RIP, SS

FOR those of you who have ever driven from Portland to the coast, I have sad news to deliver:
http://www.katu.com/news/local/12043736.html

cafe tom and ray

guys who know cars, know politics, and have something salient and intelligent to say to congress:
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/cafe/

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated (but click here for discussion)

******** G*****
8*** ***** ***** Rd
*****, UT 8****

Verizon Wireless
Customer Service Department
Post Office Box 96082
Bellevue, WA 98009-9682

November 17, 2007

To whom it may concern:

My name is ******** G*****, and I have been a customer of Verizon Wireless for 5+ years. My Verizon mobile phone number is ***-***-**** and my account number is *********-*****. My social security number is ***-***-****.

Apparently, yesterday evening you called my alternate phone number, 801-***-****, and asked to speak with me. My father was so surprised that someone would ask for me at his house (it has been 10 years since I lived there) that he said “He’s dead” and hung up, assuming it was telemarketing. This is in spite of my being very much alive. And, in fact, sitting in the same room.

I suspect you were calling about my address, which has recently changed. I did not inform you of it because all my transactions with Verizon are electronic, and I just forgot. I updated my address information online today at 11:53 AM Utah time, and received a TXT message confirming the change.

I then called *611 and spoke with a representative named Chris. In spite of – I’m guessing – not having much training for what to do when a customer calls and says “I’m not dead” he did an excellent job listening. And, when he checked the notes regarding my account, indeed found one stating that the customer is “deceased.” He told me he would insert a note that the customer is NOT deceased, but he was not sure whether any other action had been taken by Verizon as a result of this miscommunication.

Thus I am formally contacting you in writing. I am not deceased. I like Verizon, I like my phone number. I instruct you to take any necessary action to remove any hint that I am deceased from my account. I also specifically request that you do not inform any business partners of the erroneous news that I am dead.

Next time, just call my [Verizon] mobile number!

Sincerely,


******** G******

No Way

In the most recent Newsweek, or today on NPR's Day-to-Day, there's a story about name-letter preference. I'm so000 hoping this is a hoax... but it's not April...

Statistically, people gravitate toward concepts, names and things that begin with the same letter as their name. No way! (in the science-is-awesome no way, not the science-is-bollocks no way)

My name is g*****. For what seems like an eternity, i have been a Graduate student in Genetics. Other than the friends I have met in Graduate school, a very large fraction of everyone else I care about is Gay. (or other g******s, but i suppose that's hardly a coincidence)

for my friends in vegas ... i nearly choked when he told me his last name... it sounds more like hers than any other utterance i've ever heard.

of the head-over-heels crushes i've had, and there aren't too many of them, are a g****** (which i didn't even know for like 6 months) and a gr***. did i mention i'm a gr****?

for some reason Newsweek doesn't have the short pithy article on their web site, but the full science blog link is:

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2007/11/07/a-my-name-is-alice-moniker-madness.aspx

great

mas music-o

my parents get some XM stations by DirecTV. Since when did my musical tastes tend to involve the word "adult"?

i think i can take a lot of comfort in how much i still can't stand Steely Dan. there's nothing else though! my goodness, it's like having every PBS music special ever produced jammed up your ass all at once. that includes Lord of the Dance.

16 years later

something about roadtrips and quasi-homelessness (the kind where you live at your parents'), something about changing the things you see and hear and do everyday also makes your musical soundtrack veer away from the ruts of comfortable but stale playlists.

R.E.M.'s Out Of Time is remarkable.

to california

I Miss You. Very Much.

for those of you who also yell profanities at your computer

in excel, if are sorting your data, and for some reason it keeps deciding you have a Header Row when you don't,

don't yell out "not fucking header row" because no one around you will think that's what you said.

MY new 7oy

i bought atablet that Ieahwrite with. Iguess its not perfect. In othernews ) I had a great dinner with friends M Vegas The burgers and company were great, and try service was dinine divine Its so sadwhen bad handwriting gets innuway of a goodjoke.

more utterfly brilliant things i'm stealing from other blogs

seriously. watch this.

and by the way...

I am honestly not sure what should be done about the absolute absurdity of that email. I feel bad that Paige L. Macias has to be the defender of a ridiculous, fascist policy. But if no one ever tells her how life-sucking that attitude is, it will never change.

plmacias@uci.edu

"translation: UC Irvine is proud of being a soulless wasteland"

Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:24:56 -0700
From: "Wendell C. Brase, Vice Chancellor, Administrative & Business
Services"
To: "Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students, School of Medicine
Students": ;
Subject: Animals on Campus Policy

ANIMALS ON CAMPUS POLICY

In order to ensure the safety of students, faculty, staff, and
visitors, we would like to remind you of UCI's policy regarding
animals on campus, summarized below.

