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Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Subject: motorcycles for gnomes! Time: 12:53 am.

I have made myself a shirt that says the above. Other shirt ideas: GUNS FOR EVERYONE STARVING FOR ART IDEAS ARE FOOLISH. WE SHOULD BAN THEM. If you think of every hand as an untapped llama, there are billions of llamas out there! GR: I want to be in a place where I can sleep and hang out at the same time. JB: That's being dead, isn't it? [insert image here: a selfish shellfish] It seems to me that it's rather selfless to watch someone starve to death, if s/he really wants to. Sudden Poll! Would trying to sell "limited edition shirts" be a viable business model? For instance, I've got some shirts that I've already made, for which I frequently get compliments and that I love all to pieces. Examples include not only the above MOTORCYCLES FOR GNOMES, but also BLAME GOD; YOUR PLAN HAS ONE FATAL FLAW; and $10 FOR THE ANTIDOTE. It occurs to me that I could also adapt some of my previous greeting card ideas into shirts, such as IT'S CANCER (though that one really works best as a greeting card, methinks). However, I have no interest in making a CafePress shop or anything like that. I like the hand-lettered look, probably not just because of the whole calligraphy thing but because I'm quite arrogant about my conscious efforts not to brand myself with other people's slogans/ideas. But it would be pretty cool to sell Lydia-brand shirts. After all, as this incredibly brilliant article on the brand underground puts it: Perhaps the first lesson of the brand underground is not that savvy young people will stop buying symbols of rebellion. It is that they have figured out that they can sell those symbols, too. So: what if I make limited edition shirts? Basically, make some shirts with the above slogans by hand -- each subtly different -- and attempt to sell them individually for more money than your normal slogan'd shirt. Maybe do many of them by commission -- for instance, wait for a person to request a certain slogan and put half the money down before actually making the shirt. Sure, if one of my slogans takes off I guess someone might start CafePressing the things (although I suppose I could copyright them? can you do that? not that it'd be that effective if people really wanted to steal the slogans), but then the "originals" will have more cachet. Is this a good idea? ... Ecuador considers enshrining women's right to sexual pleasure in law A new inalienable right could be enshrined soon in Ecuador's constitution: the pursuit of sexual happiness for women. It's funny how "obvious" it is that men don't need a similar provision. Is that true? I mean, the instinct is always to say that it's way easy for men and they don't need any fucking provisions to feel capable of seeking sexual pleasure, you know? But I'm not sure if that has to be true, or it's (at least partly?) bias. We all know that men have a way easier time getting off. And that's gotta be partly biological. But there is a cultural aspect -- it's very difficult for women to determine what they want sexually, not just because it's biologically harder -- and not just because there are far fewer accepted social examples that show women how they can get off (porn largely seems to fulfill this function for men) -- but because the world hammers the lesson into our heads that the real point, the real goal, of sex is for the man to get off. Not for the woman. So I think I do admire this provision, because the more social backing there is that says: "Yes, you do have a right to your own sexual needs and pleasure despite the fact that you're a woman," the fewer women will have an impossible time with understanding and asking for those things. I could go on, but this is probably a whole post in itself. from miketodd13. Spiders see love in a different light For people, ultraviolet B (UVB) is an invisible, cancer-causing ray to be blocked with sunscreen and dark glasses, but for a species of jumping spider, the light sets a romantic mood. In the first evidence of an animal having the ability to see UVB, researchers have found that the ornate jumping spider uses the light in mating displays. from fleurs_du_mal. Lesbos islanders dispute gay name Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term "lesbian". Cool discussion of the current shift from read-only to participatory media I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. ... She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, "What you doing?" And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse." Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment ... they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing. I can't remember where I got this ... though apparently it was posted on BoingBoing. EveryBlock: a news feed for your block EveryBlock is a new way to keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city. It seems to mostly be crime right now, but methinks it's got a lot of potential to go further. [Exalted] The best way to deal with Invincible Sword Princess, the hypothetical overpowered Dawn Caste Assume you're a Sidereal. You put together a Resplendent Destiny which is "ISP's lovable yet bumbling comic-relief sidekick". Set up a lot of astrology effects to support this. ... and hilarity ensues. I love it when people really get how Sidereals are supposed to work. from MCP.

Comments: 12 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: wow, I haven't listened to Nine Inch Nails in ages Time: 12:03 am.

