It's raining men

I'm starting to notice a cyclical pattern in the love life of jholiday. For most of the year, the city of San Luis Obispo is not exactly a mecca of single attractive respectable(keyword) young men. You might think otherwise, being a college town, but it is surprisingly difficult to scratch up a date whom I would feel confident bringing home to mother.

This is all true and consistent until the leaves begin to fall and a chill wind sweeps down Higuera bringing Christmas lights and somehow, eligible bachelors along with it. Jholiday is fighting them off with candy canes and shopping bags every holiday season, and I ask, why? Why this change? I'm certainly not doing anything differently. I actually prefer to celebrate the holidays without the added pressure of impressing (and shopping for$$) some new man friend. Perhaps it is the nostalgia and sentimentality that the shortening days and "A Christmas Story" reruns bring to the homesick and sugarplummed boys of San Luis, and they seem to yearn anew for some cute blogger like me to drape their arm around.

Sigh... Whatever the reason, as this single girl and The Weather Girls say, "It's raining men, hallelujah, it's raining men, Amen!"

the illest thing

Jholiday has caught a nasty cold. I'm currently holed up in my room, confined to spreading my germs to my keyboard and mouse. But since this is jholiday's blog, I do have something fabulous to share with you. Who would have thought that in these dark hours of sniffles and bulk Kleenex consumption that a worthy idea would glimmer in the darkness. But I might have found the best way to alleviate my symptoms, in the form of a Mexican (spicy!!) fruit salad. Trust me, it's amazing.

You will need: cucumbers, lemon or lime juice, salt, cayenne pepper and sweet fruit (I like grapes, mandarin slices and watermelon).

Combine the fruits and cucumbers, toss with lime/lemon juice and a dash of salt, then season with cayenne pepper until it's just spicy enough for ya. Ahh, sweet relief.

Silly

I saw the new Bond tonight. I liked this video more :)

RIP Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton has long been one of my literary heroes. He was the second author I really got into as a child (after Keene's Nancy Drew series) and I did pride myself on delving into the scientific mysteries of his novels while my class mates struggled through a volume of "Goosebumps". I spent many sick days and rainy weekends in his dinosaur populated islands off the coast of Costa Rica, jungles deep in the heart of the Congo with murderous gorillas, a broken time machine in the Dark Ages of Europe, and the cold sinister corridors of metropolitan hospitals with dark secrets.

I soon became a thirteen year old Crichton snob, protesting the movie adaptations of his books because of their unforgivable departure from the storylines in my beloved novels. If my parents were unlucky enough to take me to one of the films, they were guaranteed an earful of whining lament from the backseat of the station wagon, as I educated them on the film's omission of a vitally important Pachycephalosaurus or a wrongfully killed minor character.

Crichton is the author of the popular novels Jurassic Park (for which he is most famous), The Lost World, Congo, Timeline (another favorite of mine) and Sphere. Crichton was a Harvard educated physician, and a screenwriter, producer, and of course, novelist. He passed on Nov 4th, 2008, after a battle with cancer.

My music secret

Everybody asks me, "Julia, how do you find all of these amazing bands that no one has ever heard of before?" Well, not everyone. Some few may mumble something about no one listening to techno anymore and ask me to turn my music down...but for those of us who like to take a chance with new and exciting sounds, I present to you my secret weapon. The UK pop charts.

Our friends across the Atlantic have always been just a bit more savvy when it comes to pop, and most of their best hits don't even make it to the US market. Recent discoveries of mine have been "Beggin" by Madcon, The Sugababes, "Infinity" by the Guru Josh Project, Adele, and "Up" by The Saturdays. My ipod and my workouts have never been livelier.

It's a beautiful thing

Check out my post that breaks down all of the California ballot propositions!

Travian

My latest time sink has been Travian, an online strategy/war game. It's played with many thousands of people around the world, most are enemies, and some can be allies. I have villages on three servers (gulp). The best part about the game is that you get to balance growing your villages and military with the political intrigue of alliances, spies and treachery. If you'd like to join me, sign up for server 3 in the NW quadrant. My alias is "Ransom". I'm also on server 7 as jholiday, naturally.


