our camera takes blurry pics or, saturday night at sauce and(/or) n+d have a new car (thanks craig fam!)

some photos flickr didn't want

hi

A man wrote on my head in red crayon this morning: Death by 23 small x's. I am a zombie! It is sooooooo much easier to TCB when you have a weekday off, let me tell you, zombie or not. As of today: A. Neil is insured on our car. B. Our car is registered for another year, so the next time we get pulled over for having a 3/06 sticker, we can shout, "The new sticker is in the mail, suckaaaaa!" C. I will not be fired for the fact that my state licensure is up 6/30 and I have not yet sent in the renewal form, since Mary from ADHS said processing time is fast and they'll fax an advance copy of the new license. D. No fewer than 76 cards are waiting blankly to be transformed into thank-you notes. E. The post office has confirmed that it's not holding onto copies of Neil's "The Economist," which apparently didn't come during our two weeks away.

And as of yesterday, we found a house to rent! It is really cool. The walls are different colors, including blue, green and light yellow, I think. The colors are classy -- not too primary or too light. Kind of Ralph Lauren Santa Fe. And there's a yard! And many windows, including in the bathroom. And wood floors. And it is situated just NE of Grant and Campbell, which is farther from our jobs but in a lovely neighborhood that is jogging-friendly and walking distance from Bookman's, Yoga Oasis, sushi, Indian, Vietnamese, coffee, etc. Right now I am completing my CEUs (continuing education units) online and learning about the demonstrated efficacy of lingual strengthening exercises on the swallowing efficiency of people with ALS, Parkinson's, ataxic dysarthria, spastic cerebral palsy and closed head injuries. Please don't hesitate to submit any questions.

Queen's Birthday

We are married! The front quarters of the apartment smell like Raid. Neil arrived from work early in the afternoon and found the kitchen teeming with ants. At work, probably around the same time, Diana suddenly pictured "ANTS!" as a good name for a horror flick. This demonstrates ESP. Or the ability to remember the names of films made barely 8 years ago.

Marriage is nice, so far. My mind is a delicious soup, secondary to fatigue. Thank you, friends, family and the weather, for a lovely wedding. We are happy.

I just read James M. Cain's Mildred Pierce and found it highly enjoyable. You should read it too.

We got free beer.

I wish it would rain.

I like walking.

I like flowers.

I like the sun.

I saw a ferret in a tree.

how bout a little community service?

is it just me or are these sentences ridiculously excessive?

cinco de freakin' mayo

... on which I am doing absosmurfly nothing. Oh wait, I just got up to turn off the hallway light. Electricity takes oil. Also I am listening to a playlist. I might make a cd. I might make it tonight. I also might take a bath, but I probably won't because it's too ... complicated. Same for playing the guitar.

Neil came home between news shows. I like him. I wonder what the inside story is on Porter Goss's resignation. I wonder who will replace him. I wonder why Ambien causes people to "sleepdrive." I read today that the lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis, had epilepsy. He had tonic-clonic (grand mal) and also absence (petit mal) seizures, and sometimes would experience them onstage. FYI, the melody line for Jason Collett's "I'll Bring the Sun" sounds exactly like that of New Order's "Age of Consent," which is why I will put them next to each other on my special, special cd.

Also tonight I learned that more than 300,000 have been killed in the Darfur conflict. What is our presence there? Let me find out.

NYT: KHARTOUM, Sudan, May 5 — After a frenetic all-night negotiating session, the Sudanese government and the largest of the Darfur rebel groups signed a hard-fought peace agreement on Friday intended to end three years of misery and bloodshed in Dafur. But two much smaller rebel groups angrily demurred, leaving open the possibility that they would threaten the accord.

...

Robert B. Zoellick, the American deputy secretary of state who helped drive the parties to this partial victory, cautiously applauded the agreement, but also acknowledged that the failure to win unified support "is a reality and poses dangers."

I don't know what our presence is. Maybe mostly charity organizations.

Today I was thinking about doing one of those 6-week "boot camps," where you go to the gym some 5 days a week and run and lift and work out to the point of almost throwing up. It would be fun to build muscle because I don't have much. It also would be fun to make quilts or paint. I would like to take a class. I would like to sing in a chorus. I would like ... to do something besides go to work and come home and sometimes run errands. I like to be outside. The sunshine makes me so happy. All day long I was happy. Hey, I just noticed a typo in the New York Times! D'oh!

friend

Paul Myers

thank you for smoking

yesterday the ned faction (neil, eliza, diana) kicked off the new year by seeing its first film of 2006. the eliza constituent may already have seen an '06 movie, but she is free to submit a correction. oh yeah, and neil already saw 'v for vendetta.' anyway, neil thought 'thank you for smoking' was cute for an amateur director. eliza thought the satirical factor should have been amped a bit. her expectations were raised in the nicotine-patch scene, then flattened by the non-farcical events that followed. diana thought the film was good at staying within its scope of illustrating a microcosm of the theory and application of capitalism, without being grandiose. and ned as a whole thought aaron eckhart was a babe.

