neil+diana=amen

Now

2011-10-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

My thoughts of late have included, in no particular order: #1. Boyz II Men

#2. Everything I want is here. Now. I love the words here and now. They are sort of magical. Like, there is here and then there is here here. and so on, all the way to ... my heart? Or where I'm at (as opposed to where I am)? That's cool, because where I'm at may not be where I am. Therefore, the concept of here is simple, yet elusive. Which brings me to another thought:

#3. Last week I realized that I love things that are simultaneously simple and awesome. Like The Beatles. And here. I don't love things that are embellished, unless they are also simple and awesome, because then you can just clear away the razzmatazz. Things that are not simple but are awesome are OK, but things that are not simple and not awesome are largely annoying.

#4. Sometime in my 20s I started to feel a vague kinship with everyone I went to high school with, even people with whom I'd barely been acquainted. All our lives had been touched by Melba Vallas in one way or another. Then, after living in Tucson awhile, I started to feel like anyone who'd ever lived in the greater Phx area was, by association, my friend. Remember when Piestewa became Piestewa? Exactly. Then, particularly after I had been living in Charlotte a few months, I began to recognize everyone who had lived in the southwestern part of the U.S. as my soulmate. You're from California? Awesome, 60 degrees is cold! And now, after associating mainly with people who are 12 years younger than I for the last 5 years or so, I feel intimately involved with anyone between the ages of 28 and 45. "Ow! My nose!" "Gee, Beav!" "Can you hear me now?""I'm dope on the floor and I'm magic on the mic ..." I could go on.

#5. I wish I could see Paul McCartney and Paul Simon in concert. It wouldn't have to be at the same time. I also would like to see the Rolling Stones.

#6. I wish my stomach wouldn't hurt. This afternoon I went to yoga and felt great for the whole hour. I will try to go every day from now on. I love yoga. When I do it every day it opens parts of me so that I can see things that I didn't know were there. Like #2; I think if I want something that I don't have, I merely have to radically adjust my vision, and then I have it. Completely.

OK bye.

moving on

2011-05-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Neil and I have been going through cupboards and drawers, dividing things into keep, Goodwill and garbage. Last week I was overwhelmed with a bunch of letters from recent years.

Glancing through the letters was a rather painful experience. People had taken the time in February 2006 to sit down and write their thoughts or express congratulations or whatever, and now that moment was gone forever. So I could keep the card as a relic of the moment, but the moment I'd just had was that it was painful that what had passed was no more. So ... the card would be a relic of the pain associated with the distance between February 2006 (or whatever date) and now. And it's not even pain, exactly -- just the bittersweet tic-toc of mortality.

Moving makes everything seem suddenly less meaningful. Forests become trees. Like there's a family photograph on our living room table, and I was cleaning recently and put it flat, thinking, "We're not even 'living' in this room anymore, no need for the decorative charade." And then an expression of life became a photo and I had to sit down and think about that for a minute.

But I digress. I was anxious about sorting through all these letters because they seemed to be little more than "emotional baggage." But then I would think, "Well, they're reminders of who these people are (because they're going to die someday)." And then I would think, "What was that that you just thought in parentheses? That's messed up, Diana! Everybody's going to die someday! Nobody cares if you keep these stupid letters or not. Nobody cares. You will never look back on this birthday card from 2007 and be so happy you kept it. Throw it the freak away. Throw it all away."

So I did, mostly, and immediately felt more calm. Some of the stuff I looked through bore record of events over which I had expended much anxiety and heartache at one time, and I was a trifle shocked to note that, while I recalled said intense feelings, I cared not a jot now.

Which brings me to a second musing: Last week I saw online a quote from Jonathan Safran Foer that said something like, "The only thing worse than being sad is letting others know you're sad." The next morning I read about a memoir that some woman is publishing about how she dated Steven Tyler in the 1970s and he wanted her to have an abortion and he went to the hospital when she did it and snorted coke during the procedure. My initial responses were, "He's a rock star, what do you want?" and "What do I care about your story?" Then I thought about why my reaction was so unsympathetic and I looked at her story through Foer's quote on sadness.

I think the reason it is good and healthy for people to "move on" is because the universe is moving on anyway. Before I saw moving on as putting away old dreams, taking a match to them maybe, and forging on, hoping a new life would eventually assemble itself. But that's the thing: a new life will assemble itself. That's the nature of the earth turning and bloody wounds becoming scabs, then scars, and flowers growing. After thinking about the quote and the woman's memoir, I think "moving on" is important because everything else reliably is going to move on. It's a law of nature. And everybody has a personal set of scars to show for it.

That said, I wonder if I can move on from thinking about the bittersweet tic-toc of mortality, because it's kind of a downer. What does the scar look like for that?

We are all made of stars

2011-04-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

I have a fantasy where I don't need to delete 2 applications from my circa '97 mac every time I want to download an mp3.

Neil gives really good hugs.

My friend Beth just introduced me to the moth it is so cool.

I have this other fantasy where Neil and I buy a house and then buy a record player. And then play records. Like I listened to a Christian McBride story on the moth and now I want to buy a house + record player + Freddy Hubbard record.
So cool.
OK I totally gotta go because Dancing With the Stars is halfway over.
Goodbye.

Mrs.

2010-11-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight it's ritards, or, more specifically, ritardando. Abby, right after I posted last week I stopped hearing irritating bridges. But I will write down the song name next time it happens.
Tonight it's the song that goes "love, love, love, love ... crazy love" on this Irish singers compilation I have on repeat. Like, a song is really bad and then they do this grand ritard for the 11th repetition of the chorus. Anyone?
In other news, I rearranged the front room and it is more nice and more cozier. I am doing the exact same thing I was doing last week -- fighting with Netbeans -- only the program looks better now and I learned how to avoid the "anchors," which is basically when the application thinks things should look a certain way and you say, "No, I actually want that button over here," and the software says, "Ok, yeah ... I can see that you want it over there but I'm going to keep it here and also completely reorganize everything that you just spent 2 hours arranging."
Neil is good. My car has a mysterious ailment that is very scary-sounding and prefers not to show itself to anyone except me. Which is why I drove to Tucson Car Care today, emergency lights on, hoping the car wouldn't blow up before I got there, and then drove around Tucson for 30 minutes today with a mechanic explaining that, no, it wasn't the CD player I'd heard.
Yesterday in yoga I was listening to meditative singing and thinking about how when you're really open and listen to certain types of music it sounds like an environment for the spirit to move through. And then I was thinking about Heaven, and how one conception of it is a sort of space for the spirit, and I was thinking about the music -- like, the vibe -- in Heaven and then it seemed like, wait, the spirit doesn't get born when you die -- it's here right now. So what kind of space is my spirit in right now. And the music was so cool and it made sense in a way, that, like, the spirit's environment can shift, so the "music" of it would maybe be a little more complex or a little more bucolic, depending. And if I am to follow that line of thinking, then all the time my spirit has its own environment, which is different from this living room and different from my brain. With some kind of music playing and some kind of mood. And I can tune into it whenever I want.
The concept of environment is very interesting this week. What do you[s] think?

too much caffeine in my bloodstream

2010-11-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight "Take the Long Way Home" sounds especially cool. Supertramp, I think. Maybe I'll listen to it tomorrow, as a palliative measure. Because heaven knows it ain't going to fix my compiler. Speaking of, lately I have been really peevish about bridges in bad songs. Like, I'll be driving to work and listening to the radio, maybe tolerating some lame song because it hasn't fully entered my consciousness that a lame song has come on and needs to be changed, and then the song will go into the bridge and I'll be gripped with indignation. REALLY? This song was so boring and lame and they're giving it a BRIDGE? That is 5x as boring and lame as the rest of the song? I don't know why, but this has struck me lately as such ridiculous insolence.

Lately I have been thinking about braised pears. I'd like to make them ... sometime soon. Also, I wonder if HealthSouth will give away turkeys this year.

