed.  jerk.  he totally deserved the arrow in his throat. 

the turn and burn from today will make me stiff and sore tomorrow

so i finally got to ride my horse today.  the weather was awesome, and i didn't have any limbs trying to fall off.  so we saddle up the horses and rode in the back arena.  there were some barrels just kind of randomly set up in between the jumps.  not in a real pattern, but close enough to where you could make a wonky pattern out of it.  so we did.  the pony loved it.  it's crazy how much he remembers from back in the day when were did barrels some-what seriously.  i haven't even done a slow course in months.  but he remembers it all.  only difference is that he's a little slower now than he used to be.  but he still remembers that if it tell him "go for it" he can open up and run, and "spin it" means to dig in around the turns.  and he threw in some awesome turns today.  i was actually really proud of him, because i could tell he wanted to say "fuck you" and go way faster than i wanted him to, but he listened to me instead and kept it a little more controlled.  i had to stop him probably sooner than he wanted to.  he was having fun, and would have kept going.  it's really cute to see the change in his face when i let him do barrels or jump.  but i didn't want him to be sore tomorrow.  wish i could say the same for me.  it's probably been about a month since i was able to ride due to blizzcon, my ankle, and rain.  i'm already feeling it a little in my thighs, and i'm pretty sure it will be worse in the morning.  and i'm going to go shoot my bow tomorrow, which i haven't done since over the summer.  they way it's looking, i might not be able to move monday.  at least it was worth it.

omg i joined a guild

so the other alex will be proud of me.  i finally joined a guild in WoW.  i've been in guilds before, but it's probably been about a year since the last one i was in fell apart.  i never bothered to find a new one because i mostly do solo play anyway.  considering there are about 11 million people who play WoW, and that i never group because i had no interest in raiding, the other alex said i was an anomaly.  i play one of the most social games out there, and he said i do so in the most unsocial of ways.  but that changed this week.  wanting to trying something different, i made an alt.  to earn gold, i was signing guild charters for money, then leaving as soon as the guild was formed.  a lot of people do this on their alts, and it's a fast way to make some gold.  but anyway, i signed one charter and the name didn't suck (trust me, there are a lot of them that do).  so i figured i would stick it out for a bit and see where it goes.  and i'm actually talking with the other guild members, and not just sitting there silently observing, like i tended to do in the past.  and i do have plans to actually try raiding with this toon.  so we'll see how it goes.  and the guild leader is a guy in his twenties.  maybe i should warn him. 

but he got stabbed!

so i'm currently reading wild horses by dick fancis.  if you ever plan on reading this book, don't read this post because there are spoilers

so i really need to start reading far sooner than the last thirty minutes before i go to bed.  because then shit like this happens:  the main character just got stabbed by an unknown attacker.  crazy drama is about to unfold.  it's ten minutes past midnight and i needed to go to sleep about twenty minutes ago.  so now i'm in a predicament.  i need to be awake and functional in less than seven hours for work.  i also really need to know who stabbed thomas.  unfortunately, my stupid responsible side won out this time and i went to sleep, but i wasn't happy about it. 

so why do i care so much that thomas was stabbed?  probably because nash was almost attacked, dorothea was slashed so bad her intestines were spilling out, and somehow this will tie into an old man that made a death bed confession within the first five pages of the book.  since i still haven't finished the book, i have no idea how that's going to work out yet.  i also have no idea who's attacking everyone, but i have my hunches, and i'm pretty sure they're all wrong.  short version of the story is that thomas is directing a movie based loosely on a 26 year old unsolved murder of a race horse trainer's wife.  the people who were affect by the actual murder are not happy about the movie, and the son of the attacked woman hates thomas because his dorothea prefers thomas over her own son.  there is a hint that the knife that was used in the attacks on dorothea and nash are the same, but there's no proof yet, and the two attacks seem unrelated on the surface.  so is your mind spinning in circles yet?  because mine has been for the whole book, and it's been awesome.

