I’ve been hanging onto these articles for a few days, wondering what to do with them; they’re absolutely wonderful and I don’t want to just read ‘em and lose ‘em. They are definitely, definitely worth reading.
Today I’ll be singing for the St. David’s Day edition of ‘British and Irish’ on Cleveland’s WCPN 90.3 FM. I’ve got three little folk songs, and a way nifty guitarist, Paiman Samimi, will be helping me out. It should be a good time; the program starts right at 4pm so tune in if you can!
I believe there is an internet feed here: WCPN Website
Note: Okay, apparently the WCPN website is… down? Something’s going on. In any case, I will hopefully have a recording later on, in case anyone is interested. If the WCPN site goes back to normal again before the show starts, all the better! :}
Later Note: I’m given to believe this went really well, and I certainly had a great time! Thank you, Paiman, for the wonderful accompaniment, and WCPN for being such fabulous hosts!
Does this strike anyone else as particularly alarming?
From Boing Boing (some of the ads on this page are possibly not worksafe):“As Japan’s population gets older, there are fewer young people to take care of the older people. The money to be made in this situation is talking dolls, designed to sleep next to seniors and tell them that they love them.”
I apologize in advance for inflicting this article upon my readers. We all know how I feel about Apple computers. We all know that Virtual Magpie is a Mac house, and the Windows system we still keep around is, well, fairly perfunctory. So if you don’t want to read this article, you don’t have to. But if you do, and already know how we feel when we gurgle happily about our steady, efficient workflow… rejoice. Rejoice, for you have seen the light.
I just got back from the most amazing rehearsal. She had never seen the music before, but we ran through it all once, repeated certain sections only for posterity, finished my token four pieces… and I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t sore. I wasn’t worn out. I wished I’d brought more music! It was so exciting!! She’s amazing! I have been searching for this pianist! I’m absolutely thrilled.
I can’t wait till next Thursday. I’m squeaking with joy.
I just thought you should know.
Well, at least somebody’s got the right idea.
Link for ya’ll: Doonesbury February 25, 2005
Teehee!
While in LA, I discovered that I am not a Rooster, by the Chinese year of my birth – that I am, in fact, a Monkey, because I was born in January, before the Chinese New Year.
I feel that I ought to be accumulating monkey paraphernalia to make up for this long-standing mistake. Any recommendations?
Adrianna Tan’s website, popagandhi.com, seems to be down for the count, and I can’t get my fix. I’m not upset yet, but I might be if it lasts very long. Adrianna is nifty. Last I noticed she had dyed her hair red. Do they shut down your site if you dye your hair red? Hmm.
Later Note: It’s back! This is me gurgling with joy. Someone send the new popagandhi host presents. Like chocolate. And computer parts. I have my fix now, everything’s okay.
Even Later Note: Has anyone else noticed the propensity of my H’s to end up in completely erroneous parts of a word? Bad H’s.
WordPress 1.5 Strayhorn has been released! I’m going to mop the drool off my keyboard and go build a test site. I’ll keep you updated!
New News: Ta da, all done! Now to play!!
All right, gentlemen and ladies, here’s the plan for this weekend, in case ya’ll are interested:
ItineraryFeb. 10
12pm EST: Leaving office for Akron Canton airport.
2:30pm EST: Arrival at Akron Canton airport.
(Two hour wait!)
4:28pm EST: Delta 4562 leaves Akron Canton airport.
6:18pm EST: Delta 4562 arrives at Atlanta Hartsfield Int’l.
(Commence mad dashing to connecting flight…)
7:22pm EST: Delta 1126 leaves Atlanta Hartsfield Int’l.
9:17pm PST: Delta 1126 arrives at LAX.
Feb. 13
10:55pm PST: Delta 548 leaves LAX.
Feb. 14
5:54am EST: Delta 548 arrives at Cincinnati airport.
(Two hour wait… wherein it might be an immensely bad idea for me to do any sleeping, lest I miss my flight home… eek!)
