Liz's Bloglet - Wednesday 20 October 2004

When you see this post some poetry, etc

Man adds on misery to man
It thickens like the coastal shelf
Get out as early as you can
And don't have any kids yourself _
respond? (1)
04:43:07 PM, Wednesday 20 October 2004

We found a nice little duplex close to campus, ate at some good restaurants and looked through excellent bookstores nearby, had gelato, briefly saw the lab I'll be working in and heard a little more about what I'll be expected to do. I got to show Remi the Duke Chapel. I look forward to showing it to visitors frequently. The sunroom that will be Remi's work room is also going to contain a bed where people can sleep when they come visit us to see the chapel and eat excellent food and enjoy funky Old West Durham. _
respond? (2)
08:50:46 AM, Wednesday 20 October 2004

I just think it's adorable that the Monadology guys are getting hit with Seasonale spam comments--because if there's one thing they care about, it's birth control pills that allow less frequent menstruation. _
respond? (2)
09:38:57 AM, Friday 15 October 2004

Ninth St has its own webpage. _
respond? (1)
02:00:57 PM, Thursday 14 October 2004

How did they have a debate on domestic policy which talked about the war in Iraq but didn't mention environmental issues? Especially after the president's terrible response to the question about his environmental policy in the last debate: he talked about his "Clear Skies Initiative" (reduced standards set under Clinton, his "Green Forests Initiative" (if you cut down all the trees, there'll be fewer forest fires), and that time he invented hydrogen powered cars. Kerry is no Gore, but that was one issue he was pretty spectacular on in the second debate. Kerry's responses on abortion and gun control in both the 2nd and 3rd debates have shown he has more integrity and intelligence than the entirety of the Bush administration put together. That should have been Kerry's best debate. It's a shame Bob Schieffer is a right wing shill hack journalist (that phrase probably deserves some commas and hyphens...insert them as you see fit). _
respond? (6)
08:34:28 AM, Thursday 14 October 2004

www.saveourdams.com does not appear to be a joke. People are very sad sometimes. _
respond?
10:32:56 AM, Thursday 7 October 2004

The guy who runs our organic veggies coop has an impressively low member number on Metafilter. _
respond? (1)
02:07:11 PM, Friday 1 October 2004

I don't know how I missed The Panda's Thumb. Talk Origins offers interesting debate and dialogue, but The Panda's Thumb is scientists keeping track of the falsehoods being spread by creationists. _
respond?
08:55:10 AM, Thursday 30 September 2004

Documents reveal gaps in Bush's service as President. "Our opponents have dredged up this kind of thing every time Bush has run for office," Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd said. "We've faced down widely reported, fully researched, carefully documented accounts of Bush's alcoholism, drug use, private-sector business failings, ignorance in matters of state, smug arrogance, and general self-serving lackadaisical behavior. So I'm hardly worried. An overwhelming mass of published information like this has never stopped Americans from voting for him before." _
respond? (1)
04:34:20 PM, Wednesday 29 September 2004

Oh look. Another tropical storm. How unusual. _
respond?
01:26:13 PM, Monday 27 September 2004

Comfort reading:(following Moira's lead)
Madeleine L'engle
Susan Cooper
J.K. Rowling
Alas, Babylon Pat Frank
Walden Two B.F. Skinner
Friday Robert Heinlein
Richard Feynman
Robert Frost
The Monkeywrench Gang Ed Abbey
Raney Clyde Edgerton
ZodiacNeil Stephenson (though, like most of his books, I stop 3/4 in)
Dianna Wynne Jones
Dirk Gently (not Hitchhiker's, I'm not sure why)

It appears I may have some problems, but at least I have the books to deal with them.

_
respond?
07:22:37 PM, Monday 20 September 2004

As of Friday, my parents now live in Davidson rather than in the house once in the country that I grew up in. Their new house is very nice and is in a cool neighborhood within easy walking distance to lots of stuff, including their church (and therefore the college) and even my mom's office if she's feeling adventurous. It really was time for them to leave the sprawling unpleasantness of Huntersville. _
respond?
07:30:48 AM, Sunday 19 September 2004

Because we were putting trusses on the CED Habitat House today, I don't like heights, and I'm a pretty good painter, I spent the day painting the house across the street: the Abraham house. It is being built by the Islamic center, temple, and our liberal Baptist church of Athens. Because their Sabbaths are, respectively, Friday thru Sunday they don't build on the weekend like most Habitat houses. Instead, their members who can work on weekdays. So their building has been rather sporadic and the painting has apparently taken awhile. It was fun to paint and cool to be part of a prety interesting undertaking. _
respond? (3)
04:21:31 PM, Saturday 18 September 2004

