Bonnie's .Plan (2001)
Aug. 22, 2001============== I've just been laid off today. no more fun for me. i have a bottle of tequilla on my desk. email me at bonnie@grrl.com if you want. adios, muchachos. -bonnie Aug. 15, 2001 =============== Winamp.com is doing just fine and dandy. Lots more articles on all the sections. Some make sense, some are really informative and some make me wonder what the hell my coworkers consume before they start writing. AOL's Artist Discovery Network is still going strong. It's kinda crazy here trying to get Winamp and AOL ADN stuff done every week. Stephanie and I are about ready to start making cocktails at work to cope. Hopefully we can streamline all these processes soon so we don't go completely nuts trying to get everything done. July 31, 2001 =============== Been busy beyond control. Doing a lot of writing work on AOL Music's Artist Discovery Network's Listening Lounge section, and the usual music line-up of new releases and featured releases for the main AOL Music channel. Kinda overwhelming actually. If you have the AOL service you should check it out. Also been writing like a mad woman trying to get fresh content on Winamp.com's sections as well. But busy = good right? Productive = happy. I think. So expect a lot more CD reviews, concert reviews, skin and plug-in news and so on. Other than that stuff, I guess I can say things are going okay. My cast is finally off. So I'm no longer refered to as Office Gimp. July 11, 2001 =============== It's a day before my birthday. I'll be 29. I know that isn't old, but it seems old. I remember when I thought 22 was old. Geesh. If you haven't noticed yet, this month's theme on Winamp is Naked Month. It'll probably get us all fired, but it is funny in a Monty Python (or even Blink 182) way. We're not even naked. Well, we don't show anything that would get us in trouble. No naughty bits. Since I'm the only chick working at Winamp - Susan's at another group now - I felt a little strange having Naked Month. I mean. I'm no pin up. It's really all about the Nullsoft fellas wanting to take off their shirts and run free in the field. So basically the only nudity you'll see of me on the site, is my upperback - showing off my only tattoo. Denny made Winamp skins of all our "nude" photos on the Team Nullsoft page. So far I'm winning in downloads. Maybe I am a pinup after all. Heh. June 26, 2001 =============== I'm starting a new thing on Winamp.com (while I can) where the staff can review the latest CD they're listening to. Bill already has been nice enough to do this, but he's the only one. So I guess me and Mike the Llama will be reviewing stuff. I'm gonna start with John Vanderslice's latest CD and maybe the new one from I Am The World Trade Center. I spent the entire weekend trying to find new bands to listen to on MP3.com. Most of it is pretty much icky i-have-a-guitar-and-a-casio-but-no-talent kind of bands, but there were a few gems. So I'm reviewing them on the site this week.... Glitter Mini 9 - from San Fran - sound like Veruca and Sleater-Kinney The Hissyfits - fun grrrl punk tunes Automatic Taxi Star - reminds me of something that might be on MTV, but they actually look old enough to drink! Dallas - established indie rock band with girl singer Peeps - more fun punk ala Cramps! Superchick - this sounds like something that should be a TV theme song if networks had the balls to make a show about teen girls that kicked butt - if you like Dance Hall Crashers, you might dig this. The Sugar Twins - loungy stuff that would make the B-52's proud! Of course I put all these bands on my SHOUTcast station: GRRL Radio if you wanna listen to them.HINT HINT June 20, 2001 =============== Back on my feet again. Well, sort of. I have a very large, yet fashionable black fiberglass/velcro cast on my left leg. I'm off the crutches (FINALLY) and kind of wobble my way around. Ugh. Tylenol PM is my new friend. I'm going to put all my money in their stock. I'm beinging to think pain killer companies are worthy of investment. Working on lots of new fun stuff for Winamp.com, complete with more music downloads from live concerts, and other good stuff. I also have gone on this campaign to get SHOUTcast the Webby we so richly deserve! So if you haven't voted already - cast you vote for SHOUTcast in the Best Services category (you have to register first before you can vote though) on the Webby Awards: People's Voice site. You'll