my bones are half-asleep

what a cool weekend! ryan and jessica wed as one and it was a privilege to witness. last night I dreamed I had befriended a man who was a sociopath. I was nearly sure of it. his game was to act as the "intermediary" between suave men and women who may conceivably find them attractive. He would tell a woman that a certain man had been thinking about her and wanted to meet her, despite the fact that he never gave her two glances, as far as she could tell. THEN, when the woman bit, he would set the two up, and the attractive man would probably eat the woman or something; I hadn't actually figured it all out yet. I protested any meeting with any man, on the grounds that A. I didn't care and B. I was engaged, but I found myself in a car with the sociopath and he wasn't about to let me out. Luckily he hadn't discovered the "child lock" button so I unlocked the passenger side and jumped out, running, and the alarm went off shortly thereafter. anyway, the sky is gray and the day seems half-asleep, too. mind: off. shower: late. swallow group: beckoning.

the question of innate aggressiveness, per EB

But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.

Robert Ardrey, African Genesis, 1961

good morning

to the right of ann coulter

well these girls sure are cute.

beyond the valley of the jerk(s)

wow. i never knew.

judgment

we saw p & p (with the lovely mr. and mrs. tebo). neil found the storyline to be akin to "pablum," and was gratified to find, upon later research, that one mark twain was of similar assessment. diana countered neil and mark's assertion with, "yes, but what do you expect; it's jane austen." diana was pleased by the endless shots of misty countrysides and sunny interiors, as well as the smoldering countenance of mr. d (who, incidentally, bears resemblance to one mr. g). neil found some small solace in keira knightley, but was generally bored by the overall absence of ennui and subversion.

times story

what does our mormon readership (hi emily) think of this story? most interesting part:

Unofficially, church leaders have tacitly approved an alternative interpretation of the Book of Mormon by church apologists — a term used for scholars who defend the faith.

The apologists say Southerton and others are relying on a traditional reading of the Book of Mormon — that the Hebrews were the first and sole inhabitants of the New World and eventually populated the North and South American continents.

The latest scholarship, they argue, shows that the text should be interpreted differently. They say the events described in the Book of Mormon were confined to a small section of Central America, and that the Hebrew tribe was small enough that its DNA was swallowed up by the existing Native Americans.

what's the deal with that?!

in name only

A. How come I never hear anything good about the administration? Secondly, what is up with tomkat? Could there be another woman?

satori

we don't need you to buy us one of these because we already have one, and it is cool.

2005 movies revisited

Neil	Diana
1. A History of Violence	1. A History of Violence
2. Caché	2. Caché
3. Last Days	3. Brokeback Mountain
4. Tropical Malady	4. Last Days
5. The Ister	5. Batman Begins
6. The New World	6. Pride & Prejudice
7. Match Point	7. Match Point
8. Brokeback Mountain	8. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
9. Batman Begins	9. Wedding Crashers
10. Wedding Crashers	10. The New World
11. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan	11. Syriana
12. The 40-Year-Old Virgin	12. The Squid and the Whale
13. The Squid and the Whale	13. Munich
14. Syriana	14. Broken Flowers
15. Munich	15. The Chronicles of Narnia
16. Me and You and Everyone We Know	16. Hitch
17. Broken Flowers
18. The Chronicles of Narnia
19. Pride & Prejudice
20. Hitch
21. Sin City

the universe in my head

neil talking to the sun

I was thinking, walking with Neil on the Maui shores, about how I move around in my head to different subjects, like "Emily" and "my job" and stuff. And each subject has its own associations and related sensory and informational data. All of which are memories, i.e., relevant to what's in my head, but not relevant to this place at this time.

So I was thinking about how the world according to me is actually contained inside my brain (in what form, I don't know; I think that was an earlier post that never got satisfactorily answered), and my brain is in my head! Like, I already knew that the world as I see it is actually the world according to me, as opposed to you, but I never had thought about the physical location of those ideas. My head! So I am seeing a tree, and not only am I seeing the tree according to my visual and cognitive interpretation, but the tree itself is entirely (physically) separate from that interpretation.

neil with a rainbow

It was a nice musing, because it illustrated how if, at a given time, I shift the way I choose to see or focus on something in my brain (e.g., Do I care about this person? Can I forget this information?), it changes only what I am thinking about at that time anyway. Only the way things are arranged in my head.

I am still working on application. Maybe when I watch the State of the Union address tonight I will first try to erase any preconceived ideas from my mind and give the president a blank slate, although not yelling after 5 minutes may be well beyond my philosophical ken.

the week in review

today I worked 7.5 hours. I have new insight into the orientation difficulties that plague so many of my patients.

"Neil, did you get a chance to go to the bank?" "It's Sunday, Diana." "Oh yeah." "Did you check the mail already?" "Mrs. Pumpkington, it's Sunday." "Oh yeah." "Today was tough, but at least tomorrow's Tuesday." "No it's not."

Oh yeah.

Yesterday we went to a tai chi workshop aaaaall day. I learned how to respond, not react, and neil observed and kept me company. Tai chi is mostly about harnessing the life force and listening to a bird 100 miles away and yielding if somebody tries to hit you.

