sundries

[rm]

All things, or at least some things, are possible. What's possible for you today?

I am jet-lagged all to hell. And it's weird for Patty to be one hour behind me instead of five hours ahead of me now. Although it is a vast improvement, although one hard to enjoy with the current state of the Internet. I did send her cute pictures of me and acquire her chocolate filled with booze though in lieu of working vid chat.

Thank you all for being so helpful lately. I know I've been a lot "help, LJ, answer this question," as my digital resources are not what I'm used to. You have helped and been gracious. Thank you!

You know, when one of the guys I'm sharing the corporate flat with said to me, "We're cool as long as you don't mind that I sleep with Star Trek DVD's playing in the background all night every night" I thought he was joking. He was too normal and cool seeming to ... bad me. We are all nerds now, and I'm cooking and hearing the ST:TNG blaring in his room. Too funny. I could tell him stories. But I won't.

Like my last visit, church bells ring at all hours, but not to call the hour. It if was for calling the hour it would be more remarkable. But there were bells at 10 and now 11:30 and they show up often in the night too. I do not know what they mark. In a country that didn't ban minarets it would be quaint or moving, but here I find it disturbing.

How you know you're in Switzerland: "Take the first left at the large white plastic cow."

I have another idea! There can never be too many ideas, right? It's like more lottery tickets.

(Actually, I have this whole feeling about this lately; like once you get past this idea that if you don't execute on all your ideas you're some sort of fraud and that if the point of being a creative person is to have ideas, then you naturally have a lot more ideas and you execute on a lot more ideas, because you're no longer living in terror that too many ideas is inappropriate, unprofessional, or going to end in tragedy when death eventually prevents you from doing everything. The second you give yourself permission not to finish everything, the more avenues you can explore and the more shit you do finish -- it's great, and, for me, seems like this grown-up sort of accepting death thing. Say it with me: Concept testing is not a lack of commitment. All things end, but hey, let's race!)

Anyway, this idea: this is an anthology. I'm trying to just sort of ask around with some useful questions here and there, it can be "in development" until it needs to be something else. But it's an idea I really like. I don't want to put ALL my energy into it, but if it's doable, I think it's a good thing that really serves. So if anyone works in general-interest nonfiction publishing and wants me thinking thoughts at them, get in touch, yes? Thnx.

Right now, as I begin to compose this at 12:25am here (so it's still Tuesday for the Americas, although it's now 7:57am here as I continue it), I have fielded a interview request for Dogboy & Justine and dropped some email to other people potentially involved in that, chatted the show with Erica, randomly brainstormed ever so slightly the idea in the previous bullet point, and am now fielding writing from Kali for that collaboration. The part that made it super fun? Edie dropping me a line about the wonder of doing this while on a junket. Word. TOO BAD THE INTERNET DOESN'T WORK.

We're now up to 47 backers for a total of $2,190 for Dogboy & Justine. This means we have to raise just under $70 per day for the next 55 days. Later (probably much later), I'll be writing my "Wicked Wednesday" entry to give you another reason why you might want to help.

This is how you do it: A not very deep interview with Luhrmann that has a couple of really intriguing moments in it -- that unanswered fill-in-the-blank is image-making gold. Because on one hand, you speculate. But on the other hand, it's just savvy. You gotta keep something back, folks, even if it doesn't exist. Benefit's the same, either way.

Oh! I neglected to mention the other day that my hair dresser was "concerned" about my grey. I wanted to holler. Granted, I am concerned about my grey too because I don't know what to do about it. But before I get into that, stop trying to up-sell me and pay attention to cutting my fucking hair.

Anyway, I think grey can look great on people of both genders, especially people with young faces or a lot of face to carry the grey so they don't look washed out -- that'd be me.

However, as a woman, grey, no matter how hot it looks, codes to all sort of things that aren't useful to me and are too misogynistic to even mention here. Of course, I'm more personally responsive to a male coding of it, which is hot, but that's all well and good, I can only make what's going on in my head so present in your head. But I don't feel like dyeing over my damn grey. But I also feel dissatisfied that it's not more grey (because I'd like to not be treated like a child, which as a woman who looks very young I often am). And am horrified that I'm even having this discussion with you, oh Internet.

