Brush away the cobwebs from your daydreams

links for 2008-05-08

2008-05-11T00:22:33Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

For some reason del.icio.us failed to post these automatically, so here I am doing it manually, two days late.

All of Inflation’s Little Parts

On Saturday, The New York Times published an interactive soap-bubble diagram illustrating the spending of the average American. The chart is color-coded by percent inflation in each category.

(tags: money)
To Catch a Casanova — Erotic Romance Ebooks

I’m in a romance novel! I always knew I had a beautiful first and last name… guess this author thinks so too. Well, my parents thought of it first!

(tags: weird)
Invitation to President Bush from Mr. E of the Eels

I wish I’d stumbled upon this a couple months ago! Still, super cool.

(tags: music)

Tres de Mayo

2008-05-05T23:02:49Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Saturday ruled. Mid-week we got the idea in our heads to have a Cinco de Mayo party on Tres de Mayo. After Josh’s company picnic, which was at the national zoo. First off: that was a great idea for a picnic. Spying on monkeys and pandas greatly exceeds the fun of the three-legged races and moon bounces of yore. I think everyone but Dan’s kid agreed (he just wanted to be home with his playstation).

I called Angie the night before to invite her to our party. I saw Amy on the bus on the way home from the zoo and invited her as well. That kind of spontaneity is abnormal and a little scary for me. But when it turns out well it’s thrilling. And it did. Everyone showed up and had a great time. Amy & her husband stayed the latest of anyone :). Paul & company came decked out in sombreros and shakers. We served carnitas, margaritas, and guacamole that I made using fresh cilantro from our areogarden. We played ImagineIff (had to force the guys) and had some interesting conversations.

I paid for it the next day when I didn’t wake up until 11:00. Even then, I was in no mood to program. I was supposed to be putting the finishing touches on my class project: a mock culinary herb online store complete with catalog, shopping cart, and checkout process that writes the order to a database. Plus an administrator section accessible through login that allows order management and product catalog management. It’s been fun. It kept me busy the entire week Josh was in London. I did get to it… just… later in the day. Then I cleaned the kitchen and went back to bed.

And still yawned all the way to work this morning. But hey. It’s a short week. And I think I’m going to see the butterfly exhibit on my Friday off.

Blast from the past

2008-05-02T13:12:55Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Written on 4/30/08
I have a new task at work: mosaicing together 113 scanned maps from a street atlas into one large graphics file. This is going from fun to excruciating as the file size of the final image is growing. Each of these scans is 300dpi — so try to imagine. I wish I had a more powerful computer. Isn’t it strange that no matter how far technology progresses, we could always use more disk space, more memory? They can’t make them faster than we can figure out new ways to fill them up. Why does that make me sad? It feels decadent, or something. Anyhow, I have become an expert in Photoshop’s Large Document format. I have also learned that dealing with unnaturally dimensioned images is a key advantage Photoshop has over Paint Shop Pro. It takes the former much longer to trip out and display an “out of memory” message. Not to say I didn’t get there eventually :/. Though the message is different: it’s “scratch disks are full.” Which apparently, is the harddrive. I think Paint Shop Pro doesn’t know it should use that as a backup. A fatal flaw in my most beloved software.

I wouldn’t normally blog about such a topic, but I have no other option as I sit here watching the status bar inch along. Notepad doesn’t take up too much system memory. I should have brought a real book. Though, I don’t like either of the books I am reading now. Naked Lunch and The Year of Living Biblically. The first, I heard was good; the second, sure sounded like it would be. But I find the first incomprehensible and the second tedious. I left a third book on the plane. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I wish I had that one. It hits close to home & makes me sad, but that beats bored.

Update as of today 5/2/08
Got access to a computer with double the memory and a faster processor. Finished the mosaic. Will be georeferencing it today. Also, found the third book. Hadn’t lost it afterall. Read some more of it last night :).

links for 2008-04-30

2008-04-30T23:32:26Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

INFP Relationships

I dub this my instruction manual. Also my warning label.

