If you like blues and want to add to your music collection, look no further than Honey, Where You Been So Long? so satisfy your need. Be sure to have some time to spend. You’ll need it.

Link via Metafilter

Yesterday I discovered an interesting artist who works in pen and ink … and a blind pianist who really gets into a groove.

In a perfect world, I would be ordering Moncef Genoud’s album from iTunes and buying a Nosferatunes tee-shirt from Michael Mararian at this very moment. We don’t live in a perfect world, and I’m going to just have to live with patiently waiting for my new camera to arrive instead.

Also, there’s been another desktop-clearing link dump at Links of Note.

“Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but then his work is much better than his sister’s.”

Interestingly, the “sister” was actually Ben Barres before she became a he. Barres has a unique perspective on what it means to be both a man and a woman working in science. As you might imagine from the opening quote I used, the picture painted isn’t very pretty.

Here’s another good one for you:

“I can even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man.”

As a woman who does have a few areas in which I could be considered an expert, or at least nearly so, I can personally attest that many men, even those who aren’t as familiar with the subject at hand as I am, do often interrupt as though what I am saying can’t possibly be as insightful, important, or knowledgeable as whatever it is they have to say. It never fails to make me roll my eyes, not that they would notice, being too busy espousing their important male opinion to pay attention to the eyes of any nearby woman.

Go read the rest of the article. It’s worth spending some time on.

Edit: Here’s another article about Barres and women in science.

I finally “get” chess … probably not in the same way Lin “gets” chess (or anyone who was a member of a chess club in high school — those people seem to be REALLY into chess) … but I finally see that chess is actually quite fun. I would see people playing chess, laughing and having fun, but the space in my brain where I stored the concept of “chess” had a big huge BORING AND COMPLICATED sign on it. In huge red letters, no less, followed by the additional note in delicate orange italics … Flee the premises immediately!

Yes, it’s safe to say I had an unnatural loathing and fear of chess. I completely blame Lin.
Continue Reading »

I went ahead and allowed myself to lay in bed all day snoozing off and on. Getting some sleep improved my mental state a good deal, as it always does. The problem is always the “getting to sleep” part of it. When I finally crawled out of bed at about 5 pm, I turned on some cool Jazz, lit some sandalwood incense, cleaned the kitchen, and started working on a new recipe. All of these things have also helped improve my mental state. I’m not saying I don’t still feel weighted down by the universe, because I do, but I think I might be able to leave the house tomorrow and do some grocery shopping. I’m going to call that an improvement.
Continue Reading »

You may notice the little flashing banner up at the top of the page. I got an email last night asking me to help promote a contest for a good cause, and so I am.

You can read more about it in depth at the RE*Generation web site, but here are the particulars:

CONTEST:
Design a cell phone charm; enter it into the contest.

WHY IT’S GOOD TO GET INVOLVED:
The RE*Generation is a movement to help young people living on the fringes through partnering with innovative non-profit organizations. The movement looks to help those living on the streets, in abusive situations, and individuals who simply don’t have a voice in mainstream society.

PRIZES:
1 Grand Prize winner (+guest) receives a trip to Africa and their charm produced by Virgin Mobile.
4 First Runners Up receive a trip to New Orleans.

BACKGROUND:
Virgin Mobile USA, Stand Up for Kids, and Youth Noise have teamed up to start the RE*Generation Movement to raise awareness for homeless and abused kids. To get teens involved, these companies launched the RE*Generation Charm Contest. Teens & young people are asked to design a cell phone charm and enter it in to be judged by a rock star panel (including Bloc Party, Jewel, and others).

Please note that you must be between 14 and 28 years of age, and the deadline is coming up soon on July 20, 2006! There are other rules, of course, but I didn’t read them all. You should, if you want to enter.

If you’d like to help spread the word, you can find banners to advertise it on this page, and I encourage you to do so, if you have a web site. If you aren’t an old fogey like me, sit down, create a cell phone charm and ENTER! You never know, you may just win!

“If Carole Strayhorn is going to continuously throw these temper tantrums because she doesn’t get her way and she doesn’t like the rules, she should just do Texans a favor and pick up her ball and go home,” Perry said in a statement.

I can’t believe it, but for once, I actually agree with Pretty Hair Perry.

So what’s the issue at hand this time? How names are listed on the November gubernatorial ballot. Obviously, since everyone on the planet that has heard of Kinky Friedman knows him as “Kinky” Friedman, he gets to use that name on the ballot. Strayhorn wants to add “Grandma” to her name, and she insists she isn’t doing it just for the publicity … she’s ALWAYS been known as Grandma. Yeah, maybe to her GRANDKIDS, but I didn’t hear anything of it until she decided to run for governor. I’d say in this case the Secretary of State (Tx) made the right decision.

