| Ethics and Ice Cream |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|12:57 pm] |
I went over to the Pru for Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day. When I got there I saw a line, but at the end of the line there was this clot of people eating from cones, and it wasn't clear where the line actually began.
ME: Is this the line?
WOMAN EATING CONE: Yup.
ME: But...you're already eating?
WEC: The rules just say you can only have one cone *at a time*.
I've been going to these for the last 3 years, and this NEVER OCCURRED TO ME. I still can't decide--greedy? Or brilliant? |
|
|
| A typical breakfast conversation with D |
[Apr. 23rd, 2008|02:22 pm] |
INT. KITCHEN--MORNING.
D sits at table nursing her coffee. I rush in holding my laptop, open to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) wtf_nature.
ME: Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod! You know how sometimes you have two words, and they're each pretty good by themselves, but then when you put them together its AWESOME? It's happened!
D: Okayyyyyy....
ME: Ready? GLIDING. POSSUM.
D: *blinks* Wow. Wow. That IS awesome.
ME: One more reason to go to Australia!
D: With our luck, they'd attack the second they stepped off the plane.
ME: I know! 'Wow, would you look at that sunse--' SPAKOW! *performs mime of fist-sized mammal striking the side of my head*
D: You would love it.
ME: Yeah, I would. 'Hey! He's--ow!--got two thumbs on each--ow!--paw!' |
|
|
| |
[Apr. 23rd, 2008|11:39 am] |
So on Monday I got together with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) andsonosin to talk about what she wants me to do for my performance this weekend. She's co-ordinating a big ol' fundraising event at Mobius, Boston's biggest (not that this is saying too much) performance art space.
Now, I love Alisia. The last time we worked together she crawled around in a dog costume in front of City Hall while I tried to train her, as a big metaphor for artists' relationships with local bureaucracy. That fact, added to the fact that the Big Concept of the weekend is For the Win! Adventures in Game-Based Performance Art, and I knew she'd reached out to local LARPers and other gamers, and let's just say my curiosity was running high.
This is how it went:
A: You're going to be manning the second installation people see. That doesn't count the boffer LARPers outside having their tournament.
Me: A weekend-long tournament?
A: Well, they'll also be interacting all up and down the street. But their fights will all take place in the ring of fiery demon poo. *off my look* Which is metaphorical.
Me: Gotcha.
A: So folks come in. First off they have a game show, 'Free the Artist'. We've got an artist in heavy restraints stuffed in a bag. *off my look* NOT metaphorical. People who want to play get asked questions; if they get them wrong the artist gets ANOTHER restraint. They get it right, they get to choose whether to let the artist get one restraint taken off, or get another one added. So we're testing peoples' altruism, making it part of the piece.
ME: And then there's me?
A: Right! And you'll be at a table, and you'll play this card game with them! *teaches me 'Apples to Apples'. It's VERY simple. No restraints. No LARPing.*
ME: And then I...
A: You let them go to the next installation, where Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam play a game about the electoral process with them!
ME: That's all I do?
A: Uh-huh. You're the relaxing interlude mixed in with all the challenging stuff.
ME: ..........
A: Plus, you get to wear a really cool hat.
ME: I'm in! |
|
|
| From the Boston Police Department blog: |
[Apr. 8th, 2008|09:44 am] |
WORSE THAN RETURNING TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
At about 3:43am, on Monday, April 7, 2008, officers from Area A-1 (Downtown) responded to a radio call for a breaking & entering in progress at 101 Arch Street. On arrival, officers spoke with security guards who stated that they had surveillance video of the incident. While viewing the incident on tape, officers observed a white male wearing a black hooded sweat shirt, black jeans and white sneakers throw a rock through a window at the above mentioned address. The thrown rock shattered the window. After viewing the incident, officers broadcast a description of the suspect over Channel 1 of the police radio. A search of the area proved unsuccessful. However, when officers returned to the station to write up the report on the incident, officers observed an individual, matching the description of the suspect, sleeping inside the lobby of the Area A-1 police station. Officers then asked the individual to accompany them back to the scene of the crime. Once there, witnesses were able to positively identify the suspect as the individual who broke the window. When asked why he broke the window, the suspect stated, “I broke the window because I’m stupid.” Officers arrested Robert Libby, 39, of Boston and charged him with Attempted Breaking & Entering. |
|
|
| |
[Apr. 3rd, 2008|10:02 am] |
Note to self: if at all possible, continue timing your truffle deliveries so that you show up just as your customer is baking cupcakes. Nom nom nom.
