Wednesday, February 28, 2007

"I don't believe in little Jewish santa anymore."

From the Onion A.V. Club: 13 sidekicks who are cooler than their heroes.

I made some very pretty CSS stripes today. When I have the file online I will show it to you, internet.

I am freaking going to bed now. As my facebook status bar says... I am freakin' exhausted. EXHAUSTED LIKE A FOX!

Dear Internet,

I am so tired, internet. I feel like I have been running around for days. My feet hurt, internet. Do you want to come over tonight and rub my feet while I watch Veronica Mars? And maybe do my dishes?

I am on facebook now. It's pretty bizarre. I mean, the point of this site seems to be that we all go to school together, except we don't make friends with each other, because school is too big and scary. Right? I mean, the U of A has over 30,000 students, how am I supposed to make friends with any of them? I see these people once, and then they disappear forever. (Except this one woman who works in the library and who scowls at me everyday... but that is another matter, for another entry.) But the internet is a much friendlier place, with only several MILLION people on it. So we can all "poke" each other, and then poke back, and then be friends. And write little messages to each other. And continue to not talk to each other at school.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

In fact, I actively enjoy being corrupted.

Me and my compatriots at Future Librarians for Intellectual Freedom (FLiF) are keeping tabs on freedom to read week over at our blog. I sat in HUB today at our table, giving away postcards and pamphlets, answering questions, and reminiscing with strangers about our favourite challenged books.

ftrw 004

My books are not used to being locked up.


My Banned/Challenged Top 11...

  • Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (challenged for obscenity, particularly in regards to underage sex)
  • From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. K. Konigsburg
  • The Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling (for endorsing magic and the occult; and also because the main characters do not respect authority and the books glorify rule-breaking)
  • Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (for supposed references to witchcraft and magic)
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (for bad language, obscenity, and "anti-white" sentiment, whatever that means)
  • The Wars by Timothy Findley (challenged for its depiction of homosexual behaviour)
  • The Anastasia Krupnik books by Lois Lowry (for language, irreverent references, a passing reference to suicide, and the fact that Anastisia wants to name her unborn brother "one-ball Reilly")
  • The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (for references to the occult)
  • Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (challenged many times, usually for objectionable language and references to prostitution)
  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (Challenged in Kanawha County (WV) high schools as pornographic, offensive and vulgar.)

If everyone who wants to ban a book got their way, we would all be sitting around reading The Poky Little Puppy. Which, in turn, would make us so bored that we would resort to the following activities: obscene language, drug and alcohol use, sexual behaviour, experimenting with the occult, and coming up with new racist names to call each other.

“One great use of words is to hide our thoughts." -Voltaire

I know I have linked to wordie in the past, so here is another social site focused around words for your perusal: oneword. The site advises, "don't think, just write." I think the internet has already got the hang of it.

Monday, February 26, 2007

The Monday Link Rodeo


  • OK, I am going to go out on a limb here and admit... I love baby animals. I know what you're thinking. "Jocelyn! You are a hip, sophisticated, urban young person! Aren't you only supposed to love things in an ironic way?" You are right. I'm embarrassed. But they're just so... I think cute is the word I am looking for. And in this case, I have conveniently culled the slightly-less-cute, leaving you with only the creme de la cute creme for your perusal. [The first link is from Dark Roasted Blend, which also has many other thrilling facts and stories.]

  • 5ives (unrelated, I would assume, to the erstwhile boyband of the same name) is a website full of lists. See the appeal? I particularly enjoyed Five Recent Make-Believe Canadian Girlfriends.

  • On Monday, the holiest of days, I think we should take a moment to mourn Dead Sodas.

  • Patently silly, much as the name implies, is a website that compiles silly patents. If you have a silly invention you are thinking of patenting, check here first to be sure it hasn't already been invented by some other silly person--thus saving yourself the expensive patent application fees, not the mention the embarrassment of attempting a duplicate-silly-patent. The first person to patent a silly invention is prescient; the second person to patent the same invention is a loser. Hey, I don't make these rules up.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Really? because it looks like a mailbox.


notamailbox, originally uploaded by jocelynb.

