Whyyyyyyy

Currently in Earphones: "The Incredible Hulk" soundtrack by Craig Armstrong

So I took a trip to Berkeley on Friday and visited the usual haunts. Games of Berkeley was its usual greatness and I got myself a travel version of Peg Solitare. I'm really liking the the little wooden folding peg games they have, I've been satisfied by their Nine Men's Morris and am liking my current purchase. Also hung out at The Musical Offering, which seems to have been made with me in mind: a cafe and classical CD store. Not only that, but the bookstore next to it is freaking awesome, with a great selection of literature from antiquity. They even have a section of Loebs! Suffice to say I was in heaven.

The only snag was when I went to redeem my gift certificate to Cody's Books. Cody's used to be a large and successful bookseller, and had three locations in Berkeley. I remember the Telegraph Ave. store with most fondness, though it was right next to the also popular Moes. As of late, they haven't had much business, and had to close all but one of their stores. My aunt got me a $25 gift certificate the day before I graduated, and after the ceremony at dinner she jokingly said that she hoped Cody's didn't close for good before I got a chance to use it. Fast forward a week to the 20th, where I amble up to Cody's on Shattuck, see the lights on and the shelves fully stocked, and look forward to getting something good.

But what's this? The doors are locked! The only notice are two notes taped to the doors, each saying "CODY'S IS CLOSED, THANK YOU." How cryptic. I figure it's something strange about the day, and resolve to come back later. So the next day my pop asks if I want to go to a movie, and chance has it that the theater down the street from Cody's is playing The Fall, so I ask if we can't stop by Cody's on the way there. I go online to re-check the hours, and find this. Well...hell.

I sent an e-mail to the enquiries address detailing my situation and asking the usual "any chance at all?" but I haven't yet heard back. I got an auto-response saying that, as I can imagine, they've been getting lots of e-mail and the lady in charge will get to me when she's able. I don't know what's going to happen, but can only hope that I can get at least one more book out of Cody's before they go down for the count.

And now, off to Catalina Island, for a last whoop-de-do with my Davis buddies.

Enough, More Later.
- James

In-Between-itude

Now playing: KMFDM - Ultra
via FoxyTunes

So, I'm all officially graduated, though I'm a little annoyed that it's gonna take 4-6 months for my shiny new diploma to actually be made. I always wondered why my graduated friends seemed to wait for ages before they got theirs. It was always a "Oh, I happened to be in Davis, so I thought I'd pick up my diploma while I was here." Now I know.

The ceremony was long and full of speeches and flapdoodle. Our own Jeff Lee was valedictorian and gave a surprisingly good speech. As a friend of mine said "I think the whole 'My asian dad wanted me to be a doctor but I DIDN'T! SO THERE!' thing endeared him to a good number of the liberal arts majors" of which there were many. How like life, it felt like an eternity waiting for our major to be called up for handshakes, but once I got up there it was all over so fast. I barely had time to tell them how to pronounce my name, shake the hand of so-and-so the semi-hemi-demi vice-provost of the Arts, a quick "Thank you, Chancellor" and some happy hugs to Profs. Albu and Bulman. Then I was returning to my seat with a "UCD Alumni" pin and a pamphlet on "How to Keep in Touch," and another eternity as the other half of the College of L and S wound their way across the stage.

Being the staid fellow that I am, I found it funny that partway through the ceremony, my friend Andrea Jacquith leaned over and said with a chuckle, "James! Don't look so stoic!" I responded with good humor, but after the ceremony my friends and family were like "Wow! You looked so cool and dignified!" I suppose some merrymaking is expected, but I think I was pushed to my usual quietude by the strutting and posturing of a fair amount of the grads. To be sure, they (and I) had just devoted four years of our lives to higher learning, and damn if it didn't feel good to have something to show for it, but my natural aversion to making a show of things won out.

Because I'm such a nerd, I celebrated by buying a bunch of Loebs. For those of you that don't know, these are a collection of dual-language texts from antiquity that give you a side-by side comparison of the original Latin or Greek with an english translation, which is highly useful, even if the translations can sometimes be a little wonky. As you can see by browsing the cataloge, they have a WIDE range of texts to purchase. What interests me is the variations of authors: Sure, you might have heard of the famous Apollonius of Rhodes and his telling of Jason and the Argonauts, but have you heard of the Latin version by Valerius Flaccus? There's usually a reason one hasn't heard of these other tellings: they're usually of poorer quality or are simply re-treads of the original, but not without their own merits.

