My apartment is super OCD clean!

Now I'm off to procure provisions for dinner, ie booze. Booze and vegetables.

We have a christmas tree!

I decorated the tree with origami lotus blossoms, cranes, cicadas, and paper snowflakes.

I used my toys as ornaments, too. The tree is infested with a swarm of toy cephalopods, skeletons, rodents, insects, dinosaurs (screeching pterodactyls that light up!), my Ebu named Syphax, and a cthulu monster.

At the heart of my decorating scheme is my refusal to buy ornaments. I did purchase one important item, though- sparkling blue lights!

I would post a picture, but it's the kind of tree only I could love. :D
Also, I'm too lazy to take a picture.

Everyone knows that in order to figure out what your porn/stripper name would be, you must combine your childhood pet's name with the name of the street you grew up on. Mine could be Kelly Fairchild. My brother might be Beau Armistead.

What I need to figure out is: what is the formula for figuring out your hippie name? It is important for me to figure this out, because now that I live in Boulder I must learn to assimilate to the local culture.

One suggestion has been to combine your current pet's name with the weather conditions at the time and place of your birth. Using this formula, mine could be Chairman-Meow Rainy, or maybe Purr-Pot Stormy (I was born in Seattle). Since I am not pleased with either of these results, I am seeking more suggestions.

Please help me find my hippie name. Otherwise I may never be allowed to dread my hair and ride my bike to purchase groceries at the local organic grocery store, and then I would starve. STARVE.

PS:
*Rejected- A favorite flower combined with mother's astrological sign- would have resulted in Gardenia Cancer, a name that is very special in it's own way. We determined that if you are going to use an astrological sign, Aquarius, Pisces, and Gemini are acceptable, but not Cancer.

*Using a favorite flower with favorite west European city I would choose Orchid Barcelona.

*Ha! Hippie name generator!

My God-damned hippie name is Coral Starlight.
Take The Damned Hippie Name Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

I got to test my Russian on a guy at work yesterday! He understood what I said, but my accent needs work. I am pleased and encouraged, because I haven't spoken Russian with a human...ever.

He says that there is a large Russian community in Denver. I did not expect that.

I miss living in an area where reading the local newspaper and reading a first rate newspaper are not mutually exclusive.

PS: If I could name my own newspaper I would call it The Elucidator, because it sounds like the name of a ray gun. "Blast away ignorance with The Elucidator!"

Thanksgiving is coming up! Yay!

That means that Black Friday is coming up too. I will spend Black Friday not shopping.

I still get a sick feeling thinking of that poor man trampled to death at Wal-Mart last year. I am so thankful not to be working in retail.

I once worked with a lady (Theoni!) who said that if she ever gets out of working in retail, she might spend the day bringing food and/or coffee to retail employees under siege. I think this is a great idea.

Of course, given the recession retail employees may not be as besieged as usual.

I can't wait to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox!

I've had this song in my head for days. I finally looked for it on YouTube.


I also found a Youtube of my favorite love story.

*tear!* So romantic!

I have been reading The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.



Maybe it's too obvious to compare it to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but it does have that same spirit of magical realism that characterizes his work. I'll think about this more when I'm done reading the book.

I'm enjoying it so far.

Mongolian Death Worm!


from environmentalgraffiti.com.

The Nabokov Code A First Encounter With Laura, His Last, Unfinished Work.
By Ron Rosenbaum

Nabokov Online Journal This is the page where you can find a link to an interview with Dmitri Nabokov.
In it, the fact that the Vladimer Nabokov Collection for scholars opened up this past summer in the Library of Congress. Just when I move away. Damn my impeccable timing.

Leave Giant Squid Alone

The Holy Grail of the Unconscious
Carl Jung's fully illustrated journal.

I was reading the wikipedia page about Dante Gabriel Rossetti when I came across this:
During this time, Rossetti acquired an obsession for exotic animals, and in particular wombats. He would frequently ask friends to meet him at the "Wombat's Lair" at the London Zoo in Regent's Park, and would spend hours there himself. Finally, in September 1869, he was to acquire the first of two pet wombats. This short-lived wombat, named "Top", was often brought to the dinner table and allowed to sleep in the large centrepiece of the dinner table during meals. This fascination with exotic animals continued throughout Rossettis' life, finally culminating in the purchase of a llama and a Toucan which Rossetti would dress in a cowboy hat and persuade it to ride the llama round the dining table for his amusement.

What the hell?!

I googled it to see if this is someone fucking around on wikipedia and I found this link from the British Museum:

The wombats had a special place in Rossetti's heart. In a letter to his brother he described the arrival of the first one as ‘a Joy, a Triumph, a Delight, a Madness'. This drawing commemorates the short-lived second wombat.



It is inscribed with a verse:

'I never reared a young wombat
To glad me with his pin-hole eye,
But when he was most sweet and fat
And tail-less he was sure to die'