1. In general, animals are prohibited in campus buildings, athletic
fields, and parks. Exceptions are service animals, therapy animals,
search and rescue animals, fish aquariums not used in research or
teaching, and animals bred specifically for use in approved teaching,
research, and clinical activities.

2. All animals on University grounds meeting the exceptions above must
be restrained and under control of a person at all times.

4. All persons bringing animals onto University property will be
responsible for the recovery and disposal of waste.

5. Any animal found on campus in violation of campus policy will be
impounded and the owner will be held responsible for impound and/or
license fees.

Animals housed in Verano Place, Palo Verde, and Vista del Campo are
subject to the policies of the Central Housing Office.

Animals residing in University Hills are subject to the policies of
the Irvine Campus Housing Authority.

UCI's complete policy regarding animals on campus is available at:
http://www.policies.uci.edu/adm/pols/903-16.html.

Thank you for your role in fostering a safe campus environment.

Paige L. Macias
Associate Vice Chancellor
Administrative & Business Services

:(

not my new house:

Forgotten Turkey Sandwich

I had planned to start my pilgrimage with a nice homemade Turkey sandwich instead of that awfulness (1 definitely not a sandwich 2 possibly not even animal or vegetable) that you can buy for $5 on the Northwest flight. I had also planned to, you know, actually Lock The Car before leaving it in the LAX lot for two nights. Neither of those came true; sandwich got left in fridge at home, car got left unlocked. Neither of those turned out badly, though...

Dinner last night was said Turkey sandwich. It was awesome. I think I will go back and revise the ingredient post to include green onions.

Lay down the following ingredients on top of one another:
Standard beginning:
Toast (whole wheat or TJ's flax+friends)
mayo
black pepper
sprouts
New fangled addition:
1cm-length cuts of green onion. don't separate the layers. just put about 4-7 of those bad boys somewhere in the spouts
Next three ingredients, order unknown:
3 slices Turkey
7mm slices of ripe heirloom tomato
green leaf lettuce, enough to cover with 2 layers of leaf
Finish:
a bit of yellow mustard
toast

Now, I don't know whether aging the sandwich in a gladware container for 3 nights is essential, but it sure didn't hurt. garnish with a little spicy hummus dip and crackers. man that was good.

apartment update. unless the winds blow an unexpected surprise my way, this will be my house. the first floor is me.

a pilgrimage

So... more apartments to visit. no time.

I thought I was coming here because of a girl. Then, it was a lab. Then, it got even more complicated. But now I know the real reason I am here.

death to the faggits? (& lesbians)

so one of my friends at St. Mark is a co-producer of a documentary about the intersection between the gay community and the christian community. give it a look; i'm not sure which theater it will be at in Irvine, but i'll keep you posted.

Tofu Sandwich Number One

I just enjoyed a very good TSNO and so it gets top billing in the sandwich blog.

Whole wheat toast. (Don't have a toaster? Don't try this sandwich. Won't be good.)

Firm tofu. If you're going to save the sandwich for lunch later, probably a good idea to drain the tofu AND blot dry on paper towel. If this is a meal for right now, just drain it. A little juiciness is good for you.

Good tomato. I got lucky and, instead of going with the boring organic one, put it back and opted for the heirloom, the kind that is never red on top but goes from greenish to being almost blackish. It was so sweet, and that never hurts a sandwich. (I'm a little worried that this is just going to turn into a "good tomatos are so great" blog.)

Mayonnaise. This is that sandwich, the one that I don't necessarily think would work without it. It's not a condiment, it's one of the ingredients. I'll be happy to hear substitutes (a little bit of margarine might work out OK).

Sprouts. Optional, but good. Sometimes I like to load up on the sprouts. On TSNO, I don't think so. Just "some" sprouts. And personally, I don't think lettuce works here.

