from t3h_toby_chan in the comments of my post yesterday:

Self-hate is also, ultimately, a very selfish process. It's not selfish to love yourself unconditionally, because that really opens your capacity to focus on other things and unselfishly love other people, but self-effacement is, as you said, kind of a habitual scab picking process, and it serves the function of keeping wounds open so they can be nursed beyond what they initially needed.

I've been focusing on being a good worker person at work. Being diligent, and so on. My job hunt for something else skidded to a stop before it really gained momentum. I just kept finding things I'd rather be doing than writing cover letters. I think a good-sized chunk of my evenings has freed up, though, so starting next week I'm going to start doing some goal-setting for myself with regards to resumes submitted. One a night or something like that. I was thinking it would be nice to stay in Ithaca, but really it would just be convenient. I'd probably happily move just about anywhere at this point.

My nights have been relaxed. I pick up something to eat on the way home, watch a Friday the 13th and heckle it with Judd, and then head to my room to play accordion, watch Lost, or read. I finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter last night. I'm not sure what I'll read next but I've had Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart sitting on my shelf for awhile now and I've only ever read the first couple of chapters. With the frame of mind I'm in right now, that might be a good one to read. Not beause I think my life is in ruins or something, but just because I've been focusing on Buddhism and haven't read a Buddhisty book in quite awhile.

I've been sitting zazen for one short period a day. Next week I'd like to reconnect with the formal sittings again. The Buddha set off to live the life of a holy man when he was 29. I feel like that gives me a sense of where I'm at right now at 27.

Inspired. Warning: Fake gore.

Why does a train ticket from D.C. to Philadelphia cost $60 when a train ticket from Alexandria to Philadelphia is only $42? This is the same train. Alexandria is south of D.C. and thus a longer trip. It has been my experience that along the East Coast, the shorter the trip, the less it costs.

New Carrollton in Maryland to D.C. also costs $60. I would say there is maybe some phantom tax, but D.C. to New York is cheaper than Alexandria to New York, so I don't think that's it.

Weird. Whatever.

On that note, a Washington City Paper writer journeys from D.C. to New York without taking Amtrak or Greyhound or any of the Chinatown (etc.) buses. People in the comments asks why he's being so cheap, what's wrong with Greyhound, blah blah blah. But that's not so much the point of the story -- it's saying there really isn't effective, low-cost transportation along the East Coast (especially along a well-traveled corridor, such as D.C. to NYC).

I like the train. And really, taking the train to Philly is basically going to be the same price as driving.

I wanted to call this entry "My only serious relationship ended with a broken collarbone and a dead meerkat so I'm not one to know" but its one letter too long for LJ. (Its a line from Run Fat Boy Run and is said by Dylan Moran when he is offering realtionship advice to Simon Pegg)

RUN FAT BOY RUN
Amusing comedy thats better in its parts than as a whole concerning Simon Pegg who bails on his wedding day to his pregnant fiance. Several years later as his ex becomes engaged to an annoying Hank Azaria he realizes that he really does love her and decides to run a marathon to prove his love to his girl and that he is a man to himself. Along the way he's helped along by his son and an odd gaggle of friends. I liked this I didn't love it. I think the odd mix of American (director schwimmer and Azaria) and British (everything else) wobbles the film and keeps Simon Pegg trapped in a nether world between the two. There are these odd tonal shifts as you have say a finely crafted scene of Dylan Moran and his friends playing poker that works like a great Brit com, and then you have some of the scenes with Azaria where the film seems needlessly loud and boisterous in a decidedly American way. Its jarring and it prevented me from wholly enjoying the film. No its not a bad film but its not satisfying. there is much to love, most of the cast is excellent, with Dylan Moran as Pegg's friend a real stand out.For me it was a pleasure not to have him fade into the background as he has done with most of his movie roles. Many of the jokes are laugh out loud funny since all of the pieces are there but it just doesn't come together. Worth a shot on dvd or cable . Though DVD is probably better where the rewind will help you catch the choice lines (Thank you for the import dvd).

