Willo O'Brien

Saturday morning, after finally getting my ass outta bed and walking over to my car, was when the bummer hit (car towed). The good news though is that Karima’s offered to split some of it with me. Which she totally didn’t have to do – as it was my risk in leaving it… but it’s nice of her. We both learned our lesson – her studio neighbor isn’t as nice as she thought! :p Just kidding. Rightfully so that he was pissed, but it just didn’t have to go down like that… Either way – it’s behind us, whats done is done, yadda yadda. :)

Saturday night Rick & I went for sushi, where my bro got to join us for a little bit! yay!! He might open another Om Imports gallery in the Haight, which would be cool. I need to hang out with that guy more often!!

Then Rick & I hit a movie: The Lord of the Rings! I was psyched to finally see it… it was good! That Golum is down right FREAKY in this one – and the special effects across the board, in all those fight scenes were just amazing. Ironically I had had a hot dream the night before about being in bed with hottie Liv Tyler… who then morphed into Kat and we were trying to look something up online, both with only our skivvies on. Aaah, dreams.

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Sunday was awesome… I met up with Darren & we hit A.P.E., the Alternative Press Expo!

I got to meet Keith Knight of “K Chronicles“, and Shannon Wheeler of “Too Much Coffee Man“, both of which I’ve been big fans of for a long time. I was uber geeked on the whole thing!! Pig in dirt, Kid in a Candy store – all that! My eyes were wide and I couldn’t get enough as we went from table to table, strategically covering the entire expo as to not miss a thing. :) Darren is a good expo buddy!!

I was also suprised to see Brandon Bird there, who I just linked to 2 weeks ago! I picked up a print of his and had him sign it for me. RAD!!

As inspiring as it all ways it’s also hard to not feel like “gawd! who the hell do I think I am that I have any shred of talent to do anything when I see all these AMAZING artists who seem to be only living on a shoestring and they’re way better than me!” But Darren’s great at reminding me, and a belief I hold onto as well, is that there is room for everyone to do their own thing and be who they are. Everyone does it differently and has their own set of skills. And truth be told, it’s more about being compelled to do your art regardless of it’s return monetarily (however that’s always nice too :) but that passion is what drives all these artists to do their comics and artwork anyway – and more power to them!!!!

I loved seeing the incredibly talented women artists there. I wish I would have connected with them more actually. I got this amazing print from this young girl named Daria who doesn’t even own a computer (!) and does kick ass silkscreens and homemade cards and shirts and patches and all kinds of cute DIY stuff. I thought she was great.

Darren & I are gonna get together & have a art date (soon I hope!) and do some silkscreening and button making and painting!! He’s got mad skills and is like me and wants to start dedicating more time to his art (except he’s actually already doing it big time! HE ROCKS!)

So now all those productive talented people are like a little team of motivators in my head now: GET BUSY WOMAN! It was very cool.

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After APE, I headed over to meet Matt’s (my ex boyfriends) new kitty Donovan… or as Matt likes to call him “Big Don” or “Big D” :)

He adopted him from the SPCA and he’s really sweet and cuddly… you can tell he’s so happy to have a loving home… and I am really happy Matt got himself a cat to love and care for because I know he’s been missing our baby Kazoo so much. And now Kazoobie’s got a cousin! (even though really it’s a step brother, sorta, cousin just sounds cooler).

It was good to see Matt, but wierd to see his place for the first time since our split – and see all the things that used to be in our house, now in his. His place is a mess though… which makes me think back to how frustrated I’d get with how messy our place was all the time. Not that I’m any saint in the clean department by any means!! But it’s harder with 2 even, and I don’t think it’s in Matt’s genes to be a super clean guy. :)

It seemed less sad and akward this time… and it’s amazing how I feel like we’re such different people now. But I still love him so much and just think the world of him as a person… he’s SUCH a good guy and so full of love. I hope our friendship can grow and get less weird, because I definitely want to have him in my life. I think we might do dinner next week.

Anyway – that’s FINALLY my update!!! I’ve gotta have lunch now!!

Friday night was awesome!! (before the towing incident reality hit the next morning, but more on that in a bit).

First I met up with this darling girl Karima Cherif, who is a photographer I met about a year ago at a Copyright 101 for Artists workshop. She’s a mad talented photographer and just a bundle of zest, creativity and sexual energy. We had exchanged info at the workshop, and planned to have coffee sometime, but never did. So recently when I ran across my old post about meeting her and had clicked on her site, I sent her a quick email to compliment her on the new works I saw there and say hello again. And I’m glad I did – she’s such a cool gal, it’s great to reconnect with her.

So we decided to meet for Happy Hour at the The Monkey Club, where we downed delicious Mojitos and I had a tasty hummus, olives and dolmas plate (the hummus was so authentic it was almost like peanut butter or some kind of smooth cheese… sounds weird I know – but it was melt in your mouth delicious!). Her friend John joined us, and shortly after Rick arrived, too.

It was great to see Karima, as she works for herself too and can relate to a lot of the hurdles and structure it takes to be an independent creative. I can’t wait to hang out with her again. She also wants me to be a model for her Sexy Sushi Calendar… do you think I should do it? I’m kinda nervous – but I think it’d be fun. So we’ll see…

After that Rick & I hopped in a cab (unknowingly leaving my poor car to the fate of tow truck hell) and headed to the Edinburg Castle to check out Manny’s band Skiffington. We were psyched to hit the Castle since neither of us had been in ages. It’s a quality dive bar with an upstairs that boasts a stuffy low ceiling’d room with about 5 tables and a small stage for crazy ass bands to play. Good times. I was super bummed to have forgotten my camera at this point because I missed a great shot of this chic jammin out air guitar style on the floor with Manny. Absolutely hilarious. And besides the great Pixies cover song, the best part was their song “I like taking Ecstacy and F*ing like Bunnies!!” that had Rick & I just ROLLING. Check it out.