I am wearing SPF40 and haven't been outside today

2010-11-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Edit: Didn't go outside today. Because now it's night, so "haven't" implies that I still could. And also, technically, I did go outside today, although it was to get laundry out of the dryer and so was under cover of the patio awning. My friend Beth just texted me "yoga?", which is a really good idea. So I'd better make this short. I think I wanted to say ... that yesterday I realized you could sing Stevie Wonder's "Part-Time Lover" and Hall & Oates' "Maneater" simultaneously. And also "NetBeans," the awesome-and-cutting-edge-yet-imperfect application I'm working in, would sound really good if substituted for "Head Games" in the Foreigner song called Head Games. And also ... no, I totally forget. Hi. Bye. And also I am unable to upload my picture of Paris.

A Day of Rest, even though it's Saturday

2010-07-31T07:58:00.006-07:00

My dad said today is a day of rest. I am sitting on the porch. In front of me, on the other side of the screen, the sprinkler is sprinkling daisies and sunflowers and some pink flower and tall green stalks. Butterflies, monarchs and otherwise, are busy amid the flowers. Wow, there's this one butterfly that's bigger than the hummingbird that just passed by. I sort of was under the impression that hummingbirds didn't live outside of the southwest. The air is alternately filled with swells of insects and birds, like finches. And sometimes cardinals stop by.

My dad is drawing a few yards away, inside. He's listening to the shuffle Eliza gave to him a while back ("Tell Eliza I'm going to glue this to my ears"), and he just gave me 1 phone for a sec so I could hear a Joni Mitchell song. Which reminded me of a recent conversation I had with Matt and then Ryan and Jessica.

What 5 singers have had the most influence on your life?

My answers, in no particular order:

1. REM
2. Suzanne Vega
3. Paul Simon
4. They Might Be Giants
5. I can't remember. Kate Bush? The Smiths? I remember that it was good and true, but I can't remember what it was. Matt or Ryan or Jessica, if you are reading this and you can remember, please inform.

And also:

What 5 albums THAT WERE NOT RECORDED BY ANYONE IN YOUR MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSICIANS LIST have had the most influence in your life?

My answers, INPO:

1. Clouds - Joni Mitchell
2. Doolittle - Pixies
3. Substance - New Order
4. In My Tribe - 10,000 Maniacs
5. Outlandos D'Amour - Police

That's, of course, given that Kate Bush and The Smiths are both on the previous list. ... I think Thriller is also supposed to be on the album list, maybe edging out In My Tribe. This is getting really confusing.

So, whoever is reading this, please submit your top 5 + 5, if you wish.

Being away for 8 weeks is interesting. It takes, I don't know, 2 weeks to have a New Experience? Like, maybe you are thinking about something today. And tomorrow you can think about it and the next day you can think about it and it still has essentially the same level of temporal relevance. But in two-ish weeks it will be what you were thinking about two weeks ago. Because in two weeks you will be thinking about slightly different things, in a slightly different way. So 8 weeks is a long time.

When I first got here, life in Tucson pretty much seemed, in my brain, like it did when I was in Tucson. But now it's different. Life in Tucson has been sifted through, so when I think of it, I think of Neil and my friends and family (in Tucson/Phx, Phx) and the warmth and the LACK OF HUMIDITY and the Catalinas and Yoga Oasis and walking to the coffee shop and crickets and stuff. Tucson 7 weeks ago was all these things, plus stress from school and anxiety about the internship and anxiety about I have to stop at the dry cleaners and anxiety about I have to find time to take the car in, etc.

It's nice to be away for more than An Experience Unit so the reality of now can kind of be distilled. There are other pink flowers I didn't notice before, in the distance. They are more of a hot pink, and huge! Like pink butterflies.

Write back.

la vida loca

2010-04-04T18:37:00.007-07:00

"In the midst of life we are in death, et cetera"

Last night I went out with friends it was fun.

In text messages I write in this telegraphic way and I noticed it's leaked into my emails. ... How will the next generation of children be composing letters I wonder?

Remember letters? Remember when mail used to come on Saturday? Wait, I am ahead of myself. Remember when we were thirtysomething ... I remember when I was 16 or 17 I would listen to songs like, "These are the days ..." or "Look at me, proud of being 17 ...", and I'd think, "Yeah, I am so in it, I am so there, so 16 and-a-half and loving it and it is really great and don't forget it because I feel really great."

Remember when we didn't know Ricky Martin was gay?

My friend and I were discussing last week how tired the observer-of-life trope is. Particularly in music lyrics. You know, like, everybody else is in it except me I am detached can I have some more gin please.

Bo-ring. Unless maybe if it's ironic.

I think, specifically, we were thinking of Jackson Browne, who is not really ironic.

But I like "Running on Empty."

I wonder if that show Thirtysomething would be any good today.

Today I read something about the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth and Life shows. I never watch the Discovery Channel but they look so cool I can see myself quieting down in this alternate universe and putting them on. Happy Easter.

thursday night

2010-01-21T21:07:00.034-07:00

It might be fun to have a rock band called The Delicates.

"Dry Clean Only" could be the first hit single.

My left trapezius huuuuuuurts.

But I got a Tiger Balm patch that I may break out at work tomorrow.

Does anyone have any ideas for peace?

aspirations

2010-01-17T10:08:00.003-07:00

I want to work in databases or informatics for genetic research.

I want to work in cancer research.

I want to work in international health, like documentation and sharing and collaboration and researching who does what with what with what resources. (Like in Atul Gawande's book "Better" -- is it always expensive surgical equipment that determines success, or are manual skill and a deep comprehension of the task sometimes underrated?)

And also, in international health, what diseases are seen more and less in what countries among what populations, and WHY?

I want to work in governmental research, like at a policy institute.

I would LOVE to be part of some project that would streamline the federal government so that we were putting tax dollars into systems that worked and returned in dividends, rather than endless bureaucracies. E.g., our educational system is atrocious.

So does anyone want to give me an internship this summer?

I have no work experience in CS whatsoever, but I have a lot of school learning and a great attitude and I will wash your car.

in tha house

2010-01-14T15:18:00.009-07:00

I am briefly moved by the awesomeness of paul simon.

This week at work I almost fell over when a patient's family member complained that the reason the patient wasn't getting more coverage from AHCCCS was because AHCCCS is busy covering U.S.-born children of "wetbacks."

Maybe that language/logic flies in Michigan?

No offense.

I have been in a bad mood this week. I go to yoga and my backbends feel anchored by gravity. I want to be pulled up by the moon. Today was my first class. I like the energy coming from the professor. He runs. He runs marathons in Australia and Rome. He is roughly my age. Sarah's age. He said each week-long homework assignment will take a minimum of 20 hours. No late days. My brain felt like what just happened when I put half a cup of coffee in the microwave and (for the first time, since I only recently discovered the button) pressed "reheat." The coffee boiled over, perplexingly. I hurried home and threw myself into cleaning the spare room, goodwill bags at hand. I guess that's where the analogy ends: My brain wants All Clutter To Go Away -- it's distracting and wasteful and, arguably, pulls me down. Especially when I need to focus on algorithms. The coffee problem was solved with a couple of paper towels. Maybe the brain/coffee issue has a similar prevention tactic though, along the lines of know what you're getting into? No ... Don't collect dust? Ok, so there's no similarity.

Last night in yoga one of my favorite teachers said something to the effect of, If you're confused or feel lost or overwhelmed, just show up to where you're at.

perspective

2009-11-08T09:58:00.006-07:00

java in c

2009-09-21T20:03:00.003-07:00

I am listening to a cd with "yoga" music I like this song because it has the sound of a meandering stream and birds and soft little bells and stuff. I am learning c rather painstakingly I mean it's not that hard but it's also not java. But it's not that hard because I know java. But that's why it's painstaking ... because it's not java. Speaking of java, I am doing tomorrow's c assignment as a break from java. We have an assignment due Thursday that is an extendible directory and file of binary records. Except the directory points to the hashtable, which points to the file. And it changes dynamically. And somehow my array of DirectoryObjects, when they get in the range of 1,000,000, take up too much space. So I need to A. make them smaller, B. not make them if they're not used, or C. Convert my entire program to support a different data structure. I think A is improbable and C is the smartest solution. Therefore, I'll probably go with B. I took a bubble bath, which made me feel nice. And walked to the coffee shop. I like how neil prunes the houseplants. It reminds me of The Karate Kid. I am stressed out from school and whatever but that is just on the surface. Like how when you cut the mold off cheese the rest of it is fine. That was an inapt analogy, in part since cheese can get old and hard, irrespective of its mold status. I am happy. At Raging Sage I had a plum cake that was really good. Wish me luck on my c encryption code!

before & after

2009-06-30T21:38:00.006-07:00

Thank you for your gracious help. Today there was a rainbow. Some chick was on npr singing "I remember you." As marian mcpartland noted, she got lost in the song.

haircut? votes?