Sudden Poll! This reprises a meme that went around a few years ago: Post a memory of me in the comments. It can be anything you want. ... In a moment of madness the other night, I reviewed almost all my LiveJournal entries from my senior year at Simon's Rock. (Well, not exactly a moment of madness ... I was looking for this excellent Mad Libs entry, with which no drugs were involved.) I found some other classic entries that I'm really quite proud of, including: * My assertion that Bernie, the dean of Simon's Rock, was a myth. He resigned soon after I posted that entry -- coincidence? I think not! * My account of the best your mom joke ever, a practical joke that I very nearly played on Jake. Skip past the request for creativity to read it. I actually have no idea what happened to those panties; I just hope my dad doesn't like, find them in my room at his apartment ... well, actually, I think he'd just be amused. * The first entry where I asked everyone to comment with a memory of me. * My final Simon's Rock nostalgia entry. Aww. * Special bonus: ethical conundrum of food colouring, from August post-graduation. The best link I posted all year was probably Myths Over Miami: Captured on South Beach, Satan later escaped. His demons and the horrible Bloody Mary are now killing people. God has fled. Avenging angels hide out in the Everglades. And other tales from children in Dade's homeless shelters. I also discovered the following charming note ... Lydia of 2003-04 stated offhandedly: I have this bizarre guilt sort of thing for not being all perverted. I mean, I'm really not even slightly perverted. It doesn't seem realistic. Shouldn't I be at least a little perverted? Oh well, I'm probably in denial and my capacity for perversion probably surpasses all, mwa ha ha ha. Side memories: * I learned today in Ethics of Warfare that nerve gas smells like Juicy Fruit. * My entire year's priorities were a three-way tie among thesis, gaming and Dustin. Well, it should be a two-way tie -- thesis and gamingDustin. * Student Life was sure I must have a drug problem because every time they came by, I was asleep (my normal sleep schedule usually involved staying up until at least 5AM) and "seemed confused and dazed all the time". This is especially entertaining because I did fewer drugs than anyone else who lived in my residence hall. ... But the best part may have been the many, many quotations I recorded from my friends. AlmightyAnus: i mean, honestly, how can someone be that moronic and not manage to kill themselves trying to operate a toilet? AlmightyAnus: the only problem with people like that is that the bodies don't disappear when you slay them MsFireCat: oh hey, one of my mom's coworkers saw a photo of me the other day and apparently said, "she has blowjob lips." God of Archery: [away message] computer in use. but not by me. say hi to my parents!! MsFireCat: You're just saying that to freak me out. MsFireCat: Does your mom know what they're saying about her on streetcorners, Adam? MsFireCat: If she's really on the computer I hope she sees this. it would be funny. MsFireCat: HEY ADAM'S MOM!!... I did you last night!!! (extremely long pause) God of Archery: lydia, thank you. you made my night wonderful. God of Archery: that was absolutely perfect. God of Archery: teach you to IM people without reading away messages first MsFireCat: I'm on AOL, I can't MsFireCat: I have to IM to get the away message MsFireCat: I don't care, your mom can hate me permanently, what happened though? God of Archery: nothing much...she wasn't at the omputer. God of Archery: but i just laughed myself to a hemmhorage a second ago Me: Do you have a ruler, Ed? Ed: No. I find that a good deal of my oblong objects end up getting lost at your mom's house. Nathaniel: If you snap, and go after some obnoxious, clueless, bitchy, printer-hogging non-senior with an icepick, I'll post bail. Well, okay. I'll print out *my* 270+ page thesis using the newly vacant and slightly bloodstained terminal, *then* post bail. (He and I had a thesis length contest.) iamsimplyme2001: okay singing nekkid in the rain is not a hobby, though it is a good way to spend your time MsFireCat: :laugh: man, I haven't done that in soo long iamsimplyme2001: wow, must be a drought Sam Ruhmkorff, philosophy professor: (tells us all about his new habit of playing cricket) Adlai L.: What's the philosophical justification or argument for taking to a game at which you suck? Sam: Any question with a necessarily false presupposition cannot be legitimately answered in any possible world. MsFireCat (4:12 AM): my reading comprehension skills have begun to blow (due to the insanity of senior year) sensorysensation (4:12 AM): oh man, my reading comprehension skills have just gotten fucked up sensorysensation (4:12 AM): like... Foucault is mad easy sensorysensation (4:13 AM): but I'm pretty sure if I tried to read a novel sensorysensation (4:13 AM): I'd explode Delea: they probably encode lessons in their DNA Delea: snakes do that Delea: playing dead is a hereditary trait MsFireCat: dude MsFireCat: that's awesome MsFireCat: so we could encode snake dna in people and make them play dead? Delea: We'd have to infect everyone with the playing dead virus MsFireCat: it'd be like "28 Days Later", only mad boring Delea: zombies would approach, but if you threatened to attack, they'd just fall down Rebecca: You're like the Pope. Lydia: What? Rebecca: Why do people always look confused when I say that? Mad MacRae (6:19 AM): I noticed the earlier your mom joke but I was startled MsFireCat (6:19 AM): startled? Mad MacRae (6:20 AM): It was like watching C-Span and having someone suddenly whip their dick out and slap someone with it and go, "I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE!" Mad MacRae (6:20 AM): Startling! (later) Mad MacRae (6:26 AM): Your mother is such a Kantian that when she sits around the house she needs to consider the ramifications of everyone in the world sitting around the house and whether or not it would be reasonable Squiberis (5:26 AM): There are strange sounds coming from the other room... MsFireCat (5:27 AM): Describe them. 15 words or less Squiberis (5:28 AM): It's like a rat pretending to be a dryer. I adopted a cute lil' pikachu fetus from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus! Lorien Feanturi: i... Lorien Feanturi: the fetussy thing MsFireCat: Shocked? Lorien Feanturi: i hope you have horrible nightmares of big scissors and a llama suspended above your bed MsFireCat: the llama of damocles? Well. There you have it, gentlemen. I wonder if any of the people quoted above will see this entry. ... Texas Polygamist Wives Calendar Like it says on the tin. from miketodd13. Apparently Katherine Hepburn was incredibly awesome. "If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married." "It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack." "I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true." Baen Free Library Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached. (URLs to sites which offer the readers for these format are also listed.) from foolinchrist. Vladimir Putin Too Sexy for His Kremlin, Eyes Bid for Catwalk In a rare exhibition of hotness, Russian President Vladimir Putin posed shirtless while vacationing with Prince Albert II of Monaco in the Siberian Mountains. The hunky former KGB heavyweight thrilled an adoring Russian public with his ripped chest, toned arms, and pert breasts. Initially feigning indifference to the attending press, President Putin then smirked while tearing a Moscow phone directory in half with his bare hands, used a classic judo hip-throw on a Black bear, and then clenched a strap in his teeth to pull a Lada sedan across a creek. The Metropolitan used to have a fashion blog! Apparently it's closed now, but their archives are awesome. They always did have crazy awesome old fashion exhibits. from dvitol, I think. Nostalgia Digest: the Glory Days of Old Radio They've got some supercool stuff in the archives.