21
Story of an MIT student who needs quick cash who joins the legendary group of students and teachers who set about taking on the Vegas casinos. Well acted, with a showy performance by Kevin Spacey in a showy role. the cast shines in what is really a bunch of cliched characters. Forgive me for saying it but Hollywood has taken a very good and exciting tale and made it into a cliche. Don't get me wrong its an exciting tale expertly if overly slickly told, but I never really bought it. I know it happened, I've seen a couple of specials on the History Channel on the group, but it wasn't quite like this. Its not bad, far from it, its very entertaining, its just not real. Its a very good movie, just not a great one.

SON OF RAMBOW
Story of two boys who make a sequel to Rambo using a video camera. Along the way their friendship and need to create has effects on everyone around them. This is a sweet little movie that is being over sold by some reviewers. Its a nice little tale, but I don't think its as great as some have said. Perhaps had I stumbled upon this on my own I would have liked it more. Certainly I can relate having made films as a kid. Its a good film you will enjoy it.Forgive me for not saying more but I have to see it again to properly discuss it since its one of those films that was not what I was expecting so in a way I was disappointed.

THE SIGNAL
Disturbing horror film about a weird signal that has disrupted all phone, TV and radio service. It changes your mind so that you become rationally homicidal. There is a rhyme and a reason to what you do, it just involves well thought out murder. there is something about the film that gets under your skin since its operating on its own twisted logic. Its a bleak tale that left me feeling very uneasy. To be honest its not perfect, some of the performances are weak and the narrative isn't all there (I can't explain it with having to explain a great deal) but it still manages to have an affect on you. Clearly its geared to be seen on TV where the early video nasty (or is this something happening somewhere else?) segues into a weird pattern that will make you wonder if your TV has fritzed out. It hasn't but the world in the film has. One of the more unique horror films of late. Worth a look if you like horror films.

FORBIDDEN KINGDOM
First pairing of Jet Li and Jackie Chan is in a good story of an Anglo Saxon (white guy) who travels back through time to fairy tale China where he must return a magic staff to the Monkey King. the kid of course loves martial arts films and runs across various references to Hong Kong cinema (drunken master, a Gordon Liu master, monkey king, bride with white hair). Okay, lets cut to the chase, the wrap around modern story is hokey and childish. The inclusion of the white guy makes the film seem more like a kids film than a proper action film at times. However once we get to China and Jackie Chan starts in with his drunken master fighting the film picks up and only occasionally bumps into the childish. Actually all of the martial arts scenes are excellent or at the very least very good. How is the first screen battle between Chan and Li? A joy, an absolute Joy. I loved it since they did what any rational person would have done and kept them evenly matched. What exactly happens is for you to see, as for me I was very happy that they did it right. Is the film deep and meaningful? Oh dear no. Its basically a ballet of motion done to serve a very simple story. Its a popcorn movie and nothing more, but a popcorn film worth seeing on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

In North Hollywood, we will be open for the Dragon Moon Lunacy Event on Monday, May 19th from 7 to 10pm, pacific time.

The theme for this month is ...come as you are! Come in your work clothes, your street clothes, your bathrobe, your party dress...it's all good.
( Read more... )

I had today off, thanks to all the extra hours I put in last week. The weather was gorgeous, perfect for walking and shopping. I have decided that Nine West outlet stores are made of love. And also shoes. I now have cute new sandals and ballet flats. Hopefully Tim Gunn will approve.

I also did important things for a day off, namely sleeping late and napping later. I had to do it in the name of all the times when I'm at work and saying to myself that I wished I could nap at the office.

I also snuggled with kitties, because I don't get a chance to do that at work either. Much though that would be awesome.

I just sent an InMail to the Norse God of Thunder.

Kailan: ...you know, this one comic in the Yu-Shan book bugs me.
Kailan: Kejak looks like a homie carrying around a 40 in a beaker
Kailan: I know it's the art style but...
BB: XD
Jukkaimaru: XDDD
Jukkaimaru: He does.
Jukkaimaru: He really does.
Jukkaimaru: XD
( Kailan: Mike's all  )

A couple of things I missed in this morning's monster of a post. First, Spooky's father, Dr. Richard Pollnac (Professor of Anthropology and Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island) will be joining Chip Barber (Environmental Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development) for a live webcast entitled "Troubled Waters: Anticipating, Preventing, and Resolving Conflict Around Fisheries." It's being broadcast from Washington, DC, but you can watch it here (May 15, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., EST). The talk will focus on "...the interactions between demographics, environmental stress, livelihoods, and conflict in the context of fisheries, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia." Spooky's dad has been conducting field studies of fisheries worldwide since the 1960s, from Lake Victoria (Uganda) to Alaska to Vietnam to Thailand to Indonesia to...well, all over.

