Natala la la la ... ... ...

Saturday, August 28, 2004

i love kinko's! 

i have been running around today preparing for burning man. it's been craziness - but i am totally loving it. i made signs for our camp the other day, and now i'm feeling crafty...sooo... i decided to create a reflective tent-cover in the hopes of keeping my tent cool... in order to make this tent i am piecing together silver-mylar emergency blankets -- which posed a problem. how can i keep the corners down and secure? my solution - add grommets to the corners so i can tie rope through the grommet and secure the tent. with this agenda in mind, i went about gathering grommet materials...and bought a home grommeting kit. oh my. grommeting is NOT easy work, in fact, it's really freaking painful to hand-punch a grommet. so...my step-dad brilliantly says, "you know, kinko's has a sign-making shop and they put grommets on their signs."....oh oh oh. so i called kinko's and asked if i could have grommets put onto my mylar sheets and they said yes! i just got back -- and the grommets are lovely. i am so happy.

on another note, i learned today that walmart sells live pet fish. ick. that store is utter craziness, i much prefer target.

i'm a teddy bear  

i took the new "better relationship" quiz on jenny turpish slapped me (where i previously took the better personality quiz). I once again found the results to be interesting -- and telling. This time i came up as a XSIG - Expressive Sentimental Intellectual Giver which makes me a Teddy Bear. I particularly found these two statements to be true:
- It is *critically important* that you are able to respect your partner. The moment you lose respect for him/her, you lose everything.
- When you make friends, you make them for life -- you can go without speaking to a friend for years and pick up right where you left off. You are completely faithful, both physically and emotionally.

In my life, I've had a few relationships where I was absolutely passionate about the person, and then, something happens and I lose respect for the person -- somehow they fall from grace. As a result, I can no longer see them in the same light. In only one case has that person truly ever come back into my heart...i've been thinking about this attribute a lot lately, as I generally believe that deep relationships are about discovering not only a person's strengths, but their weaknesses and accepting -- and loving them -- regardless. hmmm.

Take the quiz.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

ugh, this is disturbing.  

i've been reading reports (from BoingBoing and MetaFilter) about a girl in Iran who was executed due to "engaging in acts incompatible with chastity." the whole story makes me sick - the girl has been said to be mentally retarded, and she also lacked legal representation. what's worse is that the local news didn't cover the event -- so it is hard to know what really happened, and harder for people to react quickly -- although a number of bloggers have been covering the event providing ground coverage. Amnesty International has a press release expressing their outrage.

The thing that makes me frustrated is i feel helpless. there's nothing i can do here, and i'm although i'm bothered by this -- i sense in myself a feeling of resignment. this scares me even more. am i becoming tolerant of this type of injustice? i sure as hell hope not.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

firefly links  

I've decided to create a blog just for posting links of interesting things i come across. i read a lot of webblogs and i've lately felt that my blog was on the road to getting just link posts (post with a link, minimal content) and i'd rather use my blog as a vehicle for more developed expression then one-liners. So, voila: Natala's Links - note the actual url is: fireflylinks.blogspot.com

There are a few links there already, including a link to the new Pantone Colostrology page -- where i discovered that my birthday color is Cactus (Pantone 18-0130) and i've been missing out on reaching my mood potential because i don't own anything in a cactusy color... perhaps this explains a few things.

Enjoy!

Friday, August 20, 2004

phoshizzle 

Photo Credit: Pho King
Tip: Boing Boing

I thought this picture was hilarious. sadly, internet rumor has it that it is just a photoshop dream. however, "what the pho" appears to be real.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

foofaraw 

today's Dictionary.com word of the day is fun to say:

foofaraw \FOO-fuh-raw\, noun:
1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
2. A fuss over a matter of little importance

After working in the news business for a number of years, I've become a bit cynical about mass-media coverage of events like the Y2K foofaraw.
--Roy Clancy, "Ready for Y2K...," Calgary Sun, December 15, 1999

life is sometimes all flummery and foofaraw, baby, and don't ya forget it.

Monday, August 16, 2004

shocking i know... 

Category I - The Hub

You're a 'people person'. Networking runs in your
blood. Consequently, you can move through most
social circles with ease.


