Below are the most recent 24 friends' journal entries.

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
digitalemur	9:49a	Dear Verizon: I won't use your services anyway, after multiple incidents where your customer service people reduced me to tears and then yelled at me for it. But seriously, advertizing your new smartphone as if it's a robotic alien invader or a drone fighting machine dropping airstrikes? This is not convincing me to buy your product. Also? Your ads make it look like a cheap knock-off of some sort of Cylon, or a cut-rate Terminator. I'm not sure what, exactly, you're doing wrong, but something ain't right. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
dumble	9:58p	I am enjoying tango classes, but I would very much appreciate some tango role models who are not impossibly skinny. Suggestions welcome. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
tiamat360	11:23p	Tonight I performed for ~1200 people. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
heebie_geebie	7:45p	Let's count down till Thanksgiving. I got terribly upset on the drive home from the conference, Saturday, because I felt I'd been apart from Hawaiian Punch for too long and I missed her. I knew she was fine; this was all about my maternal clinginess. If I had to redo it, I'd have brought her to the conference, and driven each way after her bedtime so that being confined to the carseat wouldn't be such an ordeal.  Now I'm sad about going back to school tomorrow. It's just that I hadn't seen her enough all week, and she had crashed the moment we got home on Friday, and then I left at 4:30 am on Saturday.  She gets so tired around 6 at night. On weekedays we barely get home by 6. It's kind of upsetting to always put the baby down for the night right when you finally see her. Have carseats put a major cramp in family road trips? When we took road trips, we had a bean bag in the back of a suburban. I think it would be uncomfortable to be strapped down in your 5-point Safety Harness for the better part of a day. The Christmas List I finished it. It moved at a decent pace, and had an unbelievable amount of white space. A full blank page between every few chapters. Chapters that started mid-page and ended mid-next-page. It was like a college student fluffing an essay. I have two absolute favorite parts that I must share. So, Evil Bad CEO Dad opens the paper and reads his obituary. Then he reads an extremely unrealistic comment thread about his death, and decides he must make amends. (His long dark night of the soul lasted about 15 minutes on a Tuesday morning. Ok, that was another favorite part.) He asks his secretary to draw up a list of all the people he has wronged. She gasps, "But, but, there must be thousands!" Nevertheless, he is resolute. She shows up the next morning and says, "Here are the ones that kept me up at night." There are five. That made me laugh really hard. Again, does this author just not like to write? Okay, so Bad Dad starts making amends, and it's going really badly. Christmas is almost here, and he's gone down the list, and he has struck out big time. He says to his ennobled secretary, "Originally I just wanted to fix my legacy. But now I really care about people, and I wasn't able to help any of them." She solemnly drags out the moment and eventually says, "Bad Dad, this is what Christmas is all about. Redemption." That was a big favorite moment with me, how she tied it up with Christmas. Christmas is about redemption? I thought it was a birthday party. And how does that help him? Should he forgive himself? (No. He should just nod thoughtfully and know what to do.) Then there was a painful ending where Noble Mom dies, which made me cry, which pissed me off. But then! THEN! After the end of the book, there is a blank list, numbered to 5, where the reader is encouraged to make their own Christmas list. Oh, thank you! Thank you for the opportunity for me to write out the five people I've wronged, and make amends. Christmas just isn't Christmas if it isn't Yom Kippur and a 12-step program. So that was that. Next week I'll find out whether my book club is sane or not. Mom is home from the hospital! It ended up being quite abrupt. On Thursday she was in the ICU; on Saturday she was home. They found a good combination of pain meds and were able to remove the tubes from her chest.  I'm very relieved that she didn't pick up an infection. At one point I said to dad, "Now that the surgery's over, what's the worst that can happen?" He started listing off complications and then trailed off and said, "Don't worry, Heebie, she's going to be just fine." I laughed and thanked him. We are so pooped that we found subs for ourselves for our soccer game tonight. I played this afternoon, in the rain, and Jammies had a hockey tournament, and it's rainy, and Hawaiian Punch is asleep, and sometimes it's so nice to curl up by the glow of the TV. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
