You, me, Michael Phelps and Apollo Ohno

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:49:51 GMT

I had a dream last night about dating/making out with Nathan Explosion. He was actually a really good kisser, and very sweet (but Murderface was getting really pissed off that he was spending so much time with me).
And then I dreamed that Cera needed me to dress up for Halloween as Wonder Woman, but I had sold my costume, so I had to make a new one out of duct tape.

On role reversal

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:52:10 GMT

In some ways, Will is such a manly man, and I am, to quote Mike, "SUCH a girl," and our relationship tends to reflect that (i.e. I cook, I do the shopping, I do the dishes, Will fixes things, etc). In other ways, though, the stereotypical roles are completely flipped. Like the other day, when this conversation occurred:

Will: "I want a baby."
Brie: *drops plate*

Also, a short poem!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:16:25 GMT

I am raining, raining,
I am raining
I am the sky.
I am the sky in her mourning, grey and brooding
she is stronger than any man
and still she weeps.

she is queen of the sailors, of the farmers, of the shepherds
she is queen of the harvest
the queen of the fates
she wears silver and blue and gold
she wears a deeper black than man can know
she is vaster than he can imagine
and she has never apologized.
I am the sky.

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:15:06 GMT

I do so love the library. Borrowed a couple of feminist-type books, and Soylent Green. Le awesome. Other than that, I really haven't done much. Explored the neighborhood behind my new apartment complex a couple of days ago. Walked downtown with Will and kinda-sorta-not-really explored an abandoned building by the river. Also, I've got a temp job that pays $50 - $100 a week, which is, well, just enough to buy groceries (I can subsist on $25 a week for food. Will, on the other hand, requires rather a bit more). But it's easy enough work, and it's only two days a week, so it gives me time to look for a real job. I drive cars from car lots to an auction house, and sometimes I don't even have to do that, because if there's not enough cars for everyone, the extra people just wait in the van to be driven back. I also sold some of my plasma, but I'm not too keen on doing that again, because I nearly passed out and had to be given saline IV push.
So anyway, life's been alright, though I'm pretty broke most of the time. But meh. I should at least be getting my deposit check from my old apartment, plus my paycheck for this week; plus Will's working a shitton next week, so he'll be getting a pretty hefty check (and he's an independent contractor, so he won't be having taxes taken out, hey). I'm also in Houston right now, so yes.

Anyway, just wanted to update you guys on my mind-numbingly domestic, reasonably calm life.

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:14:53 GMT

Got an inexplicable 1800-dollar check in the mail today. I am very confused and slightly concerned. No idea why Bentley College (or Qi Guo) would send me such a thing.... Hm.

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:54:19 GMT

So. This made me giggle with mad glee:

Not work safe... at all. FYI.

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:24:02 GMT

Meh.

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:30:57 GMT

I really, really need to stop staying up all night and sleeping all day. Bleh. I feel like hell when I do it.

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:40:40 GMT

Just checking in to remind everyone I'm not dead. Also, I'm engaged! Also, I'm no longer friendslocking my journal, because there is no longer anyone I really care enough about to exclude.

And, I went to visit Randy the other day. More confident than ever that I'm not missing out on anything by being with Will.

more third ward-ness

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:47:16 GMT

The other day, I had the realization that the district I live in will likely go Democratic, and has since at least the 60s or 70s. It was very odd, but slightly comforting to think about (I have no worries of my car getting keyed for my Obama sticker, for example).

Sign number #371 that I live in the third ward

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:09:10 GMT

My neighbors are in a screaming, swearing argument about "the white man".

Wow.

Just wow.

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:22:06 GMT

Among the titles of messages in my spambox:

"Dalai Lama denies receiving fellatio from Britney Spears"
"MSNBC Breaking News: Bush down to 8 friends on Myspace" (this one sounds like a real headline. From The Onion)
"Paris Hilton gives birth to twins-- aliens" (I could've sworn this one was a real headline, too. If the Weekly World News hadn't gone out of print.)
"Britney Spears stripped of her citizenship"

Yeah, buddy.

my new celebrity crush....

