Adventures

Watching for whales

Yesterday Debbie and i went on a five-hour whale watching tour around the Inner Hebrides. We took the train from Glasgow to Oban on Wednesday afternoon, stayed overnight in a B&B and then made our way twelve miles south to Balvicar on the Isle of Seil for half past nine on Thursday morning. You can click on the map at left for a better idea of where we went.

Oban is a touristy little seaside town with excellent fish & chips and numerous B&Bs. Debbie found us a great place to stay: Raniven Guest House. The woman who runs the place is exceptionally helpful, and our full English breakfast was delicious; i would definitely recommend it. I took a few pictures of Oban and its harbo(u)r, and you can see them on Flickr.

The whale watching tour was run by a company called Sealife Adventures. The skipper of the boat, David, was very enthusiastic, and his assistant Monica spent a lot of time telling us not only about the wildlife in the area but also the geological history of the Inner Hebrides. There were only twelve passengers on the trip including Debbie and myself, so we had plenty of room to move around the boat. Our fellow whale watchers were a teenage boy doing a project for school and a French family (parents, one set of grandparents, two daughters, and three nephews). The nephews only spoke French, and the grandparents spoke some English. The parents and their daughters, however, spoke English fluently, because they live in Manchester. It turned out that the father is a chief executive of some kind for the northern European division of Adidas. Their next holiday will be in Beijing for the Games.

We ended up being disappointed by the whales; they all kept well out of sight, but we were treated to some porpoise that came quite close to the boat. We also saw seals and loads of birds. We went through the famous Corryvreckan Whirlpool area, and even though the whirlpool wasn't fully formed the seas were very rough. No one got seasick though. It was a really fun trip even without the whales, and as Debbie said, we can be reasonably sure that we were near whales; we just didn't see them.

One thing we hadn't taken into account on this trip was that we would be covered with a thin film of salt by the time we set foot back on land. The first order of business was to get somewhere that we could wash our hands and comb our very windswept and salty hair. Debbie and i hitched a ride back to Oban with the teenager and his grandfather, a funny old man who told us all kinds of history of the area. Once we got back to town, we headed for the Oban Chocolate Company, which we had spotted on Wednesday evening. There we washed our hands and settled in for some excellent hot chocolate and apple shortcake. Thus provisioned we took a walk through Oban, stopped at the sweet shop so i could buy some rock (i also got giant Parma Violets and Scottish Tablet), and gorged ourselves on chips (Debbie had fish while i just had chips & gravy - yummy), before getting on the train back to Glasgow. A very satisfying trip indeed.

How much?

I noticed this set of contextual Google ads while i was reading a story about Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers breaking up with his girlfriend:

P.S. In case you're wondering, Evil Beet Gossip is my guilty pleasure.

Hyper-Ballad

I had forgotten how much i like this song; i think it appeals to my depressive tendencies (especially the line about throwing herself off a cliff). Oh, and i have two favorite things about this particular video:

1. The drummer who looks like they just grabbed him off the street


2. Björk pulling up her stocking at the end of the clip

Hyper-Ballad by Björk:

Waterboarding

Christopher Hitchens may be rather an ass, but he stepped up for this story in the new issue of Vanity Fair. In 'Believe Me, It's Torture', Hitchens describes his experience being waterboarded by some shadowy North Carolinians, and it's definitely worth a read.

Before now i had no real idea what waterboarding really involved aside from, well, some water and maybe a board of some sort. The board turns out to be largely incidental, any inclined flat surface big enough for your victim to lie on will do. The water is the crucial part. And a towel. It should really be called watertowelling. And yes, it is torture. Perhaps not physically maiming, but certainly psychologically so.

Be sure to watch the video of Hitchens's experience, too. It really is incredible how quickly he succumbed to the technique.

Dancing

When i saw the first few seconds of this i thought it was kind of lame, but then i found myself starting to smile.

Via The Morning News:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Fond Farewell

Some of you know that i have been doing Dr H's transcription since i left Atlanta in 2006. Well, he has decided to try a new gig that doesn't involve doctoring people's feet anymore, and so today i typed up the last piece of his dictation.

It's kind of strange to think that i will no longer have a professional connection to him and his assistant Micheal, since Dr H has been my boss for longer than anyone else (7 years!). We will, i hope, continue to keep in touch.