dumble	4:02p	On developing new work habits I miss the HRSFA institution of Work In Company. I have too much work to do this afternoon to justify actually spending time doing anything else, but much of it is just reading, which requires moderate but not super high amounts of concentration. It would be nice to have people around with whom I can make the occasional snide comment and feel slightly social, but without preventing me from getting all this reading done. Current Mood: lethargic Current Music: Dvořák: Quartet #12 In F, Op. 96, "American" - 1. Allegro Ma Non Troppo - Emerson Quartet (Comment on this)
sandmantv	12:58p	Phone numbers! I just reset my iPhone, and lost all my phone numbers. Would you be so kind as to text me with just your name? 202-288-2315 (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
digitalemur	2:12p	Last night I saw Ameraucana chicken eggs for sale at Whole Paycheck. They're blue. SO pretty. I wondered why I didn't make bank selling blue eggs, back when I had chickens that laid them when I was a kid. So I mentioned this to my sister A., who said I should totally start an organic blue egg business. A: oh wait A: can you capitalize on pro-gay sympathies? A: rainbow eggs! A: rainbow egg coalition! A: proceeds go to support marriage equality A: i'd buy that A: i like to feel solidarity in the grocery Me: solidarity in the grocery! Me: Solidarnosc! Me: There is no bread without freedom! A: how can you eat your pudding if you haven't eaten your meat? She also pointed out that she is making cranberry vanilla sorbet because she had been buying a lot of ice cream sandwiches, but she isn't down with putting her ice cream money toward a company who owns a blimp, because that's just creepy. Maybe you had to be there, but she cheered me up. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
digitalemur	11:13p	Stroganoff We just made this beef stroganoff, with sirloin, sans tarragon. Oh, and we added paprika at the end, because I am a slav and I say so. Might add it earlier, next time! (6 Comments |Comment on this)
digitalemur	11:34a	Got it going on like Donkey Kong This morning, stolen_tea alerted us to the existence of the JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank, and the marvelous customer reviews on the Amazon order page for the JL421. He quotes a question from their FAQ page: Say what? -Ba-donk-a-donk. Right, well, I don't think that fully answers the question. But here, there's a nice video in which Trace Atkins explains that word a little more fully. Like he says, it ain't for the money, it ain't for the glory, it ain't even for the free whiskey, it's for the Ba-donk-a-donk. Peace out, y'all, I'm gonna go make pancakes. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
yaleartificer	9:39a	Two awesome and awesomely cheap games The World Ends With You for DS is about $16 on Amazon right now, and Civ IV for PC is just about $12. You probably know about Civ IV already, and if you don't, all I have to say is, you have no idea how far that $12 will get you. The $20 Beyond the Sword expansion is a nice addition but not actually necessary to get umpteen zillion hours of gameplay out of playing out different alternate history scenarios. Plus, the original theme music is catchier. The World Ends With You is a Square Enix RPG that just oozes style -- the catchy J-Hip-hop music alone is worth the price of admission, and the graffiti-ish graphical style is like nothing I've seen in an RPG before. It's a modern-day setting in the trendy Shibuya district of Tokyo, and its twist on the talk-to-everybody-while-saying-nothing-yourself RPG cliche is that you can read everybody's mind, but are such a teenage misfit loner that you never talk back to them. The aesthetic effect of wandering through crowded streets reading people's innermost thoughts while completely avoiding contact with them is quite cool ... this game has an arty theme in a way that few other RPGs dare. Combat is this crazy frenetic action where on the bottom screen of the DS you're making different motions with the stylus to cast different spells, and at the same time you're using the D-Pad to do combos in real-time with your character on the other screen, who inhabits a sort of parallel version of the world but shares your HP. This game is completely unique, stylistically on par with Okami in how completely it realizes a particular artistic vision, and takes advantage of the DS's peculiarities like no other game I've seen, and is well worth checking out. For $16. (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