In other vanity-based complaints, DAMN are my legs covered in bruises from dragging all my crap through planes, trains and automobiles.

It's no longer a good choice for me, but it's a great choice for a lot of people. If you're interested in playing therealljidol sign-ups are now, check the community for details.

WHAT IS GOING ON OVER THERE? A supporter of Rand Paul stomps on a woman's head at a political rally.

Comments

Ramblings on the subject of grey hair

[amberite.livejournal.com]

I think you can probably rock the grey.

I've met a few female-presenting people who can, and you share certain traits with both of the ones who come to mind. One, I would describe as "otherwise young-looking, dark-haired, with force of personality". She had long hair, and was a student with me in one of the math classes I took, and her silver streaks kept catching my eye - they were the kind you'd find on a suspiciously Mary Sueish character description on a MUSH, back in the day, and it's hard to describe it in any way but that - the bright silver against the dark hair just spoke of hidden awesome.

Another would be my general chemistry prof, who... the minute I walked into her class I looked up at her and thought, I want to look like that when I grow up. She's... late-middle-age-something? -- has one of those youthful faces, has grey hair and wears it short, but not the way that many older women do: she has the same haircut that I got them to give me once when I walked into a barbershop with a picture of Humphrey Bogart (which is not to say the same haircut as Humphrey Bogart, but the kind that frames faces like hers and mine similarly.) She manages "grown-up tomboy" in a hardcore, serious scientist way. It's kind of hard to describe. (Here's a picture of her, though it doesn't convey the full awesome of her presence.)

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Ah, gray hair. My hairdresser and I merely marvel at the amount that hits the floor, considering how mostly invisible it is on my head. My gray hair is of a particularly sparkly variety, and that makes it extra cool. (The first such hair I found, back when my hair was longer, I mistook for tinsel.) I just try to ignore the gender coding, mostly, which only works so far, but fortunately the barber chair is one of them for me.

[sanat.livejournal.com]

get past this idea that if you don't execute on all your ideas you're some sort of fraud

Any helpful advice on how to do that?

Also, I think the grey will probably help your coding, if anything, so long as the attendant haircut stays on the short side. Imagining some grey on your current headshot icon totally works to my inner eye.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The hair is definitely staying short. If someone wants to pay me for long hair, they can put a fucking wig on my head.

As for getting to the "testing ideas and running with them as far as they go which isn't necessarily to completion" thing -- I've no idea. Sadly, I suspect we believe these things when we're ready to; for me it took a verbal ass-kicking from elsehwere. I'm not proud of that, but at least I was ready to listen. God, isn't that shit advice? "One day, the right person will yell at you!"

[sanat.livejournal.com]

Aww man, I've had so many people yell at me already! How on earth do I choose who to roll over for?? ;)

[rm.livejournal.com]

It may be that it's very early here or that I have a very long, stressful important performance day ahead, but I've been laughing about this comment for five minutes straight.

[sanat.livejournal.com]

Well good, laughing eases stress. Glad I could help!

Bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Could it be that the church bells are actually calling people to worship? We used to do that, when I was a child.

Re: Bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells

[rm.livejournal.com]

At 3am? And 3:15? And 4? And 4:20? ETC ETC

Re: Bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

You're right. That's just strange.

Re: Bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

It might signal deaths within the parish. See Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors for example of this function of church bells.

Re: Bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Here the sledges with the bells, silver bells, what a world of merriment their melody foretells.
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle in the icy air of night
How the stars that over sprinkle, all the heavens seem to twinkle in their crystalline delight.
Keeping time, time, time in a sort of runic rhyme
to the tintintabullation that so musical swells to the... ;-)

I had to memorize this in 6th grade and it stuck! I kind of like the verse about the funeral bells, too. Poe rocks!

[meirion.livejournal.com]

I think I've been living so long in a place with so many church bells that I don't even notice them any more. Even hyper-Christian Corsica has far fewer of them (to the point where you actually notice the midday Angelus, because most of the time the air is uncluttered by their clamour).

