Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in doctor_morbius' LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
12:03 pm	A short update to remind people that I'm alive. I'm still out here. Still doing fine. I'm haunting other places on the net. I was never a serious Live Journal user to start with. But because I don't want to seem an absentee landlord, here are some drawings I've been doing for a facebook app. These are all vectors and utilizes no photoshop or raster effects of any kind. They were created with Adobe Illustrator. ( Pretty pictures behind the cut. ) Anyway, enjoy. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
1:12 pm	A Dog's Life We have a new dog. This is Daisy: Daisy is a six month-old yellow labrador. She's purebred, which is something I've never had before. She's also the second dog in the household. Our black lab, Digit, is still with us and is as puppy-like as ever. Adding the second dog to the mix has exaggerated that. Digit outweights Daisy by 50 pounds and, right now, is using that advantage to assert her dominance. Daisy is taking it with good humor. It's all play to her. She has big feet, so I'm sure she'll grow into them and she'll be able to stand up to Digit eventually. She's still a baby, after all. I've never owned two dogs at once before. For that matter, we've had Digit for seven years now, so it's an adjustment getting to know a dog that doesn't have Digit's habits. Fortunately, Daisy is like Digit in one important way: she's very sweet. Unlike Digit, she's very shy, too, and when we walk her, she tends to stay so close to our legs that she sometimes almost trips us. But she'll come around, I think. Digit, for her part, is having a grand old time. On the other hand, Miss Oreo, the cat, is NOT amused. Not at all. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 9th, 2009
10:59 am	Whistling Past the Graveyard I was visiting a friend in Quincy, Illinois this weekend who decided to take me on a tour of the town's haunted spots. One such was this awesome graveyard overlooking the Mississippi River: Nestled back among the gravestones were several ornate mausoleums. Being a latent goth girl some of the time, I couldn't resist taking pictures, this one being my favorite: I also like this one: Very Hammer Horror, I think. Two things strike me about this: One, I wish I had known about this locale. I wasn't planning on a photo shoot, and this place SCREAMS for me to be wearing a black corset and Victorian gown. Next time. Two: my boobs have gotten bigger than I thought. That's all me. For the most part, this weekend was a bit of a relief. Getting out and about as Christi helped soothe the bout of intense dysphoria I've been experiencing this month. I'm getting impatient, but I don't know how to speed up my transition process. The money isn't there, and the physical stuff can only happen so fast in the first place. In any event, it's making me cranky, despite the fact that I can look at myself in the mirror and I KNOW that the changes have been profound. I have a ghastly picture of myself taken shortly before I started HRT (and I'm NOT willing to show this to you, by the way) that stands in stark contrast to what I look like now, even when presenting male. It doesn't even look like the same person. Which is good, actually, because it's NOT the same person. Not really. On a lighter note, here's something I never thought to hear uttered in my home: "Honey, the ShamWow works as advertised." That's right. We have a ShamWow. We have a Magic Bullet, too, which doesn't quite work as well as advertised, though it does some things tolerably well. We didn't spend any money on these. I sometimes think our house is a graveyard for lame gifts. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 4th, 2009
2:09 pm	Getting off my Ass for 2009. Well, it's 2009. I'm another year older. I sometimes feel like I'm no closer to my personal goals than I was last year (I know that's not true, but the head doesn't necessarily hold sway over the gut). Every year it seems like I endeavor to be more public with my art projects. Every year I go great guns for a while then taper off. Right now, I'm without a scanner, which creates problems for my aborted "sketch a day" project. I'm still sketching every day, but I have no real way to transfer the sketches online short of taking them all into work and scanning them there. My employers wouldn't necessarily frown on that, but I can think of more productive things to do at work. In any event, I've been working on some digital stuff in the last couple of weeks. I can't say anything about the project these were drawn for, but I can say that they've been a lot of fun to do. These are vectors: A wolf: A variant of the wolf. Same drawing with the coloring tweaked. I love vectors: The original drawing for the wolf: Ravens. A variant of the ravens. Again, I love vectors. These were all created in Adobe Illustrator (more or less). There was no under-drawing for the ravens, though I did photo-reference some elements. The wonderful thing about vectors--apart from their infinite scalability--is how easy it is to edit them. Much easier than with a raster-based paint program. In any event, that's the start of my new year. Take care. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 26th, 2008