dumble	11:02p	I was talking to Tom about journals and archiving, which made me remember how much I like having an archive of my thoughts, and inspired me to try posting here a bit more often. I think there's a high activation energy to start journaling, or to pick up again after an absence, since there's so much to say about what has happened since you last wrote, or more generally because things take longer to write about when you don't already have the context set up. I hope to overcome that by not dwelling on how much I haven't posted about. That said, it seems like the reasonable place to start is with a general state-of-my-life update. I'm in San Diego and having a great time in the linguistics phd program. I work a lot. Most of the time, I find the work very engaging and enjoyable. I'm taking Syntax, Phonetics, and More Syntax (technically, Experimental Syntax). Syntax is my favorite. I've been looking forward to taking a proper syntax class for a long time. Our homework assignments are always to write essays explaining the analysis of some type of construction, and I've been taking a surprising amount of pleasure in writing them up in LaTeX. Producing an attractive essay is really satisfying, and there's also the fun aspect of incomprehensible strings of symbols somehow turning into something elegant like a syntax tree. (I feel I should note that I very much enjoy the content as well as the presentation of these assignments.) As of today, I am officially a car owner, which makes me simultaneously thrilled and disappointed. In my ideal life, I would have no need for a car. But given where I live, yay car!! It's my parents' old car, which I drove in high school, so I'm also quite attached to it. His name is Toby. The two best parts of owning a car are grocery shopping (which is a huge pain by bus), and DANCING! As I have probably mentioned at some point, I have in the past 9 months become quite addicted to dancing. I went swing dancing for the first (well, techincally the second) time in San Diego last night, and it was So Fantastic Wheeeeee! I started dancing lindy hop in Edinburgh and rather quickly became hooked. By the end of my time in Edinburgh, I was dancing three or four times a week, or even more if the opportunity arose. I was really sad to leave all my swing dancing friends in Edinburgh, but starting to dance in a new place has given me a new perspective on dancing in a way. Previously, whenever I've started dancing somewhere new, it has been in the context of taking a dance class. Whereas now I'm actually at a point with lindy where I can just go *dance*. I feel like there's so much more I want to say about dancing, but I'm having trouble putting words to things... I think everyone should learn to dance (in whatever style they please). Being able to express yourself physically is an amazing feeling, as is having physical communication with your partner. Although we as nerds/geeks/whathaveyou tend to think a lot about knowing ourselves better, expressing ourselves more clearly, etc., we mostly focus on mental aspects to the exclusion of physical aspects. I'm discovering that there's as much fulfillment in understanding yourself physically as mentally. I often forget how much I've changed in the last two years, particularly with regards to interpersonal relationships. Moving to San Diego has been incredibly easy in terms of getting out and making friends. Part of that is the university community: I have a great cohort, and a great department generally. But I think a lot of the comfort I feel in meeting people is due to skills I've developed in the last two years. I keep forgetting these skills are anything new, and get mildly surprised whenever I'm reminded that some people are having a hard time adjusting to being here. I think a large part of the change for me was being more open to the possibility of meeting people in random places. As a undergrad, there's a lot of very obvious places for you to make friends--your classes, your dorm, your extracurriculars--such that there's little need to look outside of those. But it turns out that once you get past the idea that your friends will be coming to you via certain channels, there's people all over the place who want to be your friend: on the bus, on the Internet, and, of course, at swing dances. In addition to having an easier time meeting people, I've also been growing closer to various friends from elsewhere. I've never felt like it's appropriate to discuss relationships with specific people on livejournal, but I'm really glad to have the friends I do, and glad that distance is not putting our friendship on hold. Still the llamas. =) Current Music: The Adventures of Part - Ari and Mia Friedman (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
