SimpleWeblog

Halloween 2002

I wasn't quite as excited about halloween this year. Usually I am all about halloween, but this year it felt like too much other stuff was going on. But I will try to keep the tradition of posting a picture of me in costume.

So, here is me as Blossom. Yes, you guessed it, this year I dressed up as a Powerpuff Girl. The costume was handmade the afternoon of the party, and you'll note that I don't really have the hips to pull off a dress like that. And you're right, the hair isn't quite right. I was just happy I didn't get too drunk to forget to sit properly the whole evening.

Happenings

It turns out, I miss the weblog.

I think, perhaps, I will start again, only with the following changes:

• I will no longer feel obligated to post something everyday. If things happen I want to put up, that's great, but I won't try to force it if it isn't there. So I may never have a complete "this day in..." archive, that's ok.
• I want to put up more pictures, but it is a pain right now. I will look at better solutions for this.
• Similarly, I still want to maintain the obsessive list of things I read, watch, and go see. But I don't always want to write about them. So I will look into a way to keep the list, and keep it somewhere on the site, but maybe not in the weblog.
• All of this requires I go through some hoops for my web hosting account. So I'll actually do that.
• I want to try putting up more random things, and not worry about who sees it.
• I'm not going to try to treat this like a journal of important events. I should have better ways of keeping track of those things.

Maybe it won't seem different to you, but maybe it will to me.

Science Stars

"Who are the heroes? Movie stars, sports stars, captains of industry, lawyers, bankers, doctors, etc. The day TV does a soap on a research institute will be when? Never. So why do science?"

- from Richard Worsley, via Bob Cringely

Motivations

I may need to take a break from this weblog thing and think about why I am doing it.

I don't think there is any dramatic cause of this, I just haven't been feeling very motivated to write up stuff here. I didn't even write up the last concert report for Arlo and Rilo Kiley. And I even had pictures! So maybe I will shift the focus a little bit, or just take a little break.

Or maybe tomorrow I will be inspired and this will just seem like a strange entry.

Out of Order

My roommate had his bank account stolen. They wrote checks on it that were 1000 numbers out of sequence. Not very smart - but it is scary that someone got access to his account. Now he has to create a new account, change his direct deposit, and go through that hassle. What are people supposed to do to prevent this sort of thing?

mental health days

I made it through another mini-vacation... but somehow I wound up back here again. Luckily I have some goodies to last me until next time. But here's the list of things I should be putting up here (some of which are quite old!):

• chocolat
• shallow hal
• the muppet movie
• happenstance
• my big fat greek wedding
• the league of extraordinary gentlemen
• finder

And remember, sometimes a list is better than nothing at all...

Writing

This site about the origins of writing looks like something I want to explore more later.

North vs. South

Ever wondered what would happen if Northern California and Southern California go to war? Watch the movie and find out.

Book Review: Fast Food Nation (Schlosser)

I had heard a lot about this book, including lots of interviews with the author, before I read it. It got put on my list of books that I should read some day, but I didn't actually read because I figured I understood its point without having to read it. Yes, the fast food industry has made our culture less diverse. Yes, the beef industry is terrible towards its workers and towards health concerns. A friend had the book, though, so I decided I would borrow it and give it a go. I took away more than I thought I would. I don't like reading very anecdotal books, which this was (although there is documented research in the footnotes, it doesn't seem like an academic analysis), because I know that anecdotes can be very misleading. But reading chapter after chapter of these horrible stories, including such a wide range of bad things, really did leave an impression on me. I am very glad I haven't eaten beef in a long time. I'm glad I have stopped eating at fast food restaurants. My horror at the evils of government regulatory agencies run by people who don't believe in government regulation has increased greatly. Look at the active recalls from the FSIS and note the slow response time from when the samples were taken to when the meat was recalled. Sure, some of the cases are small, but some are huge (19,000,000 pounds of ground beef?). I know it probably isn't the greatest danger people face, but it seems like it is so easily preventable. In any case, the book is good, although if you don't want to read about the history of fast food restaurants, you might just want to skip to the beef industry chapters. They probably leave the most impact.

Comic Review: A Complete Lowlife (Brubaker)

This is not technically an autobiographical comic, although it might as well be. It tells the story of someone in their late teens/early twenties who gets involved with drugs and crime and bad relationships - and not in an overly dramatic way, but one of those realistic, bad-decisions-piling-up ways. It reminds me a lot of people I knew back in high school, where they were basically good people but they sometimes made poor decisions and had to pay the price for it. Here we know that the character would make his way out - he went on to become a succesful comic writer, at least, which I will leave as an exercise for the reader to determine if that is better than crime and drugs - so we know it can't end too tragically. Because of when it takes place and when it was written (late 80's, early 90's) it definitely has the air of "slackerness" around it, but the story manages to keep itself feeling real enough. The artwork is not great, and it makes sense that he seems to do more writing since he became well-known, but it keeps the story feeling personal. And the collection of events don't have a typical narrative flow to them, but they convey the emotions that they are intended to convey appropriately enough. I wonder what parts were real and what parts were not, but I think the tone was probably captured truthfully. And that makes the whole thing seem worthwhile.

Survived

I made it through. Pictures to follow later, after I stop hurting every time I move...

The Great Outdoors

Work has been kicking my butt, and I am running away into the forest for the weekend, so things are going to be a little slow around here for a little while longer. Don't worry, though, the camera is now equipped to store a tremendous number of pictures, so I should have some junk to post later on. If the batteries hold out.

birthday poem?

you've already kidnapped my thoughts and dreams and

heart

why haven't you already taken the rest

slipped me inside your pocket

so i'm always there

ready for talking and laughing and comforting and

trouble

when i am talking to you

i'm not sure i always remember

how to say

no

be careful what you ask

Surprise

OK, Mr. Post Office, I take it back. You got the package there overnight. And the Leonidas people got the stuff there (via FedEx, of course) super-quick as well. I am impressed! Go shipping technology!

Shipping News

This morning I learned that our postal service doesn't offer overnight shipping everywhere in the continental U.S. Now, I appreciate the post office's willingness to deliver letters thousands of miles for only $.37, but the fact that FedEx can offer a better service more cheaply (and with much nicer tracking facilities, not to mention less hassle to actually ship it) makes me frustrated. Not to mention all the weird classifications the Post Office wants you to make - Express Mail vs. Priority Mail vs. whatever, each of which has their own set of boxes and labels you need to use. Sigh.