9:00 pm	Yet another movie meme Borrowed from coyotegoth 1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times: The movie I've seen the most times is Alien. I'm embarrassed by the number of times I've seen it. It's not even among my favorite movies--though, mind you, it's not bad by any stretch. It just sort of happened that way. There are many other answers to this question, by the way, but I'll leave it at that. 2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in a theater: The film I'm proudest of seeing more than once in a theater is the original King Kong. The Eighth Wonder of the World deserves the biggest screen you can find. 3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie: Hmm....Of currently working actors, Ed Harris, maybe. I don't ask any questions at all if Cary Grant is in the cast. 4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie: The Julia Roberts Rule is adamantine. 5. Name a movie that you can quote from: "Louie, this gun is pointed straight at your heart." "Fortunately, that is my LEAST vulnerable spot." 6. Name a movie musical that you know all the lyrics to all the songs: I believe that I know all of the lyrics from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I don't believe I know the lyrics to "You Belong to Me" and "Beautiful Girls" from Singin' In the Rain, which is the movie I'd prefer to list here. Unfortunately,  I would be lying. 7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with: "Moses supposes his toeses are roses but moses supposes erroneously..." 8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see: Night and Fog. 9. Name an unusual movie that you own: Hrrm...well, let's see....there's The Wild Wild Rose (a Chinese musical from the 1950s) and there's Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (a Japanese women in prison movie, a la Noh theater) and there's Pink Flamingoes and there's Women in Revolt and there's Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan and there's Hukkle and..... 10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops: Frank Sinatra. 11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? Oh, yes. Many many... 12. Ever made out in a movie? Actually, no. 13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to it: Currently, Let the Right One In. I have an excuse: it's not playing within a 300 mile radius of me. 14. Ever walked out of a movie? Never. I did, however, fall asleep at The Lawnmower Man, and falling asleep is a different kind of walking out. 15. Name a movie that made you cry: I plead the fifth. I cry quite easily at movies. Especially nowadays. 16. Popcorn? No. I don't eat or drink anything at movies. I especially don't get the big 55 gallon drum of soda. Titanic cured me of that. All that water... 17. How often do you go to the movies? On average, once a week. I think I saw 40-something movies in the theater this year, which is a down year for me. Really, more than I can afford. 18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater? "M" 19. What is your favorite/preferred genre of movie? I don't express a preference, though I admit that horror movies are my first love. 20. What was the first movie you remember seeing in the theater? The Aristocats. I also remember not liking it. Cheers. </lj> (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
10:08 am	Getting into the Christmas Spirit I saw Judith Owen when she was singing with Richard Thompson earlier this year. Here she is with her husband, Harry Shearer, singing a Christmas classic: (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
12:30 pm	The Last Hurrah. A lot of my friends on Live Journal haven't seen my male self in a long time, so I thought I'd give a look at what my day today appearance is right now. I just got my hair cut yesterday and it's the butchest male haircut that I've ever had. Oddly enough, I think it makes me look a little bit like Rachel Maddow, so what do I know. When I visited my stylist, I didn't have any concrete idea of what I wanted, so I told her to do whatever she thought would look nice. I gave her free reign, in other words, which is very liberating, by the way. Anyway, this is it:   There are a couple of things that jump out at me in this picture. One: I have hair on top of my head. If you saw what I looked like a year ago, you'd understand that this is almost a miracle. Second, the shape of my face has changed a bit. You can see it best in the cheekbones. Finally, there's not much beard shadow. This is two days growth of beard. In past years, two days growth of beard would have me looking seriously scruffy. No longer. I also don't think I look like I'm 42, but that might be my own vanity. An acquaintance told me a few weeks ago that "When I go gray, I hope I do it as gracefully as you," which suggests that I'm deluding myself. I have to balance that with the fact that I started to go gray when I was 16. This is probably the last photograph of my male self, which is kind of a shame, I guess. He's not bad-looking at all and after all these years, he's finally starting to take good pictures of himself. But he's also not me anymore.   Happy Holidays.   (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
4:26 pm	Another Southern Comfort Goes By Reposted from my main blog: ( Adventures behind the cut (with pictures) ) And so another year passes. I don't know if I'm going again next year. I have some things I need to spend my money on next year that may preclude it. But I'll be back eventually. Oh, and I shot some video, too, on the way down, but I'll save that particular clusterf@#$ for another post later this week. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