Freedom to Read Week 2007





"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." -Oscar Wilde

"Free societies... are societies in motion, and with motion comes tension, dissent, friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom's existence." -Salman Rushdie

"The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion." -Henry Steele Commager

"Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime." -Potter Stewart

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas." -Alfred Whitney Griswold

"The paper burns, but the words fly away." -Akiba ben Joseph

"Every burned book enlightens the world." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If your library is not 'unsafe', it probably isn't doing its job." -John Berry, Library Journal, October 1999

Saturday, February 24, 2007

The call of the open road. ("Hey, Jocelyn! I'm the open road! Want to go to RED DEER?")

Reading week reading update: so not only did I finish Library: An Unquiet History, I also finished-- in a coup that surprised everyone, including me-- A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books. This is a book that I have been reading for over a year. Goal met.

I am off for the weekend, to experience the thrill and bright lights of Bowden. When I come back it shall be the Deletia Freedom to Read Week Extravaganza... Week... A-palooza. Event. Exciting, no?

While I am gone, you may engage in Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading, or talk quietly amongst yourselves. Remember, I can hear you by turning on the intercom in the office.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Now all I have to do is get it registered with the Ministry of Silly Holidays.

I declare February 23 to be forthwith and hereafter known as... Dress Like Your South Park Character Day.

Quick review...
This is what I would look like as a South Park character:

southparkalyn


Then, to one-better you, Internet, this is what I would look like dressed up as what I would look like as a South Park character:


southparkalyn 007


[I know, there are problems. For one thing, my hair is much longer than I thought it was. Also, I do not even own a red hat such as the one depicted in Figure 1.]

This exercise actually made me more aware of the fact that I usually have no idea what expression my face is making. Here is a picture of me, trying to make the face my South Park character is making, and failing utterly:


southparkalyn 004


Right. Nice try there, Jocelyn.

Note: if you do not have a South Park version of yourself (shame on you!) then on Dress Like Your South Park Character Day you may dress as one of the following things: your WOW character, your wii character (your mii? I am fuzzy on the terminology), or Captain Underpants.

I tag James and Matt as the next two people who have to perform this activity. Go!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

the public federal building.


expedition 002, originally uploaded by jocelynb.

AKA. Jocelyn wishes she could put more than one photo in a single entry. Oh well.

I only recently learned that this building exists. Doesn't it look like a building from a Batman movie, or from the Cold-War-era USSR, or something? I love it.

Jocelyn experiments with different image sizes-- still using flickr! amazing!


expedition 016, originally uploaded by jocelynb.

Jocelyn practices blogging her photos directly from flickr. it's all about integration, baby.


expedition 017
Originally uploaded by jocelynb.

i went on an LRT expedition today. I am well aware that this may make me sound crazy, but I am prepared for that eventuality: I like riding the LRT around in a circuit. It's extremely relaxing. Also, I like watching things go by with no action required from me--I enjoy riding in cars (passengering?) for the same reason.



And I always keep my feet off the seat.

did i disappoint you?

A photo-essay on Soviet roadside bus-stops. Some of them are quite striking--a vision of the future, straight from the 1970s. From polar inertia, "the journal of nomadic and popular culture."

Gullible.info is a website of interesting facts. Whether these facts are true seems impossible to determine, but really, does it matter, in this post-modern world? I am listening to John Hodgman's Areas of my Expertise as an audiobook right now (I downloaded it for free from iTunes for some reason, maybe you can too!) and it's great, a compendium of (fabricated) human knowledge. "Now I sense that you have further questions… you are reasonable to ponder, who is this John Hodgman, and how did he come to know so many invented facts?"

I am reading a book a day for reading week, that's the theory. (Young adult books are acceptable for this project, otherwise it seems insurmountable.) On Monday I finished The Garneau Block. Tuesday I finished The Xanadu Adventure, thus concluding my re-reading of all the Vesper Holly books. Yesterday I read The Watsons Go To Birmingham--1963, which was excellent. Today I am hoping to finish Matthew Battles' Library: An Unquiet History. Will she make it? Only time will tell!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Resisting the urge to begin yet another post with the words, "An interesting article about..."