The picture on this post is Micheal and i parasailing in Key West in 2002, a trip the doctor took us on for Thanksgiving that year.

As much as he has made me crazy over the past seven years, he has also been one of the best employers i have ever had (certainly the most generous), and i wish him well in everything he does in the future.

Thanks, Dr H.

Untitled

more cat pictures

She & Him

So, what do Patsy Cline and Phil Spector have in common? The answer is after the jump (due to massive use of YouTube)...

Walking

I went for a walk this afternoon. More of a stroll, really, since i wasn't in any sort of a hurry. I stopped in some shops on the way, and it started raining quite a bit, but i just kept on sauntering. I finally got a bit tired and took a bus home, but i just checked on Google Maps, and it seems that i walked more than 2.5 miles.

My route was Argyle St -> Byres Rd -> Great Western Rd -> some little back streets -> North St -> St Vincent St (where i caught the bus). I tried to make a cool map showing you where all these streets are, but Google Maps isn't playing well with me today. You'll just have to look it up yourself if you're really that interested. Somehow i doubt anyone will be rushing to do so.

I just hope i managed to walk off some of that bacon & egg sandwich and hot chocolate i had for lunch...

P.S. My dissertation is up to 10,000 words (it needs to be between 12,000 and 15,000)!

Creepy but kind of cool

Okay, i have to share this site that Andy sent me with you guys. It's disturbing but fascinating at the same time:

ManBabies.com

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

Movin' on up

So i moved yesterday. My lease at the Uni accommodation was up, so i found a room to rent for the rest of the summer. I'm really happy with it, because it is closer to campus and to Byres Road, the main street that runs up the west side of the campus. I only moved about half a mile, but i feel so much better. I no longer live in a backstreet international student ghetto that doesn't even boast a corner shop (the closest shop is down the road and around the corner). Now i even have a coffee shop right around the corner and a bus stop merely one block away. One of the best parts is the view that greets me every time i walk out the front door of the building:

Way better than this:

Another of the best parts is my flatmate, Kerra, who is a really nice med student.

In other news:

After moving yesterday, which took about an hour, i met Debbie down at the West End Festival. The festival lasts two weeks, and there is a parade and street party to kick it off. We watched the parade, which seemed to have a plants and insects theme, then we walked around drinking beer and listening to various bands. It was a lovely day, and i managed to get some sun on my white shoulders, thus partially evening out the farmer tan. You can see a bunch of pictures i took in my Glasgow set on Flickr.

The northern summer

Remember this picture from January? Well, i took another one last night at ten past ten so you can see how light it stays (as you can see from my Weegie Weather widgets over there in the sidebar, the sun sets at about 10:00 these days).

Oh, and that weird floating light in the sky? That's the reflection of the light in my room, not a UFO :)

Ahhh ha ha ha ha

Via Lance:

I am actually getting work done

Although it may not seem like it, given that this is my second post today, i have actually done quite a bit of Latin translation. Since five sentences take me about 45 minutes, i have been taking a short break to check out the latest New Yorker. In the course of said break, i came across this interesting short article about the use of Auto-Tune in popular music. I was just going to email it to Andy, with him being a sound geek and all, but then i thought it might be interesting to others, too.

Auto-Tune changes vocal pitch, and producers have been using it more and more obviously (i.e., not as a hidden cosmetic tweak) since Cher belted out '(Do You) Believe (in Life After Love?)' in 1998. The article is interesting not so much for its discussion of how Auto-Tune works, though, but rather its exploration of authenticity in music. If vocals are manipulated, is the product any less 'real'? In order to truly hear authentic music, do we need to listen to live performances, or is that experience modulated in some way as well?

My friend Lance is a big fan of street performance, and he recently posted a very short note about how he feels that music performed in that setting is somehow taking it back to basics. I have to say that i have heard some high-quality buskers in Glasgow, and singing and playing well on the street is pretty impressive. That said, though, i think Auto-Tune and its ilk have a place in music, and i definitely like a lot of the technological innovation we have seen in pop music over the past twenty five years (or more).

Things to think about.

