Hot Pink Coffee

It all ends soon.

2008-01-28T06:47:43Z

I'm quitting my job at B&N. My coworkers have been great but I really can't stand some of the manager policies and don't like that I'm resented for not working till midnight on weeknights. Screw that.

So I got a better job elsewhere.

Turning in my two weeks tomorrow.

JDSKLFJLKSDAJFLKAJDSKFJ

2007-12-13T00:11:54Z

I GOT INTO SMITH.

I saw Tori.

2007-12-11T03:15:38Z

I saw Baker Baker and The Power of Orange Knickers and Juarez and Josephine and Siren and Crucify and Rattlesnakes and Little Earthquakes and Bliss live.

"Nothing's gonna stop me from floating."

Uh, LJ?

2007-12-01T00:18:28Z

PROBLEM FIXED BUT YOU PEOPLE DIDN'T REPORT ME. YOU LET ME DOWN. SAD.

I am over you, retail.

2007-11-21T07:25:05Z

Tonight, my coworker and I got the salt scared out of us. Some guy wandered in to the music department, as customers are wont to do, but it turned into a total clusterfuck.

First, the guy. 40-something, reeking of booze, has a bunch of nasty wounds all over him that make him look like someone drug him down a dirt road from the back of a car. Scars, crusty scabs, stitches everywhere. Asks me for a French film, I find it for him. Begins to tear up as he talks to me about how 9/11 changed our nation, which is odd, but we get a lot of weird customers.

Then it gets awkward. As I'm ringing him up he starts going on about 9/11 and how women are in danger after it. He starts talking about Steven Seagal movies and how they teach women to defend themselves, and about how women need to be able to do that because we "never know when someone could be waiting right outside the building doors" (motioning to the B&N doors). He then scolds me for not looking him directly in the eye and talks about how he and I have a deep emotional connection or something, then leaves. By this point I'm very unnerved.

Ten minutes later, while I'm shelving DVD's, he comes back, is extremely pushy and rude to my coworker and the other lady in line, buys a product and leaves.

Five minutes later, he rushes back in and starts demanding we change his dollar for four quarters. When I point out that we can't because we can only open our registers during a transaction, he starts yelling at us about how we should be fired, swearing at us, and then starts to declare things like that we should be afraid to go to our cars tonight and should watch our backs.

Thankfully, we call the managers and all three of them (big burly guys) come on and kick this guy out on his ass. Afterwards we tell him about WHAT he was yelling at us, and they tell us he now has a ban from the store.

I requested an escort before leaving the store so I could feel safe walking out to my car.

I'm just really freaked out right now. I used to think I was strong-willed and hard to intimidate, but right now I'm just really spooked and have had my faith in myself and my security completely undermined.

Do a good thing.

2007-11-14T01:46:03Z

In 2004, Jackie Brown Otter founded Pretty Bird Woman House, a women's shelter at the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. The shelter is named after Brown Otter's sister, who was kidnapped, raped and beaten to death in 2001.

According to Amnesty Intn'l report,

High levels of sexual violence on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation take place in a context of high rates of poverty and crime... The unemployment rate on the Reservation is 71 per cent. Crime rates on the Reservation often exceed those of its surrounding areas. According to FBI figures, in 2005 South Dakota had the fourth highest rate of "forcible rapes" of women of any US state.

As a special bonus to the Lakota Sioux Reservation, there are sufficient desensitization to crime and confusion over Tribal/Non-Tribal jurisdiction at Standing Rock to create rape tourism. Says Andrea Smith, an Assistant Professor of Native Studies at the University of Michigan,

[N]on-Native perpetrators often seek out a reservation place because they know they can inflict violence without much happening to them.

Against these odds, Pretty Bird Woman House is staffed by three people-- a nurse, a volunteer, and a part-time employee-- and from January to October of this year, they managed to:

-- answer 397 crisis calls
-- give emergency shelter to 188 women and 132 children
-- help 23 women obtain restraining orders, 10 get divorces, and 16 get medical assistance
-- provide court advocacy support for 28 women
-- conduct community education programs for 360 women.

A few weeks ago, PBWH's phone lines were cut, the office was ransacked, and the building was burnt down.

Everyone was away from the house at the time, but all possessions were lost, and-- because PBWH's grant from the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence is predicated on its ability to shelter women-- its funding is also lost. Now everybody's trying to pick up the pieces.

Click here for the full story.

How you can help:

1. Donate what you can for a new house.

Pretty Bird Woman House already has two potential replacement houses in mind. Both offer significantly more space than the previous building... full basements, storage room and would house more than double the families and women than their previous building. Both buildings have yards which means possible playgrounds for children.

