Okay, where are my pictures? Somehow, in the transfer - all my photos with this blog have been disappeared. I’ll do my best to remedy this, but I don’t know how well. Just in case someone was looking for them. Dammit.

When I was in kindergarten (which wasn’t for very long as I recall), there were individual stations around the room where we would have some time to dabble in the finer arts of coloring, letters, math and playdoh. Why dear god WHY did I NEVER get put at the playdoh table?

Post-traumatic kindergarten aside, here is the playdoh design. Leave some comments and tell me how you like it.

I have moved to WordPress as my new blogging system. Word. This design, while default and lovely, is only temporary. I also moved the entire blog to a new subdomain of http://brilliant.random-genius.com instead of the previous http://www.random-genius.com/weblog

Why? I’m not sure just yet, but I think it has something to do with Sarah’s article on Redirects, which a large percentage of you won’t care about - but for us SEO/Design nerds, it’s on the brink of fascinating. This is the initial stab at moving the whole thing out of the way of my business site (oooh, which is going to be new today TOO!).

As for the switch, it was cake. And by cake, I mean angelfood with lemon frosting cake. The installation of WordPress was uber easy - so easy, infact, that I’m going to take a stab at the template design today before I lose interest. That’s right - two new websites in ONE DAY!

Two things I learned when I went to the beach the other day:
1) Don’t talk to an old man until you are perfectly sure he has pants on.
2) Don’t follow an old man who isn’t wearing pants uphill.

I’m running all the time. My weekends are filled with as much heavy drinking as I can squeeze in between homework and catching up on Netflix and going to the beach (Lake Michigan) for some rays. And occasionally, I get bitter about all the things I’m doing and how demading they are - but then I have a day like today where I got to help a class of high school students write, produce and shoot a short little story that is damn hilarious - and when I see them all doing the things they have been trained (by me) to do - I get all warm and fuzzy and think that maybe, just maybe, this job doesn’t blow as much as I make it sound.

It does make me sad though, I really wish I could teach all the time. Why oh why hasn’t someone rich come along and paid for my education so I can follow my dream? Isn’t this America?

Well, quickie update I guess - since I don’t have time to write anything entirely philosophical.

I’m working at my job still a healthy 40 hours a week. I’m also teaching a once a week class that my boss happens to be TAKING. On top of another part-time summer teaching job at Notre Dame (woo). On top of taking THREE summer classes - that means, 3 courses that normally take 16 weeks, and cramming them into 8 weeks, all of which are internet courses. One of which, I’m getting “paid” to take - meaning, I can work on it at work, since it’s “worky”. Ala Access databases. The other two are FASCINATING! How I ADORE philosophy. How Human Sexuality enthralls me!

I’m moving to San Diego in January. There, I said it. I’m also doing some big client projects that are somewhat demanding. But overall, all of this overworking means that I will not have time to spend the money I am so diligently earning and will have a considerable amount of my “ideal” moving fund saved up with lots of time left to save up the rest. Things are falling into place in that regards, and I’m SUPER DUPER AWESOME EXCITED! Otherwise, I’m generally tired and can’t wait until July is over and everything slows back down.

So what is UP with me man? Am I really so busy I haven’t been able to write? No. I have been busy though. But here I am, leaving a note to check in.

I’m wearing a skirt today that goes to my ankles. For those of you that know me, that should come as a wild surprise. Add to the fact that it is an ankle-length DENIM skirt, and you should be freaking out. Oh yeah, and it’s Hilfiger. And it wears like a CORSET! I can hardly walk up steps, I have to do this, weird itty-bitty step walk and pull it up so I don’t trip going DOWN stairs. All this strange walking is pissing off my knees. Regardless, I have to note this skirt wearing occasion because it is probably the first time I have worn an entirely modest DENIM skirt since I was, well - in Adventist gradeschool.

Which brings me to my ponderance of the day: How is it possible to so heavily influence a person a certain way - through upbringing, haranguing, and what I like to call an isolated bubble of education - and have them turn out so VIOLENTLY against it years later. And it’s not so much that I willed the turning against it. But it has become so saturated in my subconscious, that I am nearly uncomfortable in what I am wearing today. And while I look “nice” and certainly am not ugly in this outfit, I feel ridiculously out of place.

