urban earth mother

I'm up to 30 episodes on The Day Hell Froze Over . I've only missed two days and that was due to illness (you know you're really sick when talking to yourself is an effort). Martin has been contributing some too and he said he'd try to get in one full (not a one minute response to a direct question) recording a week. Although he seems behind on that now :)

The second one is up tonight too here And the RSS, should you wish to subscribe, is http://sexternalharddrive.com/blog.xml. If you're using iTunes, just go to the podcast bit on the side and then click Advanced on the toolbar and Subscribe and pop that URL into the pop-up box.

Someone in the Richard Vobes forums suggested listeners doing audio blogs in the same vein as Richard's Naked Englishman , so I have started one. It is called The Day Hell Froze Over and is about my upcoming wedding, the relationship, and related life issues. The first episode is here and the RSS address is http://sexternalharddrive.com/blog.xml

Martin and I had been talking since November about him coming over here to stay. The big hitch on this is getting him a work permit so we could both work and have proper lives and things while trying out the whole "living together" thing and being a normal couple. Well, I decided on the easier route for that and proposed when I was in England. He accepted and now, fuckin' hell!, we're all planning a wedding and stuff. It's all very odd. We're going for something small (hopefully) and with luck we'll be able to webcast it so everyone we've ever met in person or online can "attend" as well. And it suits us and our relationship thus far to do something like that. Our "official" announcement was on The Richard Vobes Radio Show so it's hard to get geekier than that! I guess we could try though. Maybe we could exchange USB hubs instead of rings. Hmm.

I'm going over to see MO next week. I haven't been on a longer trip (more than a couple days) in two years! I'm feeling guilty that he's come here more than I've gone there. Although two visits from him last year were great. This trip I'm going to try to visit Richard Vobes too. MO got me into the RVRS and I've become a forum junky there too.

Just a thought. I'm still tired of being fat , but even more so after videoing myself walking around the kitchen in my underwear (I'm fat even in a girdle! Great!). This will probably be the year Martin and I finally move in together, provided I get his CV done so he can look for a job in the States. Rather a scary and strange thing that, but I think I'm ready. I haven't lived with a boyfriend since 1994. I'd like to think I've grown since then (not just around the middle). And I know Martin has grown tremendously in the past year (still not around the middle here).

I've decided (no, really, this time I mean it!) to start keeping track of a really balanced diet. I haven't decided how strict I'm going to be yet, but I'll probably do the less strick version I've come up with, which is one week vegan and one vegetarian. I may end up doing vegan all the time except for Sundays (co-op dinners always include a lot of dairy and sometimes egg). I'm keeping track over at Spherical

Well that was not a nice thing to wake up to. But Martin's fine, we all heard from PM friend Siege (also fine) and I just got off the phone with my friend James, who just got home. All three of them bike in London instead of taking public transportation. I'm thinking that they're going to be making sure those bikes are tuned up from now on too.

Boss Lady cancelled our summer theme Fridays infavor of "casual dress Fridays" (um, isn't the whole summer pretty much casual dress at a university?) and two chair massage sessions. This sucks. Okay, chair massages are nice (we used to bring them in more regularly on our own dime), but the theme Fridays have been going for two years now and were a hell of a lot of fun. Sure they often degenerated into afternoon booze fests, but it was Friday ! And I had more musical subcultures to exploit! (past two years I chose Punk and Goth as my themes). Grrrr. I guess we'll have to run out and get tanked at the Faculty Club instead. Feh

I've been getting great pleasure reading the "names" my spam comes from lately. Here's a sample of this week's top names: Rusty S. Uncomprehending Minutia P. Reader Reimposes M. Unhooking Bolivia J. Apparelling Directories H. Profiteering Espying P. Floweriness Schoolhouse T. Quieting Leninism T. Mispronounced Antifreeze K. Destroys Fleeter I. Blisters Regulation I. Headsets

The phone rings tonight Is [teru] there? Speaking. Here's a blast from the past. St. George and the recliner OHMYGOD! It was my friend Jim whom I haven't spoken to in almost ten years! He's doing well and making me glad I don't have a private number as he found me on an after homework web search of old friends. He was a friend from another lifetime, but one that I always missed when we both moved on. I'm thinking when I do a trip south to see Naz, I need to make a side trip to South Carolina to see him again too. At the very least to read his comic collection ;-) Although he's up for a speakerphone night of RPG for our games night too.