On a somewhat related note, there's an article at the "ProTraveller" website, "20 Cities, Islands & Countries Threatened By Global Warming." On the one hand, well, it does call attention to particular treasures that are being and will be lost to global warming (the Galapagos Islands, Manhattan, London, Jakarta, Glacier National Park, the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro, etc.). On the other hand, I think that it somehow manages to miss the point. Yes, all these sites are indeed endangered, but that's only because the seas are rising worldwide, meaning all coastlines, everywhere, will experience drastic change during this century with even the lowest estimates of sea-level rise. Every inch of coastline, no exceptions. So, spotlighting these twenty sites, and lines like "You might want to book a trip to see some of them before it's too late!" just comes off a wee bit glib. I mean, species face extinction, hundreds of millions of people will be displaced, economies will tumble, and the very face of the globe will change...and we'll lose all these sweet vacation spots. Er...yeah.

Meanwhile, new figures published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, based on ongoing studies at Hawaii's Mount Loa volcano, indicate that atmospheric CO2 levels have now risen to 387 parts per million, the highest in 650,000 years. To put that in perspective, the earliest-known fossils that can be referred to Homo sapiens sapiens only date back a paltry 195,000 years (Richard Leakey's "Omo remains" from the Omo National Park in Ethiopia). If we go back 650ka, we reach the Middle Pleistocene, a time when Homo sapiens sapiens had yet to evolve (though remains of another subspecies, Homo sapiens idaltu, the first recognizably "modern" humans, and possibly the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens sapiens, have been recovered from strata that old).

350.org.

The boys at Save Our Taco Trucks are at it again. Unfortunately, it seems like all our petition signing and taco chowing has been in vain, because the new county ordinance against taco trucks will still be going into effect tomorrow, May 15th. Come out tonight at 8pm and celebrate the taqueros last night of freedom at Tacos El Galuzo, at 5555 Whittier Blvd in East Los Angeles.




I’m still unable to do spicy food with all the raw healing scar tissue inside my mouth so I’ll probably just have a horchata to show my support, but I’ll be there and you should too.

• 11:53 "Cision lists over 900,000 contacts and has a little over 50 people charged with updating them" #
• 11:54 Suddenly you understand why journalists are 'spammed' by communicators so often - they are working with faulty information. #
• 11:56 And the junior rep who is sending out the release a) is trusting the media list company to be accurate and b) doesn't have time to recheck #
• 11:56 If she did, why would she bother using a media list supplier in the first place? #
• 12:00 Mind you, the Falls/Cass piece the quote is pulled from suggests how to fix the pblm: tinyurl.com/3hkugz #
• 12:40 Anyone have thoughts on Google's Friends Connect? tinyurl.com/5hs6mq #

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So, I caught my husband's cold.  Spent yesterday afternoon and today home from work, in some kind of small attempt to not spread the germs around to my coworkers (and the cold medicine was making it hard to really concentrate on anything, anyway.)  But as this is one of those colds that lingers, I'm going to go back into work tomorrow, despite still coughing and sneezing and having a voice like a frog.  I can't stay home forever, nice as that would be.

Our library's online system has been completely down for, what, 4 days now?  It's pretty bad.  We can't do anything - and even I'm at the point where I'm wishing it was like the old days when everything was done by writing down on cards.  At least we'd be able to get some work done.  I'm really a huge advocate for technology, but it also really needs the support and knowledge behind it to make it work, which our library system does NOT have.  This switch to the new database system (which is totally wrong for us and is overloaded, which is why it "broke") is probably the worst thing they've ever done, and now they're totally paying for it. 