Even so, I was interested to see how Statius, a Latin poet of the Silver age (never at the head of classical curricula to my knowledge), fared in composing an epic poem recounting the struggle for Thebes by Oedipus' two children, Eteocles and Polynices. As to how good it is, opinion seems varied. Always a fan of more Latin, I snapped up the two volume Loeb edition of the Thebaid, along with a collection of Archaic Inscriptions and Xenophon's Anabasis. The last of these is the text that's used for Greek 100, had I stayed on at UCD and continued to take Greek.

I'm set to move out of Davis tomorrow, and I have the majority of my stuff already at home or near ready to haul out. Since Moose took over Sophia's room, I have the master bedroom all to myself, which I've been enjoying for the past few days. Luckily, there hasn't been a shortage of folk to hang out with: I went to a party with Toes last night and was happily surprised to see some fellow classics folk in attendance, with whom I riffed for a good while. I also finished up Rome, Season 1 with my good friend Cindy, and damn if that's not a great series. The finale was particularly gut-wrenching, and not just because Caesar goes down in a hail of knife-wounds. The rest would be telling, though, so go watch it yourself, you'll like it!

Anyway, I've blathered on long enough. Here, have some Mel Gibson in the final duel from Zeffirelli's Hamlet.



Enough, More Later.
- James

Please Standby

Now playing: Barry Dransfield - The Werewolf
via FoxyTunes


Yes, I'm still here. Still caught in the throws of Finals. I'll make a fuller post later, when it finally hits me that I'm DONE WITH ALL MY UNDERGRADUATE WORK, DEAR GOD WHAT NOW?!?

(Yes, I *do* have a plan, no it doesn't involve grad school right off the bat, first a year off)


Enough, more later.
- James

Crazy Ghost Huntin' Fools

Currently in Earphones: "Cleopatra" Soundtrack by Trevor Jones.

Now you all know that I'm a skeptic and follower of folk like James Randi and Robert Todd Carroll. So don't all collapse in disbelief when I say that I've recently gotten hooked on the show "Ghost Hunters."

I remember my fascination with "the paranormal" went all the way back to my young years, when I would check books out on cryptozoological creatures and scare myself silly. I also remember a brief interest in the schlock-tastic show "Sightings" hosted by Sci-Fi back in the day. It was strange, because I didn't particularly like that trapped animal fear that one could get so easily worked up to, hearing stories of things that skulked through the night. But I kept coming back, probably because of the strangeness of it all.

Indeed, I remember that it only took one similar "Ghost hunting"-type show (probably also on Sci-Fi) a number of years back to freak me out and swear off it for near good, and this was broadcast in the middle of a bright, sunny day.

So honestly I was as surprised as you are when a few days ago I started watching selected episodes of "Ghost Hunters" on YouTube, and found that I actually was enjoying it. Let me preface this by saying that what they do find is still questionable, but what really turned me on to it was...

A. 99% of what they find is "There's nothing here" and
B. Specific things usually are debunked fairly quickly.

Apart from their genuinely creepy Ireland episodes, these two aspects hold true for pretty much every season they've done so far. Even if they believe in the paranormal, I find the two founders of the show, Jason and Grant, the best men I could imagine doing this sort of thing. For one, they're both plumbers for a living, which goes far in helping debunk any weird noises and (I would imagine) gives them a very down-to-earth personalities. I really liked the Queen Mary episode, and I paraphrase...

(Jason and Grant are being shown the engine room)
Guide: "We know that NONE of these machines are functioning, and THAT one STILL makes noise. This PROVES that there's a ghost here who EVEN NOW is making his presence known!"
Grant: "Ma'm, do you even know what that machine is?"
Guide: "Well, no..."
Jason (to Grant): "Shenanigans!"

(Later, Jason and Grant are looking at it with a thermal camera)
Grant: "Yep, it's a hot water heater.......aaaand it's still functioning."
Jason: "Knew it."

And they do this nearly every episode, sometimes even getting debunked by their fellow investigators, who are pretty sharp themselves...

