is that my espresso machine?

watched the life aquatic tonight with steve zissou for the second time. i may need to buy this movie. if you haven't seen it, rent it, because it is amazing. i'm also expecting the soundtrack to arrive from amazon by thursday or friday. the soundtrack is as good as the movie.

i got an email from neodandi today asking me to be in their next show, which is tentatively scheduled for july 15. and so i have a fitting on thursday at 1pm. :D this show is going to be smaller and "more refined"... so we'll see what else they have in store for me. oh, and my family's going to be in town around the 15th, so hopefully they can come see. i'm happy.

noooooooooooooo!

yeah, so we went to go see star wars episode iii yesterday... omg that sucked. up until anakin joined the dark side and started going ape shit. then it was okay, except for the whininess and the bad, bad lines.

after star wars, we went to zao for dinner where tessa and i shared some sake, and then we watched the life aquatic with steve zissou. great movie. i'm going to have to buy the soundtrack. this is annoying because it is not on itunes so i'll have to order the cd and wait. :/

photos by gabriel choy

from the p-i

Seattle designer revs up with fast-foward, curve-hugging garments

check it out!!! no pics of me, but it's great coverage. :D

neodandi!

so the big show was last night, and it was absolutely awesome. pandemonium backstage, excellence onstage. i wasn't supposed to be in the finale, and i didn't rehearse that part at all, but then at the last minute, the designer handed me an outfit and told me to put it on. fuck yeah. so that was cool.

what wasn't cool was the fact that my camera batteries died after just one shot backstage. fortunately lots of other people got pictures, so i should be getting some of those soon, once they are uploaded. i also got a bunch of professional shots taken once i got done with hair and makeup, and also during the show, and backstage, so with any luck i can get some copies of those as well. i'm hoping to get a few 8x11 glossies out of those shots too, so i can start building a portfolio. might have to pay for those, but hey, if they're good pics i'll pay.

so i'll post more on the show once i get some pictures.

my computer needs a cupholder. i mean really, where am i supposed to put my glass of wine while i'm typing a blog entry? it's too bad my cd drive is a slot instead of a tray... lol.

had a rehearsal tonight for the neodandi show... it's really coming together. we rehearsed tonight for the first time at trinity, where the show is... it is a fucking tight club. awesome furniture. i'm really getting stoked for the show. it'll also be kind of nice to be done with rehearsals for awhile. maybe i can start going to yoga again once a week or something. though i'll really be sad for it to be over, because then i won't really have a project.

though i did have an interview on friday with a guy whose friend is starting up this t-shirt company. no guarantees, but it's a lead. plus, i'd get some portfolio shots out of the deal.

i just got an email from the university of washington about an info session for the fulbright fellowship. because international relations is my bag, baby. though it did make me feel like a student again, to be getting spam about scholarships.

i am really getting antsy to go back to school. i'm about a fifth (F! I! F! FIF!) of the way through my fun little pretend biology textbook* and have just learned about the krebs (citric acid) cycle and glycolysis. it rings a bell, but seriously, i just don't absorb complex chemical reaction pathways without cute flash animations. i need to find some of those.

*the fun little pretend biology textbook is not really pretend, it's just little. and fun. i ordered it off of amazon because it was written by the prof that i'll theoretically have for bio 180, and it was only 15 bucks, but when it got here i discovered that it was an abridged edition for the university of texas. i got a good laugh out of that, they need abridged textbooks down there in austin, 'cause them t-sips can't read so good. heh. but, abridged or no, it's a good review since it's been 4? years since AP bio and 5 years since AP chem. I FEEL OLD NOW. (Doesn't help that the National Merit Scholarship Program sent me a little form letter saying that they thought I might be graduating this quarter so would I mind filling out a few questions? NO. I'M NOT GRADUATING. THIS IS BECAUSE I AM A DUMBASS WHO CAN'T HACK IT AT STANFORD. Anything else?)

