Wednesday, January 20, 2010

interesting things

  1. The Selby shows the process of making chocolate through a tour of the Mast Brothers chocolate factory.
  2. The Seattle Weekly interviews Patti Smith on her new auto/biography on her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids. Interesting gems include religion in The Factory, Mapplethorpe and AIDS, and the music she listens to at home (Glenn Gould! Does she listen to his sometimes-ridiculous-but-still-amazing recordings of Bach?).
  3. The Atlantic publishes an article on what makes a good teacher, using data and information provided by Teach for America.

Monday, January 18, 2010

it's cloudy

3 1/2 hrs between central MO and south western KS

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incoming traffic...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

the miracle of The Blind Side

Today I heard a made-for-tv movie being advertised as being "as inspirational as The Blind Side." Who would have imagined that this football movie would become the highest grossing sports movie ever, along with the highest grossing movie with a female lead?

Monday, January 11, 2010

voyeurism

In the US, there's a sort of shame surrounding voyeurism. Peeping toms are creepy for invading the private (sex) lives of others. Yet there's absolutely no shame in (heterosexual) displays of affection in public.

When I was working in the photo lab last semester, an older friend told me about voyeurism in Japan. Not only are there tv shows that serve only to titillate (which is not so different from reality tv shows here, but those are focused more on relationship drama than solely sex) but apparently men will go to parks where young couples have sex, in public, and sometimes even touch the girls during copulation. There also are vending machines that sell used panties. How strange, especially in a culture without any display of affection between couples and where laughing is considered obscene! Perhaps, though, it is not so strange after all.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

on why "I would go gay for her" as a compliment bothers me

It is because the highest compliment you can pay a woman is to proclaim that you find her fuckable.

Always and forever and as simple as that.

If you admire a woman and like her, if you find her witty and attractive, if you like the way she thinks, well obviously, you want to fuck her. Because if you were a straight man, that’s where that would lead. But if you’re someone who isn’t sexually attracted to women, you might think you are feeling that too, you might even feel that you are insulting that woman if you don’t want to sleep with her (dishing out the ultimate insult by calling her unfuckable). (via Bitchy Jones)

Of course, I'm not saying that sexuality isn't a complex matter. It's just that the casual off-handedness of these comments irks me.

the biological clock is ticking

A former classmate of mine is getting married. E.T. told me about this two days ago but it didn't really hit me until I saw wedding dress photos on Facebook today. How strange to think that in a few years, many more of my classmates will be married or will have popped out or sired kids. There's a divide that comes heavily down between those with kids and those who are child-less. God forbid I ever fall into the first category.

It doesn't make me any less bewildered, however.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A Song of Ice and Fire serialization

George R R Martin's epic is one of my favorite series, nevermind that it looks almost permanently stalled for now. Currently, the pilot episode of a proposed "Game of Thrones" tv show is going through post-production, after which HBO will decided whether or not to pick it up.

Today I found photos of the cast.

Sean Bean is playing Eddard Stark, which I feel is perfect casting. all the Stark kids are appropriately handsome, although the actor who plays Robb looks a bit like a thug in his photo on that site. I'm particularly pleased with Jon Snow's casting, as Jon is one of my favorite characters and Kit Harrington is a thespian who is switching over to TV for this series.

I was disappointed by the casting of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, however. I always thought of Cersei and Jaime as strikingly fair, classic beauties. Nikolaj is too rugged and much older than the Jaime I'd pictured in my head. After all, he is barely 30 at the beginning of Game of Thrones.

I'm curious now to see, if the show gets picked up, who will play Renly. Although his age is vague, I always thought he was in his early 20's and dashingly handsome. He couldn't have been that much older than Loras Tyrell, who probably yet 16 then.

Also, read on GRRM's not a blog that the Targaryen scenes were filmed in Morocco. The locations are going to be amazing.

hold it in

Friday, January 8, 2010

stuck

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lens distortion

my job

My job, which wasn't actually a job last semester but will be the next, has me touching and handling objects that are thousands of years old. Which is quite extraordinary, if you think about it -- who makes a basket and thinks, "800 years from now, a girl will take four photos of my basket to document it for all digital posterity"? Or, "Man, this glaze is going to last four-fucking-thousand years, and it's going to awesome and vibrant turquoise still"?

The Egyptians astound me with their glazes. Sadly, since Egyptian artifacts are classified as art pieces, I won't be photographing any more ancient Egyptian figurines and knick knacks any time soon.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

somebody has got to sit out


This is where the world's largest "pecan" is located.

[edit] Yes, I believe the tractor has eyes.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

sometimes for fun

I read craigslist ads. I found the saddest one today in the m4w section.
Hey, how’s it going? Well, you clicked on this, so that means you are interested, or at least curious, which is good, and I thank you. I guess I’ll start with telling a little about me. [stats here] So anyway, I think that I’m a fun guy to have around, I’m pretty laid back and I consider myself one of the “nice” guys. Anyway, why am I using craigslist? ... I guess you could say that lately I’ve been missing any sort of affection in my life. I would love to meet someone that I can connect with and be friends with, and possibly be “friends with benefits.” Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here and think that I’m looking for sex, which I’m not. What I’m looking for someone to cuddle up with and watch a movie, or maybe make-out or stuff like that. I also have to admit that I’m not really all experienced when it comes to this area, but please don’t let that scare you off. I think I’m a great guy, but I just don’t have all that much experience when it comes to this stuff. So I’m hoping to find someone I can be a good friend with, but also be able to do other stuff with. ... Anyway, I hope you can see where I’m coming from and hopefully looking for the same thing. If we end up in a full-blown relationship, that’s also very good, I’m up for having a girlfriend. ... I would really like to have someone I can cuddle up with or give backrubs and such. If you’d like to know more, then please email me. I have yahoo messenger so we could chat some too. And I have more pics too if you’d like. I hope I have intrigued you and maybe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. What do you say? 
I think perhaps we live in a contact- and touch-starved society.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

my final collection


















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I'm so obsessed
My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest
I believe in you
Like a virgin
You're Madonna
And I'm always gonna want to blow your mind


Friday, January 1, 2010

I resolve to

  1. Start math psets on Thursday
  2. Read one novel for leisure a month
  3. Not eat if I'm not hungry
  4. Lay off the cheese
  5. Cut down on wasting time on the internet by
  6. Making to-do lists and
  7. Actually sticking to them before watching tv/reading blogs