adventures of the pocket boy lunchbox

2008-11-19T18:08:00.003-07:00

"you can run a bank into the ground and still walk away with $400 billion. hooray, america!" - alex trebec

yet another reason to love jeopardy...

breaking radio silence

2008-11-03T22:52:00.002-07:00

my mother calls me today: "i saw a girl in the lobby with a purple sweater, and it looked so nice with her red hair. do you have a purple sweater?"
me: "no, mom, but i have purple hair..."

***
in other news, I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE ELECTION TO BE OVER! the end of the week should bring an end to the political commercials! SO EXCITING! swing states are no fun.

2008-09-28T00:23:00.001-06:00

oops, i accidentally added someone i don't actually know as a facebook friend. i hate it when that happens. awkward...

so many questions

2008-09-13T22:55:00.004-06:00

the dog has seriously been staring at me for four or five hours today. i do not know what she wants. i am not any more funny-looking than normal. what's the deal?!

in other news, how on earth do i keep collecting these charlie brown boys? the newest one at least does not require me to be lucy, which is refreshing, but for the love of cheese. seriously, what's wrong with me?

oops, the dog had drifted off to sleep, but my poor rendition of a willie nelson song woke her. but that is totally NOT what has caused the previous staring.

(p.s. it may be impossible for me to create either a post or any sort of status message without using at least one of the following: caps, italics, question marks, exclamation points. this probably means that i'm a horrible writer).

near heartattack of the day

2008-09-10T22:23:00.004-06:00

i am alone in the grad lab, listening to my ipod and working on my production homework. all of a sudden, there is some woman whispering in my left ear. no one has entered the lab. i about died of fright before realizing that it was just a "cool" stereo sound trick in this particular song (which, by the way, includes the line "anyone who fucks with me i'll assassinate," so it may well be a message from the devil as joi suggested). holy WOW. life is a scary place, you know?

i'm not salaried, so my life doesn't really work that way

2008-09-08T22:30:00.003-06:00

why do i feel like simply being on the computer is so close to doing work that i don't actually have to work?

things that make you go "eeeeeew!"

2008-09-02T23:55:00.002-06:00

my job currently involves becoming intimate with the 2008 farm bill. accordingly, i am reading about the new country of origin labeling program (also known as cool, because the government is awesome). the list of retail labeling options includes categories like "product of the u.s.," which means the critter was born, raised, and slaughtered in the u.s. and then i read this:

"for ground meat, the label must include all countries of origin that may be reasonably contained in that package."

eeeeeeew!

headline of the day

2008-08-31T15:33:00.004-06:00

"why economists are great at parties: you should see the front of the envelope." two jokes in a single headline! i do so love the economist. article here, not that it really matters.

update: i take that back, it totally matters. who else tries to calculate a square root in their head? or relates t-stats to mood swings?

oh, GERMANY!

2008-08-23T21:34:00.002-06:00

men in tights is a fabulous movie. but that is NO reason to turn it into a fashion trend. and we thought the man whose polo shirt was longer than his lycra shorts in rocky mountain national park today was bad!

although i must admit that this idea is so hideously enthralling that i really want to see it in the wild... especially if it means a trip abroad... "i have to go hunt rabid metrosexuals" is a totally reasonable excuse for not finishing my thesis, right?

2008-08-20T23:53:00.002-06:00

apparently i use a lot of goofy voices and accents when i speak. when did i become a ham?

on the concept of war criminals

2008-08-10T00:05:00.001-06:00

how is it possible to be in war and not be a criminal?

and don't give me that "hero" bullshit. heroes are criminals too... just think what they did to earn their titles.

2008-08-09T21:12:00.000-06:00

COMCAST IS THE DEVIL, STAFFED WITH IDIOTS!!!!!

*HATE*

quote of the day

2008-08-05T20:38:00.001-06:00

"c'est la vie. i use the french because... you're an ass." -- dr. wilson to dr. house

wherein i am likely to be labeled an angry hippie, although it's not quite accurate

2008-08-05T12:23:00.005-06:00

my work this summer has taken me to quite a few dairies and feedlots. luckily i didn't have to go to the slaughter plant, because i think i would have burst into tears. but that's just me.

all of this has got me thinking (and, apparently, using impeccable english). i'm already a vegetarian, in part because i know i fundamentally don't like the way these systems are run. i think there is a shocking lack of empathy in these processes that turn life into a commodity. i actually have a nazi analogy here, if you're interested. i should really stop being a hypocrite and give up dairy and eggs as well, because even a well-run and reasonable commercial dairy has the ability to be decidedly... depressing.

but my real concern is that i am at least AWARE of this, and other people are decidedly not. i think these sorts of tours should be part of the informed decision-making process that should go on with as many products as possible, and especially with something we purchase as often as food. i realize that there is no perfect solution, and perfect information is a pipe dream (or a micro assumption, take your pick). we will still eat. but i think there needs to be an accountability there, an awareness of what really goes on to put that food into your mouth. hell, it could be done with field trips in elementary school. few people are more likely to be able to observe with an open mind than kids. the animals aren't actually hurt in well-run dairies or feedlots. seeing critters is generally fun for kids. it would be totally appropriate to educate children about how those systems work. the owners i've met have been extremely nice people who are very willing to explain what they do and why. they have clean, well-run operations. these guys embody the most current best practices. it would probably be a positive exposure for most people. and the important thing is that they would be exposed, and informed.

and the story shouldn't really stop with the animal-based industries. besides things like pesticides and fertilizers and gmo that are continually being debated, if you know where to look and listen, vegetation-based industries have their own share of ethical problems. or, some of them do. how much do you know about the lives of the people who harvest coffee beans? because from the little i've seen, that is NOT an easy way to go through the world. there is a trade off between how much we pay for things and how much we pay the people who produce those things. most of us, at the back of our minds, realize this. but how many of us really start to look at the kind of lifestyle those producers can afford? or how much a slight change to make those people better off could hurt another group of people who also don't make much at all and are hit hard and immediately when food prices rise even a little? i can honestly say that i am only vaguely aware of these considerations, and only because i have gone in search of information about economic development.

i think my point is that i wish more people would take a more serious look at how the things we eat end up in front of us. even a very thorough search will probably only end you up with an incomplete picture and most of us don't care enough to spend that much time on it to start with. i realize this. but i wish everyone would spend some time on it at all. and think critically about the information we do manage to obtain. big sensationalist boycotts are not what i'm after here, they're typically ridiculous. i just want people to remember what it takes to produce the things we live on. i'm all for division of labor. i know that most of the world will not have a farmer's intimate knowledge of these things, because we no longer have to. but we shouldn't be ignorant because it is convenient to do so. you don't have to shed a tear over every "murdered" carrot on your plate (see notting hill for this reference). but you should be able to look at those carrots, and the steak next to them, and have a pretty decent idea of what went into putting them there. and if you don't eat carrots with steak, use your imagination and come up with some other combination -- the point remains the same.

does not infringe on americans' privacy?!?

