I must be turning into one of those coastal liberal elites you hear so much about. After mailing off several checks to my favorite charities (using that stimulus money from the gub'mint), I ran some errands around town. In the hazy, summery warmth, all I could think was, "Man, a glass of that white Zinfadel chilling in the fridge, with a book out on the balcony, would be so nice when I got home." Evil! (I've also been known to sip lattes, read the New York Times, and hug trees.)

I am going to go drink wine and read on the balcony in the sun. Enjoy the weather — and the freedom — while I can! And this weekend? Seattle Cheese Festival. Oh, yeah.

Here is a picture of rare feline harmony chez moi, from earlier today (click for big):

Filled out and signed and filed and . . . whatever else needs to be done to paperwork. Just waiting on the background check (outsourced) and drug screen (to be scheduled). I've never peed into a cup for a job before. Hurray for new experiences?

On the way home, I bought a blueberry shake at Tully's because, like the swallows to Capistrano, the blueberry drinks have returned, signaling the change of season with joy and yummy berry goodness. Now I feel like summer is actually on its way, for I have tasted these fruitful concoctions.

The rest of the day will be devoted to putting household and online affairs into order in preparation of the return to employment. I still need to make a list of wardrobe purchases, and I have a stack of charity donations to send off. Have to call back the fellow at Christine Gregoire's campaign about volunteering, too. Vacuuming would not be out of order, either.

First, though: lunch, with the rest of the "Faith" recap (yay, Jacob!), and then a nap.

That's the weather this evening: 61°F and 85% humidity, according to the weather widget on my desktop. It was a few degrees warmer a little while ago, and much warmer inside the dojo before that, as you might imagine! Lots of sweating and panting, even with cross-ventilation. Oh, my thighs! (But that's the joy of working with muscles: rest 'em briefly, and they're practically as good as new.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go shave my head back down to the scalp and then shower all the dried sweat and tiny hair-bits away.

Userpic collection successfully updated: deleted 8, rotated 2 back in from storage, and added 6 new. Also weeded out some of the storage while I was at it. Pretty much, if I couldn't remember the last time I used an icon, it got stored or just deleted.

I could have an all-iconomicon collection and be happy. That's the source of this post's icon (which made me think of you, strangefrontier!). Such fantastic, eclectic excellence from that creator.

Weeded out the flist a little, too, and so it's on with the rest of the to-do list!

• Print out and fill out job paperwork
• Weed out userpics and flist (too many comms!)
• Catch up on ELF where necessary
• Catch up on email and snail mail (volunteer and charity stuff)
• Make list for wardrobe shopping
• Go to tai chi
• Start reading Stiffed

Right now, though, I'm enjoying Mr. Tony and the gang giving the breakdown of last night's American Idol, sipping the last of a mug of tea, and watching the cats watching the world through the half-open sliding glass doors onto the balcony. The weather is cool, overcast, and brisk; the wind smells heavily of water off the bay.

Hm, that reminds me: I had a Seattle-ish dream last night (Mt. Rainier blew up!). I should type it up sometime.

Pending all the legal stuff, of course (background check, drug screen, paperwork). I start at the end of the month. The group is cool, the work is interesting, the benefits are solid, and the money's nice. Even the commute is good. I just need to hit the stores to update my wardrobe a little, and I'll be ready to go.

Thanks for all the support, O flisters, and for listening to my playing Hamlet over the past several weeks. I'm back in the contractor saddle one more time!

Media I have enjoyed recently:

• The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity by Stephen J. Ducat — insightful, scholarly, and witty. Fascinating and excellent study of why men and women tend to vote differently on certain issues, why the radical Christian right and the Taliban are separated at birth, and what that whole deal with Bush landing on the aircraft carrier was about.

• Solaris (2002) — better than the original! Actually, if you take the first hour and the New Wave sterile grandeur of the original and insert the remake's soulful acting and nonlinear storytelling, you'd have the perfect adaptation of the book, in my opinion.

• Capote — holy crap, is that a good movie or what. Whoa. I didn't even get to knitting until a half-hour in because I couldn't tear my attention away from just watching.

• Lost Odyssey — I bought this game on May 1. It's May 13, and I've put in 55 hours. You do the math. Crazy fun addictive Japanese RPG! Interesting story, good characters (I adore Jansen; it's like having Bruce Campbell in your party), spectacular graphics. I'm on Disc 4, the last one, and I'm milking this homestretch for all its worth. (Y'know, if Mass Effect had come out on multiple discs, its graphics and performance might've been better.)

I also finally updated the list of my DVD collection. Woot.

Job-search stuff has me throwing up my hands in exasperation.

My brain does not want to write (or even read) anything creative.

I am feeling rabidly antisocial.

