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You are viewing the most recent 25 entries.
15th July 20099th July 2009
: Perception of Science
Here's an interesting report on poll findings detailing how opinions differ between scientists and the general public on a variety of issues, including science, scientists, and politics. 5th June 2009
: Conditioning
I work in a high-security building, where everyone is required to take elevators instead of stairs (except going down in case of emergency). The elevators are secure because you have to enter a special code on a keypad to get to your floor instead of just pushing a floor number. I work on the second of 20 floors. This means that when I get in the elevator going down around lunch time or the end of the day, there's someone else in it. Usually a crowd. For whatever reason, the last two days on my way home I've stepped into an empty elevator. And stood there for five minutes staring at the doors before realizing I have to push a button to make it go down. 19th May 2009
: The GOP Needs Its Own 'Secret Speech' Repudiating the Cheney Era
By Jacob Heilbrunn This is a big week for the GOP. Two events suggest that it isn't detached from reality. It's oblivious to it. The first event takes place on Wednesday, when the Republican National Committee, as today's Washington Times reports, will hold a special meeting at National Harbor in Maryland to decide whether or not to endorse a resolution demanding that the Democratic Party call itself the "Democrat Socialist Party." RNC chairman Michael S. Steele is resisting the resolution even as he uses the term socialist to describe the Obama administration's fiscal policies. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when the Solons of the GOP debate the fine points of economic theory to decide whether or not President Obama really qualifies as a socialist intent on imposing communist-style collectivism upon America. Will they feverishly be consulting their Hegel, Lasalle, and Kautsky as they lash each other into a frenzy of indignation over the nature of true socialist doctrine? No doubt Obama will be quaking in fear over the fate of this resolution. (read the rest of the article) 6th May 2009
: Tyrion Lannister = Peter Dinklage
This is by far the best possible choice for Tyrion. I am giddy. 7th April 2009
: baaaaa
Following 1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitch-hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Run/walked a marathon (walked, of course) 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run 32. Been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught yourself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing 40. Seen Michelangelo's David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen a geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had your portrait painted 48. Gone deep sea fishing 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain 53. Played in the mud 54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business (a BBS, when I was in high school.. never really got off the ground) 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone hang gliding 66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone 78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had your picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone's life (I assume. Isn't this implicit in 64?) 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a lawsuit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. Been stung by a bee 100. Read an entire book in one day 6th April 2009
: Busy Day After a Busy Weekend
Spent the weekend trying to exhaust a puppy more energetic than myself and Acacia combined. Today, took her (the puppy, not Acacia, though she was present also, and actually more responsible for the taking) to the vet for a preliminary check-up, secured custom-molded orthotics and a prophylactic to thwart my nocturnal bruxing, put in six hours at the office, finally connected my desktop computer for the first time after moving in October in order to utilize its card reader which is the only means I currently possess to extract digital images from my camera's flash memory card, and endeavored further to exhaust the aforementioned juvenile canine. There are frustrating and disgusting (respectively) stories to go with the orthotics and the night guard, so I'll proceed in that order (and stick the night guard story behind a cut for those of faint heart as well as those who've recently eaten). First, the orthotics. Several months ago, I developed knee pains, such that whenever I bent my left knee at sharp enough angle, it felt as though some invisible demigoblin was pressing an open flame against it. One x-ray, one MRI, and thousands of milligrams of ibuprofen later, we determined that every bone and muscle directly involved with my knee was undamaged, so the pain must have been caused elsewhere. A podiatrist agreed with my theory that my flat, pronated feet were responsible, and so put a plaster cast on each of my feet for all of fifteen minutes in order to record their shape. The orthotics would arrive, he prophesied, in approximately three weeks, so to be safe, we made an appointment one month to the day later. I arrived then, fifteen minutes early (taking time, as was necessary, from work). The next forty five minutes of my life bought me one portentous question: "Sir, did you only come here to pick up your orthotics?" "I did." "Ah. Yes. Well, they're not here yet. Let's arrange another summit, shall we? How does one week's passage of the moon 'round the Earth in its ceaseless solar orbit suit your convenience?" The ritual words we then did utter, and stole I a vow that telephonic heralds should harbinger the arrival of my fucking shoe implants before I wasted any more time heating their waiting-room chairs. "Oh, yes, we always call the day before to confirm your appointment*. I'll write down a note here so that whoever makes that call remembers to tell you whether or not your orthotics have arrived." *They had not called to confirm my appointment that day, nor have I ever received any phone call from their office to confirm an appointment any day since that day. Since I didn't receive a confirmation call the day before my next appointment, I didn't go. That was enough to produce a call. Happily, I was at work, and didn't notice my phone vibrating in my pocket, and had time to calm my wits before responding to the voice mail berating me for missing my appointment. Of special interest here is the fact that the angry man in the recording included, angrily, "your orthotics are here," as if to convey that I really screwed up this time because they hadn't messed up again. Except for the part where they forgot to call me, which this person should have known about if he knew enough about the significance of the presence of my orthotics to emphasize it in his lecture. At any rate, we rescheduled for today, and I went in and got them today, and my first reaction was, "Oh, so this is what it's supposed to feel like to walk." Really, it makes much more sense this way. ( And now, a disgusting story about the inside of a mouth. )
: Puppy
Elizabeth gets a close-up: Elizabeth falls through the cracks: Elizabeth projects a rabbit from her forehead: Elizabeth smirks: Elizabeth takes herself seriously for a moment: 24th March 200920th February 2009
: All Memes, All The Time
Following -Describe me in one word- just one single word. Positive or negative. -Leave your word in a comment, before looking at what words others have used. -Copy and paste the meme to your journal to find out how people describe you when limited to one word. 16th February 2009
: In a Nutshell
31st January 200922nd January 200926th November 2008
: Tee hee!
I am eating lunch at home, because the walk from work is so short. I feel so mischievous. 21st November 2008
: Hate to Say I Told You So
Well, it's happened. It's snowing. In the middle of November. It's snowing all day, and it's cold enough that it might stick to the ground. On the last day before we move, and I have that terrible walk. If the ground's actually covered when I get out of work tonight, I'm taking a cab home. 14th November 2008
: Yeargh
According to Mapquest, the distance I walk every morning to work is 1.26 miles, and I walk home again in the evenings. This has not been as difficult as you might think, after the first week or so (which followed a mostly sedentary period from early May to early October, between graduating and finding a job. Sorry, you'd know these facts if I were better about updating my Livejournal, but the problem is I suck. Anyway,) that is, it's been surprisingly easy up until the last few days. It's become so much harder because a week after tomorrow, we're moving, and the walk distance shrinks to .31 miles. Still, so long as climate change doesn't cover the streets of Philadelphia in snow in the next eight days, I think I can keep myself in check. 5th November 2008
: Happy
Current Mood:
23rd October 200817th October 200825th September 200824th September 2008
: Unbelievable
Just how far will the McCain campaign go to keep Sarah Palin from the press? Campbell Brown says enough is enough, and even Rush Limbaugh is running out of patience with the campaign's antics. 17th September 2008
: Jaw, Meet Floor
Okay, now Palin's claiming she actually fired Monegan for insuboordination, because he sought federal funding for a program she vetoed that would have more aggressively pursued child molesters. I thought it was bad enough when she forced sexual assault victims to pay for their own rape kits. W. T. F. 6th September 2008 |
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