haunted walk

So tonight copy_princess and I went on a Ghost Walk here in Columbus. The tour was maybe an hour and 15 minutes long, and pretty interesting.

We saw the Kelton House, the Kappa Kappa Gamma headquarters, a theatre building, a miscellaneous office building, and a funeral home, all on or near E. Town Street. All are reported to have ghost/spirit type phenomenon regularly. According to several of our tour guides something spooky happens during the Halloween weekend tours every year. We didn't get so much as a weird noise, much less a glimpse of any actual ghosts. I actually put on my survey that the one thing that would have improved the tour would have been a real ghost. Especially after all of the build up from the tour guides.

Next year we're bringing copy_princess' boyfriend Tom, who has had several paranormal experiences, in the hopes something cool will happen with him around.

Aside related to Halloween: Friday night I went to a rockin' show. A handful of local original bands all dressed up and played covers of other bands. We saw AC/DC, Aerosmith, with special guests Run DMC, Green Day, and Bob Marley & the Wailers. Had a helluva time and hope they do it again next year.

Happy Halloween Everyone! I hope the Great Pumpking brings you whatever you dreamed of!

irony... or something

Interesting that this morning I saw Freedom Girl's post about Rosa Parks, and then I see this story about "Prussian Blue" in the news. Unbelievable.

memo to my coworkers

I know we got a new system installed on Friday that incorporated our 3 old systems into one mega-system. I was there. For almost 11 hours.

I have had approximately the same amount of training as everyone else - we went to the same classes, completed the same practice sessions, etc. etc. My Magic 8 Ball is on vacation and I don't have all of the answers.

I know the system keeps doing things it shouldn't and not doing things it should. I know it's a pain in the ass to call the help(less) desk. Do it anyways. I can't be on 3 phone calls to the help(less) desk about 3 different problems with the system at the same time.

I don't care if you ask me questions - I know we're all learning together... but...

Please use your brain for 4 seconds before asking me these questions. I'm going to walk over to the computer and hit a bunch of buttons until I achieve whatever is required. You are probably capable of this, too. Go on, give it a try.

Thank you and Have a Nice Day.

let the halloween fun begin

Check out the awesomely scary punkin' that copy_princess carved last night:



If I feel really ambitious today I may grab myself a pumpkin to carve and bring to the party tonight. There's no way it will touch the awesomeness of copy_princess, though. Freakin' artists.

Thanks for all the input on my costume. I agree the mummy is probably the best costume, but it's not very reusable, and I found out I'll need a costume at least 2 or 3 times this Halloween. So I'm going as a sorceress, which is totally different than a witch. (And, yes, I did get a bit lazy about the whole costume thing.)

Here's the basics of the costume - witch hat, cloak, and magic wand. I'm going to venture out today and see if I can find a little plastic couldron or something to carry with me, too, that can double as my purse and camera holder for the night. It's all about the accessories.




Next Friday night I'm going to what should be a kickass Halloween show at the Ravari Room. Four or five local bands, all coming and playing as other bands. Chuck's Junk as Bob Marley & the Wailers, some other band as Cake, etc. If you're in or around Columbus, grab your own witch costume (or more original costume if you've got one).

the invasion

A few days ago I was hearing a weird sound around my music studio and saw a couple little insects buzzing around the light. They're the little beetle things that look kind of like lady buys, except they're orange with black spots.

A couple days ago there were several of the little bugs around. The windows have been shut for a couple weeks, so I'm not sure where they came from.

Today there are at least 50 - quite a few hovered in a couple of the corners, a few stray bugs climbing the walls.

I need to get rid of them. But I can't just kill them. I'm weird about that - I'll spend 20 minutes shooing an insect out the front door instead of stomping on it. Spraying bug spray all over the walls and ceiling just seems cruel.

halloween costume help

I still haven't decided on my Halloween costume this year. Some friends are throwing a party - and originally they stipulated that it was a "traditional" Halloween costume party (no hippies, pimps, etc. - only scary monster costumes). They've since relaxed the 'rules', because apparently some of our friends are no fun. Anyway, I'm still going the traditional route, but need some help deciding. I've narrowed it down to three:

Mummy
I'm pretty sure I'd be the only mummy. It's a really easy costume to put together. (Just need loads of white gauze and some tape). It's also difficult to keep together all night, especially since I'd be riding in a car to the party. I was a mummy once as a kid and it was a big hit, but it really did get to be a pain by the end of the night, trailing pieces of gauze and tripping over it and stuff.

Vampire
This was one of my favorites as a kid (probably second only to pirate). Still pretty easy - black cloak, fake teeth, and if I'm really ambitious, some white face paint and fake blood. I can almost guarantee there will be at least one other vampire though.

Witch
This has been a staple of mine for the past couple of years. Mainly because I have a pointy witch hat (it's purple with silver stars - pretty!). Just add a cloak, and a magic wand, and voila - insta-witch. Super comfy costume, and it's hit or miss if you get other witches. (Although they're usually either super traditional - green face paint, etc. or "sexy" witch.) Sort of boring since I've done it so much in the past. And everyone asks if I'm Harry Potter, which of course I'm not since I'm a freakin' girl.

Ok bloggers - help me decide.

breasts not bombs

Interesting photos (and some commentary) about the anti-war protest in DC last month.

remembering the truth

Read this today

how to take time away from a photo lover

So flickr has this new feature called interestingness. It shows you photos on the site that have generated a lot of traffic for whatever reason. You just keep hitting the blue "reload" button at the top or bottom and you see more interesting photos.

I swear I'm not on flickr's payroll or anything. It's just a really awesome site and I'm especially into my photography these days. Now that I've spent the better part of an hour looking at amazing photographs, I need to go clean the house. Enjoy.

stupid...

This stuff should have been availble over-the-counter to women of any age forever ago. All of the science says it's safe.

People will have sex even if someone else thinks it's wrong, evil, immoral, etc. etc. We should at least let them have options to prevent bringing even more unwanted children into our overpopulated world. Condoms break, women are raped, things happen. Here's a great, safe way to prevent pregnancy. After all, if you think sex is evil, you probably think that abortion is evil, too.

photo lovin'

I've been to a festival recently, spent time at the park with little kids, and visited a zoo with my niece and nephew. Can you say PHOTOS? I even upgraded my flickr account to accomodate more uploads and archive some of my favorites.

One of my current favorites (that I actually am considering framing and entering into a local amateur photo contest):