I just got a new member card from Kaiser in the mail, so I assume that means I've been approved (the accompanying letter said nothing of the sort). So I guess that means I can see a doctor in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, the lump and bruise have gone away, so I will have nothing to show the doctor. I'm not at all sure it was a hernia after all. Who knows!

I just found the link on Netflix to view my rental history (hidden in plain sight on the queue page). I thought I would share some stats on my viewing history:

• I started renting in December 2005, and the first thing I returned was Stargate SG-1 Season 6 disc 2
• I stopped renting in May of 2007 (still paying for the service) because I got Murderball stuck in the DVD-ROM drive of my laptop and I didn't want to reboot to get it out. I finally rebooted in November, and started renting again. Six months uptime! I love my Mac :-)
• I don't remember renting these movies: Batman Begins, World in the Balance, The Future of Food, and Is Wal-Mart Good for America? All of these where rented just before I moved to Hawaii so maybe I was stressed out about that or something.
• I couldn't get through Videodrome (returned 04/28/08) because the special effects were just so bad. I refuse to give it a bad rating because it is weirdly original (just unwatchable).
• The worst movies I rented (all getting just one star) were Summer Catch, Weird Science, and Boa vs. Python (so bad it's really, really bad; though it does have one of the best kiss scenes ever)
• Those were not the worst movies I've ever seen. The top honor for that list goes to The Notebook, which I unfortunately subjected myself to in a theater surrounded by senseless, weeping women. It was not romantic, it was just insipid. I hate, HATE that movie.
• The best movie I rented, and my favorite all-time movie, was Eraserhead, which I finally rented in February of 2006. A poster for the movie was pinned up in the back room of the bookstore I worked at, so I had been curious about it for a couple of years.
  
• I have rented and returned 242 movies through Netflix (yikes! I need to get a life)
• To see 242 movies at current Honolulu ticket prices, the total cost would be $2,299.00!
• I paid approximately $420 to see those 242 movies over the course of 2 and half years (yikes! That's the cost of a longboard!)
• To buy those DVDs, I would have paid approximately $3,360. Phew. Of course, that would mean I would have a lot more useless crap lying around. Renting is much more environmentally friendly.
• In the same span of time, if I had paid for cable (proud to say I have never actually gotten cable service), it would have cost somewhere from $1,500 to $2,100.
  

Alright, haven't posted in awhile; need to get back to more regular postings (and less depressing postings!)

"Rio Sinter" is a sci-fi story I started a couple of years ago. The characters and story arc were almost instantly fleshed out when the idea came to me, and it's something I've really wanted to write. I just think it is a worthy, original, realistic, hard science type of story. I've been really excited about it since the beginning. Getting it down on paper has been problematic.

The hard part to writing most stories is choosing where to begin. If you start too soon you bore the reader while you get to the point, and if you start too late you end up mired in back story, boring the reader. With Rio Sinter, I was starting too early, and trying to make it exciting to compensate. It was still a bit dull.

Last night, somehow, I had an epiphany. I watched the movie "Orlando" (based on the Virginia Woolf novel of the same name), and was blown away with the simplicity of how the story (a very odd, essentially sci-fi story) was told. It was economical storytelling at it's best.

I felt released from the previous beginning of my story. I was clinging to it because I liked it, thinking I needed it to establish setting and character relationships. I restarted the story, from where I should have started it all along. Instead of filling in back story, I'm layering imagery and scenes, and building up a sense of where the characters have been, which lets me focus more concretely on where the characters are going. Personally, I think it is greatly improved, though perhaps it still won't withstand the harsh scrutiny of my writing group.

I finally got around to fixing the floating flower embellishment on my blog. Let me know if you still have issues with it :-)

My health insurance lapsed on October 31st of last year, and I was forced to wait 6 months to apply again. Well, turns out the bodyboarding injury (a hernia actually) came around just in time! Or so I thought. I reapplied today, and the soonest I will have insurance (with Kaiser at least) is June 1st. Yes, I have to walk around with my intestine poking through my abdominal wall for a whole month :-) Yay! Fuck it, I'm moving to Sweden!!!!

On Saturday, after a productive photoshoot, I went bodyboarding at Waikiki. I courageously made it out to the surf break with my bodyboard for the first time (baby steps!). I'm totally afraid of cutting a foot on the coralline algae out there, so I am usually pretty careful. I caught a few waves (briefly of course, still not very good) and had a pretty good time. My abdomen was sore when I got out of the water, but at first I thought it was just due to my rashguard riding up, exposing my skin to the wax on the board. I didn't think much of it.