From Thingology, the Librarything blog: When Tags Work, and When They Don't. Why does LibraryThing have such success with a user-supplied tagging system, while Amazon doesn't?

"Tagging works well when people tag "their" stuff, but it fails when they're asked to do it to "someone else's" stuff. You can't get your customers to organize your products, unless you give them a very good incentive. We all make our beds, but nobody volunteers to fluff pillows at the local Sheraton."

Because the young people love the Internet.

An interesting article, in which the author recounts his borderline obsessive hunt for the location and photographer of the Windows desktop wallpaper photo "Autumn." Autumn and the Plot against Me. [From VanityFair.com]

It is almost hard to believe that this photo is of a real place. Like all the Windows desktop wallpapers, it has a pervasive sense of fakeness. The leafy lane, the island with the palm tree, the green hill and too-blue sky: simulacra.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

2 tools for the unfriendly technological future

1. Spambox lets you create a temporary email that will forward to the email you tell it for the amount of time you set. Use it to register for websites that seem likely to sell your personal info to the highest bidder.
2. Cl1p is an "internet clipboard." Store information there if you need to access it later from a different computer. You can also use it for collaborative projects since anyone with the URL can access your information.

Movie/film roles in which Clea DuVall played a crazy person


  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: plays a girl who is so shy she becomes invisible, goes crazy, tries to perform some amateur plastic surgery on Cordelia, and then eventually becomes a member of the Invisible FBI
  • Girl, Interrupted: plays an inmate of a mental hospital
  • Popular, season 1: Plays a cheerleader driven mad, who appears in a straitjacket fondling a stuffed armadillo
  • Season 6 of CSI: Plays a cult member who lives in an abandoned bunker in the desert and voluntarily drinks the kool-aid, or in this case, the special vodka


This constitutes 100% of the times I have seen her. (Actually now that I think about it I have seen 13 Conversations About One Thing. I just don't remember it.) I don't watch Heroes. Is she a psycho on Heroes? We should begin a letter-writing campaign. Dear Hollywood: We believe that, if given the chance, Clea DuVall COULD play a sane person!

Monday, February 19, 2007

the butter chicken paradox


  1. Butter chicken is so delicious that you may never want to eat anything else.

  2. Even when you are in the act of eating butter chicken, you can never be wholly satisfied by it, because you know that in the future the experience will end. The butter chicken WILL run out.

  3. Therefore real contentment is, ultimately, impossible. I mean, I don't have a philosophy degree or anything, but I'm pretty sure I've found the loophole.

"'Tea and buns' may be nice, but 'tea and buns in the library' is rhapsodic."

For all those unschooled girls over the centuries, who sat atop library ladders devouring their fathers' and brothers' books without permission, the library was Samarkand. Excitement, adventure, happiness bloomed in the sunlight filtered through tight-drawn linen blinds, as they gathered up treasure that no one could steal. The most adventurous, like Lady Mary Wortley, taught themselves Latin, so they could plunder Martial and Juvenal and Ovid, and learn as much about sex, drugs and rock'n'roll as their brothers knew. Libraries are places where you can lose your innocence without losing your virginity.
-Germaine Greer writes about her favourite word, "library." Guardian Unlimited.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

the beer i had for breakfast wasn't bad...

Other consumption in brief:

No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas for your Blog. I got this book out of the library and it was dumb. It failed to inspire me with any great blog ideas (other than the one about reviewing recent books you've read/movies you've seen, except I was already doing that on a near-constant basis. So.) I don't have much else to say about it, but if you doubt me, get it out of the library yourself.

The Garneau Block is Edmonton writer Todd Babiak's debut novel. I am enjoying it, although the level of local detail is jarring--the book keeps mentioning the Sugarbowl, a coffeeshop/bar where I go on an almost weekly basis, the last time being Thursday. There is a weird uncomfortableness that accompanies that. I mean, the characters could go in there for coffee, and I could be there. What would happen then? It would be too meta for words. I like to stay out of the novels I read. [Edited Feb. 19th to add: The Garneau Block is not Todd Babiak's debut novel. His Debut Novel was Choke Hold, which was published in 2000. My only excuse is that I am my own research staff.]

