Friday, December 30, 2005

Welp, Misha and I just got back from an early morning tramp through the Vermont woods. What a great time! We followed tracks, jumped streams, and scared some turkeys. Yay snowshoes!

And what a lovely time with the family: chess with my Opa, Scrabble with Debby, Boggle with Nate & Cory, hiking with Misha, keeping the furnace lit with Jack, dishes with Ruth, and coffee with Rebecca.

Hope you all are well, and ready to rock the new year!
posted by sasha @ 8:27 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

ooh, cryptic
It has come to my attention that a certain boyfriend of mine has been confusing fellow Shoup bloggers with his change in username, paying homage to the drummer from Sleater Kinney.
posted by celestial @ 4:14 PM 0 comments

I'll be rolling into Goshen late late Friday night. Alisa, I trust you'll be around? Okay if I give you a call?
posted by weiss @ 2:54 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Wake Up Wal-Mart

The Wake Up Wal-Mart campaign is looking for organizing ideas. Mail them to ideasforchange@wakeupwalmart.com. See their Web page for more information.
posted by celestial @ 3:18 PM 0 comments

Coooooooooooooooooool (am I insensitive??)
So I was doing some late night craft-related research when I ran into the coolest thing I have ever seen: Argyria!!!

It's this really cool thing that turns all of your skin blue (or grey)! forever! It's caused by silver deposits in the skin. Some people drink silvery water because it kills bacteria and such, apparently. And some of those people that drink it actually react to it and instead of the silver diffusing, it starts building up in some layer of the skin. COOL!!! that would be the coooooolest tattooooo evvvverrrrrrrr. You could be like the people in sin city or something... I don't know, I think it would be pretty neat to be grey... but then again, I also think it would be awesome to be eight feet tall. Either way you'd get a lot of stares but it would still be way cool.
posted by meg @ 1:28 AM 0 comments

Monday, December 26, 2005

(hem) HAPPY BOXING DAY!!!!!!
(not just the day after christmas)
posted by meg @ 11:26 PM 0 comments

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Of late
Hoo-la, I just got back from the hospital with Rebecca (it is 5am). Her head lasceration turned out to be not as deep as we thought. No stitches, just time. Upside: Talking with my mom and reading "On Beauty"! And free healthcare! Downside: Waiting five hours to be seen.

In other news, my cousin Debby just got back from having her way with the WTO meetings in Hong Kong. She's been posting a bit over at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank blog.

Also: In-progress ideas for New Yorker cartoons. And: Russian kid rocks the parkour so hard.

big ups, and happy whatnots to all!


posted by sasha @ 4:27 AM 0 comments

Friday, December 23, 2005

Breaking News!!!

Henry David Thoreau has every vowel in his name! including Y !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by meg @ 2:43 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Moving to LA
My tentative plan is to move to LA on January 5th (11th?). So right now I'm looking for some sweet networking from the shoupers. Namely I need a place to stay late january onward when I'll be moving out of my temporary place with the Sweenys.

Thanks guys!
posted by meg @ 3:49 PM 0 comments

Check out these Palestinian art calendars. Probably too late for universal holiday time, but maybe you know someone with a birthday in January?
posted by celestial @ 2:26 PM 0 comments

Monday, December 19, 2005

Ross sez:

Phil is actually sitting in a Herman Miller Cella chair - it's their latest release. Not only is it comfortable, it is made from 33 percent recycled content and is 99 percent recyclable. It features ergonomic support made from a pliable molded polymer that provides four different regions of flexibility in the seat and back.
posted by meg @ 8:06 PM 0 comments

So I might be in Goshen for New Years. Will anyone be around?
posted by weiss @ 12:25 PM 0 comments

Holidays: best time evs
Folks, the time of year is upon us. Get your scarf, tuque and mitts on. Run around in the falling snow. Eat some. Make somebody else eat some. Fall down, follow your instincts, fall in love. It's on.

---

Also: New Swiss banknotes to feature AIDS virus, fetuses, skulls, globulin and the entire solar system!
posted by sasha @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

Thursday, December 15, 2005

So Christmas is here with its tinsel and lights. What does this mean? Well, most interestingly it means that we can crack out the music that I keep hidden away for most of the year: Duke Ellington's Nutcracker and the Walkmen's Christmas Party.
posted by weiss @ 11:47 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

English majors and organic-type food stores: Catherines to their Heathcliffs?
Notes:

I read the Sunday Post article about the shootings. 2 dead and three injured? That's so sad and scary.