be happy to know that I'm revaluating everything around me: work, friends, apt. decor and such - and you know what? I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty damn lucky. And I don't want to take anything or anyone for granted. So thanks. June 8, 2001 ================ Yes it's true. I broke my foot. And it's all a very sad, pathetic tale. See I was trying to catch the bus home, running on the sidewalk wearing brand-new platform sandals. So I fell. And broke my foot. But since I've never broken anything, I thought it was a sprain. But as I waited for another bus, the top of my foot was getting larger and larger. So I stumbled back to work and tried to hop up three flights of stairs only to fall again. I got back to my desk, put ice on the sucker and waited for my boyfriend to show up. He talked me into going to the ER (I hate hospitals) and there after a few hours late at night I found out I had a broken foot. Luckily for me, my co-workers love me so much that they wrote an article complete with photos! Denny makes a very glamorous me. See for yourself. Where's my Advil? May 30, 2001 ================ I have bronchitis. I am the Alpha Monkey. But I have antibiotics in my system and a cute nurse fella, so I should be okay. Working on the next theme for Winamp.com. It's NO THEME month. Ben made a rad image of kids watching the paint dry on the wall. Very nice, indeedy. I realized that my best friend now lives with one of the bands on our Playlist 2 Go section. Here's a good hint: It rhymes with Peeper Magoon. Oh and I'm happy to report that GRRL Radio is getting tons more listeners. So if you like music from bands like Dressy Bessy, Failure, Beck, Sleater-Kinney, Apples in Stereo, Pixies, Bjork, Go-Gos, B52's, Foo Fighters, Curve, Swervedriver, Le Tigre, PJ Harvey, Veruca Salt, Lush, Cranes, Slowdive, Swallow, Hooverphonic, Badly Drawn Boy, The Cramps, Black Velvet Flag and a ton of others - including unknown indie bands and some Schoolhouse Rock mixed in. May 22, 2001 ================ may i have a drum roll please? My HIGHLIGHTS of the E3 Gaming convention in LA * Saw Gary Coleman (aka "Whatchyou talkin about Willis?") walking with his huge bodyguards. He never looked up once and he seemed sad. Poor guy. * Wished I had seen Mr. T too. * Met the creative genius behind Grand Royal/Beastie Boys' web site. He has a cool kid and a cute pet pig. We got to watch a skateboard race movie. * Realized how few women actually work in the gaming industry. In fact, most of the women at E3 were hired models to attract nerds to pretty, shiny screens. * Went to drop off Brennan at the Ritz with Steve and Tom, only to be surrounded by Real World cast members in the hotel lobby. Tried to escape RealWorlders by hiding out at the bar. Ran into my old pal Neil. Proceeded to drink many margaritas and chatted about the future of Nullsoft. * Started to get really really really really tired of snobby, ditzy, annoying tan people with big boobs and perfect teeth. * Had a gin and tonic at a bar that was used in the movie "Swingers." * Played many video games, chatted with folks, and wished i had a Nokia cell phone so I could play that rad snowboarding game that came out. * Realized that if i had a game company to run, I'd make more games with cutesy anime characters and creepy pets for grrls to play. Heck, i could probably design about 20 games grrls would buy and play. We need more games like Sissyfight, ya know? And don't insult me by mentioning Barbie. * Ate a wonderous dinner at Rosco's Chicken and Waffles. Had Herb's special #4 with chicken, gravy AND waffles. Yum! * Also had a meal at Zankou chicken. Viva Armenia! * Still coughing from my cold from hell. Beginning to mutate. Maybe I have pnemonia. It's going around the office. Eh, soon i mutate enough from over-the-counter drugs that I will be coughing lasers and will rule the world. * Took out all my dreds...i have normal hair again. I don't have the patience to be full Rasta-grrl i guess. * How much intake of Robitussion-DM is too much anyway?
