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Chronology
Jun. 16th, 2005 09:57 am
Yesterday I had barely come down off my caffeine high (the great part about largely steering clear of it is it actually *works* to lift you up when you need it to) when I heard an ugly, vicious rumor: Microsoft's upcoming Longhorn uses code derived from UNIX and by 2015 most pre-fab PCs will come with a proprietary chip specifically for running Longhorn. This is mainly to make sure that the OS runs independent of the hard drive (I think), but I'm sure there are other unscrupulous applications. I'm not entirely sure about the validity of these statements, but I can just imagine the spike of UNIX-based viruses and security exploits that result in something like that. It would definitely not be good for Linux of any sort. :P
Then I saw we got a copy in of Raymond Briggs' "The Bear." Briggs is mostly famous for "The Snowman," but I got to know him through the really devastating nuclear war protest "When The Wind Blows." His style doesn't change terribly much from book to book, so you see these really endearingly drawn characters (whom he used previously for an actual children's book) die of radiation sickness in very horrible ways. All throughout "The Bear" I was half-expecting Tilly's home to be blown apart by a nuclear holocaust at any minute. Still, the artwork is really nice, and the polar bear is *enormous* and endearingly bearish; always hungry, always sleepy.
After that, I got to meet an author by the name of Ellen Gilchrist. She won a National Book Award for the novel "Victory Over Japan" and she's a local author! She has credit with the store, and gave her last name for it. I stopped and went, "Ellen?" And she said, "Yes. You must be a writer, because only other writers would know my name." *glee!* She bought a photography book and actually said stuff like "That shit is so tight!" and "I wish I could fucking do that." This is an 80 year old woman. And she gave me advice on writing before she left. Wow! It was so awesome. I was floating for at least three hours. :)
In fact, I am doing the Muppet Dance right now!
I went to Harp's and bought some vegetables and milk and cereal. It's getting easier to shop there all the time, and I really like the fact that there's an awful lot of their stuff that's either local (they sell milk from a local dairy in glass bottles, no less) or sorta non-brand healthy stuff (like Amy's Organic line of frozen foods and dinners). I think I can slowly shift myself away from lots of unhealthy stuff if I make the effort to look for alternatives to my usual round of snacks.
Saw "Mother Night" upon arriving at home. It was actually a really great movie, despite the fact that it glossed over what's one of the best scenes in the book. I kept wondering how they would translate it, and for the most part they were very faithful. They did kind of botch the ending, though. In the book, it's still...non-sensical, but it fits within the context...you can see Campbell growing contemptuous enough with the absurdity of his situation to do what he does. In the movie, he just looks broken and defeated. There's not enough of a bite to see the spitefulness of his final action. Still, really great movie. I recommend it!
Woke up this morning with a quote from "Bird By Bird" on my mind. Anne Lamott defends clutter by saying that clutter is proof of life being lived. One of my fondest dreams up to this point was to live in a Zennist Japanese romanticized Spartan house: where every surface is clean, straight and flowing, and the few touches of personality are given immense gravity simply by virtue of their rarity. Now I have no illusions that I'll ever achieve that dream. There'll always be little candies thrown about with scrawls on pieces of paper. Juggling balls and old movie store cards, chess sets, Go sets, too many books, video tapes, CDs, trinkets, candles, inscence sticks and the like will always be, alas, with me. Doesn't mean I can't vacuum the place and tidy up as often as I do...but clutter and cleanliness are two different things, and not necessarily mutually exclusive. The grass isn't *always* greener, you know...
I'd like to try to keep better tabs with my friends. Every few months I get the wild hair to e-mail a bunch of people I haven't talked to for a while, and then I lose touch with them again. I really should be more consistent, but consistency isn't really my middle name. That's Andrew. *rim shot*
Then I saw we got a copy in of Raymond Briggs' "The Bear." Briggs is mostly famous for "The Snowman," but I got to know him through the really devastating nuclear war protest "When The Wind Blows." His style doesn't change terribly much from book to book, so you see these really endearingly drawn characters (whom he used previously for an actual children's book) die of radiation sickness in very horrible ways. All throughout "The Bear" I was half-expecting Tilly's home to be blown apart by a nuclear holocaust at any minute. Still, the artwork is really nice, and the polar bear is *enormous* and endearingly bearish; always hungry, always sleepy.
After that, I got to meet an author by the name of Ellen Gilchrist. She won a National Book Award for the novel "Victory Over Japan" and she's a local author! She has credit with the store, and gave her last name for it. I stopped and went, "Ellen?" And she said, "Yes. You must be a writer, because only other writers would know my name." *glee!* She bought a photography book and actually said stuff like "That shit is so tight!" and "I wish I could fucking do that." This is an 80 year old woman. And she gave me advice on writing before she left. Wow! It was so awesome. I was floating for at least three hours. :)
In fact, I am doing the Muppet Dance right now!
I went to Harp's and bought some vegetables and milk and cereal. It's getting easier to shop there all the time, and I really like the fact that there's an awful lot of their stuff that's either local (they sell milk from a local dairy in glass bottles, no less) or sorta non-brand healthy stuff (like Amy's Organic line of frozen foods and dinners). I think I can slowly shift myself away from lots of unhealthy stuff if I make the effort to look for alternatives to my usual round of snacks.
Saw "Mother Night" upon arriving at home. It was actually a really great movie, despite the fact that it glossed over what's one of the best scenes in the book. I kept wondering how they would translate it, and for the most part they were very faithful. They did kind of botch the ending, though. In the book, it's still...non-sensical, but it fits within the context...you can see Campbell growing contemptuous enough with the absurdity of his situation to do what he does. In the movie, he just looks broken and defeated. There's not enough of a bite to see the spitefulness of his final action. Still, really great movie. I recommend it!
Woke up this morning with a quote from "Bird By Bird" on my mind. Anne Lamott defends clutter by saying that clutter is proof of life being lived. One of my fondest dreams up to this point was to live in a Zennist Japanese romanticized Spartan house: where every surface is clean, straight and flowing, and the few touches of personality are given immense gravity simply by virtue of their rarity. Now I have no illusions that I'll ever achieve that dream. There'll always be little candies thrown about with scrawls on pieces of paper. Juggling balls and old movie store cards, chess sets, Go sets, too many books, video tapes, CDs, trinkets, candles, inscence sticks and the like will always be, alas, with me. Doesn't mean I can't vacuum the place and tidy up as often as I do...but clutter and cleanliness are two different things, and not necessarily mutually exclusive. The grass isn't *always* greener, you know...
I'd like to try to keep better tabs with my friends. Every few months I get the wild hair to e-mail a bunch of people I haven't talked to for a while, and then I lose touch with them again. I really should be more consistent, but consistency isn't really my middle name. That's Andrew. *rim shot*
