2010 Goals Midyear Check-in

Time to revisit my goals and see how I'm doing...

1. Audition for something, anything.

Status: Fail
I'm working on bolstering my self esteem a bit before taking this one on.

2. Take one of the following classes: dance, piano, acting, or voice.

Status: Fail
I have a class in mind, but I'm not going to spill the beans until the awesomeness has actually happened.

3. Get my passport.

Status: Fail
I just need to get my butt in gear on this one. Apparently the cost either has or is about to go up 35%.

4. Buy (and wear) a dress (I haven't bought a dress in FIVE years. Five!)

Status: 50% Fail
I bought a dress, now I just need to wear it.

5. Gussy up and attend the SF Ballet's Nutcracker (I performed in it 15 years ago. Lordy, I'm old.)

Status: Fail, with a caveat.
I can't succeed at this until December.

6. Read three books for fun (last year I only managed two, believe it or not.)

Status: 2/3 Fail.
I read Snowflower and the Secret Fan, a book on productivity (meh), and a book on logo design. The last two don't count, but I'll have lots of time on planes to catch up on fun books in August, September and October.

7. Visit one new place.

Status: Sweet success!
Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, baby. Ooooh yeah.

8. Attend more shindigs (in other words, try not to turn down invitations).

Status: Sweet success!
Getting better, but man am I getting fat on dim sum.

9. Photograph stuff. Lots of stuff.

Status: So-so
My fancy new camera died in a tragic Diet Coke accident, so my motivation to photograph anything took a big hit.

10. At 11:59 PM on December 31st, feel like this:

Status: In progress
We shall see.

Quickie

Hi folks,

My family is still in town, so between that and my side projects, I have gotten very little sleep. I'll photobomb you later with details on my faaabulous fourth of July weekend.

Hugs and smooches!

Cat

Weekend Rabblerousing

This weekend I'm off to S.F. to visit with my family, eat some BBQ, and support my dad's band.

If you're into the Reggae Dub Poetry/Country/Native American music scene, you should stop on by.

• Saturday July 3rd 5-7pm, FREE 12th Annual World One Festival, Cerrito Vista Park, 950 Pomona Avenue, El Cerrito

• Saturday July 3rd 9pm-1am, FEMI KUTI concert, The Fillmore, 1805 Geary, San Francisco

• Sunday July 4th 10am-7pm, FREE 12th Annual World One Festival, Cerrito Vista Park, 950 Pomona Avenue, El Cerrito

• Thursday July 8th 9-9:45pm, with DEAD DREAMS, Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo, Berkeley

Pictures and stories soon to come. :)

< 3 < 3 < 3

Stupid Sun

Los Angeles weather is far too sunny and warm. And bright. And happy.

I needs me some soul-search inducing gloomy grey weather now and again. And lots of rain.

Right now I'm faking it with this. (Thanks, Sheri.)

Peter Erlinder Released!

...on medical bail. :)

The good, the bad, and the awesome

Good: Finally managing to get in some quality ZZZs while sick.

Bad: Waking up from said ZZZs in the middle of the night with a mouth-breathing induced sore throat.

Awesome: Discovering that your boyfriend preemptively stocked the fridge with strawberry Häagen-Dazs.

Hmm...

I think I need a little soul...

Splode from Cuteness

I'm pretty sure my head is going to explode. Not from cuteness, unfortunately. (That wouldn't be a terrible way to go, I suppose.) No, I'm just battling a raging head cold. Stupid head cold.

Grumble grumble grumble.

Devolution?

This is full of awesome.*

*Thanks, Brie, for pointing this out. :)

Free Professor Peter Erlinder

If you don't mind, please consider taking a moment to help out the father of a friend's fiance...

Peter Erlinder, law professor at William Mitchell Law School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, long time human rights advocate and Lead Defense Counsel for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, was arrested by Rwandan Authorities the morning of Friday, May 28. Prof. Erlinder is a human rights lawyer, president of the defense lawyers' association at the Tribunal and past-President of the National Lawyers Guild.

Please contact your Congressional delegation and tell them to do whatever they can to secure his release.

• Huff-Post article.
  
• More information on this here: Facebook
• Interview with Peter's daughter at about 26:30.
• Statement from the ABA.
• Contact information for the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda. (To call Rwanda from the USA/Canada, dial 011 + 250 + phone number.)

Upgraded

From haunting to bane of my existence.

I'm officially sick of productivity suggestions. I'm done with Lifehacker for awhile.

Too much

I don't want to capture every idea that pops up in my head. Not only would it eat up a ton of precious time that should be spent on actually executing ideas, it shows a lack of confidence in your ability to generate new ideas when you have the free time to spend on them.

GTD is haunting me, at the moment. I can't seem to go a week without someone mentioning it.

I'm also a cranky pants, as it's fiscal close time at UCLA. Busy busy busy.

Bubble Girl

Maybe I need to resort to more extreme measures to avoid getting sick.

(As an aside, I feel like I'm the only person who really enjoyed Bubble Boy. Oh well.)

Nice lawn. Now what?

Kentucky was ... interesting.

Our transfer flight from Atlanta to Lexington was canceled at the very last minute, so Muse and I decided to rent a sexy and glamorous Ford Focus and drive through the night to see his little sis (and through Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, for that matter). First of all, I have never seen so many abandoned cars, 24-hour firework stands, and Cracker Barrels in all my life. Not to mention thirty foot glowing crosses. Second, WOW is Kentucky meticulously manicured. Very green, very white-fencey. Despite spending a full day and night traveling, I had a great time chatting with Muse and giggling at the overabundance of country music on the local radio stations.

We got to our hotel at about 6 a.m. local time. Man, we were sleepy. I scarfed down some breakfast and passed out just in time for birthday callers to start in on Muse. Eventually I managed to drag myself out of bed and grab coffee with little sis. Seeing her was awesome and it was very cool to check out where she works. I can see why she loves it there. Give her a Starbucks and lots of horses and she's happy with life. :)

I could be wrong, but it seems that Southern hospitality is a myth. Perhaps I just ran into the wrong folks, but virtually all of the people I met (primarily in customer service roles) were standoffish and even a bit rude. One stand out exception was the night desk manager at the Holiday Inn Express. He. Was. Awesome.

Unfortunately our luggage (and my camera) lagged behind us, as Delta did not allow us to retrieve our bags from the canceled flight. When I finally had the thing in my hot little hands, it ran out of batteries. I took very few photos on the trip. :-/

Brace for blurry, tilted shots from my mobile's camera (the vast majority of the state looks like the first picture):