Time for some art.

I need a mental break. The week has been hectic. Illness, personal drama, explosions, etc.

Let Friday chill-time commence...

Older favorite (M.C. Escher):Newer favorite (Nanami Cowdroy):

My thoughts are with Bozeman, MT

I often joke about how I felt incompatible with Montana living. I rarely talk about why I also love it.

Today I must share with you how much I enjoyed my college town. There's something really wonderful about how warm and friendly everyone is. It's a tight-knit community, and the people there are truly willing to help out one another. They care deeply about their neighbors, and the tragic events yesterday ended up highlighting the benefits of living in a smaller town.

Bozeman Explosion

The peaceful, beautiful quiet that occurs in Montana after a snowstorm was violently disrupted by an enormous explosion in the downtown area yesterday morning. The landscape of historic Main Street was forever altered when a gas explosion took out Boodles restaurant and bar and caused severe structural damage to nearby buildings. As the day progressed, several other businesses were completely lost or severely damaged by a fire that raged for approximately 15 hours as emergency crews tried valiantly to shut off the antiquated gas lines. Broken glass and debris littered the streets blocks away from the burning buildings.

Image taken shortly after the initial explosion from: Bozexplod

Businesses destroyed included Boodles, the American Legion, the Rocking R bar, the Montana Trails Art Gallery, Lily Lu's children's store and the Pickle Barrel, which is inside the Rocking R. "The Rocky Mountain Rug Gallery and Starky's Delicatessen were also significantly impacted by the explosion and subsequent fire."

Some of the businesses that sustained damage were Odyssey, Ro Sham Bo, The Root, Girls Outdoors, Earth’s Treasures, Barrel Mountaineering, Helly Hansen and Western Drug. Even City Hall, many blocks away, had a broken window.

I signed onto Gchat yesterday morning to initially discover the news via a good friend's "status." She confirmed that she was fine and my first instinct was to call my mother and check on the location of my little brother and family friends. Next I hopped online to see what information I could find.

At first, I found the news coverage on the local press websites to be lacking. Eventually, I ended up turning to one of my Facebook friends. He started this: Twitter Feed, Bozexplod.

Thanks to Twitter, I was able to get real time updates of all of the emergency efforts in Bozeman. Each of the dedicated individuals on the feed spent their time relaying important information on resources for those affected by the day's events - where to stay, how to find information on missing persons, how to help, etcetera.

Thanks to the constant stream of "tweets" I knew exactly when 11 people were missing. I found out that the number had been reduced to five. Then one. I knew which businesses had been effected. I knew which streets were closed and how emergency crews were working to minimize the impact the streaming gas and raging fires would have on the community. I knew how far away the smoke could be seen and I had galleries upon galleries of constantly updated photostreams documenting the damage and the progress of emergency workers. I knew the governor had flown in and the National Guard was on call.

I knew this all from my office in Los Angeles, California.

To me, this is the power of social media. It is immediate, it is fluid. It can bring together people and resources on a level that more traditional media never has. Of course there were some tasteless individuals that attempted to RickRoll the feed. A few contributed conjecture and/or incorrect information. They were quickly weeded out and quieted by the dedicated individuals that flooded the web with truly useful information - far before the major media outlets picked up on the news.

Surprisingly and thankfully, no injuries were reported. However, there is one woman confirmed missing and crews were unable to begin sorting through the rubble until today. My thoughts are with her family and friends.

*EDIT* P.S. For those of you in and around the Bozeman area, please support the hell out of the businesses downtown that are open. It's a vibrant, fantastic downtown and I know you'll band together to help make it even better than it was before. */EDIT*

*2nd EDIT*
From: Digg

*/2nd Edit*

Accidental Vegetarianism

I'm not a vegetarian. I had always wanted to be one, mainly because every animal I've ever met has tugged at my heartstrings . But, when it came down to it, I never managed to put down the burger.

Here's why: I LOVE meat. Rather, I *used* to love meat.

It started with ham. I've always, always HATED ham. It smells fantastic - the idea of it is divine. But the reality is that it makes me nauseous, without fail. I'd notice that my food tasted off, ask what was in it and find out ham was part of the mix. It was okay though - bacon and pork were still divine.

Next came chicken. If chicken tastes like, well, chicken, I spit it out. It gets my gag reflex going. Drowned in sauces, it isn't too bad, but boiled chicken makes me ill.

It's not like I'm imagining the little slaughtered animals. No. It just turns in my mouth. It's like eating something that is about to give you food poisoning. "I thought that tasted off..." Then you spend the next two days writing in agony on the bathroom floor, trying desperately to aim the proper end of yourself toward the toilet.

