New career goal May 31, 2006 ~ 10:38 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Story Time , comments closedWhen I was 14, I always said that I wanted to be a rock journalist when I grew up. Either that, or one of Sting’s back-up singers/dancers. Because dammit, I could dance and shake a tambourine and sing. But after I went to a couple of Sting concerts, I realized I could never be a Sting dancer because 1.) I wasn’t tall enough, and 2.) Sting only had black women as his dancers. Leggy and black I will never be. I shelved my hopes of being a Sting dancer.
However tonight, watching the VH1 Rock Awards, I have come up with a new career goal. Def Leppard has back-up singers/dancers for when they do “Twentieth Century Boy,” and one of those girls was white. And not all that tall. When I grow up? I’m going to be a Def Leppard dancer.
Smokin’ May 31, 2006 ~ 9:57 am
Posted by Julie in : Politically Incorrect, Reviews , comments closedDid anyone see Rescue Me last night? Holy shit! That show just gets better and better with the curve balls it throws! Alright, I’ll stop with the extreme punctuation, but I have to say that many of the TV shows I used watch jumped the shark long ago, so having this show come back is a pleasure. Because at this point, I don’t care if Trump hires a dog on The Apprentice, it would be less painful than watching the current search. I think I’ve deleted half of the episodes I’ve TiVo’d this season without watching them because I just couldn’t bring myself to lose an hour of my life to them.
Another thing that made me happy was the commercial announcing a new season of 30 Days. If you didn’t catch this last year, you have to this time around. Morgan Spurlock, the guy behind Supersize Me, has people live a life that is completely foreign to them for 30 days to see if they gain any appreciation, insight, or tolerance for that other lifestyle. My favorite last year was when the bible-thumping Christian had to live as a Muslim for 30-days, and came out actually realizing that there are other religions on the planet that are just as valid to their followers. I think we should enroll Dubya in a 30 Days bootcamp like that. Or maybe he could just do “30 Days as a Human Being Instead of an Egomaniacal Asshole.”
DEET is our friend. May 30, 2006 ~ 3:01 pm
Posted by Julie in : In Da Hood, Random Insanity, Urban Family , comments closed
Chandelier ~ Grand Central Station, NYC
No pictures of Fleet Week here because I never made it into Manhattan - there was too much fun to be had in Brooklyn! A three day weekend was exactly what the doctor ordered; I am relaxed and not minding my job at all in spite of having to stand on the Quad for an hour for Commencement rehearsal so I could learn to herd students. I can’t wait until the summer schedule starts and I get three day weekends every week.
Things learned this weekend (behind the cut): (more…)
Story time May 26, 2006 ~ 2:55 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Story Time , comments closed
Coney Island’s own goth marching band.
Once upon a time, when I was in seventh grade, I had an awful Gifted teacher. And when I say awful I don’t mean personality-wise, although she was no prize. I mean, she was an awful teacher who had no real idea of what to do with Gifted kids. Gifted kids have to be kept busy or they get bored, and then they cause trouble that would astound people. Especially when there is a group of them that can collaborate about what trouble to cause. While Mrs. Gallagher seemed to comprehend this (which is more than I can say for my eight grade Gifted teacher, who was surprised when we figured out a way to get our desks out the windows and onto the playground), she did not comprehend that busy work is also not the way to go. Gifted students see through busy work and turn it around on you.
One assignment that she gave us was to write out the lyrics to a song that we liked and bring it in, so we could discuss how songs are really poetry. (Side note: DUH. We were Gifted, for crying out loud, we knew that.) She said that we could copy out any song, and when we brought them in she would pick out some to discuss.
I went home, checked out which tapes had lyrics in the liners and decided to copy out “Something to Believe In” by Poison. One problem, that song is damn long! I got about halfway through it, my hand was cramping up, and you know that this was in the days before computers so I couldn’t type it. I re-evaluated my choice of song. I looked for the shortest set of lyrics I could find.
I came up with Bruce Dickinson’s “Dive! Dive! Dive!”. It was short, it made me laugh, it was perfect. I copied it down, I took it to school, I handed it in. Mrs. Gallagher did not read it aloud, but I just chalked that up to her not liking metal music. Years later when I listened to the Tattooed Millionaire album again, I realized why she hadn’t read it.