After they were finished we had Manny introduce us to Missy who we’ve chatted over email w/ forever, but had never met in person. We finished our drinks & then hopped in a cab to head over Thee Parkside for the Hate Breeders (Misfits cover band – AWESOME!!!!!) and Cookie Mongoloid show.

There we met up with JT, Conan, Grady and Erika, and Tack – and had a fantastic time. The Hate Breeders were amazing! But I *must* tell you all about Cookie Mongoloid!!!

COOOOOOOOKIIIIIIEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, that’s right people… it’s “Sesame Speed Metal”!!! This guy, Loid :), has got on the cookie monstor head & hands – and aaall leather – and they ROCK out the Sesame Street tunes!!! HAHHAAA!!!

photo by laughing squid. more here.

The best part is he’s got about 5 girls with him, dressed up like cheerleaders, each with a big “C” on their shirts who pass out COOKIES!!!!!! They throw them everywhere – cookies are on the floor, we’re slippin & slidin’ on the crumbs, everyone’s got one in hand and smiling and loving the whole damn thing – IT WAS GREAT!!!!!!!!!

Again where I wish I had my frickin camera was to see all those peeps I mentioned above (except sober Grady :) in a line, arms around eachother kickin their legs up and singing along with Cookie Mongoloid!! HILARIOUS!

We were delightfully toasty by the time we closed down the bar… :) We debated meeting up with our friends Brian & DJ Jenny ShOOey, but decided that would surely lead us to an all nighter, so we thought we’d better go home instead.

It was *such* a fun night!!

my friend Matt said this LaunchBar is pretty sweet for using less mouse, and quickly getting to anything you need by just a couple buttons. Pretty cool!

Check out this cool Flash app my friend Cody made!

Tally your Sushi Boats

You can download it to your pocket PC and keep a tally of your bill! Neat!

As promised, I’ve documented & posted about my new CD organization system. It’s nothing monumental or anything, but for me it’s very exciting and has created an extremely efficient and easy way to store and access my CDs.

Check it out!

I met up with a friend for drinks lastnight and afterwards she said it’d be ok if I left my car parked where it was, in the driveway of her studio space. I asked her over & over, saying I could definately move it, but she insisted I leave it there – and that she’d leave a note so that the other people who use the space wouldn’t have it towed.

Well, you can probably guess where this is going. The jerk she shares space with even saw the note that said specifically that I was a friend of hers and to not tow it – and he goes ahead and has it towed. GRRR!!!! So we get there and talk to him… and understandable that he didn’t want my car there, but he could have called her & she could have called me!! And I wouldn’t have frickin parked there if she didn’t say it wasn’t OK!

So $171 for the tow fee, and not one, but 2!! $75 tickets on the car when they pull it out of the lot. Oh, and my friends nice note was still on there, too.

I can’t stand it when all of a sudden you have to pay a couple hundred dollars for NOTHING. I just think of all the things I could have bought with that money.

SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

• Howard Dean has officially withdrawn from the race :(
• A bird flu is spreading? AK!!!

Look! New life! Spring is coming! :)

I got this big gorgeous plant from Bee about 5 years ago. It was probably 1/2 the size and I have been loving and taking care of it ever since. It’s pretty big, huh!?

It’s always exciting to see a plant growing! Change… growth… life!!

Way back, I had posted about getting some advice on a yummy latte drink. At the time I didn’t have comments implemented, but I got a bunch of fantastic emails and about a month later, I posted that I had finally found my new favorite coffee drink! A double shot, soy latte!!

Shortly after, Kat & I were chatting and she said that I simply must get myself Junior Espresso, because they’re so inexpensive & make it super simple to make espresso at home. Well a couple weeks ago, I finally did!! Kat gave me a demo at her place the morning before we all headed up to Tahoe, and then when I bought it I had her give me a few more suggestions by phone, and now I am proud to say, I am making myself yummy double shot, soy latte’s in the comfort of my own home! YUMM!!! Thanks Kat!

To give you a little idea of how I’ve got my current machine set up all super convenient, I thought I’d just let you take a look for yourself:

• My absolute favorite is having my permanent address bar at the bottom there. I am constantly online or searching for some site, etc. And this way I don’t have to always launch a new I.E. (Internet Explorer)window and then type in what I want, but instead I can type it in right there & hit Ctrl+enter (the shortcut for having it make it automatically add the http:// and the .com at the end) AND I can even use it as a search by typing in keywords and hitting enter and it’ll bring up the search results.
• Quick launch bar has pretty much all the programs I use regularly, or just want on hand for when I do want to use them.
• See “Links >>” on the bottom-right? Clicking that expands the same list that’s the Favorites > Links I have on the quicklaunch bar in I.E. My most visited sites that I want at a touch of a button. I also use the yahoo bar AND the google bar on my browser. Yahoo because I use all their services: Address book/calendar/notepad/YP/maps, etc and google for the Autofill and search box.
• I rarely use the shortcut icons on the desktop, but there are some I don’t want to stick in my quick launch bar, so they remain there… and as you can see, are sort of clumped together in categories.
• Doubling the space of the bar at the bottom not only gives more room for quick launch, but it allows more room to see what open programs/windows I have open – and I can see the full date and time in the bottom right hand corner.

As you can see, *I heart my PC!* – hence making a switch a difficult one.