(tags: psychology relationships)

links for 2008-04-25

2008-04-25T23:33:02Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Cogitamus: How Good People Can Be Guilted Out Of Their Rights

“The range of things that most good people will feel bad about… is wider than the range of things where they do wrong or violate someone’s rights.” Specifically as it applies to abortion, but the entire concept is noteworthy.

(tags: philosophy)

NYC

2008-04-23T19:07:28Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Central Park is beautiful in the spring.

And so are the flowers [at Madison Square Park].

I had a great return trip. The weather was much better. The hotel was much better. My legs never got sore, even though I walked just as much. (They didn’t get sore in Paris either, which leads me to laugh at my lament about “getting old.” I think the culprit was, rather, doing my exercise routine that involves an excessive amount of lunges the day before the protracted walking, with no rest day.)

And the food. The food, I can’t even say. I thought I didn’t like Kobe beef, that it was too heavy/greasy. I changed my mind after trying it at Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse. They apparently have the real thing, and Ruth’s Chris’ is an imitation. They also don’t cook in butter. (The only case I can think of where butter doesn’t make it better). It was succulent. And so was the French Martini that the bartender recommended. It tasted like a beverage made from draining cans of fruit cocktail. But in a good way. A so good way.

I stopped at Filene’s Basement, which I thought could only be found in Boston. Guess I haven’t been keeping up with the times; looks like they have stores all over now. Including one in Tyson’s Corner (the black hole of Virginia). Since Aubrey deems it prudent to stay far away from the event horizon… to New York it is! I love that store.

I also stopped at Chelsea Market, home of gourmet food shops & Food Network headquarters. Plus a couple minor parks. The trees are so full of flowers that my pictures are overloaded with color. (And you thought NYC was all about buildings…) I was minding my own business in Bryant Park when I got stopped by an evangelist. In a breathy voice she asked if I had heard of “Mother God.” I smirked and told her I was in a hurry. But now I wonder what religion that was…

Josh did some press stuff there. He’s going to be traveling tons this summer. Way more than I could possibly tag along on. He’s in London this week. He says the airport is becoming his second home. I’m getting more used to it than I used to be. But I still think it’s going to be a weird / long summer.

ANYWAYS it’s worth it for the perks :). Like, you know, chillin’ on top of Belvedere Castle on a warm April Saturday.

Oh! Photos here, pinned on to the end of the album I started in February: http://picasaweb.google.com/aubrhea/NewYorkCity
Will there be more to come? Only time will tell. Though I’m making good coverage of the city, I still have some major landmarks left. Like ground zero and the Statue of Liberty.

If I go back, it’ll be on the train.

links for 2008-04-17

2008-04-17T23:32:15Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Plants ‘thrive’ on Moon rock diet

“Bernard Foing believes that Europe or one of the other players will eventually decide to plant the seeds of Earth where previously humanity has merely planted flags.”

(tags: science)
Worldwide ‘Love’ Vibe Detected

Love the headline. Makes you think you’re getting New Age Gaia Earth, when you’re actually getting seismology.

(tags: science)
Flowers Are Losing Their Smell

A more convincing explanation than cell phone usage for the decline in bee population.

(tags: environment)

Zen

2008-04-14T17:38:07Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Weekend was fun. Went shopping on Friday for my outdoor container garden and planted it on Saturday. I got a mix of white and blue flowers that grow in the shade, and my normal herbs. I still have mini-roses coming, but I learned last year these don’t bloom well in the shade so I am only putting them on the sunny porch.

There is still dirt under my fingernails :). I don’t wear gardening gloves because then I can’t feel what I’m doing and end up tearing too many fragile roots. Actually, I boycott any kind of gloves for the same reason. Tiny ipod/cell phone/camera buttons also don’t respond well to bulky fumbling fingers.

Anywho — celebrated Yuri’s Night on the 12th. This is the anniversary of the first human in space, Russia’s Yuri Gagarin (1961) and NASA’s first shuttle launch (1981). We watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, ate the closest we could get to Russian food (pierogies) and drank tang with vodka. Later Josh and Sarah watched the Russian movie Night Watch. I watched the sequel with them the next day. Really weird=good movie. My alarm this morning woke me up from a dream where I was killing “Others” with laser beams shooting from my eyes. Only blue-eyed people could see them. I don’t normally dream things like that :).

