Voodoo Child v. 16: it doesn't have to be eternal to be immortal.

Commencement Speeches. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Some are good. I love those. Some are long-winded and irrelevant and godawful to sit through. Hate those. Every now and then I find ones that I love, and this is from JK Rowling at Harvard's 2008 Commencement. 

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world’s best-educated Harry Potter convention.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

Continue reading "Commencement Speeches: Love and Hate Relationship" »

Posted by Voodoo Child at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello summer, hello new template.

Hope you like it. I've done too dark for too long, so here's something...fruity and fabulous. Just like me.

Voodoo

PS: I bought men's cologne and am wearing it now. Is that bad? It's Hypnose, btw, and it's freakin' awesome. 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take the wheel Jesus. There is just too much man meat in that picture. Whew.

Voodoo 

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I hate you Warriors-haters. I have been singing the praises of this team for years.

But not my whole life like this girl:

She wins, baby. Go GSW!

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is a short post today; I thought I'd share this with you because it just cracks me up.

To make a long story short, it's a song from a dad for his daughter who was having a hard day at work, and the song is called, yes, "I'm gonna whip somebody's ass."

Enjoy the original...and oh my god, enjoy the remixes. 

VOodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Say what you will, but I LOVED this. Made me laugh my ass off, and by the way, god bless the children.

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So. Today went really well in Chicago with the college fair. Just tired from smiling and selling the University. It's been a lot of work, but been fun so far. People love San Francisco, I tell you. I'm always thrilled to meet the people.

During the fair, it snowed and snowed. I kept looking outside to see it fall, and got to walk around in it a bit today. i enjoyed looking at it; I know I'm a Cali girl, but snow is something cool. That is, until you have to  be stuck in it. We're being shuttled around by bus, and we had to drive from Chicago to Milwaukee, where I am tonight hanging out, watching Los Oscars (I won't spoil it for you).

We have an early morning tomorrow; about 31 counselors will meet us for breakfast. Then three more schools. Then, voila, back to Chicago by way of Skokie.

We went to TGIFridays tonight, and if you know me, it was a bit of a struggle to like it, but vodka cranberries make the evening go better. I have new friends here, and yes, I'm the only obvious minority on the trip. I'm not trippin' off it, but you know how that goes. I have renewed my fag hag card, thank god. ;-) I miss my Mango.

I hate struggling with the suitcases and lugging around things from point a to point b, and I wish I were like some folks who could live out of a carry-on, but I can't. I have a lot of junk! I'm going to get some rest, read a little, chat with my homies, and if I have insomnia, watch a movie or two ;-)

Much love,

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You came and went without a word
The smile
Infectious.

You took me in
And loved me dearly
The love you gave
Priceless 

Late night screaming at the strobelight
Dancing sweating
That was my life with you
During those moments
Careless 

Time came and went
We both moved on
No words exchanged
We both let go
Silence

Goodbyes comes my way
Fills my heart with crying
I look for you, my eyes search in faces
Last week, you came to me in a dream
I saw you again happy and sipping that drink
Hat low over your eyes
You came out
I passed you another drink
You were ageless then
A weight off your shoulders
And everything was okay 

My friend
We had so much more to
Catch up on
And I waited too long

Sadness.

Sammy, promise me,
When we see each other again
We will go to back to Universe
Sip Boone's and laugh laugh laugh
About the night's conquests
Boys named Sergio
Girls named Mark and Gabe
Nights in the back of my Jetta
And give me that smile again. 

To my friend Sammy. Find peace.

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me know if you're interested in coming...email me.

Join the National Marrow Donor Program registry and help save a life
tomorrow at the Bone Marrow Drive:
11-2, @ 1:30, Flower Miller will speak about her experience as a donor.

Drop in at any time, the process takes only 15 minutes!

This event invites everyone to help find matches for thousands of donors
in need. By registering to be a donor, you get the chance to save the
life of a patient in need. Often you can be a person's only match and
life saving miracle. Currently, only 25% of the National Registry
represent the racial minority communities; therefore, the current odds
for a minority patient to find a matching unrelated donor may be more
close to 1 in a million.

