cyrano | Recent Entries

Corner of Milford and Livingston, Milford--Filling Station
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3ADJ_Asa_R_Smiths_Mobil_Station_Highland_MI
248-698-2737

South Gera Road, Frankenmuth between Baker and Roedel--Filling Station
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3AD8_Standard_Service_Station_Frankenmuth_MI

Needed:
Outdoor spots lacking modern features.
Places that look '20s-'40s, art deco. Should not be too hard in Detroit.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1237228.html

+Only a couple of miles on the bike this morning. Disappointing. But next time will be better.
+I've lost a lot of cornering skill--my turns have to be much gentler, much wider to avoid pitching me over sidewise.
+Which would be bad especially because the bike seat is too high, and I can't get it to lower. It may be rusted in place, which would be unfortunate.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1236939.html

Cyrano CJ Coyote Jones.

At your service.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1236735.html

I'm at the big boss fight at the end of Origins. This time, I may just quit here. I just spent two hours in a fun-filled TPK joyfest. Suddenly all of my characters have become clingy and shy--they cluster around the archer and won't attack if a strange monster approaches. Which means I've killed approximately ten of them while trying to fire a ballista at the archdemon. It's not fun, and I'm not getting paid for it.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1236466.html

And I am apparently all about maintaining the balance. I feel like crap--headachey, nauseous, vertiginous, and generally run-over. I can't say I'm actually *sick* but I'm not really functioning. I am running through several predictable self-talk background tapes. I start out saying that I need to take care of myself, take it easy, get rest, and not worry about outside commitments so much, and that goes well for a while. Then I switch to saying that the world doesn't care how I feel, I still have no income and obligations to meet which will have no sympathy for my delicate constitution and that guitar isn't going to restring itself. And then I have a panic attack and think that when I can see a doctor again I should consider getting back on Alprazolam. But hey, a panic attack counts as *something identifiably wrong* so I can then go back to taking care of myself.
The Show That Never Ends.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1235545.html

And regardless of how long you stare at them, how you rearrange them--shifting words around, replacing one with another--they refuse to say what you're thinking.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1235246.html

This one's been on my to-watch list for years, and I'm glad I got to it. It's very... visceral. Raw, in an emotional way. Love and Death are catalysts for the most volatile of emotions, and they don't shy away from them. I don't think some of the more fantastic elements played as well as they could, but by that time we were far enough into the picture that I could forgive it. Unvarnished truth and metaphor got mixed together and I'm not certain whether the play was subtler than I could hold on to or whether the symbolism got out of their hands toward the end. Love and Death, as I mentioned earlier, Revenge, Family (both genetic and chosen), Lies we tell ourselves and others.
Four wags and Daniel Radcliffe.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1235027.html

More people referencing Star Trek and I want to be in on the fun. But not so much that I want to sort through years and years of programming. So I come to you, Trekmasters of the Universe, to sit at your knee and be enlightened.

What episodes would you say are 'must see' for somebody who's browsing? If you say 'all of them' I will shoot you in the knee. Hand to G*d.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1234877.html

I went back to yoga after my back started behaving itself, and that made my GERD act up unpleasantly. I stopped going to yoga because I didn't want to throw up in class--very embarrassing--hoping that stepping back on squishing my stomach would help. And it didn't. I started Soylent courses, thinking that something so inoffencive would have to help. And I thought it was helping on that first day, but it wasn't. It's not the end of the world, I know, but it does tend to cast my life in a heartburn-colored lens filter that influences other things. I've cut back some on acids in my diet, but when I'm already cutting out fats, it's difficult to then to take out spices, lemonade, soda, and the rest of the list of things I use to make eating less of a chore. There's a point where I say "I'd rather have the upset stomach."

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1234328.html

That moment when you realize that talking about filing for disability is starting to give you a panic attack.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1234026.html

I am now this much closer to finishing the myriad steps of the name change process. I am currently at the 'give us more money' stage. Which was also the step before this, and three steps ago.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1233645.html

But I can find no evidence of it in my mail box.

Back when I was living in the guest room, I did a flensing of my stuff and decided I wasn't going to cart around a bunch of comic books anymore. Some people said they wanted some--I think Dan wanted Hellboy stuff, and Logan wanted Milk&Cheese and Freak Brothers, and my brother said as many as I could cram into a box.