Was a zen weekend. I spent quiet time watching petals dance by in the wind and thinking how I would never see that particular bunch of them again. Spring is so short. But I get to spend some of it in New York because I’m going back next weekend! THIS time central park will be in prime form!

Courtesy of Google Analytics

2008-04-10T13:29:07Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Things I would like to say to people who have found my website through rather odd search phrases:

“crazier than evangelion”
you’re gonna have a hard time finding that
“aubrey lavinge”
uh, it’s avril
“busstopwho”
I don’t think you’re gonna find your missed connection this way…
“cobwebs and wisdom”
strange combo, there. I must be lacking the wisdom to understand.
“fallon family photos dublin”
would really like to know who this was!!

“how to hypnotize somebody”
wow, do I really give instructions? I must’ve hypnotized the memory out of myself.
“inhaling too much clorox”
scary
“interesting things happening in may 20″
wonder what the story is here
“my car is making gurgling sounds”
our cars must have eaten at the same restaurant
“phone cobwebs”
wisdom seeker is back!
“picture ofa vampire bunnyrabbit” and
“mojito with sliced orange”
I’m happy to oblige such a specific request :)
“pictures of odd things”
hrm.. nope don’t have any ;)
“better than somethingawful” forum
oh, my website is. for sure.
“are pisces people delusional now on october 15,2007″
someone is way too into the astrology…
“aubrey joshua paris”
so which one are you stalking?
“burnning feet like fire, causes”
yikes!
“can god talk to you?”
Yes. he says: “no comment”
“ceara panties”
YIKES!
“dermatolysis goat”
say again?
how to know “if a guy is into you” gym
hahaha
“i wanna be an elf”
:)
“january. stubborn. ambitious and serious”
wha? astrology thing again?
“my screen randomly turns pink”
it’s going dooooown, friend
“my tears will stain the pillow”
I’m sorry we had to share that sentiment :(
“remember song from 80’s about rainbow duck”
no I don’t :)
“rich mullins handsome”
with short hair, yes, yes indeed
“the exact name of your soulmate”
wow. my website is psychic.
“what happened to burlap to cashmere”
steven delopoulos

The end. Thanks for playing!

links for 2008-04-09

2008-04-09T23:33:11Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Photos of tourists taking photos of DC Cherry Blossoms

One of my coworkers got caught by someone taking the same sort of pictures. It’s a really cool idea.

(tags: photography)

Quotation Time

2008-04-09T15:24:31Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Some of these I need right now; others I just find cute.

“Thinkers think and doers do. But until the thinkers do and the doers think, progress will be just another word in the already overburdened vocabulary of the talkers who talk.”

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” —Albert Einstein

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you will make one.” —Elbert Hubbard

“Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up, depends on us.” —L. Thomas Holdcroft

“I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.” —Anna Quindlen

“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” —C.S. Lewis.

“The problem with reality is the lack of background music” —Jim Carey

“You can lead a boy to college but you can’t make him think.” —Elbert Hubbard

“If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.” —Bulgarian Proverb

“Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things.” —Frank Clark

“Contrary to popular belief, if you stop drinking, doing drugs, and eating junk food, you don’t live any longer - it just feels like you do.”

“We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It’s weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don’t even amount to a couple of hours.” —James Lalropui Keivom

“Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts.” —Minor White

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” —Albert Einstein

“Love is not blind—it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.” —Rabbi J. Gordon

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet…And some people sing and dance.” —Roger Miller

“Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My piles of books are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.”
—Arnold Lobel

“We don’t see things how they are, we see things how we are.” —Anais Nin

“It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. Resign yourself to the fool you are.” —T.S. Eliot

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.” —M. Scott Peck

“The world will be a better place when schools have the money they need and the air force has to do a bake sale to buy a new bomber.”