Eventually all poultry started giving me trouble, then pork, and I convinced myself that if I could eat fish and big, juicy steaks, I would make a fine vegetarian.

But tonight, it happened. The lovely beefy-meaty marinara sauce my boyfriend made for our spaghetti dinner turned on me. I hope this hasn't spread to steak, but I fear that I might slowly phase out all meat entirely.

I guess I need to start adjusting my diet, so I don't end up looking like one of those hollow-eyed vegans with the dark under-eye circles and pale, pale skin.

Computadora

So...I've had my current laptop for about 3 years. It has served me very, very well - no troubles whatsoever, not even a hiccup. It has dealt with my ridiculous love of multitasking - I can run multiple IM clients, plus all of the Adobe Creative Suite, plus Word, plus Outlook, plus pretty much an unlimited number of Firefox windows, plus...anything I can really think of. It's a Dell and it has been fantastic.

Unfortunately, 3 years is about it for a computer. There's more I want to start doing.

Now I find myself with a conundrum.

Laptop or desktop?

I love the freedom of a laptop. However, I need a big-ish screen and loads of *power.* A huge laptop is annoying to carry around and it's also pretty pricey. A desktop would be cheaper and more powerful. But I couldn't work and lay on the couch, or the bed, or the floor, or sit at my desk, or the kitchen table, or my boyfriend's desk all in one day. Or go on a trip.

Thoughts? Anyone?

Hello out there...

I have essentially been buried under an ever-growing pile of work lately. Luckily, I haven't been ignoring this blog as much as I had in years prior.

I'm not sure if writing has gotten easier, or if I have become more willing to ramble on about nothing in particular...publicly. Blogging is obviously a bit of an exercise in narcissism - just publishing this thing implies that I think it's worth reading. I don't know if that's necessarily my reason for writing - I think it tends to be therapeutic. It's like I get take something that I had kept bottled up*, then vent it out to the universe... Maybe that sounds a bit odd. But I'm odd, so it's alright.

In any case, it's a lovely, rainy day in Los Angeles - which means the ultra parched plants in the area are about to turn a brilliant shade of green. I wouldn't complain if it rained daily, to be honest.

On a slightly different note, I'm convinced that 2009 is going to be a very, very good year. And so far, all signs point to yes.

*Obviously my benign musings are less about venting frustration and more about...alleviating boredom, maybe? Maybe if you're lucky I'll turn this thing into something more interesting. Someday.

Ahhhhhh

I must say, today was a very lovely day.

Uuuuuugh

I hate dieting. I really, really do. However...I'm still trying my hand at it.

Over the past couple of years, I've learned a few things. The most important?

Do what works for you.

I know it sounds simple, but it's really not. People like to tell you exactly how they think you should lose weight. I've dealt with some really cruel comments this past year from...doctors. So, I'm going to do it my way, and I'm pretty sure it's unhealthy.

I'm about to practice food avoidance and sleep.

Food avoidance sounds like a "no duh" sort of thing, huh? "Right Cat, eat less. That's how you lose weight." Either that or like I'm planning on going anorexic. I promise I'm not. I can't. I adore food.

What I mean is - I'm going to watch less TV (so I don't see those darn food commercials). I'm going to complain when my boyfriend or roommate want to order in pizza again. Or when they want to go to a burger joint. When we do eat out, I'm going to refuse to be the person that scours Yelp to find the perfect place. Yes, Yelp makes me hungry.

I haven't been eating breakfast. Or lunch. Well, maybe a piece of fruit for lunch. I've ditched diet redbulls/sodas in favor of regular coffee with real sugar. Dinner has been really basic, and not too awful.

Yesterday I ate: an orange, two cups of coffee with sugar, two pitas stuffed with romaine lettuce and low-cal dressing, and my version of nachos - a huge can of black beans with a little salt, plus a few chips and a light sprinkling of cheese. And a glass of skim milk.

It's not a lot. It's certainly not recommended by the health magazines/websites. I'm supposed to eat tiny meals 6,000 times a day. You know what happens then? I am hungry constantly. I think about my next mini-meal and want to cheat so it's bigger.

I'm supposed to eat a big breakfast. That would be fine...but it also makes me hungrier. If I think about food, I'm going to try and seek it out. So I avoid it until the evening, when I tend to like to eat anyway.

I've completely stopped snacking after dinner. Partially because I eat later and go to bed earlier.

Bed is part two. I used to barely sleep and now I'm forcing 7 + hours of continuous sleep on myself.

Hopefully this helps. I truly do not have time to workout on a regular basis. No, not even a half an hour. I wake up, get dressed and leave for work in the span of 15 minutes. Then I drive. Then I get to work and spend the next 8 hours (minus the orange and coffee) working and maybe spend a minute here and there surfing the wonderful web. Then I drive home, open the door, turn on my laptop and start doing freelance work. I cook dinner, eat it while working, then shower and get ready for bed. The end.

