i can tell when i’m hitting a coding brain-block, because all of my comments become less semantic and more completely useless.
so what was once:
becomes more like:
Archives for the month of: January, 2007
please please someone get this for me. maybe you can go in on it with some of my other friends. i will make you delicious cupcakes and bring them to you IN THIS VERY DEVICE if you get me this. pleeeeaaaase!
alert: rant ahead! close browser window if you are offended by my political beliefs, which really – you should be familiar with by now anyway.
off the AP wire:
“The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow convicted terrorists to be imprisoned or put to death using hearsay evidence and coerced testimony.”
WHAT? am i…am i having a fucking nightmare over here? wake up america – can’t you see what is happening? what has happened? it’s like we’re living a twilight zone episode where we realize we’re becoming the very thing we hate. except – surprise! – minus the whole realization part.
i don’t know why i’m surprised by any of this. no – actually, i’m not surprised at all. i was horrified about 7 years ago and completely at a loss about 3 years ago and it’s been a steady slide into incredulous apathy ever since. i guess i pretty much gave up a long time ago, but i’m still holding on to this naive hope that things will get better – that this is only the united states’ teenage-rebellion phase and it’ll work itself out. emphasis here on the ‘naive’, since apparently a great deal of americans can’t even grasp the basics: nearly 40% of americans think evolution is fake. look at the countries above the united states on that list! latvia? estonia? SERIOUSLY? i know nothing about these places, but i can tell you this – i certainly don’t hear ‘estonia’ and think, ‘the people of estonia have more common sense and are better educated than the people of the united states’ but i’m having a hard time thinking anything else when i look at that graphic. also, clearly this has nothing to do with religion since some of the most catholic countries EVER are on there. ok, now i give up. i’m moving to northern europe or japan. seeya suckers.
my grandpa died on tuesday morning and i drove home that afternoon. today was the visitation, tomorrow is the funeral. i’m doing ok, considering how fast it happened, the manner in which i found out and that the last time i saw him he was getting better, not worse, and was smiling because i had just told him i loved him.
i hate feeling this way and i feel so awful for my mom and my grandma. my grandparents would’ve been married 65 years next month. what is it like to spend 65 years with someone and then be alone?
something good from this – it’s amazing to see how many people loved my grandpa and how highly they thought of him. at the visitation today there were at least 400 people; the line was all the way around the room and out the lobby to the front doors for over three hours. everyone who knew him liked him and respected him – he was hardworking, loving, gentle, intelligent, curious, patient.
i’d say the men in my family have set the bar pretty high.
if you know me you know i’m a nerd. you probably also know that i really like charts and diagrams and floorplans and the like. ‘le grand content’ is a fun animation created by clemens kogler and karo szmit consisting entirely of charts and graphs. it is greatly influenced by one of my new favorite blogs, indexed. read the artists’ statement here and see the full video here. i’ve downloaded and posted the video here in case the address on the source website changes. too awesome to lose the link!
- it’s damn near impossible to brush your teeth while crying.
- if you manage it and have to blow your nose right after, your snot is totally minty.
most likely a #49
katie: yay. saturday will be fun! you can wear my mini dress.
kara: woo!
kara: well we’ll see
kara: i might wear my usual uniform of tshirt and jeans
kara: you know – like, this is me. as i usually am. take it or leave it
katie: thats sweet… or you could skank it up!! jk (don’t do that)
Momofuku Ando, Instant Ramen Inventor, Dead at 96
…After seeing people standing in line at a black-market food stall, he formed a strong conviction that “a life without enough food to eat is no life at all.” He believed an instant noodle product would help feed people after World War II. Chicken Ramen was the first flavor produced by his company Nissin Food Products Co., but other flavors and products quickly followed, including the ever-ubiquitous Cup Noodle.
i will think of mr. ando every time i enjoy some ramen, and doubly so during the holy month of ramenadan.
via chicagoist
opened up my giant javascript reference book to refresh my memory about objects, when out fell my old business card from my last job. weird.
feeling sick, and only at work because we’re interviewing our grant applicants today. there will be no shaking of hands. i totally overdid it this weekend and stayed out too late both nights and drank more than would be advisable for someone with a bit of a cold. now i’m paying, and i know it’s my fault. but the weekend was great, so it’s worth it i suppose.
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friday night was the urban exposure art show at the urban outfitters on rush. andy was showing his photos so katie and i ate at big bowl then walked over there (after a side trip to anthropologie and the puma store. ahem.). the art was fantastic and i bought (reserved?) a painting you can see in the foreground of this photo. after the show we went to darkroom for a little dancing then took the el home. a few more photos here.
saturday i went to target with matt and cecile (matt was kind enough to take me town to fb so i could pick up my car from the night before) then we went to hopleaf and met jim and sippel for dinner.
more rtvf folks showed up and we ended up staying at the hopleaf for awhile then going to charlie’s ale house for drinks in a quieter locale. some totally random people showed up and turned our table into that table – the loud obnoxious drunken table everyone hates. drunken people entertained themselves, jim talked to juliet (who apologized profusely for all of these people inviting themselves) and i talked to matt cozza. we ended up closing the bar and i got to bed sometime around 3am.
yesterday i (surprise!) felt my cold had gotten worse, so i couldn’t go bowling with jim last night. instead i im-ed and myspace-ed and read blogs all day (what am i? 15?), watched the rest of ‘dexter’ and uploaded photos. also decided on a name for antonio and my first little illustrated character, to whom you will be introduced as soon as possible.
velcro
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eric: did you see that velcro pic?
kara: YES
kara: it is cool
eric: too bad they can’t make velcro that big
eric: might be scary though i guess
kara: that would be a neat art installation
kara: giant velcro you have to work together with others to pull apart
eric: it would probably make a cool sound
kara: yeah
kara: have to be in a padded room tho
kara: because everyone will fall over when it rips free
eric: whoops!
the holidays were a lot of running around and everything, but it was nice to see everyone. i was home for almost a week so i got to fully enjoy the break. good food, nice hot showers, movies and lots of ds9.
yesterday i met up with ian and his friend brandon for a late lunch. we shopped for brandon for the night’s festivities (he didn’t pack enough nice clothes for the trip) then went to josh’s to hang out for a few hours before going to andy’s party. i only got to stay a little while because i had already made plans to go to a party some of katie’s friends were having. i met andy’s sister and her best friend, both of whom are really fun and sweet. the plan was to have a guitar hero showdown, but a lot of people were there and music was playing, so instead we spent three or four hours dancing and drinking champagne punch.
shortly after midnight, the guitar hero controller was busted out, but only so jason could do a pretty awesome rendition of ‘sweet child o mine’ along with the song. it. was. fantastic. the party was great, and a perfect start to 2007. haven’t really thought about resolutions, but they’re probably small things like ‘frame all that art that’s been laying around for over a year’ or ‘get rid of clothes/books/art supplies/etc that i no longer need/use’ or ‘spend more time in caves’.
happy new year!