it’s the last day of may, the last day to buy a shirt, and i suspect the last day i’ll be able to get away with cold showers and open windows instead of my shitty air conditioner. this week is going from sticky to stickier, although it’s a little cooler here than it is in manhattan. brighton beach does have its upside.

rands has just made the same switch that i’ll be making this week as well - to movable type for weblog publishing. i’ve been using newspro, which as many of you have discovered is no longer being supported. while i like newspro, there are a few elements that i’ve wished for, and it looks like mt has most of them. i’m hoping to change over tomorrow, but i’m not sure if i’ll have time - it’s spencer’s birthday today, and we’re going out tonight to celebrate. it seems impossible that i’m now older than he was when i met him (if you can untangle that); the past three years have flown by.

i ended up going to swift’s last night with MrTails and a few other people; i didn’t stay late, but it was nice to be there on a thursday again. i think next time we’re heading to korova, but we’ll see.

it’s funny to me that jish uses dragthing instead of the os x dock - i’ve been using dragthing in 9.2 because it’s the closest thing i have to the dock until i get around to fixing my botched 10.1 installation. either way, it’s a great utility.

spides should be wondering not if spiders will turn into monsters but rather if they’re genetically engineered spiders that will bite his hand and turn him into tobey maguire.

i’m reading glamorama at the moment. i dug into it over the weekend on the train ride home and so far it’s nearly as dark and just as delicious as was american psycho, only with more bars and restaurants that i’ve actually been to. after i finish it, i’ve got quite a list of other things waiting to be read.

my memorial day weekend - which included yesterday too, i guess - was about as good as they get. i spent it here, where i wandered around with no shoes on and soaked up the sun in a rare abandonment of my usual pallor. i’m still in the burned stage, and it looks like it might be a fade-to-light-tan sort of burn rather than a peel-for-weeks burn. but we’ll see.

that my parents know how to post-finals pamper their daughter has become abundantly clear - i returned to brooklyn last night with new shoes, new glasses, and a stomach full of homemade casserole. it was good to see them again; five months is too long, i think. i didn’t get to see as much of my brother as i would have liked, but at least he was kept occupied being domo kun, and a spectacular domo he was at that.

monday was on-and-off pouring, so it turned into a movie sort of day - i finally watched being john malkovich and an ideal husband, both great in very different ways. i’m a sucker for wilde and minnie driver both, so husband was delicious in a very (understandably) british way. malkovich is one that everyone’s been telling me for months i needed to see, and they were of course completely right - i loved it. it was exactly my favorite flavor of weird.

so yes, the weekend was great, and i’m back in new york all pinkish and relaxed. hurray!

i’m a little too tired and sweaty at the moment to do justice to the remainder of my stay in boston, so instead i offer baby pictures. it’s hard to believe, i know, but i was in fact a girl scout, and there was a time when i was this cute. less surprising perhaps is evidence that i appreciated the finer things at a very early age.

so, massachusetts: i said boston before, but technically i’m in essex for the most part, which is a rural town north of the city. i’m here perhaps two or three times a year, and every time i come back it seems somehow smaller, and unbelievably quiet. i’ve become acclimated to the constant background noise in brooklyn - traffic, car alarms, people, trains every six minutes, et cetera. it’s the same with light; i never remember until i come back how completely dark it gets here at night. there’s no light pollution at all: i can actually see stars. despite going to bed a full three or four hours earlier than i usually do, last night i slept deeply and extensively. at home i tend to wake up a couple times a night and get a drink or pee, but here my head hits the pillow and i’m out for nine or ten hours straight. it’s incredible.

the trip is going well, so far. i didn’t go anywhere over my actual spring break in march, and it feels more like spring now than the early summer i was expecting; this has become sort of an honorary spring break for me, albeit a very relaxed one. today i lay in the hammock outside for nearly an hour, smoking and watching the birds. dinners have been for catching up with my brother and friends of the family. i suspect by tuesday i’ll be itching to get back to my own place but for the moment i’m revelling in this little escape from the city.

