Dude, this season is weaksauce.  The finale better be WAH vs. RC or imma be bitter.  None of them have really captured my fancy this year, but these two crews have been consistently good.  RC has actually had some pretty great moments.  Everyone else somehow manages to only be exceedingly mediocre. 

Also, Shane, why the flying fuck did you replay that move?  Where the Afroborike guys grind their crotches into the girls' faces whilst holding them by the neck?  Ugh. 

It's funny that the "meh"ness of this season has moved me to post again.  I think because the lameness is bumming me out.  This was, and still can be, a great show.  But the producers need to stick with casting for quality.  For Hip Hop.  And not just for the sake of diversity.  Leyomi and her crew seem like cool people, and they've clearly all good dancers, and I'm sure they're amazing in their style.  But they didn't make for an amazing crew, in the long run.  It started off ok, but went downhill pretty fast for me.  Afroborike strike me more as a salsa group that's forced to throw in a few hip hop steps every now and again.  They're never really challenged to go outside of their latin roots (every week they get music that has latin beats or lyrics or whatever).  And the dudes have hair that reminds me of the worst part of the 90s.  Massive Monkeys are kind of disappointing.  I love west coast bboying, but there's something sluggish about their energy. 

Ehh....All of my dancing shows are disappointing me lately. 

Supreme Soul rubbed me a little the wrong way.  Maybe it was my blind Jabba love and MTV's editing.  Maybe because Pharcyde seemed kind of irrititating.  But I have to admit that they were good.  Their hockey-themed routine was pretty cool.  But I have an even better reason to like them:  My best friends' cousins made it into Supreme Soul's Second Generation!  (My brother had heard that they were auditioning people, and he'd heard that the second generation would be called Side Saddle, but I don't have confirmation on the "Side Saddle" moniker.) 

Anyway, MJ and JR auditioned for all 10 Supreme Soul members, but the specifically mentioned Cool Raul, Mitch, Bionic and Pharcyde.  They really seemed to love Mitch and Raul, but said that everyone was cool.  JR told me he wants to rock the letterman jacket ASAP.  :)  There is speculation, not from them, that SS second gen would eventually try out for a future season of ABDC.  That's entirely speculative, and a long ways off anyway, but I hope to leverage this friendship into backstage passes to something cool. : )

I went out to Denny's with my friend and JR a couple of nights ago.  He wants to go to college in southern california.  If he gets into UC Irvine, he wants to audition for Kaba Modern.  If he gets into UC San Diego, he said he'd look into Culture Shock SD or Funkenometry  SD.  But his ultimate dream is to meet/dance with the Jabbawockeez.  He jokingly suggested that he could bridge the JBWKZ/SS divide (not that there's actually any real beef). 

It's so crazy, I remember taking these kids to various recreational events when they were like 7 or 8.  We dragged JR to an Oakland A's fanfest once, and he was a really good sport, even if he did become a typically annoying 10 year old halfway through the day.  

Oh Noes!!1!!  This is so cute/sad that it circles all the way back to freaking adorable.  Awwww.  (Just to clarify, not mine.  I don't have pets.)

It's been a while since I've been online, and it's been a while since Nov 4th but... *ahem*...

WHOOOOO!  OBAMA/BIDEN won!  Sarah Palin can go back to ALASKA!!! 

Hopefully John McCain the Pod Person can go away, and the old, mostly decent John McCain can come back.  It was definitely a great feeling having your "team" win.  It made me hopeful for our country.  And seeing all the crowds across the world celerate, it was touching.  And John McCain's concession speech was amazingly gracious and beautifully delivered.  I suspect it was the most sincere he'd been in several months.  If he had that much grace in this other speeches, it might have been closer.  So, in a way, I'm kinda glad that that John McCain wasn't around much.  But his supporters were douchebags till the end.  What kind of punkasses boo at that moment?  And while I'm softening toward McCain, I still abhor Sarah Palin.  A lot. 

( Other stuff... )

I just inappropriately burst into tears after I found out that one of my brothers threw away the box to my new phone.  The phone with a $70 rebate.  A rebate I can't get without sending in the fucking barcode and serial number cut from the damned box.  Lots of tears. 

I'm honestly not normally this princessy.  I think it's PMS.  And that I'm out of money and I my job only pays at the end of the month. But also, I think it's frustration with the lack of consideration that my brother(s) show for anyone but themselves.  It's like, fuck, stop and think for a minute before you do something to someone else's shit.  It's all part of a pattern of lack of consideration that's gotten way too entrenched as of late. 

My brother seemed genuinely contrite when I got upset.  I know it wasn't malicious.  He was cleaning out the TV room and he removed and stored all the contents of the box before tossing it.  I just don't understand why he didn't just keep the entire thing in a drawer for me.  I know he doesn't have a lot of money, but he didn't even offer to cover any of my lost rebate money.  I probably, as the magnanimous older sister, would have refused to take it (well, most of it), but some kind of offer would be nice.  

John McCain has lost any and all credibility and his campaign runs an increasingly dishonest and desperate campaign.  He may once have been a Washington "maverick" , but that ship has obviously sailed.  Retributively cancelling an interview with Larry freakin' King (he of the softballs and non-research) after CNN's Campbell Brown has the gall to, you know, be a fucking journalist and ask McCain's rep to list one decision that Palin made as Commander-in-Chief of Alaska's National Guard?  How dare she actually insist upon an answer.  Look, guy, that's the kind of media questioning you risk when you choose to transparently pander for votes by picking a running mate at the last damned minute without proper vetting.          