There is a tree on the house where the B-52s played their first show. There are trees on lots of other houses, too. And power lines everywhere but where they ought to be. I'm getting pretty weary of tropical storms. _
respond?
08:35:11 AM, Friday 17 September 2004

Duke has a very nice page to help grad students find housing. Which is to say, the EPA has given us a grant to pay me through August, Emily has gotten her department head to promise to fund me as a grad student in the fall, and I will be moving to Durham in January. _
respond? (8)
11:11:33 AM, Thursday 16 September 2004

A billion years ago (1989) I went to Duke University Young Writer's Camp. My roommate (who briefly dated my brother) is now a published writer and I realized that I had actually heard of her book before but only the biographical info and the picture in O Magazine (don't ask) made me realize that I shared a dorm room with her long ago. _
respond? (4)
10:39:45 AM, Thursday 16 September 2004

Ampersand's famous list of male privilege. _
respond? (3)
12:03:51 PM, Wednesday 15 September 2004

The NPR ombudsman reports the results of a study of their pre-Iraq invasion coverage. By the numbers, which he presents for our perusal, he thinks they were pretty balanced. He acknowledges their overuse of "experts" from think tanks who frequently knew little about the actual issues and were only there to present talking points. Without naming Juan Williams by name, he chastises Morning Edition for the crappiness of their interviews with administration officials. I was one of the readers writing him repeatedly asking when he was going to do this. Overall, I agree with his assessment and I think seeing it number by number makes me feel a little better. _
respond?
02:46:42 PM, Friday 3 September 2004

Issues I care about in this presidential race (in no particular order):
women's rights of all kinds, preservation of federal lands, putting the teeth back into the Clean Water Act, health coverage for all Americans, returning control of public schools to the states, improving foreign relations, supporting the UN, fair trade with the whole world, reducing unemployment and underemployment, increasing corporate regulation and oversight, fighting AIDS in Africa, decreasing dependence on all fossil fuels, etc.

Issues that Republicans care about as far as I can tell (in th order that we hear about them):
9/11 (not sure how it's an issue to be campaigning on, but it seems to be), fighting terrorism, hating gays, outlawing abortion, cutting taxes.

_
respond? (7)
01:33:21 PM, Thursday 2 September 2004

We're not in Lake Wobegon anymore--Garrison Keillor talks about how the party of Lincoln became the party of "hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong�s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt�s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. " _
respond? (3)
04:27:25 PM, Monday 30 August 2004

I woke up this morning and finally understood what They're up to. Kerry will be assassinated if elected and the killer will be some "poor Vietnam vet" driven "crazy" by the shame Kerry brought upon him with the "outrageous lies" in his testimony before Congress in the 70's as well as all of those unearned medals he has.

Between that and the ability to postpone or cancel elections should there be a terrorist attack, it seems like They have tied up all the loose ends.

[end cynical bordering on paranoid Friday morning rant] _
respond?
10:12:33 AM, Friday 27 August 2004

I've started a Powell's wishlist mostly just to keep track of books that are recommended to me, but also just for my own amusement since I would like to live in Powell's and all. _
respond? (1)
09:47:01 AM, Thursday 26 August 2004

When did it happen that people stopped seeing the difference between what is legal and what is polite? Or between what is moral and what is legal?
Or is it just because I'm such an elitist lefty that I think that there are some things you oughtn't do because they're rude, even though they're legal, and that there are some things that shouldn't be illegal, even though you may find them immoral? _
respond? (3)
01:04:02 PM, Wednesday 25 August 2004

We began work yesterday on the Athens' Green Habitat House, a partnership between our college (with the very silly name) and Digital Insight, a local internet company which apparently builds online banking systems. I've been on the organizing committe for, oh, a couple of years while we tried to do it on our own, begging money from poor students, poor alumni, and weary family members (thanks for the donation, Mom and Dad!). Our goal is to build a more energy efficient Habitat House, using more sustainable materials, than Athens Area Habitat has ever done before. Having a company with actual money come on board has finally gotten us started. I've really really missed doing Habitat stuff. So, yesterday we prepared the site, built the floor, and even built one wall. _
respond?
08:38:27 AM, Sunday 22 August 2004

So much Olympics love. All those young people with such dreams who have worked harder than I can imagine, who are so mentally tough. And those people in their 30's who must ache so much every single morning but still have those same dreams and keep going. Poor Morgan Hamm, who proves that there is some weird combination of nature and nurture that can make one identical twin the best all-around gymnast and the other just amazingly good. Two UGA women were on the freestyle relay. For all their awesomeness, nobody in this town cares about them since they aren't football players. Athens is also the home to many of the shotputters of the world. I bet the frat house across the street from the track has no idea. And Athletics starts today. I used to watch Marion Jones training at NCSU every so often. I'm sorry she won't be there. But for the next week there will be running on network tv and I am happy. _
respond? (5)
10:44:05 AM, Friday 20 August 2004

