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Archives for 2007

pee ess

November 15, 2007 by krisis

Okay, so, forgive my meta-ness for a second here, but we need to chat.

We are now at the halfway mark of the month, and I must confess I am not really feeling the NaBloPoMo love this year.

I’m quite sure the NaBloPoMo Ning site is mostly at fault. Last year there were over two thousand of us scrambling to post before midnight every day, and the only way for us to communicate and commiserate was to read each other’s blogs and leave a trail of comments in our wake.

This year there are six thousand of us, all amiably mingling on a social networking site, and our blogs would seem to have become secondary to our networking.

Or maybe it’s just me and my busyness, which is even more meta, because the whole point of NaBloPoMo was supposed to be talking about how great it is to be busy all of the time, as opposed to last year when I spent the entire month in my room reading blogs, drinking martinis, and cultivating my carpal tunnel syndrome.

I had quite a schedule plotted out to cut through the busyness with posts and Trios and links, but these days weeks go by so quickly that I don’t have time to figure out what to do with them. That, combined with some of the less amusing chapters of the engagement story and a Trio that doesn’t seem to want to be recorded, are a veritable blogging blockade.

Or, maybe I’m just taking this all a little too seriously, as is my wont. So, I’m looking to you, gentle readers, to tell me what’s what. Are there some NaBloPoMo blogs that I seriously need to be reading? Is there a type of post you’ve been dying to see from me? Or, for the more well-versed of you, is there a song I’ve been neglecting?

Speak now, or your next fifteen days will most likely mirror the last. Which, honestly, were fifteen days of fairly quality blogging, but I’m nothing if not an overachiever.

Filed Under: bloggish, NaBloPoMo, self-critique

In Pursuit of Bliss, pt. 3 – Rock Shopping

November 14, 2007 by krisis

(Continued from Planning To Be Surprised)

Elise and I had flirted with the idea of ring shopping for ages but – much like my attitude towards the engagement itself – the idea of premeditating our shopping trip seemed queer and uncomfortable.

Plus, pre-meditation would lead to discussion with friends and co-workers, and another one of my (slightly less nonsensical) maxims is a firm belief that a relationship is entirely between the couple. Which, aside from meaning that I consider it arch betrayal for either of us to talk about our sex life to a third party, also seemed to preclude even talking about an engagement ring to someone in a store.

After a month of aimless internet shopping I decided to create a loophole for shop attendants, so as to render our hypothetical eventual engagement something other than an impossibility.

.

I suppose this is a post where I should be imparting seasoned fiancé advice on other men about to embark on the same journey.

Let me get back to you on that one.

.

In preliminary, non-binding discussions about our inaugural shopping trip we seriously considered making up stories and accents and disguises to make the outing less threatening. Elise was going to be British? Or, was I going to be from Florida? Something about us meeting at a convention and falling in love at first sight?

When it came down to it we just had a couple of mimosas for breakfast and charged right in – tipsy on a Saturday and four blocks from Jewelers’ Row with no other plans.

No plans at all, actually – we didn’t have a specific shop in mind, and we stood in awe of various dormant neon jewels hanging over a block packed with at least a dozen jewelry stores.

I turned to Elise.

“Pick a sign, honey.”

.

When it comes to engagement ring shopping, there are three kinds of jewelry stores and, by extension, three sorts of store attendants.

Suppressors do not want you to be armed with information or opinions. Or taste. In fact, if you are armed with any of those things they don’t really want to hear about it. They aren’t interested in educating you – their only interest is to be your one stop shopping center for multi-thousand dollar hunks of rock. They just want you to like what you see and buy it.

Passives understand that you might be armed with information or opinions – that’s okay – buy they don’t plan to do anything to encourage the further development of either. Often a Passive sees ring shopping as an arcane or mystical experience that cannot be approached scientifically. They want you to browse in their store and find the ring for you. If you don’t see it, it’s not for sale – don’t even think about asking for anything customized.

Empowerers hope that you come armed with information and opinions, and if you don’t have one or the other they’ll help you establish them. They want you to understand your purchase, and they’re confident that if you understand it well enough you will shop with them. However, some Empowerers get drunk on their empowerment, which can make them a bit pushy – especially if they are stodgy old men.

The tricky part is telling these people apart, which you might not be able to suss out on your first trip. Sometimes you find an empowering store but draw a passive staff member. Or, you find an empowering employee schlepping the products of a suppressing store.

.

As it turned out, our first store was a terrific choice, we knew a lot more about diamonds than we suspected, and our opinions were a lot more specific than we knew.

I had a certain carat weight in mind for a solitaire ring, but when Elise tried one on it dominated her delicate hand in an unsightly way. Elise knew she wanted a princess cut diamond, but it turned out that she preferred settings other than the basic cathedral she had previously dreamed of.

It was giggly, nervous business. For a while it felt like we were impersonating a happy, marriage-bound couple, until after a few stores we realized that we were a happy, marriage-bound couple.

Our strategy emerged quickly. We’d enter a store, reap the basic hellos and sales pitch, and then get down to business. By store number four we started to come to an understanding about the different types of attendants, and were easily extricating ourselves from undesirable shopping situations.

Teamwork; the sign of a potentially, hypothetically, eventually happily married couple.

After winding our way through a string of unremarkable stores we wound up in Robbin’s 8th and Walnut, which to me is a timeless Philadelphia landmark as much as it is a jewelry store. And, though I was skeptical that it wouldn’t live up to its reputation, it easily did – friendly staff, a huge selection, and warm cookies refreshed at regular intervals.

