Life in the Temple of Khazad Dum

Welcome to my blog. I'm primarily writing this for the immediate family; I want to show y'all what my life is like in Utah and share a little slice of who I am these days, what I've become, and the things I'm interested in--there won't be a huge amount of posts here, but i can't fit all this stuff in an email.

Just in time for me to figure out how it actually works, my camera has broken. I have to argue with the "on" button for upwards to five minutes before anything actually happens. However, just in time I have extracted the forty odd pictures of any worth from my camera and I shall post a few here! First, let me show you what the temple of doom is like.

This is the statue of Kuan Yin, Buddhist goddess of mercy, which is fixed in my little sanctuary of indian tapestries, tibetan prayer flags, incense and other fire hazards, which is also my bedroom. I live in a 8x6 alcove of another person's bedroom--thus my rent is only 88 bucks a month (whooo!)



Here below are Brett William Roch Ruether, with whom I climbed Timpanogos and went to Portland and James, another of my musical roommates. Brett is from Missouri, an anthropology student, former Anarchist anti-globalization/environmentalist activist who used to do everything from Forest defense stuff in the pacific northwest to demonstrations at WTO summits and stuff. He's probably the coolest person I've ever met. James, a Salt Lake native, is in a band called Bramble and shares with me a love of Marquez and Neruda.



Here are Matt Laser (BFF!) and James, again. Matt is the biggest space cadet I've ever met, super happy all the time but totally oblivious to the world around him in some ways. He's a drummer, and his practise in the band room is often the bane of my novelwriting existence.



This is my newest and most amazing coworker, James's girlfriend and a badass in her own right, Amber, who worked in a battered women's shelter in Honduras and drives a GM regal with red leather interiors. Amber is my astrological opposite and we get along like peas n' carrots.



And here at the hot springs in the west desert, another of my beautiful roommates, Etta, who is the DIY mistress of the house (she can do everything from car repair and vegetable oil conversion on diesel trucks to bookbinding, gardening, electrical work, and countless other things)



Everybody I live with is not pictured, but all the most important ones...except Bobby, the bearded beloved crust punk lord of Salt Lake who I share a room with. At Dum we cook alot, eat alot, and clean less than we should--it's generally a total mess. Every room has piles of ski gear, backpacks, snowshoes, boxes of free food from dumpsters, drums, guitars, and amps, snowboarding boots, tea, beer cans, piles of unread mail, and everything else. If I can get the camera to work, I will send more pictures when our garden starts coming in.

Love you all, hope to show you more soon.