One house has a major advantage in location - a police station across the street.

Because of difficulties obtaining loans (banks are allergic to both Native Americans and poverty) the best solution lies in purchasing the house outright. The Tribal Council could hold the mortgage but coming up with the mortgage payments every month creates an ongoing problem. Since both houses are on the market, they could be gone anytime. Depressed property values on Standing Rock mean that $60,000 gets the house. An additional $10,000 is required to make them secure, with proper fencing, video cameras, reinforced doors and other measures.

Since 10/25, the drive for donations for PBWH has garnered 17% of the $70,000 goal; the drive ends January 2008-- so consider donating in someone's name as a Christmas present. Donations can be made here.

2. Donate material goods-- clothing, toiletries, non-perishables, etc.

USPS to:
Pretty Bird Woman House
P.O. Box 596
McLaughlin, SD 57642

or FedEx, UPS, DHL ship to:
Pretty Bird Woman House
302 Sale Barn Rd.
McLaughlin SD 57642

3. Spread this meme.

Vanity, thy name is an emo muffin.

2007-11-09T06:47:51Z

License plates are rifuckulously cheap here! Help me choose which one I want (and get a backup in case one doesn't work).

View Poll: Which personalized license plate?

And, while they ARE available, I think it'd be a bad idea to put HOTPSSY, DIEPIGS, FUCKGOP or ANALSEX as my plates (shockingly, all of them clear the filter on the DMV site). But if anyone else wants them...!

Also, the Used kinda suck, but goddamn "Paralyzed" is a fantastic song.

Skipping school. Bad Lisa.

2007-11-01T15:50:11Z

Parents not home so I'm skipping the day. It's a half-day anyway (code for "don't get anything done in class because of time restraints"), and we spent four hours last night hauling canned food around for the homeless. Though I'll admit we did get some candy out of the bargain.

I dressed as Jimmy Urine last night, but it eventually devolved from Jimmy to generic punk rocker to pink statue of liberty. That said, skants are the most wonderful invention on earth and so very comfy.

Now I'ma play Guitar Hero (and suck at it), practice my keyboards, drink coffee and go do some volunteer work for the Democrats. Then work. Bah.

Life is good.

2007-10-29T23:20:16Z

I have instant coffee, I got my traffic fine reduced by $925, and it's raining. And Guitar Hero III comes out tomorrow. And I have a date with my girlfriend on Saturday and have finished my monster essay and only need to revise my personal college app essay tonight, to not include herpes.

Thank you life.

kaljsfklasjdklsjdas

2007-10-13T05:33:15Z

ELECTRIC SIX IS IN RENO ON MONDAY ALL AGES SHOW JESUS CHRIST FINALLY SOMETHING INTERESTING.

AAAAA!

2007-10-05T01:54:12Z

Plz 2 b seeing Fori December 9th?

Happy birthday dear me?

OH. MY. LUCI.

2007-10-02T03:41:19Z

I have a date. Like, an actual date. With a girl.

On a date.

Ooooooooh Emmmmmm Jeeeeeee.

Date.

I have been single for far too long. It's been unhealthy.

Hells yes!

2007-09-26T23:03:39Z

I just finished the rough draft of my college application essay. It is smexy.

I need to have all my application stuff done by November 15th and take at least three SAT IIs. So far I've finished all the fill-in-the-blank stuff on my common app, rough-drafted an essay, asked teachers for recommendations, and started filling out my special talent forms. Took SAT and ACT. Must fill out early decision cards, FAFSA, Smith supplement...eek indeed.

Sold!

2007-09-23T21:48:05Z

I'm sold.

Winter's coming back. I'm absolutely thrilled, winter and fall are my favorite seasons by far. I love the misty overcast days Reno gives up till December - it's the one thing I'm really in love with about this place. I feel so inspired to write something (though apparently, not inspired enough to finish my personal essay for my college apps).

Yo, East Coast peeps, where you at? Since with any luck by this time next year I'll be settling in on your side of the country.

I just ordered the Dresden Dolls and Tori Amos songbooks so I can play some actual songs on the piano again. I want to learn The Perfect Fit and Mother like mad.

Buy me plz.

2007-09-22T03:11:08Z

Less than a day left of Sweet Charity's current auction. So if you want to buy a portrait from me, or rent the skills of one of our many talented artists, please head on over before it's too late!

Gone all week.

2007-09-17T06:08:15Z

Back this Friday.

I really really really hate Reno a lot.

Musical Confessions and Contentious Statements

2007-09-13T06:04:44Z

1. I like Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" and Rihanna's "Umbrella". And I'll be buying the new Kanye West album. I guess that makes me a pop whore?