Sigh. I just want to be learning again. The girl at Starbucks asked me the other day if I was taking Biology. I just said yes. I figured the truth was too complicated.

good lazy sunday music: the verve remixed series from itunes. i just downloaded volume 3 and am highly impressed. it's great classic jazz vocalists, remixed by the most talented turntablists around. it's great.

t minus 4 days and counting until the neodandi show. i'm getting progressively more and more stoked. also i am looking forward to it being over so i have my evenings back. but the show is thursday... please come!! you know you wanna. plus, there's an after-hours party at a studio in pioneer square. it's gonna be awesome. friday is SO going to be a sick day.

meh. i learned myself about chemical evolution this past week. i'm reading a bio textbook for the hell of it. now i'm learning about cell structure and the function of various parts of the cell. mostly a review so it's not hard, but there's a lot that i've forgotten that i'd like to remember before jumping headfirst into the bio core.

other cool things from this weekend: pies and pints on 65th. ran around green lake (2.8 miles). go me. we're talking about training for a 5k later this summer. also, cooked dinner with jared tonight. god knows we're terrible about actually doing that. we're trying to get better.

three cheers for this girl

alabama is so backwards. a catholic high school banned a girl from walking at graduation, because she was pregnant. so she walked up to the stage, announced her own name, and walked across. then the cops escorted her mother and aunt out of the church.

oh, and the father of her baby? sure, he was allowed to graduate, no problem.

an open letter to miss tyra banks

Dear Tyra,
Two years ago, you brought forth to our television wasteland the best reality TV show ever created. With a limited casting budget (and indeed a limited production budget) you managed to find a cast of gorgeous, thoughtful, witty, independent women, who only grew more interesting (for better or worse) as the show went on. Every one of them had personality, with the possible exception of Gisele, and we enjoyed watching them argue, pray, suffer, freeze, strut and pose.
With each successive season, the casting budget and audience has grown. Now you have national casting calls, television advertisements, and a much bigger group of girls sending in video tapes and photos. The thing that astounds me is the fact that, with this ever-widening pool to choose from, the cast each season gets markedly worse. Granted, you found a Cover Girl in Eva. She is a dynamic personality that we love to see on TV. We rooted for her from day 1, and she hasn't disappointed. But this season, there was no one with such a dynamic personality - we had boredom, shyness, and arrogance, but not charisma. And there was no mystery about who would win - following the opinion polls from week to week, Naima was a clear front-runner, no matter how much the judges seemed to hate her personality. And so, while watching the finale, when I found myself wondering, "What if Naima DOESN'T win?" I knew that this show had hit rock bottom. Reality TV is not supposed to be predictable and safe. Naima has the personality of a rock. Sure, she's got a mohawk, and I respect that, but honestly, I thought the entire cast of this season sucked ass. Oh, and when you stuck them in front of a teleprompter? That's when I knew this season sucked ass. Not one of them could read! Not one!
So, seriously, Tyra, you need to re-examine your entire casting process. Fire the casting director. Go with the method you used to cast Season 1. Somehow, even though there were only a few thousand applicants, you managed to find a stellar group of people. How is it that with a larger pool to select from, the quality of applicants has gone down the toilet?
Anyway, that's my rant. Tyra, you're disappointing me. Oh, and if you want me for the 6th season, you know where to contact me.
Kat

shameless self-promotion

well folks, it's getting to be that time... the neodandi fashion show performance is next thursday, may 26. i have tickets, so contact me if you want to come. (if you're reading this and you're in seattle, i want to see you there! please?) The tickets are $15 - and if that seems expensive keep in mind that this is at trinity, which is a bit on the posh side, and cover is usually $10 or so. you know you want to come. i have 20 tickets on hand, but i can get more if more people want to come.

i also heard from the designer today that vogue magazine is sending someone out. there are also going to be scads of local newspapers and magazines. it is going to be huge... you know you wanna be there.

ravenna park

more?

evening at the market

there is something magical about the seattle waterfront at dusk. the sound just looks completely surreal when there is so much moisture in the air. i want a condo in belltown with a sound view now.


how can you not want to be here?


kitteh!!!

want more?? check out this set on flickr.

a radical plan

so the pentagon is getting ready to close a bunch of bases. in the name of saving money. by doing this, they estimate they will save 5 billion dollars this year. well, here is my radical plan for saving more than 5 billion dollars this year - in fact, we could save up to 80 billion dollars right off the bat. it's a simple plan, not too difficult to carry out, and it'd make a huge difference in our government's budget. the radical plan?

three words. out. of. iraq. now. (okay. four words.)

sigh. i hate donald rumsfeld.

i've been exploring a lot of productivity helpers recently, to find a method that helps me to get stuff done. i'm not completely sold on getting things done, but it's a start... i'm also exploring backpack, which seems like a neat idea. it syncs with iCal format stuff, too, so i'm thinking about starting to use ical more, especially since you can isync ical with the ipod. i haven't tried the hipster pda really, but it's an idea that i'm toying around with as well. i bought a purse-sized notebook, and it's really handy, but the fact that all the pages are bound together doesn't help with organization.