i have a weakness for mind thrillers.  crime and punishment is my all time favorite book.  i've read works by dick francis before, and since he combines the mind thriller with horses, i think he's amazing.  so does one of my coworkers, and she was nice enough to give me the book i'm currently reading.  it's an extremely well written, and flows so well that you will look up at the clock and it will suddenly be several hours later when you swear you've just sat down.  the author is able to plant enough little seeds in your head, and in such a subtle manner, that once a turning point happens, it bitch slaps you in the face and you wonder how you didn't pick up on it sooner.  based on past experience, i have a feeling one of those points will be in the next chapter or two.  until then, i'm going to say that it was the sweet looking eighteen year old daughter of the race horse trainer, and you will all be able to hear me laughing if i'm right about that. 

the only reason i will willing get out of bed at 4 a.m.

my favorite show picture

there's really no way to describe the feeling.  it's 4 a.m., the sun has yet to rise.  i can see the steam from my breath and the hot chocolate i got at starbucks because it's the only place open this early.  it's eerily quite, uncommonly still, and strangely peaceful all at the same time.  the dogs are asleep, the cows are asleep, the horses are asleep, even the damn peacocks are silent for once.  the tack room door groans when it's opened because the cold of the morning causes the hinges to stick.  a flick of a switch and a soft glow starts to break its way through the mists that engulfs everything at this time of day.  the lights only covers half the way to my horse's pen, but i've done this so many times by down that i could do it blindfolded.  the metal gate freezes my hands as i fumble to unlock it, but i barely notice.  too many other things on my mind, mostly regarding if i have enough bands, yarn, and corn starch.  i wake up the horse and lead him back to the stable yard.  there's about 5 hours until our first class, but that's barely enough time.  i set to work on my horse's mane, banding if it's a western day, braiding if it's an english day.  i've become so efficient at it that i can braid a tail in under 10 minutes, a mane in less than 40, and i can band in under half an hour.  next comes the clippers for any stray hairs that were missed yesterday.  after that, cornstarch applied to socks and blazes, and baby oil around the muzzle and eyes.  now the horse has a chance to wake up a bit while the trailer is loaded and the hay nets are filled.  a quick check to make sure everything is in place, and it's back to the horse.  on goes the sleezy, the show sheet, the tail bag, and the shipping boots.  he no longer looks like a horse, but a giant horse-shaped blueberry.  by the time all the horses are in the trailer and we pull into the show grounds, several hours have passed.  while i made sure my horse got his breakfast on the way over, i have forgotten my own.  i don't even notice.  too many more important things to worry about besides food, and i haven't passed out at a show yet.  i figure i needed that time to sleep anyway.

some of my more meaningful awards

once there, i need to sign in and register for classes.  i always sign up for halter, my guaranteed ribbon of the day.  other than that, it might be some combination of pleasure, equitation, trail, jumpers, showmanship, and gymkhana, depending on where we are.  after that, it's back to the trailer to regroom the horse, because even if i had wrapped every inch of him in scotch guard, he would still have managed to make a mess of himself again in the trailer.  i then need to somehow make myself look nice, even though i'm now covered in horse hair, hay, and who knows what else.  a quick lounge will warm up the horse and get him used to where he is.  then to tack up.  waiting is the killer.  i walk my horse outside the gate until my number is called.  up until this point, i've been soothing nerves and memorizing patters.  but once i pass through that gate, i change.  i'm totally calm, in control, and i know that if all else fails, my horse and i look damn good together.  what happens after that doesn't matter.  ribbons and trophies are nice, but that's not why i show.  not even close to it.  i've had days where i've taken high point trophies, and i've had days where all i left with was my ribbon from halter class.  and at the end of both days, i still have the same feeling.  the connection between myself and my horse, that's why i do this.  nothing else in the world compares to it.  the feel of the power and dedication of a 1,000 pound animal that wants to do whatever he can to please you, knowing that he trusts you entirely and would walk off the edge of a cliff if you asked him to, nothing comes close to that.  it's an accomplishment for my horse, for myself, just to be there.  that's why i show.  and it's that feeling that gets me up at 4 a.m. with a smile on my face.