Comments: 26 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: scrawny antisocial girl, 23, seeks attractive white iBook G4 power cord Time: 11:59 pm.

So, relatively recently my iBook G4 power cord broke and Cate offered me her old one. Now her old one is becoming untrustworthy and I am concerned that it will soon break entirely. I would really rather not shell out the cash required to buy another cord, so I ask you, my friends, if you have recently upgraded from an iBook G4 to a new computer, and might be able to send me your old power cord. I will reimburse your shipping and send you cookies also (ask Cate! it took me a while to send them, but I did, and they were green for St. Patrick's Day too!). The model I'm seeking looks like this:

Comments: 11 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: someday there'll be a computer program that recognizes songs stuck in my head from melody snippets Time: 4:36 pm.

Lots of random stuff to post. This post will be recipes. Incredibly Awesome and Easy Caramel Brownies These are seriously almost the best thing I have ever tasted, and the only things that beat them require way more work to make. Apparently they were invented by styletax; I was provided the recipe by igor_47 via cruft. 2 boxes German chocolate cake mix 6 ounces chocolate chips 1 pound caramels (wrapped) 1.5 cups melted butter 1 cups evaporated milk Preheat oven to 350F. Mix 1 box of cake mix with 1/3 c evaporated milk and 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) melted butter. Mix by hand (using a wooden spoon works best) until the mix takes on a doughy look. Spread mix on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan using your hands. Bake for 6 minutes. Unwrap caramels and melt in saucepan with 1/3 cup evaporated milk until smooth. Take brownie pan out of oven after it has set and pour caramel evenly over the layer. Sprinkle on chocolate chips. Mix second box of cake mix like the first and spread by hand over the caramel layer. The best way to do this is to make small flattened globs of dough and set them on top of the caramel layer, since the caramel will be too hot to touch. Bake at the same temperature for additional 20 minutes. The top layer of dough will spread out as it bakes, though leaving some spaces will let the caramel peek through. Delicious Georgian Recipes These are from my friend John's copy of The Georgian Feast by Darra Goldstein, which apparently is a really awesome resource for Georgian culture as well as food, and is available at Bookfinder.com for $11 and up. Together, these recipes make a brilliant meal. Garlic fried chicken 3 pounds chicken in piece salt freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoons vegetable oil 10-12 cloves garlic 1 cup walnuts 1 cup water Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat butter + oil in skillet. Fry chicken on medium high heat for 10 min; turn, fry 10 min more. Cover pan, continue cooking for 20-25 min till done. Finely grind walnuts and garlic. When chicken is tender, keep warm on plate; pour off all but 4 tbsp of drippings. Add ground stuff and water. Sprinkle on 1/4 tsp salt. Simmer 5 min. Coat chicken, heat, serve. Ed. note: I made this with tofu instead of chicken, which works okay; I suspect chicken would be better. When making with tofu, you probably want more of the walnut mixture per pound of tofu, and more salt. Yogurt spinach 1 pound spinach 2 leafy sprigs cilantro (we used fresh dill and it was delicious) 1 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped pinch salt 1 cup yogurt Wash spinach and cook covered 5 min. Drain thoroughly, squeeze out extra moisture with hands, mince. Mortar / pestle together cilantro, garlic, salt. Beat into yogurt, add spinach, serve chilled. ... Science proves that men misread and misinterpret female interest! Who knows whether this study is reasonable. It's pretty vague and has some possible interpretation flaws, so it may tell us more about "what researchers are looking to prove" than "what researchers can prove". It reminds me of one thing that drives me crazy, though, viz.: when guys tell me that "chicks hit on me so much more when I'm taken". Actually, my friend, what's happening is that women know that you're taken and think that they don't have to give you the cold shoulder. One of the biggest girl lessons is that men will interpret just about anything as a come-on, so if you want to be careful about not giving the wrong impression, you have to practically act like an ice queen. If the guy's taken (or the situation is otherwise one in which you think you can relax more), you think, "Wow, I can actually smile at this guy every once in a while!" Which is stupid, because then the guy goes home to his girlfriend thinking, "Man, if I just dumped my girlfriend that chick would totally fuck me!" I have seen this happen too many times. Argh. Okay yes, I know many men don't have this problem, including probably many guys who will read this; but the ones who do ruined it for the rest of you. edit I wrote a follow-up post to this statement! /edit Hilarious decree: Chattanooga Sends Truck Load Of Water To Atlanta The best part about this is the exact wording of the decree at the bottom. from ejgrgunner I think. How a carpenter got the highest Scrabble score ever The first thing I thought when Mike sent me this was, it's sort of funny that Scrabble experts are so het up about this. I mean, Scrabble is not an incredibly hard game to master. Its probabilities are pretty straightforward; being kinda good at it is mostly a matter of a large vocabulary and some basic math skills, while being incredibly good at it comes down to memorizing huge lists of words. But people seem to be all upset that a more risky strategy than the boring orthodox one might set all these tournament records. I mean, what exactly is wrong with that again? They're mad because someone who took bigger chances than they would, and played a game less perfect than a computer, won big? In their world, only people who are lucky enough to pull the perfect variation of tiles and then play them with perfect strategy should score big -- not people who take risks? The whole point of taking risks is that sometimes you win bigger than you would if you played a perfect game. from miketodd13. Miss Bimbo: virtual "fashion" game Welcome to Miss Bimbo. Enter the exciting world of the first ever, virtual fashion game! Become the most famous, beautiful, sought after bimbo across the globe! * Find a fun job to pay for your needs and all the clothes a Bimbo could possibly want. * Shop for the latest fashions and become the trendsetting bimbo in town! * Become a socialite and skyrocket to the top of fame and popularity. * Date that famous hottie you've had your eye on and show the Bimbo world the social starlet you are! * Even resort to meds or plastic surgery. Stop at nothing to become the reigning bimbo! Maybe the best part about this is that their iconic bimbo is shown in a wedding dress and Playboy bunny ears. Are bimbos like modern-day courtesans? Like, do you suppose they occupy similar cultural space? I always thought of bimbos as rather low-class, but maybe that's a bias from my upbringing rather than a general cultural bias. from Conrad H., indirectly. Comments on when you should give up on being a writer The original post is mostly posing the "when should you give up?" question; the comments are the interesting part. from alanajoli, I think.