2009-06-27T22:43:00.011-07:00

the twelfth day

2009-06-19T15:35:00.004-07:00

I am happy to rest this weekend.

This morning was moist. I realized that I would like to be on a ship with the ocean breeze on my face, doing yoga. Then, later, I realized that somewhere in my dreams last night somebody had named their child "Jordan Marsh." Queer. Then, later than that, it rained. I was at work. A number of us were excited. We none of us could remember the last time it rained. I feel another cold developing (apparently colds have parallel capabilities, since my last cold remains yet), but I am hoping it is a response to the change in air pressure and will ease off without attacking my tonsils.

It's kind of worth it, anyway. I am sick of being sick, but rain is cool. Last night I finished Pride and Prejudice (1995: 5 hours long in total) and I'm a little nervous. I mean, how do you follow Colin Firth? Neil is at the supermarket and hot toddy ingredients are on his list, so hopefully that will help me through this distressful period.

Plus I have a few versions of Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and Emma that are as yet unseen ... but I am trying to pace myself. I was thinking the other day about how I wish somebody would make some really good adaptations of Edith Wharton novels (anything with Gillian Anderson does NOT qualify) ... and then, gradually, it occurred to me that it's OK that every single terrific book hasn't been adapted into at least three terrific movie versions ... because I can just READ the books.

It is revelations like these that remind me that returning to college in the fall may be a tad beyond my capabilities.

But that's late August. And now it's the weekend. And I just worked 12 days and if right now I just want to read The Nine and softly blow my nose and smile at Neil and whatever, that's OK.

And also, Sacha Baron Cohen is not funny.

Sunday Night

2009-06-14T22:49:00.009-07:00

I worked today. After work I went home. I ran/walked 2 miles, which is far, far more exercise than I've had in the last 6 weeks.

When I got home I hurried to turn my heaving, red, sweaty self into something wedding-appropriate. Because I need to be at one in 60 minutes. Across town. And then I realized the toilet wasn't flushing. So, between combing my sticky, salty hair, slipping into a lbd, and attempting to mask the smell of sweat with secret solid, I poured bleach into the toilet bowl and, 10 minutes later, flushed.

Still didn't flush. Well. I did not have time for this and certainly would not have time for it getting ready for work tomorrow morning. I decided to deal with it when I got home from the wedding. And also, I knew I was hungry sort of and I knew I have a little problem with low blood sugar, so I put two frozen jelly donut holes in my mouth on the way out and gave myself a pat on the back.

In the car I called my landlord (who lives in the guesthouse) just to see if their toilet was having difficulties too. You know, is it my problem or a problem with the whole line? My landlord inquired as to what had happened when I plunged it.

Plunged it?

The moral of which is: Two donut holes are not enough.

Although, technically, I just got home and am sitting here in my lbd and have not plunged it. So maybe it won't work anyway. But it had better. At the wedding each guest got a little folded piece of paper with a live butterfly inside, to release after the vows were exchanged. I was worried. I let my butterfly out ahead of time but 20 minutes later it was still hobbling across the grass.

I miss Neil. Bye.

P.S. Do butterflies have hearts? Do caterpillars have hearts? Do caterpillars have like 15 hearts? I will investigate.

because the semester is almost over and I have time to think about things like this

2008-11-23T13:50:00.004-07:00

Simplify. That is my favorite word this week. Yesterday before work I cleaned out the closet in the spare room. My objective is to give a large percentage of the non-crapola items in our house to Goodwill -- not because I am seized with charity, but because I want to have less. Stuff. So we're going to streamline.

Stuff clutters my brain. Maybe if I have less stuff I will have more room to remember how to implement combination without repetition when I am given a problem on my discrete math test (a skill I know but apparently which flew out the window when the test was before me Friday. I think my printer adapters circa 2001 and old magazines crowded it out).

So in coming days and weeks and months, I am going to focus on items and tasks that I like and that bring me peace. Items? ... Nothing, unless they are part of an enjoyed task. Tasks? Being with Neil, preferably with no electronic 3rd party, although a movie is OK ONCE in a while. Being with and communicating with family and friends. Reading. Eating good food. Moving around, which includes: walking, jogging, hiking and yoga. So that's pretty much it. Of course, there's other stuff I like, like my jobs and politics and programming, but I do those anyway.

It is 77 outside and gor-geous. And Thursday there's a 40% chance of rain, which is also awesome. Amye, call me because those tix to SLC are cheap and may go fast. Emily, are you coming home for Christmas? I'm going to go finish my ironing with Keith Jarrett. Both doors are open to this beautiful day. My mom made us delicious french toast and sausages this morning while we talked turkey. How many people think my dad should hire himself out to organize and decorate people's houses, including staging a house that's for sale? Actually, my mom probably would be great in real estate AND could bake really good cookies for open houses ... but I digress.

rough draft

2008-07-28T19:20:00.001-07:00

Wanna see something cool?

hearts

2008-07-28T18:47:00.012-07:00

This weekend was so fun.

cola

2008-06-15T19:25:00.002-07:00

Update: Make your preference known

Saturday the 14th

2008-06-14T10:32:00.007-07:00

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Tim Russert. We are chagrined that he will miss the presidential election, and that we will miss his presence during the thick of it.
We think Gwen Ifill and Andrea Mitchell ought to be on the Meet the Press short list, although David Gregory probably is first in line. I just saw online that someone is pushing for Sean Hannity, which is disturbing.

And also: I am almost done with a new Web site for my dad. I still have to add the ordering page, once I figure out how. Also a couple of the pictures look blurry, regardless of my tweaks, because the original photos are poor. But maybe I could put up the site, then change the images once I get new pics. Most of them are good, anyway.

And: There is a women in computing conference in October for 4 days! And I might get to go! I have to write a 500-word essay on why I want to go and how it's going to make my community and the world a better place if I'm selected! My resume speaks to my utter lack of volunteer work/community service, which is bad, but I'm hoping my JOB sort of makes up for that. Any suggestions on my resume or essay would be greatly appreciated! Check it out: >Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Grace Hopper got a Ph.D. in math in 1934 and was a designer of COBOL and a pioneer of the philosophy that programming could be written in quasi-English, rather than assembly language or machine code.
"A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what a ship is built for." - attributed to Grace Hopper
P.S. The new-ish blogspot formatting interface is nice, but it still doesn't make a whit of a difference in the final appearance. Which is time-consuming, frustrating and misleading. OK bye.

2 weeks ago in hawaii

2008-06-06T20:36:00.005-07:00

classic special comment.

pictures

2008-05-28T16:14:00.010-07:00

I give up trying to insert captions. The lush pictures are from our hike! I forget where. It was cool. The tree in front of the parking lot is what everything looks like on Maui. The wood on the beach is from the annual canoe-making ceremony. The rocks, if you look close, host these weird sea animals that look like Mr. Bubbles except gray. Notably, they were on the nude beach. Mahalo.

I love love love love love love love summer

2008-05-27T11:52:00.002-07:00

Good morning! Maui was beautiful. It was the perfect thing to do at the end of the school year. We will post pictures soon. I am happy to be home in our own desert paradise and I can't believe it's summer! My aspirations include writing letters, reading, yoga, cooking, and seeing friends and family. And working, of course, which is child's play compared with homework! (At least, my kind of work. For those of you who work in schools, it's a completely different ballgame.) My mother sent me this months ago and I only just now read/listened to it: npr story . Also, I saw this article on meditation in the New York Times this morning and found it interesting. Any thoughts? I wonder if it's related to EMDR , which apparently is gaining traction in crisis counseling and PTSD. Wait, here's a nyt article about it: nyt emdr story.

