Note: I have changed the date on this post so it should always appear at the top of my personal page, (well, at least for the next six years or so) in order to provide an obviously proper place to introduce oneself.

I see you, there, hiding in the back. I see you lurking in the shadows. I'm on your friends list and I don't know who you are, you answered a recent poll and I don't recognize your name, or maybe you're invisible, whether silently reading daily, or having just clicked 'random' and landed here.

I'm calling lurker amnesty. Come out, come out, whereever you are. Who are you, how did you find me, what do you see that appeals, what if anything would you like to see different? If you want to go on to give me a nickname, describe me in one word, tell me if you have a crush on me, tell me your first impression and that you are reminded of me when the sky is blue, you can do that too. But do come out into the light. I don't bite. Mostly.

(also not quite right in the head)

In 2005 I took a big trip around Europe. Four years later, I still have yet to finish posting all my stories and photos, because life is like that. (LJ says I haven't even bothered making a post on this tag in two years.) This particular story was one of the biggest WTF moments of the trip for me and I've been looking forward to writing it up for a long time, and cutbacks at work and holiday weekends have finally given me the time. As modern stories do, it begins not with 'once upon a time', but with 'no shit, there I was...'

( cut for your pleasure )

cuddly lizards at the Academy of Sciences


Golden Gate Park gopher

Happy Father's Day to cavalorn, deathboy, ratontheroad, malcygoff, textivore, prgrmr, gruamach, reddragdiva, edwards, canticle and sailorgloom. (Hope I didn't forget anybody...there's more dads than mums on my friends list, I think.) Hope your kids are little angels for you today.

(Some of the below adapted verbatim from the form email they gave me to send out.)

I know more than a few of you are already on Kiva, and I wanna social networkize it, so I made a lending team. If you haven't heard of Kiva (kiva.org), despite my having previously posted on the subject, it's a site that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur across the globe. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

If you join my lending team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva "count" towards our team's impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you - but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team's collective portfolio, so our team's overall impact will grow!


Check out the 'kest's friends' lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: http://www.kiva.org/team/kests_friends&_isc=6a6471ac-5e11-11de-911c-dc6669dc15d3&_te=tr

C'mon. It'll be fun.

Hrm. I wonder what will happen to the various overturning prop 8, changing constitutional wording to 'civil union' instead of marriage, etc. intiatives for the 2010 ballot in California, if propositions for calling a constitutional convention are also on there.

I wanna talk about healthcare. I know the US system is as broke as a broke thing, and that many of you have personal experience with such. I know that some people think universal healthcare is the solution, but others worry about it being the same sort of complete mess that Medicare is. I know that UK/Canadian/etc. systems also have problems. What are the solutions, in your opinion?

New spider on front porch

( photo under cut for the arachnophobes )

turns out to be a red jumping spider, Phidippus_johnsoni

Just as an FYI, these are the folks in charge of the anti-prop. 8 campaign, and the ones who *will* be putting it back on the ballot in 2010: http://www.eqca.org

I can't say as I was totally impressed with their approach the first time around, but they're still where all the action is, and I think it is probably better to unite than divide. They need volunteers and they need donations. We're not gonna give up.

Times are hard right now. That's not news to anyone, but what's really interesting to me is to watch the reaction to it - in the world, in my personal circles, and in myself. Under stress, things crack and break, and when they do they bring other things down with them. Not everything will survive the storm. But universally I see people pulling together to get everyone through this the best we can. And as hard and stressful as things are, that makes me feel better about the world. For myself, in more than one circumstance I have been making choices that make things harder on myself for the sake of getting the whole crew to the next destination, and it makes me feel good about who I am under pressure. I just hope it's over soon.

Living in this body

Some people on my friends list have been posting about sizes and measurements and body image. I make an effort to love my body and take good care of it, although I don't always get as much exercise or eat as many vegetables as I would like. Here's what shape it's in:

Height: 5'1
Weight: 144lb
Hips w/ booty: 42 inches
Waist: 34 inches
Bust: 37 inches (I wear 38C bras)
Inseam: 27 inches

Generally I wear a size 12, although sometimes a 10 fits. One of my looser pairs of pants is strangely labeled 8. Petite is best, but I'm good at rolling cuffs on my jeans. M for shirts is best. I have comparatively bulky thighs, calves, and upper arms, so those are often as much constraining factors as anything else.