Pan's Labyrinth was such an amazing film that I keep trying to articulate why I loved it. So visceral and scary and stressful--I had a stomachache for about an hour afterwards. The acting was incredible. It was in Spanish. What more could you ask for? (I was mistaken about it having Emperor Franco though, in case you were depending on that.) Also, it caused James and I to embark on a little historical information-seeking expedition, because we realized we knew nothing about Spain after world war II. So it had an educational effect, to boot.

I went to IKEA yesterday, and I am going again today. (It's the only place where I am ever really perfectly content-- because I am not worried about going to IKEA. I am half-kidding.) And I will be playing my first Warcraft of the weekend today. I think that warrants a "w00t."

In defense (well, sort of...) of CSI

I rent seasons of CSI (the original, William Petersen-having one) and watch them, compulsively, several episodes at a time. Many people don't like this show, and I wholeheartedly agree with them. It's terrible-- so formulaic, so contrived, so predictable. Like most TV crime shows, its dramatic success depends on the characters "TAKING! IT! PERSONALLY!" Grissom's quips and puns, most of them relating to a victim's cause of death, which are meant to be endearing, are in fact formulaic, contrived, and predictable-- are we noticing a pattern here? Also, has anyone else ever doubted that such a large number of intricate, elaborate, and complicated crimes happen in Las Vegas? In Edmonton, there are plenty of murders, but they tend to be stabbings in bars, and then when the police come, a guy holding a bloody knife says something along the lines of, "yeah, i murdered him/them. I was drunk and/or we had a fight and/or it was gang-related."

Given my acceptance of the fact that CSI is not good, why do I keep watching it? I have been asking myself this question recently as I work my way through season 6. I believe there are two answers. First, all TV shows require a certain amount of concentration, and that amount varies according to the show. Battlestar Galactica requires enough attention that I don't like to do other things while I watch it. CSI requires the perfect amount of attention for me to watch: ie., not very much. I don't really care what happens, whatever happens is probably basically the same as what happened last time, and the show makes everything obvious enough that you don't have to focus. The characters' relationships, such as they are, are sketched in the barest possible terms to be still recognizable as relationships. There are science montages that take up quite a bit of time which you can just ignore. You can watch CSI while doing almost anything else and the show will not punish you.

The second thing I like about CSI is that I have almost come to admire the way this show is made. It is lowest-common-denominator film (TV)- making, Bruckheimer at the top of his game. The viewer doesn't have to do any cognitive work because everything has already been thought out for them. The music and the editing tell you what you are supposed to feel, when you are supposed to feel it. I think this whole theory of making TV can be summed up in that shot in the opening credits, when we see the whole CSI team walking under some yellow police tape. The wind is blowing in their hair, and they are in slow motion, and the theme song plays, and if you stop to think about it, what you think is this: "How did this show manage to trick me into believing that forensics investigation is a glamorous, sexy job, that these people grapple with the weight of justice and progress and modernity on a daily basis-- and yet, that they are so well-balanced that this epic struggle seldom tired and never defeats them?" The answer is in that shot. I have stopped resenting being manipulated. Instead, when I start to cry over an officer-involved shooting or ponder the dynamics of the Sarah/Grissom relationship (Will they? won't they?), I just let myself be carried away. I will be CSI's ideal audience, never questioning the fantasy the show has constructed around heroism and the value of science.

But as I watch, I will probably be doing something else at the same time.

Friday, February 16, 2007

This is a bit old already but...

LibrarianAvengers' new film rating system. It would be helpful if you knew more about a movie before going in, such as, "Rated C for Creepy Child Singing" or "Rated K for Keyboard hacks Pentagon in two clicks." (Especially the second one. Does anyone else get annoyed by supposedly top-security computer systems which film heroes can hack by typing the word "HACK"?

Tonight I am hopefully going to see Pan's Labyrinth, which will be rated 'A' for AWESOME and 'S' for both "Spanish" and "Subtitles." Oh, and 'E' for "Emperor Franco."

I listened to a really great episode of This American Life yesterday. Have I mentioned how much I adore that show? Even the old episodes, you can listen to online (just not download). Episode 175: Babysitting.