May 3, 2001 ================== I still have a mad cold, but at least now I have a cool SHOUTcast radio station of my very own to distract me from germs. It's called GRRL Radio. Go figure. I play songs from Apples in Stereo, Veruca Salt, John Vanderslice, Go-Gos, Whale, Hooverphonic, Dressy Bessy, Failure, Foo Fighters, Bjork, Slowdive, Swallow, Badly Drawn Boy, Goldenboy, SchoolHouse Rock, On, Juilana Hatfield, Beck, Granddaddy, Le Tigre, PJ Harvey, The Darling Buds, Versus, Swervedriver, Sleater-Kinney, Replicants, Sea and Cake, Sundays, Tuscadero and oh so much more. Yea! May 2, 2001 ================== Man oh man, having a cold sure does suck. Been too busy to take care of my glands and now I'm payin' for it. Ugh. Well you'll be happy to know I have sacrificed my health in order to get Winamp's Playlist 2 Go section finished. I've been writing/organizing band bios just so you know who the heck you're listening to. It'll be a great section for immerging artists to shine - but let's just say it took a lot of pain and sweat from Jonathan, Steve and I to get this sucker up. Meanwhile, Prom month is in full-swing on Winamp.com. We've changed our team staff images to our REAL high school prom photos: except for Tag who claims he doesn't have any images of himself except when he was 5, and Tom and Steve who blame their moms for not sending any photos in time, oh and Francis who says France doesn't have proms ever, and others who either refused to play along or had prom "issues." We have plenty of new articles that show up in the latest news section of Winamp.com: some Prom related, most not. Mike D. has a forums link to his Tech Gossip Column now which is handy for folks to swap info, and of course Bill T. is our own personal Hunter S. Thompson. He writes movie reviews like no one else. *cough* I'm still sick. Damn. April 25, 2001 ================= Super busy here. Which is pretty nice. Getting ready to write some copy for kick-ass promos that you'll thank us for later, and of course winding down Ninja Month with a brand new theme: Prom. Asking everyone here for old prom photos of themselves is proving to be a pain. A big gnawing pain in my jaw. So I've threatened to use other people's prom shots in place of theirs if they aren't more cooperative. Geesh. I want to have a contest in forums for the scariest prom photo. Hopefully, we'll get some great stuff to chuckle over. Looking at pageviews daily and matrix this and metrics that..... I'm starting to dream in numbers - just like Simon in Chalkboard Land. All the numbers chase after me and then corner me and ask me to make sense of them. This is why I'm a writer and not an engineer or an accountant -- numbers scare the crap out of me. I don't understand them and they don't understand me. Go figure. Did I mention that our own Steve G. from work dressed up in a cow costume and crashed The Saddle Rack honky tonk in San Jose? He even rode the mechanical bull with everyone in the place chanting "Cow! Cow!" Steve is my hero. April 19, 2001 ================== Some of you may be wondering what the heck a .plan is. Well that's a good question. While some of us like to say what we're doing lately at Nullsoft, others like to let you in on their personalities so you can see we're not just a bunch of ninja robots around here. We actually have lives, and hobbies and habits and midgets. So here you go: On the work front, I think you're going to be happy to know that Winamp.com will continue to feature fun articles, informative Winamp updates and the usual editorials you've grown to love and expect. Theme months will live and thrive, and of course the best skins, plug-ins and music promos on the Web will still have a happy casa here at Winamp.com. I'm also playing with the idea of more contests, more forums/community involvement and user-generated CD reviews and other content thought up by you. Yes you! Plus a fresh lemony scent! April 18, 2001 ================== You'd be amazed at the reaction of folks when you decide to get a head full of pink, burgundy and brown dreds. Go figure. Actually after hearing every joke imaginable around Battlefield Earth, Predator and Rasta Mama, I'm getting more used to the idea. I spent 7 hours in a chair getting synthetic hair braided into my skull by Sonia from Hairpolice.com. Yea Sonia! It's nice to have long hair again - I missed it. And dreds are cool because you don't have to do much with them. I'm sure I'll get some annoyed Rastas pissed at me for not having real dreds ... but geesh, life is short and I wanted dreds now. And I'm not trying to insult a culture or look like Ziggy Marley or something. I just wanted them - so I got them. Period. April 13, 2001 ================== Friday the 13th! Cool! Unlucky for most, lucky for me! Heck, I'm just glad it's Friday. Breakfast consisted