2008-08-01T18:58:00.001-06:00

related to the last post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/laptops.html
what exactly did we think we were passing? and why did no one really look into it at the time?

quote of the day

2008-07-30T20:58:00.001-06:00

"you can leave your hat on. especially if it's a particularly small hat." -- joi
i think they should rewrite the song to include this caveat.

also, it was re: a discussion about fascinators, and i want to know who, exactly, found them so fascinating. was it actually the men? or were the women just deluded?

oh, america

2008-07-30T18:24:00.003-06:00

funny that john mccain's attack ads make me want to vote for obama. and not because mccain is running attack ads.

unrelated, but still political:
i took a couple of carloads of foreign exchange participants to the airport the other day. and the security people took one look at the jordanian passport and destination of one participant, called over another "special" security person, and sent him through the air puffing machine that looks for explosives. before they went through all of his stuff. they did not do this to anyone else in the airport in the two hours i was there. it made me SO angry at the entire country. and not just because i knew the guy.

because we, as a nation, profess to believe in being open and accepting of people, but what we're actually accepting of is the ease with which we can stereotype and systematically persecute the people of an entire region (which, if you'll recall, we're still moving on from having done before). yes, some people who look kind of like him hate us. and they showed us that hate by doing horrible things. but i don't think their hate is wholly without reason, and reacting with prejudice is no way for americans to stop the cycle. if it can even be stopped, i suppose. but this? is decidedly not helping.

and i will be on that special watch list before you know it.

open letter

2008-07-27T08:20:00.002-06:00

dear weezer,

"pork and beans" is an awful song. so was the beverly hills one. given that these have been the lead singles off of your last couple of albums, it's remarkable that you're still managing to sell things. you used to have some seriously good, entertaining music. what happened?

p.s. who eats candy with pork and beans? i keep trying to imagine a world in which this would be a good combination, and i just can't. i love candy, and pork and beans was one of my favorite foods for much of my childhood. but combined? yuck.

something new every day

2008-07-26T20:45:00.002-06:00

today is the first time in my life i have ever been spoken to in loud and incomprehensible probably-english while having a large bone brandished in my general direction. this bone definitely had meat attached to it in the recent past, and from the look of things, that meat was probably raw. hooray for the strange people in city parks...

domestic dreams

2008-07-24T20:31:00.003-06:00

i have never been what you might call domestic. basically, i figure i have better things to do with my life. also, the whole idea that i'm supposed to be domestic to please my husband and make his world easy and perfect... well, don't get me started on that.

but i have a dream. i have a dream that one day, my cupboard will be completely organized with square tupperware, like this stuff. betty crocker gets o.c.d. it's kind of like how i wanted to own one of every shirt in every color from land's end back in the day (pretty sure they were the only company with such a color selection, back before there was american apparel). why do all of my ambitions seem to be a) ridiculous and b) ridiculously expensive?

language learning

2008-07-23T23:29:00.003-06:00

only on telemundo can you watch the story of two hot guys who base the decision on who gets to sleep with hot guy #1's hot girlfriend on the outcome of a soccer match. and hot girlfriend just goes with it. this may have something to do with the 60% of the words that i did not understand, and the opening scene wherein hot guy #1 (shirtless) and hot guy #2 (dressed, apparently, as a hangman) were in hot girlfriend's bedroom, where she was shouting angrily at them from the bed while dressed as a pirate. even in spanish, it is hard to take seriously an angry woman in a cheap pirate hat.

i have been inspired...

2008-07-20T15:47:00.004-06:00

... by the colorado mammoth wild bunch to wear hooker boots with ABSOLUTELY EVERY OUTFIT. truly a worthy pursuit. (especially the three musketeers shot. currently trying to figure out how i can be the three musketeers -- and d'artagnan -- for halloween. totally.)

correction: apparently they're not fencing foils, just lacrosse sticks and a doorway. much less cool. life is so much better when i only mostly pay attention and let my imagination fill in the blanks.

another worthy quote from my foreign dudes

2008-07-19T17:56:00.000-06:00

"that guy has a six pack. so do i, but i also have an airbag. it's safer that way."

2008-07-14T19:38:00.003-06:00

i should probably switch to twitter, but i'm really not concerned about creating a different nonexistent audience from the one i already have, so i'll just save that for when i need extra EXTRA strength procrastination (that lasts extra long... that's the right commercial, right?)

anyway. ponderation of the moment: is all the superstition about grooms not seeing brides before the wedding and covering the bride with a veil until the very last moment really about modesty, or did it really start as a way to prevent the poor guy from running until he was already stuck with the merchandise?
i realize this isn't flattering to women everywhere and probably sets the cause of feminism (or whatever the most current incarnation is) back ten years... but i still want to know.
also, some related wikipedia to rot your brain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_traditions

realizations are interesting things.

2008-07-13T21:32:00.002-06:00

from earlier today: "god damn it, i think i just feel sorry for charlie brown. and somehow turn that into a collection of boys who resemble charlie brown. which is not at all what i actually want. especially because, in an oddly neat turn of cartoon metaphor, it turns me into a slightly evil version of the little redheaded girl..."

charlie brown needs a hug. i, apparently, need a new hobby.*

*am i talking about the boy collection or the cartoon analogizing? YOU DON'T KNOW! i include staring at the wall in my list of hobbies -- either is possible.

2008-07-12T14:23:00.003-06:00

when we do things "to help people," are we not then ethically obligated to examine the consequences of our actions on those people? do ostensibly good intentions win immunity from evaluation? what about when those actions are systematically repeated, as is often the case with international development programs?

smilie face

2008-07-05T22:16:00.001-06:00

one of the best things about my driving-foreign-people-around job, besides making all sorts of contacts in all sorts of countries, is that i occasionally get to ride horses for it. that makes me HAPPY. hooray!

quote of the day

2008-06-29T20:13:00.001-06:00

"i hope the next administration doesn't try to bring freedom to iran"

2008-06-26T18:37:00.003-06:00

have you ever noticed how things that you think are going to be important are the hardest things to do? i have to talk to someone at the united nations, and the idea scares the crap out of me. because i would love to work there one day. and i've psyched myself out (does anyone still say that?) with doom-ful predictions of how every impression counts, and schtuff like that.

it's like when you're watching a movie and start yelling at the character for being dumb... only you're the character, too, and you hear yourself but you still can't act. not that this is actually that big of a deal, but it makes me think of other instances that are.

then again, the dog spends all day sitting on the couch. and still manages to work herself into a frenzy when the curtains *gasp!* blow in the wind. so i guess we all have our issues.

*****

on an unrelated note, i have just learned a very important lesson: NEVER RANDOMLY FOLLOW THE LINKS TO RECENTLY UPDATED BLOGS, BECAUSE YOU WILL END UP LOOKING AT PORN THAT INVOLVES WHITE FISHNET TIGHTS ON SOMEONE'S FAT ASS. or, at least, i think that's what it was, i closed the window as quickly as i could. unexpected porn is never a good thing. although i suspect there are those who would dispute that statement...

learning mountain

2008-05-31T23:37:00.003-06:00

normally i have a stomach of steel, but every so often i eat too many potato chips and throw up. i remember the first time i did this, because i was sitting on our window seat in moses lake -- which makes me less than nine years old. i'm pretty sure i did it again a few years later, and then i avoided potato chips like the plague for about a decade. but today, i did it again. why? how have i not managed to learn that this is a bad idea? i don't understand.

my boss just made my day

2008-05-29T21:30:00.003-06:00

it's probably sad that he saw this and thought of me... but it's funny! also, he's awesome. http://www.vimeo.com/852635

"...my t-stat's less than three, so i can't be a prof 'cause i do not have results that they want to see..." fantastic!

2008-05-27T00:18:00.002-06:00

i have worked approximately 85 hours in the last 8 days and am going to get in trouble tomorrow morning for being 20 hours short for one of my projects. HOW DO I GET MYSELF INTO THESE SITUATIONS?!?
more practically, how do i teach myself to work 70 hour weeks that include writing my thesis... the whole thing, in the next three months?
why do i suck so much?