And finally the sad news - we've decided to go ahead and set a date for saying goodbye to our sweetest kitty, Kaylee.  Our vet has agreed to come to our house (so we don't have to put her through the terror of a car ride to the clinic) on June 6.  Three weeks... it's not enough time, of course.  And I'm also hoping it's not too much time, for her.  She's definitely feeling some pain, although we are also giving her some kitty painkillers every couple of days.  If she makes a turn for the worse then we'll just have to take her to the vet ourselves.  I hope her last few weeks with us are at the very least like they've been - she's still eating and drinking water fine, and she still cuddles us and seeks us out for attention.  She doesn't play anymore, and there are times she'll retreat upstairs to be away from everyone for a while.  But, she's still our Kaylee, at least for the time being.  It will be very hard to say goodbye.

Originally posted on slytherinlibrarian.vox.com

What Happens in Vegas

Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz meet cute in Vegas and after a night of drinking marry, they also win a jackpot of several million before deciding to get a divorce with both wanting ownership of the cash. Unfortunately they end up in front of Judge Dennis Miller who sentences them to 6 months of marriage before he will even consider granting them a divorce and threatening to tie them up in litigation so long it depletes their fortune. Okay romantic comedy that wants to be more than it is. Much of the early stuff didn’t really work for me with the film only springing to life when Dennis Miller showed up. What really annoyed me was that the final scenes of the film where they both realize what they want had the film blossoming into something that was actually quite wonderful. I would have loved to have seen a whole film like that instead of the silliness that preceded it.

Baby Mama

Tina Fey is a successful professional who has missed out on the baby wagon. All her friends have families and she has promotions. Desperate for a child she tries a sperm bank but it fails when she is told that she is infertile. In desperation she takes on a surrogate who turns her life upside down. Clearly Tina Fey is the smartest one in the room and she walks through this film seemingly on autopilot and above to everyone around her. What is she doing here? She is somewhere beyond this film and it shows. Its cute and amusing but Fey’s demeanor promises something on a different plane then the rest of the movie. I think the best way to explain it, or over explain it would be Cary Grant in a Three Stooges movie. I think Fey can do great things if she wants or can find material that matches her abilities. A good little film.

Street Kings

James Ellroy penned tale of a cop, played by Keanu Reeves, who is a loose cannon sent on the trail of the killer of his murdered partner. Protected by his captain because he can get things done and hounded by Internal Affairs, Reeves soon finds he is descending into a world that he really should not be part of. Reeves is okay, if a bit wooden as our antihero. Part of the problem is that he isn’t given a great deal to do beyond allowing events to play out around him. To be certain he is a participant in events but there is a coldness to him that doesn’t give a great many clues as to what is happening inside him. One would suspect he took the role because it offered him a chance to say some pithy lines, and behave in a more or less serious manner. The rest of the cast is quite good and one suspects that Forest Whitaker (as his boss) and Hugh Laurie (The Internal Affairs guy) took the roles because they got to play a bit against type. Good instead of great the films script, a long time in the oven, shows signs of being worked and reworked so much that the script becomes confused because too many hands lost track of what was going on. Rest assured that the central thrust and much of the dialog seems to be the work of Ellroy, the ending is most assuredly his in plot if not writing, but all of the details the additional writers have added have blurred what ever had attracted a long line of directors and stars to the project. Worth a look on dvd or cable where you’re more likely to forgive the flaws.

I really enjoyed this piece by Jack Handey.

It's like Deep Thoughts, but a little deeper. Or longer. Not sure which dimension is involved here.

I’ve been kind of distracted this month, so I neglected to mention that you can read my review of Michael Flynn’s novel Eifelheim on the SF Site.  I found this novel to be moving and effective and I recomend it highly.

(Originally posted at Words Words Words by kit. Please leave any comments there.)

Found via kevin_allen_jr:



There is no escape from old age.

"I'm glad you don't have AIDS."

A raven-haired Fairy Queen of Ireland. One of her eternal duties dictates that she must hold a midnight court every season and hear the pleas of married Irishwomen. The court serves only to determine whether or not husbands are adequately serving their wife’s sexual needs. A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka.

So, when I first opened the bottle I thought it smelled like department store. Like, it reminded me of when I'm in Sears. The smell a place like that has.

When I put it on it first had a really, really sweet warm smell. I think the main smell I'm getting is the sweet pea and it does have a nice warmth to it. I guess that's the tonka.

But boy. Too sweet. Over the course of the day it got gross. Yeah. Definitely passing on this.

Fades pretty fast too. Within an hour I could barely smell it.