Thursday, January 27, 2005

I found some Rap Snacks laying on the ground on the way to the metro today. I think I found the lil' Romeo version of B-B-Quin for my Honey flavored chips. yum!
posted by meg @ 5:50 PM

Alburn, you're welcome.
Because of me, your last name will not show up as "Brinkley" in The Record.
posted by D-Bo @ 1:59 AM

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

no deal

Landon gets turned down after a provocative and gut-wrenching proposal for marital bliss to an unsuspecting UN bureaucrat in the Department for the Coordination of Everybody's Getting the Fuck Married (UNDCEGFM).

Paul and Sarah, Tim and Charletta: congratulations!

Jesse, even though you're not getting married, congratulations as well on unclehood. Extra special thanks for tracking down a photo of John Stamos in his mullet-prime.
posted by Landon @ 10:21 PM

While we're on the subject
Charletta and I are engaged as well. We won't be having throwing a big shebang until late 2006 though, so if you want to celebrate with us, you've got to come to England!

So how's that for three big announcements in three days? Anyone else want to continue the run?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted by Unknown @ 9:38 PM

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Today is rockin'. Professor Wilmarth has the flu for the second day now. So I didn't have to be at school at 11. Which meant that I was around the house when Polly Halfkenny from the UE called for a phone interview.

And when I got to school and checked my grades I found that my evidence grade had come in an A-. All very good.

Last night I had a dream about Miami. As is common in my dreams, this one involved public transportation. I was riding the bus. Somehow I was about twelve years old. I was riding the bus for a very long time and I couldn't remember where I was going. So I thought, "Where do I go when I ride the bus for a very long time?" And I remembered: the Honda dealership. So I got off the bus and there I was, at a Honda dealership by the beach.

Later I walked out to the shore. It was evening. I picked up a rock and through it down the beach. When it hit the sand, the sand spouted up like water would. And it froze there in the air, a little fountain of sand made red by the setting sun.
posted by weiss @ 2:22 PM

A Worthy Cause

copied verbatim from woostercollective.com:

"Current project...mail art call: ongoing. no deadline. periodic documentation. send found or unnecessary keys to fill the interior of a '50 model Ford to confound future archaeologists."
So send those keys to:

FILL THE FORD (FULLY) FOLLY!
buZ blurr
908 E. Main Street
Gurdon, Arkansas
71743-1835 USA
posted by meg @ 11:26 AM

Goshen Association General Body Meeting
Friday, January 28, 6pm
Capitol City Brewing Co., Capitol Hill

The activities committee of the Goshen Association is calling a general body meeting for this Friday at 6pm. We will be convening at the Capitol City Brewing Company, Capitol Hill location. This location was chosen in response to the complaints of certain members about the lack of microbreweries in the D.C. area. We're looking at you here, Thomas.

Please respond if your committee will be available to report this Friday.

Note: Do not confuse the Capitol Hill location with the Downtown location.
posted by weiss @ 11:11 AM

farts and fame
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2772&category_id=31
A brief but interesting article about a woman who tried to sue her employers for forcing her to wear make-up.

I really just wanted to post a brief screenplay that I wrote with the help of Meg's "write your own screenplay" game that was in the Zine that she ( along with Julia, Kate, and Val) made as my Christmas present. I wanted you guys to know that the Zine was put to good use as Caroline and I waited for various flights on our way back to Bounty. Anyway here goes:
Once there was a protagonist named Caroline. Caroline's arch nemesis Grisly Toe stopped Caroline from doing what Caroline liked to do. So Caroline squeamishly farted the antagonist to death. Everyone was happy. The End.
Yes, yes. I know. Both Meg and I have brilliant careers awaiting us as soon as we decide that the whole coffee shop/pirate thing has become passe. Thank you for your support.


posted by Teresa @ 11:23 PM

Interesting things I've done so far in Colombia
1. Taught Dutch Blitz to the OTM`s on the team and played in the middle of the Opon jungle in a thatched kitchen.

2. Perfected my jump and slash technique for cutting down a cluster of coconuts over my head with a machete. Not yet perfected: gettign out of the way when they finally come down.