2008-05-21T23:01:00.002-06:00

i set obtainable goals.

i think i need a t-shirt that declares this to the world, because most people will think i'm a hopeless dork, but those who know me will realize that i am actually an IRONIC hopeless dork. the fact that any of this amuses me is... really not helping.

*****
in unrelated news, the moldovan farmers that i'm driving around are my new favorite people, so, sorry, all you old favorite people; my fingernails smell like cow (live, this time, la); dairies are sad and gross, even the nice ones; it would suck to work in a commercial bakery; water conservation can be fun; i hate ford vans; the cat is determined to go swimming in my kitchen; and skin cancer says i need to move to ireland.

today, my heroes are...

2008-05-11T16:38:00.003-06:00

... the people who make a living off the internets, writing and especially drawing comics. i love that this option is available, and that a few of them are totally genius.

well... that's a new one

2008-05-01T22:58:00.002-06:00

i totally used the men's restroom tonight. i was not drunk. i just thought it was kind of odd and co-ed... until i was walking back down the hall and noticed the ladies' that i definitely had not spotted at all on the way in. yeah... oops.

i want...

2008-04-28T18:16:00.002-06:00

the word "smooth" to have an e on the end. i like the ending e, it's soft, like an ending h on a feminine name (hannah is totally my favorite). if soothe gets an e, and has the same sounds, then how come smooth doesn't get one? it is, in the weird non-etymology in my head, much closer to soothe than sooth. sooth sounds... like a dental problem. or at least like something that should be concerned with teeth, like... like a fake archaic old british dude trying to exclaim "forsooth and lack a day!" around his tremendous dental disabilities. not that that's probably a phrase; although louise rennison does use it, and she's awesome. but a lot of her humor comes with the slang she only occasionally pulls from the real world. well, that and "our lord sandra."

and if i can write this many words about a word, with only an economist's training (so, none in this realm), is it any wonder i managed to give an hour-long presentation today and sing to myself the entire time*? it's like my brain uses up too much space by separating off parts to wander around at will, and doesn't conserve nearly enough for remembering matrix algebra. because eigenvectors? the word itself makes me feel like i should have some sort of green liquid oozing out of my ears, because something critical has melted. and i still can't tell you exactly what they do, even though they form the foundation of a lot of what i do. depending, of course.

*ironically, or not so much, the song was "tune out" by the format. whom i adore.

safari romper, and other horrors

2008-04-26T17:22:00.004-06:00

i ask questions frequently enough that i might as well go ahead and go all seinfeld on this one:

what's the deal with global traveller chic? i mean, i understand that occasionally your luggage gets stolen and you have to buy a vaguely dress-like thing from a souk for forty eight cents, and then you end up spending the next five weeks in it because it turns out you ALSO ended up in possession of a controlled substance at said souk and spent the rest of your vacation, plus some, in a scary foreign jail. but must we buy such things, for $35, in america, to wear about in the summer? really? hint: no one really believes you've been on an exotic vacation; they know you've been here the entire time because your horrible fake ethnic clothes continually catch enough attention to remind them of your presence. it's also probably worth noting here that white people look absolutely ridiculous in dashikis at least 99.9% of the time, and i wish more of them would realize this.

2008-04-17T15:42:00.001-06:00

who writes wikipedia articles? and why?

pickup by proxy

2008-04-13T22:25:00.004-06:00

i had a guy try to pick me up for his friend yet again on friday. as in, "my friend thinks you're cute but is too shy/scared/lordknowswhat to talk to you himself." WHY DOES THIS PERSIST IN HAPPENING? a poll of the girls i was with says that it's uncommon for anyone except me. but at least 50% of the men who talk to me do so, ostensibly, for someone else. it's at the point where i would REALLY like to know why. what is it about me that makes me, apparently, attractive, but not quiiiiite attractive enough?

i must say that this tends to make me lose respect for people. i mean, it's been a hell of a long time since 6th grade. what is wrong with you, or me, or both of us, that you can't just attempt a conversation yourself? or are your friends just idiots?

this is one of the mysteries of my universe.

2008-04-13T15:33:00.000-06:00

lying here, listening to beth orton with the windows open makes me feel beautiful.

brilliance

2008-04-02T22:02:00.004-06:00

the random verbal bits from the internets that i most want as t-shirts, or, at least, today's particular winners:

"INUNDATED WITH ALPACAS!" (caps a must)

"it's like having a magic 8 ball -- with a much bigger vocabulary -- linked directly to god"

2008-03-28T18:27:00.003-06:00

strange conversations you have with bar people:
"are those fishnet tights?"
"not technically."

wtf?

quote of the week

2008-03-16T00:18:00.003-06:00

"pop 'em in the freezer for six months, they come out covered in chocolate, everyone wins!"
chocolate-covered canadians. now there's a concept.

what fun would the world be without out-of-context quotations? none at all, really, none at all...

adventures in thesis writing

2008-03-05T22:52:00.003-07:00

you know you've been staring at the same literature for faaaar too long when you start having breakup conversations with the journal articles: "you're lovely, really, you are, but i just don't think it's going to work out right now. i'm looking for a binary logit model and, well, you're a poisson distribution. i'm sorry."

please note that i have never broken up with an actual human being. but i have now broken the hearts of at least three econometrics articles. i am a bad, bad girl.

it has been decided.

2008-03-05T16:28:00.003-07:00

something yesterday got me thinking about bento boxes. and wanting to touch one (because i LOVE the way they feel and sound. i do). actually, i want to own one, period. not only are they lunch boxes -- which i have a definite obsession with, see blog title -- they're japanese lunch boxes, which makes them just that much cooler. besides which, it seems like the food that goes in them is bound to be better. because i don't eat japanese food enough to appreciate when it's just run-of-the-mill. anyways, scene set.

this turned into a conversation with my dear darling diamond about how many lunch boxes one could own before being branded a freak. also the design and organizational potential of same -- i am TOTALLY going to incorporate them into my decor in witty yet subtle ways when i get a new place, and i will take pictures to prove to you that it can be done. i'm not totally off my rocker, they sell lunch boxes at the container store, which is a mecca of organization. the mecca, if you will. "you can even use it as a one-of-a-kind gift packaging solution!"

satisfactory resolution was never really achieved on the original question, because we got all distracted by the design and how i wanted to pet a bento box and how weird that was, etc. so i posed the same question to jeff today, while simultaneously proposing the hypothesis that lunch box ownership may follow similar rules to cat ownership: more than four, and people will begin avoiding you in public. assuming you even make it out in public to begin with. although i also think that six lunch boxes could, in fact, be justified: one for each work day, and one for good luck and special occasions.

after much consideration, i got my answer: if i stick to a really cool theme, i could be considered a collector, and supernormal amounts of lunch boxes would be acceptable. also, you can have more than four cats if you live on a farm and don't so much own them as they happen to come around for food sometimes. it has been decided.

my nerdy world

2008-03-02T14:46:00.002-07:00

it's a surprisingly good feeling to go to a textbook for reference (especially a really dense one) and be able to think "wow, i've already read all of the important journal articles it cites! and i remember them!"

and then you think about that a little more, and have an overwhelming desire to go buy false eyelashes and glitter.

quote of the day

2008-02-27T16:39:00.003-07:00

yesterday we were bad and went drinking at 1pm. i forget what started the topic, but my friend was talking about moonshine and other beverages that spend time in silage piles: "yeah, i had moonshine once. it was..." turns to me, with a very animated/surprised smile, "you would LIKE it! it was strong, and sort of like a fruity whiskey. with that burn!"

interesting reputation i've got going.

tag! i'm it! bwahahaha! runs around mad with power

2008-02-25T17:32:00.004-07:00

man, dee, just because you know i'll respond immediately because i'm trying so hard to not write my thesis! (new theory: i can use my innate contrariness to my advantage by focusing on not writing a thesis and not graduating. because, um, it makes so much sense).

anyways.