I would love to meet other players, especially if you're a good player in a top alliance.. Drop me a message here or in the game :)
For those of you not already in the know, go to www.travian.us

Simile, and the whole world similes with you

I've been so busy with school lately that my beloved blog has been neglected. I'm upset by this because I adore blogging, and honestly if I could list things that, in 2008, made me happier than anything else, blogging would be near the top!!

I've been writing a lot too, and I've finally finished my first short story. I'm so proud of it that I'm going to submit it for publication in a few literary journals and magazines! This is a big deal for jholiday because getting published has always been something I've wanted to achieve. To be a published writer.... (for full effect, read published with a dreamy, far off look in your eyes).

I also plan on putting it online so that I can share it with all of you, but I'd like to copyright it first (yes, I'm paranoid). Expect my opus "Touchstone Cove" in a few days!

Subscribe to jholiday

Dear loyal readers,
I've added a new link to the sidebar that allows you to subscribe to the jholiday blog! This replaces the annoying and intimidating RSS feed thingee. You can sign up anonymously and it won't show me or other loyal readers that you're a follower, or publicly (which will display your photo and is a nice way to get more traffic to your blog!). To subscribe, you must have a gmail account...

jholiday's political endorsements

These are my positions on the upcoming California ballot measures and elections.

PROP 1A: An overwhelming yes. We need more mass transit options in California. My personal favorite form of transportation also happens to be trains. This is an expensive undertaking for California, but I believe it's a necessary one. Yay for trains!!!

PROP 2: This is the farm animal rights prop. Pictures of chickens kept in cages smaller than the chickens themselves breaks my heart. However, placing restrictions on California agriculture will only lead to farms leaving the state, not adapting more humane practices in the state. In an increasingly bankrupt California economy, should we really be discouraging agriculture? This prop only applies to egg laying hens, veal, and a few other farm animals, but I still say no on prop 2.

PROP 3: No. While I'm all for helping children, govt needs less involvement in health care (IMHO) and I believe bonds are an irresponsible way to fund initiatives like this.

PROP 4: NO! This prevents a minor from seeking an abortion without parental notification. The government should not have input in confidential health issues of any person, regardless of their age or situation. This should be confidential stuff. Props like this are always on the ballot and always defeated in Cali for good reason.

PROP 5: I'm leaning toward no on this prop. I don't see how increased spending on drug programs and shortening of parole for drug related offenses will solve anything. However, I feel uninformed on this issue which prompts me to further reserve my opinion on this prop.

PROP 6: Yes. My yes vote is partially out of fear which is not a strong argument, but gangs scare me. This prop allocates nearly a billion dollars yearly to law enforcement and creates approx 30 new revisions to state law over gang related offenses to create new crimes, penalties and harsher sentences.

PROP 7: Yes. If this passes, all electricity companies must harvest a minimum of 20% of their energy from renewable sources, and the percentages will go up in subsequent years. Environmental causes are dear to me.

PROP 8: NO! A resounding no. It sickens me that we discriminate against gay and gayelle couples and don't allow them to marry. Who are we to say whom one can and cannot love? The issue here should not be your stance on gay rights, but whether the government should be able to interfere in the private lives of its citizens by defining whom we are allowed to marry. If you plan on voting yes on this prop I will probably like you less.

PROP 9: I need more information on this one, but I'm leaning toward yes. This prop offers victims of crimes greater access to the criminal justice process, and limits the number of parole hearings to which criminals are entitled. I'm just not sure this prop protects the rights of the accused.

PROP 10: This is a toughy. But I'm thinking no. This prop gives huge breaks to people wanting to buy high fuel economy vehicles and provides grants to research new renewable energy sources. While I believe strongly in environmental causes, I believe there will be a huge increase in demand for the things this bill promotes in a few years (high mpg cars and cheap energy), which will dramatically increase their availability. This bill will then be obsolete in coming years and will unnecessarily take taxpayers' money.