In other news, the 48 Hour Film Create-a-Thon is this weekend, and holy cats my team seems hyper-organized. Our organizer just sent out the final FYI e-mail to let us know that we've got the Holiday Inn breakfast nook reserved for our use as a writing space Friday night/Saturday morning, and that for Saturday filming we have 7 possible locations including a comic book shop, two apartments, a sandwich shop and a restaurant with old bank vaults inside. BANK VAULTS, people! This is going to be fun. |
|
|
| chocolate post (it's been a while!) |
[Mar. 31st, 2008|02:14 pm] |
Local LJers who are in the b0st0n and davis_square communities might have noticed the posts for the Emperor Norton Stationary Marching Band fundraiser this Thursday. (A fine example is here at http://community.livejournal.com/ensmb/7734.html).
Especially keen-eyed LJers might have noticed this line right here in the middle of the evening's offerings:
Custom Truffles inspired by ENSMB & the Madcap Rumpus Society from Truffleupagus. I know *I* noticed it, since Truffleupagus is, essentially, me.
Custom flavors are a new thing for me (with the exception of Foresthouse Crunch, which was created as a direct request from foresthouse back in the day and I'm glad she did), but as it turns out they're a hoot to come up with. First I went to the ENSMB website and checked out their song titles. Then I sat back and thought about circus bands and circuses and general. Then I got a special request from the band's contact person, who liked the thought of a flavor named after her stage persona.
And then I got desperate and started IMing people to ask for ideas. :P (Emperor Norton, sadly, was not a foodie...or let's say that if he was, he left no blog behind listing his favorite dishes).
The Final 5:
*Emperor Norton's Imperial Blend Peach brandy being wildly popular in San Francisco during Norton's reign, it went in here. (Sourdough was popular too, but there are some things even I won't try). Per mjolnir_babe's suggestion, it's coated in a shell of marbelized white & milk chocolates. Someday I'll have the skill to write Imperius Rex! on each one, but not this time.
*Mad Squirrel They've got a song called 'Mad Squirrel March'; I had four kinds of nuts and hazelnut liqueur. It worked!
*Black Diamond I'm a little proud of this one. I named it after the rogue elephant I posted about a few weeks ago, and set out to make the strongest, bitterest truffle ever seen. And then I added espresso. I'm sort of scared of these, to be honest.
*Madcap Rumpus Another pun based on the name of the circus troupe that performs with the band. Spiced rum and dark chocolate go together like Paris Hilton and vapidity.
*The Whipcracker The request flavor from the performer, and another one that I'm surprised and pleased by...she asked for "something innocently sweet, with something that snuck up and whapped the taste buds". So milk chocolate and raspberry liqueur for the sweet innocence, cloves and wasabi for the whap, and Chinese 5-spice powder for the "what the HELL am I tasting?". All in a shell of white chocolate. It's just wacky--I've never worked with a truffle that tasted so different depending on how chilled it was. If it was a superhero, it would be Ambush Bug.
So anyhow, locals, if you're not doing anything (like, oh, being in a play all you Firsties) and want to support a great band and eat a lot of chocolate, come out to this event! |
|
|
| |
[Mar. 27th, 2008|04:06 pm] |
It's originally a comment over on missmelissa's LJ post about gelatin, but I sorta thought it was worth its own post here:
Oh, gelatin at the Haunted Castle! Remember the night when we were Feasters in the Great Hall and they were out of the black jell-o we were supposed to use, so we tried to recycle the gel that'd been spilt and left behind on the table from the night before?
Ahh, show biz. |
|
|
| yet another medical post |
[Mar. 25th, 2008|12:40 pm] |
Thank you everyone, for your kind thoughts and good wishes. :)
Deb goes in tomorrow at 10, and the surgery should start around noon. This morning at 8 we went in for the pre-surgery visit. They took an ECG, talked us through what to expect, and had us look over their info sheet for any mistakes. Oh, were there ever mistakes. We corrected the spots where they'd spelled our names wrong, wrote in our correct area code (they'd put in 000)...
