modemgirl

hey i have a photoshop challenge for anyone who’s up for it! i’d like a mashup of these two images, however you see fit. i’d do it myself but with work + studying + mixing+ sun = can only handle so many hours in front of a computer before my eyes fall out of my head.  plus i realized i have a lot of designer friends who are far more excellent at photoshop than i, and it will probably take you like four seconds to spit out something that will take me all afternoon.

there’s another image here that might help, and one here that might make your head explode.

also… i am offering like +5453453 awesome points to anyone who understands why this combination of concepts is hilarious. because it is! and so is the mix. crystal distortion, trollybus circus, biroshima, britney spears and REM finally together at last. freetek!!!

<3serra

ok, i’m going to write my CCNA exam in a couple weeks, for serious it’s true this time. so before i started studying yesterday i took a moment and did some mixing, and this is what happened. the back story is that i went to co-lab for some bass the night before, and ran into my friend leon. (yes leon, i’m blaming this on you.) i’ve only met this dude a couple times before, but i’ve decided he’s cool based purely on the fact that he likes spiral tribe and unit mobius. call me techno-prejudice!

i’ve been listening to a lot of fifth era style doom techno lately. i can’t explain it, but for some ungodly reason this is sort of what it sounds like inside my head a lot of the time. perhaps i am just fully embracing the fact that i am soon going to be officially “late night college radio techno lady” and don’t have to pretend to play normal music at all anymore? but really i’ve had an insatiable love for this kind of techno since i was a teenager and it doesn’t appear to be dissipating as i grow up despite the fact i admit it’s almost completely devoid of any technical musical merit.

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M0D3MGIRL-NETWERKKOMANDAH

this is a 40 minute livemix, no edits, far from perfect and and very much NOT for the techno lightweight. recorded in the midst of a circadian transition from day to nightwalker while studying a million hours a day, i’m not going to pretend this is accessible or nice to listen to, but still i will post it for .00000001% of the population who vibrate at the same wavelength as i do….  the first song is one of many ‘relics’ from the aqua zara vaults – a mecca of MP3s downloaded from “napster” in 28.8k glory back in 1999-2000 – and features a sample from “hello my future girlfriend, this is what i sound like” along with an assortment of hard techno, booty house, and “deathno” (but not the nice kind like you want).

this video isn’t new, but it’s adorable, and it’s friday night for me, woo! enjoy your tuesday everyone ^__^

Hey next month I am participating in the Ride to Conquer Cancer! The ride goes from Vancouver to Seattle and is a fund raiser, with all proceeds going to fund cancer research by the  BC Cancer society. This is something that I’ve been interested in doing for a while now, being both a cyclist and someone who’s been profoundly impacted by this disease, so when another girl from my work put out the word that she was looking to put together a PEER 1 team I knew this was the year.

So my Surly Long Haul Trucker is going to finally get a chance to do what it was built to do. 227 km in two days, south across the 49th parallel. Me along side thousands of others riding in memory of those we’ve lost and in hope and support of those still fighting the battle. I imagine it’s going to be quite a challenging ride, both physically and emotionally – as I’m assuming the majority of us are not full time long distance cyclists such as the owner of my bike’s brother, IT guru turned renegade tekno cycling nomad. I think most of us are in for a real challenge – Fingers crossed for sunny skies on June 19 and 20th!

I’m sure everyone involved in the ride has their story. Personally, I’ll be riding in honour of my mom, who we lost to pancreatic cancer in January of 1992, when I was 7, as well as her sister who died of lung cancer in 2007, in support of my uncle who is still fighting, and in celebration of a family friend and a loved mentor who have both emerged triumphant from the disease. I’m sure there are countless others in my life who have been affected by this disease, and I’ll be sending love and light to everyone as I peddle down to Seattle next month.

Hey remember back in 2008 when I raised nearly $1000 for chopping all my hair off with a group of girls from my old job? (That’s me in the yellow in case you can’t recognize me in all my business casual glory!) I was overwhelmed by the support from my family and friends that year, and I’m hoping all you wonderful people are still as amazing and generous, because  I have to raise at least $2500 in order to participate in the ride! I still have a long way to go, and I’m counting on support from viewers like you!  Operators are standing by now to take your call…. or you could click on over to my personal fund raising page. Every little bit helps, and there’s an option that allows you to make multiple smaller donations over time which makes donating even easier.

I hope that you’ll all consider sharing this incredible adventure with me by supporting my fund raising efforts.

In advance, I Thank You all SO much for your generosity.

