My very own Mirror Project
During my trip to Seattle, I noticed quite a few shiny surfaces, perfect for Mirror Project shots. But since I didn't want to submit all of them, I compiled them here. Only one of them actually made it onto the real Mirror Project.
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.: posted by Vera 
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State Lines
Crossing a state line is very exciting to me. It's all my parents' fault. When I was young, every time we went on a family vacation trip to France or Italy or wherever else we went that year, my parents always made a pretty big deal out of crossing over to another country.
Circa 1985, inside a white 1983 Mercedes 240D, somewhere in Europe:
Mom: That sign says "Now entering Belgium". Ohmigod, I can't believe it! We're in Belgium!
Dad: We are about to enter Belgium.. and.. NOW... WE ARE IN BELGIUM!
Mom: Oh wow, we really are in Belgium! Hey kids, we're in Belgium now! Say "Hi Belgium!"
Me: Hi Belgium! Bianca! We're in Belgium!
Bianca: Yippie! We're in Belgium!
Stefan: Are we there yet?
You get the idea. Who can blame me then for getting extremely excited to the point of hyperventilation when I recently crossed the Oregon and Washington state lines? With a background like that, how could I not sing songs and wave flags and have celebratory fireworks come out of the exhaust of my car? Well, I did.
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.: posted by Vera
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I'm back
My last two nights in Seattle were super fun. Sunday I hung out with Jessica and Aaron from were-here.com, my favorite Flash-related "support group." We had dinner and wine and some very chocolatey desserts. While we had dessert, Ariel's boyfriend Andreas walked by. What are the odds? I am a stranger in a strange big city and run into somebody I know!
On Monday night, I went to the brandnew Seattle group hoop. I was very impressed. Attendance was astounding, they have an awesome indoor space that makes BAH (Bay Area Hoopers) very jealous, and there was even a DJ spinning! I met some very nice and talented hoopers like Kara and Rob and had a really great time overall. Unfortunately today I have a very big bruise on my left hip, and my left ovary hurts as well. Could my hoop be beating up my ovary?
And now I'm back in San Francisco. I was welcomed back at about 3:45pm by the perfect sunshiny day that was painted over the whole city. There is nothing like going to visit a very cool city and then coming back home to an equally cool city. For most of my life, especially when I was living in Germany, I didn't have that privilege. I feel very lucky.
Oh, and I took many, many pictures.
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.: posted by Vera
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Things I learned while driving through Oregon
- There are a lot of rainbows in Oregon.
- If a car is driving on a very wet road and the sun is shining, a rainbow forms across the car's rear tires.
- Yellow Pages and directions on my phone actually work! More psyched I could not be.
- My phone can do IM.
- People in Oregon drive much, muuuch slower than people in California.
- It is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. Huh.
- Throughout large parts of Oregon, you can only see an acute triangle of sky; the points of that triangle are the point straight up to the top of the fir trees to the left of you, the point straight up to the top of the fir trees to the right of you, and the vantage point ahead of you.
- Somewhere near Salem there is a field, and above that field hovers a helicopter with a long rope dangling from it, and at the end of that rope there is a contraption, and with that contraption the helicopter plucks little fir trees from one side of the field and drops them in a big heap of little fir trees on the other side of the field.
- When the outside temperature is 5 degrees C or less, a little snow flake is displayed in the temperature display of my car, to remind me, I suppose, to let the engine warm up before taking off. You just don't learn this kind of stuff in California.
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.: posted by Vera
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Seattle Sights
Yesterday my friend Brent, who moved to Seattle about three months ago, and I did some of the typical touristy stuff. We went to the Pike Street fish market Pike Place Market ("You buy it, I'll throw it"), I took a picture of the Public Market sign just like the good tourist that I am, and we went on top off the Space Needle. At night we did some not so touristy stuff like watching two movies, eating lots of candy and then going to Lava Lounge.
A little backgrounder: Brent is probably the oldest American friend I have. He is also my ex-ex-boyfriend. We were together between 1994 and 1998, and for the past five years we have been really good friends who know a lot about each other.