Comments: 20 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: and now I know I've fallen, fallen for her Time: 2:45 am.

I'm one year older than the prostitute who wrecked Eliot Spitzer. Man, I need to get cracking, don't I? Berlin: Third and Last Entry! Some of my photos have date stamps, because I'm dumb. Anyone know if there's an easy way to remove a date stamp? I have one particularly nice graveyard photo at dusk that would be much better without the stamp. The comments on the last entry demonstrate that everyone loves döner kebabs. Here's a photo of the best döner place I saw: The gentlemen in the photo (besides Trevor) were nothing more than poor, innocent Turks who were quite bewildered by my sudden 3.30AM appearance -- shouting enthusiastic things about döner kebabs, giggling wildly, and brandishing a camera. I think my companions told them (as well as the place's owner) that I'm from Iceland and that's why I'm crazy, but I'm not sure. As given me by Francesca the Italian (and baked for me as well, with almonds and nutella for frosting), here's the world's best chocolate cake: 3 eggs 200 grams chocolate 150 grams sugar "1 vanillin" ... maybe 1 teaspoon vanilla? 3 spoons milk 3 spoons flour 100 grams butter 1. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside to cool. 2. Separate the eggs. Mix the yolks with sugar. Add milk, vanillin, flour. 3. Whip the egg whites and add to the rest. 4. Bake at 180° (Celsius) for 30 minutes. (It doesn't especially rise, so don't expect it to.) Is that easy or what? She even kindly served it to a bunch of us while we played Settlers of Catan. (If I move to Berlin, man, I'll be able to play board games way more often than I do here!) Trevor showed me some Serbian currency. Guess who's on it? I am way too proud that I recognized Tesla almost immediately. He's not that obscure; I shouldn't be so pleased with myself. ( Some of Berlin's bears! ) ( The Botanisher Garten! ) ( Much much architecture! Older stuff first, then some cool newer stuff. ) ( Of bishonen stamps and postcard projects. ) Well, that's a wrap, I think. A few more cool things I photographed, and that's as much as I'll post, gentle readers! I hope that people besides my mother enjoyed my Berlin series. An exciting contraption Trevor and I passed in the street: A neat straw-woven dress we spotted in a shop window! I would totally wear this. An elaborate font style I saw on a shop sign. Berlin's shops do more than I thought possible with gothic lettering. Even German signal lights are aggressive. I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of these. But seriously, not to joke too much about Germans, even if they do it themselves. I had a great time in Berlin, and I can't wait to return.

Comments: 18 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: and though she will mess up your life, you want her just the same Time: 5:43 pm.