PROP 11: I still have no idea what this prop will do. I'll get back to you. Maybe. If I don't keep dozing off while reading about it.

**update** Prop 11 will create redistricting and give the planning of the new districts to a non-partisan panel, yanking the job from the (partisan) state legislature. The new panel will be composed of an even mix of Dems, Republicans, ans Independents.

PROP 12: Yes. I feel that we owe our veterans of war much more than we currently give them. This prop provides for loans so that veterans can buy homes and farms. There is already a similar provision in place to provide low interest home loans to veterans, and I believe this enhances it. The Ca legislature has unanimous "aye" votes on this measure.

jholiday also endorses.... McCain/Palin!!!!








But Obama gets the sexy vote (jholiday licks finger, lifts finger in the air, makes sizzle sound). Rrrrrr.

Halloween Ideas

Click over to my Favorite Things blog to see some amazing Halloween costume ideas!

Found It

I was quite thankful to get this picture in an email. This is from last Halloween at my workplace, and I'm the second right in the picture. My costume was Indiana Jones. It turned out great and was quite inexpensive to put together.

Last night I bought my Halloween costume(s). I like to stretch the holiday out over several days, and wear a different costume on each separate day. I might dust off the ol' Indiana Jones-ette costume this year, but three more have been added to the line up including:

penguin!



















Leia


















and a lion!















The Calvin and Hobbes costume is still a possibility, but due to the lack of a suitable Calvin, the costume idea has been shelved until a solution presents itself.

Yarrrr

Hope you have a happy International "Talk Like A Pirate Day"! Arrr.

Secrets

I'm working on a short story, which is the first assignment of any consequence in my writing class, and I'm really excited about it. But I don't want to share a peep of what I have planned to write. This brings me to something I've thought a great deal about lately-the importance of secrets. I have never been able to keep a secret about myself. I'll often admonish myself to keep some detail of my life a secret as I'm driving up to a friends house or about to step into work. But every time my lips betray me, and the minute I confide in someone about that latest (insert exciting thing here), I feel immediately cheapened and I know that it is all my doing.

So, here forth I vow to keep secrets, beginning with my latest short story masterpiece, but this will branch to all areas of my life: thoughts, discoveries, romance, conflicts. Of course I still relish sharing stories with you loyal readers and all my friends, but there is something to be said for keeping little gems and snippets of your daily life to yourself, to guard and kindle.

"The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; The secret anniversaries of the heart."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The best card idea

Do you ever forget someone's birthday/graduation/misc. special event and think, "Oh, I can just send an ecard"? Then you actually look at the ecards and realize that they're pretty cheesy and you feel bad for being such a slacker about mailing a card. Well, if you ever find yourself in this predicament, just upload a picture and an .mp3 to go with it and www.postcard.fm will combine them into a spiffy email card.

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I know that a lot of my recent posts have been about entertainment/pop culture etc and have been severely lacking in jholiday personal life updates. So, I'm sorry to deprive you longer still of jholiday life updates and hot goss, but this show is too good to not talk about. And, I haven't been doing anything all that exciting lately anyways.

"Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" (avail. only thorugh itunes) is one of the greatest shows ever! It stars Neil Patrick Harris and is created by Joss Whedon who created that cult classic Buffy show that I always thought was lame. Buuuut, this show is all gold, baby. Watch it, watch it, watch it now!!! HCUOSJKFSJLJCLBS!!! I can barely contain myself.

I hate those bluetooth thingees

I found this comic online a while ago and I think of it every time I think someone is a crazy person because I can't see their earpiece.

This is one of the funniest, unintentionally funny music videos ever

I guess this is the kind of music they like in Germany. I especially like the guy jumping on the trampoline with watermelons and bananas around the 1:28 minute mark.



If you liked this, check youtube for his "Ding Dong Song". Classic.

Haaaalloweeeeen!!!!