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.: posted by Vera
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Seattle Logistics
On feeling connected: The reason I have internet access here at the swank quarters of the Days Inn in downtown Seattle is that my roommate Joe had the ingenious idea for me to download some dialup software to my laptop before leaving. It worked! I am online thanks to Joe's idea, a phone cord and an AOL trial dialup account. Of course the connection is slow, but a slow connection is infintely faster than no connection at all, if you do the math right.
On getting my core temperature back up: OHMYGOD, it is so cold here. I mean, I knew it was going to be colder here than in California, but I never expected THIS. Yesterday I wore ALL of the clothes AND accessories I brought ALL AT ONCE, and I was still cold. So my first item of business today is to invest in some purely utilitarian clothing, such as fur-lined underwear, a six-mile long scarf and one of those Goretex jackets George Costanza wears in The Dinner Party.
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.: posted by Vera
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Tales from the Road
One girl, one yellow bug, 800 miles and about 25 CD's.
Soundtrack Day 1
Alex English : Glitch Mix
Agent 2 : Broken Message
Dr. Schmidt : Electro Mix
DJ Ric : {Free mix I got at Hemisphere}
Aux 88 : Electro Boogie
Aquasky vs. Masterblaster : Beat the System Disk 1
Hive : Hip Hop 2023
DJ Dara : Breakbeat Science Exercise 01
Soundtrack Day 2
DJ Dara : Breakbeat Science Exercise 01 (cont'd)
Aquasky vs. Masterblaster : Beat the System Disk 2
Hyjynx : Faith in Chaos
DJ Dara : Future Perfect
Electrokid : The Robot Within
I'm in Seattle now. I was greeted by the most beautiful sunset when I got here.
Editor's Note: If Blogger supported subtitles, the subtitle of this post would be I almost forgot how much fun it is to make lists.
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.: posted by Vera
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Mom Starts Commenting on Blog
Just when the Mom Finds Out About Blog article is making the rounds, my mom starts leaving comments on my blog! She also left comments on my photo blog here, here and here today. She also left a comment here (in English even!) but that was over a year ago.
And here is a little recap of my mom's comments, for those of you who don't speak German:
- She likes it when I take pictures of flowers.
- She likes my pink rainbow T-shirt.
- She thinks that some of the pictures of me hooping are really cool.
- She is sorry that the Flash conference was cancelled.
- She sometimes doesn't understand what I am trying to say with all these English words.
- She likes to use exclamation points!!!!!
Overall pretty positive I would say. Just wait until she finds the post where I use the F-word 19 times.
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.: posted by Vera
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Day life vs. night life
I have talked before about the exciting process of getting to know your city geographically.
Sometimes the context changes, making it harder to put together the pieces. One way in which the context can change is from night to day and vice versa. Things look very different in the dark than they do in daylight, sometimes beyond recognition. But you haven't really finished your puzzle until you put the day time pieces and the night time pieces together to form a whole. I am still working on that. It took me a while to figure out that a club I had been to was on the same intersection as the place where I get my oil changed. The context was different.
Mapping out SoMa is especially tricky. You wouldn't think it is because it is right next to my own neighborhood, I work in SoMa, and most of my favorite clubs are in SoMa. Herein lies the tricky part. A lot of my time in SoMa is spent in the dark. When I revisit those places during the day, I often don't recognize them. What I need to do over time is drive by each club during the day and then anchor its location to another familiar daylight place. That way my internal map will really come together.
 The context can also change on a geometric level, i.e. your angle or your altitude can vary. A perfect example is the Yahoo billboard, which also happens to be in SoMa. It is on top of a building, strategically placed to be visible by cars driving by on the 80 freeway towards the Bay Bridge. This is from where I first saw it sometime last year - at night because that's when it's lit up and sparkly all Vegas style. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that the billboard is right across the street from my favorite lunch place near work. When I go there for lunch, I am on the ground and don't normally look up. When I'm driving on the elevated freeway, I don't usually look down to the street level. I was so close and yet so far because of slight geometric differences.
