8.3.99

    I've been toying with doing a cam. The difficult question is: of what exactly? (Let's just ignore the fact that I don't have a cam but I'm sure to get one after I buy the new couch, computer, Palm Pilot, digital camera and new soft-cover for the MG. Surely that would be next on the list.) I don't want the cam to be of me since that would be boring and since I'm no longer at this computer all day. Besides, I probably have the same expression on my face 90% of the time I'm at the computer. I'd like a cam of something that is changing. Out of any of my windows is a fairly boring scene and I don't want people knowing exactly where I live. I would have loved to set up a hidden cam of all the freakish people that hung in, around and traversed across the courtyard of my apartment in L.A. Maybe Kitchen Cam since that's the most changing scene of the apartment. "Run don't walk to the Kitchen Cam where you can see the ever-changing, subtly-shifting march of dirty dishes through Amanda's life." What I would really love to do would be Kitty Cam.

    I can pretty much guess a few of the places that Oz spends his free time and can point it there. I guess I could have several and people could play "find the kitty" while at work. Maybe I could set up some sort of Kitty Collar Cam. I would need a wireless cam that was extremely durable and small. It would have to survive dips in the water dish, scratches with the back paws and extreme close-ups of studious balls-licking. Hmmm... maybe not.

    What would be really cool is to have something that could be changed by the viewer. I seem to remember a site where you could manipulate the direction of the camera at some university. It was really slow but it worked. I also heard about a greenhouse where you could water the plants. If I could set up some hanging cat toy that was controlled remotely through a web-browser and then point a cam straight down at the action I could have people playing with Oz all day long! Of course, I'm sure that would entail having a computer just for that purpose and enabling other users to access it as a server. If you know of anything online that allows remote manipulation of an object please let me know.

    I've been feeling absolutely wiped out in the mornings. My eyes don't want to open and I don't want to move. I'm hoping it's because I've been working out more except my fitness journal tells me otherwise. I could've sworn I worked out three times last week but sadly it turns out it was only two. T. the Automaton worked out like twelve times — he is evil and must be destroyed.

    Remember how I had those goals on Sunday? They were: watch Priscilla, go to the gym and pick up a few things in the den. I managed to watch Priscilla! One goal checked. There was a window where I felt that I wanted to go to the gym but the feeling passed. I was, after all, already in my pajamas. Okay, I won't lie, I was never out of my pajamas. Actually, in truth, I slept in the buff Saturday night because it was so hot and when I woke up Sunday I put on my pajamas. So you see, the day wasn't going to go anywhere anyway. And, no, I didn't pick up a damn thing. But Priscilla was really great. I love that movie. I think the first six times I saw it it was better than this last time but it was still good. And, Guy Pearce just makes me go weak at the knees.

    If you haven't seen Priscilla (the poignant story of three drag queens crossing the Australian desert) then you must. It's so good on so many levels. You might know Pearce from his role in L.A. Confidential as the straight-arrow cop. He's much more luscious and adorable as Felicia in Priscilla. I wonder why he doesn't get more roles. From drag queen to stiff cop, I think he shows quite a range. Perhaps it's because he's so pretty. I've missed a recent Pearce movie, it looks like. Something called Ravenous that came out this last March. Salon calls it a "cannibal tragicomedy" — I will have to rent it. I do hope he doesn't get eaten.

    But, I digress.

    I need to work out more so I can become less blob-like. I'm not happy with my blob tendencies and my blob attitude. I think I've always had a blob attitude but it's not until the last few years that I started matching it by looking blob-esque. Blobness, be gone!

    Easier said than done, I suppose. I didn't work out Sunday and I didn't work out Monday. I really have a good reason for not working out Monday and which also explains why I could barely lift my head off the pillow this morning.

    I left work at Noon to get to my Flash class. I took the MAX downtown and then the 17 bus to Glisan. I'll need to leave even earlier next time since I was late again. The class was pretty good and I learned a few things. We're starting to get into a few things that I didn't know or was unsure about. I'm pleased. I had brought my lunch and ate it on the way to class and at our break. At five o'clock I walked over to my mechanic's shop which was close by and checked on the car. Still not running. Then I took the bus back downtown. I decided to go into Meier & Frank and get some new bras which I've totally been postponing since I hate trying on bras. I got three bras ($90!) and a purse which I haven't decided whether to keep or not. I then caught the MAX towards home.

    As soon as I stepped on I heard the announcement that there had been an "accident" on one of the MAX tracks and that things were going really slowly and that we'd have to take various buses to get to Beaverton and Hillsboro. Two buses and another MAX ride later and I was finally at my stop at 8:30! I was so hungry and so tired and so uncomfortable that I couldn't decide what to do first. I called T., who was getting worried, and then we went and ate dinner.

    It turns out that some 45-year-old git walked out in front of the westbound MAX. I really, really, really hope that if I have to die in a sudden manner that it's through some sort of explosion or a piano landing on my head or in a spray of random gunfire (the 90s way to go out) but not because I didn't look both ways. I really feel sorry for the guy and for the MAX driver who surely must have seen it all but what a really pointless way to die. Death is so annoying. One wrong "oops" and you're dead.

    And, on that high note, I think I'll go to the gym. Maybe then I'll have the chance to have oops-you're-dead slim thighs.