Side-note: Ever since I started taking a web design for usability class, I have suddenly elected myself the Usability Police. [Even though this is a job more than adequately being performed by Jakob Nielsen.] When I see websites with frames, I get out my bad-design beatstick and my consider-the-user handcuffs. This American Life, I'll let you off with a warning this time, but next time I see you violating the It's Not 1997 Anymore, Web-Design Wise bylaws, I'm bringing you in.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

A haiku series inspired by the tantalizing closeness of reading week.

the library's halls
gently suffused with the smell
of fresh, hot french fries.

warcraft will take up
as much time as you can give
so effortlessly.

it's an albatross
discouraging and endless
but homework persists.

Maturity

Normally I hate these blog widgets that tell random visitors, "I'm a Capricorn" or "My superpower is HTML copy-and-pasting" or whatever, but this is too funny to pass up:



[edited at 1:13 PM to note: when I posted this, it said, "People think I am 17 years old." Now it's gone up, and it not nearly as funny.]

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

"Mr. and Mrs. Internet." "Jocelyn R. Internet."

Also, I made some changes to this blog. A new archive for quotations (since in blogger they disappear when I replace them--and also because, obviously, i enjoy making collections of things). An actual, functional search box-- technorati wasn't doing it for me, so I went over to the google side. And in the right-hand column is a link to my del.icio.us account, although why anyone would want to access that is beyond me.

Written on the cover of my virtual notebook: Jocelyn loves Internet Jocelyn loves Internet Jocelyn loves Internet

Funny: http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
Serious: The Age Project [I'm on there!]

Nothing says "Valentines Day" like cool plugins.

iConcertCal is an iTunes plugin that runs in iTunes. It checks for upcoming concerts in your area by bands in your iTunes library. I'm serious, dude. INSTALL IT!

A little something from deletia to you, with love...


lovetoken

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

everybody knows that you've been faithful, give or take a night or two

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when youve done a line or two...
-everybody knows, leonard cohen

I am having one of those days, the days that are traditionally referred to in my family (copyright violation aside) as terrible, horrible, no-good very bad days. They delivered the wrong pizza, and the wrong armed services editions! I am writing an unwriteable paper. I posed for graduation pictures this morning in my Veronica Mars "Go Pirates!" shirt, and politely declined the offer of fake roses. (I went for the cheezy bookshelf backdrop though. When in Rome.) Tomorrow is Valentine's day, a holiday that always gets me into a maudlin weltzschmerz funk. (Did I just write that sentence? Oh yes. I think I did! Now that, people, is gloom. Take note.)

I am tired of all 1121 songs on iTunes.

The only thing that would startle me out of my funk is a warehouse of Lego. But let's calculate those odds, shall we?

Monday, February 12, 2007

A very interesting article from New York Magazine about kids and praise

How Not To Talk To Your Kids. This article describes the research of psychologist Carol Dweck, who suggests that emphasizing children's intelligence over other qualities may actually hinder their learning.

It didn't cross my mind until half-way through the article, but as a former Smart Kid, I was paralyzed by the experience of trying something new and failing at it. There are all kinds of things that normal people learn to do--skate, drive, play video games--that I have never learned because I tried them, didn't take to them immediately, and gave up on them. I wonder now if being constantly told what a bright kid I was had something to do with it--you forget that a big part of getting better at things is just trying, failing, and still working at it.

The question, I guess, is whether education and parenting can survive what could be perceived as an attack on the cult of self-esteem.

Note to self: when I have kids of my own, emphasize in this order (a) physical beauty ("Try to lose some weight so boys will like you more") (b) proficiency at sports ("remember, you're not going to have friends unless you know how to play hockey") (c) obedience ("good boy, you did exactly as I said in a timely fashion") (d) intelligence ("Well, I guess being book-smart could have advantages... maybe.")

Sunday, February 11, 2007

to a girl with a hammer, everything is a potential link.

Can you tell I installed stumbleupon in firefox?
Skyscrapers! A handy comparison guide. I found out that Edmonton's tallest skyscraper is only 45 stories, which is really nothing special. (I tried to find the building where I live, but, I'm embarrassed to say, I forget what it is called.)
Man I love the internet.