Well! I'm back in Chicago. I'm glad to be home, jetlag and all. I feel a little weak, but I think that's just because of recent digestive problems, which will no doubt solve themselves now that I'm back in a vegetarian co-op. I irrationally miss some nectarines that I purchased in Germany and meant to eat on the plane, which were sniffed out by a small dog and confiscated by U.S. Customs. Ah, Berlin! Despite my excitement, currywurst was not amazing -- and I even went to one place the Blue Guide said was the best in Berlin! The currywurst wasn't bad, of course; just not as transcendent as I had hoped. Le sigh. Döner kebabs, on the other hand, are pretty great -- they're fresh-mixed meat-and-salad-filled packets of bread, miles better than any possible American fast food -- though they are made with long-left-out Turkish meat, which I suspect may have been partly responsible for my upset stomach. And maracuja nectar is delicious. There is an amazing spa right on the banks of the Spree River (Trevor referred to it as "the Badeschiff", which seems to be a general German word indicating "heated clean pool placed in the middle of a river"). There's a bar and stuff, and a sauna, but the really exciting part is the pool. It's right in the river, and you can swim up to the edges and reach your hand over to dip it into the Spree if you feel like it. I failed to make friends with a duck from the chlorinated safety of the pool, but I did get an amazingly beautiful view of the city along the river, at night, while swimming. Trevor's friends and I left at midnight and tried to find a place to eat; this took us rather a long time, including a few false starts, like White Trash Fast Food (I think that's their site, anyway). From the front, it has an awning that says: WHITE TRASH in big serious letters, and then below it in classy script, FAST FOOD. Inside, we walked past a couple dancing to the swing-dance-ish music and claimed a table. The décor, I fear, doesn't really come across in the picture. It's a reasonably excellent hodgepodge of Chinese lanterns and other Chinese-ish furniture, plus random pictures like that duck. The menu exhorts you to call the waittress "baby". And the food looked fabulous -- absurd steak fries, delicious burgers, etc. etc. Unfortunately we couldn't eat any of it, because it was 1.30AM on a Sunday and the kitchen had closed. Next time. Man, sometimes I hate starting these Look-I-Had-A-Trip entries. It half-feels like a chore. I know I'll be happy when I'm done, though. When I was having dinner with some family friends in Berlin, they told me that they'd found some 40-year-old letters and were amazed by all the details and observations in them. At least half those notes, they said, had gone unremembered. There's a humbling example. And it's easy to lose photos when they go unprocessed ... I'm not even sure where my Berkeley Asian museum photographs are. All that inspiration, mislaid? It can't be so! An hour or two past nightfall on Saturday, I was on the way to a club to meet a friend when I came upon a large open-doored church, with a charming row of small lit candles and some earnest young Christians out front. One handsome young man approached me and asked -- in English, of course, English being the lingua franca (that phrase might be a bit ironic) -- if I would like to come in, then offered me a candle to light for someone I was concerned for. I said that I was meeting a friend, but that otherwise I would visit, and asked if there were visiting hours. He invited me to Mass the next day but explained that the church was normally closed for fear of thieves; still, he insisted that I take the candle home and light it. I was touched by this gesture (it reminded me of Unitarian candles of love and concern), and later lit the candle for women in Congo. What a sweet way to do outreach. Notwithstanding the example of the church, Berlin is a remarkably safe city. This is especially interesting because it's so poor -- why aren't more people being mugged? My family friend Marek, who lives there, noted that this is probably mostly because there's very little actual race/class tension in Germany. Of course, graffiti is still quite prevalent -- maybe more prevalent than any other place I've ever seen. ( I like graffiti! ) Marek (who has spent lots of time in the States) had something interesting to say about Americans, too. I had told him of my Peace Corps aspirations, and then noted that the outside-world awareness of the Europeans I'd met made me feel small-minded. After all, they all know about the elections in America etc., but I hardly know anything about Germany or European politics in general. Marek pointed out that, while this was true, I do know something about Africa. He said that he feels that American newspapers have far better world coverage than German newspapers do, that Germans occupy themselves with news of America and largely ignore news of the Third World; and he said that while of course there are small-minded Americans, he considers educated Americans to be much broader-minded than educated Germans. Germans are pretty rude and blunt. I mean, I'm known for being rude and blunt (or at least I have been in the past; I think I may have toned down in my old age), and damn. Marek said that he thinks shopkeepers expect shouting matches rather than meekness when they act snippy. One good example might be the time I took this picture: ... at which point the guy behind the counter lectured me (in English) for like two whole minutes about how I should have asked first. He seemed nonplussed when I apologized several times, and finally dismissed me rather sniffily. It was definitely the rudest reaming-out for being rude that I ever received, and I've received some rude ones. Before I get into further commentary and pictures, allow me to prove that I was totally not lying when I talked about "iSmoke" ads on my last Berlin entry: Lucky Strike is so getting sued. ( Squats in Berlin! ) ( The Tacheles gallery, and the Pergamon museum, esp. its Assyrian collection! ) ( Sculptures! ) Oh man, I think I need to make this a two-entry series. Next entry: the best chocolate cake recipe ever; a bunch of architecture photos; postcard wildness; the Berlin botanical garden; and some other stuff. I am coming back, for sure. Things to do when I return to Berlin: * See other museums, particularly Checkpoint Charlie, which is supposed to be great. * Actually eat at White Trash Fast Food. * Walk around Prenzlauerberg, which is the neighbourhood I heard the most about that I missed entirely. * Track down that church where the young man offered me a candle, and maybe even attend Mass. * Visit a wagenplatz that has shows, or a cinema, or a bar, or something. Perhaps the one that the other wagenplatz directed us to. * Put together an incredible meal from the Turkish Market, which had cheese-stuffed artichokes and three zillion kinds of hummus / cream spread and spinach-and-feta-filled bread and seventy zillion kinds of olives and was generally amazing. * Make music with Trevor, either before or after we build a stage in his living room (yeah, I told him about Moomers, the best apartment ever). * Get Trevor to show me the reddest thing in Berlin (we didn't get to it) and figure out what the most creatively literate thing in Berlin is (we had some ideas, but nothing exciting).