A few hours later, the area in my lower abdomen had gotten progressively more sore. I looked down and noticed a bruise forming, which was weird, because I hadn't really hit that area. I was hitting the board with my body, but not enough to produce a bruise. A few hours later the bruise developed into a deep purple spot the size of a golf ball. The whole area was a solid lump, right where my right ovary is. Since I was raised in a medically aware household I knew that the lump and bruise together (and how it felt) meant internal bleeding. I figure I had ruptured the ovary pretty badly. That in itself probably isn't a big deal (each ovary ruptures on it's own every other month anyway), but the internal bleeding was a concern since I am somewhat anemic. When I did anything strenuous, I could feel it tearing inside. I didn't want to go the doctor for it, because what could they do? Give me some prescription strength Tylenol and tell me not to do anything strenuous I bet. I had no idea I could get such a weird injury, but I'll be more careful in the future (I'm already craving some waves).

I know I haven't posted for awhile, but I am feeling much better, and a lot less invisible. I think there is something about being depressed that makes people want to avoid you. It's a lot like having the flu :-)

Anyway, I found out yesterday that my friend Emily is filming in LOST today! Both she and Leslee are going to be in the season 4 finale. It seems to be incredibly easy to become an extra on the show. I bugged them both to send in their photos, so that is 2 for 2. Emily might even get a line! More details when it airs. I am sworn to secrecy!

I had a horrible day that not even the arrival of some cool new photography "equipment" (aka toys) could make better. After I played around with my new fisheye lens and IR filter outside, I wanted to take a shower (hot, humid, sticky day), but it took me about four hours to make it from the living room to the bathroom. I spent most of that time curled up in bed crying and feeling invisible. This has been a lifelong issue, and sort of a family curse. My mom is virtually invisible (which makes me angry when I see people totally ignore her). My dad has used his ability to be unseen and blend in to be a very effective hunter. My brother and I have both experimented with it -- great for when you are doing anything on the slightly shady side (in our younger years only, I swear!)

I don't know quite how it works, or what triggers it (when it is unintentional, like now), but it is some sort of psychological phenomena.

*SIGH* Yes, I sprained an ankle again. No point even going to the doctor -- I still have the boot from the last time (fits either foot). This time I attempted to jump down a 3 foot retaining wall and misjudged the curb at the bottom. I landed on my laptop, but luckily the thing is surprisingly durable (apparently I'm proving it to be dorkproof).

I had to get away from the apartment today. Not only was I really depressed and lying in bed all morning (having gone to bed about 7pm the previous night), but in addition to the construction next door, as well as on buildings half a block in either direction, there is now construction on my own building. This morning, a crew knocked out half the wall in the bottom floor facing the street. They are putting in either a restaurant or a tiny convenience store (which makes me completely curious about what zoning law governs my building). Anyway, the banging was too much. Hopefully the major construction doesn't last too long.

I've turned into a dairy farmer or something -- I've been getting up at 5:30 am for the past couple of days. I've been trying to be more diligent in taking B vitamins (building blocks of serotonin), and one of the side effects is being an early riser. It's really weird. 5:30am is typically when I go to bed.

I got up this morning, went out to get a coffee, and just kept going. And going. I didn't have a plan on where to walk to (after the coffee of course), it just felt good to walk. I ended up circumnavigating Diamond Head crater. It was all of 6.5 miles, but it felt longer with the elevation. I had to stop a few times on the way down because my shoes were chafing badly against my toes (that's a good sign though, that you don't have to stop to catch your breathe, but for some other reason). I'll probably develop a mild sunburn from the walk :-(

That means nothing to those of you who know nothing of python, but I am ecstatic it worked exactly right, the first time. Woohoo!

Last year I was cast as an extra in the film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (debuting soon), but I had to back out because the scene I was cast in was being shot on the same day as the Dalai Lama's visit to Maui. I figured I could be in another movie some other time, but how often do you get a chance to see the Dalai Lama? I did however pass the casting info along to my friend Leslee, and she ended up doing the scene (it was one of her life dreams to be in a movie).