Tax Day: The Aftermath

2008-04-16T20:47:00.002-07:00

Charles Gibson is annoying. This debate is totally not tubular. I suck at calculus. How do astronauts become astronauts? Do they get certified in spaceship aeronautics and then just wait around for someone to come up with a mission? I love Hillary's response to being called on the blatant Bosnia lie ... "First of all, let me just clarify that there is one thing I am not -- and that is dumb. I am not dumb. Sometimes I say things that don't entirely jibe with other things that I may have said in the [distant] past. So ... let's give it up for my bud General Wesley Clark!" Loose transcript, but not inaccurate.

I have been thinking quite a bit lately about Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

2008-04-08T16:55:00.003-07:00

In fact, I'm beginning to suspect the "random" thoughts are becoming encoded into my daily mental-musing circuit. Is that a bad thing?

Not sure.

Maybe.

I think Panda Bear sounds a lot like Brian Wilson. Does anyone else feel this way?

With Amye providing fine assistance in design sense and manual labor, we moved furniture around Sunday. Now I love it! Both rooms! Wait, lemme see if I can take a picture with the computer:

That's just a corner of the front room, but it's next to a table we set up so I would have a lot of space to do schoolwork. There are three windows in this room, and they are really big!

I like almonds, although more in concept than in texture. I like the taste. Too many almonds may sort of numb my mouth and throat, like avocado. But I'm not sure. Maybe at Christmas we'll get a big wooden bowl to put nuts in, including almonds, and eat them with a nutcracker. I'll have like 20 in a row to observe the effect.

Also, I really like vanilla and lavender, in concept and in smell and in looks. And it's fun to add cinnamon to whatever I'm cooking. Although I haven't cooked in a while. Neil cooks lovely dishes, like on, I think, Thursday he made chicken molé with greens, just because. Tonight I am slated to make grilled bacon & cheese – I will try to do him proud. And also, I love having time to do my homework. Love it.

good tv

2008-03-12T13:58:00.003-07:00

http://view.break.com/467869 - Watch more free videos

lost?

2008-03-07T16:31:00.015-07:00

there are 53 faux-scriptural tractates prominently featured as the "exegesis" in philip k. dick's now semi-prominently featured-on-lost book valis. following are those corresponding with "the numbers," uh, just for fun --

4. Matter is plastic in the face of mind.

8. The upper realm has plenary [Var. plenipotentiary] powers.

15. The Sibyl of Cumae protected the Roman Republic and gave timely warnings. In the first century C.E. she foresaw the murders of the Kennedy brothers, Dr King and Bishop Pike. She saw the two common denominators in the four murdered men: first, they stood in defence of the liberties of the Republic; and second, each man was a religious leader. For this they were killed. The Republic had once again become an empire with a ceasar. "The Empire never ended."

16. The Sibyl said in March 1974, "The conspirators have been seen and they will be brought to justice." She saw them with the third or ajna eye, the Eye of Shiva which gives inward discernment, but which when turned outward blasts with desiccating heat. In August 1974 the justice promised by the Sibyl came to pass.

23. The plasmate can crossbond with a human, creating what I call a homoplasmate. This annexes the mortal human permanently to the plasmate. We know this as the "birth from above" or "birth from the Spirit." It was initiated by Christ, but the Empire destroyed all the homoplasmates before they could replicate.

42. To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement. This is a paradox: whoever defeats a segment of the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus, imposing its form on its enemies. Thereby it becomes its enemies.

42 is good. 42 in tandem with, say, 30 could be the solution.

the Hillary Hussein Clinton campaign had nothing to do with crafting this charming plagiarism ..as far as I know

2008-03-05T15:04:00.008-07:00

I just washed my face

2008-03-04T17:15:00.013-07:00

Note to any business (e.g., restaurant, vacation spot) that is putting together a Web site: Refrain from music, elaborate introductions and complicated presentations that require specialized software. These features are distracting, annoying, and potentially toxic to the system.

I love Famous Dave's BBQ. Neil says he doesn't love it but it's "fine."

I was aghast at (note the non-link) Charlotte Allen's article in the Wash. Post Monday. Neil describes it as "boring."

Why were marshmallows invented?

FINNISH STUDENTS ROCK!!!

2008-02-29T22:33:00.002-07:00

This article indicates brains are not born of homework.

quote of the day

2008-02-26T19:45:00.001-07:00

"Y'know, Tim ... you ask a lot of hypotheticals."

P.S. Saturday I rode the elliptical machine and watched Lawrence Welk and was soooooo happy.

bad day

2008-02-21T20:57:00.002-07:00

today was somewhat sucky, although I only had to go to one job, for which I was grateful. I probably was also supposed to go to another job but made an executive decision not to, plus, I don't know where it is, except somewhere far away, and I had already worked many hours and my life force was saying no. Tomorrow, after class, we are going to Prescott :) :) It will be very nice and peaceful and romantic, with fresh air and sunshine and flowers and horses. And I will bring The Custom of the Country, which has been whimpering with neglect since school started, and I will not bring the computer.

I got 95% on the last computer science programming homework! It took like a hundred hours. Neil is doing well in his class and said today the teacher talked about if-loops and for-loops, in which he already is versed. I think we should go on a family vacation to Europe next year ... anyone?

it was fun to watch the debate tonight and watch Obama and Clinton subtly piss each other off. I mean, there was nothing subtle about the way they felt -- the subtlety was in the lil' digs. Last night I went to Anne and Wayne's and watched the lunar eclipse. The cloud masses were kind of flirting with it, but they parted now and then so we could see the moon being occluded by other things that were more interesting than clouds. I think there is a Thievery Corporation song called "Shadows of Ourselves."

Hold the phone -- the highs in Prescott Friday through Sunday are 43, 50 and 58, respectively. Hmmm. ... I'm glad I checked weather.com prior to packing (which will be at the last second tomorrow). A recent bubble bath washed away some of the bad feeling from today. Now I will watch Lipstick Jungle and read Java and maybe start the next assignment. I appreciate friends and family, especially when they're just nice and supportive and you don't have to fit a certain type or mood.

stream of monday night

2008-02-18T23:04:00.004-07:00

She's out of my-y le-eague, just a fool to believe I have anything she needs("she breaks the wind" is what Neil would say, were he here) tonight I changed 7 dead to 6 dead in the niu shooting and 5 dead to 32 dead in the va. tech shooting and youth core to youth corps for some e. valley group. no stellar headlines. after work at 12 I have to figure out how to put all my pdf docs (5) containing my writ calc homework into 1 doc without compromising the legibility -- acrobat reader just reads. I found a free, cute lil' dashboard application on apple.com, but 3/5 of the pdfs I cleverly emailed myself before leaving for work are broken. So I have to do it at home. after work. no problem, hopefully. i will not be docked for turning them in "after" 12, hopefully. Nor will I receive 8.8/30 on the assignment, hopefully, which is what i received on the last one, for a number of diverse and interesting reasons. tomorrow, after a few hours at health south and home health, i look forward (no, I really do) to cleaning the bathroom and dusting the furniture and -maybe- cleaning the floors. the most obvious way to clean them is with the vacuum, but that rates a 30% in total quality. The tiles have marks from god-knows what that I think don't respond even to windex (I will try that tomorrow), so moving a vacuum over them at times feels like an ex. in fut. Plus, there are no carpets anyway, so mopping probably would be a more effective cleaning method, but with mopping it's like I put so much (ok, 5 minutes worth of) effort into preparing and lugging around a sudsy bucket, and moving the furniture, and then the sudsy turns to grimy when I'm done with like half a room. I guess there are worse things than refilling the sudsy bucket, and methinks tomorrow is my day to test that hypothesis. And then we will light candles and I will maybe go to the gym and maybe go to yoga and maybe go to a computer security systems club meeting at school and definitely work on my computer science project, due weds. I finished most of it at the godfreys' this wknd, just needs some fine-tuning. so fun! I look forward to having the time tomorrow to do these things. Maybe neil will read me some pages of Mildred pierce! ok the papers are here bye p.s. bones from a 16-inch frog that had a lot of teeth and lived with dinosaurs were discovered in madagascar, and also, state legislator Karen Johnson really wants teachers and students to have guns at school so people don't shoot each other. :)

this is not a pipe

2008-01-15T06:34:00.001-07:00

What logic is this?

hi

2008-01-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hi. I don't have to get up for work tomorrow. The weather is not quite as cold as last week. It's pretty much in the mid-60s during the day. Does anyone know what it means when your Toyota Camry has to be revved to go after every single red light? I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow and it would be really sweet if the answer involved spark plugs. I have major aspirations to go the gym all the time, starting soon, and also yoga. All the time. Starting soon. I have middlin' aspirations to play the guitar. And get more massages.

computer humor

2007-12-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Support: "Type dir, space, a, colon."