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:28:32 GMT

Hi, I'm Brie, and I'm a total nerd. My story started out innocently enough, I dated a guy who I knew took calculus, but I thought I could stay sober. But it wasn't long before he talked me into taking it too, and pretty soon, we were both sitting on the couch in his parents' basement, doing homework together all night. Well, he got clean, and I did too, but it wasn't long before I was back in it again when I made friends with a violinist, who introduced me to a composition major. So it ended up being the three of us on the floor of a cheap apartment, because we couldn't afford a couch, watching opera on PBS at two in the morning. Well, I knew I needed help when, the other night, the two of them went to bed, and I stayed up to just get a little more, you know, because I was into the music and I had a thing going. After the intermission, there was an extended musical interlude, and the camera was mostly focusing on the orchestra, and I was grooving, and then, I had a moment of clarity. I realized I was a nerd when I discovered a new celebrity crush....

Vladimir Jurowski, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic.

Another thing that pissed me off today.

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:31:26 GMT

Today, at work, one of the managers, P, was talking to the woman at the charge desk, R, about her schedule.
P: I hear you're taking tomorrow afternoon off?
R: Yeah, but I'm coming in in the morning. I have to pick my girlfriend up from the airport.
Brie (thinking): Did I hear that right? I *totally* wouldn't've pegged her as queer.
P: Ooooo....kay. I did *not* need to know that.
Brie (still thinking): ...Yeah, I heard her right. Stupid P. At least sexual orientation is covered in our nondiscrimination policy.
R: What?

lucid dreams....

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:09:11 GMT

I've been having a lot of lucid dreams lately. It's odd. I had one where I was driving Ryan home and he goes, "dude, this is a dream. Why aren't you flying the car?" but I had such a hard time concentrating on flying it, because I didn't want to concentrate so hard I woke up. And then I had a dream tonight that I realized in the middle was a dream and I could do whatever I wanted, so I stole my pastor's motorcycle (which I have no clue if he actually has in real life, but meh), but I wasn't sure if it was really a dream, and I couldn't hotwire it and I didn't have the key, so I left it about 20 feet away from where I took it.

This will make little sense if you haven't read the book I'm speaking of

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:59:27 GMT

I have just finished reading the most frustrating book ever: Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card. Reasons why it's frustrating:

1) Midway through the series, Petra gets baby rabies. Why??? It never explains her thought processes. Relatedly, why does Bean go along with it? The whole process goes something like this:
Petra: "I'm a strong, opinionated, highly ambitious eighteen-year old woman. I will beat the crap out of you if I have to. I command armies and I will not let you get close to me emotionally. BUT OMG I WANT TO GET MARRIEDZ AND HAVE A GADZILLION BEBBEHS!"
Bean: "I'm not getting married. Or having babies. They would be freakshows like me." Petra: "Yes you are! I want you to!"
Bean: "No, I'm not!"
Petra: "Yes, you are!"
Bean: "Oh, alright."

2: Babies. Babies babies babies. Babies babies. "I am a Hindu goddess and you WILL put your baby inside of me, you Muslim dog, or you WILL pay." Not only does every female character revolve to some extent or another around having babies, but it just seems so forced! Okay, I understand Virlomi's stance on the subject, seeing herself as the symbolic "mother of India", in addition to wanting to have the Caliph's baby to solidify the union of their kingdoms, but Petra? She has no reason to want to have ten freaking kids all of a sudden.

3: And what's with that Randi woman? So she has a kid which turns out to be from one of Bean and Petra's stolen embryos, thinking it to be Achilles', and then goes off to a colony and we never hear from her again, without the satisfaction of her realizing who the father actially is! I seriously thought maybe some pages had been torn out of the end of the book! It doesn't go into who is venerating Achilles like that where she would get all that misinformation, much less why they would, and it doesn't close up that subplot even enough to say there's another sequel coming out.

4: Speaking of the stolen embryos, IVF typically only works about 1 in 5 times. There's no way they would only have implanted just ONE in Petra, probably at least three.

