Wednesday, June 30, 2004 ::: so here's some links that have been sitting around in my inbox:
an absolutely stunning photo taken from the building where I used to work, back in the college days. only serves to remind me of how ugly it is where I work right now. at this very moment some crows are hopping over the ugly tar and gravel roof and and staring the the hvac equipment.
getting more out of gmail. turns out I can't check it at home less I upgrade to OS 10.3, or wait for OS 10.4 to come out and then upgrade to that. meh.
having escaped from the castle dungeon/trunk of a car/creepy attic/large plastic prison where I've been hiding out or held hostage, I'm free to take up posting things here again. in the meantime, I've been doing a lot of reading - Chopin in Paris (rather dull), a very long and informative history of the first ladies, which disappointed me terribly by finishing with plain jane mamie eisenhower, and some other book that I can't remember but must have been good enough to finish and give back to the library. I also just checked out the revolutionary career of maximilien robespierre, which I've only just started. It's supposed to be an apologistic account. it did mention that he was kind to small birds, or least his sister said he was.
I also just ordered the DVD for Die Mommie Die, which I simply just loved when it came out in the theater.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004 ::: right now I'm listening to new order's "state of the nation." so good. btw, a while ago I griped about the the new martina topley bird album but since I've decided that it's really really really really really good. In fact, it's one of those rare albums where I can put it on and listen to the whole thing and like every song.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004 ::: oh, and I emailed the ANC people since I didn't see anything about the election results. schwinn won. no great surprise. seems like a nice enough guy although I do not so much "vigorously support the residential character of the neighborhood"
Friday, June 11, 2004 ::: speaking of screenplays, part of my job involves reading them. Here's an excellent passage that I came across from the 1930s screwball comedy The Young in Heart:
Such a distinguished man... But what does he do now?
He's an economist. Part of the Brain Trust, you know. Labor conditions,
wages, unemployment... [He] doesn't believe in unemployment.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004 ::: This evening was a local ANC election. I had my choice of movahedi or schwinn who as I understood it are the business/nightlife and the anti-nightlife/anti-development candidates respectively. I met schwinn on the way in to the JCC and he seemed nice enough even if I wasn't going to vote for him. I met movahedi afterwards, and he was certainly very handsome but a bit standoffish, but he was in a hurry to get to the polling place I assume. It's a shame ANC meetings are stultifyingly boring and go on forever, because there are some issues I would hope the neighborhood could address (like lack of affordable housing) rather than squabbling about whether or not there should be more sidewalk cafe permits or whatever. I really should go more often but frankly don't have the time.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004 ::: unbeknownst to me, the cassini satellite has been speeding towards saturn and its motley assortment of rings and orbiting celestial menagerie, including the large and orange and mysterious titan. and there are pictures already.
while I was up in nyc, me and my sister had a chat about the comic books of our childhood, many of which were asterix in english translation - and some dedicated fans have put together a translation of all the major characters - with some significant changes namewise that I didn't happen to know: the dog dogmatix is idéfix in french, unhygienix the fishmonger is ordralfabétix.