I think the days right before Halloween are my favorite part of the holiday because I love imagining a costume and then piecing it together. The holiday itself is always fun, but the parties are never what I build them up to be in my creative, costume crazed mind. Last year I was Indiana Jones but for this Halloween I've been plotting my costume for months. I'm going as Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes. Know any Calvin lookalikes? I'm accepting applications.

In addition to being in the early stages of planning my own costume, I'd like to help you with yours! In the coming weeks you can look forward to a veritable jholiday blog Halloween fashion show, with pictures of some jocose, inventive (and easy!) costumes that surely no one else will have.

My Favorite Song

The Korean pianist Yiruma's "River Flows Through You" tops my favorite song list. This first time I heard this song, I found it so truly beautiful that I've listened to it nearly every day since. It took my appreciation of music to a whole new level. I'm working on it for the piano right now (a daunting endeavor), so if you want the sheet music send me a message.

Book of the Week

My dad once told me that all successful people read -- and that if I wished to be so, I should read a book a week. Luckily for me, I just can't stay away from the darned things, but I often wonder if I'm not reading enough when I fail to meet the weekly mark. The last book I read, Eldest, (completed last night in anticipation of Brisingr!), took nearly two weeks for me to thumb through its pages.

Now I have my choice of materials, and I chose a collection of short ghost stories by Charles Dickens that I found at the Chico used book store. It includes the most famous ghost story, A Christmas Carol, but also holds some other really unique, clever characters in its tales of ghosts and ghoulies. More than any other author, Dickens transports me into the world he creates in his writing, and I can't wait to return again to his dusty offices, graveyards and decrepit manors in Victorian England.

A Summer Recipe

Ok, I know that summer is really almost over, but this drink has always been my favorite hot weather refreshment. I've been drinking it for years and discovered it during a spurt of kitchen creativity during a sweltering August in Los Angeles.
You will need:



Fresca

and




red wine






Pour yourself a tall glass of Fresca (a delicious calorie-free grapefruit soda!)over plenty of ice and splash in enough red wine so that the drink is a red burgundy color (usually a little under an ounce of wine per tall glass of fresca). Then, go sip it in a shady hammock with a good book :)

I've Been Listening to This Song

Dragons, Oh My!

Lately I've been re-enjoying the delicious fantasy world of Christopher Paolini. I've plowed through his first novel, Eragon, and the second, Eldest, is a bit under halfway read (reread). This is all in anticipation of the long awaited third novel in his series, Brisingr. Brisingr will be released around Sept 2oth, so there is plenty of time to catch up.

Paolini's Inheritance cycle (thats what this series is called) is the flavor of the moment here at jholiday blog. The book follows a young man named Eragon who finds a dragon egg that hatches into an intelligent dragon. Eragon and his new dragon Saphira explore the world, grow up, and challenge the course of history The books are written in the vein of The Lord of the Rings with similar characters and plot. The writing is so charming and the characters are so endearing that I am thoroughly absorbed by the story and constantly amazed at the proficiency of Paolini's grasp of language. Did I mention he wrote the first book, Eragon, when he was 15? These books are truly the next fantasy classics of this generation, and while they stand in the shadow of Tolkien's masterpieces, they also stand alone as seminal works.

On Writing

I enrolled in a creative writing class at Cuesta. I used to shudder at the thought of a writing class because that would leave my work exposed and vulnerable to the red pen of the instructor. I know that just one person's opinion is not the end-all decision of the value of my work, but I've always been afraid that my arrangement of words and spinning of ideas is just average. For the class we'll be expected to create several short stories, poems and smaller miscellaneous writing exercises. I can feel the palpitations of anxiety welling in myself as I imagine submitting my attempts at good fiction. I attempt to write often, but I have more ideas for stories than time or drive to write them. I suppose I've always known that I should be a writer, but do I write well?

Let the games begin..

