Governed by serendipity and entropy

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T15:10:46Z

I made dinner for eighteen or nineteen people this year -- I've lost track of exactly how many and can't be arsed to think about it too hard right now. Within those people were my mom and her husband, and Dan's mom and sister, who are all meeting for the first time. (Well, my mom and her husband have met ... you get the idea.)

Everything went really well -- there was LOTS of food, everything turned out wonderfully, and other people cleaned up. Seriously -- best holiday ever.

San Francisco trip ...

2009-10-11T15:06:09Z

... We will be arriving into San Francisco on December 28th, around noon. We will be in the area until Jan. 2nd, at which point we will be heading to Tahoe to hurl ourselves down some perfectly good mountains until January 5th. We'll be back in SF on the 5th, and then we leave stupid early on the 6th to come back to the small, flat village we call home.

We want to see people. We want to do things. We want to hang out with friends as much as possible, and go somewhere fun for New Years Eve. We want to eat good food and see art and meet new people and just generally have a good time!

We can't wait.

Holiday plans ...

2009-09-20T19:38:13Z

Dan and I have decided that around the Christmas/New Years' holidays we would like to be in / around San Francisco, with a detour to Tahoe to go skiing.

I know that seems like forever from now, but we'd like to start planning soon, since we'll need to buy flights and look for places to stay. Does anyone have any spare rooms or floors we could crash in/on in or around San Francisco, or any leads on places we could rent/stay for a few days in Tahoe?

And, of course, we would love to see friends who live in the area, so let us know if you're going to be around! Like I said, we don't have dates or anything figured out yet, but we'd like to try to get a working plan in place relatively soon.

Thanks!

Sigh.

2009-08-01T23:59:07Z

Nico just peed on my foot while we were eating dinner.

That's the third time my foot has been peed on by a cat.

Is it me?

A mini-rant

2009-07-16T14:58:32Z

Dear LG:

Please explain to me why, when my phone battery is running low, you notify me of this fact BY DOING THE VERY THINGS THAT CAUSE THE BATTERY TO RUN DOWN THE QUICKEST -- like beeping and turning on the backlight?

Love,
me

drdingbat @ 2009-07-08T12:18:00

2009-07-08T16:18:56Z

Window kitty -- in several different meanings of the word.

Your daily dose of cute AND meta, all at once ...

2009-07-04T18:09:05Z

Thanks!

2009-06-12T17:38:23Z

Thanks for birthday wishes! I had a wonderful, relaxed birthday which primarily consisted of going to the locally-owned ice cream shop for birthday ice cream (yay for places that give you a free scoop of ice cream on your birthday!) and then having friends over to have pizza and play Rock Band. pianodan was supposed to play an outdoor concert yesterday that got rained out (despite the fact that it wasn't raining by us, it was apparently raining pretty hard just 20 miles south), so we suddenly had friends who also had the evening free ... so there was much merriment-making.

Plus, I got a lot of work done on a paper I'm writing, got a new cookbook to help us deal with the veggie inundation we're going to experience once the CSA kicks in at the end of June, and had a record number of views on my silly little website. (If you haven't checked it out in a while, you should -- it's exploded.)

So all in all, a very good day.

It's my birthday ...

2009-06-11T15:37:44Z

It's my 39th birthday, to be exact. And no, that's not an "I'm actually 40 and am just saying I'm 39" kind of thing. I actually am 39.

At midnight last night, pianodan and I started watching a Simpsons episode that just happened to be next on the DVD, in which Homer hears that the average life span for a male is 76.2 years old. He freaks out, because he realizes he's 38.1 and has wasted half of his life. Marge oh-so-helpfully tells him, "You're not 38, you're 39!" at which point he curls up into the fetal position and starts rocking back and forth.

Maybe that wasn't the best thing to watch at that precise moment.

Anyway, I've always had mixed feelings about my birthday. Because I'm adopted, my birthday isn't really that big of a deal for my mother. The bigger day for her is the day she brought me home from the adoption agency -- July 24th. I always had parties, etc. for my birthday, but emotionally the more important day for my mom is Coming Home Day. I always got presents on both days, which is cool when you're a kid; as I've gotten older I've realized the emotional significance the second day has for her.