i guess my main goal for this organizational kick, at work, is to get this job organized and simplified so that when i leave, whoever takes over for me has somewhere to start. god knows they just threw me into the middle of it, and i've had to make sense of it, but i think i'm doing that pretty well, given the circumstances. it's mostly because training the floater has made me realize just what a pain in the ass it is to train someone on a job, and that you'd better be at least a little organized.

and now, for your viewing pleasure: the slacker manifesto. why slackers make the best employees. :D

on another note, izze is the best drink evar.

so long, and thanks for all the fish

friday night we went to the neptune to see the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. this movie has been so fucking long in the making it's ridiculous. i remember in 9th grade, a bunch of us including jeff hillary made a promise to all see the movie together, wherever we were and whenever it was. sorry jeff... i didn't make it back. i'm sure you understand. and you still have my fucking stephen hawking book, you bastard, so we're even, really. anyway, as i predicted to tessa as we were walking out of the theater, i have the dolphin's chorus stuck in my head. "so long, so long, so long, so long, so long, so long and thaaaaaaaanks - for all the fish." it was a cute number, and a cute movie as well. there really is too much material in those books to pack into one movie, so that considered, i think they did a good job fitting in all the best jokes and making them make as much sense as possible (very little, really, but that's as douglas adams intended i am sure) in under two hours.

oof.

on second thought, maybe the green isn't so hot. i'll fix that later.

kitty on the potty

and now, frida's bathroom portrait. she's not the most photogenic kitty in the world, so it's tough to get a good shot of her... this is as good as any I've gotten of her.


anyway, it's my bedtime. i'm sick, and i hate being sick because it sucks. and my throat hurts and my head is stuffy and i want to die. :(

tiger!!

another good weekend. friday night we hung out with tessa, and went to the apple store for the tiger release party. it was crowded. and it turns out you can't get the student discount on software in the store, so we didn't buy it there. i ordered it online last week, anyway, and it should be here by friday. Hooray for tiger! i'm such a mac cultie now, it's scary.


This is the crowd in front of the apple store, circa 7pm. Crazy.

anyway, after we left the insanely crowded apple store, we met up with brian and went to chutney's for dinner. chutney's is in wallingford, in the wallingford center shopping center on the corner of 45th and Wallingford.* it is quite possibly almost definitely the best indian food i have ever tasted. plus they have a killer mango margarita. mmm coconut and farmer's cheese curry. :) and it was rad hanging out with tessa - whenever brian and jared started talking about code or servers or networking tessa and i would start talking about shoes. i've needed another female for quite some time.

yesterday was fun as well - we hopped the bus downtown, so jared could buy new shoes at the new balance store. they look like pretty cool shoes, and they're like, real running shoes, too, so they support your foot for walking really well. i'm thinking about going back there next month after i get paid again and buying myself a pair (they make them for women too, and they come in all sorts of awesome colors). i have a rack full of stupid shoes, i need to get me a pair of smart shoes.

Speaking of stupid shoes, I bought a pair of purple ribboned espadrilles at shoes.com. They should be here soon - they shipped on Friday. I'm stoked, they are so cute.

in other news, getting into the class i want this summer is going to be a little iffy. i have to wait for them to mail me my registration info, and then I have to wait until "registration period 3" which i am not sure what that means, because during registration periods one and two, non matriculated students (which would include me, since I havenn't been accepted yet) are not allowed to sign up for the class. i'm really starting to stress about my admissions - when I applied I indicated that i wanted a much more selective major, and often they are less inclined to admit students that might not get into their major. but if i don't get in, i guess i'll just turn around and apply for winter quarter admissions. i'll be like rudy - they have to admit me at some point, right?

we also stopped at american apparel again yesterday. i need to stop going there, because i could really buy the whole goddamn store. (well, except for the shirts in yellow and orange. i can't wear those colors.) I bought a purple and a pink tee, and a blue jersey scarf, and a sustainable edition boybeater. the sustainable edition one is made from 100% certified organically grown cotton. i think that's rad.

i think it's time for us to procure breakfast. jared's been up since 8:30 and still hasn't eaten anything.

* i just used the word "wallingford" three times in a sentence. i miss living there, and every time i go back it's like i'm back home. maybe someday i'll get to move back there - the houses in that neighborhood are nice, and if i ever could afford one that would be sweet.