heathervescent

Mantra Songs

It's guilty pleasure time: PM Dawn style. Here are some videos/songs I listen to on a practically daily basis. Paper Doll is one of my all time favs. Reality used to be a friend of mine is an old friend of mine. PM Dawn happens to be playing at the Knitting Factory Monday night and I am so there! In the meantime, enjoy these vids.

Coffee-Chocolate!

I've returned to the morning habit of coffee-chocolate, although I'm not using the decadent recipe on that page.

I like to switch up habits and although I enjoy my morning coffee, I do change the ways I make it. left Currently I use a red 4 cup Melita coffee filter holder and filter. I boil the water in a kettle on the stove and pour it over the ground coffee directly into the cup. When I want chocolate-coffee, I add rich hot chocolate mix to the cup. Then I might add honey or cream.  It takes about 5 minutes to make a single cup. And about 2 minutes to drink it. I think I might have to make another cup this morning!

on breaking news or cool things

Argh... so this morning I want to scream. I've been scoping out the integratron in Joshua Tree for months, planning to go check it out and write about it for Daily Mantra. So I mention it on b.la and blech, I find out the boingboing covered it early last week (I've stopped reading that site as it depresses me) and it was in the LAT not that long ago and shit - I f*n hate it when I've been thinking about something for a while and then, blam - it explodes onto the scene. So much for being tapped into the collective consciousness.

Then again, I could use that as a way to birth trends into the mainstream or not so mainstream. Or maybe I should use this as the impetus to NOT wait on any idea I have and EXECUTE it immediately. Damn that distraction for the past few months!

I want to be the one writing about the cool stuff and the scoops. I want to be the rock hunter.

But then, there are times I find out about cool stuff and specifically DON'T write about it. Because it's so neat that I DON'T want anyone to find out about it... yet.

Argh. Maybe this is just the motivation I need to write about the next big thing...

Blech.

Updated: AOL in Mountain View is hosting women's entrepreneur unconference. WTF? I'm so glad I spent freaking years in Silicon Valley running the Menttium break out sessions. Maybe I just suck, or maybe I'm just freaky years ahead of my time, I was evangelizing DHTML (what is now known as Web 2.0) in 2000 at AOL, thanks to my iamazing engineering team.

But really world, I'm about 6 years ahead of the trend here. Where's the money in that? Oh, right, I'm not in it for the money... I'm in it to ride the edge of the wave. Still...

OK, this is it. I'm intending an opportunity where I can execute on these innovative forward thinking ideas and actually EXECUTE! Grr.

potential pet peeve of heather

I like to think about habits and things I do that would really drive someone else crazy. Here's another one: Not putting the CDs back in their proper cases. I do have a basic way of organizing my CDs. I have some in cases and some in a a black CD organizer case. Then I have a stack of CDs next the main stereo upstairs. A couple CDs in and out of their cases by the boombox in my bedroom. Then I have a couple of egg crates in my lair with CDs in CD cases (these are mostly for my radio show). So, they are kind of all over the place. So I can totally understand that when you want to listen to a particular something-something you can't always find it. And that can be slightly disappointing, especially since I haven't been able to find the new radicals CD for years and I really loved it. Then again, I still have Clint's Black Crow's CD and I have no idea how I ended up with it.

Anyway, there you have it - another potential pet peeve of a co-habitator.

Habits of Heather: mispronunciation

I have a long standing habit of "mispronouncing" words. I like to think of this are creative speaking. Why limit words to be pronounced only one way. Some words have acceptable multiple-pronunciations, so why stop at tomato? At least that's my theory.

And then I also have the habit of adding letter to words I see that totally change their meaning. For example: taking = talking (I've done this one more than once: taking tiger mountain, taking with the left hand) and naive = native (I like the Talking Heads Native Melody better).

Those are just the two most recent examples I can think of. Language gives me a great structure, but I don't limit myself to rules I learned in English class, or Latin or from Strunk and White for that matter. And words only work because we have agreed to agree on the meaning of them.

pet peeves and other habits of heather

I try to be aware of my habits and behavior that would be potential pet peeves to other people and have identified some pretty good ones.

Pet Peeve of Heather #1: Half-empty cups of coffee left around the house
I love coffee and basically keep a cup around me like a child's blanket. I take it into the shower with me, I keep it in the bathroom, in my closet and on various surfaces in my room. Then there is the garden and various terraces to leave it out on. The cups are generally 1/2 to 1/4 full of left over cold coffee. Because I drink half and half in my coffee a white circle and slight skin forms on top. If left around too long the liquid evaporates. I personally don't have a problem leaving these cups of coffee around as I eventually take them back to the kitchen. But I think this could be a problem for a potential co-habitor. Currently my roommate is not bothered by this.

Pet Peeve of Heather #2: Too much balsamic vinegar
When tossing the salad with oil and vinegar separately (if I am lazy or don't have time to make a full dressing) I throw on the oil first and then the vinegar. I generally always end up putting too much balsamic on it. I don't have a problem with the last dregs of red pepper and greens drowning in balsamic, but certain co-habitators of the past had big issues with this to the point of not allowing me to dress the salad.

Pet Peeve of Heather #3: Forgetting about moderation
Coming home drunk and not behaving like my usual self. *sigh* at least I am somewhat entertained by my antics, but barely. Thank god it doesn't happen that often.

Habit of Heather #1: Bagging my own groceries
It's generally when I'm in Trader Joes, these days the Silverlake Trader Joes. I get in line and as the guy is ringing me up I go to the other side of the counter and start bagging my groceries. I LOVE doing this. It's a challenge to take the groceries as they've been scanned and put them in the bags so the pieces fit together. It's not necessarily the cold items together, but not necessarily not. I just like to have a really nicely packed grocery bag and not have my stuff, which I have lovingly picked out, thrown into the nearest sack.