Then we went to a barbecue and met a couple of realtors near a really cool portable fire pit. Then we saw Match Point, which was OK. Neil was interested in its angle on the Crime and Punishment story.

Thursday we went to a wake for the spouse of my coworker. We went to their wedding in October. He killed himself and I found it interesting that his casket was open. Also we found it interesting that spirited Christian somebody-died rock (as opposed to Christian death rock, which could be more interesting) was blaring the whole time.

Surreal.

I don't remember what happened earlier than that -- oh yeah, on Weds. we attended and attempted to register for a Final Cut Pro (digital video editing) class at Pima Community College. Alas, the room was bursting with other kids who wanted to do the same, so we'll have to wait. At least we're officially registered at PCC.

west wing is ending and diane lane is only 41.

we're making a wedding blog but it's not ready yet.

i don't think God wants me to work on Sundays anymore.

Anyone who wants to be a marine or a pilot can try this.

bye.

dues to leave my shoes on

does anyone else find this prospect a tad nausea-inducing?

sort of

funny. you might also enjoy this if you know what sabermetrics is without having to click here first. update: ok, more links expunged from the bookmarks vault at here npd winter paring expo: m o r e .

smell you later

!

2005 movies

Neil	Diana
1. A History of Violence	1. A History of Violence
2. Last Days	2. Cache
3. Cache	3. Brokeback Mountain
4. Tropical Malady	4. Last Days
5. The Ister	5. Batman Begins
6. Match Point	6. Match Point
7. The New World	7. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
8. Brokeback Mountain	8. Wedding Crashers
9. Batman Begins	9. The New World
10. Wedding Crashers	10. Syriana
11. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan	11. The Squid and the Whale
12. The 40-Year-Old Virgin	12. Munich
13. The Squid and the Whale	13. Broken Flowers
14. Syriana	14. The Chronicles of Narnia
15. Me and You and Everyone We Know	15. Hitch
16. Munich
17. Broken Flowers
18. The Chronicles of Narnia
19. Hitch
20. Sin City

transcendent "timewaster"

i just spent roughly the last hour here. i recommend some accompanying listening selections. anything will do, really. even mr. bojangles seems to heighten the experience! thanks beck.com links page!

today

something for the rest of us?

Christians are suckers

Excerpted from Jonathan Safran Foer's "A Beginner's Guide to Hanukkah" in yesterday's NYT: Christmas Christmas is a holiday that Christian children celebrate because they aren't Jewish. Instead of eight nights of presents, there is only one. And instead of getting to eat delicious and nutritious latkes, they are forced to drink something called nog, which isn't even a real word. They touch each other's sweaters while they sing together around pianos, they get into the "spirit," and here's another bad thing about Christmas that should make Jewish children excited about celebrating Hanukkah: Christmas trees are a terrible fire hazard.

news

do you believe ?

Death by Bill O'Reilly

Christian or secularist. Freedom lover or liberal. Strong and steady or radical. You are either ONE or the OTHER and there is NO IN-BETWEEN.
Unless you want to be a flip-flopper.
Where could we go on a honeymoon that is very relaxing and somewhat-to-very exotic and not too expensive and will allow us to go to Wis. after 10 days?
The air this morning was moist and cool. I could smell creosote (not the smell of choice to city boys like Jon) and see clouds low in the southwest, probably making fog. Walking to work was nice, especially since our census dropped yesterday. Read: work became less frantic.

A person said "nipped it in the butt" to me today. Three times.

I sort of want to see Good Night and Good Luck, The Producers, Narnia, and the gay cowboy movie whose name I forget.

I wish someone would tell me how to thread a bobbin. I am running out of options.

And time. There's a Hans Christian Andersen story where the maiden has to weave, um, jackets for the seven brothers out of flax before the evil stepmother's curse will turn them all to swans. And she doesn't quite finish in time and one of the brothers has a wing. Or something.

Anybody that teaches me to thread a bobbin will save certain parties from the same fate.

Neil: George Bush would be a good president of a small community college.

Employment: A Song. A Poem. A Proclamation.

Oh there are noooo jobs in Tu-ucson/
And the streets are paved with cheeeese.
-Neil Godfrey, Dec. 4, 2005

Think I'll work retail
and save up for a trailer.
It's the Tucson way.
-Neil Godfrey, Dec. 4, 2005

I'm going to sleep my way to the top.
And I mean that literally.
-Neil Godfrey, Dec. 5, 2005

i'm sick of looking at larry king...

so i'm white spacing him out. larry king can now be seen below the fold.

From National Review

Okay before I get coffee, I thought this vital report from Moscow needed to be posted. From a reader: Here in Moscow we get Larry King a day late, and I occasionally watch him for his unique brand of hard hitting journalism. The other day, with Martha Stewart as his guest, he actually bowled me over with what must have been his trademark wit back in his heyday a hundred years ago. He asked if she was dating (this is a 64 year-old woman, mind you), and added that " . . we went out once." She quickly corrected, "We went out TO DINNER." "Yeah, but we went out." She mumbled, flustered, and Larry turns to the camera and says: "I DATED A CON!". He was back to his old self minutes later with "Why do we like cookies?"