Naturally, she’ll be taking it to court, which is really just one more way to keep her name in the news. Well, listen here Grandma … there’s more to winning elections than being in the news every day whining about what name you get to use on a ballot. Don’t you have something else you should be talking to reporters about … like maybe some issues and positions? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

By the way … VOTE KINKY!

Sorry I have been so quiet lately. I’ve just finally reached the pits of deep depression. Anything I might say is either VERY depressing, is completely stupid or sounds like I am out of my mind (sort of am, I guess). It’s not just the cat either. It just seems like EVERYTHING. I know, rationally, it isn’t EVERYTHING, but when depression hits, even a hangnail seems like a big deal. Things will get better, as they always do. I’m just really, REALLY down right now.

I have to go serve (and eat) dinner now. I’m doing a final testing on an Official Orb Recipe. I can’t remember if I mentioned or not that I am working on a cookbook (to hopefully be published and bring me fortune and fame). I think this one is finally perfect, but I won’t know until I sit down and have dinner. After dinner and our usual late-night comedy shows, I’m going to sit in the kitchen until I create something (other than food). I have some artist trading cards to finish and get in the mail, and I feel like painting. Even if the feeling passes, I am going to force it. Sometimes forcing myself to be creative forces the depression to either get as bad as it possibly can or lightened up a little. Either way, it helps the healing process.

I just wish I didn’t feel like my body was weighted down by a thousand pounds of lead. It feels like I am standing on the surface of Venus, minus most of the unbearable heat. In short, depression sucks.

What Monday would be complete without an hour long discussion/debate/argument on the mutation rate of Mitochondrial DNA! Yes, these are the things we “discuss” on crappy Monday nights. So … who wants to rent our spare room? I swear, we are a BLAST! Real party animals!

The only reason today sucked so badly was I found it completely impossible to get my ass in gear. I think my transmission is broken, or at least the transmission fluid (Dr Pepper) isn’t doing its job anymore.

So, not having gotten into gear today, I have nothing of worth to report on tonight. It was a long, boring, got-nothing-done sort of day. I hate it when that happens.

“Here is a film on the remains of the bodies of the two American soldiers kidnapped near Yussufiyah (south of Baghdad). We are showing it to avenge our sister who was raped by a soldier belonging to the same division as these two soldiers,” said a preamble by the Mujahedeen Al-Shura Council, an Al-Qaeda dominated alliance of armed Sunni groups in Iraq.
–source

U.S. investigators had said there was no evidence linking the deaths of the three soldiers last month to the alleged rape-slaying.
–source

U.S. investigators say lots of things. You’d be wise to learn how to take them all with a grain of salt or two.

The very day I read about the rape/murders, realized it was the same platoon as the kidnapped soldiers, I managed to put two and two together, and I didn’t need to watch a grisly confessional videotape. I wrote a post about it, but I guess I didn’t save it or post it. Probably because I do try to not even mention Iraq anymore. Most people would seem to prefer to live in their dream world where things are going wonderfully over there. I’d hate to burst their bubble, and I hate the vicious way they lash out when anyone comes close to doing so.

Annoying Boy: You mean you could hear our fireworks the other night?
Lin: I have no doubt they could be heard fucking blocks away.

For some reason, the neighbors seem to be under the impression that setting off small explosions in their back yard in the middle of the night can’t be heard beyond their own property lines. Even the adults in that household seemed to be incredulous that we heard the loud, window shaking booms they were creating. We live on a small hill. The surrounding areas are all lower than us. I have no doubt their noisiness could be heard over a VERY large area. I am dumbfounded by their stupidity.

Also, they said someone called the cops on them, and they thought it might be us. No, I wish I had. It could have been anyone in that large area that heard the booming and saw the rockets they set off. Hell, it could have been the cops themselves that heard and saw it. It’s not like the substation is that far away and there aren’t cops out on Rundberg or Lamar late on Saturday nights. Morons.

I have seriously had it with the neighbors. There’s more, but I’m going to save complaining about the latest neighbor stupidity until it makes for the best possible story. It looks like it’s going to shape up to be a doozy.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, I made a post at my Vox blog mentioning the things about the Vox system I find more than annoying.

It’s Monday … and it’s been sucking in that way only Mondays seem to be able to suck.

Yup, that’s all I have to say today.

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping…

Just go read the rest of the story. It’s all for our safety, of course, but isn’t there somewhere we need to start saying a line has been crossed. I can’t be the only one seeing that in my lifetime, if privacy rights continue to diminish the way they have been, we will be living in 1984 … with Big Brother looking right over our shoulder every minute of every day. Go ahead, call me alarmist, if you must, but I predict an alarmingly dark future for the USA if things don’t change soon.