2. The original NIN version of "Hurt" is better than Johnny Cash's. Sorry. Though they're still both great despite those damnable opening lines.

3. Tori Amos is a better songwriter and performer than Kate Bush, and I fail to see exactly where Kate Bush patented all variations of "female singer-songwriter with music involving keyboards". Did Hendrix patent guitar solos too?

4. Paul Simon got better as he got older, except that last album. But You're the One > Rhythm of the Saints > Graceland.

5. I don't get the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin. Their fanbases are pretty annoying, too.

6. Leonard Cohen >>>>>>>>> Bob Dylan. Though Leonard Cohen pwns just about everyone.

7. I will never understand why "Toxicity" is one of System of a Down's most popular singles. It's the weakest song on the album and nowhere near as catchy or wonderful as singles like "Question!". Also, on a side note, Daron's a bit of a douche.

8. Aimee Mann should have never made a Christmas album. Though she did manage to create the perfect album for sitting at home on Christmas. Alone. In the dark. With no presents. Pondering suicide.

9. Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy is one of the best albums of the last ten years, even if it isn't OMGDEEP, OMGINSIGHTFUL or OMGSERIOUSANDARTSY.

10. Regina Spektor has written both some of the best and worst songs I've heard this year. I wish I could take back the three minutes I wasted listening to that childish, cutesy abomination "Ghost of Corporate Future" and replace them with listening to "Samson" again.

11. "Fergalicious" is this generations "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)". In twenty years we'll look back and go "jeez, weren't the 2000's funny? People had such bad taste back then..."

12. Amanda Palmer is the best songwriter of this generation, and criminally underrated as a lyricist.

13. Linkin Park sucks for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of their music.

14. "Welcome to the Black Parade" is fucking AWFUL.

15. But not as bad as "Imagine".

Buy me!

2007-09-09T07:25:08Z

Bid for renting my art talents at Sweet Charity, mofos! You can get a gorgeous, mixed-media, hand-drawn, original portrait of WHOMEVER YOU WANT for as low as two bucks at this point!

And remember, all the money goes to the Rape, Abuse, Incest and Neglect Victim Support Network!

GET KARMA AND ARTZ PLZ.

I'ma ho again!

2007-09-01T19:07:11Z

Sweet Charity is starting up another round!

For those of you who don't know, Sweet Charity is an internet-run, non-profit organization that brings artists and writers together to take commissions, usually fandom-related, at an online auction. The winners of the auction then get to ask the 'hos' (artists and writers) to write/draw/animate/sew/etcetera whatever it is they want, and all the money earned goes to charity.

Once again, I'm involved, and once again I'm selling commissioned portraits - but this time, mixed media, like the piece below:

I'll be selling three of these, and I will be sending them out to the bidder, and yeah. ONE OF A KIND PEPLZ. Any person of your choice!

AND REMEMBER, ALL MONEY EARNED GOES DIRECTLY TO RAINN.*

*Rape, Abuse, Incest and Neglect Victim Support Network

I iz ded. Send coffee plz.

2007-09-01T06:45:33Z

So, after working 15 straight hours everyday between school and Barnes&Noble every day for the last week (except Wednesday), I'm about spent. Thank God for three-day weekends.

If I write an essay every weekend, I might win scholarships. Also I should get in contact with the NAACP about the Student Diversity Leadership Council and mine their reps for ideas and potential events/guest speakers.

And I need to write an essay on Woolf and read all of Heart of Darkness. Thankfully light load in Physics, since I am the royal baroness of SUCK at that class.

JESUS.

But on the good side! Music babble!

Upcoming Releases:
Siouxsie - Mantaray (9/11/07)
Mindless Self Indulgence - Our Pain, Your Gain (9/11/07)
PJ Harvey - White Chalk (9/25/07)
Joni Mitchell - Shine (9/25/07)
Annie Lennox - Songs of Mass Destruction (10/2/07)
The Spores - Doom Pop (10/8/07)
Serj Tankian - Elect the Dead (10/23/07)

Definitely going to get the MSI, PJ, Spores and Serj. I already preordered the first, and the others I'll be snatching up immediately - Peej and Molly McGuire are givens in my music collection, and lately I've been digging System of a Down so much and have developed such a Straight!Crush on Serj that I'd be stupid not to pick that up.

As for Annie, Joni and Siouxsie, while I really like them all I haven't been in touch with their latest works. The lyrics that leaked for Joni's album are absolutely cringeworthy, which is a shame, since she's such a brilliant poet, so for me it'll depend on reviews of the musical content. Siouxsie has impressed me with her latest single, so I'll see if I have spare cash come the 11th. Annie's last single was atrocious, so I'll wait for reviews on that too.