Today, I am trying to figure out why the one thing my father would be elated to see me wear is the one thing that I’ve worn in the last 7 years that I feel genuinely awkward in.

It’s been a while since I have been “rigorously” single. Meaning, so single, I didn’t want any kind of serious relationship and serially dating. In this somewhat new phase of excessive dating, I have come to find that there I am repeating the same disclaimers to “datees” over and over - so I’m publishing them here for posterity and future reference. Of course, these can (and probably will) change overnight, so none of this holds up in court. :D Without further ado…

Starlight’s Dating Rules & Disclaimers:

1. If you leave a long voice message, it MUST be funny. If it is long and unfunny, I will delete it before I hear the end and probably not call you back.

2. The funnier the message, the more likely I will call back immediately.

3. I am busy. UBER-busy. So if you want to see/hang out/or otherwise harass me, you need to let me know in advance. That being said, if you call and offer a spontaneous option that is more fun that what I have planned, I will most certainly try to squeeze you in.

4. If we didn’t do anything ridiculously fun the last time, and you’re not ridiculously fun yourself, odds are you will fall to the bottom of the “dating totem pole”. Being at the bottom of the dating totem pole means that I am less likely to arrange time to see you, call you or otherwise go out of my way to hook up. One of the ways to get out of this delimma is to force your way in with a funny message and a guaranteed good time. My little black book is like a continually shuffled deck of cards.

5. I am not looking for anything serious, and I expect the same from you. If you are hoping that you will be my one and only, you are sadly mistaken and delusional. It is guaranteed that I am a) seeing other people, b) telling them the same thing, c) expecting the same from you. This rule is only void if I have said out of my mouth, “You are the only person I’m seeing”.

6. No glove, no love.

7. Green monsters aren’t welcome. Take your jealousy and possessiveness elsewhere.

8. If you don’t read, I’m not as attracted to you. There’s just no getting around it. And Steven King doesn’t count.

9. If you like movies that fall into the “lame comedy” and “bad acting” genres, I won’t be as attracted to you. Maybe not at all. I can’t stand bad taste in movies. Although, Steven Segal can be tolerated once in a while - just don’t push it. Or get me drunk first.

10. Active is a must. If you don’t participate in sports, work out, or otherwise participate in activities that require physical exertion, I’m not interested. I like going and doing, not sitting and watching.

11. I don’t watch television. Get over it. If you talk to me about TV shows, I’m not turned on - no matter how much you tell me about how some dude is so awesome on American Idol. I like movies and the Cubs. That’s it. Oh, and Comedy Central.

12. Bad sex/food/restaraunts/bars/kissing must be remedied immediately or I won’t be talking to you ever again.

13. If I’m cooking for you, I really like you and you damn well better tell me you love my food.

14. Ask me questions - geezus, I’ve asked you a million by now, all you have to do is repeat them to me. If I don’t get the feeling you don’t want to know about me, I will get the feeling that you suck.

15. Take me somewhere, introduce me to people, let me shine. I like being arm candy.

16. I’m willing to try just about everything at least once. Bring it on.

17. I do not think Git R Done is funny.

Spring, as they say, is in the air. The release of flip-flops, all my kitten heels and ridiculously short skirts from the closet has led to heralding of SPRING SPRING SPRING I AM SO HAPPY IT’S SPRING!

Things have, and are, changing quite a bit for me. It’s all happening slowly - this isn’t an overnight Emeril sort of change, but more like the simmering sort. The bonus is that it’s not the kind of change I would normally refer to as “ohshitohshitohshitohshit” kind of change.

I have taken it upon myself to regularly indulge in guilty pleasures and momentary fancy - and I love it. Suddenly, I’m flying kites in the park with total strangers, catching rides in red convertibles, reading sprawled on the grass in a suit during lunch breaks, and eating organic food. Before, I think maybe I had lost me a little bit. Well, maybe a lot. But whomever I was that I had forgotten about is whipping out her hot shit, and it makes winter look like a grave.

Incense leads to hippies.