This evening's nightly leap into the World Wide Rabbit Hole transported me onto the official site for actress/singer E. G. Daily. And just like that, my first serious adolescent celebrity crush came a-rollin' back. 

I'm pretty sure Valley Girl is the movie that got that ball rolling. Here's a nice collection of snippets from the movie - but really, if you haven't seen it, you should check it out. It's smart, funny, raunchy, and about six times better than it probably should have been. E. G., also known as Elizabeth, is the one with the biggest hair - no small feat for a teen cast in '83.

I mean - come ON. That's just not fair. I was doomed. Before I saw her, I was unaware that I had a "type" - I just liked pretty things. (I realize this post is making me dreadfully shallow. Sorry. I was 12.) But suddenly I knew exactly how I liked 'em: short. Curvy. Un-thin. Big eyes. Irrepressible smile. Slight husk in the voice.  Cute, rather than "pretty." In the pantheon of purely superficial methods for judging the physical aspects of our fellow humans, turns out these are a few of my favorite things. And Ms. Daily had 'em all. 

It didn't hurt, of course, that Valley Girl was rated R, and E. G. bared a good deal of her naughty bits on the screen. But so deep was my crush that I nearly turned away at those parts - it just seemed disrespectful to see my future prom date in such a state. (Nearly.) Besides, she was as wholesome as Donny Osmond baked in a vanilla pie in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and she was totally my girlfriend in that movie, too. You remember her in that, right? She was Dottie, who had a serious unrequited crush on our titular hero, and what the actual shit, Pee-wee? How are you not saying "screw it, I'll get another bike," whisking her up in your arms (she's very pickupable, which is another plus), taking her to the park and smooching her on the jungle gym before sneaking into the skating rink without paying because Ms. Daily is all about having fun? How are you not holding hands with her during Ladyhawke as you try to position your knuckles on her mini-skirted leg, because it's just "more comfortable that way?" How are you not asking her to slow-dance to Bob Seger's "We Got Tonight" even though you know you'll be spending the next four minutes desperately trying to hide your erection? 

Since then, E. G.'s had her share of "work" done, which is her prerogative, of course, but still a minor disappointment. But I'm delighted to learn that even though the last movie I saw her in was The Devil's Rejects (2005), she's as active as ever, appearing in a bunch of movies and shows and doing a slew of voice-over work, arguably her bread n' butter. She's even got a nice singing career going; her slightly weather-beaten voice is a fine instrument for the pleasant country-pop she favors. And she still has that way of looking right into the lens as if to say "Matt, I've got all these tiresome boys after me and all these actressy things I gotta do, but what do you say we find some bleachers and see if we can get to second base, which is perfect because I'm honestly not quite sure what you're supposed to do on the following bases."

That's what that look is saying to you guys too, right? Um...right?

- . - . - . - . -

This has been the first installment of Matt's Childhood Crushes. Tune in next time as we discuss Diane Franklin, with a special focus on what happened when Matt discovered an odd but vital film entitled Second Time Lucky. Ta.

Just played our second show at Philly's Primary Stages tonight (it's a two-night event), and maaaan, what a difference a day makes.  Last night I sounded like ass thanks to the incoming plague, but last night before bed I ate 87263786 libbz of vitamins and herbs and rocks and branches and waved a dead chicken over my altar... and after sleeping all day today, it appears I have dodged the bullet of full-blown plague and have acquired only half-a-plague, glory glory hallelujah. 

So yeah, tonight went really well. The playwrights, actors, and directors did a bang up job.  We've been the house band for about 3 years now, it's neat watching certain directors, actors, and playwrights improve over time. We definitely have our favorite playwrights and actors, and we get extra-excited when our favorites pair up because we know it'll be a great piece.  They got a good crowd on both nights, but tonight's crowd was a bit bigger and a lot louder. To save time at intermission we'll sometimes play unplugged, and tonight we did, which was a mistake in that people didn't really hear our intermission stuff over their talking, but it was also fine because we're smart enough to know that the night (especially our short intermission set) isn't about us anyway; it's the playwrights', actors', and directors' night... we're just decoration. :-)  You can save yourself a lot of frustration in life if you can step back and know your place in the world from situation to situation. It's not always about you, and that's OK.  Healthy, even.

With that, it was a pretty full house tonight, and many people were seeing us for the first time. I gotta admit, it feels reaaallly good when an audience sees us and thinks, "Yawn, mid-40s-ish acoustic duo" when we first take the stage, and they're screaming "HOT BREAKFAST!!" by the end of a 25 minute set of mostly originals. Definitely made up for my sickly pipes of last night. My voice still wasn't 100% tonight, but I could compensate for the weak spots for the most part. I felt good about it.