I played with Meghan's wii today, and my shoulder actually hurts now. Not that I am trying to contribute to an already over-hyped situation, but video games that encourage nerds to exercise should be embarked on with great caution.

If this is one of those things everyone in the world already knows about, forgive me.

Pandora internet radio will take a song or artist you like and then suggest other things you might like. This, in and of itself, does not sound that exciting. In fact, I could design a system that would do this. My system would work like this:

Type in the name of an artist or song you like: _______________

Based on the fact that you like ____________, the Jocelyn Music Recommeding Engine suggests you try The Cure. They make awesome 80s-style pop that is layered, atmospheric, and fun. If the song "Just Like Heaven" does not make you want to dance around, then you are dead inside.


(Note: The system recommends The Cure regardless of your input)

My point, here, is that no matter how justified my system's recommendations, the ones Pandora makes are actually based on your input, in a very specific, nay scientific, way. When I told it I liked Snow Patrol, it gave me a song I never heard of, but I believe I will like it because it has "similar use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, major key tonality..." I believe this justifies the use of the term "audio science."

Variations on the "If you like x, you might like y" theme: (a) "If you like tequlia, you might like mariachi music" (b) "if you like The Simpsons, you might like Family Guy, because it is basically an exact replica of The Simpsons" (c) "If you like ricotta cheese, you might also like feta cheese"

What I would look like as a South Park character.

southparkalyn


Note my look of scorn and misbuttoned sweater. And what could be construed as armwarmers.

South Park Studio

Friday, February 9, 2007

"Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow."

Did Aphra Behn coin this phrase? I could like to go over to the reference library, but I am too lazy. I'll keep you updated.

now with old-skool card file!

I thought of someting to say on the way to the LRT this morning, but then I promptly forgot what it was. It might have been about (a) the charmingly multicultural nature of Tim Hortons (b) the prescient writings of Vannevar Bush (now reprinted in The Atlantic Online!) (c) the fact that it is freezing cold in my apartment, and, for that matter, at school and outside.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Not that I'm some kind of soulless, present-obsessed person, but...

A book that would make a cute Valentine's day present: The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple's Guide to the 39 Positions. You can take this test and find out your sleep position. I like the irrelevance of the questions.

I already know what kind of sleeper I am: a finicky one.

Can't. In my own titling rut.

I have been working on my digital librarianship paper, due tomorrow, so I issue this update from deep within the throes of research. I hereby declare a moratorium on books/articles dealing with digital libraries using the title "books, bytes, and x," where x is any other word that starts with 'B': behaviour, bucks, buildings, bridges, beyond, etc. Seriously. Your alliteration is impressing no one.

Went to see Volver. Have crush on Penelope Cruz. Am drinking weird Co-op iced tea. I am all set up at school ("step into my office, or more accurately, everyone's office,") but I want to go home, where forefox is customized in a much more satisfactory way. I am listening to my ipod and I keep thinking I can fast forward through songs with the computer- d'oh!

But you know what they say: you can never go home. Because if you do, Jocelyn, you will try to watch CSI while writing your paper, and we all know that will never work.

On the plus side: I subscribed to the This American Life podcast, and now I can listen to the episodes on my iPod on the LRT. The one I was listening to this morning contained the phrase, "it's not a crack house, it's a crack home," which made me laugh out loud enough that people looked at me strangely.

Current paper length: 329 words. Longer Letter Later, as I used to write to my pen pals when I was in fourth grade. [Ideally, this should be written with one large 'L', and then the remains of the three words arranged beside it vertically, to form a sort of acrostic.]

I can't think of appropriate titles for entries anymore. I'm in a titling rut. The first person to email me or leave a comment with a title, as long as it does not contain any really rude words, will get to name this entry. Ooh, laziness contest!