5: I'm not sure whether I was amused at the stereotypical ways the non-European characters (or at least, Han Tsu and Alai; I noticed that Suriyawong lacked this characteristic) spoke to members of their governments, or whether I found it offensive. I'd cite examples, but I need so sleep sometime soon.

6: Speaking of race, why did Card never mention in Ender's Game that Mazer Rackham was Maori? Or that Alai was black? The former is not terribly important to the plot, it simply seems odd to mention it all of a sudden, but the latter is very much a deus ex machina to give the rest of the Muslim world a reason to demonize him.

7: I can forgive Card for being a little bit reactionary about the culture and motivations of Islam, after all, Shadow Puppets was published in 2002 and Card is American; it was hard even for an intelligent person to not swallow a little of the popular propaganda, but the fact that I read it and thought, "this was written right after September 11, wasn't it?" makes me wonder if he shouldn't've waited another year or so before writing it so that it isn't obviously so oblivious to the many periods of Islamic history where Islam was, by a wide majority, not the intolerant, oppressive religion it is in many nations now. And of course, since he created this reality in Shadow Puppets, he had to continue it in Shadow of the Giant.

8: All of the characters randomly changed after Shadow of the Hegemon for NO APPARENT REASON!! Petra and Bean got baby rabies and religion, which is all fine and good, but it doesn't say WHY. So Carlotta died, and all of a sudden, Bean the intelligent atheist becomes a "life begins at conception" Catholic? And Petra doesn't even have the motivation of the death of a loved one! She got locked up by Achilles and suddenly, her entire identity revolves around becoming a mommy? And why did Suriyawong help Peter rescue Achilles? The boy is not above disobeying an order, especially since it didn't come from Thailand! And Achilles, for that matter, calms down quite a bit. He's supposed to be psycho! I understand he had other projects to work on, but that shouldn't've contained his desire to kill- it didn't before. There should've at least been something about dead Brazilian hookers or something. The only one whose changes as a character make believable, logical sense is Virlomi!

an observation

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:10:37 GMT

I believe that sex is like eating watermelon: if, when you are finished, you and everything around you aren't covered in something sticky, you haven't done it right.

^___^

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:14:25 GMT

Hardanger fiddle music makes me happy.

TV news

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:16:36 GMT

I just saw a news story on TV about a man who, after an encounter with a bobcat in his backyard, strangled said bobcat to death. Said RABID bobcat. Remind me not to meet that motherfucker in a dark alley.

Reverend Brie

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:11:38 GMT

I am now officially a minister of the Universal Life Church. I have been absolved of my sins (which, although I'm not too sure about the existence of "sin", per se, made me feel a little better nonetheless) and am legally allowed to perform any duties and/or rites you need a minister to carry out.

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:24:11 GMT

I have decided that at some point in my life, I want to perform in the opera Serse, by Handel (preferably as the title character. Yay, drag!). It's such a beautiful work, and if you've never heard it, I suggest you google it right now and see if you can't listen to a recording.

books

Mon, 28 May 2007 06:30:03 GMT

I am taking suggestions for what I should read over the summer (besides War and Peace, which I am, in fact, reading). I wish at some point to write a spy novel, so I therefore need to read spy novels. What are you guys' favorite spy novels?

omg, Ferrarigasm

Tue, 15 May 2007 09:20:50 GMT

After spending the last hour or so on eBay Motors (deciding what I'm going to buy first when I am filthy stinking rich), I have decided that my favorite car makes (at least for the lines) are, in this order: Ferrari, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Corvette and Lotus. Just in case anyone wanted to know.

Tue, 15 May 2007 07:07:18 GMT

For some reason, I'm feeling eminently girly. I want frilly dresses and pink satin ballet slippers and lace opera gloves. Anyone who can supply me with any of those will be rewarded handsomely.

Mon, 14 May 2007 21:45:16 GMT

Today, about three minutes ago, I looked at the clock and thought, "yeah, I need to have the piano tuned."

Woof.