Also, I'm really digging on that A Fine Frenzy chick. She's not a great lyricist, but damned if "You Picked Me" and "Ashes and Wine" don't lodge in the cerebral cortex. She's easily my favorite on B&N's current musicloop.

And the Tank Girl sountrack is total happycrack.

YAY I HAVE A JOB WHERE I MAKE ENOUGH MONEY TO SUPPORT MY MUSIC HABIT! :D :D :D

God. I love working in a music department.

SPOOOOOOOOOOORES.

2007-08-29T05:24:47Z

New Spores album this October!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! :D

Little cousin!

2007-08-18T06:00:29Z

Gone until the 23rd. May be on sporadically. Will get your doodles done.

Lyrics meme stolen from ungratefulwench!

2007-08-18T00:28:38Z

Because my coworkers have informed me that my music taste is, at best, eclectic, and at worst like mashing polkadots with plaid. I've always described it as throwing darts at a record store, but what do I know?

MEME ONE: Lyrics Meme
Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post a line from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: No cheating.

1. I heard a song today, reminded me of Spain, we were the innocents in springtime.

~~2. This is the noise that keeps me awake, my head explodes and my body aches.~~ "Push It" by Garbage.

3. She only had nightmares, and her sadness never lifted, so slowly over the years, her lovely face twisted.

4. But way back where I come from, we never mean to bother, we don't like to make our passions other people's concerns, and we walk in the world of safe people, and at night we walk into our houses and burn.

5. A shield is sealed upon this earth, a shield won't let you get by. Invaders nearby.

6. Let's go to a preacher and let us say I do, then you'll know you have me and I'll know I got you, so don't be cruel to a heart that's true.

~~7. I pick up a brochure about the sun, learn to ignore what the photographer saw.~~ "Left to My Own Devices" by the Pet Shop Boys

8. We're aping, raping, taping catharsis, you get torn down and get erected.

9. Maybe I've never really loved, I guess that is the truth. I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude, and looking down on everything, I crashed into his arms.

~~10. Then you've never seen me hanging naked and wired. Somebody lied, but I say it's hip to be alive.~~ "Win" by David Bowie

11. It's time that you invested in a bottle of poison, so we wouldn't have to deal with your bitching and moaning. You think you could afford a fucking bottle of aspirin!

~~12. Yeah, they said you was high class, well, that was just a lie. You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine.~~ "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley

13. Some granite wall numbs our bones, numbs our all as we sit on skinny hands. Nothing to say, nothing at all. I don't know you and I don't want to. You're so awkward, just like me, but I don't care.

~~14. I must think of a way into your heart. There's no reason why my being shy should keep us apart. And I think I'm going out of my head, over you.~~ "Goin' Out of My Head" by Anthony and the Imperials

15. As the people here grow colder, I turn to my computer, and spend my evenings with it like a friend. I was loading a new program I had ordered from a magazine. "Are you lonely, are you lost? This voice console is a must."

~~16. From my first little fib, when I still wore a bib, to my latest attempt at pretending I'm someone who's not seventeen and doesn't know what you mean when you talk of single malts.~~ "Shoebox" by Barenaked Ladies

17. As I was lying in a hospital bed a rock 'n' roll nurse went into my head. She says, "Hold out your arm, stick out your tongue, I've got some pills and I'm gonna give you some".

18. She ain't worth the mystery, she ain't worth the risk. She ain't worth the medicine brushed across your lips. She ain't worth the vertigo, she ain't worth the fall, and she ain't worth getting sucked into the drama of it all.

19. They keep me warm on cold nights. We must be quite a sight, in our meat triangle, all tangled. Wow.

20. Be still, be calm, be quiet now, my precious boy. Don't struggle like that or I will only love you more, for it's much too late to get away or turn on the light. The spiderman is having you for dinner tonight. "Lullaby" by The Cure

Art meme! Stolen from Jemi.

2007-08-14T15:37:52Z

The first 5 people to comment on this post get to request a sketch of a character of their choosing from me. In return, they have to postthis in their journal (optional - but very much appreciated if you're an arteest). Post all fandoms you're willing to draw for.

Bear in mind that these won't be time-crafted masterpieces, but rather scribbly, doodly little things that I hope you'll find enjoyment in.

I'll quite happily draw: X-Men, The Intimates, Battle Royale, Top 10, musicians, ah heck screw it, just about anything if you provide me a reference.

New job!

2007-08-09T00:08:19Z

I'm now employed at Barnes & Noble! I'll be making $7.75 an hour and start on the 24th.

FUCK YEAH!