TousledElegance.net

My SO found a temp job. His employer is one of his bandmates, so that's a cool low-pressure environment. I might pick up some extra work too, if he needs the additional help. I know I'm capable and I would actually enjoy it- they set up computers for various businesses. Naturally, I'm pleased my baby will have a little income. But… There's a little amusement and cynicism mixed in with the relief too though. Remember, this is the guy who always comes to me with computer questions… the very same man who when I told him to click on 'Start', informed me that he had already started his computer, or who called me just the other evening to come over and install The Sims 2 for him because he wasn't exactly sure how to do it. Oh boy :\
On the brightside, he's working in my office park today, so maybe we can have a little afternoon delight at lunch. (Ahahaha, I can't even use that phrase anymore without thinking of the movie Anchorman! *g*)

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Thee Boyfriend coaxed me into going thrifting last weekend, and he bought a couple of things for me…

(a nifty lil box, which holds mints at the moment)

(a 'bondage kitty' handbag)

He got a hefty 50's juicer for himself and later tried to get me to drink broccoli juice :P

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UPDATE: Schoolgirl themed streaming camshow on CW tonight: 7:30pm EST/4:30pm/11:30pm GMT!

A woman calls her boss one morning and tells him that she is staying home
because she is not feeling well. “What's the matter?” he asks. “I have a
case of anal glaucoma,” she says in a weak voice” “What the hell is anal
glaucoma She replies, “I can't see my ass coming into work today.” =P

Tempting as that may have been, here I sit. Thankfully, I actually *have* a job; it pays the bills and I don't *hate* it. Could be worse!
Hmm… I've always fantacized about working in a highrise, grabbing Starbucks on the way in, being required to wear cute little business suits with heels, carrying a briefcase, going to meetings, attending business luncheons, actually having *work* to do, and maybe even feeling like I'm making a difference. Ah, but I'm sure I'd tire of that faster than I have this (6 years!). It's just another instance of wanting what we don't have. ;)

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Nothing in the news has struck a chord with me in quite some time… or at least not to the level that I'm compelled to sit down and author a post about it. (Of course, that's excluding Title 18 2257, but there's been so much said on it already…) Although I'm still absorbed in apartment/moving stuffs, I find that when it comes to anything else, by and large, I'm unmotivated, even bored… And no matter how much I sleep lately, I still feel fatigued. I've ruled out most of the possible associated illnesses, with the exception of psychological or emotional ones. Bleh. Usually, this is my favourite time of year with July 4th approaching (it's always been special and exciting to me). Do you ever feel like you're waiting for something that will never come… and you know it… but you can't STOP… waiting…? It's almost as if my mind and body are disconnected from eachother and from the rest of the world too, each asking when will the rest of my life begin?

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Yesterday, we went on a hike @ Eagle Creek Park. I'd say we got our four bucks worth. The park is a bird sanctuary, and the first thing I saw was a gigantic hawk who promptly decided to show off by spinning his head all the way around a few times. (Ack, excorcist!!!) As soon as we took off on one of the trails, we saw a deer not ten feet in front of us on the path. I was awestruck- I've never been that close. I always thought their coats would be dirty and coarse, but this one appeared silky and shiny. It really looked exactly like Bambi, aw! Thee Boyfriend fully intended to walk all the way around the lake, but when I caught a sign that indicated it was 10km, I knew we wouldn't make that. We got about a quarter of the way before food, water, and potty break took precidence. We rested by a gorgeous pond filled with hovering dragonflies and some of the 'prettiest' algae I've ever seen. I resisted the urge to stick my fingers in it :D We drove over to the fishing area afterwards, where I was irked by the family that had left a wheelchair bound woman sitting off near their car in the sun by herself, drooling, while they went down to fish a few yards away. >:( I didn't really like having to answer his daughters questions about why they left 'that poor lady all alone.'
That sort of reminds me of the evile old woman on the bus Friday evening… (I call her evile because she's always snapping at people that are trying to be nice and her face is permanently set in this snarling expression). She's ambling across the street towards the stop, and I felt like I probably should have offered to help her cross the street, but two things stopped me- 1) She seems like the type that would vehemently resent the implication that she can't do it herself and, of course, 2) She's evile! But, guilt got the better of me when she finally arrvied unscathed. I offered to, at the very least, let her get on ahead of me, and she, in usual fashion, snapped, “You were here first.” I thought, 'Hmph, well, excuse me!!!' I sat as far in the back as I possibly could :P
I picked up a few things for my new apartment during the eventful weekend too… the softest throw pillows known to man, my coveted yellow comforter, a spice rack, ice tea jug, and assorted dinnerware pieces. (*bounce, bounce* All this planning is kind of fun. it's the actual packing and hauling that sucks.) Tonight, I'll grab a string of lights on the way home, and next week I snag my pvc wall hanging. Then, the carpet remnant hunt begins in July! W00t? I'm the Thrift Queen, but it would be nice to have some things that aren't second hand for once, ya know? Things that actually go together! ;) I'm almost 30 years old and I'm still living like I did in the dorms. Tsk, tsk. Some of my wants/needs, primarily bath items, are here, for interested parties. Videos are still for sale as well, with proceeds going towards this move.