of Cheetos, apple juice and about 15 chocolate-covered espresso beans. I'm ready to go. My morning was a bit eventful. I managed to witness a crack ho fight on the city bus I take in the mornings. They were loudly fighting over some guy who really didn't seem to care much. Love is hard to understand all on its own without crack in the mix. Geesh. It's almost Easter. I have mixed feelings about this holiday. I'm not really into major religious days, but then again I love the commercial aspect of it. Who the hell doesn't like the idea of a big bunny walking into your house and hiding decorated eggs under the couch? I used to really get spooked out at that as a kid. Picture a huge white rabbit with beady red eyes walking around on two legs leaving breakfast food in every nook and cranny of your living room. I was always afraid I'd catch him in the act and he'd attack me in some "Watership Down" kind of way. What I don't understand is why there isn't a major holiday involving giant squirrels leaving you presents underneath your pillow. That would be great! Squirrels are so much cooler than rabbits, plus they seem even more sinister. They're great at storing and hiding things. They love shiny objects. And we all know squirrels will some day unite and take over the world. There's enough of them to do it, after all. But what holiday could they represent? I suppose Arbor Day is the logical choice since they live in trees. Or maybe they should kidnap Valentine's Day. I never liked the idea of a naked little kid with wings shooting arrows at me. Regardless, I think I'll make every Friday the 13th, Viva La Squrriels Day. I'll give everyone candied walnuts and steal shiny objects off of people's desks at work. Or maybe I'll just make little furry statues of squirrels and create a shrine everywhere I go: the dentist office, the DMV, In and Out Burger, Walgreens and so on. So the next time you see a squirrel sitting happily in a tree, eyeing your Nutella and jelly sandwich, think of me. April 11, 2001 ================== Sitting at my desk working on articles and eating chocolate-covered espresso beans one by one. I don't think those little, magical beans are effecting me as I had hoped, but I keep eating them with high hopes of waking up. I spent weekend in New Orleans with the Nullsoft crew celebrating Steve's 21st birthday. Wow. Lots of frat boys and underaged girls with too much make up and not enough clothes. Eep. A little too party-hardy for my blood, but it was a blast hanging with the Scooby Gang. Now I'm spending more time writing articles and getting more content on Winamp.com. We're in the middle of Ninja month, and I've been getting some great email from people who enjoyed reading the Ninja Dating Tips. Plus I've been getting really focused on what kinds of content would be spectacular on the site. Can't wait for Goth Month. We'll finally see who's more Goth around the office. Tee hee. April 3, 2001 ================== I have a hard time believing that events don't happen for a bigger reason. The decisions I make today, no matter how trivial, such as which ice cream flavor to eat or which cafe to sit in for an afternoon, will affect my life. I know that sounds kinda hippy dippy, but I truly believe in that. If I wasn't laid off at Excite, I would have never stepped foot in the Winamp/Spinner office. And if I hadn't stepped in this office, I would have never met some of the people here who I now consider close friends. About three months ago, I was fairly pathetic. I hated my life and everything about it. I was in a rut. Doing the same unappreciated work every day. Being with people who'd rather have my world revolve around theirs. Heck, I didn't even get to do any fun stuff like write more articles for Grrl.com, or publish my silly zine. I forgot who I was. I couldn't remember what I wanted to be. I just sat in the dark and watched TV until I felt numb. And that's no way to live. Nosiree. So whether it was because I chose to go to drinks with an old pal (thanks Mr. Goecke) who mentioned Spinner/Winamp offhand, or whether it was another random decision I made years ago, I'm glad the chaos theory took effect and I'm here today where I am. I want my work to be something I'm proud of. And I want to know who I am again. I want to start publishing Grrl zine more, and finish the two novels I started a year ago. And I'll be damned if I'm gonna let my Les Paul collect any more