So fresh off this last weekend's Taste of Springfield, start getting ready for another awesome all day event with tons of beer and live music thanks to Q102 and their friends. We've already posted about this a while ago, but here's the info again and a pretty linky to BUY THOSE TICKETS!!!! C'mon seriously, Dr. Zhivegas? Yeah we're there.

All information from Q102.fm

Date:  October 25th, 2008
Location: The Oasis Inn’s Convention Center
Time:  Noon till 7pm with indoor and outdoor activities

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!!!!!

bookis and i were upstairs looking for the next book in the ender's game series when bookis saw a little slip of paper sticking out of one of the shelves.  he pulled it out and unfolded it.  this is what it said:

Tim's New Years Resolution for 2008

Treat everyone with more respect.

i like it, tim.  thats the kind of thing that we ALL need to work on.  if we could all have the same outlook that our good friend tim does, then maybe the world would be a better place.  thanx for reminding us what is really important, tim.  i'll be thinking about you this year, as i try to treat EVERYONE with a little more respect.

GO Magazine will be having an encore to their GO Music Awards tonight at Cartoon's. Click to find out all the info.

From GO's Myspace bulletin:

In April, 2008 GO Magazine hosted The GO Music Awards. Hotbox rocked the house and won Best Band, Cartoons was voted as the area's Best Live Music Venue, and DJ Vinyl Richy was voted Best DJ.

Tonight, these three top-vote getters will come together for the SUMMER'S BEST LIVE MUSIC EVENT, GMA: The Encore show, hosted by GO Magazine and the #1 rock radio station, Q102. Join us on the patio at 7:00 for free brats and burgers.

For more info check out our site!
http://www.springfieldgo.com/GO-Magazine/GMA-The-Encore/

Our 'hotbox' should change forever the way poultry is processed commercially. Here's how. Once chickens are on the processing line, they pass through a steamer to fluff up the feathers ready for plucking. This ensures they have cleaner skin than your average chicken.

Why is that? Currently the industry standard is very different. Birds are dipped into a hot water bath called a scald tank. This water might be clean at the start of the day but gradually gets filthy as hundreds of chickens per minute wash through. This coats each bird in bacteria from the preceding birds.

Sheepdrove's hot box system is a healthier alternative to these baths, which we hope will be consigned to the past. Microbiological results are astounding - they show half as many bacteria on hotbox birds compared to those which have gone through a scald tank.

Read all about it! Sheepdrove’s hotbox system had a feature story in the Guardian yesterday, written by ethical food campaigner Felicity Lawrence.

This lil' piece of freeware is one of the most popular downloads on the Apple site.

Basically, it allows you to turn pretty much anything you want to full screen mode. Luckily for us Mac users, iLife and other built-in applications let us do this, such as iPhoto, Quicktime, and DVD player. However, there are other things which you can't normally use in full screen mode. But with Hotbox, you can do it with anything, internet videos, flash clips, you name it. Simply select the portion of the screen you want to use in full screen mode, and voila!

Download Hotbox 1.0 over here.

If you find such a feature useful for web browsers, then why not check out Shiira?

Theater Schmeater
4555 5th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98105

who the heck is that? and does bank of america really think that's a real person? i mean, come on. there's no freakin way someone would name their child that. but then i remembered our dear friend scuba peter (peter richard johnson... you'd think his parents would have figured that one out). this is kind of like when i get a letter addressed to "Hna Duke" from chase visa. oh geez.

don't forget, divers (sean, jake, peter)... hotbox etc. reunion 2012. be there or be an asshole.

on monday evening i came home from work to find marie home alone and confused. she immediately pulled me into the downstairs bathroom, and then her bedroom and the kitchen, to show me the miraculous state of things. the bathroom, for the first time since we've lived here was absolutely spotless. i'm talking SPARKLING clean. the hair littered floor was scrubbed, along with the sink and tub. AND... a new roll of toilet paper (i didnt even think we had any) was folded into a nice little triangle.

as for marie's bedroom... the trash was taken out, the floor swept, and her bed made with blankets that had previously been balled up on the floor. the kitchen was cleaned with obvious differences in the amount of countertop plaque that usually resides in the cracks of the tile. a new roll of paper towels (which im not sure we've ever used) was also folded into a nice little triangle like a hotel mini-bar.