Comments: 10 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: this entry brought to you by jetlag Time: 5:01 am.

I just want to be able to sleep at 4.20 AM, argh! (Vivid memory from my childhood: one of the cartoons my parents had taped to the pantry/refrigerator featured a lady with hair curlers lying tucked up in bed with a newspaper, next to a werewolf. The caption was -- Lady: "Well, it doesn't look like jetlag to me.") Oh well. This means I can hash out some of my Recent Thoughts on Jealousy. I was quite young when I first started reading Heinlein, and I directly blame Stranger in a Strange Land for some of the complexes I struggled with when I started dating. * The chapter on how jealousy is unpleasant, relationship-destructive, and just plain wrong messed me up for years. I was persuaded, and I spent ages trying to convince myself not to be jealous, because it was wrong. When men I was dating implied that my jealousy was somehow invalid, stupid, or crazy, I was easily convinced because I was already so ashamed. Needless to say, this made relationships where I consistently felt jealous much harder to negotiate. When people saw the jealousy I felt as normal, I felt briefly comforted -- but had trouble accepting that comfort, because I heard no "rational" arguments justifying my feelings. Generally, when one tries to discuss jealousy with a given person, that person will display one of two opinions. a) The Heinlein approach: Jealousy is 100% negative. Examples of such a person's reactions range from disgusted looks to cutting comments such as, "You don't own your significant other." This is problematic because it leads to cases like me -- people who are filled with this very powerful emotion, but can't deal with it because they feel so ashamed. I think that, much like your average militant polyamorous asshole or other militant [alternative sexuality] type, Heinlein types are particularly vehement -- because they feel as though they have to "push" their views in an unfriendly society. b) The camp that I think is in line with general social norms: Jealousy is 100% normal and acceptable. Examples of such a person's reactions range from "That's completely okay, honey -- if you just try to communicate that, then it's your partner's fault if they don't understand!" to "Well that's obviously a normal way to react, and your significant other is being a big jerk by making you feel that way!" (Courts of law have accepted extreme jealousy as a "reason" for extreme violence; juries have even brushed off murders performed in a jealous rage -- for instance, a spouse shooting their partner when the partner is caught in bed with someone else.) I think that, while it can be comforting to hear "You're okay! Everything's okay!", this approach isn't ideal because it doesn't encourage us to think about what jealousy means to us or where it comes from. And obviously it's bad to unquestioningly validate an emotion that's been known to lead to stuff like, you know, murder. Many evolutionary psychology types fall roughly in this camp. secret option c) Some thoughtful people subscribe to the "jealousy is a warning sign" philosophy. As spelled out in the excellent alt.polyamory FAQ, this goes something like: [jealousy is] a signal that something [in the relationship] needs investigation and care, much [like] depression or pain. But while this is sometimes somewhat accurate, it's a really incomplete approach. It doesn't acknowledge that jealousy can, frankly, be kinda fun. In a certain way, it neuters the passion and immediacy of jealousy. And jealousy -- need it be said? -- is a very, very powerful passion. I have noticed, in my own and others' relationships, that jealousy is often accepted as somewhat "nice" or "pleasurable" -- even encouraged, in a certain way that isn't actually harmful. But, while many many people use jealousy in a pleasurable way, most don't think about it. Personally, for instance -- I don't really mind feeling at least a little jealous if my partner understands what I'm looking for when I express it, viz: expressions of passion / love / devotion. Frankly, if I don't feel a little jealous of my partner when -- say -- there's an obvious attraction between him and someone else, then that's at least as bad a sign as me falling into a jealous rage. An equally good example is the fact that I like feeling as though my lover is jealous. If I'm dating someone who doesn't get jealous (or who gets jealous but won't be direct and honest about it, which is the worst of all possible worlds!), then I feel less valued -- less desired -- less loved. I like the passion of jealousy, and the way it intensifies other passions. I like the suppressed violence of jealousy. I like the competitive edge. I like the connotations of ownership, even, and the power games that go along with jealousy. All of these things, of course, as long as they don't get out of hand. Sometimes I think "jealousy usage" practically belongs in the pantheon of BDSM. But, of course, we all know that jealousy gets very dark very fast; it's playing with fire. It's very easy to go too far, with jealousy -- for instance, if you tell your jealous lover that someone else was all over you, but don't follow up with assurances that you were thinking only of your lover and that you rejected the someone else, then you are asking for relationship trouble. In my mind, this is somewhat analogous to, say, crossing a partner's sexual boundary without asking or trying to be sensitive about the details. Conclusion: Jealousy is a kink (like everything else). It's really only unpleasant when it takes a nonconsensual form. Unfortunately, nearly no one thinks of it this way. People don't approach discussions about jealousy in a "here's how I feel about it" way, they approach them in a "my way is the most enlightened" way -- or, worse, in a "my way or the highway" way. I certainly don't think that it would be great if jealous people went around giving their jealousy free rein. Jealousy is, indeed, sometimes a problem, and sometimes it needs to be reined in. Once you get to the point of extreme distrust or non-consensual violence, the jealousy has obviously long been badly out of control. But lust can be a problem, lust sometimes needs to be reined in, and lust is not an evil thing either. It just requires some care and reciprocal sensitivity. I am certainly the first to admit that I get pretty damn jealous. And it is not an emotion with which I am completely easy in my mind. However, I will also point out that in relationships where my partner understood jealousy and knew how to handle it when I was jealous, my jealousy has far more rarely been a problem than it was in relationships where my partner refused to acknowledge / accept my jealousy. * I really hate Heinlein sometimes. I can't even read most of his books without screaming in irritation. I frequently recommend The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as a fabulous and accessible instance of anarchist literature, but the man is so sexist ... and unwilling to consider alternative viewpoints ... and often refuses to present arguments that aren't phrased in an unbelievably one-sided way and argh. ... Everyone probably already knows that Gary Gygax died. I have never seen one obituary cited by so many people on my Friends page. The single best tribute is from XKCD. Of course. The Oldest Game: Hillary vs. Obama Only for people who like both politics and comics. another thing several people posted. Followup to Garfield Minus Garfield: Assorted Garfield panels arranged randomly! These are also funnier than the original comics were. from crywolf. 1 in 3 survey respondents noted having emailed a love letter Take that, personal information nazis! Also, 1 in 3 male survey respondents considered it reasonable to break up via email (as compared with 1 in 7 female). Wow. "Love detector" phones The world is already cyberpunk. But these don't sound very accurate .... Scientists Find Solar System Like Ours Astronomers say they have found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets. Completely ridiculous and often filthy-minded captions for circa 1940s line drawings Some are hilarious, but for many you will need a strong stomach. from cogshiftingman. Fine custom handmade hourglasses Including a history of hourglasses, too!

