| Hall folk: Do it. |
[May. 21st, 2007|08:13 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | Charitable | ] |
Donate to SATRI:
 |
|
|
| OK, now I can post again.... |
[Nov. 9th, 2006|02:46 pm] |
...because WE WON!!!!!!
Now I can post about my work without fearing for my job!
Soon, there will be an update. And possibly invitations to a get-together called Andyfest 2006: Back From The Dead.
|
|
|
| I did this for 2, 8, and 9. |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|11:49 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | new, slanty room | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  awake | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | fan | ] |
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (middle name and current street name)
William East George (shittiest rock star name ever)
2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME (grandfather/mother on father's side, and your favorite candy)
Anand Skor (OK, that's pretty awesome. In fact, I might go by that from now on.)
3. YOUR FLY GIRL/GUY NAME (first initial of first name, first two or three initials of last)
A-Sud (Sounds like a single bubble in a bathtub.)
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite animal, favorite color)
Rabbit Red (You'll notice as we go along that I'm being shifty about the color, for purposes of humor.)
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city of birth)
William Philadelphia (That's a mouthful.)
6. STAR WARS NAME (first 3 letters of last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of pet's name)
Sud Eff Par
7. JEDI NAME (middle name spelled backwards, mother's maiden name spelled backwards)
Mailliw Ffeen (I pronounce it May-loo Pheen.)
8. PORN STAR NAME (first pet's name, street where you grew up)
Tips North (How thematically appropriate.)
9. SUPERHERO NAME ("The", favorite color, car your parents own)
The Maroon Infiniti! (It must always be spelled with an exclamation point.) |
|
|
| Because I don't have enough to do at work |
[Apr. 25th, 2006|11:12 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Office | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cold | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | the whoosh of cars on North Main | ] |
If you comment...
1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you. |
|
|
| that Wiki thing |
[Apr. 14th, 2006|05:04 pm] |
Wiki search your birthday and post 3 events, 2 births, and 1 death.
Events
588 BC - Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign. The siege lasts until July 18, 586 BC.
1870 - A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).
1919 - The Boston Molasses Disaster kills 21 people.
Births
1929 - Martin Luther King Jr, American civil rights leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1968)
1972 - Kobe Tai, Asian American porn star
Death
41 - Caligula, Roman Emperor (b. 12) |
|
|
| Come on and ride the meme train...meme train... |
[Feb. 28th, 2006|12:59 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  artistic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The silent wailing of the lonely cow-dog | ] |
If you read this, if your eyes
are passing over this right now, (even if we don't speak often) please
post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you
and me.
It can be anything you want - good or bad - BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.
When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be
surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember
about you.
In other news, I don't have to make phone calls this week, so I can see people and maybe even post a real update! |
|
|
| Done. Finished. Over. But not graduated. |
[Dec. 16th, 2005|07:31 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  DONE! | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | cellphone | ] |
I AM DONE WITH BROWN!!!!!
It's over. At 4:00 this afternoon I dropped off my final college obligation - a 12-page paper on Things Fall Apart, which I read in high school (that seems somehow fitting) - and headed out of the English Department building, but Genna told me to go back and wait a minute. Her nefarious celebration plan was not ready. When I came out again, she was still alone but she blew a broken noisemaker (one of those ones that shoots out a ribbon and theoretically goes "TOOT!") and threw gold confetti on me.
And that was it. I bought a celebratory bottle of apple ice wine, which I will open tomorrow.
Soon I will receive my "Dear Inactive Probable Graduate" letter. Sooner, I will start my new job. It's good to be done. |
|
|
| Employment makes me all warm inside |
[Dec. 15th, 2005|12:01 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  employed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | A humming refrigerator | ] |
I got a job!
Starting on January 3rd I will be a field organizer for Whitehouse for Senate. That means I'm responsible for mobilizing lots of people to vote. Thousands of people. Ack, scary. It pays pretty crappy, like any campaign job, but it does have health insurance. Amazing!