Customer: "With a space after 'space'?"

P.S. I got a "A" in computer science (no joke)!

quotes I liked recently, unrelated

2007-12-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

psa

2007-12-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

i thought this unicef psa was pretty horrifying and then i saw this .. and *then* i watched this.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T08:53:00.001-07:00

1. If the presidential candidates are so concerned with how to campaign in Iowa through the holiday season without being too negative, getting on people's nerves and killing the holiday spirit, why don't they do some CHARITY WORK -- and shamelessly make sure it gets press?

2. Do men's bathrooms also have changing tables? If not, I understand that it would be kind of a waste of money, but what are dads supposed to do when they are at In-N-Out with their infants?

3. I heard a funny song on KXCI (local Tucson station) yesterday whose subject matter included hullabaloo and tuberculosis.

4. Neil dreamed about Guantanamo last night.

5. vestiges of Halloween

How to keep the brain kickin'

2007-11-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

I found this NYT article to be an interesting report on activities that have been shown to be beneficial to brain function. Now I'd like to see a study on joggers who do sudoku.

12:28 a.m.

2007-10-29T00:28:00.001-07:00

I soooooo can't sleep. I think I have to get up at 6. When I was pikku my mother would sing me the Teddy Bear Picnic song. It was entrancing. The undersides of my elbows are scuffy. I am divided as to whether this would self-repair if I stopped resting my elbows on tables, or whether the damage is done. I was in the mood for Neil Young this weekend but I forgot to listen to him. I bet if I pull out a cd tomorrow it will make studying calculus funner.

npd's new favorite

2007-10-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

I have to vacuum today, for sure

2007-10-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

I just woke up after dreaming of people falling down the stairs, so this NYT article was of especial interest. An excerpt: It is likely during REM, some scientists argue, that the brain proceeds to mix, match and juggle the memory traces it has preserved, looking for hidden connections that help make sense of the world. Life experience is cut up and reordered, sifted and shuffled again. This process could account for the cockeyed, disjointed scenes that occur during dreams: the kaleidoscope of distilled experience is being turned.

Of note in these here parts: Yesterday was really windy. This week the Computer Science Dept. is looking at applications for its office assistant job, of which there are 30+. I had a French midterm yesterday (lundi) and have a csc midterm Friday and a calculus test next week. School is in week 10! But I don't feel exactly employable as a computer scientist. I know I have had only .67 csc classes, but I hope at some point in this program I feel remotely competent.

Neil pointed out that our VHS copy of The Graduate was released in 1985 and bears a recommended retail price of 59.95!!! Does anyone else remember this '80s exorbitance?

I don't like green beans. ... Well I don't.

2007-10-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't yet read this story, but that doesn't mean you can't.

Some of us need to hustle so we can squeal into swallow group at the designated time of 7:30. If I was ever on time for swallow group I feel like I should get a bonus. Or at least a homemade cookie. But probably my self-pride in being punctual would carry the exact same annoyance value to my coworkers as my being 5 minutes late. Alors, no cookie! I have to work Sat. and Sun. but I have a date with Neil tomorrow! Yipee! And he has 2 new UA applications pending. One potentially involves handling blood ... in the name of scientific research ... it sounds tres interestiing.

And also: I got an A on my calculus test! Which I still am in shock over! OK, now I really have to go, even though I would like to sit here for at least 30 more minutes. I don't even know what's happening in the news. I think employment is designed to keep people ignorant of what goes on! Except maybe Dennis and Neil.

The Sky Harbor Back Story

2007-10-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

Carol Gotbaum's history

Husband had bad feeling

So ... what kind of legal recourse, if any, would you pursue? Of course, A. by consuming alcohol, which she already knew negatively influenced her mood and behaviors, Gotbaum herself was an agent. ALTHOUGH she apparently was addicted (and therefore the level of personal responsibility involved in picking up a shot glass may be somewhat tempered) and was flying to Tucson specifically to find help. And B. by knowing of these tendencies, her family perhaps could be considered mildly negligent in not appointing a responsible party to fly and make the change with her (although someone was supposed to meet her at Sky Harbor and do just that). That said, what would you do? P.S. I would like to take the credit, on behalf of all women, for NOT printing "hysterical" in a hed on the story in last Sunday's paper. Someone else wrote it and I spoke up. Perhaps they were unclear on the etymology.

calculus on the brain

2007-09-25T23:55:00.001-07:00

It is 11:55 p.m. I have given up on trying to figure out why the Java String length() method won't count spaces, and why the indexOf() method won't look at spaces, and why the charAt() method won't recognize spaces. It's really not that hard, which is why I've spent hours trying to find the solution. It's so simple. I just don't know it. Maybe if I looked in my book ... Plan B, which I'll tackle tomorrow.

And speaking of calculus, when I find the derivative of the derivative of a polynomial function, how am I supposed to know the values of x for which the function is positive and concave up? Or is the function supposed to be positive and concave up, since the 2nd derivative isn't even mentioned in the problem ... but why would we even talk about concavity were we not referring to f''x?

And on French ... Good vocab scores. Good effort. Every class I pray that she will not tell me to present a French article in 2-5 days. And that's all I have to say.

Greer is so cool and nice. We walked by the Little Colorado and looked for fishes. We rested and read a lot.

Neil is good. He makes me dinner and cleans the house and asks me how my day was. OK I have to go to bed.

oprah contingency?

2007-09-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

Does anyone think Oprah Winfrey would have a fighting chance if she ran for president? Because she is soooooooo popular. ... I just wonder. P.S. No relation to the picture.

fun

2007-09-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

It would be neat to backpack through Europe. Has anyone done it?

hibachi, starbury, etc.

2007-09-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

exhibit A for why arizona deserves to be the 25th best school in the country (2 ahead of harvard). also, gilbert comments on crazy steph doing an interview. i have linked. you need to watch the whole thing.

such as and

2007-09-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

posters for pleasure

2007-08-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

.. great movie art featuring paul tebo dead ringer klaus kinski

physical science

2007-08-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

1. This article is interesting, and it makes me think of potential research in sensory integration techniques in the autism population. I hope researchers perhaps can get beyond the stick and hammer -- how about a feather and birthday cake!

2. I will post pictures of painted furniture soon.

3. I study calculus every night! College is so fun! The third time around is always the best!

4. The Star published this article Sunday about the possibility of troops in Iraq being exposed to toxic substances and consequently developing cancer. The information is gripping and I want to see tons of research and perhaps lawsuits. Tons.

from a to b

2007-08-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

lone star spoiler starting at 6:30

summer hit

2007-08-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

no-work weekend!