tonight i discovered a carefully sealed box in my old bedroom containing pair after pair of exquisite earrings people gave me when i was younger, and several necklaces along the same lines. i suspect i packed them away years ago to take when i moved to new york, and then forgot about them. i’m taking them with me this time, and it feels like i’ve just had a birthday because i barely recognize any of it as belonging to me; it’s all essentially new. i always end up arriving back at penn with an extra bag or two full of stuff - old clothes i decide to rescue, presents from family and friends, mail that’s been sent to my parents’ house instead of mine. it’s a little cumbersome on the subway but it’s usually well worth it.

tomorrow looks like another lazy day, which is fine with me, and then home on tuesday.

in the morning i’m off to boston for the weekend, and i’ll be coming back tuesday afternoon. updates will be fairly sporadic, i suspect, but i’ll try to keep in touch. i’ll send you all postcards and novelty t-shirts, perhaps.

weather’s getting a little sticky but it’s still acceptable with all the windows open. i’m remembering our little teaser week of summer in april and i’m not looking forward to it hitting in earnest, which i suppose it will fairly soon. the weekend looks nice, at least, and i have to admit it’s going to be good to get out of the city for a little.

time for some minimal packing and acquiring of iced coffee. also, you’re running out of time to get a shirt - perhaps you should order yours while i’m gone.

reading meg hourihan’s post today got me thinking about my own experiences planning trips on the web, and for the most part i have to say they’ve been quite good. when i visit boston, i usually take the train because while it’s four hours as compared to the shuttle’s one, penn and south station are much easier to get to and from than la guardia. amtrak’s site is more or less ideal for buying tickets; you can tell them approximately when you want to leave and return and they’ll offer a selection of trains, regular and express, that are within a few hours of the times you gave. the service on the actual trains themselves leaves a little to be desired - i have yet to ever have a train to boston leave on time - but the site’s nicely done.

when i flew to seattle in november, i bought my tickets through travelocity. i didn’t have any particular airline i wanted to use as i don’t have any frequent flyer miles, and price was my primary concern. because i bought tickets about a month in advance i managed to get to seattle and back for just under $200 flying with ata. this involved a longish layover in chicago both ways, but it was worth it in my opinion. i would use travelocity again because it seems to be an effective way to locate a wide range of very cheap fares, although i’ve heard expedia is okay as well.

because i’ve been getting a lot of the same questions in mail lately regarding my new hair, i thought i’d take care of them all at once instead of answering them again and again.

how did you make your hair blonde?
bleach. lots and lots of bleach. there’s pretty much no way to lighten your hair without it - you’ll find that most shampoos or whatever that claim to lighten it “naturally” won’t do a thing. as for what bleach specifically, i’m currently fond of l’oréal super oréal blanc bleach with 30 vol clairol pure white creme developer. the professional stuff is nice because it comes in larger quantities and you aren’t limited to whatever they give you in a kit, and it’s also cheaper. however, i’m told in some states you can’t buy this stuff without proving you’re a licensed salon operator or something, so that could be problematic. i’ve used several kits (manic panic flash lightning, sfx bleaching) in the past, and they aren’t terrible - bleach is, more or less, bleach.

what’s the difference between 20, 30, and 40 vol developers?
the higher numbers will lighten your hair faster and damage it more. while i’ve used 40 in the past without any real problems, if you plan to do it regularly i wouldn’t go higher than 20 or 30. i try not to bleach more than once every six to eight weeks regardless of how strong a developer i’m using, but my hair is very fine and damages easily. unlike with dye, there won’t be any difference in color after you rinse, so as soon as it’s the shade you want you can go ahead and wash it out. leaving it in longer will make it lighter, less yellow, and a lot more damaged - i never leave it in for more than an hour and fifteen minutes, and it won’t take anywhere near that long if you’re using 30 or 40 and your hair isn’t dark brown or black. (my natural color is medium brown, although it hasn’t actually been that color for years.)