Sadly, this means I can't go to G.C. The party in MS will have to go on without me, and all those who were going to be in my car...unless someone out there has transportation ideas, hmm? |
|
|
| A Triumphant Return |
[Sep. 26th, 2005|12:11 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | sniffling | ] |
I'm back! Online, that is. The gods of wireless connectivity have finally seen fit to bestow upon me a PC/MCIA card that works beautifully. And it only took, in total, three different cards and 190 non-refundable dollars. Blargh.
To celebrate my return I bring you a delicious tidbit I just found: a Time.com interview with Neil Gaiman and Joss Wedon. It's so freaking funny. A sample:
Time: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is out this month as well, making it effectively national Goth month.
NG: We are Goth icons, Joss and I. We don't have to be Goths, because we are Goth icons.
JW: I'm low on mascara. It's weird.
Enjoy! Perhaps there will be a life-update soon. Perhaps. But for now I am tired - it has been, to say the least, a strange couple days. |
|
|
| Set a course for Los Angeles, and we'll blow the shit out of something big. |
[Aug. 27th, 2005|02:58 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  blank | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | March from 1941, John Williams | ] |
Quote of the day:
Toshiro Mifune, as a hapless Japanese submarine commander trying to destroy Hollywood in the film 1941, after attempting to make Slim Pickens excrete a compass he has swallowed by force-feeding him prune juice:
"This has not been honorable." |
|
|
| "Here we go/on another tour/on the road again" |
[Aug. 26th, 2005|12:54 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  silly | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Boyz II Men - All Around The World | ] |
Must pack all my belongings. Again. To move for the fifth time in 14 months. Aarrrgh. What's a boy to do?
Dig out the Boyz II Men CD's I rescued from home, that's what. Oh, for the heady days when "boy bands" had not yet recurred, and four black men in their mid-twenties who could really sing (hell, they went to school for it!) and write their own songs were on top of the world. I remember that their triumphant return to Philly after the "II" album came out was the top story on the news. And they drew fans from every stratum of life. Sure, they were uncontroversial and wholesome, but don't you remember when that was uncommon? These guys were actually talented, and they actually were role models, instead of play-acting at being them.
I know the Backstreet Boys and their ilk must have grown up listening to these guys. Now, after allowing themselves to be whitewashed and packaged, what would they think if they dug out these old albums and listened to them again? Would they be ashamed?
Now, to fit all my clothes into one suitcase... |
|
|
| Nubbin-headed goodness |
[Aug. 21st, 2005|06:31 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | Legotastic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Lenny Kravitz - If You Can't Say No | ] |
Sample dialogue of my week:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pirateelmo (on the phone): "Are you playing Lego Star Wars?"
Me: "Not right now...but, um, I was getting up to do that."
pirateelmo: "Good, because I was going to come over in a while."
Lego Star Wars has descended on my PS2 and taken over my life. This game preserves everything that's cool about Star Wars - the lightsaber duels, the alien races, etc - while redeeming everything that's hokey about Episodes 1-3 - Jar-Jar, Amidala, etc - because it looks funnier in Legos. And there's no dialogue, only sounds.
I can barely begin to list the cool things about this game. Your enemies fall apart when defeated. When you use the Force on things, they spray money. Mace Windu (the Samuel L. Jackson Jedi) is bald, so his head has a Lego nubbin on the top. When you Force a table with chairs, they dance and the cantina music from the original Star Wars plays. There's a part where you can set up a disco, and the woojy white aliens from Episode II dance to a full disco version of the Star Wars theme.
Playing through Episode II makes me want to see the movie again. I think it'll hold up better now that it can be viewed as a bridge between two existing movies. And never mind you nay-sayers, despite all its faults, I loved Episode III. Back me up here, mechaskwid |
|
|
| Do they even have parasites in Denmark? |
[Aug. 17th, 2005|04:30 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sick | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | coughing | ] |
So much to say! So many places have I been!
