on my mind/nice haircut

mardi gras

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

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

My sister is hot

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.

I wish I could sleep.
I wish a wave of relaxation would wash over my back.
I wish I felt Kensho 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

The boys of my generation resemble each other.

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

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

www.kartoo.com

English is fun

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

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

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.

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

this should be like a celebrex ad or somethin.

Workin' on Saturday night

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

Norman Rockwell

Soft, sweet

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

"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

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.