Phil and David are getting married in Chicago this April!!!! It'll be grand. if i'm counting correctly we have atleast 5 dc/balt. people going (me, kate, julia, celeste, my mom, maybe my dad).

So when my boss at whole foods was interviewing me she said "oh, you're an English major, me too, yeah, English and Latin."
And the only other post-college person in my utopian %100 English major house (fall sem. dam green), Aaron Zimmerman, is currently employed at the co-op in Goshen. yep.

Ever since the day I accepted Kate's invitation to join the Shoup blog I've known it was only a matter of time until I would leave my blog-mates behind to embark on my solo-blogging career. The time has come*. The blog is
thefutureiscoming.blogspot.

*although i'll prob. post some duplicate messages on shoup, you know, until i break the habit, spread my wings and fly.
posted by Sara @ 6:02 PM 0 comments

i guess i underestimated myself and my winning personality
Today marks exactly two weeks in dc for me.

JOBS RECEIVED:
-columbia U. clinical study for isolating gene for anixiety disorder -$75 for three hours
-off and on temp work for $8 p/hr
-part-time substitute teaching @ cesar chavez school $13 p/hr (way close to the apt.)
-babysitting 6 hours a week @ $8 an hour
-whole foods supplement and body-care stocker, full-time, free healthcare, $10 p/hr, 20% all store purchases.6AM-2PM

INTERVIEWS RECEIVED:
-whole foods stocker postion $10-11 an hour
-1pm tomorrow -concierge work over new year's eve and day $16p/hr?- with options for full time work

INTERVIEWS REJECTED:
-1pm tomorrow -concierge work over new year's eve and day $16p/hr?- with options for full time work

SWEET SWEET APARTMENTS-
-1 1-bedroom on the floor below Kate, Meg and Teresa, close to the metro, amazing heat, wood floors, all mine for half rent and occaisonal sharing with jonah, who lives here when he's not traveling abroad on business.

I'M TOTALLY GONNA MAKE IT AFTER ALL!
posted by Sara @ 6:00 PM 0 comments

Yay!! I'm SOOOOO done with 'Princess'
I've been doing night shoots for a week and a half. I finished it with way too much Jameson. Then I slept until 10PM. dear me. Watched Living in Oblivion - I reccommend it.

Also

I'm SOOOOO famous

You can totally see me doing grip things on AOL's "The Biz"

Check out Day 10 and the bonus feature Dancin'In The Street on Day 11
posted by meg @ 5:22 AM 0 comments

eleemosynary present ideas
Every year Alternative Gifts International puts out a Christmas catalogue "filled with opportunities to give low-cost, life-enhancing gifts to those in need." Guess what you can do this year? Make Peace with Nonviolent Action in Columbia with CPT!

$33 trains a Colombian peacemaker
$17 provides two peacemakers for one day of safety for a village

Makes a great gift!
posted by sasha @ 2:27 AM 0 comments

Monday, December 12, 2005

my 'puter 'sploded
:(
poo
posted by meg @ 11:00 PM 0 comments

why i exist
i have a new website, which is either a reason for my existence, or at very least, proof of it. It also might be an attempt to get hired by MMA. I still don't know why I want that, but they pay and have benefits and it's graphic design work which is better than nothing.
posted by eric @ 4:48 PM 0 comments

Sunday, December 11, 2005

posted by kate @ 1:52 PM 0 comments

it's nice that i've found something worth living for
this on is for you katie
posted by kate @ 3:57 AM 0 comments

Saturday, December 10, 2005

i found something out!!!
i did that "see alone" link of one of my posts and there were comments.... iiiiinnnnnnnntteerrrestiiinnngggggggggggggggggggggggggg
posted by kate @ 2:42 PM 0 comments

So I'm walking back from Celeste's house at about 11:30 and then there's about a dozen loud popping noises. And these guys starting jogging out of the parking lot behind my house. And I think about whether I should hit the ground as I always imagine I would do if there was an actual gun battle going on. Then the popping noises stop, so I go ahead and cross the entrance to the lot, hoping I won't get hit. I don't, I get to my house. I go out on the back porch and there's a guy laying still on the ground out back and the cops start showing up and they're talking to people and carrying three or four more guys out of the building except one guy who is laying on the ground but moving his arms a bit who they ignore for the moment and they put up yellow tape next to the girlfriends who are saying "oh god oh god."
posted by weiss @ 12:42 AM 0 comments

Friday, December 09, 2005

Get your christmas shopping done early
Buy kick-ass unique gifts by the Schrocks at the Schrock Store!
posted by meg @ 4:06 PM 0 comments