The other thing is that as I've gotten older, and more separated from my family, birthdays always remind me how different I am from them and how little they actually know and understand me. I'm not sure I can explain it without sounding ungrateful or snobby, which I'm not, so I'll just leave it at that.

So, yeah. I'm 39. And yeah, I guess I am freaking out a little bit about the number. It's a pretty big number, and the next number has a 4 at the beginning of it. I don't feel 39. I don't think I act 39, and I really hope I don't look 39. You're only as old as you feel, blah blah blah. 40 is the new 30, blah blah blah.

Anyway, happy birthday to me, my college friend Karen, Richard Strauss, Joey Santiago (the guitarist for the Pixies) and Hugh Laurie.

drdingbat @ 2009-05-12T21:56:00

2009-05-13T01:57:04Z

End of the semester pro tip:

If you're going to send an email to your professor asking that your grade be "bumped up" to the next highest grade, don't be one of the students caught plagiarizing earlier in the semester.

drdingbat @ 2009-03-18T15:56:00

2009-03-18T19:57:56Z

The ending of a conversation with a graduate student today:

Me: "Well, I'm happy I could corrupt you."
Her: "I'm pretty sure that's what you get paid to do."
Me: "I know! Isn't it fantastic?"

It's official!

2009-03-12T16:48:00Z

pianodan and I are going to Stockholm, Helsinki, and St. Petersburg in August. We were waffling about whether or not to include all three, but we just found plane tickets that let us fly into Stockholm and then out of Helsinki -- for LESS than flying into and out of one or the other! So plane tickets are bought, and our itinerary is shaping up thusly:

Fly into Stockholm
Spend a couple of days in Stockholm (suggestions welcome!)
Take ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki -- and by "ferry" I mean "massive cruise ship"!
Spend a couple of days in Helsinki (suggestions welcome!)
Go to conference in unpronounceable city north of Helsinki
At end of conference, go with tour group to St. Petersburg for three days
Return to Helsinki
Fly home

Generally I hate hate HATE package tours, but I have several friends who tell me that St. Petersburg is not tourist-friendly, and that if you're going to go a tour is really the best way ... so for this, we'll deal with a tour group.

Yay!

Oooh, thanks a lot, Fifth Third!

2009-03-07T00:22:15Z

The bank that holds my mortgage, Fifth Third, just sent me an offer saying, "Since you're such a good customer, and since you always pay your bills on time, we're going to let you take a month off from your mortgage payment."

Fine print: This offer will cost you $55, which will be added to the principal of your mortgage and will accrue interest, as will the payment you don't make.

So, let me get this right, then .... you're doing ME a favor? Sounds to me like you're looking for ways to charge fees for things to help your OWN ass out.

And if I'm such a good customer and I always pay my bills on time (which I do, BTW), why did you cut my home equity line last month?

Bastards. Sneaky fucking bastards. I hate to think how many people are going to fall for that ploy.

Overthinking it ...

2009-02-28T16:44:01Z

In the last week or so, I've come up with enough data and research for about three papers. I'm still struggling with some of the questions, but the answers are there in front of me; I just have to figure out what it all means.

It's really cool. Now I just have to sort it all out and figure out how to write it up and what journals to send it to. I'm hoping I can get it done relatively quickly, since there's a few other projects that are currently in progress and will need to be written up when THEY run their course.

So, yay me, and yay research!

Calculator of the damned!

2009-02-24T02:35:12Z

I came home tonight and heard, once I'd made it in the door and into the kitchen, a high pitched shrill, constant tone. I tracked it through the house (which wasn't easy, given that my head is a bit congested today) and finally realized (after checking all of the smoke detectors) that it was coming from the computer room. PD's been having some problems with his computer, so at first I thought it was his machine. Then I realized it was coming from near my computer. I couldn't localize it at first, and fiddled with some speaker knobs and such before I realized it was coming from a cheap calculator that CVS sent me a while back for getting my prescriptions filled there. It was emitting a piercing steady tone despite the fact that, as far as I could tell, the calculator wasn't even on.