“You can’t love parts of people. You have to love the whole package. Warts and all.” —Life is Wild

“You know what? You’re an individual, and that makes people nervous. And it’s gonna keep making people nervous for the rest of your life.” —Rosie O’Donnell as Ole Golly in Harriet the Spy

“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.” —Denis Diderot

“To do all the talking and not be willing to listen is a form of greed.” —Democritus

“Life doesn’t turn out as we expect it to. When we come out into the world, our future seems as smooth and unmarred as virgin snow. It is an illusion, of course, and soon we weave a web of mistakes and failures as much as achievements and triumphs, and become used to walking on broken pavements rather than on paths of gold. It is what makes life so interesting, one quickly learns that one never knows what is going to happen next.”

“We are, all of us, molded and remolded by those who have loved us, and though that love may pass, we remain none the less their work - a work that very likely they do not recognize, and which is never exactly what they intended.” —Francois Mauriac

links for 2008-04-07

2008-04-07T23:31:39Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

The Color of Plants on Other Worlds: Scientific American

You probably won’t find this as fascinating as I did. Unless your master’s project was also about the wavelengths of light reflected and absorbed by vegetation, like mine was.

(tags: science)

links for 2008-04-06

2008-04-06T23:30:52Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Lessons of the Square Watermelon

Apparently growing a watermelon in a box is an example of thinking out of the box. Worth checking out just for the pictures. These things are funny looking.

(tags: weird)

April, come she will

2008-04-05T18:08:10Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

I made it to the tidal basin last Sunday morn. With my close-up lens in tow. I didn’t spend very long there, but I think my time was well used. I’ve been waiting a year to nestle these blooms among the lyrics to what is probably my favorite song of all time.

April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;

May, she will stay,
Resting in my arms again.
June, she’ll change her tune,
In restless walks she’ll prowl the night;

July, she will fly
And give no warning to her flight.
August, die she must,
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold;

September I’ll remember
A love once new has now grown old.

You should all share in my delicious experience by: listening to that song, and visiting the blossoms, if you haven’t. It’s not too late! They were peaking last weekend but are definitely still around this one. And if Garfunkel’s voice doesn’t make your skin tingle, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

Happy April!

links for 2008-04-03

2008-04-03T23:30:30Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

‘No Sun link’ to climate change

“Scientists have produced further compelling evidence showing that modern-day climate change is not caused by changes in the Sun’s activity.” This article busts my old meteorology teacher’s argument.

(tags: science environment)
GMU to Construct $30 Million Hotel and Conference Center

The neighbors are mad, but I think it’s pretty cool.

(tags: local)

A Poem in a Book

2008-04-03T19:17:28Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

The Book is: “Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I bought it at Heathrow airport to read on the plane.

The Poem is: You Want a Social Life, with Friends

You want a social life, with friends.
A passionate love life and as well
To work hard every day. What’s true
Is of these three you may have two
And two can pay you dividends
But never may have three.

There isn’t time enough, my friends–
Though dawn begins, yet midnight ends–
To find the time to have love, work, and friends.
Michelangelo had feeling
For Vittoria and the Ceiling
But did he go to parties at day’s end?

Homer nightly went to banquets
Wrote all day but had no lockets
Bright with pictures of his Girl.
I know one who loves and parties
And has done so since his thirties
But writes hardly anything at all.

— Kenneth Koch

Do you think that’s true? It certainly would explain a lot about my life, if so. But I can think of counterexamples. People who do seem to have all three. Like Josh, for instance.

Also, Kenneth, what happens when you try to fit kids in there? Does the whole thing just fall apart?

Yes, yes, it does. For certain types of people, at least. The exhaustible types. The “me” types.

Into the Wild

2008-04-01T13:36:21Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Thoughts on “Into the Wild.” My comments will probably contain spoilers, so don’t read before seeing the movie.

The premise of this movie hits me right at an intersection of my personality. I have, up until only lately, considered myself to be someone who finds her happiness in places other than material wealth. Who finds it in nature, spirituality, and adventure. That was back when those things were all I had. Now that I’ve achieved a level of financial comfort, I find myself liking it. And wanting more of it. Sometimes I wonder if my former myself would be disappointed in me. I still find myself inexplicably drawn to people who “throw it all away.” I still think of them as heroes, as people who’ve figured out what it’s all about. I feel hypocritical in my admiration for it because I wouldn’t ever do it myself.

