Re-writing the Script

It’s not a new concept. We live our lives by the script inside our head, usually completely unaware of it, assuming the script is simply who we are. But it’s not, really.

Re-writing the script is difficult. Aside from an incredible amount of self-awareness, it involves holding each belief up to the light, examining it closely, figuring out what purposes it serves, what purposes it has served. Where has it helped? How is it holding me back? What if I could replace it with a different belief? What if I could drop it altogether?

But that’s not the scary part, as it turns out. The scary part is after that, when you’ve cleaned house and you’re on your way, and nothing–nothing!–looks or feels familiar. That’s when you’ll be tempted to turn back. Because the devil you know, and all that.

This is where faith comes in. This is where your mettle is tested, your big words, the ones you use to encourage the beautiful souls around you. Faith. Don’t look down. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Even when you have convinced yourself that you are in danger of falling, that you are alone, that even if you weren’t alone, nobody here knows you or cares.

You keep going. You keep it at. If you have to do what feels like lying to yourself, you do it.

It’s not lying: you’re not alone.

Photo by kwerfeldein

The Neil Finn Show of Heartbreak (or, Largo Is Lame)

On the plus side:

• I got to spend time with my good friend Hector
• We went to a fantastic restaurant/bar with tacos so good they made me nostalgic
• Neil played a couple of my favorites that I’ve never heard him do live

Not bad.

On the minus side:

• Because we were told before the show that — surprise! — there would be an aftershow in the tiny, 50-seater venue across the courtyard, and it would be first-come, first-serve, we didn’t stick around for the encore. Neil’s encores tend to be awesome. But we went and made sure we’d have spots inside the tiny wee intimate amazing aftershow.
• We coughed up another $15, which were exchanged for drink tickets, and went and found a spot right in front of the stage. Then we thought it best to cash our drink tickets in immediately, so as not to get up during the show.
• They stopped letting people in. And then the door guy announced that Neil was exhausted and would not be playing after all.
• Since I’d traded my tickets for a glass of wine and a bottle of beer (which was, naturally, handed to me sans bottlecap), I was told I wouldn’t get my $15 back.
• BUT! I would be put on the list for Tuesday night’s aftershow! Provided I shelled out money for another ticket, of course, since I only had a ticket to Monday’s show.
• Margaret Cho was, rather inexplicably, hanging out in the bar alone, glaring at everyone.
• We left the venue and returned to my car…which now proudly bore on its windshield  a $55 parking ticket.

Really bad. Really, really disappointing. If you’ve ever taken a look at “The List” up there in my nav bar, you’ll have seen that one of the items on there is “Sing onstage with Neil Finn”–so you can imagine how much closer I thought I was to that experience. (He’s quite audience-friendly and given to granting requests.) To be fair, his exhaustion was evident from the moment he took the stage — and anyway, it’s hard to fault someone with a 20+ year track record of giving the stage his all.  He’ll be back in LA at some point, and I’ll try again. But man, Largo should have had the decency to refund my money, especially considering that most of the other people in there (and there were only maybe 20 of us) did have tickets for Tuesday’s show, and weren’t losing anything in the deal.

Man. Man! What a rotten deal. As the great Nina Simone sang: It Be’s That Way Sometimes.

Photo by wonker.

Lite Sites! Lite Sites! Read all about it!

Have you met my friend Sarah Bray? She’s a kick-ass designer (and entrepreneur, and wife and mama), and she’s recently launched something that’s going to knock your socks off. It’s called Lite Sites. Here’s what Sarah has to say about them:

LiteSites are gorgeous, customized pre-built websites that are packed with functionality and are built for you in just a week. Yep. One week from when you return my handy checklist, you will have a uniquely amazing website for less than half the cost and one-eighth of the time.

And:

One of the problems with templates and themes is that they are decidedly un-interesting. In order to make something that will appeal to everyone, designers end up making bland decisions that effectively un-brand you. I designed LiteSites as if I was designing a website for myself. I rocked these out. You can’t find sites like ‘em anywhere.

Also:

The “lite” in LiteSites refers to a cost-effective, simple process with a faster turn-around. The sites themselves have just as much functionality and capability as any other site I’ve developed. We can also add features a la carte if you’re into that sort of thing (such as PayPal integration or extra pages).

She’s not kidding, people–she TOTALLY rocked these out. Go and see. And then get in touch with her by clicking on the image below. Be sure to mention that you know me (or, you know, read me), so you can get your $100 off.

Now, don’t forget to put your socks back on.

A Story About Ping

This is not a story about a duck. (Sorry.)
Note: This is my first-ever video. How excitement! However, there is maybe an issue with image/sound syncing? If this is the case while you’re watching, I recommend opening another tab in your browser and pretending you’re listening to a podcast. I hate image/sound syncing issues. They totally tamper with my suspension of disbelief.

C’est tragique.

If you didn’t know me during high school, here’s what you missed.

Rad Bauhaus shirt, huh? In case you can’t tell, my hair was buzzed down to about a quarter inch, save the bangs. (Also: this was the same year I requested that my then-boyfriend administer a tattoo of my own design, using a homemade tattoo gun he’d gotten from some classmate of his who’d been in jail or something? It was a very small tattoo, as it turned out, because a guitar string makes for kind of an oversized needle.)

Here, a bunch of my kooky peers and I show off our respective senses of fashion.  I was really into the band London After Midnight then. Also: I got that lacy top at JC Penney. Yeah, you kids get all your schmattas at Hot Topic now, but us? Huh. We had to ask our parents to drive us into Hermosa Beach to the one store in the South Bay that carried what we wanted to wear. That, or get creative with the old lady department at Penney’s. We knew what hard work was, then…

Did I mention I liked London After Midnight? I sure liked them. You can tell, right? Man, I loved those leggings, too. It still makes me happy to see them in this photo. Incidentally, those six-eye Docs I’m wearing there? I’m not sure if you can see the scuffs and scratches on them, but it took me the better part of an entire lunch period to kick that new-leather look off of them on the asphalt steps by the photo room, where I used to hang out (in case the teacher I was smitten with decided to walk by on the way to his classroom).

Alright, look, I’ve said enough.