heebie_geebie	9:28p	Lefty, he can't sing the blues Thanks for all the warm congrats! We spoke with our agent today. Because now we have an agent! Actually, it was a conference call so that we could meet and assess our new agent. We said that Mom had laryngitis. So Dad put the phone on speakerphone, and when Mom had something to say, she whispered it and Dad repeated it for us. We were worried that the ICU machines would start beeping, or a nurse would walk in. But nothing happened.  And so the agent never knew that she was talking to someone who can't be released down from intensive care until they can remove three tubes from her chest.  To keep the liquid draining from around her chest. She is easily out of breath - like from eating - when the fluid accumulates in her chest. Mom and Dad do not want either the agent or the editor to know that she's in the throes. I'm not sure I would be so secretive, but then again, I type up my dirty laundry and air it publically.  Like Pancho, I wear my dirty undies outside my clothes, for all the honest world to see. I respect their decision, though. This Saturday I am taking students to a conference. I didn't want to spend the night, but the dang thing is four hours away. So we're leaving at 5 am, and getting back at 11 pm or so, and there are eight hours of driving in between. I really resent it. I want my weekend. I have a bunch of shit to get done. I don't want a long, exhausting day, another day of pumping and not seeing Hawaiian Punch. I don't want a one-day weekend, and then to dive back in to another week. I resent the unspoken charities that you do to get tenure. This semester seems particularly full of these faux-charities. I've got five students that I'm doing senior research projects with. There are scavenger hunts and Honors Book Clubs and conferences. And committees, and IM soccer teams, and grading. And whenever there's a break, we've spent it flying to see Mom and Dad or getting married. Eh, ignore me. I'm just tired. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
digitalemur	12:07p	Signs one is growing old. I'm eating leftovers of Swiss chard cooked with sweet onion and lots of garlic in neutral oil and then braised in hard cider with red pepper flakes. I tossed it with pasta, and I'm eating these leftovers cold. I keep noticing that I really like the sweet, distinctly beet-like taste of the chard stems. The taste is beet-like, and yet I like it. I don't think I'm interested in beets themselves, still, but that I even like a taste I'm registering as like that of beets is a step forward for my palate. I got so happy when I picked up this bunch of rainbow chard last night at the grocery that I realized: _this_ may be the green I should grow next year. Not spinach, too squeaky. Not collards, too tough and long in cooking (though I love it when it's ready). Not lettuce, because we can never count on me being in a salad mood. Maybe kale too, but definitely chard. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
yaleartificer	12:16p	Truly this is a great and singular age we live in ... when I can listen to a song on the radio that I like, wait for an uncommon phrase like "God of Progress," then go home and Google '"God of Progress" lyrics' to get the name of the song ("Come on! Feel the Illinoise!" by Sufjan Stevens), and acquire it in seconds via iTunes. It's a good song. Check it out. But also consider how alien this kind of thought process must be to our parents, who are neither trained to think about statistically improbable phrases as good search terms, nor to expect every variety of media they could possibly want to be on the Internet somewhere. And I'm sure at some point, when search algorithms and Internet interfaces improve and acquire some more rational process of asking you about what kind of information you're looking for, this process of being cognizant of uncommon phrases as potential leverage in Google searches will seem as antiquated as the ability to crank a Model T. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
heebie_geebie	8:10p	Hawaiian Punch Gets a Bug Hey, I have big news! 1. This morning, when looking up the website of the awful bookclub book, I noticed this in the top paragraph: "Glenn Beck said, “It’s Evans’ best yet…a fantastic book and a fantastic message…It is really the spirit of what I’ve been talking about for a while now.” Well, it all makes sense now why it's such a terrible book. I'm giving the host the benefit of the doubt here - perhaps she just wanted something holiday-themed and chose rashly. I am now beginning to gleefully hunger for how I will rip this book into a bloody mess. I am the predator, and this book is my prey, and you all are turned to the Discovery Channel to witness the smell of bad book blood as it wafts up my nose and rouses me from my slumber. I snuffle, sneeze, and cock one eyebrow.  My belly rumbles and we all know perfectly well that this book is in for a severe disembowelment.  Stay tuned! 2. Mom and I officially got a double book offer, for our two children's books. Remember the ten lines or so that I posted last spring? Mom has been illustrating, and plus we did this before, a couple years ago, so there are two whole books. Over the summer, a publisher bit, and today we got a real live offer. So cool. 3. While I was on the phone with Mom and Dad, revelling, Jammies called to say that daycare called to say that Hawaiian Punch had been puking all day and needed to be picked up. So I rushed there to get her. For the next five hours, she slept on me. We just stepped off the daily routine. I kept the radio and TV off. I watched the shadows and absent-mindedly played online with one hand. Every twenty minutes or so, she awoke and screamed a little. And then she'd abruptly fall asleep, mid-scream. I gave her some pedialyte, which she has kept down. She has had a cold for most of her life, but I've never seen her so exhausted. Poor sweetie Punch. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
