Life on File

Ciaopanda.com was hosted with godaddy.com and I said enough, so I’m waiting for godaddy to release my domain so I can re-purchase it using the love of my live, dreamhost.com! Because that’s where adanrico.com and this domain, lifeonfile.com, are being hosted at. I want it to be simple to manage all three domains. I really need Ciaopanda.com back because I have, finally, WRITERS!! Yes, can you believe that? People who are willing to write for my online magazine. It’s unheard of and exciting. Must get to it! Pray that no spam lover steals my domain and uses it for only god knows what. I PRAY I TELL YOU!

I’ve been without access to cable or satellite for over a year and half now and I have been getting my news from various sources. For up-to-date world/national news I tune into NPR.org and on the radio NPR: KPPC 89.3 on the FM dial. For my pop-culture fix, I use the insanely addictive

ohnotheydidnt

 ! It’s the only crazy entertainment blog I am allowed access at work. Anyway, on my way to work this morning, NPR had an interesting news bit about pulp fiction stories of the 1920s and 30s. I feel intrigued with the reading of a particular paragraph:

STIRRING HIS COFFEE McFee—Blue Shield
Detective Agency—thought he had seen the girl
somewhere. She had dull red hair. She had a
subtle red mouth and experienced eyes with
green lights in them. That was plenty. But over
her provocative beauty, lay a hard sophistication
as brightly polished as new nickel.
McFee said, “You ought to be in pictures.”
“I’ve been in pictures.” Her voice was husky.
“That’s where you’ve seen me.”
“No, it isn’t,” McFee said. “Sit down.
Coffee?”
“Black.”
The girl let herself drop into the chair on the
other side of the table. Her wrap fell back. She
wore an evening gown of jade green velvet and a
necklace of square-cut emeralds. Her eyes were
guarded but urgent; desperate, perhaps.

Oh my gosh! You just can’t find material like this anymore. I was immediately flown back to the roaring 20s and I can see, smell, and taste the atmosphere of this short excerpt. A transcript of the radio program can be found online here and there’s the entire story free, in PDF format here. I highly recommend reading it if you’re into these types of detective/damsel-in-distress type fiction novels.

PS: O M G
*Apple Keynote 2008: MacBook Air*

I’m so glad my boss gave me the day off to fix my truck problem.

In other news, Iron Man teaser trailer is up. Um… I don’t know how I feel about this. It looks like I’ll like it but I’m afraid I’ll end up disappointed. Mix feelings much? o_O

And WTF? LOL? I don’t know… you decide!

Today will be filled with catching up with A LOT OF THINGS:

• Clean Room
• Take dry cleaning to the dry cleaners
• Get something to eat
  
• Call Mechanic and set up appointment
• Drive to parents house
• Meet mom at 2pm then drive to Mechanic (went by myself actually )
• Come back home and begin doing some homework

News time. I love these… they are so interesting!

Metropolis: Faces & Places

Star Struck

Valleys and peaks:
Singer Olivia has had her ups and downs but always bounces back

By Chris Betros

When she was in elementary school, Japanese-American singer Olivia recalls just wanting to get up on stage, grab the microphone, and show everyone how she could move. “I used to watch a lot of musicals on TV and was really wowed by them,” she says. “I guess that’s what started me on a singing career.”

Born in Okinawa in 1979, Olivia grew up there, as well as in California, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, before returning to the island. After being scouted, she started her musical career, which included singing the theme song for the 1998 World Cup. Her debut solo single came in 1999, followed by an album in 2000. “When I debuted, I was only 16. I was still having fun singing and dancing at school,” she recalls. “Then I had the chance to come to Tokyo and get paid for it.”

Olivia’s genre is rock or alternative pop, but she doesn’t like to be pinned down. “Right now, I’m mixing J-pop, rock and electronica, but I don’t want to limit myself. I don’t like to say I am a rock musician or this or that. I have a lot of different ideas and try to follow them. I go with my own intuition.” She writes her own lyrics most of the time. “I try to be honest with what I feel at the moment and write about my peaks, whether they are high or [low]. I am most creative when I am relaxed. That’s nighttime. I am trying to change it to the morning, when I feel fresh. Before I used to go to sleep around 5 or 6am, but I can’t keep doing that.”

Most recently, Olivia has been singing the opening and closing songs to the hit music-themed TV series Nana, which is based on a manga. “Nana is an amazing comic. I can really relate to the character. I’m waiting to see what’s going to happen to her.” She is also planning to release a couple of singles and an album this year and says she would like to do more live shows.

