Bloglet, the gentleman's mock turtle soup -- Moss made it sweeter than myrrh ash and dhoup
My doctor's office is trying to charge me $205.00 for my last checkup ($200 for consultation, which consisted of four hours of waiting, two minutes of medical history and auscultation, and three minutes of one-sided conversation in Russian with two different patients on the other end of my doctor's cell phone; and $5 for pathology, which consisted of three phlebotomists, four puncture wounds, and their complete failure to draw any blood at all, after which I was sent home with apologies and band-aids), on the grounds that I had a pre-existing condition which was not covered by my insurance-- the pre-existing condition being, as far as I can make out, perfect health. Curse the luck. It's getting fixed, I think, but grargh!
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(1)
03:23:06 PM,Tuesday 5 September 2006
Yee! Yay Craigslist! I am so there.
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(2)
12:46:22 PM,Tuesday 5 September 2006
I knew about shrews and platypodes, but slow lorises?
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(3)
11:10:32 PM,Sunday 3 September 2006
Charlie and His Orchestra. I first heard an old recording of them in High School, and was of course catapulted into giddy, horrified hysterics. Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can be too.
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09:45:44 PM,Sunday 3 September 2006
Happy. Just happy. Oh.
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03:42:40 PM,Sunday 3 September 2006
Thank god for public transit. Subway reading is about the only guilt-free reading I get these days, what with the stenomania at work, school, and home (I actually did a little steno practice on the subway the other day, but that only works in an uncrowded car). And I've decided I want to do a survey of Science Fiction over the next few months, from the old greats to the golden age to the "new wave" and beyond. I want to reread things I've read before (q.v. a couple posts below-- this is the third time I've read it, fourth if you count the audiobook, and I'm still just as charmed and be-grinned by it.) and fill in some of the major gaps in my previous haphazard grazing of the genre. Can you guys contribute some suggestions? Bradbury's on there, obviously, I'm intrigued by this James Tiptree stuff that just came up in the news-- never read any-- and I'd really like to find some cyberpunk besides Gibson and Stephenson, even if it's nothing all that great. I'm fine with pulp, hard SF-- everything. I definitely want to hit the big lights, but I'd like some recommendations on things I might not have heard of, too. My other problem is finding some time to go to the library (and figure out which library in Manhattan has the best selection of this kind of thing so I don't have to bounce around too much), but I think I can work that out once I've got a provisional list. If I had to pick one thing I'm interested in right now, it's the relationship between Man and Machine, minus all that fiddly A.I. stuff, which, if you ask me, has never really been done in a satisfying way. I think to start off I'm gonna try and dig up a copy of Perelandra, since I've never read it. I picked up The Screwtape Letters this morning and am remembering why I dug it so much the last time I read it, so I'm game for more Lewis. After that, though, lay it on me.
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(16)
12:39:41 PM,Thursday 24 August 2006
Excerpts from spam pages found while googling for steno blogs:
I will stenograph you five shekels for all the shore-side upon the tulisan.
The monks misanthropic to stenograph the wood and to josh it into a lambaste.
Right when I accurst investing some studenten, although I can stenograph with the next man on papyrus-patch.
Then Moselikatse spoke to Ruth and told her to stenograph in his snow-plain and abide with his maidens.
They remind me rather of the output from Martin's Colorless Green Ideas generator.
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07:44:59 PM,Tuesday 22 August 2006
The carillon of the Catholic church on the corner just played "The Hairs on Her Dicky-Di-Do". I am... disturbed.
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09:01:00 AM,Tuesday 22 August 2006
A kid is born and grows up in zero-G. As he grows, he's careful to develop his muscles with exercise, and by the time he's 25, has the muscle density of an earthbound man of the same age, but has only ever navigated through space by pushing off walls and gliding. At that point, he goes down to earth and submits himself to a gravitational field for the first time. Will he be able to walk? If not, could he eventually learn how to walk?