how do you get your hair almost white instead of yellowish?
there are a couple of ways you can do this; i ended up having to bleach twice recently so that more or less took care of it. you can get the same effect with toner, however. just be careful as many toners are blue or violet tinged, and if your hair is already too damaged from previous bleach jobs or if it’s very light, it may take on this tint (which looks even stranger than yellow). as usual, the lighter you get your hair, the more you’re going to hurt it, so be careful with this. if you’re scared of it falling out or breaking off, it’s probably a good idea to get it done professionally, especially if it’s your first time bleaching it. this will of course cost more money, but you don’t have to worry quite so much and you have someone else to blame if it turns out horribly.

how do you take care of your hair after you bleach it?
even if you’re really careful and you know exactly what you’re doing, your hair will be damaged after you bleach it, so you need to take care of it afterwards. i avoid blowdrying and other heat styling in general, mostly because i’m impatient but also because it’s especially harsh on color treated hair. i’m told thermasilk products help with this, but i haven’t tried it personally. conditioner is your best friend. if you have time to deep condition, do it - it’s a good idea. i’ve recently started using john frieda sheer blonde shampoo and conditioner for champagne to platinum blondes, and i’m happy with it. it smells all lemony and while i doubt it actually “activates highlights,” the conditioner in particular does seem to work quite well. also try not to brush your hair when it’s wet, especially if it’s long - you’re likely to cause a lot of breakage that way.

anything else i should know about bleaching?
when in doubt, get it done professionally. if you’ve never done it before, i recommend at the very least having someone with you who knows what he or she is doing. definitely don’t bleach your eyebrows - it looks ridiculous and it’s a very efficient way to make yourself blind. and yes, your scalp will burn or sting for the first twenty minutes or so that the bleach is on your head. it’s not very much fun, but it goes away fairly quickly and it’s less severe if you use a weaker developer. and of course, blondes really do have more fun.

if you’re having trouble getting to #caoine on irc.caoine.org, try irc.ossuary.net for the moment. looks like HUFFnet’s having some issues, i’ll let you know when it’s back up.

irc.caoine.org is back up and running, come and play. the usual disclaimers apply, of course, but we’re all full of post-apocalyptic love at the moment so it could be that now’s your chance.

it’s jeff’s birthday today! if you don’t already read wigu every day - which of course you already do - perhaps you should go visit today and see what you’ve been missing.

i just watched ocean’s eleven and it wasn’t bad at all. a couple of people have been telling me i’d enjoy it, so i finally picked it up this afternoon, and enjoy it i did. it’s clever, slightly reminiscient of snatch at times, and entertaining in exactly the way that you’d expect. like snatch, i suspect it will prove to be watchable a second time in that you get to feel smart for knowing exactly how it all works out (if you didn’t pick it up the first, that is). it’s not fantastic, but it’s worth watching. in a similarly vegas-related vein, the delicious rands has nearly completed his guide to enjoying yourself in that fair city. it’s been great reading so far - booze has been my favorite - and i look forward to the last installment. also to be reading, if i haven’t mentioned it already, is sucka’s update from a week or two ago. it’s his first in a while with the move and everything.

i’ll be away for a few days myself - on saturday i’m heading to boston to visit the family and whatnot. i’ll be back tuesday, and i’ll try to update at least a few times while i’m there but we’ll see how it all works out. i’m looking forward to getting out of the city for a few days; i haven’t been farther away than jersey since christmas. i’m hoping the weather stays more or less the same, as it’s been perfect here for the past week or so and i bet massachusetts is gorgeous right now.

in other news, drew’s domo kun page is mentioned in this month’s time magazine! it’s in the “trend alert” section, so if you’ve got a copy you should look for it!