When I have income again, I will get this back on my to-do list, but I could use a reminder.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1233163.html

I took a fall on the stairs this afternoon. Nothing serious, no blood spilt and no long term physical damage done. Just a swollen head and a general achiness around the joint from the sudden jolt. But I seem to have jumbled myself mentally as well. A bit of detachment, and an inability to maintain a thread of thought. I've sat down three times now to write this and kept getting distracted. I expect there was a point when I started this, but I've forgotten it. If I wake up tomorrow and I'm the Emperor of San Francisco then you'll know why.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1233114.html

There's a great deal of activity in this film, but none of it seems to have a genesis or a terminus. The central character keeps switching wigs and outfits at each new scene. Everybody has an accent, and I think nobody is using the one they're born with. I'm betting she ends up with the diamonds in the end but I haven't the strength to finish it.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1232869.html

People make jokes about how European films move slowly and don't so much end as stop. This is part of the reason why. Considering that two people die over the course of the movie, that's kind of surprising. A man who is an awful person does something awful after another man has done something awful. He covers up his awful thing, except that somebody else knows he did something awful but Thin Blue Line says she keeps it buried. All the while, he's getting more and more ragged from lack of sleep because the sun is up all the time, which only adds to the air of ennui and disconnection. And then the awful man drives back to Sweden. Fin.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1232443.html

I asked Plex to find me some episodes of the television show The Mod Squad. Because it's Aaron Spelling's first big hit, and one of the first television shows with a black man and a woman in starring roles. So shut up. Anyway, the movie was a lot better than it had any right to be, just because the characters were intriguing. Giovanni Ribisi is the angry guy who's angry at everything and a giant fuck up, and he has this moment in a club where he *dances* angry. So three wags, despite an annoying inability to decide in which decade the film takes place.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1231820.html

For the first half hour or so, I was a little worried that this was going to be a comedy lacking in comedy. It wasn't ha-ha funny, it was meh funny. But it eventually came around. Also, it's a little embarrassing to be the only one who laughs at a joke. And by the time they got to the easter egg I was sold. The romance was cheesy but charmingly so. And any time one lover calls another on their bullshit in a movie? Gold. It was pretty awesome seeing Gina Carano again after her performance in Haywire. In my head canon Angel and Piotr are totally shipped in that awkward we shouldn't but we do way. Also it looks like Marvel and Fox are getting on a *lot* better than they were. Four wags if they have real butter for the popcorn.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1231382.html

I've read the book, and the book was amusing in a sort of one trick pony fashion. A portmanteau pastiche, essentially. But the film was different--it was a living breathing thing of its own, without relying on Austen and Romero to limp through to the end. I did miss some of the classism, but I liked some of the risks they took. There was a bit with Darcy toward the end that made me say "oh" and shake my fingers a little bit trying to work out the ramifications of it and particularly on what sort of a person it indicated that Darcy was. All in all, a good popcorn flick and four wags.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1231167.html

I'm actually writing, at this moment. Except I'm here posting, which is technically writing but not what I'll be doing as soon as I post this. I have a subterranean race and I made the note "Rules of the Outcast" to remind myself to try and figure out what sorts of customs and rules a society that has been expelled from a larger group would develop.

Unfortunately, it's not something I can just google.

So I'm trying to think stuff up myself. But if you have some ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1230966.html

Recently I went back home to Oregon. I was kind of pre-occupied with my own shit, but not so much that I didn't notice the cute girl. However, as opposed to how it usually works, this time I noticed her because she was blind and having some trouble with her service animal, casting abour the boarding area and trying to locate the queue for her flight.
I made the connection for 'this person could use some help'; I came up and asked permission to assist her. I remembered that you don't grab them, you offer an arm and let them grab you. But then I dropped the ball on the part that came next. What I should have done is gone over to the line and asked permission for cutsies and then offered to help her down the ramp if she wanted it. Instead I walked her most of the way there and my brain froze up. I knew I had to do something so I said "Just keep going forward from here, and there's the gate agent."
I'm pleased that I managed to do something in a situation where something should be done, but I do find myself wishing for a chance to go back and do it 'right'. It's an improvement from beating myself up over it, and I do like improvement.