3. Been totally humiliated trying to play a game that is a cross between marbles and croquet with two kids. Turns out I have no future as a marble marksman.

4. Served as a backboard for same kids to shoot baskets. As in photo (except that's not me)

5. Discovered how much better banana, coconut, grapefuit and guayabana when you pick them yourself.

So yeah, Christian Peacemaking is pretty much way funner than I expected.
posted by Unknown @ 11:04 PM

Spent much of the day yesterday out on the streets. Took notes at security checkpoints, watching soldiers as they confusedly played cop, trying to decide which bags were too large. Got interviewed by NPR, don't seem to have made the airwaves. Instead Brian Becker was on a lot, as usual. Oh well.

Watched Andrew lay on the cold ground for a while at the DAWN die-in. I wanted to participate in that but decided to organize legal observing instead. It turned out not to be the best organized, so perhaps it's just as well. There will always be more.

In the evening I went to the Sojourners counter-inaugural ball. Charming time, especially after people I knew showed up.

Read this morning that around midnight a feisty march through Adams-Morgan turned up a broken bank window and about one hundred arrests, but when I called Elliott to see if they needed help he told me most everyone had been released.

Tonight you should join me at Iota for Colin Meloy. C'mon, it'll be awesome.
posted by weiss @ 10:33 AM

Wallis rocks wicked humor on Comedy Central


Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners Magazine, appeared on the Daily Show last Tuesday to promote his new book "God's Politics". Props to Celeste's dad, Duane, for basically writing the book. I thought Jim did a great job articulating why the debate on religion needs reframing. Oh, and check out Jim's speaking tour here.
posted by Landon @ 10:50 PM

Spongebob is GAY!?!??!?! No fucking way

Dear Lord! Someone call the call the police! It appears as though a nasty band of conservatives christians are attacking a simple multi-celled animal-cartoon!

Aren't most sponges hermaphroditic?
posted by meg @ 4:21 PM

I have to say, I am excited about the Huygens probe landing on Titan. I did a report on the Cassini-Huygens mission for Astronomy class at Goshen way back in the fall of 2001, and now it's finally arrived. I remember way back then, thinking that 2005 was so far away and now it's here.

I'm also excited about i by Magentic Fields. Tim1 somehow is borrowing a copy of it and it's pretty good, I think. Not the greatest thing ever, but definitely going to amuse me for a week.

But on to the important news (other than Sara's good fortune): Colin Meloy, supercute frontman for the Decemberists is on a solo tour and he's stopping by Iota on Friday. So if I'm not in jail I'll be trying to be there. Hows about the rest of y'all? (Of course I won't be in jail because I'm charmed and I never get arrested.)
posted by weiss @ 10:38 PM

amen brother meg! once while waitresserizering (a profession which has similar 20 problems to one of a barista) someone handed me one of the old school 10s and i almost piss-pantsed myself, whew boy! ah, how i miss tips... and money... and a heated work environment... ha ha, just kidding, money and heat are for suckers, 10 hours a day on your bike in the colder-than-i-expected dc winter at $2.35 a run and i'll be rolling in the dough - no time flat! ...heh ...sigh

anyway, so this dude took this other dude's monologue on u.s. imperialism and made a video that kinda looked like one of those marketingy video things you'd see at an office meeting or something. anyway, i thought it was odd, so i'm posting the link
link -> link -> link-> http://www.knife-party.net/flash/barry.html" <- link <- link <- link
posted by kate @ 7:40 PM

I think I have a problem. (revised)
Today I noticed that I have developed an abnormally strong libidinal attachment to 10 dollar bills. It's sad, I know, to be fond of money. But it's not the value of the 10 that I find irresistible; it is its exoticness.

Recently, at work, when a person has given me a 10, I've tried to explain this misplaced love-of-10s to that person and tell that person how pleased I am that he or she has given me a 10 but he/she always gives me an odd look and then I end up stumbling over my words in an attempt to sound sane and not ridiculously deprived from any legitimate stimulation.

Why God? Why does Meg love 10s?

God: Please inform.