Seven Random Facts

1. i make a "concentration face" when i read journal articles that looks a hell of a lot like the duck face of that unfortunate kid who had a crush on stephanie tanner back in the day. i have no conscious control over this face, but i can assure you it's gorgeous.

2. my sister makes fun of me every time i attempt to paint my toenails because i basically paint my entire toe, and then use nail polish remover on all the bits that are "outside the lines"

3. i like to name things bob. because bob is bob backwards. i also enjoy cranky old man names, like morty. but my thesis is named justine.

4. i once made a list of all the things i have collected over the years, and came up with over 100 different categories of things. just a sample of the randomness: office supplies, lapel pins (that i have never worn on a lapel, tacky), fortune cookie fortunes, dishes, copies of the book the little prince from every country i visit and, of course, the classic dead bees in small boxes (yes, i had a lot of bee stings as a child, why do you ask?)

5. i would rather set expectations low and be pleasantly surprised than set expectations high and be disappointed

6. i disapprove of reality tv in general, but am frighteningly addicted to bitchy tryout shows like america's next top model, the search for the ultimate coyote, the dallas cowboys cheerleader one, and the pussycat dolls one (but decidedly NOT american idol, thank you very much). i think drill team addled my brain, because i totally smile and laugh remembering how girls can be best friends forever and mortal enemies all at the same time and everything can turn into tear-stained TRAUMA at the drop of a hat. it's fantastic!

7. i still don't really know what i want to be when i grow up, and i hope i don't die before i get a chance to figure it out and make it happen

***

What I've come to realize:

1. I've come to realize that, my butt:
is not the kind of butt that anyone makes jeans for, but is totally the kind of butt that everyone grabs.

2. I've come to realize that, I talk:
incomprehensibly most of the time

3. I've come to realize that, I love:
complaining

4. I've come to realize that, I have:
waaaay too much stuff to cram back into a single room and will have to buy a house to be able to store all of it (because i am incapable of throwing anything out. i might need it later.)

5. I've come to realize that, I lost:
my motivation. on the bus, somewhere between london and dublin.

6. I've come to realize that, I hate it when:
people aren't who i thought they were

8. I've come to realize that, marriage:
might be an institution i never participate in. this will probably devastate my mother.

9. I've come to realize that, I am no longer embarrassed to admit:
that i really don't need your good opinion of me

10. I've come to realize that, I'll always be:
too young and too old, all at once

11. I've come to realize that, I have a crush on:
absolutely no one most of the time

12. I've come to realize that, the last time I cried was:
when craig decided to yell at our class for getting a 50-something average on the midterm because i was JUST SO MAD and didn't start yelling quickly enough to ward off the tears.

13. I've come to realize that, my cell phone is:
never near me when people actually call

14. I've come to realize that, when I wake up in the morning:
i need to actually get up, even though it's lovely to go back to sleep. i'm working on this one.

15. I've come to realize that, before I go to sleep at night I:
turn over at least twice

16. I've come to realize that, right now I am thinking about:
the way the heater sounds

17. I've come to realize that, babies are:
really LOUD. and not especially fond of me (but kids tend to love me)

18. I've come to realize that, when I get on Myspace:
i'm really stalking someone, because i don't even have an account

19. I've come to realize that, today I will:
spend lots of time doing things that don't get me any closer to my goals. but i will also laugh at least once.

20. I've come to realize that, tonight I will:
turn on my electric blanket. it's snowy out.

21. I've come to realize that, tomorrow I will:
probably not go to jazz class, even though i should and i want to, because it's at 8 at night, and by then i don't feel like moving

22. I've come to realize that, I really want to:
be an expat

23. I've come to realize that, the person who is most likely to repost this:
does not exist, because hardly anyone blogs any more, and every one i read has already done these lists. but if you are inspired and would like to pretend that i've tagged you, then you're exactly right. i totally have.

2008-02-23T23:58:00.001-07:00

reading post secret always makes me sad, but i still do it. it's like we all share the same sickness, but because we share it, it's okay.

little happy dance

2008-01-29T23:39:00.001-07:00

i finally managed to make decently flaky pie crust! (and the biggest mess my kitchen has ever seen... well, possibly except for the "i ran out of margarita mix and my blender started smoking!" incident, which i sadly missed)

wow, apparent cooking trend... the world might explode

cooking for idiots

2008-01-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

okay, so i'll admit, i tend to be one of those people who is easily annoyed (this, in turn, annoys others and results in an endless circle of fun). the thing that's annoying me right at the moment?

the dumbest cooking instruction ever: "heat until hot." (and i will have you know that i have seen this instruction more than once). mostly because it leads to a chain of thought in my head that goes something like:
"thanks, genius. i was going to heat it until it was cold."
"really? because i was going to heat it until i got bored and decided to take a nap instead."
"personally, i like to heat things until the rooster crows three times in a clockwise direction. so eat that, suckers."

and then it makes me realize that i might benefit from institutionalization. especially for what is apparently personality #3 over there. feisty and weird.

graffiti of the day

2008-01-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

"canabus for mayor"
it's the phonetic spelling that makes it wonderful.

2008-01-15T00:16:00.001-07:00

my favorite thing about superstitions is that you can just pick and choose the one that suits you at the time.
but i always throw salt that i spill over my left shoulder... more because it's fun than to actually ward off the devil. especially when i accidentally throw it at someone in a restaurant. oops.
one of my friends had the crazy-making habit of hanging out just at the edge of my awareness, slightly behind me and to the left. wonder if that's an omen?

this is what happens when i should be writing about recycling, and don't

2008-01-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

i generally crave strange things. to the point that i will probably eat normally, should i ever become pregnant. because my usual diet is just that... off (for instance, i survived on cottage cheese and kidney beans with basil for part of college. and liked it). but i know something is seriously wrong with the universe at about the time i start craving starbucks food. as in, food that i have thrown out in so many different conditions of ick (none of which actually make it to being sold, don't worry) that you'd think i would avoid it for the rest of my life. but no.

yesterday it was a very specific condition of toffee bar: the instant they arrive and come out of the package, and are amazingly moist and delicious to an extent that you would never know existed, because they lose this quality within about the first twenty minutes and you have to work there and accidentally break one to be able to experience it. good luck buying that. the point at which i knew to worry, though, was when i actually found myself craving the weird mini banana breads with chocolate chips. good enough, if your eight-year-old concocted it. not impressive if you have to pay $5 for it. wtf? was the brainwashing really that successful, or did they just implant some sort of chip in my brain when i wasn't paying attention? because i kind of thought i had managed to maintain a healthy skepticism, rather than becoming one of those convert-for-life robots that companies like to call "employees." can i just go back to my normal desire to make really good cappuccino foam* now? this is freaking me out.

but not as badly as pottery barn suddenly being all about COLOR! ** is freaking me out. for that, i might need counseling.

