budget hair

I haven't worked since the first week of March, and so the luxury lifestyle went out the window some time ago. And then some basic creature comforts were sacrificed. And now I'm living on pasta or rice with some butter and salt and pepper and drinking only water (okay, maybe that's exaggerating, but you get the idea.)

My semi-regular salon visit for a haircut is off the books until further notice. As a result, I've taken to cutting my own hair. Well, I hack it to the length I want, then my dad evens / straightens. (He's got all the tools a good military barber needs -- not sure how much experience he has on women's hair, or non-military cuts, but he's got the basics of shape, for sure.)

As I have recently moved back to the east coast, I am once again coming to grips with my curly/wavy hair and I can't say I've got a handle on how it behaves in the humidity. The past week or so I haven't spent much time on it, and most days it ends up looking like Kitty from "That 70s Show". Not feeling so sexy these days. I mean, it's great on that character, but I don't have the retro wardrobe to pull off the look.

new look for spring!

From London Fashion Week for the spring/summer 2009 collection. Wow. Nice fix for a bad hair day.

unfortunate name

I moved into my house less than two months ago, so some of the junk mail and adverts come addressed to previous tenants. One of the surnames is Stoolmiller.

Soooooo unfortunate.

hitchhikers

I would never, ever pick up a hitchhiker, but I'm especially annoyed when I seen one STANDING STILL on the side of the road. It's like, make a little effort, okay? At least start WALKING in the direction you want to go. Show that you have a little self-motivation to arrive at your destination.

Fringe - my review

I wish JJ Abrams had done more to make it different from Lost. He's using the same DP, the same music creator, and some of the same actors, and likely other staff.

As soon as I heard a music cue right out of Lost, I was irritated. Then I didn't hear another one for a while, and I was ok. By the end, I was irritated again -- there were several through out that could have been lifted right from Lost.

The overhead shot of the chase scene at the storage unit right after we saw a bunch of lab rats in cages -- too much. Overkill.

The untraditional lower thirds -- the location indicators. I'm undecided. I like that they're different, but don't know if I like them, all big and everything.

The first time anyone visited John in the hospital room they were fully decked out head-to-toe in protective, anti-infective gear. But no one really talked to each other. Conveniently, when Olivia went in with Dr Bishop and his son, and they were all talkey-talkey, no one had head gear on, even though John was in worse condition.

For a room that was being used as storage, it sure became a fully functional lab pretty fast.

Joshua Jackson has matured quite nicely. Hotly, really. I used to see him at Rockreation, the rock climbing gym in LA. But he was much heavier back then. He's got a Liev Schreiber thang going on, minus the smarminess.

Ugh. Nothing worse than a character who amounts to no more than a device -- Olivia's assistant. She was almost an afterthought. She was only there so Dr Bishop had someone to talk to while Olivia was in the tank.

When the FBI went to the bad guy's apartment, Olivia was wearing a gas mask / ventilator. She comes running out to chase him, not wearing it. When did she take it off? She was just standing in his basement laboratory. Would she really have taken it off in there, not knowing if he had set up an infectious release?

John was brought into the lab in a protective bubble. Yet he's lying on his hospital bed, in this dirty 100 year-old basement, translucent skin and all.

Another music note - after John died I totally heard in my head the song "Love Hurts" originally recorded by the Everly Brothers, but more like the Joan Jett or Heart version.

Will I watch again? Definitely.

Be still my heart!

If I entered the convent the only people to come looking for me would be my creditors.

Man holds vigil for girlfriend-turned-nun

An Italian man whose girlfriend left him to become a nun is holding a vigil outside the convent where she is staying in a bid to get her to reconsider.

From Nick Pisa in Rome
Last Updated: 10:45PM BST 04 Sep 2008

Heartbroken Daniel Briatore, 21, has vowed to remain camped outside the convent in a bid to win back the love of his life Patrizia Masoero, also 21, after she dumped him a month ago to take religious vows.

He travelled the 300 miles from their hometown of Alassio on the Italian Riviera to the Franciscan convent at Montecassino Abbey, south of Rome.

When Patrizia refused to see him he put up a banner on the convent walls reading:"I didn't want to take you away, just talk to you, because I love you".

The nuns immediately took the banner down but Daniel has said he will do "whatever it takes" to get her back, boosted by local villagers who are all said to be backing him.

Last night Italian media reports said the two had known each other since they were teenagers and had been together for several years until Patrizia told her family she was leaving Daniel to become a nun.

A nun who answered the telephone at the convent said:"Our sister has chosen the path she wants, there is no point in him staying here.

"At the moment she isn't even here, she is in Rome on a pilgrimage with her fellow sisters and is due back here at the convent this weekend - we just want all this attention to go away.

"We took the banner down but now the whole place is swarming with TV crews and photographers when I tried to leave the convent it was impossible because i had microphones and cameras pushed into me."

In his entry on the Italian social network site Netlog Daniel calls himself "Braveheart 86" and describes himself as a "heterosexual lifeguard who enjoys football."

It's been a few days since I've posted, because most of my computer time has been spent raging to friends via email about the current political environment with regards to the race to the White House. I wanted to keep politics out of this, my creative space, so one of my genius friends started a separate blog entirely for all of us.

http://roadtothewhitehousesupportgroup.blogspot.com/

Please check it out and feel free to comment. Maybe now that I have that space to vent the venom, I'll be able to return my creative energy to here.