Any remaining nervousness about shopping melted away – we paced the case with our attendant wearing a half-dozen potential rings on her fingers, handing them to Elise one at a time for comparison. Two hours prior the sight would have seemed surreal, but in the present it seemed completely normal.

.

So, about that advice.

There’s no right time to shop for rings. You don’t have to wait until it’s dawned on you that you’re dating your wife. However, even if you do it in the most casual of ways, it will always hang in your relationship.

That’s not to say you should only shop for rings when you absolutely mean to buy one soon. Just be aware that – much like kisses and “I love yous” – you can’t take ring shopping back. It can mean as little or as much as either of those things can, but it can’t ever be meaningless.

.

We emerged from the trip breathless and armed with ideas. More importantly, we emerged feeling a distinct lack of pressure.

That would come much later.

Filed Under: Engagement, NaBloPoMo

November 13, 2007 by krisis

Earlier tonight in the back of a taxi I realized that Garbage’s “Bleed Like Me” is cribbed pretty directly from “Walk On the Wild Side” by Lou Reed.

Otherwise, nothing to report.

https://www.crushingkrisis.com/2007/11/3290/

Filed Under: NaBloPoMo, thoughts Tagged With: Garbage

Razor’s Dull Edge

November 12, 2007 by krisis

E and I just got in from a sneak-preview of the new feature-length Battlestar Galactica episode, Razor, which doesn’t air for another two weeks.

We didn’t have to sign any confidentiality whatsits, so I suppose I’m free to divulge whatever plot points I see fit.

However, it’s hardly worth it – there’s nothing shocking or titillating present for any well-read BSG fan. The sole delights are Michelle Forbes portraying Admiral Caine’s descent into her ends justifying any means necessary, and an impressive turn from the slight Stephanie Jacobsen in the lead role – as newly introduced Kendra Shaw.

Past the leading ladies Razor is a empty husk of less-than-gripping retconned plot. The twin stories it portrays are both extraneous – the Pegasus history just as grim as you imagined it, and the Battlestar present (actually, occurring just after The Captain’s Hand) is an inexplicably unmentioned adventure in vintage Cylons, hybrid models, and nuclear warheads. The acting in the Pegasus half is up to BSG par, but the present is plagued by limp, frequently stilted performances the two Adamas, with Kara Thrace escaping with a few good scenes (especially with Kendra).

Also, keep an eye out for a too-long, horrifically lazy young-Adama flashback that would have been so much more effective as a patented, heavy on the gravitas Edward James Olmos speech intercut with a few illustrative frames. Nevermind how they plan to explain why he’s never mentioned it before or since.

Without a single true shock to its credit, Razor is drab filler that supposedly presages the major revelations of Season 4. I can’t say that it has inspired any additional fervor from this fervent fan. If anything, it just emphasizes why BSG’s lease on life is drawing to a close.

Filed Under: critique, flicks, NaBloPoMo, teevee

Goodnight, Personal Moon

November 11, 2007 by krisis

After a sleepy first hour or two last night’s fundraiser was wildly successful, and kept me plenty busy with serving drinks, working the door, ordering pizza for the famished hostesses, and playing “name that sample” with Suz during New Age Crew’s set.

After some light cleanup I was deposited back in my home slightly after four in the morning, my hair a tangle of cigarette smoke. (Before Philadelphia’s smoking ban went into effect I would not go out to bars because I had so much hair, and it would suck up smoke like a sponge, leaving me in a nicotine cloud for the remainder of the evening.)

As a result, today I needed a bit of a recharge, which mostly consisted of sleeping through the majority of Fellowship of the Ring. I did, however, managed to catch up a bit on my blog reading, which only compounded the massive backlog of links I have queued since my last link-centric post way back in mid-October. As such, I have the following bounty of links to share.

Every post through Friday on Brenda’s Babes featured an illustrated vintage pinup girl from a classic magazine or advertisement, often accompanied by the history of the image and its illustrator. The blog was cultivated as an entry into a $20k blogging contest, and it won!

Aside from a brief-but-fascinating glimpse into screen-printing, No Commercial Potential produced The Octophant. It’s an image I’d pay major dollars to have on a t-shirt (it strikes me as very Arcati Crisis), but for now you have to settle for a print.

Zen Habits’ article on Fiscal Fitness compares effectively righting an unkempt budget with a sustained weight-loss program. I think it’s an apt analogy; it’s exactly how I got on-budget, and as of a month from now I’ll have stayed that way for four years.

I illustrated this sign on a note from my personal memo pad two years ago, and it has hung at my desk ever since.

An extremely well-written and poignant entry from Nancy at Naked on Rollerskates.

Tokyo-based design publication Ping Mag recently looked at the most eco (-nomic and -logically-friendly) packaging in the country. Fascinating to see, as well as to consider the impact of culture on the design process.

The simple-yet-effective logo for Portugal’s Presidency of the EU. I doubt anything so literal yet abstract could ever emerge from the U.S. government.

I missed the current-event boat regarding NY Girl of My Dreams, but it’s still a fascinating story of the intense power of the internet. Cribbed from Mark Larson.

Useful: 10 questions it’s illegal to ask in a job interview. Reflexively, it’s also information you shouldn’t give away. From Kottke.

Philly gets annoyingly hip with it’s new “One Book” choice: Dave Egger’s What Is the What. (Actually, maybe I’ll be able to stomach Eggers’ writing if it’s constrained to a concise fictional topic.)

I was fascinated by a Mental Floss entry on Dubai’s super-resorts. That’s a little out of my aforementioned budget, though.

Similarly, I’d love to have a personal moon, but I’m not sure that’s in the budget either.

For now I will settle for rockin’ ice stirrers and call it a night.

Filed Under: linkylove, NaBloPoMo, weblinks

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