dust. I dunno. I guess I just wanted everyone to know, even though my voicemail still doesn't work and I have yet to use a computer that doesn't blow up at my office desk, that I'm downright happy with my life and the people in it. Giddy in fact. Thank you Easter Bunny. Bok Bok. March 23, 2001 =================== What makes me happy: * chai iced tea and sugar cookies * playing guitar late at night * making mail art with homemade rubberstamps * watching SpongeBob, Simpsons and Southpark * bowling with the ones you love * roadtrips, roadtrips, roadtrips * being surprised with dinner from Long John Silvers * singing along to Journey * kicking major you-know-what at Puzzlefighter * food from Molinari's * working on Grrl zine and Grrl.com * writing songs about rollerskating and finding parking spaces * waking up to see butterflies in the morning * singing Veruca Salt songs in the shower at the top of my lungs * stuffing my coworkers in the car trunk at lunch * sitting in a hot tub trying to find constellations in the night sky * snuggling up on the couch on a rainy day reading a pile of new comics * board game parties * craft time with Erin * white and pink glitter nail polish * strawberry Pocky and chocolate-covered espresso beans * cleaning the apt to "The Girl from Ipanima" and Herb Alpert tunes * planting rosemary, daisies and orange poppies March 22, 2001=================== SpongeBob will you marry me? One of the few things in life that guarantee a chuckle is a quality cartoon. And I'm not talking about one of those cartoons that merely try to sell you Pokemon toilet paper. Cartoons are the core of my existence. I can quote any Simpsons cartoon, but ask me the state capital of Rhode Island, and i at a loss. Right now i do nothing but obsess over Spongebob Squarepants. Here's a happy little sponge whose best pals are a slow and silly starfish named Patrick, a Texan squirrel named Sandy and an irrate next door neighbor and coworker squid named Squidward. He lives in a pinapple house in the ocean with his pet snail Gary. He catches jellyfish for fun and works happily at a fast food joint. SpongeBob has a crazy little laugh and he makes you feel like maybe there is a strange little world under the sea instead of bags of used syringes and dead mobsters. Nope it doesn't get any better than SpongeBob. That kid has it made. And he's a snappy dresser too. I watched this cartoon last weekend while eating a box of Spongebob Squarepants cheesey nips. And if I had one of those huge SpongeBob dolls he'd probably be sitting in my lap. I figure as long as I keep watching Spongebob every weekend in my jammies with my pals, nothing bad can happen the rest of the day. It's kinda like cartoon Prozac. Barnacles! I wish SpongeBob worked at Winamp. He could make us crabby patties all day. March 21, 2001=================== 15 chocolate-covered espresso beans 1 package of strawberry pocky 4 cigarettes this is what i've had in the last hour. i think i might be able to read people's thoughts now. yeah, yours too. So i'm thinking i might start up a band. Right now I have a shiny Les Paul that needs some grit on it. I dunno. I don't want to sing at bars though. Maybe I could hook it up with Long John Silvers and Krispy Kreme to have my band serenade customers as they eat fried foods. That would be brilliant. I could be paid in chicken planks and glazed doughnuts. Elvis didn't even get that kinda schwag! Feb. 23, 2001=================== does peter pan exist or do people just like to look like him? that's your question for the day. think about it. There are plenty of characters in children's stories that most people want to be like: Cinderella, Paul Bunyan, Snow White... well, maybe not Snow White, that story is a little too creepy. you know why, don't make me explain! But Peter Pan isn't one most people think about often. Sure he gets to live forever, as does any fairy tale character, but he's like this kid that never ever gets mature. He just does the same stuff over and over again. I mean, how many times can you play Cowboys and Indians and not get totally bored out of your gourd? Doesn't he ever have the urge to play poker? To go out and play a game of billards. To go on a date with Wendy? Anyway, i digress. Not that i really had a point. Basically this was one of those times I wanted to sound like Sideshow Bob. All intellectual and stuff.... and then surprise you with this: Pixyland: Peter Pan.