Brief words about CPT and supporting the families
Apologies for my absence from Shoup for the last two weeks. I'm just poking my head in to post a link to this must read article on Mother Jones:

Christian Peacemakers and the Failure of the Left

At some point I hope to post more about what things have been like since I first heard about the missing CPTers when the BBC called me Sunday morning two weeks ago. But for now, I'll just thank all of you who have been posting links and words of support and such. I'd encourage you all to post statements on the blog we've set up to support the families of Harmeet, Jim, Norman and Tom:

http://supportfamilies.blogspot.com/
posted by Unknown @ 7:21 AM 0 comments

Thursday, December 08, 2005

George Monbiot has a fascinating article about the environmental dangers of a biodiesel industry here.
posted by weiss @ 6:18 PM 0 comments

ohhhhh
LIVE OR WORK IN DC?
Membership approval is determined by what you wrote
in the "comments to owner" box on the YahooGroups signup page.
If you didn't include your DC neighborhood *and*
the zip code where you live or work in the "comment to owner"
box you filled out, your application will be denied.
You will get another email asking you to reapply and to
include this information in the "comment to owner box"
with your reapplication. You can go ahead and reapply now if
you put something like "because recycling is cool." in the comment
box.
posted by Sara @ 2:53 PM 0 comments

whyyyyy?
Hello,

Your request to join the freecycledc group was not approved.
The moderator of each Yahoo! group chooses whether to restrict
membership in the group. Moderators who choose to restrict
membership also choose whom to admit.

Please note that this decision is final and that Yahoo! Groups
does not control group membership.

You may find other groups to join by searching or browsing the
Groups directory:
http://groups.yahoo.com

If you would like to create your own group, please visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/start

Thank you for choosing Yahoo! Groups.


Regards,

Yahoo! Groups Customer Care

-all I said in the "tell us about yourself" section of the application was "I live in DC. I believe in community and recycling." and those freecycle.org fuckers just turned me down. well! i guess i'll just take my sweet sweet recycling skills elsewhere. and i had just recommended them to my mom too. bastards.
posted by Sara @ 2:46 PM 0 comments

Derek: Copy editors rock!
posted by sasha @ 2:33 PM 0 comments

addictions
speakinng of addictive sites, of which justcurio.us is a great example, here's some more cool things to check out.

100 words and pictures that define the time

magnetic poetry contest from poetry.com

isn't css great? check out how to center information without tables

or do transparency and rollover and more all with css (and by a guy named Eric A Meyer - cool name, guy)

and New World Arts now with a blog, rss, atom feed, and podcasting

and CPTers in jumpsuits thanks to the BBC and Swords of Truth
posted by eric @ 1:43 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Carb-free jewelry


My church auction, happening this weekend, is reducing its usual spate of baked goods to include gift items and vouchers for services because many in the congregation are on the Atkins diet. As part of my ongoing campaign to poke fun at Atkins, I've decided to brand the jewelry I'm submitting to the auction as Carb-Free by Celeste. Alisa, I won't be insulted if you want to copy the name.

Also, Joel, please for to send any article ideas you have to me. I can bring you up as a writer at editorial meetings if you tell me about the subjects you have cooking.

The best part about writing this post was that I actually got an image when I typed "bacon earrings" into Google. Oh, the Internet.
posted by celestial @ 1:06 PM 0 comments

G'Morning!
Alisa: Norris Macdonald is president of the Afican-American Environmentalist Association. He sounds like he could fit your bill, except for the gender part. Well, at least he's funny: "I was too small to play football. I was too short to play basketball. I couldn't sing. I couldn't dance very well. I'm not very smart. What's left: environmentalist."

Also: I had deleted two comments relating to Maria's question about why she sees sneakers over telephone lines. They were merely links to The Straight Dope and Snopes, but I coudn't get them to show up without looking silly. Is all. Promise. Anyway, looks like she found them herself.

Kate & Weiss: No comments! Better to comment by posting (fewer awful Blogger windows and more content, see above). For reals.

