Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in tessa_nighttime's InsaneJournal:

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Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
7:16 pm	"miaow," he said. My cats live on stage. One cat lives outdoors, two are indoors. Dividing the worlds is a sliding door, screen when the weather is pleasant, glass when it's intemperate. (The outdoor cat has a waterproof shelter, with a lanai, and doesn't suffer from exposure to the elements.) When the indoor cats wrestle on the floor, the outdoor cat sits to watch the show. When it's dinner time outside, more often than not the indoor cats will watch that performance with as much attention as their antics were given. Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
7:54 pm	Happy New Year! New academic year. The market remains a disaster. It's been a hectic and quiet year. Hectic as I've been under more pressure than most years to remind the bosses why they pay me and quiet because I've made little time to do anything other than work and art for hire. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
10:36 pm	First sprouts! Today the sunflowers sprouted! In the mail was the first packet of seeds from three mail orders. More about those when they meet the soil. Already in the ground, and in the air because they're hanging gardens, are two tomato plants with about eight blooms open or about to open and half a dozen sugar snap pea plants. The peas sent out fine tendrils several days ago, so I tied twine to the chains that suspend the planters and stuck 1/16-inch bamboo rods into the ground. All but one of the plants wrapped itself around two or more of the sticks and strings. Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Friday, March 13th, 2009
11:20 pm	wishes I wish I had a female friend who would enjoy shopping. Gal-pal or girlfriend, either has worked find in times past and places faraway. Friday the 13th! Spooky! Current Mood: quixotic (Comment on this)
Monday, January 5th, 2009
9:16 pm	New Year's 2009 Hi ... I was sure that I'd posted here in December, but apparently not. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Nano went off the rails, but in a good way: I wound up with an unexpected part-time temp job writing scientific background material for someone else's production. (I don't know whether their material will become a movie or a novel; they may not know yet either. Doesn't matter, the work has been fun and easy and the pay is still spendable.) I did buy a new keyboard, the "Cordless Desktop Wave" from Logitech, at Office Depot. It's very comfortable and error-free (unlike the keyboard that comes with the iMac or the G5 desktop), although that comfort seems to be strongly correlated with sitting on just the right height seat. Cogito Ergonomics? Current Mood: busy (Comment on this)
Friday, October 31st, 2008
9:36 pm	Happy Halloween! Tomorrow November arrives and Nanowrimo-2008 begins. I wish I had a better keyboard, but the ones in the stores didn't feel nice to touch and were much more expensive than they should have been. Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
9:31 am	spectator on impulse Auto racing, hiking, climbing, baseball! Friday evening after a long day at work and school, no plans, little energy, from the car radio to the living room I carried the idea of following the Dodgers game. It was an odd event, a home game that was broadcast locally, but that was because the 'visiting' team was the Angels and their local station was showing it as an 'away' game. On the radio, the announcers had said that tickets were still available. With the game on TV, a lot of people would watch from home or from any sushi bar in L.A. An hour into the game, I decided to go to it. The worst of the traffic jam would have been over by then, I though. Not only was it over, but the lanes for the parking lot had been reversed for the crowds to exit later. I ran the lane control red lights and paid for parking. In the darkness I couldn't tell why so much of the parking lot was roped off; maybe because the streetlights weren't working. After a few minutes I spotted a car turning its lights on to leave and I got their space. A few minutes' hike and I was at the ticket window, which was closed. The guards said that the main ticket office would be open, "just up those stairs". Okay! And up the stairs after those. And up the stairs after those! The cheap parking is probably close to the level of the playing field. The ticket office and gift shop are behind the highest rows of the grandstand. The office was open and I bought a $20 ticket (no discount for missing the first three or four innings) and headed back down the stairs. The Dodgers were always in the lead, so the crowd was happy. There were just enough Angels fans for the two sides to jeer each other now and then, but too few to start any fights. Dodgers win! Now get out of that parking lot! Everybody drive like their brother owns a body shop! Current Mood: amused Current Music: "Take MeOut to the Ball Game" (Comment on this)
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
10:49 pm	whee, nice trends! Whee, up five per cent today! Not a record, but still pretty nice. The two stocks I sold short this morning both fell 7% and another stock that I already had long leapt up 16% for no obvious reason. I was near my margin limit, so there wasn't much to do but watch. Current Mood: giddy Current Music: Molly Ringwald movie in the other room (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
