Saturday, December 03, 2005 ::: I dreamt that a restaurant in washington had been built over a graveyard, and only a few blocks from my apt, in fact kind of near the whole foods at 14th and P. The restaurant had incorporated the crypts into the restaurant, and apparently a lot of famous washingtonians had been buried in this graveyard - you could dine atop the booth conspirators, james garfield, and a variety of nineteenth-century notables. not only that, but we ended up sitting at a table where a number of singers had purchased plots--sheryl crow, ani difranco, all women in fact. There was a brief biography of each musician, which seemed a little impatient and wishing they would die soon so they could become part of the restaurant's memorabilia already.
Monday, November 28, 2005 ::: the sidebar's been updated a bit. In other news, I have no life. I should be writing, sit in front of the computer and play solitaire and waste time instead of working and then wish I had spent time or working or wasted my time doing something better. like writing up some new blog posts.
Gonza and me are going out for a romantic dinner tonight. It's been a hectic thanksgiving weekend and it will be good to get back into the regular groove for a little while before the stressfest of final papers being due.
Monday, November 07, 2005 ::: the video for world the price of love (qt) has to be my favorite of all time, but new order has a lot of their videos available online.
last weekend me and Gonzalo and our friends Mike and Michel went on a big gay outing to the countryside, and stopped for lunch at a restaurant promising a large buffet, which did not dissapoint. I felt a little out of place amongst the crowd of retirees enjoying their post-church sunday brunch and we seem to have been regarded at as a bit of a curiosity. In the middle of our meal, a distinguished looking gentlemen approached our table and began to quote us poetry, milton in fact. He went back to his table and returned a few more times, to recite a few more lines - his wife came by on the last visit and bore the look of a woman who had over the years comfortably acclimated herself to her husband's eccentricities and gently ushered him toward the cloak room. after lunch, we forged further north, crossing into pennsylvania, drove through the town of gettysburg but didn't stop until we were further away from civil war whatnot and stopped at a roadside stand which offered more apples for five dollars than I think I have ever been. so naturally I stocked up. we drove around the half-harvested orchards, looking at the apple trees which were either heavy-laden with bright red apples or entirely devoid of them. all in all, a nice day trip that we all enjoyed.
Saturday, October 29, 2005 ::: so when I come across something I want to post, I write myself a little email from my .mac account to my hotmail account. but it seems like those .mac messages aren't reaching their destination, which has meant a dearth of posting. it also means I have to go back and sort over those old links to see what's still timely and worthwhile. so we'll see.
another blog to add to the mac nerd corner: drunkenblog.
speaking of exciting mac nerd things, civ 3 complete, including conquests and play the world, will be coming to mac, along with civ 4 in early january, according to the civ fanatics web site, whch has nasty popup ads that sometimes sneak past the popup blocker. the original article can be found here.
I have forbidden myself from playing until the semester is over. I've held out so far, but can resist everything except temptation.
Monday, October 10, 2005 ::: I've uploaded my photos from this weekend. They're from Swallow Falls State Park near Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. Gonzalo took pictures too, and I may upload a few if he'll let me.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 ::: Last night I dreamt that the universe was under attack by unspecified evil galactic overlords and their star wars-esque foot soldiers. I had to discover some technological secret in unlit library that was about the size of an airplane hangar and just as empty. After some climbing among the rafters and attempting to put together a workable disguise, I realized that I was going to have to go out and face the foot soldiers in phaser to phaser combat. Except they had the latest and best in firepower and I had to make do with the built in phaser in my cheap, low-budget came-with-the-plan-free cell phone. And of course the fate of the universe depended my ability to wield my phone effectively, using it to fend off shots from soldiers, rescue prisoners, distract guards, and because it was a cheap, low-budget came-with-the-plan-free cell phone it sucked and I was getting shot at a lot and wondering why I wasn't given something with a bit more firepower to work with. And then I woke up and realized that I really could use a snazzier cell phone but am too cheap to spend the money for a better one.
one thing about neglecting to post frequently is that I have an oversupply of emails that I've sent to myself that contain links to post which, by the time I get around to posting, are often a touch stale and everyone's seen them already. things like the exciting game of career girls, wherein girls can choose such promising lines of work as stewardesses and ballerinas. unless they're ugly. then maybe they can make it as a teacher or something.