So. Toast the toast.
Add generous mayonnaise to the bottom piece.
Put lots of fresh ground pepper on this piece.
Cut 1-2 cm (you didn't think the sandwich blog would be Imperial units, did you?) slices of drained tofu, and fashion on the sandwich to cover the surface nicely. Don't be all OCD and only cut square pieces of tofu. If your bread gives you a hole that requires a 3-dimensional shape that knows no one-word description, just cut the damn thing, stick it in there, and stop worrying about your precious tofu.
Cut thick slices of tomato. I'd say about 1 cm. If its a super good tomato, don't drain off the juice, cuz that juice is good and sweet. But if its an average, or even just a "good" tomato, you might want to blot or drain a little water off of it. This is a messy sandwich either way, but you don't want to drown away the flavor with watery tomato water.
OK, put the tomato on the tofu. Same rules apply. Maybe a little sprinkle of salt.
Short stack of sprouts onto tomato.
Mayonnaise the other toast. Not as thick, but not scrimping, either. You've got a wonderful milieu of quasi-wet flavors; you definitely don't want a crunchy, wholly dry piece of toast to be in the mix!

(Note: This sandwich also works well open faced, although you will want to move the sprouts to a lower layer.)

You will note that this is not a side dish blog. I don't always know the answer. But I would think that fruit would be the best side for this. I once bought a side of fries to go with my TSNO from home, and it was definitely a mistake.

This blog just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

rub the duck

I was wrong. Culver City Dub Collective. Much less fun than Culver City Duck Collective.

A free sandwich to the person who can identify the substance that, when you rub it on the back of a duck, it goes much faster.

Hint: It's not Sifl and Olly, but it is a comedian I'm obsessed with.

Essentials of a Sandwich Maker

With the caveat that some are more essential than others, ingredients that I find are commonly part of good sandwiches:

Bread:
A solid but not-flashy whole wheat. Trader Joe's is good, also the more rectangulary one from a regular grocery store is also very good (oroweat? no, i think its the cheaper one than that).
Trader Joe's 7 grain ... the one with flaxseed and 6 other seeds
Fresh Baguettes
Other premium bread? open to suggestions

Condiments:
Mayonnaise. If you know me, you know I love mayonnaise. It's actually a little frightening. But don't worry, only one sandwich can I think of that is just going to be bad without the mayo. Generally, just leave it out if you don't like it. I'm sure it will still be fine.
Yellow mustard (French's). Most of the time, it is your best choice for mustard.
Other mustards. For variety (French's brown, Grey Poupon, honey mustard, etc.)
Really good salsa. The best is Emerald Valley Kitchens (thanks, Al!), which in California seems to only be available at Wild Oats. And now that they've been bought by Whole Foods, who knows. (There's a rumor that Mother's has it... in my experience, Mother's has their other stuff (bean dips, i think) but not the good stuff!)
Sandwich dressing. in that little squirty bottle
Cranberry sauce. Haven't quite decided on the best choice here. Surprisingly, Ocean Spray really is better than store brands. But i'm not sure whether to go whole berry or jellied.
Black pepper grinder. Totally key. I can't think of a sandwich that doesn't get a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper.
Salt. Definitely less essential than pepper, but a salty tomatoey sandwich is pretty darn nice.

Veggies:
Just-the-Leaves green leaf lettuce. Nothing ruins a sandwich or salad like watery lettuce. Solve this problem by buying Trader Joe's pre-washed lettuce. Tip: when you open it, it will keep for more than a week but will get dry and limpy. Solve this problem by putting a few tablespoons of tap water in the bag. It will mostly go to the bottom and not make your lettuce too wet, but it will keep it moister.
Tomatos. Tomatos are key. I like heirlooms or anything from a friend's garden. In winter, i don't really see any point in buying expensive tomatos; they're all equivalently mediocre, so just get the roma tomatos. In summer you might want to go beefsteak. Also Japanese tomatos are really nice, low acid and super sweet. They have a weird color but are wonderful.
Sprouts. Trader Joe's sells pre-washed alfalfa sprouts for like $.79 for a week's worth. Totally worth it. And I use my increasing collection of containers for everything. Especially good as cereal bowl.
Avocado. If you're like me, you have a love-hate relationship with these little beasts. I can never get hard ones to ripen right, so i usually buy them when they are a day or a few days from being ready. The little ones in a bag tend to be a better deal for a single person like myself.
Green Onion. Finally, a new addition to the "essentials" list (added 23 Sept 2007). Nice onion flavor but with many fewer side effects. Wash it, then cut it up into 1cm pieces.
Onion. I find myself using less and less onion lately. Mostly i can't find ones that really do anything for me. All the Sweet onions seem to come from Texas, and the less I can do to support Texas' economy, the better. Red ones also may come in handy. You'll want to keep onions around if you're planning to do tuna salad.

