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10:45 am
seserakh
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/72310028/498157) [Link] |
I've invited the internet
For Godzilla. As far as I can tell, "Yes" is the default answer.
Thank you everyone for your totally sweet birthday wishes. I wish you were here in Colorado so you could come over and drink manhattans with me on Sunday! OH MAN THAT WOULD BE SUCH A PARTY.
Tags: internets
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12:27 am
balancingforce
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/4217483/912417) [Link] |
On Insect People
I conversed with my seatmate on the train today, for the whole 2.5 hours of the journey. He just graduated from Western, with a degree in Geography, and now he's doing GIS for the summer at some place or other in Illinois.
This conversation was my doing, in fact. I am Mr. Conversations With Strangers Initiator. Or at least I am learning to be so.
They key is learning that other people are like bees and other dangerous-looking insects, as my father would describe them: they are more afraid of you than you are of them.
Afraid is too strong of a word, but I liked the analogy.
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12:01 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Objects Lacking
I miss my sword.
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11:14 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Auto Dealers
In unrelated news (via the Freep): the House Appropriate Committee has unanimously voted to undo all those dealer closings that GM and Chrysler need to have a faint chance at survival. The two automakers say it will cost them an extra $3.6 billion per year to keep this excess of dealers afloat.
As with many disastrous congressional decisions, it is bipartisan. I imagine it's not going to clear the Senate. I hope.
"Yeah, we decided to give you tens of billions of dollars to keep afloat. But that was all just a setup, to make sinking you more satisfying."
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10:54 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Performances
I'm supposed to tell you all that my class is putting on a show, August 8th, at 10pm, at the Electric Earth cafe. You may witness me engaged in acts of improvisational theater. It costs five or ten dollars or somesuch.
Be advised.
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06:10 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Locked Areas
Found a bowl of keys in the supply closet in the lab. At least a dozen different patterns. But, sadly, none of them allowed me access to the forbidden upper floors of Science Hall. Boo. Have to ask my boss next time she's in...perhaps she's got one.
And if I'm really lucky, maybe there's roof access somewhere. Standing on a building roof is almost as great as being in a tree canopy.
Almost time for improv class.
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03:24 pm
hyperform
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/79664896/883138) [Link] | So after staying in the Stanley Hotel last night and watching Animal Planet for a while, I decided that I really need to open my dream museum, the Museum of Ultimate Super-Badasses.
There was a guy who was bitten by the most poisonous snake in the world, which has venom that makes all of your red blood cells EXPLODE and so he was bleeding out of his eyes, his nose, his ears, his mouth, everywhere where blood could leak out of. And the doctors couldn't even check his blood because everything in it had been dissolved by the venom, so they said it wasn't even identifiable under a microscope as human blood. This was on September 11, 2001. There were only two places in the country that had the antivenin, one in New York City, and one in California. The doctor waited on the phone with the FAA for TWELVE HOURS in order to get clearance to fly ONE PROPELLER PLANE from California to Miami to deliver this antivenin, since New York was pretty much right out. Meanwhile the guy is bleeding and his internal organs are being destroyed and the venom is eating away at everything it comes into contact with, and he doesn't get the antivenin until TWENTY FIVE HOURS after he was bitten, when it usually kills in one hour. I think that that guy needs a wall in the Museum of Ultimate Super-Badasses. And the entire time when he's telling this story, he's like "I don't blame the snake, the snake was doing what all snakes do, it didn't want to go in the box, it was annoyed and defending itself." The doctor needs a wall in the museum too, for keeping the dude ALIVE for that long in order to administer the antivenin.
Then there was another guy that was attacked by a mountain lion and got most of his scalp torn off of the back of his head down to the skull, and the entire time his wife is beating the thing with a giant redwood branch and stabbing it with a pen and it would just NOT leave. After they finally beat it off, he gets up and RUNS DOWN THE MOUNTAIN TO THE HIGHWAY, WITH MOST OF THE SKIN ON HIS HEAD MISSING AND HIS LIPS TORN OFF.
That guy pisses guns. That MAY possibly be the most awesome act of ultimate superbadassery I've ever heard of.
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02:20 pm
trianakvetch
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/37387005/768625) [Link] |
I can levitate!
Ok, my arms can levitate.
Alright, not really. But I can pretend my arms do!
I've been having a hard time sleeping again. My anxiety regarding money and the future (read: employment when i graduate next year) is at an all time high. Mixed with feelings of inadequacy over my thesis (it's a topic that people still give me weird looks about) and yeah, sleep? hard to come by.