What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sunday, August 15, 2004

not sleeping so well  

so, i'm under a lot of stress in my life these days trying to figure out some "big life things" at work. the result has been that my body is tense and my sleep is pretty crappy. On top of this, I've had a lot of random dreams when i do sleep....the dreams are chaotic, especially post the attack. Perhaps as a result of all this dreaming, i'm not sleeping in very long bits. I went to bed last night fairly early (i think sometime around 11, which is early for me)... Well, now it is 4 am and I can't sleep. I think i've only been able to sleep for 5 hours straight for the last few weeks. i'm hoping that when all of this stuff with work gets figured out that my sleep patterns will return to normal. The one benefit of weird sleep patterns is that when it is 4 am here, it is noon in London. My good friend Kyle just moved to london and we've been able to have some good, reflective 2 am to 6 am conversations...

Saturday, August 14, 2004

silly jokes and surfing 

Photo Credit: Bolinas Surf Lessons & 2 Mile Surf Shop

Today, and it isn't even over, has been amazingly wonderful. I woke up way to early this morning, and on a whim, decided to accompany my friend Minnie on her surfing adventure in Balinas. I originally planned to just come and observe, i wasn't so sure about the whole getting wet thing...but in the end i decided to surf. it was AMAZING. true fun is had in the water on the board seeking the next wave. Add to this new wonder great, silly friends and the day can be nothing but golden sunshine even when it is overcast. After spending the morning out in the waves (well, er, they were little learner waves) we headed out for a much needed lunch of oysters, beer and lots more amusement. A highlight of the day was the joke below - crafted by laura. I thought this 5-part joke series was just hilarious.

You need to read this out loud.

Part I:
So there's a boy mushroom and a girl mushroom...and the boy mushroom asks the girl mushroom to the dance on friday. She says no. and he said, why not? i'm a fungi.

Part II:
So the boy mushroom asks the girl mushroom out again the next week, and this time she says "yes." Then, he asks her out the next week and she says "no." He asks her out again and she says "yes." The next time he asks her out she says "no." And then, finally, he's had enough and he tells her, "I've had enough of your spore-ratic behaviour. "

Part IV:
So the girl mushroom thinks she wants to give this boy mushroom a chance afterall. So she says to him, "I think i've taken a lichen to you."

Part IV:
So the girl mushroom decides to ask the boy mushroom out on a date. She asks him out to the movies... and he says, "mildew."

Part V:
So they're at the movies, and the boy mushroom's not being a nice mushroom. He's throwing popcorn and just being wily. The girl mushroom doesn't like it and tells him so. He says to her, "maybe you'll appreciate me when your mold-er."

hahhaahhahahahahahah.
(Credit goes to Laura.)

Friday, August 06, 2004

exploring the deep sea 

Source: © Copyright 2002, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

i am often puzzled by the fact that we know more about space then we do about the deep sea. Obviously space is the greatest unknown frontier -- it is just an immense area of the unknown and there's the whole possibility of *aliens.* Yet, the deep sea holds a world that we know relatively little about -- we've been to the moon, and now mars and now traveling around Saturn.. but we haven't even been to the bottom of the ocean! Earth's oceans, which cover three-fourths of the planet, harbor most of its life - i'd like to get to know that life. I really wish we would focus significantly more resources on this type of exploration. I was pleased to see an article from Wired today discussing the Census of Marine Life project -- a $1 Billion, 10 year exploration of the deep sea. They've discovered some interesting, never before seen creatures that are delightful -- and creepy. Even so, this $1B budget pales in comparison to the US's spending of $86B on space exploration.

things that make me happy 

my life is a bit stressful right now, but there are a few things making me very happy:

(1) I am going to echo lake today for the weekend. It's echo lake day tomorrow -- think log rolling competitions, minnow races and bbq. I can't wait. summer really is the best time of year.

(2) My etymotic research headphones are amazing. I flew back from seattle and was unfortunately given a seat right next to the wing-engine. it was loud and horrible, but i turned on my iPod and plugged in my etymotic headphones and voila - i was engine-sound free. noise isolation really does work, and the results are fabulous -- i was able to concentrate and read freely, and sleep was easy as pie.

(3) My family is hilarious. There's just a wonderful comfort to them and even though i'm partially rejecting them as I cope, their sincere support and humour has been wonderful.

(4) A post by eric on his blog reminded me that, "this too shall pass."

(5) Random Bits: milky tea, fresh corn salad, old friends and good wine.