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Man who run in front of car get tired.
Man who run behind car get exhausted.
Virginity like bubble, one prick, all gone.
Man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day.
Foolish man give wife grand piano, wise man give wife upright organ.
Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok.
Man with one chopstick go hungry.
Man who scratch ass should not bite fingernails.
Man who eat many prunes get good run for money.
Baseball is wrong: man with four balls cannot walk.
Panties not best thing on earth! But next to best thing on earth.
War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.
Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house.
Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.
It take many nails to build crib, but one screw to fill it.
Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.
Crowded elevator smell different to midget.
Man who fart in church sit in own pew.
Man who stand on toilet is high on pot.
Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.
Man who fish in other man's well often catch crabs.

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I think I had just finished doing a streaming camshow when it happened. Apparently, my show was earthshaking!

I apologize… Making light of that is probably in poor taste. Juvenile as it may be, I couldn't resist.

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It will change the future of the internet. It isn't a scam, and camgirls/cambois/webmasters could face jail time, if they don't comply with the law.

* To read about it in plain english, go here. (Great discussion going there too!)

* For the legalese ruling, go here.

* To keep up to date with the efforts being made to amend the law to be more realistic, go here.

* If you feel inclined to write your congressperson about U.S.C. Title 18, Section 2257 go here.

ALL WEBSITES CONTAINING ADULT CONTENT MUST BE COMPLIANT BY JUNE 23, 2005.

If you live outside the US and your site is on a server outside the US, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. If you live outside the US and your site IS on a server inside the US, your hosting company may ask you to comply with the new regulations. If they don't, there is really nothing that the US government can do to you, other than demand that your hosting company turn off your site. If you want to comply, great… If not, I honestly can't see how it would hurt you. This seems to be a grey area of the new rules.
If you do live inside the US, it's much more complicated. Regardless of what country your server is in, if you own the site, you must comply with the new laws.

You must:

- Keep records of the photo IDs, full legal names, birth dates and “stage names” of every person who appears on your site in any sexually explicit way. This includes yourself and if you have a cam portal, anyone who appears on there.

- Keep a copy of every sexually explicit image or video that you display on your site – even cam portal images, regardless of if your portal archives or not. Even if you delete it from your site, your records must still contain every sexually explicit work you've ever placed on your website. You can only delete them after you haven't had them on your site for 7 years.

- Keep a “cross reference” database to allow someone who wants to look up every image that a specific person has been in, or the other way around… Which people are in a specfic image. You can't just tell an investigator “I'm in all of them”, there must be a list that's always updated.

- You must keep these records on a seperate hard drive, CD or paper filing system from any other records you keep. “(e) Records required to be maintained under this part shall be segregated from all other records, shall not contain any other records, and shall not be contained within any other records.”

- You must publish on every “entry” page into your site, and every page that displays any sexually explicit images or videos, a link that says “18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping
Requirements Compliance Statement”. This link must be in a font size no smaller than the second-largest font size on the page, and must be in a color that contrasts with your background color. This link must open in a new window, and display a notice containing your legal name, your business' name, and your street address.

- P.O. Box addresses are not allowed. You must list the address where you primarily work from. If you're camming from home, this means your home address. You can't list anyone else's address. This also must be the address where you store the records listed above.

- If you sell, license, rent or give any content you have created that's sexually explicit to anyone else who intends on publishing, distributing or reselling it, you must supply them with your photo ID. You are not permitted to block out or obscure any part of your photo ID, not even your address.

- Law enforcement officers are permitted to inspect your records every 4 months. They are permitted to show up without notice. If you don't keep regular 9-5 hours, you must give them a 20 hour window during the week to come inspect if they wish. They can make copies of whatever they want (at their expense) while inspecting.

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These last few days, you'd be hard pressed to find me without a calculator and notepad in hand. I'm budgeting and planning for my move.
It seems like I have a two year limit no matter where I rent. I like fresh starts, changes, and new surroundings.
I guess it is a good thing I held off on re-decorating my room, because the “to buy” list has lessened considerably. (I'll have to sell/donate a few odds and ends too.)

I decided not to take that small flat I looked at last week. If getting my furniture up those stairs proved to be as impossible as it appears, it would have devastate me (ack, what would I do if nothing fit?!). Even if we did get it up there, the process would be so frustrating that I'd be snapping at everyone nice enough to help me move. It's not worth losing any friendships over ;)

On a whim, I called up my old landlord (the one previous to where I live at the moment) and he happened to have one vacancy. I thought I'd better jump on it, since it's such a popular location. I took a peek at it Friday. It is a completely different layout than the unit I lived in before, and truthfully, I like it better- so much so that I probably would never have moved in the first place had I had that floorplan initially. Ok… I'm understating. I love it!!!!
The only reason I ever left was for free high speed internet (which I never received anyway), a dishwasher (which never worked and they refused to fix), and an extra room (that I never really spend any time in).