I do get out of the house here and there on the weekends. But I spend it with my boyfriend and friends. I don't want to hide away in a tiny, stinky gym not socializing. So...unhealthy diet it is.

Wish me luck.

P.S. I'm not a size 2 girl wanting to have her spine show through her clothes (for the record, EW, that's AWFUL!). I'm also not a 300 pound giant. I just want to feel better about myself. Because I really, really have a complex going. I got gussied up for a conference last year and my boss took a photo of me. I saw it and wanted to cry - this chubby faced girl looked back at me. My best friend promised me I don't normally look that way, but my boyfriend said. "Huh, you look Korean." So fat me looks Korean. Which is odd, seeing that I'm mostly Chinese & Greek. Oh well.

In anycase, I don't want to avoid mirrors or photos anymore. I'm really tired of it.

Catching up...#4? I think. Maybe.

My boyfriend, guinea pig, and I spent an extended winter break in Montana. I should warn you, the photos below highlight the sexy, fast-paced existence that is small-town Montana.

Enjoy...

Between Los Angeles and Vegas, we saw this:

Snow? Weird.

Later that day we were forced to stop in Utah, thanks to a major snowstorm. Sadly, I didn't get any photos of the ginormous snowflakes. But, I DID pick up a gift for a friend...

It was a book written by a Mormon, published in Utah. It was called, "Understanding Women," and MAN was it sexist. I thought it would make a fantastic gag-gift.

When we escaped Utah and finally made it up to Montana, this guy greeted me at my parents' house:

Domo.

The temperature was in the negative degrees, so most of our activities occurred indoors. Luckily, the glow of my fam's nuclear Christmas tree was rather soothing, so I didn't mind staring at it for hours at a time.


After some chillin' with the fam, we went to see Benjamin Button. When my boyfriend and I went into the theater, the roads were clear. When we came out after the movie, everything was covered with a thick layer of snow.

When we got home, my parents' porch looked like this:


Here's the view from their front door:


Remember - I got home from the movie, walked through the house to photograph the porch, then came back outside to snap a shot of the front. This is the car I drove home in, minutes after driving it:


After that, I hung out with my family in the living room. Enjoy the photo of my dog making a face, and my little brother's foot.

Two things: 1) Pictures of feet totally gross me out, so I'm sorry for that. 2) I wanted to show off the fact that my dog matches the carpet, so feet photos were hard to avoid.

Seriously though, I love my dog. She's awesome. And, she loves the snow:


A few days into the trip some friends and I decided to pity heckle Screech - The Nerds of Comedy Tour hit my town, and really, there wasn't anything else to do.



I think "J" had fun, don't you?


"A" looked annoyed. As she should. We were forced to sit through a "My German Shepard totally doesn't understand me. He doesn't speak ENGLISH!" joke. We died a little bit then, on the inside. (I should note that the joke did not come from Screech. He deserves credit for that.)

Ladies and Gentleman...Screech:


Apparently all of the painful humor made "A" hungry:


In order to save myself, I suggested we get cheese fries. Here's "J"'s post-fry glow:


I spent a lot of time in bars on this trip. I didn't spend a lot of time drinking, there just weren't many places to go and it was freaking cold outside. Here's "A" at a bar that has mermaids. Yes, mermaids - they seriously have people dressed as mermaids in a tank of water. I think "A" is judging them:


A few days after that, "A"and I got makeovers at the Laura Mercier shop in one of the college towns. I think she looks lovely:

We had sushi in the college town. Luckily it was quite good, surprisingly.

"T" at the start of a post-sushi food coma:


Here I am greeting 2009. Either someone slipped uranium in my drink, or my phone's flash makes me look radioactive:
The trip itself was fantastic, but the drive home was utter hell. Let me introduce you to the sheet of ice we got to brave at 15 miles an hour:

See the shine? That stuff was *slick.* Any faster and we began to slide. It added several hours to the trip.

Thank goodness the scenery was gorgeous:

Not terribly exciting, but it was a good time. :) At least we got home safe, despite the hellish roads.

Resolutions... Nay - GOALS for 2009

I'm not good at resolutions. Nor am I good with long term planning. This year, I'm going to try and have short-ER term goals than usual. Within the year, I aim to:

1) Ride this:
2) Go here: 3) Do a lot of this: 4) And this: 5) Do more of this (rather, do more of it without feeling guilty): 6) Open myself up for more of this:
7) Re-learn how to speak this:
8) Eat a lot of this: 9) See more of this: 10) At 11:59pm on December 31st, feel like this:

Infinite Undiscovery should have remained undiscovered

Video game time.