Meg: It's a bizarre attraction reminiscent of my peculiar childhood affection for milkweed seeds (I kept three seeds as pets in a drawer in my room). I do not love the 10 dollar bill because it curiously animated like the milkweed. No, I love it because it's a rarity.

Remember last week when I was mad at 20s? No one ever gets 10s out of ATMs anymore because ATMs no longer offer them. So everyone comes into the coffee shop with a pocket full of 20s and orders a medium latte which costs 3.65 (tax included). So the change I give almost every person in the store is $16.35. This requires a 10, a 5, a 1, a quarter, and dime. No one ever gives me a 10 for a medium latte. I'll get the occasional person who has a 5er handy from a previous purchase, but hardly anyone ever has a 10. So you can see how quickly my little supply of 10s in the drawer runs out (assuming there were any 10s to begin with).

And so it happens that when someone presents me with a 10 I get a little giddy. I savor that 10 and I'm always hesitant to give it up. Today I acquired a little collection of 10s. I had about 6 or so and I was practically jumping out of my pants. When I realized how many I had, I noticed that I was developing an attachment to these 10s. Almost a feeling of ownership. As if I had earned these 10s. I really really wanted to keep them in the drawer - just to look at, you know. Like a little treat. Why should any one else have these hallowed bills. My Precious. So I started giving people three 5ers instead of a 10 and a 5. Eventually the feelings subsided and I relinquished the 10s to several innocent customers who were unaware of the injuries their 20s were inflicting upon my dejected heart.

This love affair with 10 has done little to decrease my hatred of people who regularly carry 20s. These people have too much money and they carelessly deplete my precious pile of 10-dollar bills.

Damn you 20 for taking away my beloved 10.
posted by meg @ 4:54 PM

Wow
I can post to blogger from my pager


posted by kate @ 5:45 PM

closer!
so I just returned from home where I had a doctor's appointment..
finally after years of waiting and frustration, I have a diagnosis!
I have a symptom called Paresthesia... which after a crap load of blood work, an MRI, and maybe some spinal test and some arthritis tests.. I'll finally know what the hell is going on with me..
here's the basics of what's going on:
Chronic paresthesia is often a symptom of an underlying neurological disease or traumatic nerve damage. Paresthesia can be caused by disorders affecting the central nervous system, such as stroke and transient ischemic attacks (mini-strokes), multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis, and encephalitis. A tumor or vascular lesion pressed up against the brain or spinal cord can also cause paresthesia. Nerve entrapment syndromes, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, can damage peripheral nerves and cause paresthesia accompanied by pain. Diagnostic evaluation is based on determining the underlying condition causing the paresthetic sensations. An individual's medical history, physical examination, and laboratory tests are essential for the diagnosis. Physicians may order additional tests depending on the suspected cause of the paresthesia.

Within the next month I'll be getting the tests done, and I'll try to keep you updated along the way!
posted by Erini CS @ 8:46 PM

thank you indiana!
i just want to announce that, today, for the first time in a very long time, i came to believe that ev'ry lil' thing gonna be alright. yes my friends, today I got my food stamp card activated. i went to kroger and the state of indiana paid the bill. and yes, the good ol' hoosier state paid for my 24 pack of decaf dt. coke too. it's nice to be able to say that the state is supporting my coke habit. i was worried, i mean, so maybe it's not nourishing, but people need it.

and i thought all of you tax paying peoples would like to know that sometimes, sometimes the money they take from your paychecks and like every freakin purchase you ever make goes to people like me who have $15,000 in medical bills, son of satan insurance and make $85 a week.

i'm actually pretty impressed with the food stamps program. "food stamps" are not like those fake stamps that we used to get in the mail from greenpeace only with pictures of broccoli and ham and peaches on them as i had previously assumed. you just get a card that looks and behaves like a check card. (unfortunatly the program requires you to watch a video that takes 30 minutes to explain that food stamp cards are just like check cards. minus 5 points for them) i got my food card benefits within a month of applying for them, pretty damn speedy for any government-run program. and they actually give me more than enough money to buy the food i need - i know this doesn't happen in any other gov program. so i give the "hoosier works" card-food-stamp program a 26.3 or something.