I have a variety of techniques i use when I can't sleep. One of them involves putting my hands on my ribcage and pretending they are very heavy, feeling as if they were sinking inside of me. It almost feels like self hypnosis where i just repeat the words over and over again.
Well, an alternate technique is to pretend my hands are very light. So light they could even float off my ribcage by themselves, without me actually making the movements.
It's really trippy when it works and last night it was borderline creepy. I had been focusing for quite a while, the rattling sound of our dying AC making it harder than usual. I was about to give up since I was losing the rhythm of the words when suddenly i felt an ache in my forarms...and then realized my hands were slowly hovering over my ribcage.
It's kinda cool really...when your body does things before you are aware of what happened. The brain and the body are talking to each other and completely overlooking you.
For a person who thrives on a controlled environment such as myself...I'm fascinated how fascinated and ok I was with the lack of control.
I'm going to try it with my legs next...and then move on to the body and see if I can achieve the feeling of levitation.
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01:20 am
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Disputes
Two men live in the apartment above. One has a live-in girlfriend (we presume). They argue from time to time, late in the night. But now they are yelling more than normal, and I hear various things slamming into the floor and crashing around.
The police are on their way.
Actually, it sounds for all the world like they've got a party going on in the front of their apartment, and an argument in the back, above my room.
Now the police are here and are talking to various upstairs people one at a time, it sounds. Can't make much out, just as I usually can't make much out as to what they argue about upstairs. Just a few words...mostly the tome of voice. It's interesting how much you can read out of just tone.
Now the police (2 cars) are gone.
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04:56 pm
rubyandalusia
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/35595337/6148260) [Link] |
Snappy mirthday!
Happy birthday, birthday girls Cherie & Kelly! I'm going to listen to "July, July" today and jump up and down in tribute to you.
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02:40 pm
seserakh
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/87805907/498157) [Link] | Dear livejournal,
Two days ago, I was hit on by a thirteen year old. He spoke with a lisp, and had kool-aid stains around his mouth.
Today, I am going to the Stanley Hotel, where I hope to invoke the powers of the evil twin ghosts to visit their wrath upon this transgressor of propriety and personal boundaries. I will return tomorrow, hopefully with enough power to trap that kid in a photograph forever.
Love,
Cherie
Tags: birthday
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03:32 pm
trianakvetch
[Link] |
So i get he was the King of Pop
Ok, I liked Michael Jackson. I went through a phase where I owned all his records...even HIStory. I had the tapes that i listened to nonstop.
But today? I'm so glad I don't use my tv other than to watch dvds. Every time I check the news they have live updates on the memorial.
Come on people. Yes he was famous, yes he'll be remembered in history...but this circus?
Why is honoring the dead such a huge event? Can't it be quiet?
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
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12:22 am
seserakh
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/87805890/498157) [Link] | HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY TWIN
With love,
Cherie
Tags: awesome, birthday
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10:15 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
Miscellany
Today, I renamed campus buildings for the coming year's print map. As a heads up to those of you who are or have formerly been resident in the Social Sciences Building: last year's campus map referred to the building as "Social Sciences Building, William H. Sewell." This is incorrect and in contravention of accepted University nomenclature. The official entry from Facilities Planning and Management is "Social Sciences Building, Sewell, William H." I thought you all should know about this terrible oversight.
----
One thing I thought was quite interesting about the intertitles in Metropolis was how they used tracking for emphasis. Emphatically said words were not in bold or italic/oblique, but instead were tracked out wide. I wonder how common this may have been in that culture.
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07:26 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Film Reviews
Metropolis: Good movie. I especially liked the retelling of the Tower of Babel.
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06:54 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Popularity
Hits on the Cartastrophe blog...
6/30: 2
7/1: 0
7/2: 0
7/3: 15
7/4: 13
7/5: 387 and counting.
Traffic data shows that I am apparently being twittered about. That feels rather surreal.
This may have something to do with me telling a couple of friends, who themselves are reasonably popular bloggers, about it. We'll see if the trend holds, though most of them are particularly entertained by just one post that's getting passed around.
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01:07 pm
trianakvetch
[Link] |
5th of July
I love after holiday sales!
We did groceries today and while we spent a bit more than usual ($92.59), we saved $70.05. They had stuff on sale that will keep in the freeze for quite some time as well as stuff we buy on a regular basis. Some great buy X, get X free. The best of these offers was buy 2 cases of 12 packs of Coke or Pepsi products and get 3 free (and no, they hadn't jacked up the regular prices on their 12 packs). We went last night to buy 5 Coke products (Diet Coke Lime, Coke zero, Canada Dry diet ginger ale, DIET Fanta (!!!), and Coke Zero Cherry) and today we bought 5 Pepsi products. This means we won't have to buy pop in a very very long time. While Kyle and I have taken to drinking more water, we've noticed that a can of diet pop is often helpful for curbing our sweet cravings.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a good holiday full of pyrotechnics.