One of those days, my droogs. One of those days. Off to drown it in another Netflix movie and some knitting. Tomorrow will be a new day!

Two hours plus of job interview tomorrow! It runs through lunchtime, so I'm stashing a granola bar and a banana in my fancy leather satchel in case no one offers me food. (I once worked at a company where the standing rule was "don't schedule meetings during lunch unless you provide food." That's a good rule for job interviews, too.)

I continue to be a little scarce on teh intarwebz. Sorry, friends. It's one part dealing with personal stuff and three parts enjoying life away from the computer. Always a tricky balance to handle, RL and VR. Let's see how the week goes on that front.

Hey, Prince Caspian comes out on Friday. Neat. Any locals wanna go this weekend?

And now to relax the rest of the evening away with a movie and a book!

(Or 408, whichever numbering system you prefer.) The file ran 43 minutes. I cried for at least half of that time. Big bawling, then a few minutes of respite, and then back to the sobbing. Outstanding.

Gods damn it, show, do you have to be so good every week? I'm really excited at how well this fourth and last season is unfolding in purely serial fashion (standalone episodes, ptooey!). Gives me high hopes for a satisfying finale. In the meantime, if only we can keep Michael Angeli away from the keyboard for the rest of the run . . . Give this new writer his workload instead!

Which goddess lurks in your soul? Hecate You hold more power in your little finger than most do in their entire being! Hecate is perhaps the most selective of all deities who inhabit the souls of mortals. Being the goddess of the crossroads, cosmic knowledge, and of course witches and magic, she can't be bothered by residing in the souls of the mundane. She often chooses those who practice the craft of the old ways and those who harbor deep mystical secrets that must be kept close. Your soul is old, perhaps having been present at the birth of the cosmos in some form or another. Your ability to comprehend the necessity of death and its beauty has awakened a connection to the underworld, where Hecate has been known to reign, and you relish this otherworldly bond. Darkness suits you well, as many of the best secrets of the cosmos can be found there. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Best part about this result? I have more than one good userpic for it: either Kali or Death in the Thoth tarot deck. So it's an appropriate fit, clearly. Hi, Hecate!

Sleeping in until 11 A.M. kinda sets the day's schedule back a bit.

On the other hand, I won't need a nap in a few hours! (Probably. Oh, how I love naps.)

I was very productive today, online and off-, so I've decided what I'm going to do tomorrow:

• Walk down to the water and boat-watch from a pier
• Putter around the Elliott Bay Book Company (it's been a while)
• Have lunch at Quizno's down on First (been a while for that, too)
• Take a nap
• Do some writing
• Watch a Netflix movie

And this weekend will be about getting ready for Monday's job interview! I should do some reading, too; I'm getting behind in the stack, and those library books have to go back eventually, alas. Finish Invisibles; start Backlash.

For my own amusement, I sat down to compile the list of my open and ongoing threads over in Roleplayland:

( Why, yes, I am indeed an unemployed slacker )

I have a lot to do in coming days (job search, veterinarian visit, housecleaning, etc.), so heads-up on another social/net retreat. See you when I see you. Leave an email if something comes up.

( Torchwood: Season 1 )

( Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room )

( Luther )

( Out of Sight )

( Jules et Jim )

( Cloverfield )

Next three: Capote, Thank You for Smoking, and the Soderbergh/Clooney remake of Solaris, and then I start Season 1 of Deadwood (okay, so that's four).

I found The Wimp Factor when I went into the stacks to pick up some Susan Faludi! Was v. excited to see it on the shelf above Stiffed, and I grabbed 'em both, as well as Backlash. Her Terror Dream remains on hold with a squillion people ahead of me, as is also the case with Greenwald's latest and Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. Still, it's a good haul for now. Thank you, SPL!

Also bought a hair clipper at Bed Bath & Beyond and an Iron Man ticket at Pacific Place. Ouch for ticket prices, by the way: now I'm feeling queasy about seeing Prince Caspian in the theatre, too. Maybe if I get that rockin' big stimulus check from the gub'mint.

But I'm caught up on email, caught up on BSG recaps, mostly caught up on the blogroll, and two-thirds caught up on RP. Not bad!

In the next half-hour, I'm going to run errands around town and then come back to post Netflix reviews, assuming the brain cells are there. Well, even if they aren't, I'll post something along those lines because I hate to let them pile up. Teeny-tiny reviews if nothing else, dammit.

After all this, I am so spending the weekend on the Xbox, it's not even funny.

It's 9:30, and I've already been up for an hour and a half, after going to bed at 12:30 last night. I can't battle insomnia and turn it into somnia by sheer force of will, so I surrendered and made a pot of black tea to get me through the day. I will sleep this weekend.