Love and Light,
Serra

these pervs are sick and sewage treatment plants
around the unsatisfied delicate newcomer does bed-dancin
wixted was beaten. with I hope they get
john’s school for the deaf but remained into the movement.
i cany believe. it hurts others. less 35 minutes. ago
Its them who. are protected

as some of you may have heard, i’ve recently crossed a threshold i’ve been adamant i would never cross. that is, until i could afford to, at which point i’ve known all along i would do so gleefully while screaming and running as fast a possible in the other direction. yes, it’s true, i bought a mac. thanks to toph as well as the myriad of others who offered support during this difficult transition.

ripping on fanboys has always been a favorite hobby of mine, mostly just because i like to be a jerk sometimes. also because well, they’re kinda obnoxious. especially when i’m the one having a mental breakdown, zapping my p-ram while searching for drivers that don’t exist, attempting to interpret why exactly my IRQS are NOT LESS OR EQUAL, and attempting to deal with the existential crisis that is: operating system not found. and they’re sitting there ever so earnest/smugly, with their sweater vests and stylishly minimalist hardware. with their stupid laptop that’s probably working out the cure for cancer while magically backing itself up to a server in the sky and making them breakfast in bed. the laptop that drinks a latte while they watch me rage/flail with a mixture of pity and disgust as time after time the smallest tasks turns into a one way trip down to the suckfest that is windows troubleshooting purgatory. for example. here is a transcript of me trying to watch an episode of my favorite show, cookie party! from the other day.

CLICK.

what the hell, the video is all choppy and the audio isn’t synced. stupid thing was working yesterday… maybe i’ll try a different episode…… file not found, what do you mean file not found? i just watched that one, ass! okay fine, i’ll click here to locate it myself. now my external hard drive isn’t mounting? ughh ok, re-seat the usb and ok, there we go. now where’s that stupid file? what? ok, windows ffffff there it is …. sorry but you’re missing .r10, please insert the disk with .r10 to continue. what the hell, way to know how to rip video, idiots. i re-download the file from the cookie party server to find that the missing file was there all along, but named incorrectly. so how about i just rename the file and open it, but the video still looks like garbage! GROWL…. fine i’ll just try to stream it from their site. what’s this i have to install… super happy video player and fun time adbar?? and…… now there’s naked ladies and poker chips everywhere??? ARGHh i just want to watch cookie party in peace and now there’s 34830492 popups all over the place, and firefox is crashing, and the audio is frozen in a loop of the sound of a screaming baby ARGFJSDLKFSDJFSDF ABORT ABORT ABORT. try to restart properly but no love, time for the magical PUNCH IN THE FAAAAAAACE and try again. FILE SYSTEM NOT FOUND FML?!?!?!?!?!?  get xp disk and boot to recovery console, chkdsk, or maybe scandisk if you’re feeling fancy, or perhaps my old friends fixboot / fixmbr will come along and save the day! eventually finding my way back into an operating system that is trying to make my life hell, i try cookie party again and it works! perfectly. ugh. no idea.  time for a drink and this, is why i hate windows. and also why i drink.

i’m an MCSA (microsoft certified systems asshat) and i spent three years working helpdesk / sysadmin for an office of 100+ people. aka I KNOW HOW TO USE WINDOWS and IT CONSTANTLY BREAKS. partially, because i attempt to make it do things that it’s not meant to do, like run CPU intensive vinyl emulation software on an IBM T42 that should’ve been laid to rest years ago. but mostly, because of the constant incompatibility issues. so many vendors, so little standardization. initially it was a matter of principal – i’m a professional geek, right? i should be able to make my computer work! but over the past year i’ve realized that i like USING my computer a lot more than i like FIXING my computer. i spend my professional life fixing things for other people, so unless i’m getting paid, i have NO INTEREST in troubleshooting on my free time! so, i bought a mac.

it’s hilarious, because i’m so very much from windowsland. everyone said ‘oh, you’re tech savvy, it will take you like 30 minutes to figure it out!’ NOT TRUE. i feel like a little kid again with my mac, because i have no idea what’s going on. so not only do i not HAVE to troubleshoot (because THINGS WORK) but i CAN’T because I am completely clueless as to how anything works. i can’t right click. my normal button mashing does nothing. thus, using a computer is fun again. some things i love about my new mac so far: – IPHOTO. amazing. automatic syncing to flickr by dragging and dropping into album ftw. also it’s just a rad app. – didn’t have to spend 3 hours uninstalling unnecessary shit and reinstalling non-shit applications to accomplish every day tasks –  traktor installed in about 14 seconds and worked immediately (now i just need to go about getting a full copy of it, which i technically own a legal copy of, but don’t have the software or a working key) –  i haven’t gotten a single error message yet – i’m sitting in a coffee shop on the way home from yoga class drinking mocha and using a it. haha. no it’s not a starbucks.

a few weeks ago a close friend was hitting wits end due to a series of unfortunate events coming to a head all simultaneously. stressed to the max and overwhelmed with doubt and depression, i was unsure if any words i could offer would provide the solace he so much needed, so after some serious hugs i dragged him off to a hot yoga class at Yyoga.