Looking at others

arachne linked to Filament Magazine and this article about it and I think it's a neat idea, one of those things you don't realize is missing until the void is filled. I don't know if I'll buy a subscription (overseas prices + exchange rate = expensive) but I am intrigued that it exists.

It's mother's day here in the US. I called my mom and had a nice conversation with her.

Happy Mother's Day as well to lucybond, ashbet, lovmelovmycats, elixxir, eveofdstruction, oddlystrange, shara, and anyone other mothers reading this I might have missed. I think being a mother is super tough and I think you're all doing a great job.

Had, on the whole, fabulous trip. Mostly had time type 'relaxing' rather than time type 'wild and crazy' and only occasionally time type 'annoying', which on the whole was exactly what I was looking for. Took no photos. More complete diary in progress.

Am home. Trip good. Airplanes suck. Distance can bite me. Did not win Euromillions. I go fall over now.

Having nothing better to do, I am sitting here on expensive internet machine at heathrow, overhauling my friends list. As usual, I've tried to only unfriend people I don't think are reading this anyway, but if I've unfriended you and you are sad, let me know.

So I've been having a fantastic time in England. Right up until this morning, when I managed to miss my flight to New York. Yay me. I should just give up on flying - I don't do it well. They put me on another one for an exorbitant fee that is, I think, more than the ticket cost in the first place, but it doesn't get into JFK until 8:30 this evening, which means any way I cut it, I miss my cousin's recital, which was the whole reason for going to NY in the first place. Well, at least I will still see some family members I don't see often, and get a chance to catch up with missjanette. I'm pretty upset, though, I can't even tell you.

we've decided to focus on renting out the front space as artist's studios rather than living space, although tenancy is still an option. So if you know anyone who would be interested in either the downstairs studio (fully enclosed, ventilated - could be used for photography, jewelry, metalwork, audio/video, etc.) or the upstairs space (open loft, lots of natural light), do let me know.

Also I go to England tomorrow. Woohoooo!!!

I love kiva. You put some money in and it just goes around and around, helping people out. (I know some of the rest of you are also on there...if I was to make a 'kest's friends' team sort of thing is that something anyone would be interested in?)

Know anyone looking for a new place to live who wants to live in a funky West Oakland warehouse space with some totally awesome people like, oh, say, me? Or any artists looking for studio space in similar environment? Let me know! Available May 1st! Limited time offer!

(Yes, there is a long complicated story here I don't totally feel like getting into right now, but let's leave it at, this vacancy is sudden but not completely unexpected. Leaving this entry unlocked so feel free to point others here.)

ETA: now with more info! Basically the business that's been sharing our unit is moving out. For those who have been here before, the entire front half is up for grabs. There's an upstairs lofty-like space that makes a good bedroom or possibly an office (it's been used for both), there's an enclosed 'studio' type space downstairs good for whatever...audio, video, welding, painting, I dunno....could possibly be a bedroom but would need some DIY, there's a large 'shop' type area with a rollup door outside the studio...good for storing stuff or working on stuff or could be a common area. Pretty much anything goes here...move walls, destroy walls, build walls, paint, refloor, whatever, so space can be reconfigured if desired. Front has it's own 'utility' type bathroom with deep sink and shower stall, but you're also welcome to use the back bathroom which is nicer and has a bath. Kitchen is in the back, shared with the three roomies back here - it gets kinda crowded with four people using it but it's workable. We haven't tried five but we'd figure something out. Nice porch for sitting on - roomies use it for smoking. Sociable neighbors. Common area in the back has projector for watching really big tv and movies. Rent is a little TBD but would be at *most* $1400 for the entire front space - businesses/artists would pay less than residents. Water, trash, etc. included - pg&e and cable tv/internet split among the household. We have one cat. Any other questions, lemme know.