the rest of the house was untouched. no other beds made. no floors swept. everything the same, except the things on the coffee table in the living room were lined up nicely and the bubbler was placed upside down on the table, leaving it to soak in a puddle of its own nasty bong spew... i mean, water.

after seeing all this, and checking with the other roommates that they had no hand in this cleaning, we figured (as anyone would) is must have been ghosts. right? i mean, britt was out of town, so we know she didnt clean up. and according to our landlord, he didnt send anyone over to the house to clean.

morgen was later informed by one of our neighbors that they saw at least two maids coming in and out of the house and were here for at least an hour. if you have any information about this cleanly break-in, or the whereabouts of these "maids" please contact us at 1-800-unsolved- mysteries (86765833-697837437).

Guys/girls and animals are welcome of all races, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, and any other box you are willing or refusing to put yourself in.
You must be 420 friendly, be accepting of your own and other members' sexual, intellectual and spiritual freedom and comfortable with members walking around half naked and/or peeing with the door open.
In short we are very open and loving people who know how to have a good time and live harmoniously.
We would also prefer tidy persons or those willing to do their part. We may be verging on hippies but we still enjoy cleanliness.

note - We are drama-free!
The HOTBOX is a utopia so if you enjoy cute little animals, beerpong and a bowl after school/work. Please apply!

Peace and Love,
Hanban

***Courtesy of Marie Sullivan

slater was more than just my kitten. she was a huge part of the hotbox family. my daughter. a sister. a friend. i really cannot describe the cat she had become. i've never known one like her. loving, kind of crazy, and the best cuddle buddy anyone could ask for. but now i don't know what to do. what about urchin? she's lost her sister, and she won't let me cuddle her. everytime i tried to show slater to her she would run, and then sit at a distance and watch me holding her sister, crying. urchin's going to be so lonely... and we are all going to miss slater so much.

we don't know what happened to her. there was no blood, her body was fully in tact. upon further investigation, we found that she has a swollen mass in her belly, and her back claws were very short and completely frayed. we have our theories; a bike hit her, she fell from a tree and was unable to flip herself around, the fleas finally got to her (she was the only one we hadn't had a chance to spray with the anti-flea stuff... damnit). we also worry (hope) that she will turn into a zombie kitty when the last petal of the rose that brandon brought me falls. i'd say its more than a possibility. but for now, we will bury her in the yard at the hotbox or at the honeybucket, and miss her more than you can know.

god, slater. i fucking love you so much. i wish you were here, sleeping on the pillow above my head or plopping down on my chest, leaving me just enough room to breath. i'd give up that breathing room to have you here with me now. i'm going to miss you so much... we all will.

mom.

anyways... some really awesome stuff happened for this birthday. i did not have a party with condoms in the gift bags, but i guess that can't happen every year. since last august when we all moved into the hotbox, we've been discussing and planning for a hotbox 80s bash in the spring. it just seemed natural to link it up with my birthday party (ya know, 'cause i was born in the 80s). plus, i got to go out to the bars... and to top it all off NATASHA DAWN STEVENS came out to seattle to help me celebrate. my best friend in the whole world... and she was here to watch me get wasted, make out with girls, and cry with me when we got in a fight. oh geez, tannah.

so on the saturday before my birthday (may 19th), tasha arrived in the afternoon and by sundown we were ready to party down 80s style with some big hair, cuff bracelets, 4 kegs of cheap beer, and 9 hours (thats right, NINE hours) of tunes straight from the 1980s. that night was crazy... of course we all got completely wasted, playing beer pong and taking shots of tequila with mere and you know who. there had to be hundreds of people at the hotbox (or at least thats what it looked like) including some special guest appearances made by faraz, cousin andrew, and jesus. i also met this really awesome girl named Claire from england. now for those of you who dont know, i love the british... and i've always said that i wanted to be british when i grew up. and just chatting it up with her reaffirmed my love for those silly brits. oh, and also, jalyn b(r)ought me a really pretty bowl... it has a little blue frog on it and its super cute. so THANX j-dawg.