Olivia is enjoying her creative streak, but things weren’t always this good. In 2004, she took a long break due to stress. “I had been recording nonstop in the studio—four mini-albums and one full-length album. The pace was too fast for me. It wasn’t fun anymore, and they were still wanting me to do more. But I just couldn’t. I was really upset that my passion had gone, so I had to get away to somewhere with a lot of nature. I stayed away from music for a couple of years. I was really scared my creativity wouldn’t come back. I wasn’t listening to any music because that would upset me. Then one day, I was in Burbank, walking by a store and heard music playing and it sounded so nice to me. I felt the urge to write and listen to music again.”

Olivia has found other creative outlets over the years, such as fashion design. She is also very health conscious and avoids fast food. “I like to exercise, meditate and go to onsen. I am planning to go to India for a couple of weeks so I can change my perspective. Eastern philosophy appeals to me.”

Coming from Okinawa, Olivia is naturally interested in political issues. “On the one hand, I definitely would like to see US bases leave Okinawa, but there are a lot of Japanese people employed on the bases. I lived on base because my father was in the military, so I see both sides of the argument.”

(source)

Metropolis: Clubbing

Sugiurumn
For those who weren’t there, the Japanese DJ has a musical tribute to the Second Summer of Love

Fast-emerging Japanese house DJ Sugiurumn drops an unalloyed exercise in Second Summer of Love nostalgia in the form of his new disc, What Time is Summer Of Love? The former frontman for cult indie band Electric Glass Balloon, Sugiurumn turned his attention to DJing full time after the band’s 1998 breakup.

Sugiurumn began to raise his profile following a year 2000 trip to dance epicenter Ibiza, launching his continuing House Beat residency at Daikanyama nightclub Air and creating a stir with his upbeat 2005 dancefloor hit album, also straightforwardly named House Beat.

With What Time is Summer Of Love? the DJ and record label Avex have upped the ante, splashing out on a posse of authentic “Madchester” veterans. They’ve been recruited as guest vocalists on a tribute to the late ’80s’ Second Summer of Love, as the acid house boom centered around infamous Manchester club the Hacienda was known. No less than Creation label (Oasis etc.) impresario Alan McGee himself introduces the album with a vocal paean to the Second Summer of Love.

The album then proceeds with a series of rave-ups featuring Tim Burgess of the Charlatans, Mark Gardener from shoegazers Ride, and Rowetta from party animals the Happy Mondays, just to name a few of the Madchester royalty along for the fun. Sugiurumn effectively invokes the textures of early acid house, from its buzzing analog synth sounds to its ecstasy-suffused mash up of Detroit techno and Chicago house beats with UK indie-rock.

The release party for What Time Is Summer Of Love? will feature a live performance from Rowetta, whose potent, gospel vocals were a highlight of the Happy Mondays’ appearance at last summer’s Fuji Rock Festival…

Another leader of the latest generation of Japanese house DJs with a new disc out is the artist known as Studio Apartment (aka Masanori Morita), who hosts the eponymous events at Yellow. Unlike the standard mix-compilation, Tool is an unmixed, unedited comp of fresh tracks intended simply as a “tool” for DJs.

Japanese act Nomad Foundation establishes the mood with “Circulation,” an uplifting house track seasoned with a dash of synthetic effects. Veteran New York denizen Kerri Chandler chips in with the propulsive garage of “So Let the Wind Come,” while Tiger Stripes’ “People I Know” is fueled by warm keyboard melodies. Nothing revolutionary here, but nevertheless a good indication that, as house turns 20, there are still plenty of new producers coming through the ranks.

(source)

W I R E D : Culture & Lifestyle

The 10 Real Reasons Why Geeks Make Better Lovers

I’ve read recently that geeks make better lovers because they are so unaccustomed to romance that they will do anything for their mates. Also because geeks don’t have the social skills to cheat (wanna bet?).

Yeah, ha ha, let’s chuckle at the stereotypes. Might as well add that geeks won’t waste valuable relationship time watching football. Or that geeks are clueless and fashion-impaired and have the social skills of a bowl of fruit.

But you know what? Humorous Top-10 lists aside, geeks really do make the best lovers, for reasons that have nothing to do with adolescent ostracism or puppy-like devotion.

It’s all about sex-tech.

Geeks build it so you will come

Second Life’s SexGen animation system, Red Light Center’s (NSFW) beautiful sex animations and open-source teledildonics did not simply coalesce out of the mists during a marketing department meeting.