Edit: Andy sent me a link to a demo of a new technology that will allow producers to manipulate every single note in a recording, even those embedded in chords. It's pretty amazing, and, as he said when he sent it, it's making engineers and musicians think about what it means to record music. See the video here.

For the gamers out there

I'm not a gamer; never have been, and likely never will be, but i know some of you are. So, in the spirit of sharing and caring, i bring you cool desktop wallpaper by Todd Levin and Jennifer Daniel of The Morning News.

If this wallpaper suddenly awakens feelings of lust for gaming, please go visit Cat's blog, in which she waxes eloquently about video games and other stuff. Oh, and buy a Sony PS3 so you can play the game Andy's working on when it comes out next year.

Sarcasmo meets her match

A study has been released showing that dementia, Alzheimer's, and other neurological conditions can cause patients to lose the ability to detect sarcasm. I found this interesting since one of my superhero names (what, you don't have any superhero names?) is Sarcasmo (the other is Bluntasia). I'll have to make sure i know the intactness of my victims before wielding my super powers...

Katherine P. Rankin, a Neuropsychologist, Studies Sarcasm - NYTimes.com (Via The Morning News.)

More procrastination

So, i'm supposed to be being productive right now. You know, translating Latin, reading Italian (which i don't understand), or writing stuff. Oh well.

Instead, i bring you another installment of my 'Cool Stuff' bookmarks. The first episode of this was way back in December, so it is really overdue.

If you would like to read some great comic strips written by a guy in Philadelphia, look no further than Bearskinrug. Kevin Cornell's sock monkeys, Mojo and Lewis, are sure to entertain, but my favorites are the Ambidextrous Comics. Be sure to read the comments on the posts, too. Bearskinrug has great commenters, and Kevin often responds.

Next up is Found Magazine. This has been one of my much-loved sites for a couple of years now, i think. More than one of my Facebook profile pictures comes from this site.

The next one in the list o' bookmarks is Geograph British Isles. This site is sponsored by the Ordnance Survey, and their goal is to document every square kilometer of the British Isles in photographs.

No list of cool stuff is complete without Homestar Runner. Homestar has made at least one other appearance on this blog, and Andy very thoughtfully has bought me all the DVDs (well, to tell the truth, i ordered them and made him pay for them). The companion fansite tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Homestar Runner.

Okay, getting serious for a minute: The Institute for Humanist Studies. If i wasn't a total misanthropist, i would probably identify as a humanist. Ethics without religion; go figure.

Enough of that. Now we have the Judy, Judy, Judy page from The Ultimate Cary Grant Pages. A professor at Georgia State sent me this link years ago, and it has resided in my bookmarks ever since to use as a weapon against those unoriginal people who say it to me all the time. Yes, i mean you.

File under sad but inspiring: Kinga Freespirit was a Polish woman who spent her life traveling the globe. She was blogging her dream trip to Africa when she died of cerebral meningitis. In the course of her trip, she rescued a young girl who had been sold into slavery, and her story lives on in the form of a charitable foundation set up in her name by her mother. Kinga's photography is beautiful.

I considered stopping there, but i only have four sites left to tell you about. Here goes:

The New Yorker magazine is always a good read. I especially like David Denby's movie reviews, which often coincide with my feelings about films i see (which are few and far between, but that's beside the point). Oh, and it's all free.

This next one comes as no surprise to anyone who knows my internet habits. Every Sunday i visit PostSecret to see the newest postcard secrets. I found it before everyone and their mother knew about it, so there.

Like Homestar Runner, Taylor Mali has previously made an appearance on this blog. I'm not a poetry fan, but this guy's good.

Finally, i recently discovered Worth 1000, a competitive image manipulation site. I know you're saying, 'what the hell is that?' Well, the people who run the site set certain tasks to be done, like re-imagining a Star Wars character using a celebrity. The talent that is out there is amazing.

All right, that's it for now. Maybe i should do some of that Latin? Nah...

Long time no see

I have been soooo busy lately: dissertation, work, and friends. There is too much to tell from the past ten days or so (and frankly very little of it is particularly interesting), so i will just say that i spent yesterday (Spring Bank Holiday/Whitsun Bank Holiday/Memorial Day) in Kelvingrove Park. This time i took a photo of my resulting farmer tan before it fades:

Debbie said, 'God, Judith, you really need to get some sleeveless tops.'