And this horse shit: 


Oh my God.  Sexism is a very real problem.  It's insulting for McCain and his surrogates to use a serious social issue to deflect legitimate questioning of a candidate's (almost nonexistent and entirely unimpressive) record.  It is absolutely infuriating that these GOP douchebags are now crying "sexism" where there is none, especially after all of these years of misogyny and subversion of feminist causes.  Not just abortion, but issues like sexual harassment, contraceptives, workplace discrimination and equal pay for equal work. 

To use Sarah Palin to attract Hillary Clinton voters is an insult to intelligent women.  Politicians with vaginas are not interchangable.  A woman who 1) does not believe in evolution, 2) restricts abortions in all circumstances, 3) tries to ban books from the public library, 4) slashes government funding for teenage mothers' programs, 5) pressures her child into a shotgun marriage and 6) whose only experience is as a mayor of some backwater town and two years as governor of a state with more reindeer than people is not an acceptable substitute.  This isn't even coming from some flame-breathing, man-hating uber-feminist.  I'm a progressive, church-going, catholic democrat with working-class roots.  I also have a couple of brain cells rattling around up there, enough to see through this dangerous, stupid ploy.       

McCain is also way overplaying his POW hand.  Like everyone else has taken pains to say, I respect his service during the Vietnam War.  But as Welsey Clark inelegantly said, getting shot down and being a POW does not automatically make you a good leader or a foreign policy expert.  It does not give you a free pass against any and all questioning.  When someone criticizes you for being out of touch with Americans because you don't know how many homes you own, this is not an acceptable response:

It's pathetic.  The scariest thing to me is that people might actually be buying all of this. 

Congratulations, John McCain.  I might have voted for you and your "Straight Talk Express" in 2000.  I admit I was never going to vote for you this year, even before all of this.  But you have now succeeded in erasing any respect I ever had for you.  Fuck you, John McCain.    

Obama/Biden `08.  I only wish I lived in a state that mattered during election time. 

Is it wrong that I love this photo so much?  XXD 

I may have to memorialize this in icon form. 

So I finished on Thursday.  I'm not happy or upset at my performance.  I did the best that I could.  I couldn't have studied any more for that.  If I don't pass, I don't pass.  But I hope I do.  :) 

In the meantime, I wanted to post this amazing video.  It really shows the power of dance.  It's so hopeful and joyful.  The world united in spazztastic dance.  Seriously though, I cried the first time I watched this.  I'm a crier.


(If it's not automatic, choose the "Hi Res" option.  It's so, so much better.)   ♥

It could have been much, much worse.  I survived and the "easiest" part of the exam is tomorrow:  6 hours of multiple choice.  Thanks for your prayers and good vibes, guys. 

At least I had this to cheer me up when I got home:  pay special attention at :25.


And again at 8:48


That boy and his behind.  XD

My stomach is knotting up.  :*(

I feel like the undead right now. 

1. Got two hours of sleep last night.  My fault.  Didn't go to bed on time.  Kept awake doing stupid stuff.  **Damn you cell phone Scrabble*!!!*
2. Woke up at 8am so I could meet my girls for breakfast at McDonald's. Yeah, we're easy to please.
   
3. Studied in the library 9-12.  Was kinda sleepy.
   
4. Had delicious but greasy Thai food for lunch.  Lunch with the same girls, plus found one of our AWOL chicas in the library and brought her along. 
   
5. Back to the library.  Studied 1:30-6:00.  Eyes went blurry at about 4:30.  Powered through it. 
   
6. Pizza.  Three of us form some kind of Sisterhood of Stress Eating.
   

Is it weird that now I want to go and buy some ice cream?  Never mind that I already have ice cream in the freezer.  That's chocolate peanut butter cup.  I want pistachio! 

I should totally be sleeping. 

I feel weird today.  Just kind of sad and lonely and blah.  Roommates all gone for the weekend.  Big empty house to remind me of my big, empty...everything. </melodrama> 

I'm also doing a great job of convincing myself that I'm going to fail this exam.  Not like my career depends on it or anything.  Oh wait--it TOTALLY DOES.  Gah. 

Fuckin' A.   Stephen Colbert and Conan better make me laugh tonight.  

Redoing my resources post. Me and GIMP are getting better acquainted. If you're a creator of a brush, texture or pattern, and I've used your stuff, lemme know and I'll add a credit.





patterns/textures
sarah dippity
_iconographer    
firecandy89    
ilovetrouble    
ddg_textures    
misarte    
worship_elle    
eveningwalk    
hanabito    
color_wave    
fabi7    @ rule_my_world   
samelthecamel  
pogito 

Brushes:
77_words   
fks_graphics    
kisamehada    
kissncontrol    
go_clo    
pstogimpbrushes    
ewanism    
daisukicons    
miggy    
neke   
starlit_designs 
xgraphicjunkie 
propaganda_live 

       
       

Let me know what you think

( A few more... )

Video I took of Jabbawockeez in SJ.

Available next week at Armory. 

MTV's Remote Control Blog has posted the music video assignments. 

Featuring Mrs. Belle Paguio of course.  I think I also see bgirl Citrus in yellow. If I'm right, she's also in Furious Styles, Phi's old bboy crew in AZ.  I've seen a few of her videos and Citrus is dope.  Love her footwork.

You can't tell me that they aren't any girl crews on the East Coast who couldn't have brought a little something like this?  Instead we get stuck with the likes of Sassx7.  C'mon now.