and i think everything's gonna be alright. it might be tight, and everyone in my fucking house might be graduating and getting married while i'm alone and crazy and not graduating, but it's gonna be ok. because indiana loves me. and jesus too.

p.s. teresa: i wanna be your lubber baby!! you could call me lubber girl and we could walk around like pigeons and you could tell me that joke that i made up about the pigeon in a marathon who sprains its neck.......
and, um, pirate viagra? i bet musscleman would know where to get some.
posted by Sara @ 5:03 PM 0 comments

But I don't wanna be a pirate
linkText
So recently I've become insane with anger over the blatent misogyny that is everpresent on our ship. Also, I've started to despair over the fact that there are dust molecules larger and hardier than my left brain. I need left brain vitamins. So, with these two factors combined, I've started wondering if maybe I wasn't really cracked up for this whole pirating thing. I feel like either I need to find the frou-frou pirate ship that wears boas and mascara and randomly breaks out singing show tunes, or at least swashbuckles, or maybe I need to get off. My "yarrr"'s just dpn't seem to have the same ring. Maybe I just need pirate viagra, but right now I wanna be a lubber.

posted by Teresa @ 2:23 PM

I have a new housemate! His name is Nathan Musselman. He also goes to GW, but in a different program. He seems really cool. He knows O'Hara's older sister and used to live near her in Tenleytown. I am very excited to have more folks around the house and to be breaking down rent one more way.
posted by weiss @ 10:43 PM

Twenty-dollar bills irk the hell out of me. When I work at Murky Coffee, I see them all day long! Where do people get all these twenties. I mean, I know that that's all that comes out of ATMs these days, but, I mean, the same people EVERY day come in and give me a twenty for their dollar-and-a-half coffee. And these people aren't the kind of people who should have twenties. where do they get them everyday. They don't get paid in twenties. they all probably have direct deposit and would never have to deal with cash if it weren't for the fact that we don't accept plastic or checks at murky. So do they go to the ATM everyday and get out a 20 so that they can have a coffee. what do they do with the change? because they certainly don't use it for tomorrow's coffee. They hand me a twenty everyday. It's like they're saying "It's the smallest bill I have." Which sucks. because a 20 is the biggest bill I ever have. When some one hands be a 50 or a hundred-dollar bill I like to rub it on my hands and hope that some of the wealth might pass through my pores from the bill so that when I pick up the three dollars in tip money for the day it might magically turn into $300 or even $30 because of the taction with the $50 bill. It never happens. But I feel rich just being able to touch it.
posted by meg @ 1:07 PM

Congrats on a fantastic recital Rob!
really, very quality. I'd even go so far to say that it went hummingly. the philip glass piece was my favorite, it really showed off your voice and your freakishly resonant hum. kudos!!
posted by Sara @ 10:44 PM

After spending too much on bad Chinese, went to see Meet the Fockers as a house activity. Grant, who is in North Carolina for work, was constructively represented through special-someone Maia. So everyone was there.

Movie was fun as a group activity, though did not manage to be one of those very few sequels that exceed that which went before.

Pluses:

• Very funny.
• Ben Stiller.
• References to first movie not overbearing but rather helpful.
• Sex jokes very good. I mean, really, sexuality is funny and you can get good, healthy humor out of it without resorting to snickering. This can be best done by highlighting conflicting sexual mores or pointing out the goofy things we all do to express sexual interest. I can't come up with another movie that I've seen handle this better, though maybe if I tried I could think of something. Derek?
• Special cameo at the end that I won't spoil for you.

Minuses:

• One of the best things about Meet the Parents was that despite consisting of a series of horrifically unfortunate events it never seemed to require suspension of disbelief. I feel that this is what pulled it just a notch above Zoolander or Dodgeball: that all the insanity is something you can imagine happening to yourself. This movie somehow just missed the element of believability needed to give characters' misfortunes that extra biting edge.
• Animal humor. If I wanted "oh that crazy cat!"-type moments I would watch Air Bud or something. Please, getting a cat to flip a switch is not something I ever want to see in a movie with an R rating.
• Baby humor. Again, I could watch Look Who's Talking, Too. Fortunately Vanessa was along to complain with me about these two points.