Amen

I am very thankful that i have not had to be in the US for this entire presidential campaign season (yes, all two years of it).

Here's an article that neatly follows on from an earlier Rebecca Traister piece published on Salon (which you can read here).

Marie Cocco - Misogyny I Won't Miss - washingtonpost.com

(Via The Morning News)

Dating tips from GTA

One more reason to decry the misogyny that is Grand Theft Auto? Or just another opportunity to say, 'Meh, it's just a game.'?

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Good Advice From a Grand Theft Auto Dating FAQ.

(Via The Morning News.)

Understanding the credit crisis

So, like a lot of people i have been idly wondering (i say idly, because i'm not industrious enough to actually go and learn much about it) how this credit crisis thing happened. Why on earth would banks make such risky loans, and why should i care if some people with poor credit are suddenly having problems paying their mortgages (I mean, what did they expect, right?)?

Well, i just finished listening to the latest This American Life podcast, which actually spends a whole hour talking to people at a number of different levels of the issue: homeowners, mortgage brokers, Wall Street bankers, and a bunch of people in between. Now i understand. I understand why the banks made the risky loans, and i understand that fraudulent mortgage applications were made, and i understand that adjustable rate mortgages have priced people out of their own homes. This last point is made quickly and simply when the reporters are speaking to a homeowner who is having trouble making payments. His monthly mortgage payment increased $2000 over its starting rate. Imagine trying to come up with an extra $2000 a month.

Listen:

The Giant Pool of Money

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Busy Week!

Wow, i have had a really busy week; although looking back on it, it doesn't seem like i did much at all.

Monday: May Bank Holiday. I spent the day avoiding work and wandering in city center.

Tuesday: I met with my Latin professor to continue translating the Life of Ariald.

Wednesday: I went to Blair Castle (located in tiny Blair Atholl in Perthshire) with Scott and Helena. According to the woman who guards the front door of the castle (a stickler, if i have ever seen one) Blair is not a family name (hmmmm). It is rather an old Gaelic word meaning a flat area or plain. The family that owns the castle is named Murray, but i found it suspicious that they wore a tartan that strongly resembles the Blair tartan:

Tartan images credit: Scottish Tartan Authority

Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and we spent a lot of time roaming the grounds once we had done the tour through the castle itself. There is no photography allowed in the castle, which is a total bummer. It was full of weaponry and deer antlers, and the tour honestly seemed never-ending. There are a bunch of photos of the grounds on Flickr as usual.

Thursday: I spent most of the day with Debbie getting sunburnt in the Botanic Gardens. Yes, sunburnt in Glasgow! I tried to take a picture of my farmer tan, but it didn't come out well enough.

Friday: I worked at an actual job for 3.5 hours in the morning. That was tiring. I had to make a mail merge and stuff envelopes. Phew.

I have Debbie to thank for the job; her father's partner Linda works in Recruitment & Admissions at the university, and she desperately needed someone who could stick labels straightly and stuff envelopes correctly. You might be surprised at how difficult it is to find someone who meets those qualifications. It's a casual job; she'll call me when she needs me, but money's money.

After doing that, i met with my Latin professor again. Then i went home and went to sleep.

Presenting... The Debbie Scarf

I just finished blocking this scarf that i knitted for my friend Debbie. It is based upon a pattern i saw on the purl bee called April Showers. The pattern in the center of the scarf was of my own devising, but i don't think it's particularly original. If you want it, the whole scarf pattern is available after the jump.

The blocking i did is a little weird, but it's my first time blocking anything, really. I like to think the pointy ends give it character :)

Lesson of the day

Today's lesson is: If you don't get the answer you want, go back the next day and ask a different person. As i write this, it strikes me as a profoundly French attitude, yet it worked beautifully today here in Scotland.

