I've heard about five versions of "Almost Persuaded", and while it's a great song, I always get a little skeeved out by the last line, which makes it clear that this tale of infidelity avoided is being sung to one's spouse. Does anyone really want to hear that? Christ.
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02:19:23 PM,
Friday 12 August 2005
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I saw a flyer advertising for study participants and read it with an eye to sign up. $20 for a one-hour interview seems easy enough, and I fit all the requirements up until the last one: "Must not have attended college."
I couldn't possibly pull it off -- not just because I'm a terrible liar, but also because I know I give off class signifiers all the time without realizing it, and nobody's going to believe I didn't go to college when I'm spitting out fifty-cent words half the time. I can't say why I found this thought disheartening when I evaluate the class status of every person I see on the street.
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(9)
11:27:35 AM,
Friday 12 August 2005
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I saw this and made a noise best transcribed as "squee!".
I've been watching Firefly for the past several months and have fallen in love with it. I think it's better than Buffy, which is probably just all those new-relationship hormones clouding my thinking, but goddamnit it's in space and has Gina Torres wearing tight pants and shooting things.
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(3)
08:26:23 PM,
Wednesday 10 August 2005
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The following is rot13ed for the squeamish.
Zr: ... Fb V ubcr lbh qba'g zvaq zrafgehny oybbq.
Zl zna: Jung'er lbh tbaan qb.
Zr: Furq zl hgrevar yvavat, V thrff.
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02:11:54 PM,
Wednesday 10 August 2005
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Banksy is painting the West Bank security wall.
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06:46:52 PM,
Monday 8 August 2005
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Damian's winning entry from the worst fanfic in five minutes contest: A story featuring Albus Dumbledore as Jack the Ripper.
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(11)
02:12:18 PM,
Monday 8 August 2005
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Spent a lovely weekend going to the Ren Faire and playing various Harry Potter-related games, including Julia's excellent Prisoner of Slashkaban drinking game. Moss and Julia are delightful hosts, and Julia sent Damian and I away laden with magic-themed prizes.
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(12)
12:36:16 AM,
Monday 8 August 2005
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Last night I hung out with an annoyingly insecure dude who said he could never go to the Folsom Street Fair because, "The first person who grabs my ass, I'll have to kill him." (Not that his ass was especially grabbable to begin with.) So I was amused, though not surprised, to read today that some sociologists at Cornell found evidence that men insecure in their masculinity are more likely to be homophobic, support the war in Iraq, and be interested in SUVs. Via Alas, A Blog.
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(2)
11:55:02 AM,
Friday 5 August 2005
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Achilles/Patroclus fanfic.
Yesssssss.
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(2)
06:13:05 PM,
Wednesday 3 August 2005
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Last night I dreamt that I was visiting a household where lions were kept as pets. Smallish lions, but still with the teeth and all. I made my escape, but only after much leonine terror, and having to feed the male one whatever meat I could find in the refrigerator. (Didn't even go near the female, but then she didn't keep falling asleep under my bed.)
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(5)
04:15:42 PM,
Wednesday 3 August 2005
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Snoopy's balls!
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(1)
12:48:09 PM,
Tuesday 2 August 2005
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Does anyone know of an online source that compiles Jane Austen's descriptions of what happened to her characters after the novels end? I knew that Jane Bingley's portrait was exhibited -- and Elizabeth Darcy's wasn't -- but I just found out from a passing comment that Jane Fairfax dies in childbirth and was wondering what else Austen thought of along those lines. I'm not enough of an Austenite to scour her collected correspondence for mentions -- especially if all I find out is depressing news along the lines of Jane Fairfax's fate. (I blame Frank for it.)
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(13)
05:54:01 PM,
Monday 1 August 2005
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I've been reading this article in the New York Times about an author who frequently writes about the joys and pains of females friendships, with a particular focus on the sudden breakups. Struck a chord, probably because I've been through one of those sudden breakups and spent the next year or so whining about it to anyone who would listen.
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03:12:55 PM,
Thursday 28 July 2005
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So, yeah, can one of my sundry, indulgent readers give me a pep talk about tutoring tonight? I'm having a hard time doing it myself.
Thanks, Julia and Damian.
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(6)
03:41:12 PM,
Wednesday 27 July 2005
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Mundane Mumblings, or Sarah in a Foul Mood: I'm run ragged. Probably because I squeezed three appointments into a night that usually just holds one -- coffee with a friend, study group, a show -- and only one of those appointments was really satisfying anyway. (Study group wasted an hour watching a video of other people talking about what we wanted to talk about. The band I wanted to see at the show started playing ten minutes before we had to leave to catch the last train home.) I'm contemplating bailing on tutoring tonight, but we just met again after a month of cancellations and I'll have to cut back to once a week next month anyhow. And I'm seeing friends after work tomorrow and Friday. Not that I'll be any fun to be around, with this mood.