Oh yeah, and school starts tomorrow. Gotta get back to the books. Now that I'm taking Corporations and Admin Law I shouldn't have any trouble sleeping.
posted by weiss @ 10:41 PM

Paramilitaries to be used in Iraq?
The day after arriving here in Barrancabermeja a fellow CPTer forwarded me this article in Newsweek:

?The Salvador Option?: The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq

An excerpt:

"Following [the El Salvador] model, one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called "snatch" operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries, officials tell NEWSWEEK."

Accordign to the article, many conservatives saw the operation in El Salvador in the early eighties as a sucessful model to be applied elsewhere.
posted by Unknown @ 11:48 AM

Gummo
Gummo is probably the weirdest and most disturbing movie that I have ever seen. I can't even explain it. I'm not saying I recommend it, mind you; it's just one of those movies that you watch and some of those images will not leave you alone.
posted by D-Bo @ 5:14 PM

So many thanks to Duane I now have a cell phone. I've joined the Kennel-Shank family plan which is a really cheap way to get a 202 area code. I have profoundly mixed feelings about this and just spent the last hour mucking about with the settings to make it all as simple as possible. Well, simple and pink.
posted by weiss @ 1:46 PM

Buona fortuna, Rob!
Wish I could be there to see the results of intense Italian training. I also wish I could come to the kick-ass party at my old homestead. Perhaps I'll drink one of the bottles of champagne leftover from New Years in sympathetic celebration.
posted by julia @ 3:40 PM

ah yes.. rob's party.. I might swing by.. unfortunately I'm closing the coffee shop that night, so eh.. would have to leave early to change and all that..

..is it just me, or does WGCS The Globe sound even better this term? I don't remember hearing so many great songs--I mean, I've always enjoyed it, but wow, it just seems so much better! and last night's late night show was great too, all sort of various rock songs spanning from punk, hard rock, emo, contemp. rock... it was delightful!
posted by Erini CS @ 1:16 PM

NNOOOOOOO!!!

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are SOLD OUT! This has never happened before at the Black Cat. Never.

Does anyone else have any ideas about what we could do for fun tonight?
posted by weiss @ 1:13 PM

me first and the gimme gimmes, what! what!

oh, and to all you goshenites:

ha ha! it's like 70 degrees here.

posted by meg @ 4:39 PM

Okay, who's coming on Friday? Black Cat, Black Cat!

posted by weiss @ 4:22 PM

Gabitril
So yesterday I returned to Bounty after visiting my fabulous friends in Va/DC. I did this because I am a song from the 60's, and the Bounty is my refrain. Today I went running and while on my run saw these very strange animals that looked like the spawn of some drunken laison between a rooster and a duck. Seeing these strange genetic mutants made me wonder, what is the voldacount? Because life is a team sport our crew played some ultimate frisbee on the beach, until we realized that dill relish gives us hives on our heart. I saw Caroline and hoped around her excitedly squeeking because we might be put on watch together, and also because we are a highly flavored lady. Slightly before my squeek fest, our boat held an auction of lost and found items, and I bought some cool camo pants, but then so did Evan. Everybody be always trying to steal my loook. All in all it was a good day. Effexor, remeron, and gabitril baby
posted by Teresa @ 1:27 AM 0 comments

more from the fucked up world of kate schrock
a special thanks to sara for the evening o' zine


posted by kate @ 9:37 PM

Also: Happy New Year, boyees.
posted by sasha @ 1:27 AM

So, I went on Christmas break. A bunch of stuff happened. I was too busy to post. But most importantly, I now have a mandolin. Much easier than guitar for my tiny fingers.
posted by weiss @ 6:57 PM

heh heh heh
posted by kate @ 7:59 PM

Moral failure
Moral and editing failures in the current blog poll:

Spelling:

1. Stewart Showalter=>Stuart Showalter
2. masterbating=>masturbating

Typos:

1. wantg=> want

Grammar:

1. Who does Val wantg to have sex with?=>With whom does Val want to have sex?

Moral failures:

The entire subject of the poll! Kate or Meg, I'm looking at either of you.
posted by celestial @ 3:33 PM