| | So, looking back on the past four years, Shevek saw them not as wasted, but as part of the edifice that he and Takver were building with their lives. The thing about working with time, instead of against it, he thought, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts. —Ursula LeGuinn, The Dispossessed | comments: Leave a comment   |
| | Subject: | In which the author breaks up with an inanimate object. | | Time: | 01:36 pm |
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| I think it's time to step away from the internet for a while.
( It's not you, Internet, it's me. Okay, that's a lie: it's you. )
I'm keeping my email accounts. Nobody can survive without email these days. (Even Don Knuth, everyone's token example of Life Without Email, hasn't really given it up — just gotten important enough that he can make his secretary read it for him.)
There's two other applications that I'm on the fence about: LJ and AIM. The problem is, even though I use them 90% for procrastinating, the other 10% of the time I'm using them to keep in touch with old real-life friends who I care a lot about. And even if reading LJ is a horrible time-and-energy drain, posting here is still cheaper than therapy. (Only half kidding.) For now, I'm gonna keep the accounts but cut my friends list down to a bare minimum and see how that goes.
I know, I know, that was horribly rude of me. But seriously, it's nothing personal. If it makes you feel better, you should feel free to say nasty, biting things about me in posts that I won't read anyway because I'll be out flying a kite or something. | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | The other problem is how the scales get stuck in your beard. | | Time: | 03:02 pm |
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| I'm going to tell you a dirty joke, but first I need to teach you some linguistics.
In English, there are two constructions where you tack an adjective onto the end of a sentence. The first is called the resultative, because the adjective tells you what the result of the sentence is:The lake froze solid.
They pounded the metal flat.
She drank the bottle dry. The second is called the depictive. The difference is, it doesn't tell you about the outcome of an action, it tells you what things are like during it. He ran across the field naked.
Don't drive drunk. There are lots of these out there. But the classic example for some reason, the absolute number-one most popular example of a depictive, is: I ate the fish raw.
The cool thing, if you're a linguist, is that most of the time these constructions are completely unambiguous. That's surprising — on the face of it, there's nothing obvious in the grammar telling us that the lake became solid and the streaker started out naked, rather than vice versa, and yet we just know that's what those sentences mean. So there are people who study these two constructions to try to figure out how the disambiguation works.
The cooler thing, at least for those of you waiting for the dirty joke, is that EAT X RAW is one of those rare examples that can be ambiguous. I don't think you're supposed to notice the second meaning — I'm pretty sure nobody intends to get up in front of a roomful of people and talk about fellating fish until they're sore. But once you have noticed it, it makes it very difficult to sit through lectures on the subject with a straight face. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Uncle Windphone wants YOU | | Time: | 09:43 pm |
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| Anyone reading this who's an honest-to-god Pittsburgh native — born and raised there?
I'm doing a course project on how Pittsburghers speak English, and I need some people who would be willing to answer a few questions. (I'm looking at the "needs washed" construction in particular, so I'm especially looking for folks who use that one a lot.)
Drop me a line if you'd be up for it. | | comments: 17 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | In which the author can't see through pork. | | Time: | 08:59 pm |
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| We moved. Having our own place is blissful — it's been years since I could walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night without getting a towel. Oh by the way the University wants to tear these apartments down and develop the land, which is in a super-pricy neighborhood. I blew about ten seconds of my 15-minute fame allotment for a good cause.
The grocery store that's close is too expensive. The one that's cheap is too far away and has lousy produce, but they sell goat, make their own tortillas, and proudly display parts of the pig I don't even recognize. I'd do better if they were selling parts from the outside of the pig — how much time do you spend looking at the inside of one of those things? Maybe they should make them transparent for educational purposes.
Grad school continues. I'm thinking of trying to get some sort of dual degree in linguistics and philosophy. I don't think I'll ever be someone who has Big New Important philosophical ideas, but - a lot of the stuff I'm turning out to be interested in (semantics and pragmatics, especially discourse-level stuff like topics and anaphora) is interesting to philosophy of language folks too, and
- TAing a philosophy class has been a whole hell of a lot of fun.
#2's the real reason, #1 is mostly an excuse, but it means I can justify it to my advisors and not feel like I'm wasting my time. Odds are it'll only take an extra year of classes, and it may give me access to more of the (still ridiculously tiny) academic job market. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | I have millions of invisible friends who get me drunk | | Time: | 03:26 pm |
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| Microfauna roll call! Line up for inspection!
Last spring's dandelion wine is still way harsh. It may have to wait until next spring to be drinkable.
The stout, though, is turning out well. I stole a sip when I moved it to secondary and it's got a nice chocolatey flavor. Right now it's humming merrily along again, with an extra dose of honey to boost the alcohol conent. If nothing fucks up* in the last few steps, it'll be tasty and strong as hell.