These projects require strong technical know-how along with an open-minded approach to sexual variation. After all, you can’t build sex-tech that serves only your own preferences if you expect others to use it. Especially if you want them to buy it.

That geeks have the passion to commit their technical skills to expanding sexual options for everyone is evidence enough of their enthusiasm and dedication as lovers.

Geeks get personal with tech

All engineers may be geeks, but not all geeks are engineers. Doesn’t matter. You don’t need to know how to build a platform in order to do a half-gainer in full pike with a twist into the river of love.

A geek is more likely to figure out how to customize toys and to design arousing environments for your avatars to play in than a non-geek. And that experience translates into a greater sensitivity to atmosphere and mood during sex — beyond lighting a candle.

Don’t be surprised if your geek lover puts more thought into arranging the boudoir than you do, or if common household items (“pervertibles”) soon take on a new dimension. More than one geek has told me that Home Depot is their favorite adult store.

Geeks dig consensual role playing

Geek lovers combine a well-developed and oft-exercised erotic imagination with their physical technique. It isn’t a big leap from “I’m a level-13 thief, evil-aligned” to “I’m the prison warden and you’re the new detainee.” Scientists and therapists alike claim that the brain is the most critical sexual organ; a geek’s familiarity with fantasy arouses your mind even as the handcuffs — or the bag of loot — bring your body to attention.

Geeks interact

A technophobe mostly talks to you in person, but a geek is happy to be with you by texting your phone, flirting with you in a chat room, Skyping you, Twittering just in case you’re on your vibrating couch (NSFW), sending funny cell-phone snapshots to your e-mail, playing online games, commenting on your blog, Digging articles that interest you, seducing you by instant message….

Geeks get things done

Geeks know all the shortcuts. They research your interests, send you surprise gifts, plan your perfect vacation, get the bills and grocery shopping out of the way, write to their mothers, and tease you mercilessly, all while pretending to work. And when you ask them to set up your home Wi-Fi or install a home theater, it’s done quickly, expertly and without complaint.

In other words, geeks know how to get everything else out of the way so there’s more time for lovemaking.

Geeks are hot …

… and wear the coolest glasses.

Geeks don’t shock easily

Geeks have seen all the porn you can imagine and then some, priming them to be open to your sexual peccadilloes. They are not only less likely to be shocked by your exotic requests — they might not even realize that other people think your turn-ons are exotic.

Conversely, your geek lover might be relieved that your wildest fantasy involves only two other people, five utensils and a trapeze.

Geeks know kinky people

Geeks haven’t just seen a variety of positions, kinks and fetishes in blue movies. They know (or are) people who enjoy those things, so they don’t dismiss entire categories of sexual interests as the sole province of a bunch of weirdos in San Francisco.

It’s hard to sustain prejudice and bias against an abstract group when you develop relationships with individuals and discover they’re just like you. It doesn’t matter if they dress up like ponies, or refuse to conform to a societal idea of gender norms, or eat pancakes for dinner. Geek lovers know better than to try to impose their sexual preferences or standards on others — including your friends — and are more likely to love and let love.

Geeks understand multi-dimensional relationships

Geeks connect with their online buddies in several guises, often getting to know the person behind the avatar as friendships deepen and move from adult communities to personal IM.

A geek can flow seamlessly between conversation about a friend’s partner and kids in one window and an elaborate group sex scene in another, without feeling any discontinuity between the personas. Even if the friend is a 43-year-old father of two in IM, and a 22-year-old dominatrix in the group.

With all that going on, a geek has no problem accepting that sometimes you want mocha ripple cherry fudge chunk swirl with almonds and a waffle and sometimes you want vanilla lite.

Geeks aren’t threatened by new tech or “the future of sex”

Geeks have read the science fiction. They know the dire predictions of a world in which the sticky press of flesh is replaced by neural nets and sex robots that also do housework (or is that house robots that also do sex work?).

Geeks have imagined more sexual dystopias than the average person and are the first to see the technological developments that could lead us down dark paths. Which only makes sense, considering who develops those technologies in the first place.

At the same time, geeks know better than anyone that something always goes wrong when you lean on machines for your social fulfillment. A geek doesn’t mind if you bring home the iiErotoTrix 5000 v3 — as long as you share it.

Literacy and the printing press did not replace sex; neither did photography, automobiles, video, online porn or 3-D escort services. Geek lovers spend enough time with technology to appreciate the unique wondrousness of human touch.

See you next Friday, Regina Lynn

(source)