(Lyrics behind the cut) (more…)
T-Minus 4 Work Days May 25, 2006 ~ 10:53 am
Posted by Julie in : Academic Office Monkey, Daily Grind , comments closed
Y’know, some days you wake up and everything goes well and you get to work on time with no hassle. Other days you wake up to a cat trying to cough up a hairball on your bed, and when you finally manage to haul yourself onto the bus, you get stuck behind a line of five garbage trucks. Guess what happened to me today?
On top of a garbage-filled commute, I give you today’s winner of the “Did your Mama drop you on the head when you were a baby?” contest: The student who called in about Commencement, had graduated and picked up her diploma in February, but didn’t realize she had graduated. Her exact words were “Oh, that’s what the diploma meant?”. Kill me now. I am extremely glad that this is a three day weekend, because you know what? I’m going to need those three days to recover from this.
I’m also glad it’s Fleet Week, because hey, sailors on every corner. And the chance to use that old chestnut “There’s a bunch of seamen (semen) in the street!” in conversation. I will take pictures for all of you ladies interested parties. Because while it’s Memorial Day weekend, we’re staying in the city for two reasons: 1.) Everyplace else is going to be crowded with New Yorkers trying to escape, and 2.) Since everyone else escaped, we’re going to have the city to ourselves. Us and the seamen.
Oh, the stupidity May 24, 2006 ~ 1:06 pm
Posted by Julie in : Academic Office Monkey, Rants , comments closed
Arthur Miller’s stone on the Brooklyn Walk of Fame ~Brooklyn Botanical Garden
I would say “Oh, the humanity,” but since my co-workers are outdoing themselves in the stupidity department this morning…
I walked in this morning and PA immediately says “Julie, I got a message on my email about my eBay account and how they need my information.” I looked at PA suspiciously. She’s in her 60s and barely has a grasp on email, let alone internet auctions. “Do you have an eBay account?” “I don’t know.” “If you don’t know, then you don’t have one. Don’t click it. You wonder how you got all those viruses and spyware on your computer last time? This is how.”
Ten minutes later, from Timid: “Julie, my program froze up.” “And you want me to do what about that, exactly?” “I don’t know, what can you do about it?” “Nothing. Take it down, try to get back into it.” “Oh, that worked.”
I am banging my head against my desk here, folks. They’re killing me. Them and the five million students who have called to find out why they didn’t get anything about graduation. The answer for 99.9% of them? Because you never filed for graduation! This is a big school, I can’t keep track of all of you without some help on your part! Gah!
However, there is a good side, and since Aimee requested this part of the post, I will oblige. I did hit my $1000 goal, with a bit of help from Jordana (she gave me $70 in off-line donations to hit the mark). All told, Team Bok Choy raised $1600. We did good, and we want to thank all of you who made donations. Thank you! The walk was great, we had beautiful weather throughout it, and afterwards even had energy enough to go to the 9th Avenue Food Festival and walk back to the Upper West Side. And later that evening I walked around 14th Street to get my Doctor Who novels. I tell you this because I know you want to know how I strained ligaments in my knees. I am mostly recovered now, no reason to worry.
And now I’m going out to escape the office stupidity.  Because if I don’t, someone might die.
Yeah! May 23, 2006 ~ 9:59 pm
Posted by Julie in : Reviews, Shorty , comments closedOne quick trip into Manhattan after work and I have Def Leppard’s new CD, Yeah! in my CD player. And ripped up to iTunes so I can listen to it on my iPod tomorrow. Oh, and I called Mom to get the Wal-Mart special edition EP, because dammit, it has Sav singing “Dear Friends.” Come on, Sav singing Queen? Totally worth it. Thanks, Mom! The album kicks ass, by the way. I especially have a thing for the Lep version of “20th Century Boy.” It’s going to help me get through work for the next week until Commencement, I can already tell.
Oh, and I might have gotten another Doctor Who novel in Forbidden Planet, since I was already at Union Square. Yeah! (As in, “Yeah! I am lame!”)
Raxacoricofallapatorious May 22, 2006 ~ 5:00 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind, Rants , comments closed
The Parachute Jump ~Coney Island
After a damned ad that the Sci-Fi Channel ran following Doctor Who Friday night, I spent the weekend looking for Doctor Who novels. Because I am a big geek like that. And yes, I have already watched Friday night’s episode three times, and I wasn’t even home for the majority of the weekend. Suck it. I can pronounce today’s title, can you?