Monday, February 5, 2007

new wave

Monday morning links:

  • ikea hacker-- hacks for ikea products. Much as the title suggests. Hey, I promised links, not witty commentary.
  • blik-- those hip vinyl decals for your walls. I am seriously contemplating ordering some.
  • etsy pick of the day-- someone has gone to the trouble of finding one great item on etsy every day. Not that that is a difficult task.
  • one guy's unreal flickr account. I mean unreal in the most non-ironic way. These are like photos that get put on those inspirational office posters. And that, after all, is a very Monday-morning appropriate thing.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Why do you have to point out how stupid everyone is all the time?

mobile 002


I made this mobile to resemble the one that Charlotte has in her hotel room in Lost in Translation. I did this to avoid working on a paper. I had to hang it in a stupid place because my ceiling cannot be drilled into; it is made out of titanium. According to a phone conversation I just had with my dad, this is because concrete continues getting harder forever.

[Edited 05/02/07 to add a better photo]

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Things that cost $1, part infinity

I just ordered my first Armed Services Editions from abebooks. The ones I ordered are The Gaunt Woman and We Followed Our Hearts to Hollywood, neither of which I have even heard of as books. This is fine because I am more interested in the artifacts. Plus they were only a dollar each. I had them shipped to my parents, because getting me cheaper shipping for my internet purchases relieves 12% of their guilt over moving to the States. And, obviously, because it is cheaper.

I would like some kind of personal project to celebrate Freedom to Read Week. I'm not sure what though. Last year I re-read all the Anastasia Krupnik books, which was excellent. I mean, I could say that I am starting to collect Armed Services Editions for Freedom to Read Week. The only problem with that is that those two things really have almost nothing to do with each other.

Love, intertextuality, and puppies

I get so excited about Veronica Mars' shout-outs to other shows and movies. All through season 2, everyone was Big Lebowski-esque, talking about their "special lady friends." In season 3, Veronica keeps saying "frak," the "curse-word of the future," as I think I may have mentioned. However, the plot thickens: apparently this word has also reared is lexical head on The OC. This leads this blogger to suggest: has "frak" jumped the shark? Say it ain't so!

[I have never read that blog, by the way, and my link does not constitute an endorsement. It has a bunch of graphs on it, which I can't really condone. I was searching for "curse word of the future." Hits not as helpful as you might think. Frakkin' google.]

Good adbice for bombings, and life in general

I need to order this poster: Keep Calm and Carry On. (You will have to scroll down a tiny bit.) It's a reproduction of a poster from London in the (bombings of the) 1940s. Obviously, we all need this hanging above our desks. I feel calmer just thinking about it.

Speaking of posters, and by extension things you hang on your wall, I received and framed and hung up some of my etsy art. It's exciting. Here's a picture!

arthanging 003


My bedroom looks a bit more inhabited now. If I could get my mattress off the floor, I think that would help too.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Subjects I would post about, if I weren't such a lazy git

  • Vesper Holly as contemporary fantasy of Victorian femininity
    [Sub-topic: fiction for young women. Ask Metafilter. The care and thought that people put into answering these questions is admirable. I tried to find a Vesper-specific link, but it seems the one thing the internet is lacking is a VESPER HOLLY FAN CLUB. Although a quick googling reveals that there are a stripper and a psychic by that name, so I would say such a club would have a built-in membership of at least 3.]

  • My adventures in the exciting world of CSS

  • On the same note, my adventures in the exciting and hopefully convenient world of ordering movies online! So far I have been able to order all kinds of things I would never get around to watching otherwise. [Note: zip.ca being the Canadian analogue to Netflix.]

  • Some sort of witty phrase as a prologue to a link to the weblog dooce which is quite funny

  • my anxiety over the fact that every day I do not update, the hits to this site plummet

  • I said the word "narratorial" in class twice today, and when I came home I looked it up and found out it ISN'T A WORD. Denied! I know the word that is currently filling that gap in the lexicon is "narrative," but that is not what i meant. "Narrative" refers to the events of a story. "Narratorial," made-up as it may be, conveys a strong sense of "relating to the narrator." From this point forward, in addition to housing the Vesper Holly fan club, this blog will also become the headquarters for the "Add 'Narratorial' to the Dictionary Now Association," ANDNA-- acronyms that are also palindromes are totally du moment.

  • Ahem. Acronymdromes. I think you can see where this is going. The question is only: do you think I can get the strippers and psychics on-board with my linguistic projects? If not, it hardly seems worth it.

  • The word "git": gender-neutral?