THEN on to continue my birthday celebration, on tuesday night at midnight we (me, eli, mere, tasha, marie, burton, britt, bookis, rhino, brandon, tyler, and drew) went out to kate's, a bar up the street from the hotbox and got wasted. people kept buying me shots and by the end, brandon was trying to force me to take "just ONE more shot" for a good 20 minutes but i just couldn't do it... oh, and i made out with bookis (hehe). luckily i wasn't too hung over the next morning and was able to go out to breaky with tash and broph, play some disc golf in the springtime sun, and talk to a million people on the phone. after a couple more nights at the bars, i was ready to get out of seattle.

so on friday afternoon, we headed up to mt. rainier and my uncle's cabin. tasha and brandon and i drove up in the afternoon and did some hiking around, fire building, Sorry playing, hotdog roasting, and beer drinking until the boys (eli, drew, and ty) got there at like 9 o'clock. it was great fun, just chillin out, drinking all night long. s'mores and TONS of junk food... made me want to puke, but it was totally worth it. it was really nice to get out of the city and into my natural spiritual element. overall it was a great trip a la montaña.

i also got some really awesome gifts. crystal (my newest lady friend) got me a TMBG dvd, which i was totally blown away by since we had never talked about my undying love for the giants. jess got me the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark? on dvd. britt got me this awesome kit to make a purse. marie got me Persepolis (which i have wanted to read for quite some time). tasha got me an AWESOME special about the galapagos islands on dvd. i got a new camera from my mom and dad. and my aunt is going to buy me new boots! kick ass. so all in all it was an awesome awseome birthday! it was absolutely amazing to have tasha here and to finally not have to worry about drinking and being left behind when the rest of the Box goes out to the bars. mucho amor.

as we were sifting through the rows and rows of shoulder-padded jackets and high-waisted cargo shorts, marie informed us that burton was willing to wear a ridiculous speedo if we found one for him. so of course morgen and i rush off to the male swimsuit section to take a look at the selection. on our way there, we were discussing the word "ish" and how only people in the midwest (specifically minnesota) can understand the significance of this word. [ex. "oh, ish! i'm not going to eat that!"] as we were passing the jeans isle, a 20 something guy says "did you guys say minnesota?" and proceeds to name drop a bunch of towns in minnesota and shit about the vikes and whatnot. okay we get it... you're from minnesota. we laugh awkwardly and then the dynamic of our relationship with this guy took a strange turn. he immediately started talking to us like we were old, dear friends. "hey. do these jeans look good? do you think they are too expensive?" we were polite and gave him advice about the jeans but then he got exponentially weirder. he licked two fingers on his hand and wiped morgen's face with them, as if he were getting a smudge off or something. a very intimate thing. morgen barely lets me touch her arm, let alone essentially spit on her face, and we're more than just friends if you know what i mean. with morgen's very visible, unapproving reaction to this, we quickly walked away, trying to hold in our laughs and freaked out shrieks of "what the hells" and other such phrases until he was out of earshot. and then we let it all out...

and the worst part is... we didn't even find a speedo for burton. what a waste of a day, huh?

the point of all this nonsense was to allow the kittens to play outside. i mean, i didnt want them getting preggers out there. the last time one of my kittens got knocked up, she had to get a kitty abortion. i want the next abortion i have to pay for to be for myself... come on. so about a week ago, i set them free into the outside world, and geezus, they fucking love it. i was nervous, sure, but it makes me so happy to see them out there and rockin it. plus, rumi loves having them out there! and they are sooo good. they dont go down the second set of stairs out onto the sidewalk/street. they are making friends with the local tomcats, and they just tell us when they want to come inside. its working out beautifully. i'm so proud!

and now, the second part of the title. i know this is what you've all been waiting for. its nudey magazine day!! my photographer friend, chris grunder, is at a photo workshop in palm springs this week and he needed some, ya know, artsy-fartsy nude photos for his portfolio (i think this one is my favorite). and of fucking course i agreed to that shit. hah. it was actually really empowering and a lot of fun. i had been a "model" of sorts for some friends in high school, but this was obviously completely different. britt came along to distract me, and we went to this seattle-hip studio on capital hill. chris was totally professional, and it really wasnt awkward at all. i guess i assumed that it would be... but no. i'd totally do it again. if you want to check out the photos, you can click through some of chris's favorites here. and here's one with my face.