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February 7, 1999

Let them eat cake

My father took this picture of me this morning after I found out that I am a member of Illumine, a small and participation-heavy webring. They need a photograph for the members page. I didn't care for any of the pictures my father took. The clear ones I look like a deer in headlights and the ones where I look reasonably decent (like this one) are out of focus. So, I rooted through my files and found the old one that I like. The artsy one that I use as my staff image for Metajournals. I think that photograph is a great one. It shows off my eyebrow ring (and my three lobe rings in the background). It is very "artsy" to me. It's rare for a photograph of me to look "artsy", so I really like it. I think it's pretty good quality... which was pretty amazing for the awful Casio camera that I used to use. I can never use it in color: the colors are all washed out and yellowish due to the lights in my room. However, in black and white, it seems to take on a whole new texture. --- I didn't talk about it yesterday, but I got this wonderful email message from a woman named Shelly. I have no idea who she is, really, just someone who wrote some kind words to me. She was looking for someone to make some graphics for her. She said, I'd like some trademark symbol, something simple. . . with my name 'Shelly' and a dolphin. A challenge, Constant Reader! The chance to design something for someone else! I jumped at it and developed a set for her, just like Kymm earlier this month. I was very proud of what I came up with. Even Mike considered the design quite good. It looks like the 3D image is the popular one. I designed them on Saturday evening and sent her an email message telling her about it. She wrote me back early on Sunday morning, saying that the graphics were "perfect" and what she was looking for. She lives in Florida and works with high school kids with disabilities and helping them prepare for the transition to independence. Wow. I admire women like her and my good friend, Christine. This is a job that I would not do well. I have neither the patience nor the talent required to do this sort of thing. She has a deep passion for dolphins and someday wants to do dolphin assisted therapy. Very cool! She wants to get the graphic on a stamp or something to use as a signature. I am honored. She says that I'm one of her daily reads now. Hi Shelly! Thank you for brightening my life and I hope that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I enjoy it when a Constant Reader taps me on the shoulder and I get to know them better. gabby talks often about the need to interact with her audience. I like that too.. and I like the fact that I have friendships with a number of Constant Readers. It's because of these friendships that I've become keenly aware of you as my audience, and I write not just as a self-exploration of myself but to open myself to you. --- We had Els' cake today. Here's what it looks like. It wasn't 100% exactly what I expected (I was thinking that the photograph's corners would be on the four corners of the cake), but it is still very beautiful. They were even able to write what I wanted on the cake "Happy Birthday Ella, Photographer and Artist Extraordinare". The cake feeds 25 people, so I think it was a good idea that we're serving it to the Accent-feminas. The cake is vanilla-flavored with inbetween filled with chocolate. Yum. The frosting is ridiculously thick and it is buttercream so it is not too sweet. This is a beautiful cake. Instructions are to keep it refrigerated until a half hour before you cut it. We followed the instructions and when we sunk the knife into the cake, it was darned heavy and thick! Completely unexpected. It was almost like cutting into ice cream cake, not a regular cake. Ma and Els cut huge pieces for everyone.. way too big for single servings. I loved it. Every morsel that I had was like velvet in my mouth. The cake is heavy and not too sweet. The frosting has a silky mouth-feel. Guess who is getting her birthday cake at the Cupcake Cafe... --- Full Disclosure It was on tonight, baby. X-files. I recorded it for good measure, since I had to prepare a late dinner for me, Els, and Mike (herbal pork chops with onions and red/green peppers with sherry... marjoram-spiced fried rice... mushrooms with basil). It was delicious and we all wolfed it down. We ended up missing only around 15 minutes of it, but we were able to figure out what was going on. Throughout last week, Mike and I had several discussions about the X-files and the conspiracies within the show. This is the first Chris Carter production that I've encountered (has he done anything earler? Nothing that I am familiar with, I know) and to me, he is "untested" in terms of revealing the entire picture. I couldn't really trust him. How do I know that he won't leave us hanging at the end? The issues would remain unresolved? I don't know. Mike had faith that he would do so. As evidence he turns to the consistancy that the X-files has. Chris Carter seems to be very aware of where he is leading his audience and is careful in presenting every layer of the conspiracy. I would defend my argument by pointing out David Lynch's "Twin Peaks", which I was a disappointed but faithful fan of. David Lynch didn't seem to have an ending. No resolution (and there really wasn't one). Mike made the observation that David Lynch seems to want to push the audience to the point of unbelievability. Chris Carter doesn't do that. He wants to push the envelope, but is aware of the line that would be too much. The conspiracy is vast, but believable. I conceded his point. I had high hopes after our conversations going into the X-files... And Chris Carter delivered. Boy, did he deliver. Layer after layer of the conspiracy just opened up. Revealed in the first of two parts. Wow. Throughout the episode, I kept turning to Mike and saying, "Cool!" The relationships and connections between the characters that seemed so confusing were made clear... so clear that I wanted to kick myself for not seeing it before. It was wonderful. Orgasmic. And that ending was a kicker. Mulder, pointing his gun to Cassandra and her pleading with him to kill her. How could I stop watching? I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath. Needless to say, I can't wait until next week.

© Copyright 1999, Eileene Coscolluela
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