i'm slowly getting broken

first it was the ankle.  which, even though i can walk on it, is still really sore when touched and i still don't have a full range of motion on it.  now it's my nose.  i may or may not have had an unfortunate run in between my nose and the front gate at the barn, in which the front gate may or may not have won. for the majority of you out there who have not been to my barn, when you open the front gate, you are to use a bungee cord to attach said gate to a pole mounted in the ground.  this way the gate does not swing back and smash into your car when you drive trough.  well, this does not stop the gate from swinging back just far enough to smack you in the face.  the cold metal of the top rail met with my squishy nose with a god awful cracking sound. tears instantly welled up in my eyes.  i was convinced it was broken based on the noise it had made.  but after the initial shock of being attacked by the gate, i realized i could still move my nose, and if i tried moving the bridge it stayed in place.  it's still incredibly sore, but thankfully not bruised.  based on that, i'm calling this a draw between my nose and the gate.  hopefully they will both be happy with that, and neither will seek a rematch. 

an attention whore? me?

i totally went to in-n-out in full blizzcon attire

yeah, i admit it, i kind of am.  not in like the needy, whinny, little bitch way.  like i'm not going to totally freak out if i happen to be invisible that day, and sometimes i will embrace it if i am.  and i don't go out of my way to seek attention.  it has more to do with i don't really give a shit what other people think, and this tends to lead me into doing things that happen to draw attention.  i suppose in a way that writing is one of those things.  especially based on the fact that when i asked a few people last night if i could pull off a post on sex without being too weird, the response was "you talk about everything else, why not."  so apparently nothing i do surprises my friends anymore.  

other things would probably be the fact that i do karaoke totally sober.  i also sing along with the radio when writing up patients' charts in the mornings.  i will randomly bust into little dances at work, and name whatever dance i'm doing.  there's the "happy dance," the "this-annoying-pet-is-going-home-today dance" (expect to see that one on monday), the "doc-is-running-on-time-today dance" (this is a very rare, elaborate dance done in the form of artistic interpretation.  too bad no one ever gets to see it), and many more.  i've been preferming in some context since about second grade.  i have no problem doing mundane tasks in full costume.  since i do travel to go to ren faires, i can regularly be seen pumping gas, decked out as an elizabethan peasant in a town where no one has any idea where i'm going.  after the closing events at blizzcon, we went to in-n-out for food, where a little boy asked me if i was a witch and could i do magic.  i explained to him that i was a knight but i had to leave my sword out in the car, and apparently this made perfect sense to him.  this might be why i tend to go all out on any costume i wear.  i do enjoy the fact that other people like them.  

i think a lot of it is that very little will embarrass me, so i really don't have anything holding me back other than my morals, and those are slightly lacking sometimes.  a lot of it also has to do with the fact that i'm just plain awesome, and i don't really care if that sounds narcissistic or not.  i prefer to think of it as a high level of self confidence.  and if people happen to enjoy watching what i do, then so be it.  the fact of the matter is that i would still do it, even if no one was watching. 

blowing smoke

 disclaimer: i only smoke tobacco, none of that crazy stuff

there are two things in this world that can make me feel totally relaxed, no matter what else is going on in my life.  one is sex.  the other is hookah.  if you can't guess by the title, this post is about the later*. i get the calming effect of a cigarette, but smell much better after.  and just watching smoke billow and curl has always been hypnotically soothing.  i've always been enthralled by burning incense, and will regularly manipulate the smoke on one if i have it lit. 

last night, i was fortunate enough to be able to go hookah.  alex called me up and informed me that's what we were doing.  i didn't have much choice, but i also had no reason to protest (especially since he paid this round).  we opted for the dragon smoke, since when matt and i had last gone, we had a good experience with that flavor.  it was, unfortunately, a bit too harsh last night, so i was only able to do short blows.  slightly disappointing, since a deep inhale followed by a long, slow exhale is really the best way to do it. the head rush from doing it that way is comparable to the endorphin rush after getting a small piercing.  probably why i enjoy it so much.  same feeling, but no extra holes.  it's another thing i have to pace myself with though, so i don't get addicted and end up with black lung or anything crazy.  i did get a mild head rush last night, but nothing too crazy.  and even though i now know way more about alex than i ever wanted to, i still had a fun night.

like i mentioned earlier, just watching all the smoke is relaxing in and of itself.  especially the people who can get creative with it.  matt can blow smoke rings, which i'm insanely jealous of.  i am still waiting for someone to bust out some gandalf level of smoke blowing.  that would make for a pretty epic night at the hookah lounge.