Also, my job isn't exactly scintillating stuff. There's just a seemingly never-ending pile of shit for me to do, none of it interesting or an aid to my career. When I came back from my lunch break just now I saw the work waiting for me and wanted to turn tail and flee.
I feel like I'm PMSing, but it's entirely the wrong time of the month for that. (And yes, I know I'm very lucky to have these problems and none worse.)
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(3)
03:29:46 PM,
Wednesday 27 July 2005
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I'm trying to choose a microeconomics class -- it's between the somewhat inconvenient one with an unknown professor, and a totally convenient one with the professor who taught my macro class, whose style I find irritating. Advice from people who've been to normal colleges?
ETA: Decided in favor of inconvenience and unmixed reviews on ratemyprofessors.com.
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12:51:11 PM,
Tuesday 26 July 2005
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A mugglenet/leaky cauldron interview with JK Rowling. Really interesting stuff, lots of parts where she becomes meaningfully silent, that sort of thing.
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07:34:36 PM,
Monday 25 July 2005
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If you were Katherine, what lightweight surprises would you want added to your SJC manuals care package? I know that many of this blog's readers know her better than I do.
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(4)
05:11:02 PM,
Monday 25 July 2005
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A description of wolverines, from a WPA book about American wildlife:
Arch criminal of nature's underworld, the wolverine cunningly follows the trapper through the forests of the northern United States. At night its dark brown body, trimmed on the sides with stripes of yellowish white, blends with the hazy gray-shadowed snow as it stalks the trapper. As soon as each trap is set, it breaks it open, steals the bait or the captive animal, then destroys the metal mechanism. But the night's work is still unfinished, for though its tremendous appetite has been satiated, it is loath to stop plundering. Until the light of dawn, it continues despoiling the traps, hiding the prey for future consumption. ...
A gangster of the most rapacious type, the wolverine is truly a triple-threat animal. It can swim, climb the more easily accessible trees, and, in spite of its squat heavy body, run fast enough in the snowbound forest to further its own ends. When an opportunity presents itself it has been known the bring down deer and caribou, and even attack the lordly moose. It is related that even big bears will run off rather than battle with a wolverine.
The day of the wolverine is spent in holes, burrows, or subterranean caves deserted by bears. In March it mates in these hide-outs. Three or four months later the short-tempered female brings forth a litter of two to five precocious offspring. In these maternal months the female, though smaller than her mate, is decidedly more pugnacious, ever watchful over her ill-tempered, savage little brood, and if disturbed does not hesitate to attack even man. ...
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(7)
03:47:18 PM,
Monday 25 July 2005
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Fb vf Fancr rivy? V'q ernyyl yvxr gb guvax ur'f abg, bs pbhefr, naq pna ernq gur nethzrag va gur sberfg nf Fancr'f eriryngvba bs gur Haoernxnoyr Ibj gb Qhzoyrqber -- naq vg qvq frrz yvxr Qhzoyrqber jnf rkcrpgvat gb qvr fbba, jung jvgu cnffvat ba nyy uvf xabjyrqtr bs Ibyqrzbeg gb Uneel. Vs guvf vf gur pnfr, V rkcrpg Uneel gb unir fbzr svany pbasebagngvba jvgu Fancr va juvpu ur ershfrf gb oryvrir va guvf eryngvir vaabprapr.
Gur bgure fpranevb vf gung Fancr
V thrff V zrna, jung Pnffvr fnvq.
Naq lbh?
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(7)
11:21:06 AM,
Monday 25 July 2005
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BZT QHZOYRQBER!!!! *pevrf*
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(2)
05:50:55 PM,
Saturday 23 July 2005
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Since I saw the movie of Azkaban I always hear Alan Rickman's voice when I read Snape's dialogue. It is pretty wonderful.
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(18)
07:57:27 PM,
Friday 22 July 2005
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Also, I totally want Draco and Harry to kiss. Vg jnf boivbhf Qenpb bayl oebxr uvf abfr bhg bs cbbeyl-fhoyvzngrq yhfg.
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(10)
07:38:09 PM,
Friday 22 July 2005
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Go to rot13.com to translate the following spoilers for Half-Blood Prince through chapter 10. Not that you haven't already read it.
Fb V'z gra puncgref vagb _Unys-Oybbq Cevapr_ naq V pna'g jnvg gb cbfg -- ohg cyrnfr qba'g gryy zr nalguvat gung unccraf nsgre Qhzoyrqber naq Uneel'f svefg yrffba.
V jnf rntreyl njnvgvat gur qrfpevcgvba bs Jrnfryrl'f Jvmneqf Jurrmrf naq jnf gbgnyyl abg qvfnccbvagrq. Serq naq Trbetr ner zl snibevgr fhccbegvat punenpgref fb gur jubyr fprar jnf qryvtugshy -- nygubhtu V sryg yvxr WXE'f pnfr sbe ynhtugre naq rfpncvfz va uneq gvzrf jnf creuncf n yvggyr boivbhf. Abg ARNEYL nf boivbhf, gubhtu, nf gur frpbaq puncgre, juvpu znl nf jryy or n synfuvat arba fvta ernqvat, "DHRFGVBA FANCR'F YBLNYGVRF."
