things;

I'm back on LJ. The feed issue was insurmountable.

and I don't know on which end (is it Vox or is it LJ?), I am thinking I'm going to have to post to ohsosurly if I want anyone to know what's up on my end. I post stuff on blogger, too, in case you didn't know. On very rare occasions. I feel like most people don't really care enough about what's going on with me to make an effort, so I need to have something going on on LJ. I'm not boo-hooing, it is what it is. So, let me know what you think (should I post to LJ directly).

This morning I lopped off about 6" of my hair. It's layered again, so it's curling up something fierce. I can still have a tiny ponytail, but no braids. Currently it's in two ponytails, one on each side. I will straighten it later.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6354536

First it randomly grabs & re-posts the last 5 or so entries in a row, then it stops posting my images! What the fuck, dude?

I made these prints today, that I won't even try to post (if you view posts directly on vox you can see everything), for a swap amongst the Loco for Gocco flickr group. We're a group of Etsy sellers who enjoy gocco printing. I had forgotten about the swap but managed to bust something out in 24 hours. Well, a little more, I guess, since I still have to mount them. I look forward to getting prints from the other artists. Some of them are quite masterful with the gocco.

Today I got a call from someone at Target HQ, asking me to take part in some diversity event they're having for local artists in a couple of weeks. Color me excited, but the dude who called me had trouble with my email addresses, so I still haven't gotten the particulars. I can't remember his name, either. Doh. Oh telephone, why must you be so sucky when it comes to communication? At first I was like, "You know I'm white, right?" because I'm a total dumbass & of course "diversity" is only about ethnicity, not about like, queerness or differently-abled persons or whatever. I mentally slapped myself for that one. This is why it's best that I never talk to strangers on the phone. I can't really afford to make more prints without selling some, but I guess I'll just have to be more broke than usual this month. I've already paid the cc bills, so at least I can't shirk that duty. We'll see what happens. I am totally dreading the fact that I will be expected to speak about my art & why I do what I do. Fuck me. There's no way I'd say no, though, since it's a great opportunity.

Prints for the first Loco For Gocco print swap.

I'm short & stocky, with oddly-facing pinky toes. Swollen ankles from being hot & sweaty.

check out these awesome artists!
www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=1118

Another shot from Ax-Man Surplus.

It drives me nuts that when my entries including a lot of text & more than two photos are viewed in syndication on LJ the formatting is often completely fucked up. Oh well.

Today I have stayed home because it's hot & humid & I don't really have anything to do outside the house anyhow. But inside the house I am dying. Death by sweat & boredom. It is too hot to do anything that requires movement.

Remind me to tell you about the fence-climbing a few weekends ago.

++ Friday night I was going to go to the Trans March. But I didn't. I'm not sure why, probably just cos I didn't feel like it & I would have had to go alone, and well, that just wouldn't happen. Instead I went with B to a park by the airport where he likes to fly his plane. Lydia & I walked around, snapping a few photos & getting eaten alive by bugs. On our way home I got fried rice at KinhDo & B picked up his dinner at the new Jimmy John's down the street from our apartment.

++ Saturday we braved the heat & headed out to St Paul to go to Como Park, which includes a zoo, a conservatory, and a Japanese garden, all of which are free. I think I have yet to go out there since I got the DSLR. Unfortunately I didn't realize that summertime means a carnival for the kids so it was unbelievably crowded & there was no parking within the whole of the park. We left & on our way out of St Paul made a quick stop at Ax-Man, where B needed to pick up some heat-activated tubing for his plane. We then tried the Bell Museum of Natural History at the U. Worst area in the world for parking! There is literally side street upon side street with "No Parking" signs. We've already talked about the fact that if we want to go there we should ride our bikes instead. We did eventually find parking several blocks away, only to discover that the museum is only free on Sundays. D'oh. Our last resort was the free museum by our apartment, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The whole point was to get out of the house & into some air conditioning & hopefully take some photos along the way. I don't think that happened at all, even though photography is actually allowed inside this museum. We stayed there for a couple of hours, until we were so hungry we had to go home.

++ Sunday was the Twin Cities PRIDE Parade & despite B's insistence that it was going to be hotter than hell & humid to boot, it was actually quite lovely. Sure it was hot, but it was breezy & not humid. I got a burn on my chest that included a white stripe where my camera strap was. Ridiculous. I got >this< close to Al Franken & his crew of camera men. Unfortunately both of my shots came out blurry because my eyesight is too poor to consistently focus well manually (which I have to do with my 50mm f/1.8 lens because B dropped it & now it won't auto focus). One of the great things about living in Minnesota is that I'll get to vote for Al Franken. I think that's pretty funny as well as pretty awesome. The parade didn't seem as flamboyant this year as years past. Not as many costumes & such, but it was still fun.

After cooling off at home for a couple of hours we headed to West St Paul for my friend Sharyn's BBQ/potluck celebrating her 34th birthday. She has a cute little house that she's in the process of selling so she can move back to Minneapolis. I hope her next house has central air, or at least more circulation, because it was like a sauna in there! Though it didn't help that all of her windows seemed to be closed. I like people who have a lot of fun things to photograph in their home, with vibrant colors. Toys & color & neat design features. These things make me happy. Sharyn's house also includes swinging in the backyard (on a swingset, not of the sexual variety), BBQ Tofu (I really want to see if my oven can handle it, because only getting it once a year at her house is not enough), and her almost-ex-husband's amazing baked goods. This year it was a variety of vegan cupcakes that were just about as good as my own. We brought two types of hummus & pita bread. It was a good time, as always.