...and then we got to the part where they'd written down PRIMARY LANGUAGE: NEPALI
Tell you what, I was almost tempted to leave it in, just to see what would happen.
Speaking of resisting temptation, they also asked Deb at one point if she had any religious or cultural traditions she needed them to follow in the operating room. She was good and told them no; I'm already designing the brand new cultural traditions of Northern New England Neo-Shinto Revivalism so that if I'm ever asked this question I'll be ready. (So far it involves taiko drumming, godswraith and whaleomelette portraying Ben Franklin and Captain Hook ((possibly as conjoined twins)), and the great ritual blessing by Mungor the White-Bellied Totem Duck. Cover that, Blue Cross.) |
|
|
| |
[Mar. 16th, 2008|10:04 am] |
I'm about to leave for my first-ever road race. (It's 37 degrees out, but at least the rain has gone away). After that, I've got an audition this afternoon.
And best of all? The fact that this is my *least* busy weekend of the next few. Next week's the Anime Boston convention and an Easter trip up to see my family; after *that* I need to make 200ish truffles for a party, and then do the 48 Hour Film Festival and and and...whee! Thank Flying Spaghetti Monster tomorrow's the start of Spring Break, is all. |
|
|
| |
[Mar. 15th, 2008|01:51 pm] |
|
Happy birthday superrob! |
|
|
| |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|09:18 pm] |
Dear World,
I admit, I've had some complaints about you recently. Some negative things might have been said. Be fair, it's March. You know what March is like.
But today, oh, today you've made up for everything.
In one day, ONE FRIGGIN NEWS CYCLE, you've given me:
*A Dolphin Who Rescues Beached Whales (story here: http://news.scotsman.com/world/Dolphin-answers-whales39-SOS-call.3872748.jp)
*A Woman Who Sat on a Toilet Seat So Long Her Flesh Grew Around It (story at http://www.ksn.com/news/local/16611691.html)
*missmelissa's picture post of the acrobatic bear at her cousin's house:
(This is my favorite one, but you should really go to her LJ and see the other pics)
And last but not least, a frickin' "GNOME" sighting in Argentina being treated as real, or at last plausible, by the international media:
Two notes about the video. 1) Skip ahead to 1:20; 2) A commenter said it best, "I never knew gnomes did the Boot Scoot Boogie".
I take it back, world. You're SO not boring. You're far, far stranger than anything I could ever come up with.
Love,
Me |
|
|
| |
[Mar. 9th, 2008|09:10 pm] |
Oh my dreams are getting so strange/I'd like to tell you everything I see...
Last night's dream involved Isis taking over the Underworld and kicking everyone out, so all the spirits had to come up here and live with us. They all looked like normal humans, only they ranged in height between 6 and 12 feet tall. The easiest way to tell they weren't mortal, though, was that instead of speaking they all used charades.
(The charade-motion for "Isis", by the way, is making a little crescent moon sign on top of your head. Just in case you need to know.)
Before that was a fun afternoon and evening at the House of Red Doors's monthly gourmet food & roleplaying game get-together, voted #1 in "Games People Would Drive Through a Typhoon to Get To". I confess to driving with my iPod and singing along with it for the entire hour's drive each way; fortunately for everyone else in the party, I didn't blow my voice out (on the chorus of She's Not There) until I was almost home.
Before that the elementary school around the corner had their annual book sale, at which I made out like a bandit. I now own Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, The Artist's Way, and HEIMSKRINGLA, or, The Lives of the Norse Kings. And, well, the Madagascar soundtrack, because nothing goes with the story of Queen Alov the Mighty like a singing lemur.
Woo. Full day. |
|
|
| If it's March, it must be... |
[Feb. 28th, 2008|02:30 pm] |
This week's Boston Phoenix cover story ("EARTHQUAKE! The threat is real! It could happen here! We're not fearmongering, nosiree!"..it's at http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid57127.aspx) is notable for three things:
1) Having an illustration of people fleeing in terror that includes what looks like Mitt Romney in drag;
2) Being as overdramatic as it's possible to be without actually having Maude Flanders clutch her face, stare dramatically at the reader and yell "Think of the chiiiiiildren!!"