I just played Infinite Undiscovery for the first time last night. Rather, I tried to play it. It starts off very intense, with relatively complicated control menus. (I'm not a fan of games requiring me to do much memorizing). I started out on the Intermediate setting, mainly because it said Easy was for people unfamiliar with RPGs. So uh...first I make my way out of some dungeon, which was tedious, but not impossible. The controls, as I mentioned, were overly complicated, and with a crappy unreadable font in the tutorial, I had no idea what I was doing. I often found myself stuck in a particular menu, so I would flail around, randomly and angrily mashing buttons until I found my way out of it. I forgot to mention that the controls are also very loose. There was a delay between the time I pushed a button and the actual response on-screen in the game. I find this immensely annoying.

About five minutes in, I decided it was virtually unplayable. Being forgiving, I figured I'd try and give it another chance.

I made my way out of the dungeon, crappy controls and all, and ventured out into a forest. I proceeded to get lost several times, as there is no way to gauge your progress, the map is utter crap, and the camera jerks around when enemies approach. The autotargeting system seems to be lacking, as I had a horrible time trying to kill a single bee. The camera then locked onto a different enemy, much farther away, so I got turned around AND I was being attacked by the close enemy without any way to retaliate.

So, about 45 minutes in, I find my way out of the winding, annoying forest. Then the scary dungeon boss that chased me out of the dungeon shows up and promptly...kills me. I died. I died 45 minutes in. Considering the fact I got lost, I was probably only officially about 20 minutes into gameplay. You should not die that quickly. It just shouldn't be possible unless you do something stupid.

Worse than dying, it took me back to the only available save spot...which was five minutes into gameplay.

At that point, I lost it, and threw down the controller. Seeing as less content is available in Easy mode, I think I'm done with this game. I don't understand how it got a 6.5 rating on gamespot. I'd give it a 2. Only because the graphics are pretty. The storyline, as far as I could tell, was rather trite.

It was a major letdown, Square Enix. MAJOR.

Guess what keeps falling on my head!

Raindrops! Hoorah!

I adore the rain. If I were forced to pick one kind of weather to endure day in and day out, rain would be it. Rainy days smell better. They turn things green, my favorite color. If it rains long enough, even the sidewalks start to grow moss.

Rain makes me work harder and think bigger. I become more adventurous. I also feel more hope.

Rain is a precious commodity now that I live in Los Angeles. Sunny day after sunny day? Blah. Sun isn't a good reason for getting up and dancing outside.

Speaking of which...

Speaking of stupid...

I have a habit of emailing myself a link to something of interest that I want to remember to check out later, noticing a new message in my inbox, getting overly exited wondering about who in the world may have emailed me, then realizing the new message is from you know who. I transition from excitement to disappointment to shame.

EDIT: I checked my email after posting this. New message! Guess what it was. Me. The autonotification that I posted a new blog entry. Maybe I should reconsider a career as a writer. I'm not sure if I'm smart enough to avoid hurting myself while typing.

2nd EDIT: It's not that I don't get email from other people. I just get really excited about it.

3rd EDIT: Man, I'm lame.

FYI BTW

Dear Neo-con Republicans,

I have some news for you. Something I just think you ought to know.

You lost. You lost in a big way. Your policies failed. You failed.

Now stop whining about needing to cut taxes in this new stimulus bill. You already cut taxes. And you know what? It didn't help. The economy is tanking, thanks you to, and now you're trying to say that the same old bull is going to magically work this time. No. It's not. Get over it.

Now get moving. There's precious little time before we officially hit a depression. And if we do? I'm personally blaming you. Really, I am.

Work with the Democrats. The American public spoke. They want change. So, help give it to them. I'm not saying you need to become Democrats, I just want you to actually do what's right for the country. Be the patriots you claim to be. Move quickly.

If you keep dragging your feet, then blame Democrats for being do-nothings, so help me...

XOXO,

Cat

Busy busy busy!

So many updates! So little time!

In the past few weeks I have researched, written and e-published an article for a fabulous website. There's another in the works. I have created Twitter, Zazzle, YouTube, Squidoo, and Blogger sites for my parents' various projects. I also designed the better part of a whole new site. I even took on a volunteer project of epic (for me) proportions. Methinks I need to get an e-portfolio going, finally.

Phew.

Despite all of this, I promise that more updates are coming soon.

Soon.

Not for the easily offended: Amanda Palmer - Oasis (Dedicated to Sarah Palin)

This basically sums up my approach to coping mechanisms: distract yourself and grin, regardless of your circumstances. It's catchy, to boot.