I love SoMa. I think I need to get me another neighborhoodie.
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.: posted by Vera
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Vodka Marinara
The reason I am so talkative today and also the reason I am so happy today is that I had pasta with my roommate Joe's pasta sauce for lunch. Joe's pasta sauce is special. It is called Vodka Marinara (from Trader Joe's), and it has Vodka in it. For obvious reasons, the amount of Vodka in it is very small, and it doesn't make you tipsy or anything, but I did have a warm feeling in my stomach and was very content all afternoon.
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.: posted by Vera
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Liquid Funk
Tonight I am going to Hemisphere at Amnesia. I am going because Ric, Dashe and Cyan aka Soul Stream will be playing there tonight. I heard them on Future Breaks FM today, and they are the absolute shit. They picked all the right tracks, many of which I know and love.
I learned today that one of my favorite kinds of Drum'n'Bass is Liquid Funk, or at the very least Soul Stream's interpretation of it.
Editor's Note: At Hemisphere, I got two free mix CD's from Cyan and Ric.
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.: posted by Vera
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Nice sweater
If I ever meet a guy who will wear this sweater voluntarily, without putting up a fight, there is a good chance I will marry him.
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.: posted by Vera
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Just me and my car
Today was the perfect day for a drive. So I went for a drive.
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.: posted by Vera
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The Good Vibe Hoop Tribe
Last night, the VYB and I went to a Burning Man fundraiser party. Amy was there too and several other people I know. [Read Amy's report for a much more thorough description of this party.] The party was put on by the same group that had the warehouse party I went to when Colin was here.
I liked this party better because the music was more up my alley (Donna Matrix and Lorin played Breaks), and it wasn't as crowded and hot. The fire alarm was on for a few alarming minutes, but other than that it was hassle-free.
One of the highlights of the night was that I got to meet a few members of the Good Vibe Hoop Tribe, namely Anah, Dawn and Sass. They are amazing hoopers and (non-)dressers, and they are very, very fast. I'm a snail hooper in comparison. It was great to meet them, and seeing them hoop gave me a few new tricks to work on tomorrow.
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.: posted by Vera
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Texas Street goes Hollywood
So I have known that I live in a pretty scenic neighborhood. Today I found out just how scenic it really is. When I got home from celebrating with work friends tonight, I found a notice taped to my front door.
This is what it said.
Dear Resident,
The Institute will be filming a scene for a Chevy commercial on Texas between 18th and 20th Street on Saturday November 15, 2003 beginning at approximately 9:00am to 2:00pm. We estimate our shoot time to be about 3 hours within the fore mentioned time. The scene involves the car driving down Texas with the city in the background.
...two more paragraphs of blah blah blah...
Sincerely,
Location Manager
The Institute
1330 Fourth Street
Santa Monica, CA
Who knew my block would be in a Chevy commercial?
Editor's Note: I took a picture of the film crew on Texas the next day. A couple of hours later I am pretty sure I saw the car used in the commercial being towed away. It was a cute little red one, a model I had never seen.
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.: posted by Vera
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Dear people at the intersection
1. Just because you approach the stop sign at a much higher speed than I do, doesn't mean you get to go first.
2. Just because you don't come to a full stop and just sort of keep rolling, doesn't mean you get to go first.
3. Just because you don't stop until you are already in the middle of the intersection, doesn't mean you get to go first.
4. When in doubt, I get to go first.
Sincerely,
The girl in the yellow bug
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.: posted by Vera
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Perfection
I have faith in the world again. It was supposed to rain all weekend, but it didn't. Instead we had sunshine and mild temperatures. There is nothing like spending a perfect day with two perfect people on a perfect astro turf soccer field with 360 degree views, listening to perfect music and working on perfect hoop tricks, to make you feel all right again.
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.: posted by Vera
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Ringing in the weekend early
I left work at 4 today. I deserved it. And I am going to stop whining for a while now. I promise.
Tonight I think the VYB (sorry to be a copycat, Brittney) and I are going to go see Chris Carter play at the Up & Down Club aka Sitio. I have been to this club once before. Chris Carter is one of the best-known names in UK Breakbeat, and this will be his first time in San Francisco!
