Pretty. Vacant.

I have a thing for Libra women; the rule of thumb is if a celebrity babe strikes my fancy out of the blue, odds are good that she's a Libra. I can't account for it, but it's so often true that I can usually spot them. Many of my celebrity crushes are Libra babes. A big tell is their eyes -- they have doll eyes, basically, with a flat aspect to their gaze. Here are some samples...

Naomi Watts. Hard-working actress who is generic enough that she gets a lot of work, but then people are like "It was that movie with, you know, what's her name?"

Avril Lavigne, who may or may not qualify as a celebrity, anymore. Does she still sing? I dunno. But dig those empty, empty eyes. What's she thinking about? Anything?

Gwen Stefani is one of the Libra exemplars -- pretty, fashionable, femme, stylish, but what's going on in that head? Her dark eyes help disguise it, but I bet there are ample tales behind the scenes.

Ah, Kate Winslet. Yes, yes, yes. A fine actress, and so fond of doffing her duds to reveal her delightful curves, what's not to like? And I do think she's mighty fine. And yet, those eyes, what to make of them? She's an exemplar in terms of my "Libra Eyes" meme. You can pick through any number of her shots and see them gazing out at you flatly.

It's hard to find a celebrity more "Libra-ish" than Gwyneth Paltrow. She's a true Libra exemplar, who manages the breezy flakiness and nutball trippiness with the blandly beautiful appearance and those astoundingly flat eyes (they look even emptier when she's actually acting, in motion -- her eyes are like marbles).

Another exemplar is Alicia Silverstone. She can look at you with those flat eyes and it makes you want to snap your fingers in front of her face like "Hello? Is there anybody in there?" It's not that Librans aren't smart, because I'm sure they are; it's just that their eyes have that shallow gaze that gives you absolutely no indication of what's going on in there.

And lest you think it's only female Librans who have this quality...

I mean, we know Matt Damon's a smart guy, right? But what's with those eyes? Again, the finger snap test comes into play, here.

Viggo Mortensen. Helllllooooo? Viggggo? Where you at, Holmes?

Now, Librans are usually smooth operators, socially, and can be superficially charming, even charismatic after a fashion (and who can argue with the Libran tendency toward exhibitionism?), but they all have those Libran dolls' eyes that are usually a dead-eyed giveaway, if you're paying attention. If eyes are the mirrors of the soul, then are Librans ultimately soulless? Are those mirrors two-way, or merely one-way? That proverb is never more perfect than with Librans.

Color Purple

When faced with the umpteen coloring books scattered around the apartment, I sometimes get the compulsion to color in them, but I always use trippy colors. So, when confronted with a zebra in a coloring book, rather than black and white, I opt for some trippy hues. When seeing a tree, I make it purple, or yellow, or whatever color hits at the moment. I like making whole scenes where the colors of everything are off. Then, when my boys get around to nosing through'em, they see those and are like "What the-- ?? Daddddddy!"

Working Assets

Rest assured, it's easy to assess what Jessica Biel's greatest cinematic asset is...

The Aliens Have Landed

Somewhere out there is an air conditioning unit that requires servicing. Right now, it makes a whirring sound, like a fan in need of some WD-40 or something, that sounds like a hovering flying saucer might, or like a giant monster cricket. And it cycles repeatedly -- it'll run for about three minutes, and will then shut down. And then you'll hear it again. I can never properly isolate the unit, because the way it echoes off the buildings, it's hard to isolate (and it appears to only be on at night). Anyway, I'm hearing it now. God help you if you hear it when you're awake (and trying to sleep), because you just hear that fucking noise. It makes me want to be a rooftop repair ninja, tracking down that sound and slathering the offending piece of machinery with WD-40.

There, it stopped. But it'll be back. At least the Reggae Asshole Brigade appear to be snoozing right now. They had that party over the weekend with "Gonna get fucked up!" as the crowd's mantra, shouted every few minutes. Life in the big city!

Back to sleep, hopefully!

Maggie Q & A

I haven't decided what I think about Maggie Q, yet. There's a bit of cognitive dissonance with her half-Asian look -- like she's equidistant between her Polish, Irish, and Vietnamese heritage, giving her an oddly hybrid appearance that makes it hard to properly evaluate. She's good-looking...kinda. Hot, and yet, confusing....