(Interruption: Why are my motion detector lights going on outside every 2 seconds? (Another interruption: My tablet autocorrected "motion detector" to "moron detector" which makes me very happy. That would come in handy.) )

In other news, the other night we couldn't fall asleep because we were giggling like 5th graders at a sleepover because of this thing we "invented" called the "fart tube."  I'll explain it in a future post, because it's slightly more than just a tube for farts, I'll have you know. As you can imagine, it is so ridiculously juvenile and completely idiotic... yet we wanna involve our friends in a video project surrounding the Fart Tube, similar to Kevin Regan's "punch people in the face" photo series. (That is a Kevin Regan thing, right? I never knew.) 

Like I said, I'll explain the fart tube in a future post. You'll just have to wait.

HOW'S THAT FOR A CLIFFHANGER??

(ps: I have never used the full-blown OPW site; I've only ever used the mobile site. Gee, this is really quite lovely! Swell joerb, Sean M Puckett  and Thomas Boutell! So purty! I can tag people! And rich text!  HOLY CRAP!)

I like light. Lots of light. Especially when it's dark outside.

And what do you know, it's October. And winter is coming. The fucker.

So this is the new lighting for my messy workspace. I put 25 of these 6 Watt LED candelabra bulbs in an old C7 Christmas light string, stapled right over my desk. The spectrum on these is pretty good, about par with high end CFLs.

Math says it's 9000 lumens in about a 6x6 foot space. It's a far cry from sunlight. You can see actual sunlight hitting the brown roof of the house next door out the  window, yeah the brown roof that's as bright as the bulbs are. But still about 10x average room illumination. You can kind of tell how bright it really is because my monitors, which are displaying white backgrounds, look pretty dim, except for the MacBook which cranks its backlight way up.

Anyway, my eyes say it's really, really nice.

I am only using it in the mornings so I don't get light-induced sleep disruption. 

Jeez! Life gets busy and I drop out for a while and **!!!Bam!!!** my inbox fills with guilt-inducing "your friends sure have been busy on OnePostWonder" messages - the implication? Where the Hades have you been, eh?

So I'm still  hustling to make my writing/ editing/ marketing business self-sustaining. I've been writing lots of resumes (and am on here procrastinating about a Federal style resume I must tackle next - in.tim.i.da.ting!)

I've concluded, based on conversations with several friends/ colleagues who are fellow freelancers, that my next best move is to create an LLC. But to do so, I need a business name. "J.Ireland Writer" is, well, less than inspirational.

And thus I'm reaching out to y'all, as I toss around potential business names. Suggestions/ comments/ feedback/ other ideas welcome! 

Cornucopia Creative Solutions, LLC; Carousel Creative Solutions, LLC; Renaissance Creative Solutions, LLC; Infinite Creative Solutions, LLC; Lyrica (or Lyrical?) Creative Solutions, LLC.

In a nutshell, I've been writing/editing web copy, resumes, marketing "supplies," press releases, press packets, ghost blogs & educational materials. If we're not going to end up living in my parents' basement, I need to kick it up a level, hence the LLC. Any of the ideas above catch your eye?

Thanks for reading! And now... back to resumes. 

...o grant thy faithful hedgehog's boon...

I just got back to work from a 6 week (paid!) sabbatical. Yes, I work for a company that, while not generous in vacation, does give us a 6 week sabbatical every 4 years. Yay, left coast values!

And by yay-left-coast-values, I mean a real intent to support work-life balance and egalitarianism. Not the tiresomeness of constant consensus building and non-commital hedging that comes with it.

Anyway, sabbatical. I dragged my feet for many months scheduling it, as I had relationship issues to sort. And I didn't want to burn my sabattical time balancing his needs. Which is one of the many straws that help show me it was time to break up. But break up we did. Schedule sabbitical I did - 17 days on the left coast for burningman, then the balance home in Delaware recovering.

I'm working on a video which I may never finish entitled "What I did on my sabattical".  Here's the outline:

• Attended Burning Man (with early entry for build time : 13 days)
• Helped build burning man art - Pyramid of Possibilities.
• Burnt down said Pyramid.
• Knit 3 Barbie doll dresses, though one did not fit (too large).
• Built a Bar.
• Built some Ball Art
• Saw a Drag show (in the middle of slower lower Delaware). Drank too much.
• Took the 3yr old to her first day of preschool.  Took her to the beach. Took her to the Air Plane museum. Took her to the Agricultural museum. Took her to Washington DC. Took her to lunch x5. Took her to dinner x3. Took her shopping.  Bought her a "big girl" bed.
• Bought a picture frame. Bought a second picture frame (for the same picture). Framed said picture in the first frame.
• Took another picture to a frame shop, awaiting its return. 
• Finished Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Got 4 chapters into the Hunger Games.  Got 4 chapters into Longitude. 
• Watched 5 episodes of Doctor Who, one which I'd already seen.
• Changed a failed ceiling lamp.
• Disconnected a different failed lamp, but unsure how to fix it.
• Got 2 massages
• Built a flower bed.
• Planted flowers (in a different flower bed)
• took out the trash x4.
• Reassembled the scribble bot for another round of scribbles.
• Designed a pendant and ordered 150 from etsy for giveaways at the next fest. Bought cord. Strung 120 of the pendants on cord. Ran out of cord.
• Ordered stuff on Amazon. Ordered stuff on Ebay. Ordered stuff on cafepress. Ordered tickets on Eventbrite. Ordered Tickets on Flavorous. 