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.: posted by Vera
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Bad news galore
My car is in the hospital again. I know I have already linked to that accident post way too many times, but things just keep popping up, and the inconvenience isn't over yet. The thing that has been popping up the most is my engine light. It has not been off since the accident.
When I got my car back the first time about a month ago, after all the body work had been finished and it was shiny and new and yellow again, it was shaking violently while idle and the engine light was on. I took it back. They fixed something that they said was not related to the accident. Fine. I was pretty sure it WAS related to the accident since my car was NOT shaking violently BEFORE the accident and the engine light was NOT on BEFORE the accident, but I paid up and didn't argue too much.
About an hour after picking up my car for the second time, the engine light came on again. I took it back. They said it needed some part that was related to smog laws and that it was covered by my warranty and that I didn't have to pay a thing. Great! They ordered the part. Three weeks of my engine light being on later they received the part. I took my car back in yesterday morning.
Right after lunch yesterday I got a call saying that they found something else wrong with my car. There was a leak in the part of my gas tank that contains the vapors. They confirmed that it was accident-related because one of the many parts that was hit during the accident was the part where the tank sits.
So right now my car is being worked on for another $300 or so. It looks like my landlady's insurance will have to pay for it. That is a good thing. What is NOT a good thing is that I have no assurance whatsoever that it is over now. Who knows how many other things will go wrong in the next few months, accident-related or "not accident-related"?
I am started to be really, really pissed that my landlady hit my car without asking.
In other bad news: The Flash conference that I was going to attend while in Europe in December has been cancelled. I am very disappointed. This month is sucking very much so far. Min Jung can confirm.
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.: posted by Vera
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This post is solely so I can plug today's Word of the Day
I really need to deracinate my eye brows. They are overdue. I think I'll do that later today.
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.: posted by Vera
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Another perfect one
LTJ Bukem - Horizons. From the DJ DB - History of Our World Part 2 CD. I don't know why I have never noticed this one before. Must be the mood I'm in these days. I normally like the more paranoid kind of drum'n'bass but this week, I am into the chirpy kind.
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.: posted by Vera
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Empty nest
My little brother is all grown up now or at least trying to be. I found out today that he and his girlfriend will be moving in together in February. They already found an apartment in Muenster-Gievenbeck, a part of the city where a lot of students live. Between the ages of 18 and 21 I have spent quite a bit of time there myself because two of my good friends were living there as students at the time. Here are some of the fond memories I have of that time and of Al's and Steffi's apartment:
-Riding the bus into the city with two or three of my friends, TOTALLY HIGH on instant cappuccino.
-Dancing in a sleeping bag - whatever that means - all I know is that I was doing it.
-Sitting on the balcony making fun of people who get married. We created this imagery of brides on an assembly line, being transported to their respective wedding bands.
-Lying in Steffi's bed while everybody else was still up partying, hearing people knock on the door and Steffi tell them that I had an exam the next day and to leave me alone.
-Running in circles around this guy at a party that Al had a crush on.
-Driving up in front of their building in my very first car.
-Meeting all of their university friends who were older and wiser (I was two years younger than Al and Steffi) and who rode their bicycles even when it was freezing cold and who sometimes asked me questions about America.
Now it's time for my brother to make some memories in that vicinity. At almost 24, he is finally moving out of my parents' house for the first time.
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.: posted by Vera
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Nice. So nice
I have a new favorite song. Solar Waves by Psidream. I like that it's ominous and cheerful at the same time.
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.: posted by Vera
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Fall
I am feeling this strange melancholy today. I think it's because today I know that the summer is finally over. It was hot last weekend, but today it's cold, and I know that it's not going to be hot again for a long, long time. The days of flip flops and sun block are over. So are the days of hooping in the park. It's November now. The reason this makes me so sad is that the last few months were the best summer I have ever had. I knew it couldn't go on like that forever and that it had to end one day, and that day is now here.
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.: posted by Vera
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