Non-meats:
Tofu. Firm tofu, uncooked, is a taste I acquired as a kid and have never lost. It keeps for a long time unopened, then once you open it you just change its water every couple of days and you're good for a week or more.
Hummus. My favorite is Trader Joe's Spicy Hummus dip, but I'm sure most hummi are good.
Cheese? Actually not a big part of most of my sandwiches. I have a weakness for Brie. And on paper I like provolone, but I just can't work it in very well. Actually Havarti can be very good, and comes pre-sliced. Finlandia is a good brand.
Eggs. Buy free-range, happy eggs. Sometimes egg-salad sandwiches are the greatest thing i've created, and often not. I'll have to experiment to tell you the right proportions, but they exist. Like that one note on south park.
Peanut butter. Natural, smooth style. Never chunky.
Jam. Strawberry. Maybe blackberry.

Meats:
Turkey. I think you really have to start with Turkey. The closer you can come to buying a free-range, happy turkey, roasting it yourself, slicing for sandwiches the better, but the reality is you can't do that every week so some turkey from the deli counter is in order. I prefer just regular Oven Roasted, or the slightly sweetened ones (maple or honey) are good too.
Ham. The penultimate meat, I think. Like turkey, I think it can easily stand alone for the several days it will take you eat the ham that you bought.
Pastrami. A good pastrami (don't know which... will keep an eye out) is a good complement to other meats.
Roast Beef. I dunno, it's not something I buy much. Can be good, but not for a whole week, I feel.
Head cheese. Just kidding.

Equipment:
Toaster. Toasted bread is the base for the majority of my sandwiches. A toaster oven is even more handy than the springy kind. Although with less hilarity.
Cutting board. For cutting.
Knife. For cutting. Note to self, and others: if you sharpen your knives, be very careful during that first post-sharpening cutting.
Square sandwich containers. Actually I'm pissed at Gladware right now. Their new design is friggin' useless. Yeah, the lids lock together, who cares? What I notice is that they no longer seal very well. I bought some Albertson's brand but haven't tried them yet. And I inherited a purple-lidded one that is good, not sure the brand.

Fin

I have now made myself hungry. Damn.

yes a sandwich blog

So i made a joke the other day that I keep a donut blog. I'm not sure if Ivo was more intrigued by the 'donut' part or the 'my blog' part. He managed to find two donut blogs, obviously neither of which was mine.

Don't get me wrong, i like donuts. I like that whoever brings donuts is a hero for at least 20 minutes until everyone remembers that they like donuts, but feel a little gross after one. And there's still probably more left for an hour down the road.

But what I Love is Sandwiches. So what the hell, I'm going to add sandwich making to the assortment of topics I wander into. (I'm listening to KCRW... did you know there's a band Culver City Duck Collective?) Anyway, expect to see gorgeous sandwich recipes and tips from time to time. And please contribute in the comments (or by emailing me)! Meaty, veggie, vegan, I'm into all of it. I'll probably also post "recipes wanted" ... there's some things out there I just can't replicate and it drives me crazy! Just remember, there really aren't that many people who read this. So your secret recipe will only go out to a select few, or maybe even just me. (Which, in retrospect, looks like the whole point of this. But oh well, is self-indulgent recipe pilfering any worse than self-indulgent ranting in the hopes to entertain ones friends?)

So, next blog is going to be about ingredients. And one note: remember how I pledged to never go back and edit things after posting? I'm suspending that for the Sandwich ingredients post. But it'll be back in effect for recipes and stuff.

an open letter to mac

guys and girls of mac.

you know i love you. i am a loyal convert. but dammit, there are things about your OS that are making me curse you more and more each day. i sure hope you employ someone to search around the web for people making comments about mac OS X. I'm running 10.4.10, I guess.

if so, Hi, Person, please take my comments to heart. and also, take them to someone important who can decide that they need action, and to someone smart who can make that action happen. (unless either of those is you. in which case, be empowered, go for it!)

1) directories organized by Date Modified. When I look at a directory, 99% of the time it is like this. The problem arises when a file "F" exists and is displayed in the window. Then, as I am almost always doing, I re-run the script that created F. Therefore, F has now been modified more recently than the Directory window displays. It does not update automatically; it only updates when F has been selected (by a single-click or by moving around the list with the arrow keys).