*really good cappuccino foam is one of the most wonderful experiences ever. it has a kind of zen to it. it's pretty. it's thick and velvety. you can make designs in it if you're uber cool. i really, really miss it. you should run out and get yourself an espresso machine (from anywhere you please; no corporate whoring here) and experience this for yourself. if you don't like cappuccino, you can always just have a foam fight when you're done. not quite as entertaining as a raspberry whipped cream fight (which dyes people pink) but pretty darn close. also, if you do get an espresso machine, i want to come play. no, seriously.
** that comforter, by the way, is one of the ugliest things i have ever seen. you know the one i mean. but i'm slowly falling in love with the room with the beige couch, not all of which can be explained by the presence of organized books (holy grail of my life) in the picture.

unbelievable

2007-12-31T17:46:00.000-07:00

i'm still getting used to smoke-free bars here, and now it's banned in BERLIN and PARIS? are they kidding? i understand it here in granolaville, but the smoke is half the atmosphere there, in several respects. i don't smoke, mind you, but somewhere along the line i got it into my mind that that's kind of what drinking should smell like. stale beer and cigarettes. if you take away the smoke, the stale beer will only smell worse.

besides, germany is permanently encased in cigarette smoke, as far as i'm concerned. i was only there for a week, but it took me months before it felt right again to not be surrounded by a smoky haze immediately after any meal. strange, perhaps, but true.

also, notice the mention of the nazi smoking ban. consider the implications. what happens when you try to legislate morality? no, really...

2007-12-29T22:10:00.001-07:00

why is it requisite for horoscopes to tell you you're going to fall in love? every single one. is that really all that people want to get out of life?

and we wonder why i'm a vegetarian.

2007-12-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

when you pick the seeds out of a piece of fruit, do you ever feel guilty about killing its babies? i do.

two days of snowboarding, and so far i can still walk

2007-12-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

yay for me! not kidding, i'm still worried about tomorrow. but i'm taking another lesson, because i figure if i'm going to throw this much money at it, i might as well add another $100 and learn to do it right. plus, the folks at keystone are really nice, and since i've been over-immersed in customer service, i'm willing to pay to endorse that.

i ride like a little old lady. but that's fine with me; my priority is actually to end up not terribly broken. the good thing about having my feet stuck together is that my knees generally point the same way. the bad, of course, is that i generally end up going down the mountain backwards. yay for bunny hills, really. i had a couple of spectacular falls the first day, the kind where you start out falling forward and, a couple of circles later, end up facing downhill on your back. thank god for helmets. and wrist pads. considering how much i'm "investing" in my little mind, it's kind of amazing how much i don't mind falling on my head as long as i'm wearing a helmet. this may yet turn out to be unwise. (but it sure is nice to have something to suck at that isn't anything like dynamic optimization. which i managed a decent grade in, thank you very much.)

and thank GOD for hot tubs. that's pretty much where i spend... umm, all night. except for when it stops to subtly hint that i will soon suffer heart palpitations, etc. whatever. they were definitely made for the dark and the snow. add some whiskey or good ol' fort collins beer and the stars and the neighbor's nicely lit evergreen, and it's pretty much perfection. one might even argue that i'm actually learning to snowboard as an excuse to use the hot tub. tee hee.

i can't post about this without mentioning "fashion" at least a little. because i love it; the kinds of things people wear, and the kinds of stories they try to tell with their mountain clothes, mean that i could spend pretty much all day people watching and be nicely entertained. the best one from today was a guy in a full-out ghostbusters jumpsuit. boarder, of course. pretty awesome. and i love to watch the people advertising how much money they have (bunnies!) and those that let you know they're a serious athletic badass (usually dressed head to toe in north face, but i can't really talk there) and how all of the beginners have shiny new clothes. finally, the quote of the day belongs to my dad: "wow, i looked in the mirror, and it's like i could be in rommel's panzer division, with the helmet and the goggles! 've vill find zis patton, and push him into ze sea!'" and then, of course, he constructed a sentence of all the german words he's ever heard. pretty darn funny. (although possibly it helps that i have hit my head several times in the last six hours).

2007-12-14T01:48:00.000-07:00

MY BEER SMILED AT ME, y'all! weirdest thing EVER. i looked down, and there was a smilie face in the foam. i'm not nuts, because everyone else saw it too. leo took a picture; unfortunately, my phone appears to be too crap to actually receieve the photo, so i can't post it. it's got to be an omen... of what, i don't know. beer is the path to happiness? SO strange.

stanford prison experiment

2007-12-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

i know most of you have heard about the stanford prison experiment before, but this site is worth going through. it's scary as hell, and really makes you wonder.

on the upside, it makes me feel better that the worst part of my semi-sadistic 540 class (for which i am currently not so much studying for the final) is having set up dynamic equations with unrealistic time constraints. "relative" is a powerful word.

so pissed off that i've (re)developed a texan accent

2007-11-28T20:57:00.001-07:00

what kind of yankee-ass grocery store doesn't have fajita seasoning? gah! had i known it would be this deficient, i would have at least looked up a recipe first. but that's just one of those things they HAVE in grocery stores. in abundance. except apparently not. after searching the whooooooole store, i finally found this crap "authentic mexican" shit. it tastes like freaking chili. don't ever buy it. not only that, but they didn't even have CILANTRO. seriously, y'all. if it wasn't for whole foods occasionally making (way, WAY overpriced) homemade tortillas, i would be completely murderous.

i miss my h.e.b.! hell, at this point, i even miss fiesta. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

idle time

2007-11-25T16:54:00.001-07:00

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

this kind of worries me. also, the fact that he's (fairly) recently deceased is a little uncomfortable. but it's just insulting enough to be fun...

who needs structure?

2007-11-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

you'd really think the life of an economics masters student would be more exciting, wouldn't you? (intense sarcasm intended). instead, i spend my idle time playing with alliteration. and getting hit on by guys in bear hats (i.e. the hat has a bear face and ears on it, like the hood of a halloween costume). par for the course with me.

not even my birthday was interesting enough to blog about, although i *did* see a kangaroo chasing a squirrel at the zoo. zoos are depressing, btw, and i was only there because i was driving the iraqis around. which feels like it should have a story, too, but doesn't really. on the upside, all the driving has probably earned me enough money to go to cali this summer. that'll be fun.

i'm pretty happy with the people i know right now. i laugh a lot. but deep conversations have become increasingly difficult to find after high school; i expected exactly the reverse. it probably has something to do with spending most of my intervening life in one college or another. the more specialized people become, and the more reason they have to be intellectually arrogant, the less they seem to talk about anything interesting. even though they're interesting people. it's like they're scared that someone will find out they don't know everything about everything, and the entire house of cards will come tumbling down. bye bye, career. which is just stupid. learning is about finding out how much you don't know, and following the questions that present themselves. only, apparently it isn't. and that alternately bores and saddens me. i'm the first to advocate doing things solely for my own amusement, don't get me wrong. but if you don't connect and share, what exactly is the point?

plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose

2007-11-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

people have recently decided that i am cynical, yet oddly amusing... again. this entertains me.

smartass economist quote of the day

2007-10-28T21:12:00.000-06:00

"Everything reminds Milton Friedman of the money supply. Everything reminds me of sex, but I try to keep it out of my papers." -- Robert Solow

you really can find anything on the internets

2007-10-26T20:29:00.000-06:00

i just idly googled "if i were a pigeon"... aka, the first random phrase that popped into my bored little mind. and wouldn't you know, google found it. it's really kind of an interesting idea for an art exhibit: see? Also, WWII seems to have provided motivation for even stranger types of creativity than previously recognized. Including pot-eating pigeon guided missiles. The kinds of things that B.F. Skinner got away with never cease to amaze and frighten me. Also disturbing: an article on the use of animals in war. Not sure what it means that the author is "convener of the manifesto club," but there are some interesting points for thought.

happy friday.