Stockholm - Hooray for saidshe! She took to me a delicious and blessedly affordable underground lunch place, and then to see the Vasa. Holy crap. So big. So beautiful. I hope my pictures come out.
Helsinki - Wandered around a gorgeous, ruined island fort. relevance and coy_mistress, if my pictures come out, you'll love them. Also bought spectrolite jewelry and pondered the irrationality of watercolors of pink reindeer costing 75 euros.
St. Petersburg - OK, so you've always heard about the splendor of the Tsars' palaces in St. Petersburg. But then you get there and - surprise! - they're all tan. Except the blue one, but that's not in the city proper. Turns out the Communists didn't have to tear down these monstrosities of wealth; they just had to keep the doors closed, and from the outside they look as drab as the concrete high-rises next door. But inside there are oddities like the Amber Room (yes, it's what you think it is) and diamond encrusted toilette kits. We visited the famous Hermitage museum, with its massive collection of non-Russian art. They say that if you spent a minute on every item in the collection, it would take several years to finish. It felt like it. Also, at a folk show, someone puked behind my mom's chair. Russia, you have given me nothing but andalsoyes, but I love you for that. Oh, and you also gave me a great hat for foxkelafra.
Tallinn, Estonia - Tallinn is a beautiful city that hasn't quite become a huge tourist destination yet. Too bad we only spent about 20 minutes in the actual city. Our tour took us to a distillery museum (not the actual distillery!) and a 12th century castle that had been remodeled as an incredibly hokey tourist trap. I mean, when we went into the basement, an animatronic skeleton rose up and cackled at us. Aargh. Also, the worst American kids EVER were in our group. But you'll have to read my thesis to hear more about that.
I got a bottle of Estonian vodka and a Tallinn-specific liqueur that, according to the bottle, "tastes slightly like rum". Will it be delicious like Tallinn, or will it suck like the rest of Estonia? You're all entitled to a taste.
Berlin - noradannan! It was rainy, so we spent most of the day eating or riding the subway. Had currywurst, a deliciously strange concoction of wurst, curry powder, and ketchup. Acquired photographic proof thereof. Also had cherry beer and strawberry ice cream. And took a picture of the fluffy traveling companions reading a newspaper in German.
Copenhagen - More castles and palaces. Spent about 2 minutes in a military antiques store, and just when I thought I was about to find a gift for mechaskwid, the rest of my party took off. Blast! Rough seas forced us to stay in Copenhagen another day instead of heading to Helsingborg. Blast!
Set out on the train to find the Carlsberg brewery. Discovered it was located far outside the city. Found it was also nowhere near the train station. Three sets of directions didn't help. Made our way to a shipping entrance, were told the tourist entrance was back three blocks. Got there, discovered we had exactly enough time to catch the last bus back to the boat. Blast! And then I figured it out: The Carlsberg brewery is nothing but a myth! A cruel practical joke played by the Danes on all tourists, orchestrated, no doubt, by the Prime Minister himself! Whenever they're feeling down, the Danes can just turn to each other and say, "How about that brewery, eh! Hah! Stupid Americans."
I got a cold on the last day, and after the 6 hour plane ride it had become a fever. I've been back in Rhode Island for three days now and the muscle pain, headache, and stomach ache haven't gone away. Every time I cough I think my head's going to explode. I think it must be some sort of infection. But Scandinavia seemed so...pure...
Off to the doctor, perhaps. |
|
|
| On the Wonder of Meeting the Lantern Tuner |
[Aug. 2nd, 2005|10:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Vivaldi, I think | ] |
mechaskwid, this is for you: The bar on my cruise is a Cirque Du Soleil bar!!! A few nights a week, you can line up to enter at 10:27 exactly(?!). You're shuffled onto a dance floor surrounded by white cloth (it's suggested that you wear white), and images like butterflies and kaleidoscopic patterns are projected on you. After a few minutes they take the fabric down and you can sit in the bar. Cirque Du Soleil characters come dancing up to you and communicate in their strange, sort-of-like-Cats-only-better way. They're wonderfully inventive and oceanic - the Light Communicator, for instance, wears a giant glowing hat like a mushroom cap and seems to be beaming messages from a walking-stick; as for the Abyss Gardener, well, he gardens the abyss. Duh. But the best is definitely the Lantern Tuner, a sylph-like figure with illuminated dreadlocks. She(?) communicates only in laughter. She is, in short, the hottest fictional character EVER.