Yesterday my friend Lance had a problem with his laptop. After i tried a few things to diagnose and fix it that were unsuccessful he took it to the Apple Store's Genius Bar (that's the service department, for those of you unfamiliar with Apple nomenclature). The person he spoke to there took the laptop into a back room and a few minutes later came out declaring the hard drive was corroded from water damage. This pronouncement puzzled and annoyed Lance, since he has no knowledge of any water infiltrating the machine. A further annoyance was that this particular employee didn't show him the corrosion on the hard drive itself but merely pointed to small photographs he had taken on his iPhone. A laptop hard drive is only 2.5" thick and really isn't difficult to carry; it does not seem unreasonable to expect to be shown the faulty part in the flesh, as it were. The upshot of this encounter was that the Apple 'Genius' told Lance that because the problem was due to water damage, a new hard drive would not be covered under the warranty. Lance opted not to buy a new hard drive at that time, and, taking his broken MacBook home with him, he tried not to cry.

He and i discussed this development, and i sought input from my own Apple Genius, Andy. We all concurred that this water damage story sounded fishy. A decision was made to make a new appointment at the Genius Bar and hope for a better outcome. This morning i accompanied Lance to the Apple Store, essentially as muscle to back him up should things get ugly. The experience today with Liam the Genius was exactly as we had hoped. There was no humming and hawing about possible water damage, no photographs on an iPhone, and no questioning of warranty coverage. We spent about twenty minutes with Liam while he ran some diagnostics and typed up the service order. He said the MacBook and its new hard drive might even be ready for pick up today, since they have the part in stock. Lance and i left the Apple Store relieved and satisfied.

So there you have it. The French were right.

On a side note, i was on the bus going home from the Apple Store when someone's phone started ringing. An unassuming middle aged man reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, which was well into the introductory strains of Sweet Home Alabama by Lynrd Skynrd.

In case you were wondering

Here's the muddy mess of English that came out of that muddier mess of Latin from the other day:

Now the group, shut in with high walls in which there was a gate; the vision of the clergy and laymen and women, which was together and shared, was divided; all were compelled to live together in one ark; stories were suppressed at the table, in place of which the holy reading over it was uttered constantly. Indeed the other clerics all the hours of the day were murmuring, rather than singing; this certainly was sung during the day at seven times the sign brought brothers meeting together for praisefully venerating their debt to almighty God he called all of them to fulfil, while the strong failed, word and deed challenged. Moreover just as the blessed Ariald exceedingly happy, by him that thing from prayer for a long while and too much wishing, it is clear that when the brothers with his church were able to live together, thus many happy faithful were effected, by him they were attached to that place, where the words of the Lord are able to be heard and to take in the divine sacraments. A great crowd began to flow together in that very place not only from the city, but also from the villages and castles, and that church was in no way able to hold them, granted that it was pretty big. The man of God taught so constantly and assiduously that he lost his voice, so that he could scarcely be heard.

Awful, isn't it? If only Andy's stab at it had been right. That would have been a lot more interesting.

This is why friends are great

So, my friend Debbie mentioned today that Glasgow used to have an American football team called the Diamonds. Not only that, but in 1986 they made a music video. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, i now present Diamond Rap:

Do you think they were inspired by the Chicago Bears? The Superbowl Shuffle from 1985 is after the jump...

Please, will someone tell me?

What the hell does this mean?

Chorus namque alti circumdatione muri concluditer, in quo ostium ponitur; visio clericorum laicorumque ac mulierum, quae una erat et communis, dividitur; omnes de una arca vivere coguntur; fabulae ad mensam compescuntur, pro quibus sancta lectio super eam assidue profertur. Ceteri autem clerici mane omnes diei horas potius murmurabant, quam decantarent; hic vero in die tacto septies signo fratribus una congregatis magna cum veneratione debitam omnipotenti Deo laudem decantabat atque ad satisfactionem omnes in eodum officio, dum forte delinquerent, dicto et facto provocabat. Porro sicut beatus Arialdus letus nimis est effectus, eo quod ad votum diu nimisque optatum, videlicet ut cum fratribus ad ecclesiam communiter vivere posset, pervenerat, sic fideles multi leti sunt effecti, pro eo quod aptum locum haberent, ubi Domini verba mente libera audire possent et divina sacramenta percipere. Cepit autem tanta ibidem multitudo confluere non solum de urbe, sed etiam de villis et castellis, quatenus eos nullo modo valeret capere ipsa ecclesia, licet satis esset ampla. Quos tam constanti assiduaque doctrina vir Dei docebat, ut plerumque vocem sic amitteret, quatenus ab aliquibus iuxta se positis vix audiri posset.