2007-10-21T22:38:00.000-06:00

instructions for my homework problem: "as we all know, relationships are dynamic in nature, so why not represent them with systems of differential equations? (rhetorical... don't answer that.)"

so depressing in so many different ways.

2007-10-15T23:00:00.000-06:00

architecture can make me cry. i don't think that's normal. (although dominique franchon might believe it...)

dance, and humor, and PIRATES!

2007-10-07T15:42:00.000-06:00

i took a break from life yesterday (after the past two weeks, i deserved it) to go to the ballet with my parents. please note that my dad only went because he doesn't like to be left alone; sometimes mom and i will let him play.

we took the light rail up to downtown since it was supposed to be all kinds of busy in the city because of the rockies playoff game and various other events. it was an interesting experience to take a brand new train in a city that likes the idea of public transport but is unwilling to totally commit to it. it was very, very clean. and (my favorite part) the "please be polite" sort of public service signs in the cars had the usual no food, no drink, no loud music... and "no gambling!" apparently... it's a problem? i had never before had any indication of denver being much of a gambling town; it basically struck me as the kind of badly-translated-english-odd sign that you'd see on the subway in, say, tokyo. except they seem to be serious. confusing and amusing. no gambling on the train...

the ballet itself was le corsaire -- i had heard of it vaguely in the past, but it never really sank in that this was A BALLET ABOUT PIRATES. all kinds of great. the sets and costumes were fantastic, especially the pirate ship in the beginning. the plot of this particular performance is pretty radically different from that of the lord byron poem upon which it is based, but made for a much more cheerful story than i've ever seen danced about. and the added part about the pirate falling asleep and dreaming about flowers because he is in love? priceless. in other versions it's drug-induced, but here it was just attributed to his besottedness -- sappy and hilarious.

besides the overall greatness, dancing about pirates results in strong parts for the male principal and members of the corps. which is my favorite type of choreography; those men do completely amazing things (and this guy could switch leap like no other, and get amazing height on all his jumps). this particular ballet included guns and swords to boot! quite brilliant. i now want to dance with swords. my other favorite part, it must be said, was one of the dances in the (fabulously rendered) "pirate's grotto" where the pirates and their girlfriends are all dancing about and in the background... the principal character (conrad) walks across the stage, completely out of context, with the principal ballerina in a lift and trailing a floaty veil. it was an impressive lift, no contest -- but so flowy and unrelated to what was going on in the rest of the dance that my mother and i both started laughing. we've decided that dad needs to carry her around like that on pretty much a daily basis. on his part, all he would consent to was an afternoon of "ballet walking" (aka poncing about with his arms in the air) -- extremely funny all on its own, but not quite as good as the lift.

last storylet, and then i'll go be useful again: they were selling all sorts of performance-related memorabilia in the shop, as usual (hooray for capitalism), and one of these items happened to be an official le corsair pirate eye patch. which amused me, and then i moved on. until i passed a little boy who owned said eye patch -- and was wearing it between his eyes like some sort of cyclops. he totally wins my award for best dressed of the day. i hope he manages to stay that cool when he grows up.

i think my pirate obsession may be getting worse...

hooray, hooray for the pirate ballet!

if i could, i would have titled this post using a jaunty smear of green finger paint

2007-09-30T18:37:00.000-06:00

this story has explains some interesting dimensions of the ethanol idea. since people seem to want to go gung ho about it one way or the other with very little information... well, there's the vague hope somewhere in here of adding substance to the debate. i'm too lazy to be arsed with links today, so: http://economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9861379

in a similar vein, gengreen bribed me to sign up at the sustainable living fair the other weekend through the simple mechanism of "free" bamboo. i'm clearly cheap, what can i say? it's kind of like... the green version of facebook? a networking site for those interested in granola-ey ideas and finding people and companies (and internship/job/volunteer opportunities!) that share those interests. it may or may not be running outside of colorado at the moment (i think they're projecting to launch a state a week this year), but when it gets going, it has the potential to be pretty cool. you should join so i have friends. :) http://gengreen.org/

***
p.s. does anyone actually care if i label my posts? would this greatly improve your quality of life?

unrelated observations...

2007-09-27T17:42:00.000-06:00

... this means that the u sub i's are independent and the covariance is zero!.... bwahaha, 535 has eaten my brain!

*ahem.* more seriously.

1. quote of the day: "if you want to call a lie not being on the population parameter, then yes, EVERYTHING IS A LIE!" ...okay, that was actually more econometrics. but it's a nice proof of why the world is a sham, etc.

2. why is it that i always manage to have a friend who needs some sort of focused attention when i have a million other things to do? i mean, sure, i learn this way, too and i like being able to spot such things... but work around my down time, people! of course, "down time" is kind of an illusion ("lunch time, doubly so...")

3. i now want a little man to record the frequency with which i a) quote things, b) quote specific things (i.e., how many times does my extensive knowledge of spaceballs manifest in a given day? in a conversation?), and c) make any sense while doing either of the above

4. i'm considering dressing my legion of imaginary minions in tutus. and something sparkly... perhaps those headbands with the bobbly antennae?

tagged

2007-09-15T22:04:00.000-06:00

okay, i'm still thinking about it, so i'll do the meme thing that lala tagged me for. but i'm not tagging anyone, because everyone i read has already been tagged. so there.

seven things you probably didn't know about me (probably less random than a regular conversation):

1. my feet look almost exactly the same as my dad's feet, only smaller

2. i have a mild obsession with hamsters. i don't want a hamster. i've never had one. but i think they're fascinatingly and almost intolerably adorable. i didn't really realize it WAS an obsession until i went to tokyo and came back with predominantly hamster-themed souvenirs.

3. i love raw carrots, but cooked carrots sort of make me want to die. they're disgusting.

4. i have never seen most of the 80s movies that everyone else remembers from childhood. i only finally watched the brat pack ones in high school because my friend insisted that i looked like molly ringwald and therefore must watch practically every movie she ever made. but the goonies and labyrinth and gremlins and heathers? like, totally not.

5. i'm pretty okay with rats, bats, snakes and bugs and all of the usual creepy crawly things that people have phobias about (although earwigs definitely freak me out a little, thanks to the opening scene of the second star trek movie). of all living things on earth, i'm most frightened of people.

6. reading my old diaries tends to depress me.

7. with the exception of family (and my dad's frat brothers' families, who are pretty much the same thing), i do not know a single person now that i knew seven years ago. everyone is new. kind of amazing to think about.

funny

2007-09-15T12:39:00.000-06:00

the problem with facebook having become the new blog is that i don't have a reason to read blogs with any regularity and don't notice things like being tagged. actually, that's not the only problem, but i am supposed to be doing something else right now and so will mercifully spare you. point being: lala, i noticed, i'm getting to it.