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01:47 pm
grancher
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/25360666/3825143) [Link] | "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." (Matthew 7:6)
Often I feel that giving Chinese people good things is a lot like throwing pearls before swine. I know I shouldn't say things like that without at least three examples, but today I only have two: I sent my mother-in-law (did I mension here that I got married?) some maple syrup a little while ago, and she didn't know what to do with it. She tried drinking it when she got a cold, complained that it made her feel sick and threw it away. I guess I should have included instructions. Now at work we have a student who wants to take the TOEFL so she can study abroad in the US, the school bought a very nice Longman Preparation Course with a textbook and CD for the teachers to use to help her prespare. But what did her teacher do? He decided to ignore the professional test prep material and download stuff from the internet instead. Instead of practicing the sort of things that will be on the test, he will teach her the kind of senselessly demanding, but still incorrect pronounciation that many teachers use as backup when they realize they need to teach a subject they themselves are not proficient in.
Current Mood: overly critical and wining
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02:25 pm
hyperform
[Link] | Happy birthday, America! You go, girl! Let's all celebrate the country that would never turn out a television show as awful as Degrassi: The Next Generation!
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11:02 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Blogging
Some months ago I talked about putting up a blog for my work and cartographic thoughts. It's still a work in progress and not yet ready for the public. However, what is ready for the public is this:
Cartastrophe
No, I didn't come up with the name. But it's awesome.
I've got a few subscribers already, thanks to knowing well-connected people in the cartography world. We'll see if I write anything worthy of reading.
Also, that post in May which I did for the Axis Maps blog is starting to get some attention. A couple of people are planning on working up a web-based Flash thingy which generates these types of maps, and there's a lively discussion going on in some random UK biking forum about them, as well. My fame grows. It's good to see people running with my ideas. And pretty soon it looks like I'll get to work it into a piece for Cartographic Perspectives, which is the journal of NACIS.
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06:07 pm
ha_no_kagayaki
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/89501714/4108897) [Link] |
The Saffron Kitchen
Reading this fabulous book thanks to Rebecca, one of my house mates. I love her so much.
There has been some cleansing here on the island of Oahu. And also some worry. I keep getting my mind in a knot. This morning I thought, " I just want to stay here and disappear in happiness" and the tea I was drinking asked me (of which I graciously took for care of my menses; also containing saffron) "Life is the flow of love; your participation is requested." And that is my purpose here.
Ah-men.
Current Mood:  pensive
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02:05 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On Perspectives
The BBC had a 13 year old trade his iPod in for a Walkman, in honor of the latter's 30th anniversary.
His reaction: "Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?"
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03:02 pm
balancingforce
[Link] |
On the Death of Gerald M. Quinn, Ph.D.
"He was unique, and irreplaceable."
This is how Hardy Hansen concludes a note printed at the front of my copy of Greek: An Intensive Course lamenting the sudden death of his co-author, Gerald Quinn.
I think from time to time of this sentence. It is moving to me, to think of someone being remembered in these terms.
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02:55 pm
trianakvetch
[Link] |
Disney!
Just got back from an afternoon downtown with a friend (and 1/3 of the couple (trio?) that will be joining Kyle and I on our honeymoon). We booked our Disney rooms/package, put down the deposit, and are set to go December 10-17th. I am so excited! It's been 22 years since my last and only time at Disney World.
Vince took me out to lunch and we had a really nice afternoon together. I was a bit anxious because I hadn't been around so many people in so long, but good conversation that keeps me distracted is a wonderful thing.
Now to calm down a bit (yes, my heart is racing from being out in public) and then to do stuff around the house and plan a menu for Saturday.
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10:56 am
trianakvetch
[Link] |
home sweet home
Kyle and I are working on a 5 year plan to purchase a home. For the next five years we will be setting aside money and scouting locations. I know that realistically it all depends on jobs, but so far Chicago has become our home. I still have issues with the lack of houses with large back yards but Kyle and I reached a compromise. If we can find a home with trees, a balcony, a porch, and a backyard in the city for a reasonable (yeah, i know) price, I'd be fine staying within the city. If not, then Kyle is ok with moving to the burbs that would still allow for a tolerable commute.
It's funny making these financial goals when we are in a financially rough time personally and as a country. But at the same time it also makes sense. Owning a home is something important to us, to have the freedom and the sense of responsability that renting often doesn't give you.
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