So while the Olympics in Beijing are off to a roaring start, I'm beginning my own gaming event here in my cozy apartment in San Luis Obispo. While I'm not sure everyone can relate to this, every once and a while I get a hankering to play video games all day. Today's schedule of events includes: Travian, a new online strategy game that happens in real-time, Neverwinter Nights 2, which I will be picking up from Circuit City shortly, and maybe a little Zelda: Twilight Princess, if I get bored with the other two too quickly. To keep myself from becoming a complete shut in today, I'm going to go see the new 3D movie at the Fremont with some friends tonight, thought I'm sure that doesn't do anything to help lower my nerd levels that are now dangerously high...

Jules is tired

After three days of work, interrupted sleep, double shifts at work, and no sleep, I'm on my way to my earliest bed time in...well, I can't remember the last time I went to bed before midnight. Today was particularly tiring because I woke at dawn to figure out the time of my friends' wedding! I never got an invitation, so I had to call my friends to ascertain the time of the ceremony. No one was answering their phones, so I was on "wedding watch" from 8 till 10 until I finally found out that the wedding was at 11. The ceremony was beautiful, and Steve and Christina were so excited and in love, which is the only requirement for good wedding to me.
At the reception, the most wonderful wedding-ly possible thing happened. I caught the bouquet!!! All superstition aside, all girls want to catch the bouquet. It's the competion. Like winning a flowery lottery. Today, no elbows were thrown, nor toes trampled. If I hadn't put out my arms it would have smacked me in the face. It was meant to be.
My next blogging challenge will be to post a picture. Maybe you'll get to see a picture of me from today, clutching my prize. But for now, slumber awaits...

jholiday returns

I know all you loyal readers have been on the edge of your seats since my last post, checking the page day and night for the Chico updates and gossip that I promised. I'm up late tonight after too much tea, and I can't but reminiscence of my week in my hometown, so it seems perfect to write an update and mark my return to San Luis.
I spent my days wondering around downtown Chico, which is much like dt San Luis. This was partly because I like to window shop and partly because I couldn't think of anything else to do. As a tenacious book lover, the used book store in Chico is one of my most anticipated stops. While there, I scored a really nice copy of "The Return of the Native" for my antique hardbound collection, "The Myth of Sisyphus", and "The Sign of the Four", (which is one of the few Sherlock Holmes stories I have not yet read). I also promise a review of "The Myth of Sisyphus" when I finally finish it (not an easy read, that one)
When I settled onto a patio table outside of a coffee shop next door, I had the pleasure of attracting many of the downtown Chico "personalities", until my little table was fully encircled by these perpetual coffee shop philosophers. We talked mainly of books, first my books, then great novels, our jobs, the heat, love lives, people we know. So immersed was I in our little circle that I didn't realize I was due to meet Breanna for dinner until I was very late. I fell all the more in love with my hometown now that I have a friend and good conversation waiting in many a coffee shop.
The weekdays were sprinkled with fun lunches and dinners with my memaw, and a multi day shopping extravaganza with Breanna. The warm Chico nights filled with old friends and long stories over countless pints. And lets just say my imaginary romance with Vlad wasn't all that imaginary after Friday night! When my memaw and step pepaw left for the weekend, I got to add late nights of great music and wine (Paso wine. Holla!) while sitting on their porch, watching the sunk sink past the city lights.
I love it when you get a vacation exactly right, and the joy of being in a new place doesn't fade until the long trek back, whence comes a slow burning yearn for home and the familiar, speeding your journey and closing the last chapter on a fond memory.

Jules is on vacation...sort of

I'm sure this news will fall with much chagrin upon the hearts of my faithful readers, but I am out of town until this Friday the 1st, and I will be taking a blog vacay until I return. Most likely. Unless I just can't stay away, which is possible! Well, I might post some adventures if they are to be had. None the less, I am sure to have many exciting things to share with you upon my return to San Luis Obispo and my blogging career.
I'm currently peacing out at my Chico casa because the driveway gate is locked (grumble grumble..) leaving my key-less self and my car prisoner until my homie Breanna can pick me up. Then the fun can begin. The agenda today consists of a little shopping downtown, dinner with my memaw and step-pepaw, then dollar night(!) at Rileys with Bre and Tony and possibly some others. I also hope to meander over to the Banshee pub again to scope on the hot bartender, Vlad. Im sure thats not his name, but last night he was in this sexy plaid shirt, and I was too shy to ask his name, so..plaid, Vlad, get it?