3) Appearing almost exactly a year to the day from a Phoenix cover story with the opening "IF TERRORISTS HIT BOSTON--In 'The Edge of Disaster', a security expert warns that the US is not prepared for future disasters". http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid35111.aspx
This third bit made me wonder if I'd discovered a trend, so I started Googling. 'boston phoenix + disaster' got too many results, as did 'boston phoenix + terrorists', but sure enough 'boston phoenix + plague' dug up a story about a Rat Epidemic (!), from their March 14 2002 issue. http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/02194425.htm
I think I'm onto something. And furthermore, I suspect it has less to do with any conscious decisions by editors and more to do with Seasonal Affective Disorder, the way writers' minds work, and what life is like around here in early-to-mid January when stories like this get pitched. |
|
|
| |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|04:22 pm] |
I've signed up for tap dance classes, as part of my ongoing plan for Total Global Domination. The class description says "Requires tap shoes". No problem. I hiked over to the local dance shoe supply store (Danny's in Central Square, for you locals), found a pair that were modestly priced, tried them on, liked them, took them up to the register, all no problem.
Then this happened:
The Clerk: (taking my card and swiping it) Where are you taking lessons?
Me: Oh, through Boston Adult Ed. I'm just getting started.
The Clerk: Huh. They probably won't let you wear them, you know.
Me: What?! Why not??
Clerk: Cheap ones like these, they don't make enough noise. Sure you want them?
Me: .......yes.
Clerk: Okay. They'll be good for practicing in at home, anyways. Sign here.
I've never left a shoestore with a visceral sense of dismay before! Was this just a salesman trying to upsell? Or am I really going to get sent home from my first-ever class because my shoes aren't cool enough? |
|
|
| Crime |
[Feb. 21st, 2008|02:00 pm] |
Ugh. I spent the morning realizing that the kitchen goods order I placed on February 9th isn't just slow getting here--UPS actually "delivered" it on the 14th. They put it on our porch at 11:49. By the time we got home from work at 5, it was gone.
Argh. It's not just the theft, it's the stupidity of it. In my imagination it was some poor wretch so desperate for a Valentines gift that they turned to daylight robbery...but then once they opened the box and realized they'd stolen a sifter and a garlic press? Dude. DUDE. Total fail. |
|
|
| A day (already in progress) |
[Feb. 16th, 2008|12:52 pm] |
So far today I have:
*Gone out to breakfast at Renee's with qlewkr and discojesus, where I a) made faces at a baby one table over, b) made faces at bismuthobsidian two tables over, and c) would have made faces at asciikitty four tables over but her back was to me and she defriended me last month anyhow so why even bother especially when I could concentrate on pancakes instead;
*Explored a Bangladeshi food market down the street, tried "Thums Up" soda from India ("Contains No Fruit!" says the label) which tasted the way geraniums smell, followed the hand-written "Meat Section" sign down a flight of stairs to a basement with four closed chest freezers and a frowning man behind a bare metal table holding a knife (WHY NO I WAS NOT NERVOUS AT ALL);
*Explored the garden shop across the street which was selling spices for 20 times the price of the Bangladeshi market, and also had one package left of Fox Urine, which included a long description on the box about how gently and subtly the urine was collected the foxes don't even know we're doing it honest, and I'm sure you will be pleased to learn that the manufacturers call themselves "Leg Up Enterprises".
In other words, so far so good. |
|
|
| |
[Feb. 14th, 2008|12:40 pm] |
On this special day, I tried to think of a post that would work for both the singles and couples out there.
And then I stumbled on wtf_nature, and it all became clear. Because whether currently in a relationship or not, everyone can agree: COURTSHIP CAN BE WEIRD.
( Read more... ) |
|
|
| |
[Feb. 11th, 2008|09:19 am] |
qlewkr's down in VA/MD for a family get-together. Last night on the phone she told me that her more conservative siblings agree that they're sad Romney dropped out, he was their first choice, but now they'll support Obama.