OK, fine, I suppose I can live with that**. Whatever. Maybe file info is hard to display dynamically. But here's the thing that makes me utter shameful words that i'm not even supposed to know. When I click on F, the OS decides to update the info and move it to its "proper" spot amongst all the other [not-yet-updated] files. But then, if that one click was in fact the first of a double-click, the double-click gets exerted on something different [the thing that got bumped down to where F had been based on its old update info]! I curse and am thus ashamed. And you should be, too. If one click is on one file, and the other is on a different file, don't you think THE FILE I MEANT WAS THE ONE I CLICKED ON WITH THE FIRST CLICK?????

**(Although it becomes Extremely obnoxious when I've re-created many Files, as EACH ONE doesn't change its info until selected. and the selection jumps to the top of the list with the file, meaning that i can't just tell the directory to update them all at once without doing this weird chutes-and-ladders dance in which i jump up to the top of the list and then step through all the unchanged files down to the next changed file, which jumps to the top of the list again)

2) Spotlight. Again, my world is an organize-by-date-modified world. Yet, organizing by "Date" in Spotlight is the "date last opened." That makes me mad. A) It prevents me from doing something I want to do. Fundamentally un-American. B) Who the hell wants to know the last time s/he opened a file, anyway? If s/he didn't change it, it probably wasn't what s/he as looking for, is it? Ah, you remember that time I clicked on "agenda.txt", but it was the agenda from my kid's girl scout meeting instead of my schedule for my presentations in chicago? Good Times. I hope I can preserve that precious memory; i'm certainly going to organize the way I remember my files based on that. Ridiculous. C) If I have a bunch of files of the same name (as is pretty normal for us half-assed programmer types that are a big part of your demographic), I can't even go through the f'ing list in an organized way to see which one is the one I want. Why? Because every time I open one, it moves to a different spot on the list! And because I can't choose to display the basic directory info in Spotlight that is easily displayed in a regular window, they all look the same.

Oh, I know. Maybe i'm supposed to wait until the clock ticks over to the next minute so that each file gets a unique feature on the list. That's much better than just having a way to display its path, or showing the date-modified, not date-last-opened. Much Better.

3) Spotlight, part 2. What are the odds that the file I'm looking for is in the Trash? Isn't it more likely that the Trash is a place where files I Don't Want live? OK, yes, there is a way to turn this off. But you sure have to ninja your way into it, don't cha? Do you think maybe a radio button or check box would be a better solution than shift-apple-G, then ~/.Trash , then drag that onto the Spotlight Dont-look-here box? (sorry, cliche time). WTF???

4) Why is the default view of any window always big stupid icons (or little stupid icons, if I so choose?) Does ANYONE actually like looking through big stupid icons? Maybe you could make it easy to set the default view to be the organized list of information one? (Note to Windows: as far as I know, this is a problem for you, too. Note to everyone: it seems possible I just don't know how to do this. I don't even know the vocabulary to google for a solution. I admit it. If there's an answer, tell me, please! Anonymous comments allowed and encouraged.)

5) OK, so if i'm looking at a window with big stupid icons, I can set the background color. cool. but A) I can't when i'm looking at the window in an actual useful way, ie, the listy view. B) The color doesn't inherit down to subdirectories. If i could make that happen, then perhaps I could use colors to let me know whether which version of the directories-of-same-name with many files-of-similar-names i happen to be looking at. I don't fault you for B, but it's on my wish list. But A is as unacceptable as anything else in this rant.

Now, can I get back to my dissertation now? Thanks.

and oh yeah, when I get an actual job, you better come out with a 12-inch MacBook pro to allow me to replace my beautiful, wonderful, can't-live-without-her PowerBook G4. Did you do some kind of research that all the thousands of us (hundreds of thousands? millions?) who bought 12-inch Powerbooks didn't like them, or something? Or maybe the research says that indeed we like to be forced to choose between maximum portability or superior components? Yes, that's it. When Mac customers have everything they want, it makes them nervous. Makes 'em feel too big for their britches. We'd rather suffer a little bit.




and iPhoto still sucks.

turns out dick cheney's a pretty smart guy

those of you plugged into the blogosphere probably saw this video months or years ago, but if you're like me you depend on your friends for such things. watch it. as lockton says, "I challenge thee to watch this video and NOT scream at your computer screen."

there's no such thing as a coincidence, part dos

i go to the gym at a weird hour but forget my ID
...
ok, go for a run instead
...
i take a new route
...
and there she is, randomly reading a sign at a place and an hour when no one randomly reads signs
...
she is waiting with bells on
...
and gives me two flowers
...
that smell like garlic
...
either she is wonderful, or the universe is conspiring to make me believe so

boogie woogie woogie

i can't believe you're gone. what an essential and small part of my life. how many other firsts are still with me? through 5 girlfriends, 3 schools, 8 bedrooms, 3 schools, 7 apartment mates, thousands of moving miles and maybe a 100 thousand flying miles, it's been you, the costco umbrella, and my running shoes.

it was electric.

now it's dead.

she's staying in verano

damn the geneva convention!