Comments: 26 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: if you knew how much I loved you, you would run away Time: 11:25 pm. Mood: cheerful. Music: VAST -- "Pretty When You Cry".

I haven't updated at all recently, have I. Well, firstly, it's Mark's birthday. Happy birthday Mark, now I can make fun of you for being in your mid-twenties! Also: 1) I'm going to Berlin: March 2-12. So-called "purpose": visiting my dear old college friend Trevor. Are you in Berlin? I can see you! Do you want me to bring messages / queries / vows of eternal transcontinental love to Trevor? I can do that! 2) People who use Craigslist have very little reading comprehension, as demonstrated by the many answers I've received to this ad where people assume that I have a whole run of 1960s "Playboy" issues, or all the issues from February 1968-November 1968, or whatever. But hey, if you know anyone who might be interested in many copies of the same vintage "Playboy" issue, just send 'em my way. Also, does anyone have any ideas on how to sell them more efficiently than Craigslist? eBay is most likely the answer (I heard there's something called a "Dutch auction" that would suit my needs?), but I fear making an account. Oh well. 3) I've been paid for doing calligraphy. Man, when I wrote my senior thesis on calligraphy and roleplaying games, I never realized it'd be such a moneymaker. Here is a picture of the golden letters I painted on the wall of a local restaurant, Chant: I also did some wall-calligraphy for Hyde Park Produce, the neighbourhood's preeminent (and currently, only) grocery store. Unfortunately it's hard to read because of the lighting, but here are some pictures: . And here's a signature I designed for a contest. I didn't win, but I like it anyway. My next project is doing the cover for a wedding planner's portfolio. Great things are ahead for Miss Lydia the calligrapher! ... Garfield Minus Garfield My God. It turns out that when you remove Garfield from Garfield, the comic is actually funny! from Housemate Kevin. Pentagon report investigated lasers that put voices in your head A recently unclassified report from the Pentagon from 1998 has revealed an investigation into using laser beams for a few intriguing potential methods of non-lethal torture. Some of the applications the report investigated include putting voices in people's heads, using lasers to trigger uncontrolled neuron firing, and slowly heating the human body to a point of feverish confusion - all from hundreds of meters away. A US citizen requested access to the document, entitled "Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weapons," under the Freedom of Information Act a little over a year ago. There is no evidence that any of the technologies mentioned in the 10-year-old report have been developed since the time it was written. I can't wait. And! Scientists Create a Black That Erases Virtually All Light Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black. I am going to wear this all the time. Cool-looking steampunk insect sculptures If anyone wants to get me something for ... um ... my birthday, you know ... in July .... from v1c1ous. Hilarious Toronto takeoff ads parody psychotropic drugs "When Amy started thinking for herself, we had to nip it in the bud with Obay(tm)." from agnoster. Cool Chicago exhibition: Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print This groundbreaking new exhibition examines the intersection of digital technology and the graphic arts. Imaging by Numbers surveys the use of computers in printmaking and drawing through approximately 60 works created by nearly 40 North American and European artists from the 1950s to the present. And! Seriously awesome Chicago exhibition: European Cartographers and the Ottoman World, 1500–1750 An important collection of early printed maps, atlases, and sea charts that trace the changing view of the Ottoman world from the Age of Discovery to the 18th century. It's so awesome. I saw it. Go see it. Improv Everywhere: Frozen Grand Central On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. If you've never heard of Improv Everywhere, this is a fantastic introduction. If you have, this is one of their best ever. from dvitol. Motivated by tax [and very clever public relations], Irish spurn plastic bags In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts. Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog. Don't you love it when governments are sensible?

