rules of engagement (minor edit, 10.34pm)

'tis the season of shared holidays and parties, and this year was the first time i was forced to articulate my 2 personal rules for getting through the season with fewer homicides. but i think these 2 little rules could benefit us all, so:
#1- nobody should have to give up the holiday she wants so that somebody else can have the holiday they want. i thought i could be nice about it and i think i did ok, but when it was over i said we'd never do it again unless we really wanted to, because it seems like a small thing in your head in advance but in practice, once is enough.
#2- rules, other than door damages, byob and basic etiquette, defeat the very purpose of a party; costume requirements and similar restrictions can limit the partygoer's comfort level, which seems to go against what partying's fundamentally about. if one would like to indulge in and encourage costumes, that's fine, but making it a requirement asks people to relinquish the right to choose clothing that makes them feel good (within basic etiquette, since socialising implies that one has accepted the terms of the basic social contract we all adhere to by wearing clothing when we leave our homes even though we may not want to). since i stopped letting my mom dress me, the only time that's ok is when it's my job and i'm being paid to follow the script- i don't let friends dictate my personal choices. plus, since it is my job after all, why should i wear costumes in my real life too? especially @ a time of year when i have other priorities, like warmth, when getting dressed...i thought we were friends. and i know that if i don't like it i can just not go, which is why i'm prob'ly not, but if we friends, why make that necessary by being so exclusive? 'tis the season and all that crap...right?
happy newness.
walk good.

step in the right direction

no time to actually post right now but couldn't let this go unacknowledged- found it by rentaempress, which is where i've been keeping track of the smelter situation.

post already begun, sooncome...
walk good.

usps priority mail is a scam

so yesterday i went to the post office to find out what the fuck was up with my belts+buckle, and the same crazy asshole dude who didn't know what he was doing last time and caused my package to be delivered to my own house the following day and not to its destination in arizona for another 10days in spite of my having paid for priority mail, was working a counter and smiled and waved @ me like we friends! i was so tempted to give him the finger, but realised that his ass wouldn't even know he fucked up my mail, so if i gave him the finger then i'd become the asshole, cussing him for no apparent reason. so for the next few minutes in line i was torn between hoping i'd get called to his counter so i could cuss his black ass blue and upside-down-sideways, and praying i'd get called to the counter of someone competent so i could find out where the fuck my package is.
i thankfully ended up dealing with a very competent and very pleasant lady- one of my post office regulars- who gave me some distressing news: our post office doesn't do seasonal overhire- which means that crazy asshole dude is potentially handling my mail on a regular basis...
anyway, i told her my problem without bursting into tears, she went to talk to a manager, and came back with a piece of paper showing it had just been delivered to the right address in arizona a few hours prior. i got home and checked with the recipient, and it had.
but what i learned from this experience that i'd like to share with you, is that priority mail is bullshit.
when told that my package mailed on december 15th didn't arrive until december 26 in spite of my paying extra for priority mail so it'd get there in the advertised 2-3days, i asked if i could have the cost-difference between priority and regular mail refunded, since usps clearly didn't make my package a priority. i also suggested that it'd be even better if usps kept my extra $ that they hadn't yet earned, and instead allowed the package to be sent back to me from arizona for free. but i was told that the only time one gets $ back when usps fails is if one pays for express mail. and why is this? because express mail is advertised with the word "guarantee"- i.e. they "guarantee" something sent via express mail will arrive by a specified date, so if it doesn't the sender can reclaim what they paid. however, priority mail just says it should arrive in 2-3days, but they never "guarantee" it will, so you can't get $ back if usps fails. thus, priority mail is just regular mail, more expensive.
so consider this a psa: if you can't afford express mail, fuck priority and just pay for regular first-class, because usps priority mail doesn't really exist, and isn't really a priority, in spite of your paying an extra $4 for those ugly stickers.
walk good.

film noir

best response ever to person asking, or panting, why they're running while running for their lives: battlestar galactica, "i don't know; we'll figure it out later!"

the only person who's been in as many movies as samuel l. jackson is sean bean- but they're never in a movie together- is sean bean to samuel l. jackson as latoya is to michael? is sam jackson sean bean in blackface?

pewie loves turkey.

walk good.

happy fucking merry

so, as much as i hate christmas, i thought this post was still going be somewhat pleasant, due to grims' stellar christmas planning that resulted in the acquisition of dr.who- the 1st season of the new dr.who was my favourite dr.who ever! i love the season 1 doctor (also the 9th doctor, by happy coincidence, my favourite number since all its multiples add up to 9) so much that i'm almost scared to watch the new doctor on season 2- which i haven't seen yet, because of equus, but will soon since mr.man ordered it...plus, in spite of my being the worst wife ever and losing the earrings he'd bought me to match my engagement ring several christmases ago, he trusted me enough to get me a new pair, that actually match the ring even better than the previous ones. so as far as crappy holidays that i hate go, this shoulda been ok.
until the post office fucked me.
now, in spite of what people may say about postal workers, disgruntled or otherwise, i've maintained since buying this house 4years ago that the union station post office has never been anything but good to us. they're pleasant+helpful and open until midnight, and remember their regulars. but this time around, they fucked me. royally.
on friday december 15th i sent off 2 packages, one to oz and the other to arizona. the arizona package was the more important, because in it are my 2 leather belts and a beautiful belt buckle i recently acquired that i couldn't wait to have fixed up and sent back by january 9, so i sent it priority mail (2-3days) with delivery confirmation. the next day, just before i left home for work, my doorbell rang, and my postal delivery dude delivered my belts+buckle box to me, in spite of the fact that i had written "from" and "to" next to the appropriate addresses on the package. i explained to him that the dude @ the counter the night before had not been one of their regulars and i'd suspected that he was crazy all along. i pointed out the addressing, and dude said cool, he'd take it back to the post office and it'd go to arizona. i was already pissed because the next day was a sunday so it wasn't going anywhere before monday, and it was on deadline. but i figured it was just 2 days. however, on one of the obligatory christmas phone calls, i just found out that 10days later, it still has not arrived in arizona. the deadline was non-negotiable because i need the belt for a gig on january 10, and when i checked the delivery confirmation # just now it said the package was already delivered- to my address on saturday december 16...
i will not try to explain how furious i am @ usps right now, but even more than being furious, and even though i'm resourceful enough to come up with a contingency plan for my gig on january 10, if the belt buckle (presumably one-of-a-kind, from india) is lost, i will be inconsolable.
when i realised its loss was a possibility my eyes filled up with tears one time, and i can't even check in with the post office until tomorrow- those fuckers better be fucking open on boxing day because my black ass is ready to go on a rampage- nobody makes me cry on christmas, even if i hate it!
and one last thing before i go- i'd like to mention that the lesser package sent to australia on december 15 arrived last week. on the other side of the world. so they have bugles and reese's peanut-butter cups.
walk good.