(sorry for cripticism. just needed to get that off my chest.)

SUELTO!!!

Hola!

We survived unscathed. That last one who came back out, i hadn´t realized how he´d really gone after people. We all thought the encierro was done.

http://www.sanfermin.com/portada8

I´ve never been more excited to go to Toledo.

i am so sick of my computer

i realized sometime yesterday that my work has become one long video game with really shitty graphics. tony or i pose genetics brain teaser, i tackle it with clever programming and insight, etc. etc.

there have been other times when all i've done is play video games. at least for a day or a weekend. today i realized how i feel, at the end of the day, as uselessly drained as i used to in front of tomb raider. its not that i don't like my work. but i miss working with my hands. i miss benchwork. i miss flies. i might even miss the fume hood.

a week away from any computer will do me good, and i will come back to a few days of pure, unadulterated RNA extractions, which has never, ever sounded so good.

proof that ticketmaster is evil

so i'm looking to get a couple tickets to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. To confirm that I am a real person, Ticketmaster asks me to type the word shown in an image. Today, they gave me this:

drunken poitry

somewhere toward the middle of that large, flat g-n-t
i made good on my suspicion
my poetry will be amazing
but now
like a 17-year cicada
it tastes mostly like potato

happy birthday, bridget...

oh bridget, i'm sorry we've lost track. there's so much to do that i usually ignore my local friends way more than i want, let alone my friends from college.

your birthday is indelibly branded into my brain, on account of the speeding ticket. how did i know i was going to get my first speeding ticket that day? how did i get it just farther enough in the day that i'd forgotten about my own prognostication? why did the cop claim i was going 69? there's no way i was doing 69.

i remember shouting "there's no way i was doing 69" across willamette hall. seems to me, if you're doing 69, you'd probably remember it. i mean, 69 isn't easy to do well, if at all. how many of us were there? in a little toyota? almost seems physically impossible to do 69 with four friends in a corolla. it's friggin' oregon! why is 69 even illegal? probably on account of the gas.

jesse saw the coolest T-shirt

Haiku are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

things to learn, day 1

it's your duty to find time to think and reflect in conditions that you know you can think well and reflect well in. leaving it to conditions when you're obviously not going to be able to think well or reflect well is so obviously stupid, it's, well, stupid.

you can't always predict what is going to happen, so instead of worrying about what might happen you might as well convince yourself on how to be, outside events notwithstanding.

that was the right thing to do.

the way it was done was clearly not right in so many ways.

now with peace and a little medication, it seems to me that I set it up so that the right thing was not, in the grand scheme, the (or even "a") smart thing.

how long until i learn whether it was a smart thing or a truly stupid thing?

hamburger mary's, this is timothus maximus

"yes, the rumor is true. get over it."

what???

"come see us tonight or tomorrow. we're going to have lots of drink specials like $1 beers."

there's no such thing as a coincidence

i actually didn't know what Drosophila means. today i accidentally got its definition in two totally different places. Dew lover.

dutch update

so whenever i was alone, walking in the netherlands, i would obsessively try to say "ik spreek geen nederlants" (i don't speak Dutch). not to ward off unseen dutchmen, but because i just couldn't get the frickin' "geen" to come out right, with the throat-clearing noise that i can't possibly illustrate with a spelling. i felt like such a tool that no matter how hard i tried (and that was very hard indeed), i couldn't make that noise.

so i still do this, again not to scare off unseen Dutch-speaking americans but for the same reason. i just got used to it.

somehow yesterday i realized that if i would just relax my throat the noise is much easier, much much easier, to make. such a perfect metaphor for traveling alone in a foreign country. live and learn and learn to relax.

it still feels a little funny to throw it in the middle of sentences, but i'm pretty sure that I can say i don't speak dutch and pronounce the airport. finally. ~Doeg~