11:46 pm	Broadening the Realm Tonight I began designing a search algorithm to find stocks that are likely to drop in value over the next few days to weeks. If my formula is correct, it will point me toward a 'shopping list' of stocks that I can sell short the next day, then buy to cover a few days later. Wish me luck. Current Mood: hopeful Current Music: um, the dishwasher overwhelms (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 9th, 2008
9:45 pm	the kind of silence that puzzles me Hypothetical (I wish!) ... A friend(?) and I IM-chat three times a week for a year. We trade only a few emails. We mail each other little Christmas presents, like two books from Amazon, that sort of thing. Without warning, without a 'good-bye' (or a 'go to ****') and in the middle of perfectly ordinary time, not during a fight or argument, not that there were many, or any, of those, she stops answering pages. Ever. The 'friends are online' feature of the IM system shows that her schedule is the same as it always has been. She just never responds anymore. She sold her house and moved into an apartment the next town over in order to be near her boyfriend. I wouldn't date the guy, but she was happy with him, so I sincerely congratulated her on finding him. Nothing snarky was going on, no half-intentioned comments. Really, if a girlfriend finds her guy, I'm happy for her, it doesn't matter whether I'd like him or not. I miss her. We had fun conversations, lots of them. If she never signed on at all anymore, I could figure that her schedule has changed, but I can see that it hasn't, so it hurts. Oh well. Delete IM contact? (Y|N|Cancel) Y poof. sniff. good luck, be happy no matter what. Current Mood: disappointed Current Music: tv in background, microwave beeping (Comment on this)
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
10:24 pm	whew, done! (now I miss it) Six nights! Three rehearsals, three shows, all done now. I'm dizzy tonight, not being on the tight schedule that ruled me from three to midnight the past week. The show was successful. The audience was carefully chosen, there was no publicity, each event builds on the ones before, and we keep learning. Current Mood: satisfied (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
12:28 am	it worked, I think The first of our three nights of performances was tonight. Everybody survived. A few (performers) griped. All (of the audience) were pleased. And tomorrow night: we do it again! Current Mood: relieved (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
11:41 pm	precipice Tonight was the Dress Rehearsal, tomorrow the show opens. Current Mood: anxious (Comment on this)
Monday, May 26th, 2008
9:08 am	memories? Tweak says, "Do you use ij's Memories?" I haven't used that button yet. I think it's because I haven't gotten into the habit of writing enough. This will probably be a sparse week because of rehearsals, last week was empty because of travel, always one thing or another. Rebalancing the change of how my hours are divided between work and school is taking longer than I'd expected. Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Monday, May 19th, 2008
6:18 pm	unexpected excitement Kidsis is looking at schools and it turns out that her favorite is across town from me -- and across the country from our folks (funny how that works!). This could be a lot of fun! That's almost a year away, but fun to think about. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Sia, "Academia" (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
8:44 pm	almost back to it In the ovens now: bread, chicken parmesana, more bread Current Mood: hopeful Current Music: Sia, "Academia" (Comment on this)
Friday, April 18th, 2008
7:27 pm	Welcome back ij! Don't know what the problem was, but I can finally connect to ij again! Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
12:19 am	My classmates wrote and presented awesome work this week. Two of us begged for, and received, one-week extensions for the assignment. This is the first time I've had to do that and I still don't know whether I'll have a decent play ready by next week. Needing some success to turn my spirits around, I turned to my kitchen. Or first, I turned to the market. As planned, I bought beets so I could make borscht, and I picked up carrots and onions just to have them on hand. The butcher put a pound of stewing lamb on sale for $1.85, so the entree was going to be 'saag meat'. That was my favorite Indian dish when I lived on the east coast. For some reason, the restaurants here seem never to have heard of it. The recipe online at recipezaar was perfect. Details about that another night, it's late now. The borscht recipe I found online had a lot more non-beet ingredients than I'd expected. It was so good that I had a bowl while it was still hot. Beet soup, yum! goodnight. Current Mood: frustrated Current Music: TCM in the other room (Comment on this)
Monday, March 31st, 2008
9:01 pm	I hate my latest play, it's the same one I've written and handed in three times. I can't do that again. My classmates will hate me too, it's too familiar, much too repetitive. Now I'm rewriting it, or restyling it. I've stripped the play to its bones. The same players will enter and exit after the same motions, but the scene and story will be entirely different. Current Mood: frazzled Current Music: none, just typing (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
12:08 pm	easy Sunday breakfast Sliced leeks sauteed in olive oil, then cooked into scrambled eggs. Garnished with red pepper, Served with sour cream and a slice of dark whole wheat bread (homemade with molasses). Current Mood: content Current Music: cat purring beside me, nascar race in the other room (Comment on this)