I am so frustrated right now.

Divorce, Unwed Parents May Cost Billions

Being an agnostic, i usually try not to get into the middle of these kinds of things, but Andy has specifically requested i blog this one. Now, you may wonder, why doesn't Andy blog it himself? Well, because he's too busy to blog (blogging being the occupation of unwashed, not-gainfully-employed nerds). Andy, of course, is a washed, gainfully-employed nerd. On to the show.

The NoGodBlog (courtesy of Atheists.org) wants us to know about some divorce statistics recently announced. It seems that according to a study sponsored by conservative Christian groups and performed by Ben Scafidi, an economist at Georgia State University (woohoo for the old alma mater), "Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year" Yikes!

But just who are these expensive divorced people? Well, it turns out that "Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience." Oops!

National Day of Silence: April 25

Next Friday, April 25, is the National Day of Silence in the US. From the website:

National Day of Silence brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. This year’s event will be held in memory of Lawrence King, a California 8th-grader who was shot and killed Feb. 12 by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. Hundreds of thousands of students will come together on April 25 to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior.

S**t Needle

Thanks to a blog post i read the other day (which i immediately forwarded to my friend Lance who will be spending next year in Korea), i came across this fantastic Korean game. Read the blog post first to see what it's about (the game is mentioned in the number 1 item Korean people like).

When you play the game, make sure the entire flash file is loaded before clicking on 'start', otherwise it won't play. Use your mouse to move and the mouse button to fire.

Shit Needle Game

Link Post #2

All right, here's something else to do, but this one won't last as long. It's just a suggestion to read this satire of anti-abortion bills: State Protects Women From Postpartum Depression

(Via Feministing.)

Video Store Clerk

Looking for something to do? Try Video Store Clerk, which i found via Ironic Sans (his post gives an explanation of the reasoning behind the game, so check it out).

Meme? What meme?

Okay, i have finally been tagged to continue a meme. Since this is my first tagging (and it came from a loyal reader), i feel obligated to follow through, but i may never do another. Emily is the tagger in question, so if you're looking for someone to blame for a boring post, you know where to go ;-)

A-Z

• Available?: Uh-uh. No way, no how.


• Best friend: Andy, of course.


• Cake or Pie: That depends on the flavor. So hard to choose. Ummm, cake? No, pie!


• Drink of choice: Water (i know, so boring, but hydration is important).


• Essential thing used everyday: My laptop, unless i leave it behind when i go on a trip.


• Favorite color: Blue; it's very restful.


• Gummi bears or worms: Bears, because they always remind me of a story my high school history teacher told me about another student.


• Hometown: I'm not really sure what that means.


• Indulgence: Sugar and salt (both to excess).


• January or February: February. It's short and underrated.


• Kids and names: Uh, Sofia? Does she count?


• Life is incomplete without: A bed (or some semblance thereof).


• Marriage date: September 20, 2008.


• Number of siblings: One brother who's pretty cool (and no brothers who aren't).


• Oranges or apples: Apples. No contest.


• Phobias: Rats showing up in toilets (have i told you that story?).


• Quote: 'So, Pope Leo IX decides to go fight the Normans himself. Bad idea.'


• Reason to smile: Talking to intelligent people.


• Season: Autumn. I love it when the nasty Atlanta summer is over and winter's coming.


• Tag three people: Three? Gosh, i don't know if i know three people. Ok, Stearling (who might actually do it, except he's flitting off to Venice tomorrow), Lance (who won't do it because he's basically a jerk -- this is a standing joke between us; i'm not really that mean. Or am i?), and Rain (who won't do it because she has better things to do like posting pictures of ass and beaver).


• Unknown fact about me: I could be all coy here and say, 'well, if i told you it wouldn't be unknown, would it?' Hmmm. I wish i were more girly.


• Vegetable you do not like: Eggplant (aubergine for you European-types).


• Worst habit: Interrupting people.


• X-rays you have had: Left wrist: ice skating incident (caused by a ragamuffin falling directly in front of me). Right ankle: handball incident (caused by two men pushing me over). Teeth, of course (caused by my conscientious dentist).