7:43 pm	Random Picture Spam Basically, this is more vanity. Heh. ( Shameless vanity behind the cut.  ) "Vanity is my favorite sin." -- Al Pacino (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
12:07 pm	Overheard at Work I had the following conversation with one of my co-workers this morning: B (my co-worker): Yeah, my brother is coming into town in a couple of weeks for the International Talk Like a Pirate celebration at Flat Branch (a local microbrewery). Me: Nice. I forgot that was coming up. B: September 19. You should come. Me: Heh, I even have an outfit. I probably can't wear it outside, though. B: Ah...the sexy pirate look. Me: I can't really walk in it. Six inch heels on the thigh boots. B: You could probably be carried in on a litter. Me: Hmmm...yeah, carried by two large nubian men... B: ...in loincloths and fur boots. Yeah. Me: *sigh* B: Say! There's an idea, now that I have to shitcan my idea of opening a Vespa dealership. (A Vespa dealership recently opened in our fair city). Me: Oh? B: Yeah! A palanquin shop! They're making a comeback. I can see it now. Me: Hmm...with gas prices going up, it might just work! And with the economy continuing to spiral down the drain, labor might just become cheap enough to make it feasible. B: Indeed. It's the wave of the future. I don't have a point to this. But I wanted to share. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 18th, 2008
12:00 pm	Any Color You Like... I'm a graphic designer, so I'm always on the prowl for spiffy design ideas. This morning, I stumbled upon the absolute coolest navigational web page ever. But rather than listen to me describing it, why not take a look: http://www.etsy.com/color.php While this particular interface looks super-complex, in reality, it's easy. I wish I'd thought of it. I use that as an arbiter of taste sometimes: "Am I jealous of whoever created this? Yes? Then it MUST be good." Heh., "Simplicity is complexity resolved." --minimalist sculptor Constantin Brancusi (Comment on this)
Monday, July 28th, 2008
10:18 am	No Matter How I Try.... ...I can't NOT look evil in my pictures: ( Vanity behind the cut ) Cheers. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
8:52 pm	Book Meme. 01. Look at the list and bold those you have read. 02. Italicize those you intend to read 03. Underline the books you LOVE ( Books behind the cut. ) Commentary: I don't think much of this list. True, it includes my favorite book--Moby Dick, if you must know--but where the fuck is William Faulkner (my favorite writer)? Or Flannery O'Connor. And why is there a listing for BOTH The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe? Isn't that redundant? Same for Hamlet and the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. If you're doing things like that, why not just list the complete works of Jane Austen and be done with it instead of listing each book individually (that lets you shoehorn Northanger Abbey into the proceedings). And, really, The Da Vinci Code? The Time Traveller's Wife? Bridget Jones's Diary? Memoirs of a Geisha? I don't have anything against these--I haven't read them, but I've seen some of the movies--but this seems slanted to one type of reader rather than a universal reader, which suggests that the author of the meme is privileging their taste over others. So screw it. I don't care. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
12:19 am	A Study in Contrasts I took these two pictures on the same day. Apart from the fact that I think they're both pretty good, they strike me as being two different people. Interesting. ( Pictures behind the cut. ) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
9:31 pm	Something New Under the Sun Every so often, when I'm sure that I've pretty much seen everything, something comes along and knocks me on my ass. This is good. It makes life worth living. This week, it's Muto, a short film the likes of which I've never seen before. Seriously, it's astonishing: (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
7:30 pm	A Musical Interlude. In lieu of actual content, I give you some stuff I found laying around YouTube. ( Musical goodies behind the cut ) Cheers. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2008
10:14 pm	Divining the Future from iTunes Here's a meme totally stolen from mb2u . How many songs total: 5213 How many hours or days of music: 12.1 days Most recently played: Downtown Train-Tom Waits Most played: 1952 Vincent Black Lightning-Richard Thompson Sort by song title: First Song: "A-11" - Buck Owens Last Song: The 2000 Pound Bee – The Ventures Sort by time: Shortest Song: He's So Unusual-Cyndi Lauper Longest Song: Echoes-Pink Floyd Sort by album: First album: Achtung Baby - U2 Last album: 1999-Prince and the Revolution Search the following and state how many songs come up: Death – 8 Life – 45 Love – 332 Hate – 20 You – 647 Sex – 27 My favorite random song arrangement from my iTunes was the day I opened it and the first two songs were "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Jimmy Cliff and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones. The creepiest was when the first three songs were "London Calling" by the Clash, "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash, and "1999" by Prince. It's enough to make a body start stockpiling food and ammo. Well, I guess my Movie Quote game is dead by now, so here's the answers to the ones nobody got.  ( Answers behind the cut ) (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