All: Montrealer Ehab Lotayef left for Baghdad last night to try and release the CPT Four. His mission is sponsored by the Canadian Islamic Congress. As he says, "I felt it was a duty that we do something more than issue a press release. I am following the example of the [CPTers] themselves, who put themselves in harm's way to help a people with whom, in the normal way of thinking, they are not connected. So it is a responsibility for me – religious, human, call it what you will – to help them." Keep them all in mind, I guess.

ps: "silver veins"?
posted by sasha @ 12:27 PM

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

i get my glasses back tonight!
yay! i'm so happy! thanks BOB!
now i can make moneeeeey again! woo hooooo!
Julia said i look like "that stoner guy that does editorials for the Onion." what do you think:
vs.

i too have tried making comments available. i'm guessing there's something funky in our wacked-out template that's prohibiting it from working...

btw: does anyone know matt styer? he was at that race i posted about earlier. i saw a link to his photos of the Rico Race on the [messenger] list serve and noticed his url was emu
posted by kate @ 4:20 PM 0 comments

I can't seem to make comments work. Help?
posted by weiss @ 4:00 PM 0 comments

Monday, December 05, 2005

Arundahti Roy comes to mind, but I don't know what your budget looks like. Vandana Shiva would be another option. Or the African American Environmentalist Association. Maybe they could be helpful. I don't know their religious perspective. Isn't Starhawk white? She looked pretty white the last time I saw her.
posted by weiss @ 2:14 PM

DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC!!!
DCDCDCDCDCDCDC DC DC DC DC!
yuesday is make a ginger bread cookie day and celeste's house!!! yay! er, tuesday, yay!
updat on my pal rico:
dcbca.org
there was a race and a raffle this past saturday to raise funds for him and his mom. the event raised $2035 + $500 raised in copenhagen earlier + this DC messenger guys said he'd match whatever was earned, so that's like $5000, super!
the bad news is i got trashed friday and lost half my glasses while bar hopping. i had about 20 very drunk couriers searching 18th street with me and still no luck, go figure.
the good news is i didn't get stabbed at the raven. the bad news is kim did, the good news is after a big messenger vs. stabber brawl, everyone was able to bike. excluding the stabber who was handcuffed and excorted away in a cruiser.
here's everyone who came out for the race and me with out my glasses so i couldn't :(

posted by kate @ 3:19 AM

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Quick--give someone a hug!
Cause it's International Hug Day!!

If you missed it, don't worry, National Hugging Day is on January 21.


posted by Landon @ 7:38 PM

the goingson of a fath...
so, the snow has arrived in goshen and i spend many moments by my woodstove. i recently started working at the brew two days a week to stabilize the ol' money flow. photography jobs continue to support my biking habits and chocolate addiction. the co-op recently had dagoba on sale for $1.69 per bar. score. in the coming week i'm throwing myself at the "real world" of freelance writing and photography. the first five resume letters will be sent to: mother earth news, sojourners, sierra club, orion and for shits and giggles, national geographic. you should all read the recent article about buddhism.

if all goes well i hope to perform at the brew, yup i'm a singer/songwriter now (i guess), sometime in february. my favorite key to play in is E.

a book i highly suggest: "the beginning was the end" by oscar kiss maerth. originally written in german. maerth argues that the human being's "intelligence" is a direct result of generations of men munching on other men's brains.

on our end of the stick robin wenger has two new nicknames - "weng weng" and "stumbles".
posted by joel @ 5:42 PM

Thursday, December 01, 2005

with a little help from our friends
some articles are more less positive than others:

• "sabotaging the war itself"


• god damn


• this can't really be called an article

it's a wonderful world.
posted by eric @ 4:27 PM

O'Hara, are you coming around this weekend? Sara, are you here yet? If so, why haven't I seen you yet?
posted by weiss @ 12:08 PM 0 comments

Thanks!
Oh man you are right (again), I got older on Sunday. Good memory, Kate! It was the big two-three for me. We are having a little thing tonight, but not too big. I think the gift I want most is sleep. Maybe in two weeks! I have to get up at 5am tomorrow for my last day of clinical, and there are finals coming up, and a big paper on health and development for the po-mo Sociology course (so really it's on "health" and "development" – just kidding, it's great fun). Also a whack of intresting World AIDS day activities today, and getting a flu shot (I don't need to tell you that it's free, right? ), and having brunch with my girlfriend and her brother. Actually, on the whole life is pretty good up here. Good enough for even a Huracán and a Green Chile Mamba? Maybe... Grad school is opaque and frustrating sometimes, but we have a killer music scene, and lots of cute young people who are disillusioned with both. And you know the adage: Montreal – the weather is cold but the hearts are warm. Also: bagels avec fromage!

That's about it. I leave you now with some pictures of a book and of me with my brother and elderly lady whom I visit weekly. She just turned 90 years old! Now that's a birthday to celebrate.
      
Cheers!
posted by sasha @ 7:27 AM