And you think you have to want more than you need
Until you have it all, you won’t be free…

These were the emotions I expected to feel when I was watching this movie. I expected to be mourning a fallen messiah who was brought down by something so stupid as a plant…

I did mourn that part. But before it, I mourned many other things. I realized this movie isn’t about a guy who made the right choices, the choices the rest of us aren’t brave enough to make. It’s about a guy who made the wrong choices, out of, well, cowardice. He ran away from his problems and left a trail of broken hearts in his wake. And in the end, he regretted it. The scene where he writes “happiness is only real if shared” between the lines of text in Walden… that’s the part where I most wanted to cry. He realized it only after it was too late. He was too weak to return and set things right.

Meanwhile he left his parents, who yes had made terrible mistakes, but were being judged way too harshly by their son’s total disappearance without a word in a state of suspended animation. The scenes of their agonized faces wrenched my heart. The sense of rejection he dealt to his sister was even worse since she’d done nothing to deserve it at all. Not to mention the teenage girl he allowed to fall in love with him. (Her pain I related to the most). And the old lonely man who he gave a taste of friendship only to pull it away…

I think I need to find a bigger place
Cause when you have more than you think, you need more space…

You can see him as a wandering savior blessing people, then moving on. But I don’t get the impression he did that with anyone but the hippie couple. They had each other so it was ok. I saw it more as a story of him abandoning people.

For what? What did he prove? He proved that society can have a corrupting influence, and that we don’t need society to survive. But he sure didn’t prove that we don’t need it to thrive. We are social animals. We can be happy out in the woods, for sure. But I don’t think we can truly be happy alone.

Quotes from the movie soundtrack song “Society” sung by Eddie Vedder.

Paris

2008-03-30T20:16:12Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Well… Paris. Certainly is a beautiful city. It’s more beautiful than London, Dublin, New York, DC, and probably San Francisco too (my memories of how it actually looks, beyond the Golden Gate, are fuzzy). The fantastically ornate buildings in London impressed me a great deal. Paris has one of these around every corner. They all use far more squiggles and dangly decorative bits than are needed. Even the apartment buildings are covered with window boxes featuring wrought iron swirly designs. There is simply not an inch of space left bare or plain. The impression it gives is one of excessive opulence.

And the food is the same. Everything is rich and creamy. I tried escargot and steak tartare for the first time. The escargot was delicious. I thought the steak was, too, but it made Josh sick that night (he ate more of it). I also sampled a croque, which is an open-face slice of bread layered with ham and cheese, then broiled, with a fried egg placed on top. Oh, and chocolate. Wayyyyy too much chocolate. I signed up for a “Taste of Paris” walking tour, thinking I’d get a whole sampling of signature foods — a baguette (people do just walk down the streets holding these), some fancy cheeses, some coffee, maybe some fresh fruits from one of the many outside stands, and some some chocolates and pastries too. My tour guide must have the largest sweet tooth in the history of women because we sampled nothing but dessert after dessert. This may be heaven for some people but it wasn’t so great for me. I couldn’t finish everything she gave us, and by the end all I wanted was one of the gorgeous avocados we kept passing! However she did take us by some pretty dwellings in the Montmartre district that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

The people, however, I have to say… sort of do live up to the reputation of being snobby. I was ready for this to not be the case. I wanted to like them, and them to like me. I read a lot of websites before going, which advised me that Parisians are more friendly if you try to learn a little of the language rather than just barging in expecting everyone to understood what you’re saying (even though most do speak english). This is the opposite from what I’ve heard before: don’t try to speak their language unless you are fluent because they will sneer at you for butchering it. Now that I’ve been there, I’m still unsure which is true. In the pressure of the moment, my choices were made by more utilitarian reasons. I found that if I started in french, the person would reply in french, and I would have no idea what they were saying. The confused look on my face would usually cause them to switch to english. I found it much easier to just start in English and avoid that weird stage. In retrospect, if I return, I will make sure to learn how to say, “I do not speak french very well,” or something along those lines, to smooth over the confused awkward moment. I did learn to say, “do you speak english?” but it felt too demanding…