• Your favourite food: Hot wings purchased from a shack in a liquor store parking lot.


• Zodiac: Cancer/Leo cusp (i always have to be difficult).

I'm Tertullian!

You’re Tertullian! You possess many gifts, but patience isn’t one of them. You’re tough on yourself — and on others. You’re independent, too, and you don’t like to be told what to do. You wish the Church would be a little tighter in discipline. As for the pagans, you’ve pretty much written them off. Sometimes you think the Church would be a better place if you were in charge. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

True or no?

Stolen from Raincoaster

Women and men

More video. This time with a social purpose. I have never watched MobLogic.tv, but apparently they just go out and ask random people their opinions on issues. This piece is about the silence and unwillingness to speak the reporter and her crew have encountered when trying to talk to women.

See the accompanying blog post at MobLogic: What?!?

(Via Feministing.)

It's strange

It's strange how friends made online are just as real as those made in real life. Since i started blogging in the summer of 2006, i have spent a lot of time getting to know people online, and i have been able to meet one or two of them. Reading someone's personal blog lets you see a side of them that while incredibly public is still rather private. If you have a sympathetic personality, you start to relate to their ups and downs just like those of your close family and friends.

Today i opened a blog post written by an American female ex-pat who currently lives in Brittany. She is a former language assistant, and her advice over the past two years has been invaluable to me. The first line of the post made my heart stop for a moment:

A few of you already know this, but most of you don't. Last Wednesday, Fab left me.

She and Fab (Fabrice) had been together for seven years; she moved to France to be with him. I can't even imagine the enormity of this event for her, and my heart goes out to her. At times like these i wish i did know the person in real life, because comments left on a blog post are such a completely inadequate form of support.

Word of the Day: Infanta

in·fan·ta – noun
1) a daughter of the king of Spain or of Portugal. 2) an infante's wife. Origin: 1595–1605; < Sp or Pg; fem. of infante. Dictionary.com

I have always thought infanta was a strange word, since for English speakers it conjures up images of babies. I remember being surprised when i saw a photograph of one, and she was a full-grown adult. Don't ask me why i decided to blog about this; i'm not sure i even know.

So, on with the infanta fun: Please admire Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas (right) from 1656, read Oscar Wilde's The Birthday of the Infanta (linked), and listen to The Decemberists' The Infanta accompanied by a very odd video apparently made by a high school film & video class (after the jump).

Another brush with fame

I am a couple of days late blogging this, but i wanted to make sure i could show you the video easily.

Some of you know that my mother Janice is an internationally award-winning lacemaker; now the viewing population of the greater Chicago area knows it, too. On Wednesday afternoon my mother was interviewed for about two hours by a reporter from the local Chicago ABC affiliate for a segment they call Someone You Should Know. The segment aired on the Thursday 5:00 news.

It's a great piece, and i'm really proud of her. (FYI: the version embedded after the jump is quite a large file; a smaller, lower quality -- therefore faster loading -- version can be found here)

See Mum's website here and visit the Land of Lincoln Lacemakers IOLI 2008 Convention site here.

How about some accordion?

No, this isn't turning into a The The video blog, but i can't give you Uncertain Smile without This is the Day. This one really is the early 80s video, though, not just a still with music.

The The: Uncertain Smile

I'm tired. Here, listen to some really good piano:

This American Life: Plunging you to the depths of despair

I love This American Life, a weekly radio broadcast that i download in podcast form every Tuesday. It usually has quirky stories, things that make you think, things that might make you laugh, and things that might make you cry. The most recent episode (March 28, 2008) just makes me hate politicians and bureaucrats.

Download it here and join me as i renew my vow of misanthropy:

This American Life: "The Audacity of Government"

How nice

I got a lovely email this morning from one of my former students in Decatur. He is a Haitian young man, very intelligent, and he is now going to university. Here's the absolute sweetest thing he said (or any student could say):

You really helped me develop the attitude and the skillls necessary to go on with further studies.

So nice. It makes me smile.

Brush with fame

As an avid reader of Language Log and a once-in-a-very-great-while correspondent with its writers, i was ecstatic to see this posted today by Prof. Geoffrey Pullum:

The University of Glasgow's Faculty of Arts promulgated in 2002 a policy (see it here) that apparently relates to transfer of credit from foreign universities. But what it says, even in the main header to the page (and I thank Judith Blair for bringing this to my attention), is that it concerns "Grades received furth of Glasgow". What the hell is furth?