8:00am EST: Delta 4922 leaves Cincinnati airport.
8:59am EST: Delta 4922 arrives at Akron Canton airport.
11am EST: Arriving home from Akron Canton airport, most likely catching up on all my missed sleep, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
I’m sad to say I won’t have time for anything other than what is planned in LA this week – yes, that’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. :} But now you all know where I will be, and you’re welcome to give me a call while I’m waiting around airports. I don’t imagine I’m going to sleep much Sunday night, so feel free to ring my cell and bother me then (if you’re awake)!
Something particularly cool happened just now. I took a break from packing to catch up my newsfeeds, and happened upon Dooce’s latest post about a camera crew from ABC World News being on the way, and that the segment would be aired tonight. So naturally I wandered downstairs at that very moment to make sure ABC World News would be recorded, whenever it happened to be on – since no one had mentioned a time and I generally get my network news from the Daily Show.
I turned on the TV and found ABC World News. It was almost over. There were ten minutes left in the show. I hit record, just in case I hadn’t yet missed the segment.
I kid you not, thirty seconds from the moment I sat down, they started talking about folks who lose their jobs because of their websites, and the almighty Dooce herself was on the screen. And I’m not a fangirl, but her little Leta is perhaps even more cute in the moving pictures than she is on the website. It was a pleasant jolt of serendipity. I was utterly delighted.
It seems like the recording I made was botched somehow, also, and that makes it even more interesting that I managed to turn the TV just as the segment was about to air. I am quite amused by the entire happenstance.
Afternote: I went to add some trackbacks to this post, and discovered that dooce.com was completely unreachable. The world is totally whammying Heather’s web host. Woot!
Ah ha, he thinks I forgot. No, Matt, bubble tea gets its own post. How about that?
This, ladies and gentlemen, is bubble tea. (Marty apparently already knew what it was. Am I the only person previously unintroduced to bubble tea? Have I been living under a rock, or what?)
While at Easton (...Or perhaps Polaris is not part of Easton?), Matt was kind enough to show me the wonders of bubble tea. I had a pineapple green tea with black tapioca pearls. Man, those tapiocas are something. I have always been a fan of tapioca pudding (at least, the vanilla or rum variations my mother makes), but this was pretty different. I suspect I’m hooked, though, and this is a bad thing because I don’t know of any Youngstown bubble tea installations. Ideas, anyone? (Don’t tell me to move to Columbus, either!)
Let’s see if I can’t squeeze out a basic rundown of my weekend in Columbus, with or without meaningless details.
Serendipity Trek
I hitched a ride with Marty to Columbus early Saturday morning. By some ridiculous coincidence, he had plans in town that almost entirely coincided with mine, which was such a bizarre stroke of luck that I could hardly turn down a ride when I realized neither of my cars would make the three hour drive. I crashed at his place Friday night and we left around 8:15ish – we plugged in my iPod and turned three hours into… something less than three hours. We done good, man.
I sat and read while Marty went into his hotel to check in and find his folks, and Nikki and LJ (her cutie from whom LiveJournal’s nickname was clearly stolen) picked me up shortly thereafter. I locked Marty’s car and we vamoosed. Vamoosen? Hm.
Columbus Couture
We ate at Mongolian Barbeque for lunch. This is the point at which I began forgetting my camera in my bag, or in the car, or at the house. I did this all weekend, so I have, pretty much, nothing to show for the trip. But this particular Columbus Mongolian BBQ was da bomb. It was beautiful. I had some sort of wildly cool shiitake mushroom soy chicken with veggies. Gurgle.
We went home (er, Nikki’s mom’s house in Columbus) for a bit, then headed out to Easton to meet a bunch of very cool dudes and walk all over the mall. Malls. (I’m still not quite sure how Easton works, but wow is it cool.) We ended up ultimately at a rockin’ neo-Chinese (is this right, this ‘neo-Chinese’?) restaurant called Molly Woo’s. My god, the coolness. I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time or money in this restaurant. Besides which, I don’t generally like spicy tuna rolls – but Molly Woo’s spicy ahi was to die for. It was that yummy. Worship this restaurant.
