Friday, March 31, 2006

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before

Click next map and watch the transformations.

It looks like a crazy psychodelic shirt, but really it's the earth.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Favorite song

A month or so ago, Jared was in Cleveland for the week. In order to keep in touch regularly, easily, and also to help getting to know each other, he devised a texting game. We would text a name of someone or thing, and then reply with a few words of our reaction to that person or thing. It was fun... and somewhat obsessive.

Examples:
Electoral college/an obstruction to democracy
David Byrne/Compulsively creative
Picasso/inventive but not emotive
Ikea/tickytacky and the occasional amazing orange blanket

So, every now and then the game reappears. This week, the question was favorite Billy Joel song (I didn't know/he said "it's still rockin' roll to me") which turned into a question about all time favorite song. I've been obsessing (who'd a thunk it?) about this question for some time now. Here's my first pass:
Dar Williams: Blessings, My friends, The one who knows, Closer to me, the great unknown....
Sundays: My finest hour
ABBA: Take a chance on me
George Michael: Faith
Liz Phair: Polyester Bride
Madonna: Like a prayer
Pretenders: Don't get me wrong
Diana Ross: I'm coming out
Joni Mitchell: California
Janis Joplin: I wanted to say Ball and Chain, but I think I have to go with Piece of my Heart.
Erik Satie: Trois Morceaux en forme de Poire (I think that's the name of the one I'm thinking of)
That Aria from La Boheme (I'll look)
(...I feel like there should be some jazz standards in there, but I'm not sure which. ...I could go on, but the more I do, the more I feel like a girl. And I like to pretend to be butch.)

16 favorite songs??? A work in progress, like everything else....

What do you think?

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Taxes

I've been working on my taxes (which wasn't as much of a nightmare to do myself as I thought it would be using an online service). I was self-employed in 2005. So, when converting my return for the State of CA, it just asked me if I needed to make any adjustments for costs associated with my domestic partner's health insurance. While it's pathetic that that is progressive, I can't help but applaud my home state.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Social marketing resource

note to self
Workshops

Innocent Escapes

Innocent Escapes

I was particularly fond of the random breakdown movie.

Monday, March 13, 2006

My friends are hilarious.

I wasn't sure what to title this post. It was between the above title and something about it being a very quiet world when you have lost your voice. I opted for flattery.

A few things have happened:
1) My new computer arrived. I feel like I'm cheating on my old one, but since it's been dead for almost 3 weeks now, I should probably get over it and move on. I have learned some level of resilience over the years, but 3 weeks generally isn't long enough. Do keep in mind that I was with that computer for something like 6 years. Of course it doesn't always take half the length of the relationship to get over it, it can take more or, in this care, much much less. Anyway....
2) Having a working computer of my own for the first time in nearly 3 weeks means that I have had time to sift thru a whole lot of email. Carolyn Helmke wrote a magnificent piece of the death of her TV mid-chemo (you can imagine the necessity of getting over that loss within a matter of minutes) and Mitja about having his pants (with wallet and keys) accidentally taken from the YMCA during parent-child swim class (only to be returned hours later: "Hi, this is the YMCA. Hope you've been doing okay without your pants today.") I was reminded of what I told Jared over tea on our first date, "All my friends are hilarious. I don't know why." I guess it's particularly odd since most people don't even get my sense of humor, even close friends.
3) I'm sick, and I've lost my voice. I actually feel fine, but when the phone rings, I am shocked to learn that my attempts at "Hello?" fail utterly. I was just at Valencia Whole Foods (my corner organic grocery) buying tea for colds, juniper, and chocolate and trying desperately to communicate. (The guy wanted to know what the juniper was for, and, well, you can imagine my embarrassment.) At UPS (where I picked up the computer after missing their 3 attempts to deliver it), the woman assured me what while I sounded terrible (she agreed), I looked great. That was cute. So, yeah, I'm a mess. I wonder if I lost my voice because I finally got my computer. I mean, I wonder if I'm in a phase of blocked communication right now, and so the fact that I can communicate online now means that the universe had to block my ability to communicate in some other way. How's that for a wacky New-Age Berkeley theory for you?

I'll stop. I'm almost done with my soy hot coco, and I'll be moving on to Echinacea tea. French class tonight will be interesting since speaking is a big part of it. I'm sure my teacher will understand. In the meantime, I both need to rest, AND I have 3+ weeks of work to catch up on. Ick.

Monday, March 06, 2006

I'm OK!

I've been feeling a bit guilty about my neglect of the blog, and I was going to post something shortly, just to let y'all know I didn't die. But then someone said something which spurred me into action now. The thing is, I don't really have time right now (French test tonight, stuff to take care of, being at a friend's house), and I haven't been thinking a whole lot lately anyway. Two things happened:
1) My computer died. It says the hard drive is unreadable. I'm not sure if I can even retrieve my files, but I'm thinking about it, and a few people have looked at it. (Do any of you have any ideas?) I ordered a new one; it should arrive this week putting back in blogging (and other) action.
2) I have fallen into a certain unexpected abyss, and it's not at all unpleasant. At this point, that's all I'm going to say. :-)