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04:30:27 PM,Friday 18 August 2006
Zamboni's Sonata for Archlute!
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03:41:56 PM,Friday 18 August 2006
This is kind of awesome. Too bad I don't play the piano. But how is it less "dehumanizing" than other stenographic systems, exactly?
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(1)
12:41:49 PM,Friday 18 August 2006
Times Square is depressing. Especially when in the middle of rereading Snow Crash.
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05:53:18 PM,Thursday 17 August 2006
intrigued?
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06:15:57 PM,Tuesday 15 August 2006
Her: We could open a Scandinavian Sushi restaurant called Snorri's Nori!
Me: {runs to document first use}
Her: Right next door to Barbarossa's Samosas!
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(1)
11:38:44 AM,Sunday 13 August 2006
I finally thought of one: Embley!
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(7)
02:43:37 PM,Tuesday 8 August 2006
Wednesday, August 2nd
12:00 to 2:00 am -- transcribe hour-long TV show on steno machine
2:00 to 7:30 am -- sleep
7:30 to 8:15 am -- shower, get dressed, make petulant noises while being cosseted by girlfriend
8:15 to 9:00 am -- subway
9:00 to 11:00 am -- transcribe two half-hour shows on standard keyboard
11:00 to 12:00 pm -- lunch
12:00 to 5:00 pm -- transcribe five half-hour shows on standard keyboard
5:00 to 5:30 pm -- subway
5:30 to 8:30 pm -- transcribe court testimony on steno machine
8:30 to 9:30 pm -- subway
9:30 to 10:30 pm -- dinner
10:30 to 11:00 pm -- shower, internet, cosseting
11:00 to ? -- transcribe hour-long TV show on steno machine
? -- sleep
I'm taking Friday off to go to the convention. It will be nice.
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(1)
11:15:42 PM,Wednesday 2 August 2006
So last night I went out to the bodega to get K. a Corona and me a can of coconut juice. I didn't take my gadget vest (Yeah, I still wear it to work every day. It's got all my stuff in it.), 'cause I was just gonna be gone for a minute, and K. could let me back in. "Bring ID in case you get carded," she says. "Come on! I've lived in this neighborhood for two years. I've never been carded, not once. Anyway, if they do, I'll just say it's for my Dad." "Yoss," she says, in her strong-like-bull-smart-like-tractor Russian accent. "Is my son." "Oleg," I put in. "Is my son, Oleg. Is for me. Give beer to him." Snerking, I thump down the stairs and evade the open fire hydrant on the corner (They still do that here. I swear I thought that was a '20s thing.) So I get the beer and the juice and gah! I had to break my streak. "You got ID?" asks the sweaty guy behind the counter. "I'm 25!" I tell him. I stand there indignantly. He looks at me. He chuckles. "Heh. Good one," he says, and hands me the beer.
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(8)
11:56:29 AM,Wednesday 2 August 2006
The other day I just gave the last dollar I had on me to a guy on the subway who was playing pan pipes and twelve string ukulele simultaneously. 'Cause dude.
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(1)
08:13:12 PM,Sunday 30 July 2006
I have no idea how many people who don't know me personally a) read my blog or b) give a perpendicular whoop about what I'm studying, but I'm gonna be at the NCRA convention here in NYC next weekend, and if any of y'all are too, I'd be happy to meet up and talk about stenobloggy matters. My name is Mirabai Knight, my cell phone number is 917 576 4989, and you can email me by using the link at the bottom of the page (for half-arsed spam-trapping purposes, the mailto links to a different address than what it says it does, but both addresses actually work). I'm also going to the student seminars-- especially the CART one-- and will generally be around. Do say hi.
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(1)
12:38:42 PM,Saturday 29 July 2006
Also? K. and I saw MC Frontalot last Sunday. Nyah-nyah.
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09:03:07 PM,Tuesday 25 July 2006
