with an accidental sweep of the fingers, i just lost all that i typed and i'm really upset about it. but i will attempt to recreate it. twiddle thumbs and i went to the LA county fair today. i don't think either of us has been since childhood, but we went because it's more that we're doing things in LA for the sake of doing things in LA. since we've been away and because we're going away again. i do remember going to the fair when my dad was alive, so that was a long time ago. i distinctly remember going because of something that happened. i was wearing new tennis shoes that i loved because they had the image of miss piggy on the bottom of the soles. after a day of walking at the fair, the image had worn away. i was deeply upset over this. that's all i remember of that day.

today we did just as much walking. even more. we walked enough to wear away the image of 100 miss piggies. we didn't get on any of the rides. we just walked. and walked. we were there for at least 9 hours and only ate once. i never went to the bathroom. i joked that i sweated it all out, like the making of megadeth's "hangar 18" video. all of the food was unhealthy. there was so much meat. we were upset over all the unhealthy food and people. i was upset at seeing two different vendors with pro-bush stickers and one booth that was in the 'defense of marriage'. i guess seeing those things prompted me to register to vote at the fair. i bet no one i know will believe me that i registered to vote. i still don't believe that voting makes a difference, especially in presidential elections where the popular vote does not count. but i'll at least make the symbolic motion to elect the lesser of the evils. i was not going to tell anyone about it. i was just going to take photos of me at the polls and send it to people.

deep-fried death

the first thing i did at the fair was buy a hat. it was so hot. i would've had first degree burns if i didn't have the hat and sunblock. i'm not sure where my hats are. they could be in any box. besides, none of them provide enough coverage for a blazing sun. i only have military berets and baseball caps. i bought a cowboy style hat in black. only, it had a leather cord. it's an unacceptable material but i had to let it slide. i really needed sun protection. cowboy hats feel industrial to me, not inbred hick chewing on straw. wearing the hat put me into the mood of al jourgensen or raymond watts. if i had a long scarf to go with it, i would've felt like siouxsie in the banshees special that aired on mtv's "120 minutes" over a decade ago. this hat will be a great asset during my upcoming travels. i really needed a good hat to block out the sun.

me and my hat

the other non-vegan thing i did was buy a leather belt. i bought a belt buckle at the first siouxsie show i went to last week. i didn't examine it until i went home. i had hoped it was the kind of belt buckle i could use with my current favorite belt. it's a webbed, cloth kind. the sioux buckle however is designed for leather style belts. (i was never into belts until this year so i'm not sure of the nomenclature.) while twiddle thumbs was buying a webbed belt at the booth, i talked to the proprietor about my belt situation. he demonstrated how to attach a buckle to the leather belts he carries so i bought one. i knew it would take me forever to find a vegan belt online that would work with the buckle and i didn't want to wait. also, i wanted to see the belt in person to know that it would work with the sioux buckle. this belt will probably last me the rest of my life. sorry cow but i'm very grateful for your sacrifice.

i have been wanting to buy asian style clothing for the past year or two. chinese style shirt or dress as well as japanese geta. stuff like that. there were a few booths that carried chinese clothing that i was very interested in. but all the clothing had silk as part of the material so i did not buy anything. i have also been searching for something to wear around both of my wrists for months. i want it to be a bit dressed up so that i could wear it at work and at formal situations. i have been wanting to wear matching wristcuffs for a long time. for years. it is why i bought a leather goth-industrial bracelet years ago. but that one has rings on it so it's noisy and doesn't work for jobs and formal affairs. this is why i thought siouxsie looked great at the shows. she was wearing everything i have been wanting for the past few years and then some. she just had it perfected. she was gorgeous. the hair, the make-up, the clothes, the wristcuffs. only, i wouldn't have worn big white boots liek that. i'm too asian. i would've worn white socks with wooden geta. i didn't buy any geta in japan because it would've cost me $50. that was too much $ for me for that trip. it would've also taken too much luggage space.

plenty of public phones throughout the fair

we watched a show where some dogs do tricks, mostly frisbee catching and obstacle course (agility). we watched a show of chinese acrobats. it's the kind of thing where they go beyond the limits of the american imagination. just when you think they're done with a trick, they add one more layer, which is acceptable to the mind. but then they add two more layers and americans are completely blown away. one lady in the audience shouted, "oh my god" and "oh no she didn't!".

we also looked at an art exhibit of paintings mixed media, and photographs. we viewed floral and cacti displays. there were two booths that sold latino/chicano culture and empowerment type of shirts that i really liked a lot. things like posada, spinoffs of corporate logos, and political call to action slogans. what was available at the booths wasn't quite what i wanted though. i couldn't find exactly the designs i liked in my size. the shirts were for really tiny girls or really big boys. i'll have to visit the stores of the respective booths sometime next month.

one of the things that we didn't like was the animals on display. it was setup to be like a petting zoo for kids, but these were animals for the slaughter. i knew this sort of thing would be there but i don't think twiddle thumbs thought about it beforehand. this is what the fair was founded on after all. she was very emotional as we walked by all the animals. she was going to cry. i was just too disgusted that i was starting to get angry and behave how i do in public when i am bothered: i talk louder so that those around me will hear. i was really surprised that i didn't see any outburst of tears by children. especially in the rabbit section. there were so many cute bunnies in cages. above the cages were signs that said they were for the "fryer"! perhaps none of the parents read the signs to their kids nor explained it. i'm sure if they did there would have been at least one child crying over the cute little bunny that they wanted as a pet, not food. twiddle thumbs did overhear a man pass by the chickens and say in spanish that they should make molé. she was disgusted by that comment. we had a strange enjoyment in watching a goat that was pregnant and about to give birth any day. it was like placing a bet on when the kid would arrive. we just stood there and watched her belly for five solid minutes. sometimes we saw it move. that was the creepy part.

animal pens and a human one too