Nyfb, gur Ibyqrzbeg=Uvgyre cnenyyryf ner fb guvpx lbh pbhyq phg gurz jvgu n xavsr.
Cerqvpgvbaf, abj gung V'z cnegjnl guebhtu gur obbx: Gur Unys-Oybbq Cevapr vf Ibyqrzbeg. Untevq be Qhzoyrqber qvrf -- cerggl zhpu jung V thrffrq orsber V fgnegrq vg. Uneel jba'g qvr ng gur raq bs gur frevrf. V pna'g gryy jurgure gur "Uneel jnf fb npphfgbzrq gb Tvaal orvat nebhaq" ovg ba gur genva jnf sberfunqbjvat uvf pehfu ba ure be abg. V xrrc ubcvat ur'yy snyy sbe Gbaxf, ohg gung'f whfg orpnhfr V yvxr ure fb zhpu.
Naq "Obo Btqra"? Vf fur n Jrra sna? V'q cersre abg gb oryvrir vg'f whfg n pbvapvqrapr.
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(7)
06:49:41 PM,
Friday 22 July 2005
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I was over at Damian's last night and sometime between midnight and six a.m. was awoken by a loud conversation taking place on the sidewalk outside his window. It sounded like there were several people talking, but the one who stood out had a near constant monologue going on. He kept saying, "Come on, bitch," "come on, biiiitch," like a parrot, only interrupted occasionally by a woman's voice. Then he'd say, "Where's my money, biiitch?"
God I hate pimps.
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12:04:24 PM,
Friday 22 July 2005
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At the show the other night Le Tigre projected the lyrics to "FYR" and one line stuck out to me: "We tell the truth they turn up the laugh track."
A pretty succinct description of the whole "baby where's your sense of humor" phenomenon, I thought.
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07:36:58 PM,
Thursday 21 July 2005
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Having a hard time motivating myself to work today. Hardly a surprise, really.
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07:15:54 PM,
Thursday 21 July 2005
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Media Consumption Update:
I went to the Beck/Le Tigre concert Monday night and it was pretty darn good. I must say I was surprised to find them touring together -- although their sensibilities are sort of convergent -- but very glad, since I was planning to hear each the next time they came to town. Le Tigre brought overcame the cavernous venue to get at least half the floor moving, and Beck did some interesting reinterpretations of his earlier stuff and I came to appreciate his newer songs more, I think.
Saw Land of the Dead last night. You can tell it's a Romero, that's for damn sure. I was really impressed by the photography and really unimpressed by the editing. Also, Asia Argento is totally hot.
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07:14:44 PM,
Thursday 21 July 2005
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You know that little dance you do when you have a crush on someone and are trying to figure out if they like you back? I haven't done that in a while -- these days my main romantic frivolity is coming up with ridiculous new nicknames for Damian -- but lately I've been doing that little dance with a potential new friend. It's funny how much it parallels the crush dance, and how delighted I am that she emailed me first this time.
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12:51:55 PM,
Thursday 21 July 2005
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Blogmassateers: Thank you for putting your Half Blood Prince spoilers in rot13. You are spoiler-averting angels.
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(11)
07:13:48 PM,
Wednesday 20 July 2005
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Overheard: "The Tao Te Ching is lazy philosophy. You can't just let stuff happen, you have to make stuff happen."
Dude, what part of "wei wu wei" don't you understand?
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(3)
04:08:23 PM,
Wednesday 20 July 2005
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Can anybody recommend Earthlink or another DSL provider? SBC and Speakeasy are less service for more than I want to pay.
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(2)
01:25:01 PM,
Friday 15 July 2005
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Rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit. This is very true.
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11:34:33 AM,
Friday 15 July 2005
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Cassie and I are starting a fundable.org account to help graffiti artist BORF, who was arrested yesterday, pay for his legal fees. Check out Cassie's craigslist post here. I'm going to be getting in touch with someone who might be his mother later today, once I have my, "I don't know you, but I like your son's vandalism" speech down.
If you've seen BORF's stuff and like what he's done please check out the craigslist post and get onto Cassie's mailing list. Thanks.
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(1)
12:39:26 PM,
Thursday 14 July 2005
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Today's Whispered Apologies features amazing pen-and-ink work by Angie Wang. She has a strong Art Nouveau sensibility and does wonderful things with line. Check it out!
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(1)
11:38:24 AM,
Thursday 14 July 2005
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A succinct summation of the "nice guy" issue:
"Nice" is the wrong word. Girls like nice guys. They don't like ass-kissers and push-overs who are overly nice to make up for insecurity. It's kind of creepy and boring and suggests low confidence and desperation. Isn't it this simple?
From a post on the subject at Majikthise.
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(7)
01:59:00 PM,
Wednesday 13 July 2005
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site & script courtesy of Moss