Steve: "Yeah, so that thing your thermo-cam saw on the staircase?"
Grant: "What the hell was that?"
Steve: "That would be the banister."
Grant:"Ah"
Jason: "What about that split second image of a guy, clear as day?"
Steve: "That would be you accidentally getting Grant when you swung your arm around...there ::indicated camera-man's separate footage::"
Jason: "Ah"

And if I have to pick one quote that I loved (in a similar vein as the above) from a scene of footage review....

Brian: "DEAR GOD, WHAT WAS THAT?!?"
Steve: "A bug."
Brian: "...Oh yeah!"

Once again, this is not to excuse the stuff that they find and take as "real" evidence, especially the EVP's they're so fond of using (I suspect pareidolia and some as-yet-unknown effect as the causes of these aberrations). But overall, I appreciate that time after time, they find nothing, and are perfectly fine with it.

I'll save my rant for later about how the amazingly annoying, unreliable, jumpy, and overall ratfink Brian Harnois is the worst thing about the show, as I have a Latin midterm staring me in the face.

Enough, More Later.
- James

Two-fer

Now playing: Shooglenifty - August
via FoxyTunes


Courtesy of the lady-friend's blog, an iTunes meme. Some facts about my library...

How many songs total: 4166
How many hours or days of music: 10.7 Days
Most recently played: (check out my Foxy Tunes tag at the beginning of the post)
Most played: "Main Title / Morgan's Ride" from Cutthroat Island by John Debney
Most recently added: Shooglenifty - August

Sort by song title:
First Song: A. A. Cameron's Strathspey / Mrs. Martha Knowles / The Pitnacree Ferryman / The New Shillin' -- Silly Wizard
Last Song: "7/29/04 The Day Of" from Oceans 12 by David Holmes

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: "The Shadow Knows...1994" - Alec Baldwin (:08)
Longest Song: "Alabama" from Crimson Tide by Hans Zimmer (23:50)

Sort by album:
First album: Abby Road --Immediate Music
Last album: 300 OST (ha!) - Tyler Bates

First song that comes up on Shuffle: "Cells (Instrumental)" - The Servant

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death: 26
Life: 23
Love: 68
Hate: 4
You: 74
Sex: 3 (The Rednex "Sex and Violins," and some suite to "The Secret Life of Elizabeth and Essex")


Also, I may make it a habit to post some poetry if I have nothing better to say. As such, here:

The Listeners
Walter De La Mare

"Is there anybody there?" asked the Traveller,
   Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
   Of the forest's ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
   Above the Traveller's head;
And he smote upon the door again a second time
   "Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
   No head from the leaf fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
   Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
   That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
   To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
   That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in the air stirred and shaken
   By the lonely Traveller's call.

As he felt in his heart their strangeness,
   Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
   'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote the door, even
   Louder, and lifted his head:
"Tell them I came, and no one answered
   That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
   Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
   From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
   And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
   When the plunging hooves were gone.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Finally!

Currently in Earphones: "Tricks of the Trade" from Incognito, by John Ottman

You know, I keep telling folks, it's all a myth. Over and over again: "Doesn't it cause hallucinations?" No, no and NO.

Science to the rescue, once again!

Also, I find this a far better "What's your X Name?" doohickey than others, because you can CHOOSE THEM YOURSELF.

Mine? Rafael H. Orsini


Enough, More Later.
- James

Something a little different...

Now playing: Andy M. Stewart and Manus Lunny - Freedom Is Like Gold
via FoxyTunes


I was at the bookstore a few days ago and came across "Immortal Poems of the English Language." Intrigued, I picked up a copy and found many a good gem, though it seemed to be missing a few that I really enjoyed. In light of it only being 600 odd pages from about 150 authors, I can see why some of the more prolific poets aren't quoted in full. The "Anonymous" section has proved fertile ground for poems about love, and this one particularly caught my eye.

Love Not Me
Anonymous

Love not me for comely grace,
For my pleasing eye or face,
Nor for any outward part:
No, nor for a constant heart!
For these may fail or turn to ill:
   So thou and I shall sever.
Keep therefore a true woman's eye,
And love me still, but know not why!
So hast thou the same reason still
   To doat upon me ever.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Since School is fair to middlin'...

Now playing: Cris Velasco - Minotaur Boss Battle
via FoxyTunes

...I'll talk about leisure for a bit instead.