Read the entire article here.

Mush

Mush. That would be my brain at this point. Let me tell you, doing a masters degree at the same time as planning a wedding is not good for the grey matter. My local friends can attest that i have begun losing things (hey, guys, i found my gloves!), and my professors can confirm my mediocre academic performances (still passing-quality though).

Today i sent an email to David, our officiant and best pal, asking him what he might be thinking of wearing for the ceremony. I told him that Universal Life Church, through which he is ordained, has cossacks. Yes, i said cossacks. I looked at the word for a while with a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right, but then i sent the email anyway. This was hours ago, and it only just hit me that what i meant was cassocks.

Cassocks. Cossacks. Close enough.

Image credits: Pearson Scott Foresman and Dariusz T. Wielec

15 Minutes worth spending

Kid Does His War on Terror School Project using Porn (Clean) from Arman Noory on Vimeo.

Atlanta

So, i have been watching some of the footage of the tornado(es) that ripped through Atlanta last Friday night, and it seems strange to me that i'm not there. After living in the city for 14 years, it has become just somewhere that i once lived, and that makes me a little sad in some ways. I will probably never live there again.

For coverage of the damage, check these links:

• WXIA Channel 11
• Wikipedia
• Wikimedia Commons
• Google

I'll miss you, too

You won't be hearing from me again until at least Wednesday, because i'm heading to Hampshire for a long weekend tomorrow morning. I'm going to see my aunt Yvonne, and my parents will be there at the same time. On Sunday we are all going over to Kent to see my other aunt and uncle.

In the meantime, here's something to think about: As i was trying to fall asleep last night, i was thinking about the term LED, you know, light emitting diode, and how some people say 'L.E.D.' while others say 'led'. I personally prefer the former. This thought process led (ha ha) to me thinking of how i would write LED so that people would say it in the manner i prefer (because manipulating people is a hobby of mine). Here's how it went:

1. LED
2. ellyd
3. ellydee
4. Elly Dee
5. Elodie
6. Hey! Can i make other names out of electronic components?

Thrilling, isn't it? I immediately got stuck with capacitor, because i kept wanting to add 'flux' to the beginning. So, can you think of any? Here's a list of components to get you started:

• transistor
• capacitor
• diode
• resistor

That's all i can think of off the top of my head, but you all have access to Wikipedia to get more. I expect to find hundreds of comments upon my return all with brilliant names. Have at it.

Found!

My hat! Some nice person at the library found my hat and hung it next to the bank of computers on level 8. I had made a quick tour of level 5's annex where i made some copies yesterday and had just cruised past the table where i had sat for a while on level 8, when i turned the corner and saw it near the doors to the elevator.

So happy. I wore it home.

In other news: tracking down sources for an early twentieth-century travel guide to Milan is not easy. The lovely author didn't believe in references, apparently. Does anyone know which medieval chronicler tells us about the spirit of St Ambrose striking a bunch of people dead while they were at Mass with Emperor Conrad?

Ditz

I don't know what is wrong with me today.

I completely skipped my Latin class by accident; somehow my brain decided the class started at 1:00, not 12:00, despite the fact that it has been at 12:00 for the entire year. I managed to see my professor afterwards, and she told me i must be working too hard and should go lie down in a darkened room.

Paleography went fine, but then i went to the library. Where i lost my hat. My most favo(u)rite hat i have ever owned. You have never seen a picture of this hat, because i only bought it in January. It has kept a lot of Glaswegian rain off my head. I have sent out an SOS text message to all my friends who may be still in the library (i didn't realize it was gone until i was walking home in the rain) to keep an eye out for it. I'll check with lost and found tomorrow.

I'm sure there's something else i'm forgetting to tell you...

Pretty pictures for your blog

I know most of you don't blog, and if you do, you probably have already settled on a design and blog header. That said, i still really wanted to post about Smashing Magazine's free blog header round-up.

I especially liked this one:

It's so nice to see people giving away stuff that doesn't suck.

Discovered via How about orange...