I really think I should check this out. If not on Saturday, then maybe in a few years :) What is it? Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention. Time travelers from all eras could meet at a specific place at a specific time, and they could make as many repeat visits as they wanted. We are hosting the first and only Time Traveler Convention at MIT Great idea, I'd love to help! What should I do? Write the details down on a piece of acid-free paper, and slip them into obscure books in academic libraries! Carve them into a clay tablet! If you write for a newspaper, insert a few details about the convention! Tell your friends, so that word of the convention will be preserved in our oral history! A note: Time travel is a hard problem, and it may not be invented until long after MIT has faded into oblivion. Thus, we ask that you include the latitude/longitude information when you publicize the convention. You can also make an absolute commitment to publicize the conven...

My dad has a roommate, Peter, who moved in (as a tenant) when my dad was getting out of the hospital last lear. At the time, Peter didn't know what he was getting into with an invalid roommate, but they have become fast friends and Peter has helped dad out a lot. Well, it turns out Peter is coming into a HUGE trust fund soon, but he has no heirs. He can't leave the money in a will, but wants it to go to help people he knows. At 47 he doesn't anticipate marrying and having kids, so he's asked my dad to propose adopting me. No, really. I didn't say no, but it's such a strange request that I can't say yes. I've only met the guy once, on Christmas eve, and he seemed nice enough, but adoption ?!?! So, how was you're weekend, dear reader?

Rox Populi has a nice post asking What's So Great About America? The comments give some wonderful answers, from the things we don't like to admit (yes, we do like our junk food) to the things that make you smile (beautiful and varied landscapes), but the most important ones, and I think much of what keeps me here, is that it's our country too, and we're not giving it up.

Even political Norwegian rap. Or maybe it's just the dancing newscasters. This is the video from the Norwegian communist rap group Gatas Parlament that was banned last fall for lyrics that called for killing The Shrub. Personally, I have more of a problem with it being RAP in NORGEGIAN . But maybe that's because I kind of like the sentiment of the song ;) Anyhow, the video has subtitles so you don't have to actually understand Norwegian.

In my next life, I want to be a writer for Weekly World News. Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with being an artist's model, I was one myself for a few years, but just the thought... Most Americans are very familiar with Vice President Dick Cheney's distinguished career as a businessman and public servant -- but much less familiar with his work as a nude artist's model! shudder And the former "careers" of the other politicos are even better.

On Saturday April 9, 2005, The Ominous Collective presents their third in a series of the Kabarett 16 Bit, this time a very special occasion as Collective founders, electro-rock band Robotzen celebrate the release of their second CD "The Violence Factors In". Special guest for the evening will be poet Catherine Sasanov, reading from her latest work about La Santa Muerte (St. Death) in Mexico City. Sasanov is the author of the poetry collections Traditions of Bread and Violence (Four Way Books) and All the Blood Tethers (Northeastern University Press). She is the librettist for the theater piece Las Horas de Belén: A Book of Hours commissioned by Mabou Mines. Over the past few years, Sasanov has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the NEA, and Mexico's National Fund for Culture and the Arts, all of which have helped her track down the relatives of a long dead Italian saint, bring to light the histories of women locked away in the religious sanctuary-t...

So Katell is on spring break and stopped by the office today. It was good to see her, but she berated me (okay, in a nice way) about not updating. So, what's been new with me? (like you care) Got an upgrade and raise at work. Now I can work long hours without over-time pay! Oh Boy! The Doc is coming to visit in April. With luck, I'll get most of that week off from work too. The Om Coll's Kabaretts at the Zeitgeist are going well. The third one of this year will be April 9 and should be a fabulous show. I'll post the press release and poster when it's finished. My Om Coll persona now has her own web presence too. It kind sucks right now, but I've not been working to hard on it lately. And I've been doing most of it in a text editor.

Okay, so I haven't writen a damned thing in over a month. But I swear it's just because I've been too busy reading other people's blogs (and working and school and listening to BBC 7 ). My life has changed since Salon started their blog roundup The Daou Report and I'm wasting my life reading the right wing diatribes. Actually, it's quite fun and they all have the same way of writing too: short, punchy sentences, "folksy" false self-deprication.

My friend who often sends me chain letter type things (although not nearly as much as my dad!) sent me this link to The Animal Rescue Site . Basically click the button in there and food gets donated. No effort on your part other than a click from my site and a click on theirs. And you get a warm, fuzzy feeling afterward.