I finally finished the first God of War, and it really is quite a good game. I'd say it covers the "epic" base where Devil May Cry covers the "badass."

The three moments that I knew it was an awesome game are as follows...

- The beginning of the road to Athens, where you climb a large set of stairs to an overlook of an enormous plain where the host of Athens is gathered. And right there in the middle of the battlefield stands Ares, monstrously large, scooping up soldiers by the handful and crushing them. I knew I was in for a tough time when the camera crested the stairway and brought that sight into view.

- Near the end of the game I found myself (that is, the main character, Kratos) trapped by Ares in some trans-dimensional area with my resurrected wife and child, defending them from scores of doppelgangers. And the clincher was that the circle button, which had been used to deliver all sorts of pain to enemies and the occasional (off screen) sexual act (God of War definitely earned its "mature" rating) was now used to embrace his family, transferring some of his health to them in order to keep them from dying at the hands of the evil clones. After a full game of ripping, stabbing, dismembering, and otherwise annihilating scores of baddies, as well as many un-heroic acts on the part of Kratos, I found this tender mode of gameplay very touching, made especially so by the battle going on around his loved ones.

- Finally, the grand finale of the Challenge of Hades in Pandora's Temple: a giant, steampunk minotaur who can literally chew Kratos up and spit him out, all while the amazing soundtrack blasts hellishly in the background. Observe...



Enough, More Later.
- James

You know when it's a good time to blog...

Now playing: Rodrigo y Gabriela - Diablo Rojo
via FoxyTunes

...when you've got two finals back to back the next day, both in foreign languages. At least they're late in the day, so I can have the morning to study.

Good ol' Preston bounced me this link, and I found it wondrous fascinating...

http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/the_prosody_of_itaking_the_hobbits_i/

If I may be so bold as to quote him (as he always does sum things up rather nicely), it's a "Perfect example of using something very accessible as a doorway into something that's not." Though the subject may be right up my alley, it certainly doesn't mean that it's everyone's.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Busy and Not Busy

Now playing: Solas - The Ploughman
via FoxyTunes

So what have I been up to? Uploading things like this...



and like this...



The whole collection can be found here. I'm quite proud of it, and still have more to add. And yes, I'm doing quite well in all my classes, thanks. :P

Enough, More Later.
- James

Catch Up

Currently in Earphones: "Partition" Soundtrack by Brian Tyler

So I had a wonderful time with the ladyfriend this past weekend, though I caught her cold. Though having pancakes for breakfast, lying in the grass in the Arboretum, and holding hands while drinking tea more than made up for it.

However, let it be said that I do like to get paid for work. Missing my normal hours on account of being told, in a good-natured fashion, to "Go away until you're not contagious," does make me worried. Especially since I had 7 perfectly good sick hours snatched away from me on account of the fact that they were earned in a different department. Robbery, I say.

Need to start work on my papers for Origins of Rhetoric and Medieval Latin. That AND the Berkeley Tournament this weekend AND me being sick may be a little much, but I'll be damned if I miss the third Collegiate tournament for the third time in a row.

And now, a wide change in topics due to my disease-addled brain: This looks really awesome and I want one. And it ages, like a fine wine. The light actually AGES. Flippin' sweet.

Also, my newest flash game fixation: Vector Tower Defense. I can't seem to get past level 40...on the easy maps. Anyone out there with some strategy?

Yeah, that's about it. More after the ensuing academic and athletic craziness.

Enough, More Later.
- James

For Those who would like a recap....

Now playing: E Nomine - Mitternacht
via FoxyTunes


Here's a fantastic video highlighting what's happened so far with the whole Anonymous vs. Scientology foofarow...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4cr9g_the-road-to-february-10-2008_politics

Enjoy!

Enough, More Later.
- James

Why I can't finish The Fountainhead

Currently in Earphones: "Walking with Dinosaurs Live" Soundtrack by James Brett

First a little section from a nicely translated version of the "Goliardic Confession" by the Archpoëta (if you're wondering about that spelling, see diaeresis, to which the umlaut is a young, upstart pretender)...

"There are poets, worthy men,
Shrink from public places,
And in lurking-hole or den
Hide their pallid faces;
There they study, sweat, and woo
Pallas and the Graces,
But bring nothing forth to view
Worth the girls' embraces.