Not having any attachment to this thing at all, nor any real need for it, I opened up the back cover and tried to take out the battery. I couldn't really access it entirely, and once the thing was in my hands the tone was really loud, so I managed to slide the battery a little bit out of the metal casing holding it in place, and the shrill noise stopped.

Until about an hour later, when I heard a deedle deedle deedle boop boop! noise. Deedle deedle deedle boop boop! Deedle deedle deedle boop boop! Deedle deedle deedle boop boop! I was in the other room again, so I come into the study, and the damned calculator, still turned off and with its battery not even completely connected, is making this noise. Deedle deedle deedle boop boop! I ended up prying at the battery with a pair of pliers, trying to get hold of the battery and get it to stop making this infernal noise. Deedle deedle deedle boop boop! The battery is more than halfway out now, and it's still going. Deedle deedle deedle boop boop! Finally, I manage to get hold of a tip of the battery and yank it out. Deedle deedle deedle boop boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ..........

The noise finally stops, although I swear it continued after the battery was out of the thing for at least three to four seconds.

The thing is now sitting disemboweled on my desk, and I'm just waiting for it to start up again even though its battery is completely removed. And mind you, if it does, I'm stomping the stupid thing into oblivion.

I'm warning you ...

2009-01-26T14:22:12Z

I have never simultaneously wanted something to end AND continue as much as I simultaneously wanted this to end and continue.

We misd you, hish, the lolcats.

Tonight's dinner brought to you by the letter "C".

2009-01-23T23:58:38Z

We had nachos for dinner. How, you ask, are those brought to you by the letter C?

Said nachos consisted of:

Chips
Cheese
Cow ... and on said cow there was chipotle pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and chili powder.

(Oh, and there were jalapeños. But those don't count.)

Oh, great.

2009-01-14T04:22:49Z

It's currently 5 degrees outside, and 11:21 pm ... and our heater's broken.

Sheila!

2009-01-05T17:08:50Z

Because I don't have time to do these during the school year:

Here's how it works:
1. Put your music on shuffle. (Yes, it's one of those)
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

Let's go, Dopi! It's behind a cut because it's long.

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY? Dance, Girl, Dance (Cinerama). But I don't say it in that creepy way and hold my fingers like a gun and point them at your feet.

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? Eternal Flame (Joan as Police Woman). I burn brightly.

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY? Film (Cinerama). Dan does like movies ...

4) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? First of Four (American Analog Set). Today is the first of four days that I have to get my life in order before school starts ...

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? Awesome (Veruca Salt). Yep, that's pretty much it. To be awesome.

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Study No. 20 (Conlon Nancarrow). Um ... let's try that again, shall we? Don't Make Me Prove it (Veruca Salt). There, that's better. That sounds like a good motto.

7) WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? Strange Loop (Liz Phair). Yep, that's about right too.

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? Summersong (The Decemberists). I am a fan of summer, I suppose.

9) WHAT IS 2+2? Forecast Fascist Future (Of Montreal). Only fascists add. Why do you hate America?

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? The Cage (Charles Ives). Hmmm. That's odd.

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE? Grass (XTC). Well then.

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Letter From An Occupant (New Pornographers). I'm just inhabiting this life temporarily. Someday the real owner will come back and have to clean up the mess I've made of it.

13) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Burning Hell (REM). Wait, I'm that now.

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? Cut You In (Jerry Cantrell). No thanks, not my fetish.

15) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Rings (Toad the Wet Sprocket). I got nothin'.

16)WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING? For Your Love (Marching Band). Awwwwww.

17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? Walking On My Feet (Moonbabies). Apparently that's how I died ... everyone kept walking on my feet. Or maybe I tripped and fell. Or maybe I pulled a Lully and gave myself gangrene of the foot by smashing my foot with a conducting staff. (True story, that.)

18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Paper (Talking Heads). Apparently even my iPod knows I'm a dork.

19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Your Time Starts Now (Cinerama). That will be $200 an hour, please.