There's a bunch of places to provide donations for hurricane relief, but America's Second Harvest devotes among the highest portions of its donations to relief (as opposed to additional fundraising). There's also the Rainbow World Fund, which accepts donations from the GLBT community for disaster relief. All this information from the ongoing help and coverage at boingboing.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005 ::: last night I went to visit my friend heather who is recuperating from surgery, and I got to meet her chickens! They were in the coop for the night since foxes or cats have been after them (this is in takoma park.) Some things I learned about chickens:
they make weird noises that I guess could be considered clucking, but don't really sound much like clucking.
they have really really big clawlike feet.
the chickens like to lay eggs in various parts of the yard, leading to to an impromptu easter egg hunt every now and then.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 ::: So I was at work on monday and shortly after lunchtime the sky darkened ominously and it began to rain. to pour. sheets of rain pelted against the windows and the roof while thunder rumbled ominously. after a particularly sudden ominous rumble, the power went out. and then back on again. and then out again. and then the power went out and came back on several more times all in the space of a few minutes, during which we all heard loud popping sounds indicating that our computers were not dealing with power surges as well as we thought they could. As this all finished, we were treated to a stunningly bright electrical fire complete with sparks and pink flame visible from the office window, but a safe distance of about 100 feet away. Electrical problems continued after the storm cleared, so we all went home early, which was quite relaxing.
oh, and things are back to normal at work, since the surge protectors did their job for the most part and no permanent damage was done.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005 ::: Ah, summer. going by so quickly. I haven't done all the things that I said I would do and generally feel kind of behind but the laziness seems worth it. Gonza and I went to rehoboth last weekend (or was it the weekend before?) and we enjoyed ourselves immensely even though I was a bit grouchy while he shopping and threw a fit when he demanded that we find a parking permit. But then I apologized and we went swimming and enjoyed ourselves even though I got a little sunburned. since then it's been pretty uneventful, just a lot of work and socializing and the like. I bought harry potter (first book) in spanish and am trying to practice, but I'm realizing I've got a long way to go to reading gabriel garcia marquez in the original.
I don't normally read the fiction in the New Yorker because it's often dull and kind of pretentious. but I did read a fabulous story recently, and discovered today that it's available online - Aleksandar Hemon's story The Conductor
Thursday, July 28, 2005 ::: The Economics of Used Books, specifically Amazon. link stolen from the unnumbered other places that linked to this previously.
The Essence of Style argues that Louis XIV's reign engaged in a policy to connect France with high fashion as a mercantilist tool. Sounds like an interesting read. if I ever had the time.
Friday, July 22, 2005 ::: Here is a long, very interesting, if slightly overtechy interview with Wil Shipley, co-creator of superultrapretty and useful mac-friendly program delicious library, which allows users to manage their personal music, dvd, and book libraries, with stunning visuals and general user-friendly qualities. The interview also mentions the departure of co-creator Mike Matas, who has gone to work for Apple, as mentioned on his blog, which has many a scenic photo.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005 ::: The latest New Yorker (July 11, 2005) has a very long and interesting article about Roald Dahl and his ongoing popularity with children (and the dislike of his books by some adults) which makes for a very good read. Well-timed what with the latest incarnation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory coming out shortly.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005 ::: It seems that there is a documentary coming out about the old 9:30 club, which was at 930 F Street NW. Which I remember fondly, back in the days when the area around Gallery Place was shady and disreputable, and the sidewalks covered with litter. The club itself was tiny, smoky, and the view always obstructed by a column or tall person, although you were always close to the stage.