Posted by Voodoo Child at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh Valentine's. I swore upon my life the last few weeks that every Wednesday would be Pink Shirt Wednesday since Mondays didn't work for me. So I was very good at it the last few weeks. You can already see where this is going, don't you. I am freakin' predictable, aren't I.

So I wear all brown.

How horrible is that. And to top it off, I have a pink shirt at work, but it clashes so horribly with my pants I can't do it. I wear a pink flower instead. Sad.

At any rate, Happy Valentine's day to my special Voodoo Babies all over the world. How I love you so. And for those of you who are in love, yippee. For those of you who aren't, well, goody for you. No traps, no forced dinners (Mango and I had chinese food at the kitchen table. I snacked on left over biscuits from KFC. That's sexy Valentine's Day at Chez Voodoo.

Poetry writing is going well. Some nights I'll crank out 3, some only 1. Some nights, no lie, only ZERO. But I don't know if I'll bust out 50, but at the very least I'll have poems I'm happy with, right?

I have a special token of love for you all, something that I hope will make you laugh or maybe not, but at the very least, check it out. Comments in the comments. You know the drill.

Voodoo (V is for Valentine's and D is for Day, snark) 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hate being exhausted at work. Four hours of sleep is crazy hard to function on. I'm not a coffee person, but if I was I probably would have had at least three cups. Is that a lot? I have no idea.

Anyways I have loved the adrenaline (last night was frightening adrenaline) but it's killed me personally. I like my sleep, but working on five hours of sleep has been sheer hell. I came home today and passed out. Seriously. It's pretty sad.

I've been asked about what nexts, and here's the list. Let me preface this by saying that 2007 is the year of creativity for me. I've committed to trying to be more creative: writing, painting, poetry and other things that I'll keep under wraps for now.

It's exciting, yes, but it's also taxing, which I'm sure you understand, and not just about losing sleep. My plan for the text is to let it breathe for a bit and then set to editing it down. I'm going to start up a work group in the next few months to work on new projects as a group. Pretty flossy. But in a meanwhile, I plan on getting my europe album done (I've put that off for too long!), and catching up on sleep.

Okay kids. I'll be back with more goodies. Promise!

VDC 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you seen this yet? Transformer movie trailers! Oh gosh! I don't know what to think! Usually cool trailers turn into sucky movies! But I hope not.

Chances are I'll wuss out and wait for it to come out on DVD before I watch it. I can't stand loud spooky movies like this in the theater. I'll probably pee myself.

But I'm still excited. I wonder when the GoBots movie is coming out.

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i'm a big fan of going out to the theater, whether it be musical theater, ballet, opera or dance. There's something about the stage that calls me and begs me to watch. Yet a more compelling voice beckons me to be on it, but that's another story altogether.

Today we saw Likha's Parangal show. Good stuff at the Herbst Theater. Small enough to be intimate, big enough to make you feel like you're in the big house, Herbst gives you ready access to the performers!

So big love to Food Source, Brahma, and Math Major, and big love to Notations. So lovely to see you all, and to the nameless others, kisses and hugs. You make me proud! Also shots out to Weekender and Etcha, MnM Girl (do I have a name for you yet?) and all my kids who came out to the show. Love you guys.

Okay. Off to veg. Peace ya'll. 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This is the start of Leo birthday season, something that is always exciting, but is a cause for great weirdness...you see, I'm a summer baby, and us summer babies got robbed of cupcakes and happy birthday songs during elementary school and onwards, and to this day, i get the willies. I can't explain it, but that's just how it goes for me.

Went to lunch with coworkers today. Split two nice bottles of pinot grigio and had some good quality Italian food served up by one wonderful Italian waitstaff. If you haven't been yet, please go to Caffe Delle Stelle. So yummy. We shopped a little on Hayes, and weren't able to check into Nancy Boy, a foofoo lotion and scents store that just smells divine. I kid you not. If you're in the area, stop in there too. I bought some stuff for the house and can't wait to try it out.