digitalemur	9:20a	I hear someone else among my f-list has read the Star Trek novel about the Kobayashi Maru. I really only remember the part about Sulu and the UFP legislative simulation and the paper cranes. It was the bestest. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
heebie_geebie	7:23p	WHOA! SIX! I talked to Mom for the first time today, which was heartening. She is still in the ICU, until they can take the tubes out of her chest. (I think) I hate the book we're reading in book club. (I think) I detest it.  (I've barely started it.) I think the only way I'll be able to stand it is to blog it, so that you all can marvel along with me. On the inside cover, the author says that he wanted to write a Christmas story of redemption, like A Christmas Story. The dialogue is packed with backstory until it pains me. "Mom, are you meeting with Dad and the divorce lawyers today even though you have chemo?" "Yes, son," his mother said, trying not to let on that she would die sooner than her son realizes. "Are you finalizing wedding plans with your fiance?" she said, hoping her face didn't betray that her dearest wish was to see her son married. "Yes, mother," he said, wondering how he would juggle final exams and wedding planning, hoping his mother didn't realize how worried he was about her. Evil dad who schedules divorce meetings while his wife has chemo is the subject of the redemptive journey. We are still revealing what exactly makes him such an evil cad through detached chapters about people whose lives he's ruined. That fucker. "Henry, even though you're only seven, I hope you have the best Christmas ever," said his single mother, hoping Henry wouldn't realize the stress she has been under as a single parent working three jobs. Henry said, "Mama, all I want for Christmas is for you to be happy and for us to be back in our home." Henry's generic mama thought of the evil, wicked man who had sold them a house they couldn't afford. She put all their money into the down payment and they were evicted for nebulous reasons within five months and it's clear that their misery is a result of this one man's greed. That's all I've read so far. But I'll keep you posted! I'm playing mega-soccer. Guess how many games I'm playing in one week, if you count from Thursday to Wednesday: six. WHOA! SIX! I'm playing on an intramural team at Heebie U which has games last Thursday, and this Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the regular three leagues. At some point something is going to have to give, but we don't know what. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
digitalemur	1:49a	it turns out I still know all the words to "Friends In Low Places," too she said hey boy do you mind taking me home tonight cuz i aint never seen a country boy with tires on his truck this high I didn't know that height of tires a measure of virility now. I mean, I can imagine that possession of a seriously jacked up truck would add appeal to someone I already like, but.... I drove Rt 20 from Oxford to Sturbridge, for variety and to avoid a few tolls, on the way home tonight. It was a nice change of pace. But what I'm really wondering about is whether there's more deer strike hazard there than the similar stretch of I90. Seems like in theory there might be, but overall the deer strike hazard seems lower in MA than in crowded NJ or in Ohio, and that makes me feel better. (Also it was raining like crazy, which tends to keep deer off the damn highway.) Party was great. Many thanks to H and R for a marvelous way to spend the evening. Many thanks to all of you; I don't get to see any of you enough. There were 17 total trick-or-treaters. It started to rain in earnest at 6:30, which cut the numbers way down. I came home to a still-full bowl of candy. Curses, now I have leftovers. Jeez, even with the time change it's very late. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
digitalemur	6:44p	Crispy treats for grownups experiment 2009! The time has come for the latest, ahem, puffed rice cereal and marshmallow treat experiment. I either didn't tag previous recipes, or I didn't even post them here. The last attempts involved cinnamon and cardamom, and both were very pleasant. Now we try something different. 1 10.5 oz package of mini-marshmallows 8.5 cups puffed rice cereal 1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup) five spice powder (yes, really!) Butter a 13x9 pan thoroughly. Melt butter in big pot on medium. Add marshmallows and stir until melted and fluffy. Add cereal, and add five spice powder. Take off heat and stir until it's a sticky mess. Butter a spatula or your hand (or both, because the pan is hot), and press gooey mess into prepared pan. Butter the top and cover for transport or cooling. Cut into squares and serve. I have no idea how much powder I used, but it was at least 1/4 tsp? Maybe less than 1/2 tsp? Yeah. (Comment on this)