***

and now for the actual point of the post (i have a point. rare occasion. bust out the champagne!)

i went out with my dorky econ friends to celebrate friday yesterday, and somewhere along the line the (only) topic of conversation became "we must find erin a boyfriend." my reaction to this, as always, was to laugh cynically and let them have their fun.

one of the assorted significant others became especially fixated on this idea, and decided that not only would he find me a boyfriend, he would do so RIGHT NOW. he explained to me (more than once) that he was the best judge of people and i just had no idea. after searching the bar for a while, he decided on a guy sitting in a booth a little ways from us, stalked my number from his girlfiend's phone, and went off to play matchmaker. because, after all, he's the best judge of people ever.

he walks purposefully over to the booth, leans over their table and starts talking to his target. he then proceeds directly to the bar. after a while, he returns and sits down next to me with a funny look on his face. i wait for it. "i'm sorry," he starts off. and sighs a little. takes a deep breath, and announces, "he was gay."

so incredibly amusing.

quotes from a drunk

2007-09-09T20:49:00.000-06:00

imagine that it is approximately 11:30 am on a beautiful sunday in a nice little park by the river in a mountain town. and an unkempt man in an orange shirt wanders past us. and stops, and stares at me, his stare never reaching my face because it's stuck somewhere below my shoulders. and he proceeds to speak, addressing no one in particular: "whoa, she's big. i mean, she's big. there's a whole lotta lovin' goin' on there."

imagine us laughing for at least ten minutes afterwards.

thought

2007-09-09T20:46:00.000-06:00

if you're ever in salida, colorado, go to hattie's. it's a most wonderful pub that specializes in scotch and chocolate. and stays open as long as they feel like it. and you really can't beat that.

2007-09-04T18:26:00.000-06:00

today The Job That Ate My Life reduced all of us to giggles. for the better part of an hour. and by all of us, i mean me (unsurprising) and grown men (that takes some serious delirium). this is when you know it is time for a project to end.

like a local

2007-09-03T18:53:00.000-06:00

i have just, as my sister puts it, sold my soul to the mountain. since i know i'm not going to get any guitar playing abilities out of it, i'm just gonna have to hope that i learn to "ride this here snowboard real good" instead.

in case none of this leaves you with the slightest clue as to what i might be discussing: i bought a vail resorts pass, and will proceed to spend the winter falling alternately on my ass and on my face instead of doing practical things like homework or eating (it is NOT a cheap pass). but that's okay, because it means that joi is coming to visit me! hooray! three years, and this is the first time anyone has decided to take advantage of that whole "two hours from some of the best skiing on the planet" thing. super excited. also, it's joi. which is exciting enough on its own.

hopefully i will manage to stay in one piece and not be a menace to myself and those around me. with that in mind, however, i should probably start out at breck... no one will care if i end up bowling for texans

website of requirement

2007-08-23T21:15:00.000-06:00

does anyone know of a website that collects simple things that are otherwise impossible to find? like the current bane of my existence, the federal standards for defining how much population constitutes a village, town, city, etc.? because if there is such a site, i will love it forever and use it often. and if there isn't, it's a brilliant idea and you should start it.

2007-08-08T20:42:00.000-06:00

okay, what did they do to gatorade bottles recently to make them next to impossible to open? and WHY?

at the fair

2007-08-06T14:52:00.000-06:00

i went to the county fair with the people i've been hosting on an exchange program from africa. and saw all sorts of things i have never seen before. like... miniature donkey driving. who in bloody hell decided it was a good idea to do this to the donkeys? we were totally expecting children to drive the carts... but no. grown men and women. looking completely ridiculous. i realize that the donkeys themselves are cute, but this is just silly! however, it definitely counts as an experience none of us had had before. and my guests will certainly be leaving with an interesting impression of americans. (which could lead one to the larger question of wondering who thought it was a good idea to give people any sort of impression of a country via ME...).

i was actually kind of sad to realize that the fair has lost much of the magic that it previously held for me. pretty sure this is just me, though, as everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves greatly and made for excellent people watching. so it can't be all bad, right? and i must say that the petting zoo managed to be the opposite of depressing. mostly because of a very, very tiny grey goat who was evidently having the time of his life, following people about curiously, and running around and jumping in mad excitement. totally adorable. made me want goats, actually. completely impractical life ambition, but there you have it. speaking of life ambitions, i am happy to report that my long-running obsession with alpacas meant that i was unreasonably pleased to get to stand mere inches from these guys. the people who tell you that their wool is almost impossibly soft are TOTALLY RIGHT. it's my new favorite thing. although i think i like it just as much on the original host as anywhere else -- even though shearing does result in these totally hot hairdos.

p.s. is it just me, or does the alpaca bit sound oddly A LOT (it's caps day!) like i'm talking about men? there are several aspects of this in which i now find fear... A LOT (at this point, it is also a book reference).

oh dear

2007-08-02T23:29:00.000-06:00

it's fun when you have giggly, mildly delirious, hint-of-ghetto bonding moments with people. but when these moments occur because of capital expenditure data... well, then you have to worry.

***
also, i think we should have this carved into the wall of our department: "with a sweep of inspiration and a flourish of ignorance." it's probably better if you can see my boss do the accompanying dance-yness.

random ranting (and too much research)

2007-07-24T21:45:00.001-06:00

i know i've already commented on this via a smart-ass status message, but every time i see it, i start spinning again: WHY bother to write "this page is intentionally left blank" on filler pages? they're not blank if they have writing on them! i understand the potential for panic when you're printing and think maybe you missed something... but there has to be a better solution. if i come up with one, i'll be sure to harass you into joining the revolution*.

while you ponder, enjoy the rather fabulous "revolution" result from google images, from the wine library tv site. who needs context, anyways?

*please note that this is at least the third revolution i've proposed today. i do not know why.

i just wanna dance!

2007-07-16T11:34:00.001-06:00

okay, so i've watched a lot of movies this weekend. and i have an almost shameful affinity for bad dance movies. but.

why must all the male leads in such bad dance movies be inner city thugs? what about the little suburban boys? sure, they're likely to get their asses kicked by the football team and join some sort of whiny punk band instead, but they have to be out there. i'm going to guess that there's some statistical equation out there that tells us that, yes, occasionally a one of those boys learns how to move. i know it's rare and all (i've certainly seen plenty of walking arguments against it), but seriously? surely novelty value plays a part in bad cinema. isn't that how we got here in the first place?

late night movies

2007-07-15T02:49:00.000-06:00

sure, it makes me feel smart when i can spot the twist, but more often than not i actually enjoy the show better when i'm clueless until the big reveal.

expanding that to life, then, what does it mean?

2007-07-12T08:57:00.001-06:00

my boss is so incredibly cool that it frightens me sometimes.

happiness...

2007-07-08T16:12:00.000-06:00

... is a warm puppy (totally wonderful book, you should find it). or, in my case at this very moment, a brand new cushy, huggy leather chair and the louise rennison book that i'd forgotten was already in print. i'm fairly bursting with good mood at the moment, in spite of the nice round hole that i made in my finger with the screwdriver yesterday (it's small, and i'm very sure it's clean because i spent the morning playing with various kinds of bleach).

also, if i have to live in ft. collins' version of the projects, i will at least be amused because i think that's where the scooter twins live. and they match (today, in fact, it was matching bandanas. broncos, of course).

conspiracy theories

2007-07-06T18:21:00.000-06:00

"he cannot kill you if you are already dead. come over to the right side, draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine." (591-2)

bibliophile

2007-07-02T22:47:00.000-06:00

my project for the evening has been reorganizing my bookshelves. people with extensive libraries should never move... too bad reading and travel are my two primary hobbies. but i always was an impossible mixture of contradictions.

and this shows up through my little collection. funny how much you can tell about a person (or certain people, at least?) through their books. not just the content; the organization too. it shows you how they think, and what they think about. or, in some cases, what they want you to think they think about. no wonder tracking sites (like this one, that joi recently addicted me to, darn her) are so popular in this age where we explain ourselves, anonymously and with less anonymity than ever, online all over the world.

what are we searching for? connection? identity? completion? if we share enough things with enough people, can we define ourselves through them? or is definition something that comes from within and can only ever be projected, with varying degrees of success, onto the world around us -- which is itself carefully chosen as part of that projection?

i have a cognitive psych section in the bookstore of my life, btw, for just such examination. although, honestly, the obsession with identity shows up throughout. i could explain it to you, sort of... but you'd have to be the kind of person, to start with, who cares about such explanations.

also...