I'll be 36 in a few short days, and that's kinda fun...but I enjoy the fact that I'm in what is now the new 20's. I don't think I'd like to redo the 20's. That was fun and all, but man, I like where I am right now. Speaking of which, who's watching the Tour? Other than me, Doh and Pterodactyl? So Alpe D'Huez, one of my favorite days on the tour is today. I have been watching replays the last few days, and I'm watching today's as we go. I might finish it by the time I go to bed...thank god for Tivo. Race has been shaping up to something interesting as the maillot jaune changes hands, but whoever wins the Alpe D'Huez wins it all. Shit, if you can do the grade, you should win, that's all I'm sayin.

I've been experiencing a short creativity spurt. I just recently uploaded some t-shirt designs on cafe press, and if someone (APOSTLE) will get back to me, I can get the link to you all so you can get your brl gear. I've come up with a few lines: BRL stuff, Big Words, Hella Love. BRL is just BRL stuff, Big words is my favorite big words that everyone should know, and Hella Love is my "I (hella) love SF" line. Pretty cool, but not yet ready for prime time. I'll keep you posted. I'm also gearing up for NANOWRIMO, National Novel Writing Month. I'll need to crank out 50,000 words in 30 days. I tried last year, got up to 5,000 words then pooped out. I don't know what it'll take, but I swear to you I'll get it done one of these years. Maybe that will be the theme for my 36 year: Creativity.

I just finished the book for the Girl's Book Club: By a Lady by Amanda Elyot. I was pleased with the book, and I wasn't really drawn to it at the beginning, but I was so into it these last few days. I need to prep for the actual club meeting, with a few questions, but that won't be until later this year (gotta make space for those lovelies who haven't bought the book yet...slackers!). I just recently picked up The Price of Privilege, by Margaret Levine, about how rich kids are often the most depressed. I'll get more into this as I read it, but in short, consumerism has taught kids to not deal with their shit...they are handed everything from day 1, and not taught to deal with adversity and as a result are pretty farked. I have a few kids in this batch who are like that, and whatever I can do to help out the kids, players, I'll do it.

So this is life from Voodoo's perspectives...hope you're all doing lovely. This weather kicks ass, but man, why the hell am I working! I should be enjoying this fun weather like my students are ;-)

You too, kids. Take it easy in the heat!

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Okay, beeches, I know TVland sucks these days, but why watch TV when you could watch DVDs? One of my favorite things to do is just pop in any ol' dvd and get around to my other business, catching the good parts and auditorially scanning through the eh parts.

But why do I have this love for Footballers' Wives? 1. It's definitely not Desperate Housewives. I mean, really, who cares all that much about four hags who live on the same street? Bor-ing. 2. It's got my new favorite sport: Soccer/Football. How hot are these soccer guys, I mean really. HOT. World Cup? Should happen every year as far as I'm concerned. 3. I used to watch Dynasty growing up with my Mom. How comedy is that? That's where I learned all my diva moves. I mean, really, Joan Collins is the queen of all that, and I'm a teeny tiny princess. This show contains some of that good drama! I am near tears when I watch it.

Anyways, I got some episodes to catch up to, and if I were you, and you love drama like the Queen V loves the drama, go get your ass to Amoeba or some other GOOD DVD shop and pick up a copy of Footballers' Wives and be prepared to DIE. BTW, lots of pretty boys, lots of nekkid butt scenes (I'm sure that will score me a bunch of hits on google, thanks kids), and enough hot shit to make you cry. It's even better than Lost. I'm just bitter because Lost is in repeats, but I'm ready for October, kids. i really am!

Kisses and all that,

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've decided to move onto Movable Type. Not because I don't love blogger. In actuality I adore blogger, but like you have a loved one you can't really rely on,  you don't really want to stick around at the family party, you feel me? The truth is Blogger's been down more than once in the last few months, so I'm a little over it. It's free, I know, but I've come to rely on them as a valuable service, and I pay for an ISP already that includes MT. The rest of BRL will stay on blogger; they don't publish as often as I might (see that Boy Wonder?), and if there's trouble I'll move them over too.

So Movable Type it will be. I'm excited about the possibilities that MT has that Blogger doesn't, but then again, your crazy aunt might make the BEST adobo so you gotta check her out. So here's to new things.

See what being on vacation can do to a person?

WE-LACK-SED!

Voodoo

PS: I'll be updating the site in the next few days. So it might look different here and there. SUch is life. 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)