*the sex post might be later.  need to get a few permission slips signed first on that one

an interesting experiment in life

so, living by myself in this town really sucks.  the cost of living here is pretty damn high.  and unexpected expenses really suck.  especially when you savings was already wiped out by a different round of unexpected expenses, and you haven't had a chance to rebuild it.  and when all of your paycheck goes to rent and bills, things can get a little weird.  like right now.  i don't get paid for another 12 days.  i have no money to buy more groceries or get gas for my car.  i'm having to come up with creative solutions to things.  pretty much, i have a bag of rice, some noodles, a few jars of peanut butter, even fewer slices of bread, 4 tortillas, and 3 cans of soup.  this has to last me until i get paid again.  this is going to get very old, very quickly.  it's also making me only eat twice a day, and not very big meals.  since i don't have money to fill up my gas tank, i have to walk every where.  i'm walking at least 4 miles a day going back and forth from work, more if i need to go somewhere else.  so i'm now burning off all the calories that i'm not taking in.  i'm kind of expecting this to end a little poorly.  i'm a little concerned about rapid weight loss and/or passing out.  also, while i can walk on my ankle now, i still don't have a normal range of motion with it and it's still sore to touch.  i'm pretty sure walking 4 miles a day is not going to help that.  so if i can make it out alive at the end of these 12 days, i'm going to buy myself the best burrito that i've had in a long time, and save at least half my paycheck for next month so this doesn't happen again.  in the meantime, anyone want to buy me dinner?  or want a roommate who comes with pets?

any volunteers?

so i'm feeling kind of artistic, and i really haven't been able to take any new photos in a while.  i'm kind of tired of taking pictures of flowers and other things that don't move, so i really want to try something different.  something that i haven't done before.  i've had this photo spread rolling around in my head for a while, but i need someone to play model for me.  i would prefer it to be a guy.  no clear face shots would be used.  i'm mostly wanting silhouettes.  the place would be on the beach, probably pismo because i think it's set up would work best for what i'm going for.  it would have to be just before sunset on a day that isn't foggy, so you kind of need to be flexible on the timing.  probably would take 30-45 min depending on lighting and/or when my camera runs out of batteries.  you don't need to be all creative, that's my job.  just sit or stand or walk where i tell you and don't look like an ogre.  and don't worry, nudity is totally optional.*  if you're interested, shoot me an e-mail at the address at the bottom of the page.  if you know me personally, facebook me.

*now for the fun part: try and guess if i'm joking here

thinking about the next one

so, it's been like 2 months since i got something pierced.  last time it was something simple, just a second cartilage piercing in my right ear.  didn't give me anywhere near the endorphin rush that industrial did.  so i'm thinking about what i want to do next.  most likely it will either be re-piercing my navel or getting a tongue ring.  if i were to have my choice, the tongue would come first, but seeing as how you need about a week off from talking, and the main part of my job is talking to clients, i'm not so sure how that will work.  the one thing that i do worry about is that i am mildly addicted to the rush you get from it.  i'm a little worried that after i get all the piercings that i wanted, i might end up with a few extras because of that.   i guess the best thing for me to do is to try and space them out longer than i have been.  ideally, i should wait until the next 3 day weekend, like president's day for something, and use a few vacation days at work at the same time.  that way i could get the tongue pierced and not have to talk to anyone.  so in theory, this gives me a few more months.  but if i happen to sound funny next time i'm on the phone, you can probably guess why.