is this post ever going to happen?!

so it's been percolating, like i said, and today i actually have the time to write it, but the obsessive-compulsive archivist in me is about to cry over blogger holding up production.
the post i'm ready to write is about something i'm pretty sure i've touched on here before, so i wanna pull up my previous post to see what i said then and how it compares to what i'm saying now, and (especially if they're differing views) link it in the (hopefully) upcoming post to allow for a more thorough examination when read- and even if my few readers don't care, i do. grims agrees that i've prob'ly posted something about this before, but no "search this blog" for any of the keywords i would've used brings up anything. and i feel like i can't write anew on the topic until i find the previous related post.
i know that this may seem ridiculous, but part of having a blog, for me, is having an archive of shit i'm contemplating, so i need to link the previous with the current for myself even more than for the one reader who may give a shit, and that's why i'm unable to proceed. but the thoughts are in my head, ready to make themselves sentences- so i'll keep searching, and hopefully a "real" post sooncome...
walk good.

i wasn't lying...

...when i said "sooncome"- my post is percolating but i need the time to actually sit and write it, and as we all know, this is a busy season, well beyond work.
so again, i say sooncome, and hope the links old+new plus your own holiday craziness keep you occupied in the interim.
walk good.

new links (appended tuesday)

trinidad junction
the poemcees
n'digo rose
miscellaneous flux
recently added to the sidebar near you.
look, listen, enjoy.
walk good.

ps: how could i forget the inimitable amp fiddler...

...breathing

so i actually have a few moments of downtime because i managed to get my to-do-list done before having to leave for work. on the couch, with michael j. and back to the future, half-spliff smoked.
i feel rare, with this ability to sit here and indulge in nothingness with an old friend who requires nothing of me but still shares so much. i have new albums to listen to that i'm excited about, but needed something that required less of me. michael has doc to play with.
but then i decided i should blog, since i had the time, and now i can't remember what i wanted to say. and now it's running up on time for me to get dressed to go to work. what was i thinking?
sigh.
the spliff was good.

walk good.

i know i know i know...

but it's only because since equus closed i've been playing catch-up with housekeeping, with friends, with my to-do-list...so i have my life back from the show, but not back for real yet.
in the meanwhile, a few small items:
1. jj, sadly for the rest of us reading fiends, has taken a hiatus- hence no fff last week, this week, or anymore, unless he decides to return.
2. world's tallest man saves plastic-eating dolphins.
3. and speaking of dolphins, they apparently get into batman too- everybody loves the dark knight...
4. and speaking of science (does the previous point really count?) i never thought i'd fall in love with a hummer, but the green hummer o2 is cool.
5. this is cool too, but do we still need a list of "wonders of the world"? i mean, with information as easily accessible as surely is for anyone who can afford to travel, i think we can make up our own minds what we each consider wondrous enough to check out...
6. censorship-supporters, killing art, not for the sake of public health, but because they prefer to bite down on the letter of the law rather than use logic.
7. and finally, just so we all know what's up @ some of our learned institutions (and big-up grims for sharing some of today's tidbits) the folger shakespeare library recently offered a midday lecture by tim harris, professor of history @ brown university and mellon fellow 2006-07 titled "they are a rude people, who inhabit the very testicles of the nation: towards a cultural history of prejudice in early modern england"...

more sooncome.
walk good.

and an fff heralded her return to civilisation...

equus closed yesterday (i may come back to this post when i'm not under deadline and do a final link-up for equus-related posts) and i'll miss the show desperately, but it'll be good to have my life back (somewhat, anyway).
this post will be brief because i have a lot of catching up to do today, but it's just the beginning- regular posts resume now.
big-up jj for keeping it real, and here's this week's flash fiction friday attempt (and yes, fff quality will improve once i've slept off the exhaustion):

He/She ran in front of... me – or maybe skipped would be more accurate – and in spite of being unsure of the true genital composition of the person i was following home, i was excited. this person was beautiful, and happy to be leaving with me. thrilled, actually, if the skipping was anything to go on. it was the best ending to the night (or beginning to the day) i could have imagined.
we wasted no time, and once we got naked i knew i couldn’t have asked for more. all the parts i hoped for in all the right places, all smelling like chocolate. i was in heaven.
we had an amazing night – morning, whatever – and when i woke hours later, only slightly refreshed but wanting to do it all again, my new favourite person was still laying next to me, curled around me, warm and welcoming. it was wonderful how little our actual equipment mattered – we just fit.

walk good.