sharing a class with someone close is something i’d never done before, and it was an amazing experience. it brought a new level of awareness to my own practice, and to the personal journey that yoga has taken me on so far. seeing him struggle through his first attempts at downward dog brought me unexpected joy, as i realized this is something that’s had a profound impact on my life and  i was so glad to be sharing it with someone, especially a friend in need.

i look back on my personal blog to a few years ago and i can’t believe the overall transformation my outlook on life has undergone. obviously i’ve made a lot of significant changes to my lifestyle, but i attribute daily yoga practice as a significant source of truth and clarity. yoga teaches focus on breath and awareness of self, and for me this has manifested in everyday life as a loss of negativity and unwillingness to buy into my own bullshit. it’s challenging to lie to yourself on the mat, when all you have to do is breathe.

38 degrees, an hour and a half and about a litre of sweat later, we lay on our mats next to each other feeling both exhausted and elevated. he looked over at me, grinning, and i could tell that momentarily all the hurt and stress had melted away and at that moment all he was thinking of was probably the huge puddle of sweat on his mat, or simply…….”holy crap.” it was beautiful to share that high with someone significant in my life, and made me realize how important it really is to me.

since then i’ve been thinking that it’s very likely i will need to find a partner who shares my passion for yoga if i truly want to be engaged and fulfilled with the relationship. or perhaps it’s not yoga specifically – but the well being, self awareness, positivity, simplicity and mindfulness that i’ve found along the road of my practice so far. either way, the day i find someone who can put these values into everyday life without being pretentious or obnoxious about it, while also being adorable and hilarious, i think will be a very happy day for me indeed. we can grow together as our virabhadrasanas (warriors) grow stronger and laugh at each other as our kakasana (crows) grow old and toes go numb from extended salamba sirsasanas (headstands).

with the openness promoted by the practice i feel it would be very challenging to harbour the toxins that eventually break down relationships. yoga strips away so much of the every day crazy, brings focus inward, while instilling clarity and peace of mind. the asanas (postures) are really only a secondary benefit of the practice. the main goal is to be present, set an intention, and breathe. and smile. and breathe.

this is my current avatar at work. thanks to the oatmeal’s article about customer service.

today i am attempting to configure cross posting between wordpress and LJ! and now,  it works! awesome awesome awesome.

next on the list:

automatic twitter updates for new posts
better flickr integration
make a logo

SOMEDAY i’ll get the stream working. oh wait i need a new laptop for that. QUIET TOPH, IM NOT BUYING A MAC.

this past weekend i had the good fortune of being invited to bikes inside! a “bicycle themed dance party” put on by the nice people at thisisplanb.net and jimfamous. with the promise of bike porn visuals (bikesmut.com), gastown sprints (stationary bike races), bike art, and cheap beer set to dubstep, electro and disco, i was intrigued to say the least!

the event was held at the w2 culture and media house, which is a new venue in the heart of vancouver’s notorius downtown east side, across from the newly revamped woodwards building. the venue first caught my eye a few weeks ago when i was biking down hastings to work one night, and i noticed the entire building engulfed in flame. after doing a double take and almost being run over by a motorist who was as distracted as i was, i realized i was looking at a video loop of fire being projected onto three floors worth of full sized windows.

i arrived fashionably late to the party, after helping a disenchanted unicorn recover from an unexpected rendevous with gravity, her bike, and a parked car’s side view mirror, followed by an exciting two adventure through olympimania land. i attempted to convince the nice folks working the door that i should get bonus points for having my hands covered in chain grease. they wouldn’t give me a discount, but i did get a high five. good enough for me.

the crowd was…. weird. a mishmash of hipsters, artsy weirdos and bike nerds. perhaps a bit intimidating for those who haven’t spent significant portions of their adult lives in weird little lofty after hours spaces, but not me. i took one look around and said -if everyone has another drink and a half and the dj starts playing something really fun, this party is gonna go OFF. and it did!

i arrived upstairs to catch the very tail end of the gastown sprints, which apparently is an ongoing experience featuring hipsters et al racing indoors on stationary bikes. pretty sure there’s beer involved. and lots of laughing. and dance music. i unfortunately didn’t get a chance to race due to my being  distracted by bike porn, and more beer. soon i ended up wandering back down to the first floor to check out the rest of the bike art and ran into some guy wearing a full body disco ball.

at this point everyone drank that additional beer and a half, and the racetrack on the top floor errupted into super fun time dance party as autacoid took the stage -  two dudes, a guitar, some mikes, a pedal and a roland 505! and then we danced the night away on the inside of the crazy flame projections. all in all a great success!

this arrived in my inbox yesterday, and for some reason i find it to be one of the most disturbing spams i’ve ever received. i’m not sure if i want to know what it says or not.