I know I'll be happy. Though it's farther from work, I can take a later bus and still arrive on time. (If I take the bus from where I am now, I arrive 50 mins early to work. Ugh! So, I've been taking cabs to get in an extra hour of sleep.) The rent is higher than what I pay now, but since there's no gas bill (man, was it kicking my ass in the winter) my expenses actually wind up about ten bucks cheaper each month. The grocery store is well within walking distance (hell, everything imaginable is).
The only cons would be:
- (This is actually a bonus to me, but I can see how it might annoy of inconvenience some…) This is a super secure building. The outside doors are always locked. There's no buzzer. If you're expecting someone or they want to drop by, you either have to get them to call you from a cellphone/nearby payphone or watch for them to arrive. The other residents are really protective of eachother- they won't let just anybody inside. It's not that the area is bad, but there are a lot of bars and drunken idiots are often wandering around trying to remember things like, oh, say, their names, where they live, where they left their cars… heh heh.

- There are No Pets. It wouldn't be a big deal to get caught with one (in other words, he wouldn't throw me out for it), but I don't want to take advantage either. I've asked my parents and my boyfriend's daughter if they'd like to have my cat. That way I could still visit him, and I know he'd be in good hands.

I went ahead and signed a two year lease (that gets me a reduced rent rate the second year) since he was so nice about splitting my deposit into smaller payments and agreed to hold it for me much longer than he'd planned (he had wanted someone to take possession immediately). He landlord suggested it would be less stressful for me if I gradually start bringing some of the non-essentials over as soon as the painting and waxing are done (after July 8th), even though my lease doesn't begin until August 1st. He agreed not to charge me anything for doing that as long as I am not actually sleeping there yet. Since I've been his tenant before (and he's one of our clients too), we know eachother fairly well and have a good level of trust. He's a really nice guy, with a beautiful property.

I need to get some measurements, and I'm going to take some pictures before I actually move anything in. The building is 75 years old, so it's pretty cool. I especially adore the casement windows.

Oh, I'll probably be wiring the place with a 24 hour streaming cam. (Adjunct to my site, not actually hosted on it, so I won't be devouring any more bandwidth than I already am). When I'm not home, I could point it out the window ;) It overlooks the backstage entrance to a club, so there's there's always activity i.e. crew, tour buses (maybe I could capture some rock stars, eh? *g*) and drunken antics from patrons.

Comforter
Satin Sheets
Beaded Curtain
Shower Curtain
Flowers
Stereo

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It is owned by a client, which grants me some leniency and negotiation power. (There's a rewards program for on time payments too. Great for me since I have never once paid my rent late.) It is the top floor of a house, but has its own private entry (with deadbolts). Let's see… pluses… The bus stop is only a few feet from my door. There's a great restaurant/bar a couple of doors down. It is in exactly the neighborhood I want to return to (safer, cleaner, friendlier, artsy/nightlife) and such a good deal @ $375/mo.
The outside is decidely cute. A lot of flowers, plants, a nice yard I could use- It has a cast iron firepit area. Pets are fine. The staircase is really pretty, almost a winding set. There's a neat built in bookcase. It has carpeting! (So what, you ask?! Carpet is something I've never had while living on my own and have always wanted desperately!)
I keep thinking of how much money I could save… it would be lovely to no longer have to nickle and dime everything- I calculate my expenses right down to the cent just to be able to squeak by. I can't stop thinking how much extra I'd have as 'play money.' With that, I could really deck the place out and still be in good shape financially.
There are two things about it that have me torn: It is tiny. And I mean small- smaller than anything I have ever lived in before (unless I consider the room I rented in someone's house when I first moved out of my parents, but I didn't have my own bathroom or kitchen there). I am used to studio sized living and dorms though. The living space is the size of my current bedroom. Although, to be fair, that is where I spend 98% of my time anyway. I rarely hang out in my livingroom as it is here, nor do I entertain guests. And, it's not as if I have a ton of furniture to fill it with. My basic necessities are bed, stereo, desk/pc/chair, tv, and something to sit on (whether I were to fit my couch or to buy a loveseat instead). There's an entire attic off of it that would be my storage space for anything that doesn't fit, and there are 2 closets. Of course, it has a kitchen and bathroom as well.
The bathroom *sigh* that's the other thing that troubles me about the apartment. There's a shower, but no bathtub. Normally, that would be a deal breaker. I have to ask myself, am I willing to sacrifice that for the extra cashflow. (The ultimate instant gratification that shopping provides me just might outweigh the relaxation I get from soaking, ha!) Thee Boyfriend has a hot tub, and I spend my weekends there anyway… I could use it plenty.
All in all, this place is my second choice. The owner is on vacation, so there's no rush for me to decide tonight or anything. My first choice is the same I pay now ($450/mo). Huge bonus: it is located across the street from my office, which negates the need to take the bus and would save me $140/mo, or even $224/mo worst case scenario (I've been taking cabs so I can sleep an extra hour). I've left 3 messsages and that landlord hasn't returned my calls yet.
I have to move by July 31st, so I have a little time. I'm just anxious. By that I mean nervous and excited. I want to get all my ducks in a row, so to speak.

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