Arg

Work's been wicked busy today! I'll try to post something this evening!

Autumn Angst

Chilly morning; Autumn officially hasn't begun, yet, but it's here. No Indian Summer, it seems. Just a dive into Fall.

I cranked out 3000 words yesterday, marching on toward my goal. Only 50,000 more to go, give or take. I've got new ideas in line behind the piece I'm working, vying for attention, but I'm being a trooper and getting this one done, first. That always happens -- a new idea is like "Look at me! Look at me!" But I stick it out, give'em a number, and make'em wait in line. Have to do that, to get anything done.

I'm a little angsty going into the Fall -- just trying to juggle a lot of plates, wondering what's going to happen in the elections, whether the country will opt for Republican Lite (the Democrats) or Republican Extreme (the Tea Party cadres). That's the truth of the choices we have -- today's Democrats are like yesterday's Republicans (seriously, their patron saint, Reagan, would have been drummed out of today's GOP for being a raging liberal and a traitor, since he actually worked with Democrats). And today's Democrats would have FDR, Truman, LBJ (and, hell, even JFK) spinning in their graves with the weak tea they offer. The Democrats actually did have a mandate for change, and wouldn't run on it. Obama's feckless pursuit of "bipartisanship" bought him exactly nothing, since the Tea Party hate him because he's black, and the GOP lined up against him because they wanted to deny him any victories at all. Sigh.

We need more political parties, truly. That's the real fix for the stalemate. Competition. But it's not coming in this election.

Blown Away

Wow, windy day today! 15-30 mph winds! A gusty start to the school year! I took B1 to school, which was a bit hectic -- they hadn't assigned teachers to the students, yet; rather, they had classroom assignments without explicit teachers. Made for a kind of chaotic start of the year, with parents jockeying to find out where their kids were were supposed to go.

Lovely day, wonderful weather.

The long weekend shot by. Amazing that it's fall already.

B2 has such a facility with language; it's quite cool -- he speaks well ahead of his peers. The words he uses, how he speaks, his understanding of syntax, etc. Love it. B1 wasn't particularly looking forward to going to school, but I'm sure he'll have fun once he gets into the groove.

Trebuchet happens

This morning, I was called upon to make a Lego trebuchet by the boys, no mean feat, given that the Legos we have are a mish-mash of various sorts, not sets explicitly trebuchet-intended. But I came up with a workable one that the boys began using to fling Lego projectiles around. B2 was miffed that I put wheels on it, so I took those off, trading mobility for stability. B2 is busy setting up targets and launching things at them. Gotta love Legos!

Today

Last day of Summer for the boys. B1 starts school tomorrow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_6

Long weekend was pretty good, overall. The boys had a lot of fun, primarily with me, naturally! Today is autumn-chilly.

I climbed a tree in the park with the boys yesterday, which was amusing, since people would walk by and see us in the tree and react to it -- bland smiles, or, with kids around, they'd climb the tree (or its neighbors) for awhile, too. B1 calls the tree we were on "The Fun Tree."

Nothing fancy planned today.

Light

Lovely light day, already the autumn sun seems so in evidence, fall temps. Had the boys at one of the playgrounds, they had a good time, their playful chaos. Played with Legos aplenty until I was almost dizzy with construction visions. I made tortellini for dinner, a Sicilian tomato sauce with various olives. B1 pleased me by digging into it and giving it a literal thumbs up. Good boy!

Transitioning to Fall, school starts for B1 next week. He's not looking forward to it, although I'm trying to have him read each day, get him back in that spirit.

Sleepy.

Bus Trackers

I meant to write about this awhile ago, but kept forgetting. Ever since the CTA started its Bus Tracker, there's kind of a funny thing that's evolved at the bus stops -- CTA flash mobs! I'm a CTA empiricist; there are either buses coming or not. But lots of people rely on the Bus Tracker to get an estimate of a bus's arrival. And the result of this is that you'll often have a sense of a bus's imminent arrival because, out of nowhere, people will congregate. I mean, people do that, anyway, but the Bus Tracker folks will appear on less-trafficked stops, and that's how you'll know. You'll go from nobody there to suddenly a dozen people there. It's amusing to me, and it's entirely a result of the Bus Tracker.

Sunset

Yesterday's sunset. I enjoyed it.