Anyhow, the french are polite. Very polite. They rub the politeness on so thick. And they expect you to be the same. They’re overly sensitive to infractions. This is hard for a person who does not know the rules. I was huffed at for trying to pay a small admission fare with too large of a bill, and not knowing how to read the menu. Josh was huffed at multiple times for trying to use a credit card to pay for a cab. They all take credit cards, they just don’t like to. They will actually lie and say they don’t unless you press them (eg, by insinuating that you don’t have enough cash to add a tip). We were also scammed at a restaurant that requested an additional “american style” tip on top of the 20% service charge that is added to every bill by law. But the funniest example happened the last evening to the whole group, at a swanky restaurant in a modern art museum. We were there for 4 hours because the food was so long in coming. They had us sitting in at a u-shaped table in this special enclosure that looked like a nostril (no kidding). I was impressed when I first arrived by the shiny white table and long stem red roses.

But, the centerpiece of the room was two wide-screen tvs hanging right in front of the faces of half the table. These tvs played a video on loop of some guy creating modern art on canvas in a studio. Like he’d spend three days painting a red x on a white square, rotating it round and round to get the best perspective. Hmmmm. I think we were supposed to be inspired by this piece. And we were inspired… to great annoyance. Being the brightest, flashing thing, in a dim, placid room, it was hard to keep the eyes away from its endless repetition. It was driving some of us crazy so we requested it be turned off. The waiter had to go ask the manager of the museum if he was allowed to do this. She came over personally to tell us, no, we will not turn off the tv screens. Why? “They are part of the museum.” Wait, are these screens somehow also being projected downstairs, in the actual museum? No, these two screens, right here, in this secluded nostril of the restaurant, are part of the museum. It is an “art installation” and you watching it, is the art.

Ah, the french :).

It’s adorable now that I’m removed from it :).

Highlights: our gorgeous room in the Hotel du Louvre, the Mona Lisa, Notre Dame cathedral outside and in, a nighttime river cruise down the Seine, the Panthéon, Rodin’s “The Thinker” statue. Pictures of all this and much more are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aubrhea/Paris
As before, I’ve added location maps to most, and comments to some, so it’s worth clicking on the thumbnails.

Non-picture highlights:

1. Having a french-only-speaking guy try to chat me up while I was out sightseeing by myself. My inability to communicate did not deter him from listing a bunch of countries until I nodded at the one I was from, pointing out the names of every street within sight, and making sure I didn’t cross the street until it was safe. Definitely an exception from the snooty category :). In fact maybe that only characterizes people in the service industry, who have to deal with us annoying tourists all the time.

2. Getting included in a couple of Josh’s many press photos. So I’m probably featured in some french newspaper/magazine right around now.

3. Getting unexpectedly upgraded to upper class on the plane ride home!

Virgin Atlantic was trying to make up for construction that was happening in a terminal of Heathrow airport that was causing confusion, chaotic redirecting, lost luggage, etc. We did not go through this terminal but got caught in the blanket of apology none the less. Well, my goodness. I thought premium economy was good. I had no idea.
I would have been perfectly happy if the flight had been twice as long. Maybe then I could have gotten a manicure in addition to my moisturizing hand massage. I watched “Into the Wild” and had to fight back tears for more reasons than I expected. Note: blog about this later. I also read a poem. In a book. Note: blog about this too.

Better end here or else I’ll go off on tangents. Viva la France!

“To live and die in the airport lounge
Is to have a glimpse of another town
You’ve got to be a child
To have such strange problems…”
-My Teenage Stride

links for 2008-03-22

2008-03-22T23:18:50Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Squirrels Network Like Facebook Friends

No, for serious!

(tags: cute science)
City dwellers seek solace at cat cafes (Tokyo)

Aww :).

(tags: cute)

equinox

2008-03-20T15:17:50Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

My shamrock plant, basking happily in the late morning sun.