2007-08-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

David Bromstad is so cute. I painted several pieces of furniture. It was fun. Various species of bug tried to eat me alive. Were they attracted to the latex paint or what? OMG, Ali G as Borat is sooooooooooooo not funny. Tomorrow I would like to eat popcorn. And probably paint more furniture. Is anyone else ever plagued by thoughts of what you're not doing, even as you're doing something else? Like, I was reading an article in the New Yorker and simultaneously thinking about the articles in the new New Yorker that I hadn't read. Robert Wright doesn't know who "Jess and Nick" are. I am soooooooooooo scared about starting school. On so many levels. The t-mobile commercial is funny! Dad: So, there's 5 of us and we can each put 5 people on myfaves, so that's 26! Child: No, that's 25. Other child: Yeah, 5x5=25. Dad: No ... no. 26. Carry the nine. (Leaves room) Mom: That's why you need to stay in school, kids.

blink

2007-08-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

I just started working part-time at a SNF (skilled-nursing facility, AKA nursing home; pronounced "sniff"). It is very, very amusing.

Neil (of the famous grilled cheese) is still mending from Friday's oral surgery. We are hoping that his pain lifts today, since the doctor gave him a new medicine yesterday. (Is it "topical" if it's in the mouth? Probably not. But "oral" suggests swallowing ... "gummal?" Further research obviously is needed.)

I feel apprehensive and excited about school starting in 19 days. And mostly apprehensive about whether or not I'm going to get a campus parking permit. Neil has 4 job applications pending on campus, all of which look promising.

Yesterday I was thinking about how I probably will never think about this moment again, and therefore why not spend it doing something nice and worthwhile? I spend countless minutes each day thinking about time and money and scheduling (e.g., "When I get paid for this in two weeks, should I put the money into savings or pay some bills in advance ... or both ...?"), and it's ostensibly to help myself in the future when I need to actually make those decisions (e.g., when I get paid). But give me a break, how long does it take to transfer money upon getting paid, it's not like I need to formulate a 5-step plan 100 times over in advance. And further, it's not like I'll get paid and reflect back positively upon the countless minutes spent in "busy work." So. Right now is it. It is here and will never be again. Ever. Let's see how long I can carry that through the day!

Interesting: Who's minding the mind?

Eye candy (on paper): blueprint

abject longing

2007-07-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Will somebody please visit and make a quilt with me? It's too hard to do on my own. The thingy that is supposed to hold the spool broke off (it's plastic; I mean, come on) and my attempts to super-glue it back on only resulted in permanently securing the handle in the "down" position. Anyway, I wound a bobbin myself, because it fits on a different thingy, but I don't think I wound it right because I can't maintain a stitch line. So ... I would be grateful if someone would help me. I would make chocolate chip cookies. And Neil maybe would make his famous grilled cheese.

breaking news

2007-06-25T16:12:00.000-07:00

Now when I elect to eat only Godiva dark, I will know that I am taking a stand in the name of chocolate.

movie weekend

2007-06-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

In sum:

Evan Almighty is a good choice for members the 5-and-under set who have had a lobotomy.*

Shrek the Third is a good choice for members of the 4-and-under set who have had a lobotomy.

The Naked City is a good choice for persons over 5, without a lobotomy, who recently saw the aforementioned movies back-to-back and wish to resuscitate the resultingly comatose brain cells.

*Sweet Fancy Moses, I can't believe the starrage Evan Almighty got on imdb.

All we got was a frying pan

2007-06-20T18:46:00.001-07:00

It would be so fun to think of ads like this, although I think it was pro bono, so it wouldn't pay the rent.

Science Wednesday

2007-06-13T06:35:00.000-07:00

Goodbye, Mr. Wizard

small world

2007-06-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

I really want to get lost.

and also.

recycled

2007-05-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

I posted this on Emily's comment but I find it so funny that I want to post it again! click here (revised)

weird states

2007-05-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

we did laundry in lambertville, pa a week ago. except the thing is i just now realized we were actually in lambertville, NEW JERSEY! there is no lambertville in the commonwealth of pennsylvania.

I heart science

2007-05-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

Trippy.

project implicit

(and your chicks for free)

2007-04-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever noticed Sting helping out on Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing"?

Has anyone ever noticed that it is essentially the same song as "Don't Stand So Close to Me"?

I guess Sting knew he was riffing his own melody, but still.

Has anyone who has Safari ever noticed a memory glitch? E.g., every time I want to post on this blog (or check my bank acct or do anything else that needs a password) I have to type in my name and password, even though I repeatedly check the "remember me" box and my Safari:preferences is set up to remember things. And accept all cookies. And I don't delete the cookies in between.

We are going on vacation on Friday. The sky is graypurplepink and probably will emit rain. It's windy.

Observation: In 'n' Out on Saturday is heaven. In 'n' Out on Saturday and Sunday is barf-o-rama. Thanks.

Periodontics

2007-04-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever had it done? I'm totally not going to post a picture.

Cold of a sudden!

2007-04-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

The weather outside went from 76 deg. to 56 deg. with 23 mph winds that are 46 deg., all in the span of my 60 min. yoga class! Those wanton winds. They are simultaneously playful and mysterious. 46 degrees??

My sunburn is peeling. Can anyone sympathize with the trying-on-bathing-suits plight? I went to Dillard's today with my friend who has been working out steadily since -- oh, I don't know, last April? And in clothes we both look pretty good and healthy and stuff. And in bathing suits, she looks like she should be a bathing suit model. I look ... dimpled. Dimpled with a farmer tan. But I've got a month or two till summer, right? Standing in Dillard's waiting for my friend to get dressed, I had to give myself the You-Are-in-Control-of-Your-Own-Life-Stop-Acting-Like-a-Wuss/Victim speech, but it worked and after I got some suits at Old Navy (seeing my body, of course, as a vessel of pure potential) I happily went to yoga. For the second time in ... 3 months. But also the second time in 4 days. So that's something.

I think the idea of a peace march is interesting. Not to Washington. Not to make a political point about war or greenhouse gas. But to walk together in peace. And spread the message of peace. Kind of like Hands Across America and related movements in the '80s that focused on people all being linked together in the human race (although those movements also were related to international aid). Maybe people could take pledges on how far they could walk, and all the money would go to Sudan or something. But maybe in walking en masse, people would make the point that peace is simple and important. Maybe the peace marchers could travel through every state and spread peace.

We went hiking

2007-04-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have a sunburn. We went to Seven Falls. Neil said six grandmas on the hike asked him if he was for sale. Happy Easter.

Saturday

2007-03-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Note to self: Using "SPF 5" sunscreen is kind of like smoking "low-tar" cigarettes.

The weather today was idyllic. My friend's boyfriend had a birthday party in the park and his friend from a long time ago visited from New Orleans, wearing '80s wristbands. He staged his entrance by "accidentally" tossing a frisbee into our area. The frisbee hit a baby stroller, but the baby was with her mother.

The flower shop 60 seconds away from our house (on foot) has gerber daisies.

In December, we went hiking with Brian and our friend Andrew (who I hope is having a good time in Texas). It was freezing but really fun.

Oh -- OH! The big news is that I learned how to thread a bobbin. With no small amount of help from Amye! So far since yesterday I've made 7 pillow cases. Maybe tomorrow ... applique???

March fantasy

2007-03-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I dream about going to Hawaii. I could probably go there as an SLP traveller. Sometimes it's scary to think about picking up and moving. Although the extremely, extremely loud party directly outside our bedroom window last night from midnight till forever made it a tad easier to fantasize about living elsewhere.

Sometimes I dream about making a quilt. About being so adept at making a quilt that I can go to the fabric store and pick out mouthwatering colors/patterns and go home and make a quilt. Piece of cake.

Sometimes I dream about being tan and warm in Puerto Penasco and running on the beach and playing Scrabble by sunlight with my best friend and playing with kids and floating.

Today I didn't make it to the boot camp class because I woke up too late because certain parties were screaming flirtatious obscenities through the window into my ear between swigs of cheap beer all night, but I went to the gym anyway and discovered a new setting on the elliptical machine that was very, very hard and therefore fun. I listened to the Talking Heads and Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell, which helped.

It's not rocket science, people

2007-03-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone hasn't read this recent McCain exchange.

Food for thought

2007-03-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama (my health insurer) does not cover oral contraceptives for the purpose of birth control.

But it covers Viagra.

I think I'm getting an inkling of what life was like before women's lib.

I may go on strike.

Life before plastic??? What??!!!

2007-03-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how babies drank milk and juice before the advent of modern-day bottles*?