I....I....what?!? WHAT!??!? |
|
|
| movies |
[Feb. 10th, 2008|09:29 pm] |
So, finally saw 'Cloverfield'. And it's one of those 'I liked it BUT...' movies. I was never actually SCARED-scared, because a) giant monster and b) giant monster eating rejects from the cast of 'Friends' and c) you know how sometimes you don't see someone for five years and then you run into them three times in a single week and you're like, what are the odds? Sorta like that only with giant monster, and d) and by far the most important, giant monster who looks wayyyy too much like Fin Fang Foom from Marvel Comics, so at an absolutely critical part of the film, a part where the moviemakers obviously want you to be going 'OH NO OH NO AAAAAAA' the only thought in my head was:
And I'm guessing that's probably not what J.J. Abrams had in mind.
On the plus side, great demolition effects--I honestly couldn't tell what was CGI and what was actually getting smashed. The sequence down in the subway tunnel was really well-done. Good build-up, good use of sound and darkness, and ohmigod I think 'Never Turn On the Night Vision Feature' just bumped 'Never Go Down In the Basement' out of the top spot on my 'How to Survive a Horror Film' chart.
And most importantly (to a geek like me), the movie left enough things hinted at but unexplained to keep geeks happily nattering together for years. I've been thinking about the story for hours since I saw it, partly just doing the usual Monday morning quarterbacking of what the characters did wrong ("this really does underscore my need to have a flashlight and comfortable shoes with me wherever I go...and do I need to rethink my feelings on handgun ownership?") but also trying to work out the biology and logic behind the monster(s) and the whole attack. ("If I was a huge monster with a long neck chomping down on a victim from a 90-degree angle, how could I eat him and leave the head behind? Feet, maybe. But the head would only be left if I spat him out. And why would I spit him out? Because while I obviously associated human-shaped things with food, I didn't actually like the taste of human flesh. And *that* would imply trainers without an available source of humans, which in turn implies aliens, which means...") And I can feel tens of thousands of other geeks out there, each coming up with their own theories, and whenever that happens it's a good thing.
But you know what REALLY got me excited at the movies today?
The poster for 'Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay'. Oh my GOD. |
|
|
| Jackass of the Day |
[Feb. 10th, 2008|07:29 am] |
Hey, preraphaelite, this one might be coming to a courtroom near you soon!
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080208150740AAO03ZJ
In summary: A Boston shoplifter gets caught, signed a form agreeing to pay restitution and penalties, is then outraged to find the penalty is $150, and goes to an online advice column wanting to know if he should sue the chain. Wackiness, as they say, ensues.
Yes. GOD yes, take it to court. Contact the media, too. Paris Hilton's been oddly quiet and Britney's just sad...America needs someone new to laugh at.
So, how'm I doing?
Well, lemme tell you.
So this delivery guy comes in with a HUGE vase of flowers, totally lost--he's read the room number as the street address and is at the other end of campus from where he's supposed to be. I see who it's for (and yay, it's someone I really like!) and gently point out that he read the address backwards and he needs to be three blocks away from where he actually is. He looks miserable. SO miserable that I, remembering that I have an errand in the bookstore and have to be down that way anyhow, offer to drop them off for him.
Stupid, stupid, STUPID.
He says yes! He leaves! I get my coat, I pick up the flowers.
The vase weighs *40 pounds*!
No problem, though, I'm on my way. I make it about ten feet out the door and I'm stopped by a teacher who's on her way to see me because she, coincidentally, *needs* the book I'm heading to the bookstore for. I
explain my plan, which is to drop the flowers off and then get the books on the way back to the office, and she's like, "Erk, I need the book for my class that starts in ten minutes!"
Sigh.
So I carry the flowers into the bookstore. Buy the books. Loan her one book. Heft the flowers *and the other books*, plod the rest of the way. Go up to the 4th floor. Put my flowers down. Ask for Juliana. Wait.
Wait. Wait...
...because it turns out the address on the flowers is WRONG. Because her office MOVED.
Because she now WORKS IN MY BUILDING, TWO FLOORS ABOVE MY DESK.
That's how I'm doing. |
|
|