CD review: Eric Hutchinson's 'Sounds Like This'

I was at Best Buy a few days ago buying a cover for my ipod, and while I was waiting to check out the Eric Hutchinson CD caught my eye. I am an embarrassingly faithful reader of PerezHilton.com, and he turned me on to Eric about a year ago. I downloaded a few songs and made a mental note that he was working on a full length album, (which I promptly forgot). Well, at Best Buy Eric was on sale for $6.99, so I added his CD to my shopping cart full of unnecessary gadgets.
As I pulled out of the parking lot I popped his CD in. I liked what I heard. That is, until I got to the new album versions of the songs I'd downloaded a year ago. In the place of a charming, acoustic guitar playing singer-songwriter in the vein of a good Jason Mraz, I found over produced, over synthesized versions of the songs that had nestled a place in my top music rotation not too long ago. It was like he'd hired Miley Cyrus' producer. Really. Now, the songs weren't bad, they were actually kind of catchy. Its that they weren't sincere love songs anymore. But I still kind of loved it.
This will def be blasting from by beach boombox this summer! I'm loving track 9, 'Back to Where I Was', and the acoustic pre-album recording of 'All Over Now' is not to be missed.

To facebook, or not to facebook?

Something disturbing happened to me the other day, but to explain it you need the back story. So, my friend Brent decided to make me this facebook page because I refuse to join the f.b. revolution. Now, he seemed to put some effort into the page, (lots of pictures, etc) and the page was actually funny, but a little mean and patronizing. So I left it up, as, in my opinion, a fan page of me that I had nothing to do with :P because I was at the same time offended by and entertained by it. So, the disturbing thing happened a few days later. I have Blockbuster Online as all you faithful readers may know, and I decided to add the new BBC version of 'Persuasion' to my queue. When I clicked 'add', this little window popped up saying, "Your Facebook diary has been updated to show you added this movie to your queue!". Um, what? Why, why why is this being noted so the internet population at large can see my video rental habits? I felt so freaked out that this website could invade insignificant little details of my life like that and post them as a news flash. I'm sure I reacted a little too much, but I felt like my privacy was a little violated. Now this leads me to another question. What is the appeal of these social networking sites. Is it healthy to want all your friends/acquaintances/mailpersons/etc to know everything about you, like a page like that promotes? I'm still not sure.

Moonstruck

I watch a lot of movies. Sometimes I don't want to, but lately I've had so much free time that I'm going through my Blockbuster Online movie queue like a mad woman. So today Moonstruck arrived in the mail, and I immediately popped it in the dvd. It was a great romance, but without all the romantic comedy stuff that usually makes me gag. It probably didn't hurt that it had an oh so hottt young Nicholas Cage, whom I've loved ever since 'Peggy Sue Got Married'.

I feel like something special in 80's movies, especially romantic comedies, is so missing in movies today. They seem more real, more relatable. A movie like Moonstruck, or Ordinary People(not a rom-com), or whatever, isn't afraid to have more dead, slow screen time, which makes the characters more relatable. Their on screen awkwardness has the effect of making them seem more human, and not a character. I guess they seem to live life more at the pace of you or I.

In this film Cher's character's parents are both involved in infidelity in a saddeningly unresolved way, and its juxtaposition with the burning central romance creates melancholy questions about the longevity of romantic love. All in a film that gives you such excitement about the passion of its central characters, too!

Next on the movie queue is the HBO series Six Feet Under (so I get to see a gay Dexter! Yess!) and American Gangster (which I've been putting off. It's been on my coffee table for a month.)

First Post!

Welcome to my blog! I've wanted to do this for such a long time, as kind of a more interesting alternative to facebook or something so I have more freedom to post what I want. I hope to make this a blog about what I find exciting, new, moving, funny, ect in my daily life. Enjoy!