Of course you have. This picture is an example of a terra-cotta baby bottle from 450 b.c. Parents of ancient Greece served a mixture of wine and honey from this hanging shrew-shaped vessel.

Romans figured out how to blow clear glass around the beginning of the first millennium, A.D., but glass went out of style and didn't regain popularity until the 20th century.

During the 13th through 16th centuries (and possibly others), it was common throughout Europe for babies to be fed from cow horns to which nipples (made from cloth-filled leather or dried cow teats) were affixed.

Around the end of the 16th century, Germany and Italy started using bottles of wood or leather, which quickly were replaced in favor of pewter. Why would anyone want to drink out of metal? Ew.

Banjo-shaped glass bottles were pretty popular at the end of the 19th century, but they were impossible to keep clean and posed grave hygiene risks.

Emerging around the same period, banana bottles saved the day with their easy-to-clean design.

In the early 20th century the upright bottle came into style, but it was narrow-necked and far more difficult to clean than the banana. The neck was later widened, retaining the pull-over nipple feature.

And then plastic and screw-on tops were invented!

Believe me, the information I have just related is a mere gloss of the bottle information available out there. I love when all the headlines get writ and I have a little time on the computer to explore important subjects.

* Relatedly, please consult these stories for important information about modern baby bottles, drink containers, dental sealants, cans, and various other common, hard plastic apparati.

My eyes itch

2007-03-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

We organized every single shred of paperwork in our house into, like, 40 files. Divided into two folders: current and archives/non-changing stuff. Alphabetized.

We have a budget. (Translation: I have a budget. Neil doesn't spend money with near as much abandon.) And so far, 6/7 into Week One, I've kept it with no problemo. It is probably the 20th budget I've ever tried and the first that I've had any success with whatsoever.

I don't buy lunch anymore, except maybe on Fridays.

My favorite stores are Old Navy and Target.

I feel good and centered this week, and it may be related to the above points. If the good/centeredness holds for another week or so, I think it can serve as substantive scientific data.

I want to see the waxed body exhibit that runs through May in Phx.

Late.

I'm kind of hungry

2007-03-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

New haircut:

But more importantly, today I was leaving the supermarket and much to my delight three 10-year-olds called out, "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

"YEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I tried not to look like too much of a maniacal freak. "Why, yes, girls ... What kinds do you have?" I wanted to sit down with them and relate my misery in not having got ANY Girl Scout cookie solicitations the whole season. I wanted to tell them about how I was convinced that the GSC moment had been lost forever and I would NEVER get to savor the beloved Samoas or crisp Thin Mints that haunted my dreams. And how my faith in GSCs was now, against all odds, redeemed by their simple offering.

Time is money and they had a lot of boxes to sell, so I skipped the confessional and bought three boxes. Which hopefully will last 24 hours.

In other news, it's finally warm! 86 today and I'm not looking back. I might ask for the day after my birthday off. I might sign up for classes in the fall and do my job per-diem. Voice lessons are going really well. Neil is working super hard, at work and home. He got free peppercorns at work today.

I dare the sun to shine tomorrow

2007-03-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ode to Sadness by Pablo Neruda

Sadness, scarab
with seven crippled feet,
spiderweb egg,
scramble-brained rat,
bitch's skeleton:
No entry here.
Don't come in.
Go away.
Go back
south with your umbrella,
go back
north with your serpent's teeth.
A poet lives here.
No sadness may
cross this threshold.
Through these windows
comes the breath of the world,
fresh red roses,
flags embroidered with
the victories of the people.
No.
No entry.
Flap
your bat's wings,
I will trample the feathers
that fall from your mantle,
I will sweep the bits and pieces
of your carcass to
the four corners of the wind,
I will wring your neck,
I will stitch your eyelids shut,
I will sew your shroud,
sadness, and bury your rodent bones
beneath the springtime of an apple tree.

But I am not sad. I really want to read "I Am a Strange Loop". I like my haircut. I swear to God, I am sick of being cold. I HATE IT!!! But I'm in luck, because spring approacheth. There's a new bakery on University from which I got walnut bread and it is good. The bakery and the walnut bread both. Has anyone ever used an exercise ball, those big ones people sit on and stretch out on? I used one for the first time yesterday and I think a large part of the week will be spent in recovery. Wild!

on my mind/nice haircut

2007-02-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

mardi gras

2007-02-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hey what's up.

It's past my bedtime.

imdb changed its layout. Maybe three weeks ago. Maybe yesterday. But it doesn't matter when.*

There is a Nature Valley cereal commercial I frequently see on HGTV where this Matthew McConaghey-esque hiker forages through a forest to find an old woman sitting at a table and offering him cereal. The woman's voice sounds familiar ... like something from 16 Candles ... but I can't place it. Eliza, please go ahead and watch HGTV for a week, then get back to me.

Thanks.

That's all. Neil's a camera stud. I'm whizzing through Unix (inasmuch as one can whiz through an online course that requires you to take online open-book tests whenever you get around to it). Unix is cool. I made a file by typing "touch neil." :)

Any tips on buying a house, please send them our way.

We look forward to spending Q.T. with friends and family this summer. We look forward to being with Molly and Rick on their wedding day! The weather is kind of getting warmer. I just dyed my hair "espresso" but I suspect the difference will be minute. Whatever. I am bored last year of Anna Nicole Smith news.

I got stamps at the grocery store.

This morning in swallow group I had to stop a man from stabbing his pencil with a butterknife.

"I thought it was a carrot."

Bye.

*although I bet Neil knows!

Goodbye, cold snap

2007-01-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, praise the dawning

Neil is reading about Barack Obama and will be able to provide the definitive word on his qualifications for the presidency. Mmm, maybe I should get Living History for his birthday.

In recent news: A Catholic elementary school in Warwick, R.I., banned talking in the cafeteria during lunchtime, subsequent to three choking incidents (or two, if you believe the headline). The logic is that staff can't hear children choking if other people are talking. Telling children not to talk during lunch sounds like a dangerous science experiment.

Also in the news, I have paid for my Unix class, ordered the book, and completed the first assignment of e-mailing the instructor. Whoo-hoo! I'll be sure to post when I receive the book and open it!

Also, a few Chinese men recently were detained for their role in killing women and planning to sell them as ghost brides! That's when a dead bachelor is buried with a recently deceased woman, so she can keep him company.

No comment.

We are going to Phoenix today, to see my miraculously recovered Aunt Sheila (of the Tarpon Springs Plunketts) and spend brief but quality time with the splendid Phoenix Godfreys. The sun is bright, the forecast is 71, and I'm almost ready for my shower. On second thought, I took one yesterday. ... A shower every day is a trifle excessive, don'tcha think?

snow

2007-01-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

My sister is hot

2007-01-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Jon too.

I have worked every day since Christmas, not including Christmas. I will work through Friday. I am happy. I came upon a new principle while hiking two weeks ago. Sometimes we work hard and get return (e.g., hiking leads to healthier body). Sometimes we work hard and get nothing (e.g., hiking in 35-degree weather in short shorts is not useful in any respect, especially when at least an hour of it is through very sharp thorns with every step). So when we are working really hard and feel exhausted, or emotionally spent, or psychically weary, or all scratched up, it may be useful to remember the hiking principle and understand that just because we are putting out doesn't mean that we are getting equally replenished.

At night we like to watch the news and together we sometimes watch shows on HG and TLC, like Flip this House. Addictive! We love The Golden Girls. Also the Travel Channel. And House M.D., when it's not a rerun, although Neil now expresses boredom with the show. I think it's jumped the shark several times already. Last week I watched Trial by Choir on TLC. It was cool, like a documentary. I think working through the weekend has changed my perspective somewhat: I am seriously thinking, "Oh cool! Only 4 more days of work till the weekend!" I would like to win a trip to somewhere. If I think of it in the morning I will check the Travel Channel Web site and see if they are having a contest.

I can't sleep.