In Cambridge, some only chime the hour, some do every quarter, some do every quarter only at the wrong time because the clock is fast or slow. And then there are church services, and the Angelus, and bell-ringers practising. Of course we probably also have the highest concentration of priests/priests-in-training per square metre outside Rome!

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

Oh! I neglected to mention the other day that my hair dresser was "concerned" about my grey. I wanted to holler.

You are such a model of decorum and restraint. I would have skipped over wanting to holler right to throttling the hairdresser. "Concerned"? REALLY? Christ.

But I don't feel like dyeing over my damn grey.

My Aunt began going salt and pepper by the age of 25. By 30, she had a head full of the shiniest silver hair. At 55, the silver is not quite as bright, but still glorious. She keeps it at a length similar to yours in your icon, and she looks fantastic. She has never dyed it.

If you don't wanna dye it, don't! I'll bet you'd look smashing!

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

It partly depends on the grey - my family runs to dishwater grey in dishwater ash-colored hair, which does nothing for anybody, or silver in black, which rocks. And white is a PITA because it only looks good if it's *really* white, and not cream or stained-looking, which is why white-haired ladies (and some men) rinse their hair blue. Ash shades of hair can often gray to dishwater shades, and natural blondes can start to look dingy when they grey. Darker shades may do better, and black just looks sexy, damn them (assuming the gray goes okay with your complexion - gray hair on some darker skins can make the skin tone look ashy and less healthy as well).

It also varies depending on where you grey; man in the olden days often got those awesome grey temples because hair that is shaved close is going to grey faster than that which hasn't (and these days, former mohawk wearers are learning this as well). But if you're just getting one in 500 random gray, then it can just look patchy and/or not so hot.

I feel that men AND women often look a bit awkward at the only-partly-grey stage, and it's worth considering color to even things out one way or another until one is more than 50% grey at least. That stage where there's enough grey to notice but not enough to look awesome is frustrating. But that's my opinion, and I am a hair dye junkie.

Also, temporary (thus gentler) dyes/rinses will do a weaker job on those gray hairs. Which means you don't do the whole head that way if most of it is gray, but if you're just getting a few, then it will tint them - thus, use a gentle dye the same color as non-grayed hair, turn the greys to highlights. I recommend this method to folks just starting to gray, as it's relatively low-maintenance and low-damage, but solves the dinginess problems.

But I have no idea if your grays are coming in spectacular or dingy, so you make the call. (I've seen plenty of chicks go "I'm gonna own my aging and rock my gray hairs - oh my GOD why is my hair coming in BEIGE EW HELP I wanted SILVER!)

Also, if you haven't hit this one already, I warn you now: gray eyelashes and eyebrows too. And pale silvery eyelashes are ten times harder to fish out of my damned eyes.

I'm hoping for a big scary band of dykes to stomp on Rand Paul's head, but I'm a crazy dreamer.

Few things bruise more than travel, at least unintentionally.

Some Euro churches (and even US) still chime every 15 or 30 minutes. More than that I cannot fathom; I ditched Catholicism before any of that stuff made sense.

As for ideas, I have tons, it's the execution that's more likely to be a problem. But I'm ADD and now I'm also tired, so it's amazing I execute anything that takes more than 15 minutes.

[rm.livejournal.com]

My grey is bright, bright silver. It's just randomly dispersed right now, and I don't know what to dooooooo.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Aha, you lucked out! Well, if it's photographing badly or otherwise being a hassle, temp-dye it; if not, don't worry about it. For now, it might be worth temp-dyeing or Photoshopping it out of headshots, until it hits the magic stage of photographing awesome.

Like you said, Hollywood wants you with different hair, they'll buy it for you - cut, dye, wig, whatever. So if you aren't being photographed at the moment, go with what you want.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

This is good advice. :)

I'm getting grey young and am kind of sorry I've been coloring my hair, because obviously I have a line of demarcation, and there's no awesome way to see what my hair looks like without growing it out and chopping it into a Jamie Lee Curtis. The temp colors like Herbal whatever seem like a good solution (and I did do that last month -- the darker color is now fading out).