3:11 pm	Movie Quotes This is in my sphere of interests, so here's a list of movie quotes for you all. Most of the other people doing this seem to be confining themselves to the last several years or so. Nothing before the 1980s, surely. I offer no such concessions. Some of these are from OLD movies. Good luck. 1. "She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up." --The Big Sleep (coyotegoth) 2. "Build my gallows high, baby."--Out of the Past (coyotegoth) 3. "H: If I tell you, how do I know you won't kill me? D: Because if you told me and I killed you and you were lying I wouldn't get to kill you *then*." 4. "The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye." 5. "We get 'em all: sun-worshippers, moon-worshippers, Satanists. The Manson family used to hang around and shoplift. Bunch of deadbeats!" 6. "Mr. Bond, you persist in defying my efforts to provide an amusing death for you." 7. "I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic."--Sweet Smell of Success (coyotegoth) 8. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room." --Dr. Strangelove (coyotegoth) 9. "What do they think I am? Dumb or something? Why, I make more money than - than - than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!" 10. "You see. I have no intention of breaking down her prodigiousness. I want her to believe in god and virtue and the sanctity of marriage, and still, not be able to stop herself. I want the excitement of watching her betray everything that's most important to her." But wait! There's more! As a supplement, here are five screen captures. They're all from horror movies. ( Screen Caps Behind the Cut. ) My apologies to anyone who recognizes these from my other blog, but, hell, nobody got very many of them over there, either. Enjoy.. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
12:34 pm	I haven't had much to say lately. My life continues on an even keel. No drama. No pathos. A few financial problems that are par for the course for everyone. But I don't like playing absentee landlord, so I thought I'd stick my toe back in, ever so briefly. Chris vs. the Ants: One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was The Naked Jungle, with Charlton Heston as a rancher fighting an invading column of fire ants. It's based on a terrific short story called "Leiningen vs. the Ants" by Carl Stephenson. I've spent the last few days re-inacting that story, on a smaller, less desperate scale. We have an infestation of those tiny, sweet-eating ants right now, and I've been opening up a can of whoop-ass on them for the last couple of days. The little bastards are persistent. They keep showing up even though a thorough cleaning of my kitchen has left an expanse of metaphorical scorched earth for them. We've laid the ant bait, now we get to wait to see if they die off. If they keep coming, well...hell. The Oscars: Feh. I had no interest in the Oscars, but in the news reports from the event there are enough pictures for me to decide that my vote for Best Dressed (among the women, anyway) would go to Laura Linney, followed by Helen Mirren and Marion Cotillard (who wore the most adventurous dress of the evening). I wouldn't vote for Tilda Swinton, who wore an awful outfit, but I love Tilda and I think she gave a hilarious thank you speech when she won for Best Supporting actress, calling out George Clooney for his dedication to wearing the nippled rubber Bat-suit under his clothes at all times. Here's a more stylish Swinton speaking about film to the San Francisco Film Festival: ( Tilda Behind the Cut ) And so it goes. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
12:41 pm	The Hurdy Gurdy Man Hmmm...the Thompson show was unexpected. I didn't know he was still doing the 1000 Years of Popular Music show, in which Thompson completely ignores his own music in favor of music from the 1100s on up. Felicia was taken a bit aback, too, though she was pleased as punch with the medieval songs she knew. "What's that instrument he was playing at the beginning?" she asked me after the show. "It's a hurdy gurdy." "Oh! So THAT's a hurdy gurdy." It' was amusing. I can't say that I ever expected to hear Abba and Richard the Lionhearted within a 15 minute period, but there you go. And where the hell does he find his singing partners? Judith Owen was the featured singer, and I have no doubt that she could have knocked some of Thompson's own songs out of the park if they'd played any of them. Which they didn't. She's married to Harry Shearer, of all people. Here's a version of Spinal Tap's "Christmas with the Devil" that she did with Shearer: Thompson's other collaborator was Debra Dobkin, who also sang and played the drums. I think the highlight of the set was an Elizabethan madrigal called "Shepherd's Pipe," in which the three singers harmonized with a clarity that sends shivers up the spine. The Blue Note seems a different venue entirely without a pall of cigarette smoke hanging in the air, by the way. This is the first time I've been there since the smoking ban. (Comment on this)