After Molly Woo’s we spent some time at Matt and Alex’s place, then went home to sleep. It was very good. (I stayed in Nikki’s sister’s room, and I slept so very well.)
The next day there was showering and a little bit of working to make sure all was well with the world. Then there was the North Market. I really wish I had pictures of the North Market. Let’s see. Eureka! This place was amazing. I wish I could go there for lunch every day – could it possibly ever get old? I don’t know…
I had some nifty Mediterranean food, a soy yogurt raspberry smoothie, a creme brulee truffle and a buckeye. Oh, and a cup of pear riesling sorbet. Whew. I cannot properly convey the yumminess. You see, I’m not used to gourmet lunches in Youngstown. I eat a lot of brown rice here. Pear riesling sorbet is just… more than I can handle. It tastes… like… pears.
Texas Hold ‘Em, American Football, & Columbus Exodus
After that it was back to Matt’s place for the Superbowl. First they taught me Texas hold ‘em, which is fine, but makes me feel a little bit like an evil person because of the copious amounts of Texas hold ‘em spam that come through any given blog in less than a day. (“Texas hold ‘em” is generally a catch word in my spam filter. Sigh.) And then the game started.
Now, this is me being honest. I have never legitimately watched a football game. I attended high school games socially, but rarely, and I’d never seen a game on television without changing the channel (at least, as long as it was my television). But last night not only did I sit through the game – I got them to explain it to me! It rocked, and now I sort of kind of understand football (in a basic fashion). Er, American football (oops). I also drank at least four cans of cherry Coke (I wasn’t really keeping track). This turned out to be really, really good for the drive home, because Marty had gotten far less sleep than I had. Which was way cool, because Marty’s car is a breeze to drive. It is a great car. And it has a great stereo.
We finally made it back to Marty’s at about four in the AM and promptly passed out. I was back in the office at 9 this morning, but I admit I’ve been something of a zombie. Please call me on it if you notice – it’s worth it to me to know how obvious it is to the rest of the world!
So that’s my weekend, folks. I had an amazing time. I adore meeting new people. Thank you for being so nice, new people whom I met!
Okay, lunch over. Back to work. ;}
In a household where our dogs have always been fellow human beings, I suppose my take on pet euthanasia ought to be out of the norm. That shouldn’t be surprising. The dogs who have died in my family have all gone naturally, except for the last, who may have accidently ingested too much MSG… something that is closer to natural, now that I’m thinking clearly about it, just because she was a little dog and a garbage digger. Little dog = low tolerance for MSG, garbage digger = perilous life calling. That may not make sense to anyone but me. ;}
In any case, if I were very sick and suffering… my family would do whatever they could to A. cure me or at least B. help me to be in less discomfort. But they wouldn’t kill me to ease my suffering, and they wouldn’t kill me for lack of money to pay the vet with. Ah, the medical expenses, that is.
I understand that animals are different than human beings, but beyond that, I’m pretty sure that animals deal with pain better than human beings. Animals don’t personalize their pain – they just experience it. And if I am in a great deal of pain, from an illness that cannot be cured, in a situation where no one can pay the medical bills and no one will provide me proper medical care… just give me a stack of codeines and snuggle with me until I bite the bullet. Doesn’t that sound more reasonable? Where has this mentality for putting down pets come from? And don’t give me the ‘humane’ argument, either.
While I’m on the ‘humane’ kick, I haven’t decided how I feel about, for instance, an animal who is in massive amounts of immediate agony and will undoubtedly die shortly no matter what is done, in a situation where he cannot be moved and there is no painkilling medication available.
So ultimately, these are just a bunch of thoughts. Perhaps the few people who read this can speculate for me. :}
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