digitalemur	5:44p	I just got unexpectedly excited about trick-or-treaters. And I mean I went from meh to "oh boy oh boy" in the last 2 HOURS. The outside lights are on, there are candles and pumpkins displayed in the window by the door, and the whole place looks, well, charming. Not a costumed candy-beggar in sight, yet. I hear they come here in DROVES, though. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
digitalemur	10:16p	Social Media: sometimes it becomes federal evidence An international child kidnapping case gone well, eventually, partly because the one of the parties involved left a big old trail on LJ. (Comment on this)
heebie_geebie	2:59p	The last time we hung out, I just kept looking down I proctored chaperoned baby-sat a bunch of college kids last night as they turned down the alcohol and up the scandalous outfits, at a campus Halloween party. They seem so sober and unlike my own college experience. So many girls tottering on stilletos, arching their backs and displaying bustier cupfuls of breasts. Or bowlfuls. Or even more. So many fishnet stockings and boyshorts, or hanky-lengthed skirts, (or skirts with many petticoats, depending on the costume. But still crotch-high. "See my bloomers!") They all give nominal homage to a real costume, though. And they're all so sober. The whole thing seems like a mysterious exercise in unfun patriarchy. I st-st-stuttered when you asked me what I'm thinking 'bout. When I was pumping the other day, some students called me on the phone. They had a question about the scavenger hunt. It seemed faintly undecorous to be milked while talking to students. I've continued to use the electric pumper, even though I replaced the handpump. I'm getting huge results.  It works better, I'm forced to admit. My personal best is 8 oz in a single sitting. (Who knows, I might be pumping while I write this very entry!) (I am.) Felt like I couldn't breathe. You asked what's wrong with me. A funny thing from the wedding: a family friend cornered me, delightfully drunk, and began talking about childbirth. "The vagina!" she proclaimed, "Is a GODDAMN rubberband! Springs right back in place! It's magic!" She paused for effect and looked me dead in the eye. "The pooper never recovers." She then repeated this whole thing several more times. We talked about the sad fact that labor causes hemorroids. It was kind of awesome. My best friend Leslie said, "Oh, she's just being Miley." Dad left a message on my phone yesterday, which he handled with extraordinary diplomacy.  He began with a long detailed list of how, medically, Mom is doing wonderfully. Finally, he said "Subjectively, she's in a lot of pain," and described some problems they're having. Without the long leading perspective, I think I would have had a hard time. As is, it's still kind of hard. (I've talked to him every night. This just happened to be the message last night.) The next time we hang out, I will redeem myself. My heart can't wait till then. I just ate the rankest, stalest, Twix.  What a disappointment. It came apart in the wrapper, and the caramel was glued to the wrapper, and the chocolate crumbled off. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
tiamat360	8:32p	Cool! I apparently got honors in Anatomy. And here they kept claiming honors didn't exist for the class...::raises eyebrow:: Well, fuckin' awesome anyway. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
yaleartificer	9:24p	Space Hulk Paging eclectician... Space Hulk is back in a limited 20th Anniversary edition. GW is selling it for $100 in a limited run, and when it's gone, it's gone...though it's already somehow jumped to #8 on the BoardGameGeek game rankings. More info on the Games Workshop site. I'm apparently turning into something of a game collector, seeing as how I now acquire games for little more reason than their incredibly obscure subject matter, so I'm reasonably tempted by this offer. The game is a cool nonsymmetric 2-player game, where one person plays the hordes of ravening aliens running through a spaceship and the other plays the disciplined marines usually trying for nothing more than getting from one side to the other alive. Genestealers are mere blips on marine radar until they come into line-of-sight, and neither player knows whether a blip will turn out to be a false alarm, a mere squadron of 3, or 7-alien death. Marine strategy consists of putting marines into good defensive positions where they can go on "overwatch," ready to fire at anything that moves. It's fair to say there's never been a game quite like it, though it could be seen as a precursor to the Tower Defense games that came much later -- only better. (6 Comments |Comment on this)