Fasting, thirsting, toil the bards,
Swift years flying o'er them;
Shun the strife of open life,
Tumults of the forum;
They, to sing some deathless thing,
Lest the world ignore them,
Die the death, expend their breath,
Drowned in dull decorum. "

(Complete, yet oddly lengthly, translation here. Original Latin, strangely missing these verses, here)

Pertinent to the following? Perhaps.

So, it's been a good few months since I've put down The Fountainhead, mainly because I finally threw up my hands and read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia. I can't honestly say that it's a bad book: The story is intriguing and the characters original. I suppose one could say that my problem is with Rand's philosophy. Now I'm all for the celebration of the individual and all that jazz, but to me the protagonist, Roark, skirts too close a line to being altogether less-than-human.

What I find completely maddening is that the line is so widely blurred. One could argue that he functions as his character dictates and as Rand's philosophy dictates, which isn't hard to do considering how distastefully Rand paints all he stands against. I couldn't give you an example that couldn't be countered somewhere, but the closest I can come to is his brutal rape of Dominique. As her character twistedly compliments Roark's, proponents could argue that it was what she wanted and did her no harm. However, in the general sense, when was rape ever a good thing to begin with?

This may be a single point in a very large work, but for me it crests the wave of rationalizations and paves the way to firmly illustrating the bigger points of unease. Being true to yourself is a good maxim in general, but to pursue it past the point of social rationality to me denies an essential element of humanity. Sure, there are folk out there who function just dandy on no social interaction and a hermetical lifestyle. But they are a small slice of a very big, and very varied human pie.

I don't begrudge the people for whom Objectivism works and gives them happiness. But I DO begrudge the same system of philosophy which makes the greater majority of people alone and unhappy because it squelches social necessities under the guise of individualism. For those of you who skipped the Nathanial Branden article due to TL:DNR, here's an excerpt...

"...I re-read the opening chapter of The Fountainhead. It really is a great book. I noticed something in the first chapter I never noticed before. Consider these facts: The hero has just been expelled from school, he is the victim of injustice, he is misunderstood by virtually everyone, and he himself tends to find other people puzzling and incomprehensible. He is alone; he has no friends. There is no one with whom he can share his inner life or values. So far, with the possible exception of being expelled from school, this could be a fairly accurate description of the state of the overwhelming majority of adolescents. There is one big difference: Howard Roark gives no indication of being bothered by any of it. He is serenely happy within himself. For average teenagers, this condition is agony. They read The Fountainhead and see this condition, not as a problem to be solved, but as a condition they must learn to be happy about -- as Roark is. All done without drugs! What a wish-fulfillment that would be! What a dream come true! Don't bother learning to understand anyone. Don't bother working at making yourself better understood. Don't try to see whether you can close the gap of your alienation from others, at least from some others, just struggle for Roark's serenity -- which Rand never tells you how to achieve. This is an example of how The Fountainhead could be at once a source of great inspiration and a source of great guilt, for all those who do not know how to reach Roark's state."

Sic Dicta Est. And when it comes to The Fountainhead as a story, I found that it ended exactly as I thought it would. Sure, there were some character arcs I didn't expect, but I would have finished out the thousand-odd pages to nothing that a 5 minute perusal of a summary of Objectivism could tell me. The protagonist is finally recognized for the genius he is, despite the fact that he is stubborn, hermetical, and sociopathic. The antagonist fails miserably despite being competent, friendly, loving and flexible. Tell me this doesn't sound like some emo early-teen's wish-fulfillment fantasy. Rand's idea of a hero is too close to some dark alternate-universe version of a Mary Sue for me to take seriously.

I started reading The Fountainhead because I wanted to get a better idea of Rand's philosophy and because I wanted to read a good story. Little did I know that I already had a fair idea of Rand's philosophy, and found myself not caring about the story halfway through. My last rationalization for reading her work is that Atlas Shrugged is an "important" book to have read. This may fall through if it's anything like The Fountainhead, but I'm willing to give it a try in the name of literature, just don't expect to see my thoughts on it unless it turns my thinking around. Considering all I've just said, not bloody likely.

Enough, More Later.
- James

Go, Anon, Go!

Currently in Earphones: "Robin Hood" soundtrack by Andy Price

I'm out there in spirit, and am greatly looking forward to the news and videos that are sure to pop up on YouTube shortly.