This evening was the special screening of the movie, so Leslee got me in for free. I got her a lei (one that didn't smell, because I knew I would be sitting next to her), just in case she ended up on the cutting room floor. As for the movie itself, it was pretty good, not great, quite funny. I was however shocked with the amount of full frontal male nudity. It was funny, but just not used to it -- it's extremely rare to see it in a mainstream comedy (foreign dramas, yeah). What was really interesting, is that there was only one brief segment of female nudity. The funniest part of the film was the ending scene, with the puppets (that's worth the ticket price right there).

Leslee did end up completely on the cutting room floor, and I felt bad for her -- she was so excited about this. However, irony of ironies, on her way over to the theater, she got a callback for LOST!!!! How cool is that? She'll be filming her scene on Tuesday if all goes well.

Yes, that is a new word. It's French for someone who swedes a film, and if you've been reading my blog for some time, you will know that sweding is the process of remaking a film using minimal materials (usually found in an office supply store). Sweding was invented by filmmaker Michel Gondry, for his film, Be Kind Rewind.

The term "Swedeur", can be found in this sweded clip of the lightcycles from the movie Tron, which I think, is arguably cooler than the original:

Last night, I had a surreal episode (I love it when life turns surreal!) I was using some precious free time to do a load of laundry at the laundromat. I have an amazing amount of work at the moment, and had been working straight through from Tuesday/Wednesday to Monday morning, with the exception of a booksigning I attended on Saturday -- more on that later. When I was finished with my laundry, I was waiting at the bus stop with my bag of laundry for quite awhile (I always feel like an idiot carrying my laundry around, but there is no other way to get it done, other by hand, in the shower, and I'm not that desperate).

Anyway, I was sitting on the bench, at like 11pm, when this guy comes and sits down on the other end of the bench. He was wearing a gold suit. Pants, jacket, and shoes, all spray painted shiny gold. He has one of those rolling luggage things with him, and an umbrella sticking out of it (both not gold). I try to discretely look over, not staring, and I notice that while his face is clean, he has bits of glittery gold paint stuck to the curved indentations of his ears. I figure he is one of the street performers who pretends to be a statue, after his shift.

After a minute or two, he reaches into his suitcase and retrieves a textbook written by someone with the last name "Rufle" -- an unusual name by all accounts, by I only noticed it because it is the last name of my best friends. Intrigued I couldn't stop stealing little glances.

After a few minutes, this random guy walks up to the bench, addressing the man in gold.

"Hey, gold man, did I miss the number 4?"

I thought he was being impertinent to address a stranger like that, but the man in gold responded.

"Since I've been waiting here, no buses have come by."

The other guy looked a bit befuddled.

"Well, did I just miss the number 4?"

"What did I just tell you? Since I've been waiting here, no buses have come by. That means no 8, no 42, no 13, no 19, and no 4."

"Oh." The concept dawned on the guy. "I'm sorry, I've had kind of a big day."

"That's alright," says the man in gold.

"So how are things going?" At this point, I begin to wonder if the two are more familiar.

"You know, same old day."

"Yeah. I had a big day today." I guess the dude was fishing to tell something.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I got married today!" And I was right! He wanted to tell someone, but the dude didn't look like he just got married that day.

"Oh wow!" I still can't tell if the man in gold knows this guy. I felt like I should have said congratulations or something, being that the conversation was happening two feet from me. Hawaii is a different place where it's okay for complete strangers to have in depth conversations, but it still felt like I might be crossing the line, so I stayed quiet.

"Yeah, it was really spontaneous. I woke up this morning and asked her to marry me. We went down to the department of health to get the marriage license, then after that we happened to walk by the courthouse. I said, 'let's go in and see if the judge will marry us' and you know what, he did! It was really quick."

"Wow! So where is she now?" I was thinking this too -- you'd think they'd at least spend the day together after getting married.

"Well, she had to write and essay or something, and I needed to do my thing. But I'm going to meet her now." The number 4 bus had arrived.

"Have a good honeymoon then." I was beginning to like the man in gold's undercurrent of dry wit. I don't know though, maybe a spontaneous no-frills marriage has a better chance of lasting than one that is a big, expensive to-do. Anyway, I could not determine whether or not they actually knew each other. Very odd!

I've been cooped up doing QA for a couple of days straight, and needed to unwind a bit, so I did the only thing that really destresses me -- a photoshoot. Unfortunately, I was the only model available at 10pm, resulting in another set of seemingly narcissistic images.

Since my hair has grown to a rather mod length, I decided to slap on some mascara and dark eyeshadow for a 60s/20s look. I played with lighting, exposure, styling and posing. As always I learned a lot in the process, and I'm quite pleased with the results.