Saw Oslo. Nice ski jump there, but I've little else to say.
The social dynamic on the cruise is beginning to wear on me, because I'm stuck between the age ranges of my group; the others are mostly under 17 or over 50. There seem to be about twenty twentysomethings on this cruise, and most of them...well, let's just say I think I've seen them at Viva.
To Stockholm tomorrow, for canals and saidshe!
And, in closing, a challenge: Make me drink! The bars on this ship can make just about anything, and my dad's picking up the tab. If I'm going to drink with my parents, I'd better be drinking well, so tell me: what should I drink? Extra points for creativity (within reason). |
|
|
| The Deal (for Stockholm and Berlin) |
[Jul. 31st, 2005|04:25 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | people being confused by the cruise computers | ] |
noradannan and saidshe, here's my deal in your respective cities:
Stockholm: August 3rd
My family is going on a canal cruise from 10:30 to 12:30. That's pretty much non-negotiable. After that, you can meet me at Hammarby Lochs(spelling?), where the canal boat returns to, or at the last stop of the cruise, City Hall. Alternatively, I could try to return to the cruise ship pier if that's better for you.
My family wants to try to get to the Ice Bar at some point, but I don't care so much. The other people in our group are also desperate to see the Vassa, but I guess they don't have to go with me and you. Comment here or email me as soon as you see this, because I want to figure this out for sure. On the 3rd, you can call the phone number from my previous post.
Berlin: August 9th
I will arrive at Lichtenberg Station in Berlin at 9:00AM. I hope you can meet me there, because I can't go on the cruise-sponsored trip or I won't be able to find you.
I have to be at the Spandau train station in the afternoon - I'll find out the exact time on that day.
Comment here or email me! At least we have more time to figure this out than saidshe and I do. Again, you can call the number from my last post on the 9th.
Let me know what you want to do. Tell me specifically what sounds doable, because I can only check the internet briefly and we can't really have an extended LJ conversation!
Yay! |
|
|
| My life, pandas, etc. |
[Jul. 26th, 2005|02:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  mischievous | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | typing. also, the printer hums. | ] |
So much for that life-update post I promised you, right?
WRONG!
I'm going to structure this like the conversation we would have if you were here (assuming you're not):
What happened in the rest of the academic year, after you stopped posting?
Let's see...in April my thesis application was finally approved, ending a multi-year pain in the ass. The proposal was to write two pieces, an academic research paper and a personal narrative. But now that I'm accepted and I've started to write, in hallowed humanities-major fashion, I'm going to drop the hard stuff and write a series of essays. OK, so that might be hard too.
In other academic news, I graduated...sort of. I have one semester to go, but I walked in Commencement and went through the Van Wickle Gates, which means I'm either done with Brown or doomed never to graduate, depending on your point of view.
What are you doing for the summer?
I'm a secretary in the office where I ran campaigns last year. That's right, I'm moving up in the world.
I'm living on East Street with psycofunkymunk and foxkelafra. We share a happy existence, kept in karmic and hormonal balance by our dinner co-op and regular doses of Dark Angel. Sadly, we just finished season 1 and co-op ends this week. I am afeared.
Are you having a good summer?
Yes! There has been much visiting, and a surprisingly fun wedding in the Teitelbaum family. And on Thursday I depart for a two week cruise! through Scandinavia! That means I get to see saidshe and noradannan in their European abodes! Also, this is a fancy/snobby cruise, so I'm hoping to score with some trophy wives. If I come back injured, it's because I offended the honor of a Southern gentleman.