2007-06-26T13:34:00.000-06:00

i have to say, it's nice to know that i live in a small enough town that i can trust my mechanic to take me to school and my realtor to pick me up. because, really, how cool is that? especially for a generally antisocial person such as myself.

soy un hombre viejo

2007-06-25T19:52:00.000-06:00

cities of the underworld is totally my new favorite show*. apparently, however, the target market is actually old dudes, because i've seen commercials for every possible kind of heart drug, viagra/cialis/creepy old man pill, and sanitary pads for men. that's right: man pads. welcome to the old age of the baby boomer generation. the commercials feature old guys on bikes and a hot, younger-than-me woman standing next to an ambulance... who is apparently the reason the pads become necessary. frankly, the commercial itself is beyond gross and i don't like to think about it; so, naturally, i had to share.

oh...wow... when i was searching for that last link, i found this. gak! good thing they used the largest words possible to describe the icky.

*at least until i quit television cold turkey sometime this weekend when my sister moves out.

maybe if i write it down...

2007-06-24T17:59:00.000-06:00

... i can get some of this garbage out of my head and focus on other things.

1) whoever came up with the idea of eating artichokes? how was that not waaaay to labor intensive to bother with? seriously? "i think if we boil it, and then eat a teeny bit of each leaf, it just may work!"

2) the comcast commercial that parodies the hitchhiker's guide makes me happy every time i see it, and i'm willing to bet a a large portion of their target audience has no idea what they're doing with this one. actually, i think i'd quite like to meet the comcast ad folks; they're the best thing on tv right now.

3) i hate that my car stops working every couple of months. and i REALLY do not want to get up early and bike to class, and i EVEN MORE REALLY don't want to bike back. also, i'm too poor to eat, much less pay for car maintenance. yay for life.

4) poo on heat.

5) i am my own worst enemy.

also...

2007-06-19T20:33:00.000-06:00

forgot about this gem of a news story from the bbc. we were all in horror (and laughing uncontrollably)for about half an hour when i found it. yes, it's from february. there wasn't much interesting going on in real time today, apparently. anyways. cringe on. (and please note the detached, impersonal manner in which the man later describes the event).

que hora es?

2007-06-19T19:39:00.000-06:00

the soap opera "for people who only had three weeks of spanish... in the fourth grade." brought to you by cedric the entertainer.

"dos equis? no... rico suave!" completely hilarious. seriously.

p.s. meet the most interesting man in the world. not as entertaining, but combats both boredom and work. with beer.

seriously, only the japanese

2007-06-15T20:46:00.001-06:00

gotta love it:
by way of Manolo's Shoeblog, or you could just search youtube directly for "the algorithm march with ninjas"

dare tuesdays are awesome because

2007-06-13T01:18:00.000-06:00

- we started at 4:30 with free microbrews from a bartender who is far cooler than tom cruise in cocktail (but has never seen top gun and so cannot pass judgement)
- it makes me want to chew on a towel
- my hole mate believes in me
- my hole is too big, i need a pen to fix it
- a four-legged llamel (llama + camel) is better than a two-legged llama. but a two-legged llamel is shit.
- people were so intrigued by our shouted conversation that they came over to meet us
- we also met a butcher, a baker, and a candle-stick maker. who actually turned out to be a real butcher, a stone mason, and a guy whose "wick" is "surprising" but who may just be a nerd
- we have almost corrupted one of our pseudo faculty members
- the text "mother fer, i have a woman for every limb, where the f are you" was a key part of the evening

soy*

2007-06-11T23:48:00.001-06:00

i found this on the blog of the guy who has the job i want, and is currently one of my heroes, and is working on the project in albania that i might get to participate in for my dissertation. (long enough description for ya? and it still probably makes zero sense). it has nothing to do with albania, as such, but the idea never would have occurred to me and i think it's cool. but i'm also sitting here eating candied ginger, so... judge as you feel appropriate.

*this has a double meaning to me today! i need help! or sleep.

2007-06-10T23:11:00.000-06:00

forgive me if i've already asked this, it worries me every time i see the commercials, but:

why do all of the people on the match.com commercials have something slightly, creepily wrong with them? the robin hood hat, for example. seriously, it worries me.

probably i need to spend less time watching commercials and more time interacting with real people or something, it's just... shudder!

accurate

2007-06-02T00:05:00.002-06:00

"She had only this brief glimpse of him, but Kiki suspected already that this would be one of those familiar exchanges in which her enormous spellbinding bosom would play a subtle (or not so subtle, depending on the person) silent third role in the conversation. Women bent away from it out of politeness; men -- more comfortably for Kiki -- sometimes remarked on it in order to get on and over it, as it were. The size was sexual and at the same time more than sexual: sex was only one small element of its symbolic range.... And so her chest gave off a mass of signals beyond her direct control: sassy, sisterly, predatory, motherly, threatening, comforting -- it was a mirror-world she had stepped into in her mid forties, a strange fabulation of the person she believed she was. She could no longer be meek or shy. Her body had directed her to a new personality; people expected new things of her, some of them good, some of them not" (47). - Zadie Smith. On Beauty.

wah

2007-05-30T20:01:00.000-06:00

it's bad when sitting down with a bowl of ice cream causes you to bust a hole in your jeans. granted, the hole is actually in the leg of the jeans, and the jeans themselves are approaching ancient. but still!

2007-05-27T01:12:00.001-06:00

belgium pictures up are on the black stripe. it's mostly buildings, but they're gorgeous. that's what we went for.

post of random interesting trip bits to follow shortly.

adventures of the pocket boy lunchbox

breaking radio silence

so many questions

near heartattack of the day

i'm not salaried, so my life doesn't really work that way

things that make you go "eeeeeew!"

headline of the day

oh, GERMANY!

on the concept of war criminals

quote of the day

wherein i am likely to be labeled an angry hippie, although it's not quite accurate

does not infringe on americans' privacy?!?

quote of the day

oh, america

open letter

something new every day

domestic dreams

language learning

i have been inspired...

another worthy quote from my foreign dudes

realizations are interesting things.

smilie face

quote of the day

learning mountain

my boss just made my day

today, my heroes are...

well... that's a new one

i want...

safari romper, and other horrors

pickup by proxy

brilliance

quote of the week

adventures in thesis writing

it has been decided.

my nerdy world

quote of the day

tag! i'm it! bwahahaha! *runs around mad with power*

*little happy dance*

cooking for idiots

graffiti of the day

this is what happens when i should be writing about recycling, and don't

unbelievable

and we wonder why i'm a vegetarian.

two days of snowboarding, and so far i can still walk

stanford prison experiment

so pissed off that i've (re)developed a texan accent

idle time

who needs structure?

plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose

smartass economist quote of the day

you really can find anything on the internets

dance, and humor, and PIRATES!

if i could, i would have titled this post using a jaunty smear of green finger paint

unrelated observations...

tagged

funny

quotes from a drunk

thought

like a local

website of requirement

at the fair

oh dear

random ranting (and too much research)

i just wanna dance!

late night movies

happiness...

conspiracy theories

bibliophile

also...

soy un hombre viejo

maybe if i write it down...

also...

que hora es?

seriously, only the japanese

dare tuesdays are awesome because

soy*

accurate

*wah*

tag! i'm it! bwahahaha! runs around mad with power

little happy dance

wah