Friday, July 01, 2005 ::: Sprol is an environmental issues weblog that uses satellite photography to discuss areas of pressing environmental concern. pretty neat.
Monday, June 27, 2005 ::: so it seems I'm having a few font/layout troubles. please bear with me and this should be fixed. still tinkering... now they're fixed!
Friday, June 24, 2005 ::: This week's futuristic onion has an AV club interview with Billy West, who does (or did) the voice of Fry in Futurama. He seems embittered by the soulless world of network television. A good read about wrangling with the always troublesome network executives. Link via scrubbles
Yesterday evening when I was coming home from work there were a few policemen on my street, just kind of milling about, which seemed odd. It was Gonzalo's birthday (31st) and so we were going out to dinner, and as we left the apartment, we saw that the whole street had been blocked off and a massive police escort and parked motorcade had ensconced itself down the block. I asked a policeman what was going on, and was told that it was "nothing bad" - but he didn't supply any more details. Of course, even before then it was rather obvious that someone important was having dinner on my block, which probably also means that there is a republican living nearby. I more cheering news, drinks were unexpectedly half off at leftbank, where we had dinner.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005 ::: the poorly named yubnub is a nevertheless useful a command-line web search tool. For instance, typing "gmaps" followed by an address will do a google maps search. from the ever-useful lifehacker. in related gmaps news, someone has combined google maps with 2000 census data, and made a neat search interface.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005 ::: Several years ago, I read All The President's Men and, feeling inspired, decided to rent the movie shortly after finishing the book. As I was watching it, I came to the scene where Bob Woodward places a flag in a flower pot on his balcony, I began to feel a sense of deja vu creep over me. And then my eyes drifted over to window next to the TV, and it was then that I realized that some of the film had been shot in the alley behind my apartment. And today I learn that not only was it the shooting location, but the real one, according to this washington post online chat:
Sunday, May 08, 2005 ::: and now I added some photoblogs to the sidebar. Also, I'm hoping to catch a bit of american dad tonight if I'm not stressing out too much about my social history research paper. Turns out I'm not the only one who loves the news anchors.
Friday, April 29, 2005 ::: oh. forgot. there's a bug that won't let you download files from a hotmail account, although gmail downloads work fine. and of course dot mac downloads.
so my old computer died and I just bought a new one. There was a massive line since EVERYONE was buying OS 10.4 -- especially german people for some reason. Although I'm still stressing out a little about missing files and stuff from the old computer, I am enjoying some of the nice new features, especially dashboard, especially singe it has downloadable widgets to add.
Monday, April 25, 2005 ::: The Gannon controversy subject to further investigation. Summed up in this Wonkette post - many visits to the white house, some them seemingly un-press-related, with sloppy record-keeping of who was allowed into the white house and then left no record of leaving to no one's alarm or concern. and signed in under an assumed name/identity with rather flimsy credentials. A lively discussion is going in the comments section of the raw story article.
In other news, I am swamped with work. I have wireless internet and a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. and my laptop from before, but I feel much more free and mobile and it's really just fabulous. and the wireless connection is way fast.
Thursday, March 17, 2005 ::: tangentially discovered during my research project, from the New York Times, December 16, 1921:
San Francisco, Dec. 15--Mrs. Aimee Crocker-Ashe-Gillig-Gouraud-Miskinoff, or Mrs. Amy Gouraud, began her matrimonial adventures in San Francisco. Two Rivals, Porter Ashe and Henry Gillig, played cards for her, it is said, Ashe winning with four aces. A divorce was issued a year later and she married Gillig, who obtained a divorce a few years later.
In Europe some years later she and her daughter met two brothers, Jackson and Powers Gouraud. Mrs. Gillig married Jackson and his brother eloped with Gladys. In June, 1914, formal announcement was made in London of the marriage of Mrs. Gouraud to Alexandre Miskinoff, known as a prince.