20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Disappear (REM). Well, that's depressing.

21) WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN? Mockin' Bird (Tindersticks). I suppose if I was going to be mocked, I wouldn't want it to be by a bird.

22) HOW WILL YOU DIE? Yeah Man (Veruca Salt). Huh? I'm going to die by being "yes"ed to death?

23) WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET? Not One of Us (Peter Gabriel). Apparently I regret not being popular.

24) WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH? One More Hour (Sleater-Kinney). One more hour to spend with loved ones? Sure.

25) WHAT MAKES YOU CRY? Don't Talk, Just Kiss (Wedding Present). Dopi is in a David Gedge mood today. But I like kissing!

26) WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED? No Self Control (Peter Gabriel). Hahahahahahahaha.

27) WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? Piazza, New York Catcher (Belle and Sebastian). I am afraid of baseball.

28) DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU? Cello Ballad (The Instruments). Given that my most problematic students are cello players, I think Dopi is being disingenuous here.

29) IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Everything Is (Neutral Milk Hotel). I wouldn't change everything ...

30) WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW? Sonata IV (John Cage). Hmmm. Let's try again. Merely A Man (XTC). Nope, that's going okay.

31) WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS? Sheila (Morphine). Okay, if you say so.

32) HOW DOES THE WORLD SEE YOU? Down By the Water (PJ Harvey). I am more comfortable when I live near water.

33) WILL I HAVE A HAPPY LIFE? Space (I Believe In) (Pixies). Apparently I need to find someone named Jefrey to take up the space in my life.

34) WHAT DO MY FRIENDS REALLY THINK OF ME? Heather (The Wedding Present). My friends think I'm a spoiled clique girl from an 80s movie that I've never seen all the way through?

35) DO PEOPLE SECRETLY LUST AFTER ME? Jenny Ondioline (Stereolab). All right, who is she? I'll kick her ass.

36) HOW CAN I MAKE MYSELF HAPPY? All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star) (REM). I've been to Reno -- I wouldn't be happy there. Now, if I was a star, though .....

37)WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE? She is Mine (The Psychedelic Furs). Clearly I need a girlfriend.

38) WILL I EVER HAVE CHILDREN? Convertible (The Wedding Present). Again with the David Gedge. This does answer the question, though, because you can't have a convertible and kids at the same time.

39) WHAT IS SOME GOOD ADVICE FOR ME? Wave of Mutilation (Pixies). Hooray! I get to wreak havoc.

40) HOW WILL I BE REMEMBERED? Text Example 9.11, 9.12 A, B, C. (textbook). GRRRRR. Let's try that one again. Text Example 26.9 (textbook). No, seriously, WTF?

41) WHAT IS MY SIGNATURE DANCING SONG? My Dream Girl Don't Exist (Neutral Milk Hotel). So much for finding that girlfriend.

42) WHAT DO I THINK IS MY CURRENT SIGNATURE SONG? Down to the Well (Pixies). Menial labor FTW.

43) WHAT DOES EVERYONE THINK MY SONG IS? Exotic Siren Song (Moonshake). I can live with that.

44) WHAT TYPE OF MEN DO YOU LIKE? Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head (Gorillaz). Hey, he's not that hairy.

45) WHAT IS MY DAY GOING TO BE LIKE? Thinking About You (Radiohead). Awww, that's right, I'll be thinking about you.

Now that's an idea ...

2008-11-20T16:03:53Z

I've been torn about the whole auto industry bailout thing. On the one hand, I really believe the auto industry doesn't deserve to be bailed out. They've been making bad decisions (and bad cars) for too long despite evidence that they should be doing something different. I don't believe the management of the auto industry can pull its head out of the sand for long enough to see what they should be doing, much less actually manage to do it.

On the other hand, the state of Michigan will collapse if the auto industry does not get bailed out. We're close to it already -- the state has lost so many jobs -- not just in the auto industry alone, but in the industries that depend on the auto industry. It's scary up here.