Comments: 12 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.

Subject: some things are none of our business Time: 3:56 am.

I've read a lot of articles about "conducting yourself" at work in the past year -- some out of vague interest, some forwarded to me by various people. There's something I find really frustrating about the way we're instructed to deal with personal information and the corporate environment, which is: the problem is cast as the fault of "people who don't know how to keep things private", rather than "people who judge other people for private matters". I touched on this a little bit in the angry entry I wrote about the Craigslist BDSM sex-baiting prank, and I've thought about it at intervals since, usually when reading articles like this one. I'll try to sum up the bit that annoys me with a quotation: Sally in Sales refuses to back down from a challenge. She refuses to take no for an answer. Did you hear she refuses to breast-feed? Amber in Accounting leaves no stone unturned. She leaves the office late when necessary. Did you hear she's leaving her husband? ... "There's generally no clear rule about where to draw the line, so a good rule of thumb is to avoid issues that might make someone uncomfortable," Morem says. Such topics of conversation may include romance, physical appearance, health, race, religion and personal finance. "It's better to pretend your personal microphone is always on. Don't say something if you don't want it heard or repeated," he says. "Making an unsuitable remark damages how others perceive you, and the negative effects on reputation and future advancement can be long-term." On the surface, this is reasonable advice, I suppose: don't talk about things you'd rather other people didn't know. The moral underneath it, however, can be summed up this way: People at work have the right to judge you for your personal life. If you let someone know that, say, you don't breast-feed, then you may be losing a chance at a promotion, and you have no one to blame but yourself. Why does my boss get to judge me if I choose not to breast-feed? Why is this seen as reasonable? Doesn't it seem like we, as a society, should be approaching this from a different angle? In our better moments, I think we acknowledge this: we do, after all, have laws that are supposed to protect people from being judged inappropriately for their private lives (e.g., laws that protect homosexuals from workplace discrimination). Yet it's as if we're functionally being told that the entire workplace is one giant Don't Ask, Don't Tell environment in every single way -- except that unlike the original "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, nobody seems to question this. And what's really crazy is that we're entering an age of totally free information. You can already find out more from the Internet about a given person in five minutes than most people could discover by asking around for several hours, 15 years ago. But naturally, such employment-advice articles don't take this as an indication that maybe people should be encouraged to tone down harsh judgments -- or even encouraged to keep personal information from biasing them against a coworker / employee. Instead, our generation is being lambasted by our elders for everything from daring to blog, to daring to write affectionate emails to our lovers, to daring to post photos on Facebook. Now, I can see why we'd be advised not to say stupid or insulting things about our bosses in public; but these advisers go way beyond that. If a potential employer finds a photo of you on Facebook holding a beer -- these articles say -- then it's your own fault if they decide not to hire you on that basis. You should never have allowed that photo to see daylight! Never mind if you didn't post the photo. Never mind if the employer was snooping around specifically looking for personal information. And never mind if every single person your age in America has held a beer at some point. This isn't about reasonable societal expectations. It's about the fact that you held a beer once, you degenerate -- and therefore you don't deserve to be respected during the 98% of the time that you are not holding a beer. And good God, it can get so much worse! -- what if you write a love email to your boyfriend, and he forwards it to someone else, and somehow your boss sees it? In such a case, you're to blame: you should never have written that love email, you should never have trusted your boyfriend, you should never have assumed that your boss wouldn't care what your sex life is like. The issue is not that your boyfriend is an asshole to forward the email, and the issue is not that your sex life has nothing to do with your boss. I have actually read several articles that specifically deal with this exact question, and they all say the same thing: that you shouldn't be writing such things in the first place. Do I detect some Puritan flavoring in these judgments? Not that, you know, American society is maybe a bit Puritan. Or anything like that. But this kind of Puritanism can't survive in an information-free society. Can it? God, I hope not. I pray that it can't. Because if it can, we're going to be seeing one ugly, judgmental, blacklisting free-for-all, and we're going to be seeing it really soon. I'm hoping that actually, what's happening here is a kind of culture clash, as the younger, more information-free generation starts assimilating into the workplace. Articles instructing us to be discreet, in that case, might be viewed as something along the lines of old curmudgeons trying to keep corporate America "like it's always been": an attempt to tell us that we can't get away with our free-information ways in their world. With luck, if this is true, the opposition will find that we're plentiful and inevitable ... and eventually, they'll back down and accept that it's actually really stupid not to hire someone because you saw a Facebook photo of him holding a beer. With luck. ... 'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy In this short essay, written for a symposium in the San Diego Law Review, Professor Daniel Solove examines the nothing to hide argument. When asked about government surveillance and data mining, many people respond by declaring: I've got nothing to hide. According to the nothing to hide argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The nothing to hide argument and its variants are quite prevalent, and thus are worth addressing. In this essay, Solove critiques the nothing to hide argument and exposes its faulty underpinnings. I originally posted this link last entry, but decided to move it to this entry due to tangential relatedness. from dwarmstr_blog.

Comments: 26 smoky flames - light a scarlet candle.