What are you doing next semester?
I'll be back at Brown to finish out my time, of course. I'm moving in with pirateelmo when jupiterempath moves out, but I'll be around King House plenty as well. By November I will be living and breathing my thesis.
And what about after school?
I don't know. I seem to have a job prospect where I'm working now (doing politics, not clerical work), but I have to make sure. It looks like I'll be in Rhode Island for a few years before looking to move on to DC.
So that's my life for now. I'm sure that was boring, and you deserve a treat for reading it, so here's a baby panda webcam! |
|
|
| **backs away slowly** |
[Jun. 24th, 2005|12:33 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | anticipatory | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | A coworker checking if she's a victim of identity theft | ] |
My first post in a very long time is an excuse to ask a couple questions that are burning within me: 1) Why are the friendly neighbors so often creepy?, and 2) What is it with the Jeffrey Dahmer comment?
If these questions seem random and disturbing to you, consider this random and disturbing anecdote:
I was walking to my car this morning when I encountered our middle-aged next-door neighbor and his burly dog. As the dog was peeing, they were standing still, and we said hi. The neighbor remembered my name and refreshed my memory about his (Al). He asks me if I like living on East Street, and I say yeah, it's a nice place. I tell him I was friends with some people who lived across the street during the school year (andalsoyes and fugitivethought). Mistaking them for the people around the corner, he says, "Oh yeah, the Kerry supporters!" Why he would single those folks out that way in this blue neighborhood of a blue city in a blue state, I don't know, but then I do already know from his bumper sticker that he's a Bush-supporting war veteran.
He asks if it gets really hot in our apartment, because we're on the third floor. I say no, we have a pretty complicated system of fans. "Yeah," he says, "I can see them in the windows." Sensing that he's said something potentially creepy, he changes tack, but veers off in a bad direction and ends up in a sea of creepy: "Hey, who's that girl in you house? That blonde? She your girlfriend?" Fearing for foxkelafra, I stall a little. It turns out the girl he's talking about drives to work. No, I tell him, she's not in my apartment. I've only met her once, I say, but she seemed nice.
"Sure," he says, "but Jeffrey Dahmer seemed real nice, right?"
I would like to state for the record that he is not the first person to say this to me. Many people have over the years, and every time it only makes the speaker seem creepy - especially because up to that point they have usually seemed "real nice." Does anyone actually find this comment funny enough to bear repeating?
So I giggle to cover my growing unease, take my leave and haul ass for the car. As I'm starting the car it occurs to me that the dog is still peeing. Now that's creepy.
**actual life-update post to follow** |
|
|
| Give Me Novocaine...in my pants. |
[Mar. 23rd, 2005|09:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | headachey | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | um, see below | ] |
Stolen from Christian (hope all goes well, buddy). I have no choice but to do it!
Take the first 20 songs that come up on your playlist on random, and add "in my pants" to the end of them.
1. Daft Punk - Da Funk In My Pants
2. Bruce Springsteen - The Rising In My Pants
3. Gomez - Machismo In My Pants
4. The Dresden Dolls - The Perfect Fit In My Pants
5. Metallica - Turn The Page In My Pants
6. Sneaker Pimps w/Portishead - Water In My Pants
7. Fastball - Out Of My Head In My Pants
8. Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman In My Pants
9. Cake - Sheep Go To Heaven In My Pants
10. Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy In My Pants
11. Joe Cocker - Ain't No Sunshine In My Pants
12. Steely Dan - Dirty Work In My Pants
13. Angie Stone - Wish I Didn't Miss You In My Pants
14. Stevie Ray Vaughan - I'm Going Down In My Pants
15. Bob Marley and Peter Tosh - This Train In My Pants
16. Eric Clapton - Cocaine In My Pants
17. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird In My Pants
18. Rage Against The Machine - Fuck The Police In My Pants
19. Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire In My Pants
20. Righteous Brothers - That Lovin' Feeling In My Pants |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
bored