I'd kind of thinking of getting silver highlights to blend in the grey as it grows out, because I finally have long hair and am enjoying it. The other option is just to get light blond streaks and temp-color the roots blond until it grows out, which is okay too, I guess.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Bells - for the quarter hours? (there's a short sequence that you should get once for xx:15, twice for xx:30, thrice for xx:45 and four times at xx:00 followed by xx bongs to tell you which hour). And of course church clocks are not always *right* so getting the xx:15 chimes at xx:20 wouldn't be all the surprising. During the day there might be different sequences for "we are about to start a service in this church" (which might be a daily mass or might be a wedding or funeral), in the evening bells get rung for "bell ringers need practice at this".

And yes, with all the church-bell noise you'd think people'd be able to cope with a call to prayer or five.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Swiss clocks not right? They'll hang you from a bell-rope for that kind of talk.

[dabhug.livejournal.com]

Your thoughts on ideas are certainly something I needed to hear and ponder about lately.

I am beginning to get those silver strands against my dark hair and like not hiding my age behind a face that still passes for 18, I'm not planning on covering the grey. I earned every single one of them. My grandmother was completely grey by 40 and has been dyeing her hair for thirty-five years. No, thank you.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Are the churches ringing times for the Daily Offices, perhaps?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_hours#Daily_Cycle_of_services

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

My grandmother started going grey with a glamorous skunk stripe starting at her hairline.

When it happens for me, I hope I'm so lucky.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

It is apparently possible for me to cut a giant paper down to less than half its length without sacrificing its structural integrity.
It might be possible for me to go to grad school.

The hairdresser thing is obnoxious because of the assumptions on which it rests. Reminds me of overenthusiastic upselling waxers of yore.

And that dude only stomped that lady because he has a bad back. He is THE REAL VICTIM, HERE, clearly. I wish I were making this up.

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

I hear you on grey hair and stylists. I got my first grey hairs when I was probably eighteen or so, and I'm already getting noticeably grey. I actually like it for the most part, but my former stylist acted like it was something shameful, and would pluck out grey hairs when she found them. That really bothered me.

I really like your philosophy on ideas. It took me a while to not see it as a failure when ideas don't pan out, and in a way I'm still getting there. But now I see it as all part of the creative process, and I'm getting better at letting go of projects that have served their purpose.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Every time I get my haircut, they try to get me to cover up my grey.... Except for Dell at Dramatics on 91st & Broadway. First time? Yes, after that? Never again. He cuts my hair REALLY SHORT too. Recommended.

Also, I loooooooove my grey hair. SILVER SPIRALS RULE.

N.

[magnetgirl.livejournal.com]

FIE on you internets! Hast thou my cell digits should you need them? I'll PM them to ya.

What's possible for you today?

[gement.livejournal.com]

What's possible for me today is getting past three years of inertia on completing (ha) my librarian action figure collection, as ebay prices on Fiesta Giles have dropped dramatically and I found someone selling a custom Oracle (Batgirl after she became a wheelchair user).

The action figure issue is settled.

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

I've been finding gray hairs here and there for several years. Curiously, I'd pull one out and it would be back to my brunette near the root so I thought that maybe some graying is reversible. I found out from a friend who reads a lot about vitamins, etc. that the B-Complex helped him fight the encroaching gray. But I have no other references for this effect.

My husband is much grayer than his brother who is 5 years older and had noticeable gray streaks in his early thirties. I will turn 46 on Friday and I am just now getting what I consider noticeable streaks. I had a hair dresser tell me that I could dye my hair to make it more manageable because it's fine and the dye would make it thicker (assuming I didn't bleach it) but she hasn't yet suggested that I cover my gray. My mother had short hair (from when I was little to when she died) and frosted the ends when she started going gray in the late 1970s. She then let it go gray naturally.

Another friend did dye her gray hair when she was laid off and looking for another job.

I have long wanted to experiment with making my hair a bit redder so I may eventually do that but I haven't done anything with my gray hairs yet. I suppose if I decide/need to look for employment elsewhere I will more seriously consider covering the gray.