The ad proclaimed that I could find said Doctor Who novels (featuring the Ninth and best Doctor, Christopher Eccleston) at a bookstore near me. One would imply from this that I could find these books anywhere, right? If I lived in Indiana, for instance, I was still promised that the books would be at “a bookstore near you” (me) by the commercial. Bullshit. I went to the Barnes & Noble by Lincoln Center. This is the largest Barnes & Noble in the city - its interior was used as the evil “Fox Books” megastore in You’ve Got Mail. This place is big. And yet, did they have my Ninth Doctor Adventures Doctor Who novels? They did not. They looked at me like “Doctor who?” when I asked about the books. No, people. Doctor Who.
Next I tried the Borders store at the Time-Warner center. Struck out there, too, even though their computer said one of the books was in the store. I don’t know where the hell that book was, but it was not in the right place. I sighed, and resigned myself to ordering the damn books over the internet. Annoying, since that would add shipping costs, but I was willing to do it.
And then I remembered a little place called Forbidden Planet, which is a store that specializes in comics and sci-fi stuff. I called them up and asked if they had the new Doctor Who novels. The guy on the phone immediately said “Which ones? With the Ninth Doctor? The one played by Christopher Eccleston?” A sigh of relief escaped me. I had found My People. “Yes, those ones.” “Oh, yeah, we’ve got quite a few of them.” Eureka.
So last night I went to Forbidden Planet, picked up two of the novels, took them to the register, and was greeted by the clerk saying “Ah, the Doctor!” Again, these are obviously My People. We had a nice little chat about the series and how it’s coming out on DVD in July, and I left, feeling good instead of feeling like a geek for watching science fiction, which is how the big bookstores made me feel. With my books. Which were not at a bookstore near me, as the commercial led me to believe, but rather at a sci-fi store that kicks ass and is populated with My People.
Take that, big chain bookstores.
Just me and my…uh, beer. May 19, 2006 ~ 11:15 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Story Time, Urban Family , comments closedThe thunderstorms passed, and I did indeed get to watch Doctor Who with no interruptions. And after that had happened, with two beers in me, I dug out old videos and have been watching Def Leppard and Queen videos ever since. My own little Friday Night Videos, if you will.
Back in the day (and I’m referring to the high school days here), this is what I did on Friday nights. We had video collections of Def Leppard and Queen videos, and one or another of my friends or I would have a sleepover, and we would stay up late watching them. Repeatedly. And planning for a future which included me married to Joe Elliott, my best friend Colleen married to Rick Savage, and having enough kids between us to start a hockey team. We would spend the night giggling over how cute “our” guys were, making and eating brownies, and at some point I would get up and do all of Freddie’s moves from “We Are The Champions” in synch with the video. And there wasn’t even beer involved.
Ten years later, I don’t have Joe Elliott, Colleen doesn’t have Rick Savage, and neither of us have kids. I think we’re coping remarkably well. But it would be nice to still have a sleepover once in a while. You know, so we could critique the video for “Me and My Wine” one more time. Or have someone beside the cats who could appreciate how dead-on my Freddie Mercury imitation still is after all this time.
Guess I’ll just go make some brownies.
TGIF. May 19, 2006 ~ 3:02 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closed
Scribner’s publishers, Midtown.
$900 raised so far, peeps. If you want to donate but haven’t yet, there is still time.
So, is it wrong of me that I am looking outside at the second thunderstorm we’ve had today and thinking “Motherfucker better be gone by the time Doctor Who comes on tonight”? Because I have satellite, and occasionally thunderstorms, they fuck with the satellite. Nope, I’m not wrong. Motherfucker better be gone by the time Doctor Who comes on tonight. No one stands between me and my Christopher Eccleston viewing, dammit. I can’t wait till the first season comes out on DVD on July 4 so I don’t have to deal with the Sci-Fi Channel and thunderstorms.
I’m apparently not going to lunch today, since I got all wrapped up in writing another letter asking people I know to donate to the AIDS Walk, and now it’s 3. That’s okay, I’ll just leave at 4 instead. Start my weekend early. Run between raindrops (damn radio people, saying the rain was over at 9 this morning), get into my house, have a couple of beers, and chill. And pray for the thunderstorm to pass before 9.
Tomorrow, I get to pretend I’m a photographer. We’re going to shoot some of Thabiso’s artwork so he can use it in a grants proposal. This should be fun - his studio has no natural lighting because it’s part of a loft that’s been divided up. Nothing some Reveal light bulbs and a couple of white sheets can’t fix, right? Riiiiiight.