Also, as a preview for a more lengthly post later ("Why I can't finish The Fountainhead"), a link to something I've probably already posted before. The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand

Also, Dicewars! Kinda like Risk on speed. See how addicted you become.

Thirdly, Captain Disillusion. Another one (stylishly, and for the YouTube Age) joins the ranks of Randi and Carroll.

And finally, some wag created a database a la Bash for.....Limericks? It's everything I'd hoped it would be.

Enough, More Later.
- James

A little more on the subject....

Now playing: Marco Beltrami - Ben Takes The Stage / Dan's Burden
via FoxyTunes


WONDERFUL. I love this person's thoughts. Along with Wise Beard Man, required viewing for any and all Anonymous.


Enough, More (on this subject) later.
- James

Because I think it would be worth mentioning...

Currently in Earphones: "Tomorrow Never Dies" Soundtrack by David Arnold

(Arrg, Blogger isn't letting me embed the image, click it to see the whole animation)

This should be interesting.

Enough, More (Thoughts on the subject) Later.
- James

...the Fuck?

Currently in Earphones: The whacked out techno of the first video...


Seriously, what the fuck?

(Also, Fuck Yeah!)


Edit: Yeah, the first video does make some good points, I still give a bit WTF to the Engrish, among other things.

Also, concerning the second video, I'm simply happy that folk are hopping mad and not gonna take it anymore, not specifically that I laud Anonymous up one side and down the other. Case in point, I very much like this Robert Todd Carroll-like fellow: Epic Win, but yoar doin it wrong

Enough, more later.
- James

Another part of my childhood mutates

Currently in Earphones: Two Journeys by Tim O'Brien


So I had heard rumblings that a number of dinos had been reclassified as, indeed, being feathered creatures. It didn't hit home until today, when I was perusing Wikipedia and found the pages on our favorite raptors all of a sudden had new pictures. It was jarring only in that I'd known these guys from my dinosaur books of old for so long as scaly, grim lizards.

The bird/dino connection has been around for a while, and makes perfect sense. Archaeopteryx has stood as a testament to that since when I was a wee one. Despite it's faulty portrayal of Velociraptors, Jurassic Park made sure to point out how similar the Dromaeosauridae are to birds. Now I'm not sure what new discovery prompted the feathered shift that seems to have just occurred, if the cultural image was considered too ingrained or the new one too jarring. Whatever the reason, I wonder how the Walking with Dinosaurs aggregate (touted as damn-well researched series, which I quite agree with) will cope, given that they've now started their Live tour around the US with decidedly old-school dinos.

I don't feel robbed or anything, just slightly off kilter. Eventually I'll get used to it, but it certainly feels quite the shift, even though this is information about a species long since extinct. That's cultural relevance for you, I guess.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Belated Happy New Year and all that Jazz....

Currently in Earphones: American and British Folk Songs sung by the Westminster Choir


So winter break is drawing to a close, and what a break it was! The events in no particular order...

- I started to gather supplies to create a few bookshelves for my room in the Bay, and I'm currently waiting for the weather to dry out before I actually put them together.

- My lovely girlfriend came up to visit and we spent a number of days sightseeing.

- Christmas saw a good amount of loot. Damn I got a lot of CD's!

- I went and saw Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience. My inner six year old was rejuvenated.

- My last grandparent died and my dad flew across the country to be with my aunt. The small glimmer of fun was that I helped him pick out a traveling laptop. That's life for you, I guess.

- I got a lovely pile of new books to read for pleasure, and more are on the way. This will come in handy because...

- I learn that the power is out in Davis due to these crazy storms we've been having. I'm actually somewhat titillated at the thought of using candles, but I bet it'll get old quick. At least it'll only be for a few days.

- I have gotten crazy hooked on The Wire. BEST DAMN SHOW EVER.


Yeah, that about covers it. Back to Davis and dear Academia soon.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Busy busy busy

Currently in Earphones: "Way Down in the Hole" by Tom Waits


So, between making some shelves (from scratch!) for my ever increasing book collection, playing an interesting game of Lexicon, getting addicted to The Wire, Alison visiting in a few days, Dickens Fair, running hither and thither with the parents, and the general hyper attitude of the holidays, I'm not going to have much time to post. See you all in the new year and the new quarter, most likely.


Enough, More Later.
- James