So this was a really interesting idea, posed by Michael Moore (I don't care what you think of his politics in general -- I think this is an interesting idea): bail out the auto industry, thus saving the jobs -- but require the auto industry to do things like build public transportation. Require them to develop and build hybrid and electric cars. Not in ten or twenty years, but now.

Moore points out that Roosevelt mandated the auto industry to build planes and tanks during WWII, and he says the way forward now is to work on the infrastructure of our country AND get the US off of its dependency on oil. Better public transportation and better cars could help do that, and having the auto industry building both would save the jobs. It would also require the auto industry to keep the bailout money within the country, instead of sending it to the factories they're built (or are building) overseas.

This was in an interview with Larry King; the transcript is available here.

Happiness is ...

2008-11-15T22:44:33Z

... adding things to your to-do list as you're doing them, so you can cross them off immediately and pretend you're accomplishing something.

Is it wrong that I'm kind of proud of this?

2008-10-26T22:50:30Z

I'm an Uber Cool Nerd Queen.

Geek meme ...

2008-10-26T02:28:04Z

I'm actually kind of surprised the score was that high.

RIP, Obama lawn sign

2008-10-19T15:42:56Z

After we had to wait more than a month to GET our Obama lawn sign after ordering it, someone has stolen it within a week of us putting it up.

In fact, most of the Obama signs in our neighborhood seem to be missing.

Even more interesting is that it happened in a two-hour window in broad daylight.

People suck.

Stolen from spammella ...

2008-10-16T18:02:08Z

Hallo-meme!

drdingbat's Halloween party:

anattadoll dressed as Elizabeth Regina on steroids and roller skates, and it suited them disturbingly well.

aureellia dressed as Ichabod Crane, the schoolmaster from Sleepy Hollow.

bdsam dressed as William Taft.

be_fish dressed as a Dana employee.

bootpig dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

candypants1972 dressed as Helga the wisewoman, although the live snake was a mistake.

catsforever dressed as a assistant.

cynic51 dressed as Ulysses S Grant.

dejablack dressed as a new superhero: War Demon.

demandra dressed as the Alternative Power Ranger.

ecolabrat dressed as Adam-the-first-man but the fig-leaf was far too big.

entrope_ dressed as the Earl of Leptvine.

evilheff dressed as a Level 12 thief.

fisherman dressed as a 1990's grunge child, though it looked more like a rat.

glampers dressed as Mde. Lachienne Foutue d'Enfer -- you don't wanna know.

lady__bast dressed as something hyper, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

ljpipsqueak dressed as Mr. Spock from "Star Trek".

marg_it dressed as your mother-in-law.

mdsteele47 dressed as a very fake witch-doctor complete with a collection of shrunken skulls.

mrmisha dressed as Sandra Bullock's cousin, and it suited them disturbingly well.

ms_dollymop forgot to put on clothes!

ms_scarlet dressed as Jennifer Lopez.

mumbojumble dressed as the resurrected dead -- complete with the most convincing coffin.

ninjacooter dressed as Camilla Parker-Bowles when she becomes Queen.

paramedicbarbie dressed as the Magenta Power Ranger.

pellucidae dressed as the love child of Johnny Depp and Chandra Levy.

pianodan dressed as the Earl of Coloav, and it suited them disturbingly well.

pixelpixi dressed as Mary Queen of Scots ... without her head. Most convincing.

psychowitch1321 dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Ramona.

pumps_dukkha dressed as a walking Guillotine, though it looked more like John Madden.

pussygalore66 dressed as Optimus Prime.

sammy_girly dressed as Barbra Streisand.

spammella dressed as a pixie, and it suited them disturbingly well.

sparkymonster dressed as a outfielder for the Braves.

theatricaltoy dressed as Kathie Lee Gifford.

tigerlily_blue dressed as the Governor of Ohio.

tripleindemnity dressed as Guy Fawkes but the exploding barrel of dynamite didn't go down too well.

tuezdaye dressed as Sigfried in need of testosterone.

whos_your_venus dressed as a bottle of Quinofryzine.

xhollydayx dressed as Kate Moss.

Throw your own party at the Hallomeme!
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