Ok, maybe a picture - as a test. More later.  More reflections on the affects of a sabbatical. later . . .cause sabbatical is over and I should be working.

Begged, actually. 

Tomorrow I'm at home. A guy is coming to fix the holes in our siding, so that we don't endure Winter #3 of Bedroom Ceiling Roller Derby: Squirrels vs Pigeons. It might sound hilarious, but trust me, it's not. 

I invite you to harrass me to write tomorrow. Use the media of your choice. I should be writing, working on podcasts and not fussing over distracting minutiae.

We've got music things happening every night this week, with no downtime until I leave for north Jersey on Columbus Day for a 3-day work gig, after which I head to NYC to see Matt's play, after which I head home just to head to the airport to go to San Antonio for 5 days. 
Then I'm home for a day and then I leave to spend Halloween Week in Richardson, TX. 
"Jill! Why not spend that one day off between San Antonio and Richardson TX in Texas? Why spend your day off flying?"
Because I'm soooooo close to earning Companion Pass status on Southwest Airlines for 2015, so if I can fly on someone else's dime I will.  (Companion Pass = Buy my ticket, get Matt's ticket 100% free, no restrictions at all. Even if I "buy" my ticket with Points, Matt still flies for free, no restrictions. It's a hell of a deal, especially as a band that's a duo.)
OK, that's enough outta me. Gotta eat because we've got studio time tonight.
(x-posted to LJ.)
(ps: Sorry for the wall of text. Can't figure out how to insert white-space-line-breaks using mobile.)

"Inspiration: what's up with your kids?"

As it happens, I just wrote a blog post about my math-loving, creative, artistic daughter making her own Life of Fred book: http://www.mommyvan.com/2014/10/the-best-freds

Life of Fred is a hilarious math curriculum popular among homeschoolers, but would also make a great supplement for anyone who wants some fun off-the-beaten-path reading with their kids. Fred is a five year-old professor at KITTENS university, and his sidekick is a doll named Kingie. They make all sorts of cool discoveries about math and many other topics, and reinforcing those concepts as kids read (or listen) is a bonus along the way.

To celebrate the add media buttons working on my ipad now, here's a preview:

Well I finished Mass Effect 1 today. One interesting aspect of the game is the character traits paragon and renegade.  You gain renegade points for being an asshole, and paragon points for the opposite. Each of those traits affects a skill, charm and intimidate. I'm sure you can guess which goes with which. The higher those skills are, the more you are able to resolve conflict with dialogue, as opposed to shooting things.

Me being me, I maxxed out Paragon points probably 2/3 of the way through the game, but because of the way the skills tree works I was able to max out my Charm skill much earlier. I figure I talked my way out of at least 10% of the gameplay.  (I am pretty sure you gain a reasonably equivalent number of XP for averting crises vs. burying them, but I dunno.)

Overall I found the main plotline to be enjoyable and full of reasonably diverse environments and situations. Side quests were horribly cookie cutter especially in terms of assets with the same three or four sets used and oh my god how boring the planet surface sets.

The best part and what made it worthwhile was the voice acting, plotting, and dialogue scripting, as I'm sure has been noted by other reviewers. Some really topnotch storytelling work in this game. I could quibble about how linear it is, because it's really linear, but it was nice experience all told.

And yeah, there are romance subplots, but I didn't like any of the options presented. If you choose to be a female lead, you can hook up with the douchey, moody male soldier or the sensitive omnisexual alien. I didn't like either one of 'em. I liked the sassy female commando. But, no, while apparently freaky inter-species sex is totally okay, good ol' ordinary lesbian romance is right out.  

Of course if you choose to be the male lead, you can have the sassy female commando (or the alien). So the dialogue and scripting are already there for all 2 main characters x 3 NPCs to have sexytimes. But not the attitude of the developers; that's not there. (Apparently in the PC version you can hack it so you can achieve those homosexual romances, so it's technically possible. But not socially acceptable.)

It is very nice that in every other aspect of the game, though, male and female genders seemed to be represented with reasonable equality and egalitarianism, and that made me quite happy.  

I don't think I'll bother to play it again. I don't see that there's much variation in playstyle, particularly at the endgame. You're going to be shooting and zapping the boss no matter what, and by then all the guns are basically the same. And I don't want to play the Renegade side because ugh.

But I liked it, and for the seven bucks I paid for it, it was time well spend and well enjoyed.