This blog is starting to be a repository for american studies blog post rejects. generally sense I'm trying to keep the other blog ultraserious for a little while until it can lighten up and have a few drinks. So until then links like the postmodern essay generator will have to wait. my friend lars points out similar text generators loitering online.
In other news, I have a very large research project that I'm trying to work on and I'm coming across a lot of red herrings, false leads, resources and archives that seem like they might be useful but then are useless, or archives that seem like they might be useful but only if I spend weeks and weeks poring over everything they have. more developments to follow if they rear their ugly heads.
Sunday, March 06, 2005 ::: so it turns out the series wonderfalls is out on dvd, with some episode commentary and a bunch of unaired episodes included. I was disappointed when it got cancelled and am happy to see it resurrected in dvdland.
Friday, March 04, 2005 ::: dcist links to this interesting visual interaction analysis of the washington post's website, and I have to say that they are spot-on in their discussion of the lower sections - whenever I'm trying to find a restaurant review or movie showtime and can never find the link even though I'm staring right at it.
Normally when I get my new yorker, I ignore the fiction, which tends to be rather tedious and dull. I think it's mainly because a non-fiction article purports to be about some particular topic and if that topic interests you, then you will read the article and be satisfied as long as it's well written. Not so short stories. but the february 28, 2005 New Yorker is an exception - I read the story by Aleksandar Hemon (I forget the title) - and it was very very good. loved it.
Monday, February 28, 2005 ::: as many of you gentle readers already know, kottke.org is now full-time, meaning that he has time to surf the web and point us to such excellent reads bacontarian, the bacon blog, interviews with dave eggers and advice on switching to mac if you haven't already. If the spirit moves you, you may also wish to make a donation.
Saturday, January 22, 2005 ::: these little (live!) bonsai plant keychains are super-neat. from the ever-intriguing boing boing, which also linked to a fabulous t-shirt, "the blog" - done in the style of fifties horror film posters (Inane! Rambling! Rarely Updated!) - although I were really to wear it I'd feel like I was turning into the comic book store guy from the simpsons.
Although my transformation from linguistics to american studies is fast complete, I still enjoy the occasional informative online reading, like the language log, which I saw after reading this article in the economist about corpus linguistics and using google to research it. Coincidentally I'm going to a party next weekend where I will rubbing elbows with a corpus/compuatational linguistics crowd, mainly from my old job back in the giddy new economy days. the economist article, btw, I originally found at the morning news.
oh, and my new york photos are up on flickr. most of them didn't turn out, but there are some nice ones of me and my boyfriend. the frog pictures are pretty blurry so I only put up one or two.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 ::: This week's (January 17, 2005) New Yorker has a profile anime film director hayao miyazaki, who made such classics as my neighbor totoro and spirited away. The profile itself isn't available online, but there is an interview with the writer margaret talbot. Anyway, the profile is very interesting and worth a read.
I have some old links that I've forgotten about - including interesting weblog the insufficient homosexual, link from la.comfidential, which sometimes has popups but is a good read.
my paris photos are up! I'll be putting up some pictures from versailles too. and for all you search request people, here are some photos of the paris opera house.
Sunday, January 02, 2005 ::: Had a good new year's, chilling in the marais and then heading to the banks of the seine to watch the fireworks and drink champagne. and then discovered that the front desk guy at my hotel also decided to take a little time off and so I was locked out. he came back after a while and a night of wandering the streets of paris was thankfully averted. Said goodbye to my friends and have some time to myself for a couple of days - although I didn't do too much yesterday since it was new years' day and everything was closed. plus I had gotten food poisoning which kind of put a damper on my activities. took it easy today although I did go to the musee d'orsay - it was free day, unbeknownst to me but knownst to a lot of other people judging from the crowds. Had lunch in a very parisian brasserie and gave thanks for my returning appetite.
btw, I'm taking pictures which I plan on posting when I get back home.