Happy first day of Spring, everyone!
(I would have a better picture, and might later, but at the moment am having battery issues).

Happy St. Patrick’s

2008-03-17T13:55:57Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

I almost forgot to wear green today, because I’d already celebrated St. Patrick’s Day! Josh and I had a party at our place on the 14th. Which, by the way, is when the Catholic church has asked people to celebrate it, so it won’t be a distraction from Holy Week. (Our reason for doing it was more, “who wants to go to a party on a Monday night?” But, you know, it’s nice to have some official sanction).

Yup. Easter is super early this year. I am going to be in France during. Josh’s birthday, and the cherry blossom peak, are the day we get back. Funny, I remember lamenting something getting in the way of these joys last year, too. But this year it’s a far better thing :).

Anyway, back to our party. We had Irish music, Irish cocktails, Irish trivia, an oxalis (shamrock) plant, Irish fortune cookies, soda bread, stew, corned beef & cabbage, and lots of friends. It’s been a long time since we hosted a party and I forgot how fun it was. After getting engaged in Ireland, this holiday feels like our banner to bear and I think we did a great job of it.

The day after, Josh showed me this:

I can’t think of a better way to wish you a happy St. Patrick’s Day on the real one.

links for 2008-03-11

2008-03-11T23:17:40Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Absinthe Trades Mystique for Mass Market - washingtonpost.com

“It’s like a jolt of black licorice.” Then he took another sip. “I mean it’s fine, but where are the hallucinations?”

(tags: wine)

Hmm.

2008-03-11T18:10:00Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Read on Slate,

Like lots of other twentysomething women, I’ve been an unswerving Obama girl from the get-go. Oddly enough it’s taken Spitzergate—not Hillary’s tears, nor her scolding—to make me less dismissive of the feminist “obligation” to vote for a woman. The Spitzer scandal reminded me of a comment a friend repeated to me after her (married) boss from a political internship flirted heavily with her at a fundraising event, something that clearly disturbed her a little despite the gossipy retelling. The comment, from her (nonwhite) father: “The most powerful people in the world are old white men and pretty young women.” The subtext, of course, was that she should learn to manipulate power.

There are all kinds of reasons why that very bald statement is infuriating, but perhaps chief among them is the very reason it stuck in my head—that it seems true all too often. That’s been something that’s easy to forget in a primary race between a middle-aged woman and a younger black man, but during my supposedly post-feminist lifetime, the women who’ve created the biggest political stir have been the young women who’ve ruined the careers of powerful old men. The Madeline Albrights and the Nancy Pelosis, no matter how much they work to build something of substance, have never grabbed the headlines the Monicas and Paulas got from tearing something down, in a very passive fashion. Obviously, power and sex (in both its meanings) are never going to be fully disentangled, in Washington or elsewhere, but Spitzer’s yet another ugly reminder of the sort that has dotted the political landscape pretty much since I started paying attention to it. I have to wonder if lots of women and girls haven’t internalized certain lessons along the lines of the one my friend’s dad spelled out.

There’s always—rightly—lots of talk about the wife’s perspective when scandals like this happen, but it’s certainly not a great feeling if you’re a twentysomething or younger, trying to figure out the way things operate, to be told, implicitly or explicitly, that your chance at having any sort of real influence might already be on the wane. I’m not saying I’m for Hillary now, and I’m not saying that Hillary’s history with sexual peccadilloes is uncomplicated, but it certainly makes me appreciate the fact that she’s learned other ways of manipulating power.

Hmm. Makes me think, you know. *strikes thinker pose*

links for 2008-03-08

2008-03-08T23:18:52Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Homeschoolers’ setback sends shock waves through state

MY GOODNESS. If this had happened 10 years ago it would’ve toppled the worlds of me and everyone I knew.

(tags: politics)

links for 2008-03-07

2008-03-07T23:18:31Z

Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Learned Optimism Chart

“HOW PESSIMISTS AND OPTIMISTS VIEW LIFE EVENTS”
There’s a lot of insight packed into this simple chart.

(tags: psychology)