Still no word on the hot pepper wine. It's been almost ready to bottle for weeks now, but fermentation hasn't quite stopped yet.
*I think ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) badthumper may be the only person in the world who uses fuck up as an unaccusative verb, except now she's got me doing it too. Normal people say "If nothing gets fucked up." We say "If nothing fucks up," the same way you can say "if nothing breaks" or "if nothing sinks." Strange. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Happiness | | Time: | 08:38 am |
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| I sent you this bluebird of the name of Joe
with "Happiness" tattooed on his left bicep.
(For a bluebird, he was a damn good size.)
And all you can say is you think your cat has got him?
I tell you the messages aren't getting through.
The Golden Gate Bridge is up past its ass in traffic;
tankers colliding; singing telegrams out on strike.
The machineries of the world are raised in anger.
So I am sending out this snail of the name of Fred
in a small tricolor sash, so the cat will know him.
He will scrawl out "Happiness" in his own slow way.
I won't ever stop until the word gets to you.
—William Dickey, "Happiness"
I'm done being jealous that other people write better. This is totally the same sort of goofy-giddy-awestruck thing I used to aim for. Now I'm just grateful that someone can pull it off. I get to read the shit that I like without the hassle of writing it.
Okay, I'm a little jealous — but mostly happy, I swear.
Oh, fuck it. Just read the damn poem again. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Gillian Welch - Acony Bell | | Time: | 08:53 am |
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| The fairest bloom the mountain know
Is not an iris or a wild rose
But the little flower of which I'll tell
Known as the brave acony bell
Just a simple flower so small and plain
With a pearly hue and a little known name
But the yellow birds sing when they see it bloom
For they know that spring is coming soon
Well it makes its home mid the rocks and the rills
Where the snow lies deep on the windy hills
And it tells the world "why should I wait
This ice and snow is gonna melt away"
And so I'll sing that yellow bird's song
For the troubled times will soon be gone | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Blip | | Time: | 11:01 am |
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| I don't want to write about myself, so I'm going to write about microbes again.
The "Excelsior Altbier" from the kit that L&M bought me is coming along. It's in bottles now, doing the little carbonation dance, and it'll be drinkable in a week or two. (Note: bottles do not actually dance. Yeast might. My eyes aren't that good.)
I'm a little nervous about the flavor, which seemed weirdly sour when I tasted it before bottling. Not funky or spoiled sour, necessarily; maybe tangy is a better word. If I hadn't made it myself, I'd say there was lemon juice in it. I can't tell if it's gotten mixed up with some sort of strange culture (Acidophilus? Brettanomyces? Emo? rim shot) or if it's just got that citrus-y hops flavor taken a little too far. It was also flat when I tasted it, and I'm not in the habit of drinking flat beer, so I'm taking it on faith that it'll be more recognizably beer-like when it's got some head on it.
But the chili wine — now that stuff is gonna be good. I moved it to secondary the other day and it was sweet, medium-hot and distinctly pepper-flavored — that nice round warm Mexican dried chili flavor. It'll also be a dog's age before it's drinkable, unfortunately. I want to keep it sweet, and that'll mean going on sweetening it until after the yeast craps out at around 18% and then aging it until it doesn't reek of alcohol.
"Blip" says the air lock. "Blip. Blip. Blip..." | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | New Year's dissolutions | | Time: | 11:37 am |
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| People keep asking me if I have any resolutions. Honestly, I forgot to come up with any, which I'm perversely proud of. Here's to liking myself the way I am!
But seeing as New Year's resolutions are really just the things you've been meaning to get around to as of Jan 1, here's a list of things I've been meaning to get around to:- Making rice pilaf out of the nice brown rice and nuts that I bought two weeks ago and then forgot we had.
- Ditto eating the nice smelly Morbier cheese that I bought at the co-op.
- Taking the mandolin out more often. I'd like to be back in practice by this summer, since it's a good instrument to travel with.
- Oh yeah, and getting a job. And making summer plans. Although I've got near-offers for both, so it's just a matter of firming those up. I should do that soon, though.
- Figuring out what I'm doing about Arabic. I could take a night class at Pitt, although I hate to give up two nights a week like that. Studying at home at least means that I could study, you know, at home, but it also means being extra-diligent with no supervision.
- Using my new camera. This should be easy, since it's a fun toy and not a burden, but these aren't resolutions, remember? I can put it on my goddamn list if I want. Sheesh.
| | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Every day I get a little closer to meat | | Time: | 05:56 pm |
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| Santa was good to me this year. Normally I'm a bitch and a half to shop for, mostly because I suck at putting together a whish list, but this year badthumper put together a wish list for me and forwarded it to my family, with excellent results. I got a nice camera that I'd never in a million years have asked for lest I seem greedy, a few shirts that fit and look good, and a whole bunch of homebrewing toys from Ms. Thumper and Mr. Chaos.
( Geekery ) | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
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