2006-12-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

I wish I could sleep.
I wish a wave of relaxation would wash over my back.
I wish I felt Ken sho at work.
I wish people didn't get cancer.
I wish my mind didn't take imprints of people during the day.
I wish my mind would be fully present and fully not engaged.
People are like quicksand.
Or I am an idiot.
(As in, don't step in and you won't fall down.)
I wish I wasn't an idiot.
I wish I didn't move so fast.
I wish there was a place within walking distance of work that had really good sushi.
I wish Health South would pay back my whole student loan.
I wish we could afford a house before I'm 40.
I wish I had ever gone to a James Brown concert.
I wish there was time (and a place) to go for a 20-minute jog every day at lunch.
I wish I could do speech therapy in a treehouse.
I wish there was a pulley system whereby 85-year-olds could come up without too much trouble.
I wish they would like it.
I wish we could eat the sushi up there.
I wish birds would land on branches near the treehouse.
I wish lizards would wiggle nearby, too.
I wish I ever practiced the violin.
I wish work was done every day at 2.
I wish I could take the long view.
I wish I did something productive with my energy.
I wish I felt as good every afternoon as I do every morning.
I wish the sun was shining and Neil and I were on a walk.

Grilled cheese and cartoons

2006-12-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

The boys of my generation resemble each other.

2006-12-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

Soko fumu na
Yube hotaru no
Ita atari

-Issa

Do not tread on the grass
Where fireflies glowed
Last night

(Tr. Asataro Miyamori)

Brain symmetry

2006-12-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

I was thinking last night about symmetry in nature, and what biologists and physicists and mathematicians understand about it. Maybe there are natural elements that appear to exhibit symmetry (e.g., a leaf is split down the middle), but the cellular composition is actually much more complex. (Although something could be symmetrical and complex. I wonder what the opposite of symmetrical is, besides asymmetrical. Random is perhaps going too far.) Anyway, I was wondering how deep the symmetry goes. If it does go deep and it is a feature of organic structure, I wonder if it can then be a sort of lens that organisms can be seen through. So if there is an organism (or organ) that appears not to demonstrate a lot of symmetry, I wonder if it could be examined with specific symmetry parameters in mind, and then that same organism would reveal a symmetrical composition that had been previously unnoticed. Specifically, the brain. I know there's the right and left hemispheres, but I wonder how deep symmetry goes in the brain, in terms of structure but also nerve patterns. It would be interesting to explore the latest research on specific areas being sites for specific cognitive functions (e.g., left hemispehere: language) in terms of symmetry, especially because if other parts of the brain also are mildly activated during a cognitive task, they could be seen as part of the pattern. Of course, maybe even if symmetrical characteristics are common to organisms, they are also common to non-organisms, like raindrops and rocks. But that doesn't mean that the questions couldn't be tested anyway.

interesting mapping format

2006-12-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

www.kartoo.com

English is fun

2006-11-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

Her response was lukewarm.

Wrong, but you're getting warmer.

My husband is hot.

If I get home late, I'm toast.

Simmer down!

Starbucks was sizzling after class got out.

My brain is fried after that test.

We got so baked last night.

The boss roasted me for wanting time off.

She said no? Oh man, you got buuuuuurned!

Googolplex

2006-11-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

First definition: "one, followed by writing zeroes until you got tired."

Awesome.

Google has jobs in Phoenix. And internships, which I think are paid. And also they have free lunch and dinner, which might include grilled cheese. All we'd need is, like, some computer-science education. I set the heat turn-on temperature higher last night, so the heat actually went on during the night. I think that was a good move, as I am not in my usual near-shivering state. I feel comfy. Hopefully I can stave off shivers all day. Unlikely. Maybe when my toes ice-crystalize I will tuck my fingers into my armpits and fantasize about Google's probable free grilled cheese. Yum!

My foot hurts

2006-11-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

OMG, I totally need to go to the gym. And jog. Maybe tomorrow I can get some good stretches in when I'm teaching my mom downward dog.

I need to clean this computer keyboard but I'm not sure with what. Windex? I wrote a paper and Powerpoint last night and tried to save them to a cd but the only option it was giving me was to "burn" them. That's for music, not 2-page essays! So when I take the disc to work today I'll find out whether they saved or not.

My digital-arts teacher says that if a cd jumps around, like it has scratches on it, and you copy it on your computer, the new cd will be virtually jump-free. He also says that the information is stored at the top of the cd, where the picture is, not at the bottom.

I wish I could listen to Yo Yo Ma playing Bach all day. I want to plow through roads in my mind and leave meadows.

2006-10-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

Who's acting now: Limbaugh diagnosed with Parkinson's

Just kidding.

Besides shaking, shuffling and festination*, PD symptoms and effects include (but are not limited to) drooling, inability to successfully swallow (leading to aspiration pneumonia, and eventually death; the alternative being a food tube inserted into the stomach), depression, anxiety, difficulty with orientation and attention, difficulty with impulse control, memory loss, dementia, dizziness, fainting, and incontinence.

But Michael J. Fox was obviously exaggerating.

I'll bet GOP legislators are already drafting a letter thanking Rush for the great boost he's given their candidates in Thursday's elections!

* Festination: a combination of stooped posture, imbalance, and short steps. It leads to a gait that gets progressively faster and faster, often ending in a fall. -Wikipedia

a band apart

2006-10-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

this should be like a celebrex ad or somethin.

Workin' on Saturday night

2006-09-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend we met our new niece Norah, who is exceptionally beautiful. Like her mother. Also, I learned to play Rummikub. It's really fun. I am totally in the mood to cuddle [with Neil] in blankets tomorrow and watch Back to the Future. Did you know that members of Congress have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to their party campaign coffers? Of course, it comes out of their own coffers, which isn't as bad as if it came out of their wallets. The money then goes to support candidates in the tightest of races throughout the country. Isn't that kind of communistic? But the money=political stature system we have right now is totally capitalistic. So it's communism within capitalism. Please correct this assertion, via comment, if you have better information. Senators apparently are not expected to pay. Speaking of, John McCain supports Prop 107, which not only would make same-sex marriage illegal (redundant, since it already is illegal), but apparently would retract any domestic-partnership benefits currently in place for heterosexual couples. Would that anti-same-sex-marriage activists would go feed children or something.

Girl at Mirror

2006-09-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Norman Rockwell

Soft, sweet

2006-09-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

GRAZER: Chanda Hagen coaxes Matilda, a Babydoll miniature sheep, to feast on weeds in Clos Pepe’s Pinot Noir vineyard. (Stephen Osman / LAT)

From The Blood of Others, by Simone de Beauvoir

2006-09-21T17:52:00.002-07:00

"You'll regret it," said Blumenfeld. "So you think that Hitler will stop at Austria? You'll see. France's turn will come."

Gauthier looked coldly at Blumenfeld. "Is it possible to stop a country from committing suicide? Everything that you've told us amounts to a suicide story."

He was so sure of his pacifism, so sure of himself. "I am a pacifist." He had given a definition of himself once and for all, he had only to act in accordance with his own idea of himself, neither looking to left or right, as if the road had been already marked out, as if the future had not, at every instant, been that gaping void.

It's fall

2006-09-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

It doesn't rain so much these days. I can't believe the pope said that. Even if he was quoting.

I am planning to work this Sunday. Maybe I can trade it for a day off next week! And Neil and I will go rollerskating.

My contact lenses have been threatening me for about an hour. But first there were so many things that I had to do. Switching to glasses takes 1.5 minutes and, worse, requires a shift in thinking.

That's weird: If you're at the computer you can do different things, like read the news and alternately peruse jcrew.com, but on the other hand you're still at the computer. Like, if there was an fMRI of the brain during computer use, and you were reading a science article about water, would there be a greater alteration in brain patterns/areas if you A. got up to get a drink of water or B. created a new tab and checked out jcrew.com?

Speaking of Mrs. Hoff, am in complete support of these findings.

Monday.

2006-08-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

I loathe about.com.

I wish I'd majored in classics.

I wish I'd majored in English and paid more attention.

"Some" is a really weird word.

I am meeting Anne at Yoga Hour for $4.

It will be an adventure because I don't know if Yoga Oasis takes debit.

Also, I don't have a mat.