It may be from GQ, but this article contains information about Abu Ghraib that I had never heard before. Did you know the whistleblower is now in an undisclosed location under protective military custody along with his wife and infant daughter because people in his hometown consider him a traitor? Did you know that the Brig. General in charge of Abu Ghraib has confirmed that she saw children being held in the prison? Did you know that Lyndee England was not an MP, that she was in fact an administrative assistant, and should therefore never have been in the cell blocks in the first place? That another person in the photos was an auto mechanic and similarly had no business near the prisoners? That that guy was welcomed home by a parade to the same town that the whistleblower will probably never return to? _
respond? (1)
02:57:23 PM, Tuesday 17 August 2004

I don't know how much Remi and I have mentioned about HMS Pinafore, the very silly play we are in that opens tonight. It is silly foremost because Gilbert and Sullivan were silly. It is also silly because it's just not a very good production and there are some very odd things going on. But performing is fun. And Remi is really good, as always. _
respond? (7)
01:12:25 PM, Thursday 12 August 2004

Tuxedo has always been fascinated by the answering machine. He comes running whenever it talks, whether it's answering the phone or playing back a message for one of us. He has now turned his fascination into a hobby by learning how to push the play button. Yes, I said the cat pushes play and listens to messages on the answering machine. Unfortunately, this means that we cannot tell by a quick glance whether we have new messages or not. _
respond?
08:22:14 PM, Wednesday 11 August 2004

For the curious, the new stream restoration working group public information webpage is now available, in case you want to learn more about the fascinating activities occupying my time.

I had to answer the question "Are you a student here?" today. No, I am not. I graduated officially on Saturday. Now I'm a something else. I get paid slightly more, but I have no benefits, not even the benefits for which one pays as a student. I just said yes. It's easier. _
respond? (3)
03:07:33 PM, Wednesday 11 August 2004

Dancing Badger offers an amazing personal homepage devoted to books and those who love them, mostly with Native American and wilderness themes, but also with a heavy dose of mystery, sci-fi, and poetry. Via MeFi. _
respond? (1)
08:32:36 AM, Tuesday 10 August 2004

I had a wonderful time in Portland. Things Portland has going for it: amazing public transportation, very nice weather in August, excellent beer, very nice convention center with adequate bathrooms and 3 Starbucks inside, Powell's, shakes at Burgerville, Willamette River and its many, many bridges. Not so good things about Portland: very few places to eat that aren't brew pubs, coffee shops, or overpriced, light rail stops running at midnight on weekdays (causing us to have to walk across the Willamette a few times too many), astonishing number of homeless people, including kids. The conference was extremely cool and I'm now more than up on the latest in nutrient dynamics in urban streams and large woody debris in pretty much every aquatic system. Now I have to do...what's it called again?...work. _
respond? (4)
10:21:57 AM, Sunday 8 August 2004

Just returned from the original City of Books. Going to hear about large woody debris. Then going to Powell's Technical. Then drinking at brew pubs. Portland rocks. _
respond? (1)
04:04:22 PM, Thursday 5 August 2004

I loved The Village. Loved in that perfect suspense, near-Hitchcockian way that Shyamalan still provides and nobody else making movies now can touch. Unfortunately, there is very little I can say except, as always, movie reviewers are morons and you should ignore whatever they say. Once again, as with his other movies, it is best to go in knowing nothing about it except that it's an amazing movie and just allow yourself to be sucked into his world.

Napoleon Dynamite, on the other hand, was well done, but painful. Napoleon is somewhere between Brian Krakow and Harvey Pekar and honestly I prefer either of them over him. _
respond? (7)
07:15:06 AM, Sunday 1 August 2004

If you did not hear Obama speak, I humbly suggest you read his speech.

If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.
_
respond? (5)
10:13:57 AM, Saturday 31 July 2004

I am going to be in Portland, OR next week. In addition to attending the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, I will be going to Powells and buying a lot of books. I'm staying at the Residence Inn near the convention center and will be free from 4 on most afternoons. What should I see or do that is free or very cheap? _
respond? (8)
11:29:27 AM, Friday 30 July 2004

I know that Kerry knows that he's not going to lose my vote--that he can be a hawk, and he can promise to continue cutting taxes and I'll still vote for him. If the healthcare thing actually comes about, I'll be very surprised. It seems like the people he's really trying to attract right now already have health insurance. All that said, I'm voting for him and I'll still kick your ass if you vote for Nader. So there. _
respond? (7)
11:14:18 AM, Friday 30 July 2004

older entries