A 62 year old British woman, after having undergone IVF treatments in an “unnamed Soviet Republic”, has given birth to a baby boy on Wednesday … “so she could fulfill her 60-year-old husband John’s dream of becoming a father.”

Pure selfishness on the part of both of these people. Did the think about the impact having such elderly parents would have on the kid? Something tells me they didn’t bother fretting about that much while in pursuit of their dreams.

Another desktop clearing link dump at Links of Note.

There have been a few updates at my Vox blog as well … one cross post and I answered some of the Questions of the Day.

Linda, Randy and Annoying Boy better run out of firecrackers by midnight, or any sense of neighborly loyalty to not call the cops on them will vanish at the witching hour. As loud as whatever it is they are setting off is, I’m surprised the cops a few blocks over haven’t heard them already. It’s making our windows ratttle. The first one went off at about 10 pm … a loud boom, so loud we heard it over a loud movie we were watching and thought something had actually exploded nearby. They also apparently have the longest strings of standard firecrackers ever seen. Every 15 minutes or so, likely to avoid police detection, out they go into the back yard to set off some more of both. It’s pissing me off.

I’m really a live-and-let-live neighbor, but at the point that whatever it is you are doing crosses my property line and begins to disrupt my peaceful existence, I will turn on you. Had they started this right after sunset (or, you know, done this ON July 4th like everyone else), I wouldn’t have cared. It’s the fact they waited until so late to start their little firecracker rampage that really has me annoyed. They know better. They have lived in that house their whole lives, and they know full well that late at night, our street is dead silent … and we LIKE it that way.

One pop, crack, zing or noise of any loud sort makes its way from their back yard to my ears after midnight, and I’m calling our police substation … unless my urge to open my kitchen window and scream at them doesn’t overwhelm me first.

They have not been good neighbors for quite a few months now, and I’m getting sick of the loud noises at odd hours, loud arguments in the driveway, squealing tires as they drive off (pissed off after the fights usually), and the fact they have been throwing trash in our back yard (this is one of the latest aggravations). I don’t even speak to any of them anymore, if I can help it, and Lin makes social chit-chat with them only as long as it takes for him to get from truck door to house door. These people are crazy, stupid, and potentially dangerous. Several of the other nearby neighbors agree, but no one wants to do anything about it. Well, I may be the new kid on the block, but my tolerance level on this kind of crap has just about been reached. I wouldn’t have put up with half as much at the apartment, and there’s no reason I have to do so now that we own a house.

Get with the program and keep your noise (and trash) indoors, or glare at me every time I complain. Makes little difference to me at this point. I love having things to complain about, and they don’t really want to get me started. They are still under the impression I am some mousy, quiet, demure housewife. News Flash: That’s just my secret identity.

UPDATE: well after midnight

Maybe they ran out of firecrackers. Maybe they got bored. Maybe they realized when all the lights in my house came on and I flew out my back door, stood on my back slab and glared at them (hands on hips, of course), their lives were in grave danger. We will never know why, at a mere few minutes to midnight, the firecrackers stopped.

I like to think it was the Evil Eye I was giving them. I have a really evil Evil Eye.

We received a package from the Cat Hospital of Austin today. Inside was a sympathy card with sweet, loving messages from all the ladies that work there, an adorable kitty angel pin, and a casting of Fuzza’s paw print. It made us cry a little, not so much out of sadness but more-so due to it being such a wonderful gesture of kindness. Completely unexpected too. I love the ladies over there. I told you they were good people.

If you own a cat (or two) and you live in or near Austin, it is worth the drive to take your pet to them for its health needs. They get my highest recommendation. Any future cats I have in my life will be going there. Best vet ever.

In other news, Livejournal has a new feature in open beta right now … LJ now has a Jabber server, and it uses your LJ username and password, so no having to sign up for yet another account somewhere just to chat. It also imports your friends list automatically, and it works with iChat. I had a little chat with Dawna (who was getting slaughtered in an online game at the time), so now I’ve had a chance to try out iChat, and I love it!

So if you have an LJ account and haven’t heard about this yet, go read the announcement for all the specifics. I’m rating this VERY COOL!

I’m still feeling a little unwell. While I don’t want to feel any more sick than I do, it’s so annoying to only feel somewhat sick … just sick enough that going about my day or trying to go somewhere is awful, but not sick enough to lay around being sick. My body seems to be fighting the good fight though, so I’m pumping it up with vitamins and fruit juice and good healthy food. Hopefully I built up some antibodies when I went through this last month and won’t get totally sick again. At least I certainly hope so.

Though I didn’t get anything in the way of housework done today, my plan is to eat dinner (leftover ravioli and rice) and then get the house in order so I can ignore it all weekend. That way Lin and I can lay around being lazy slugs for two days, and maybe by Monday I’ll be feeling better again. I’m really wanting to get on with my life, and the last two months has just been one thing after another (and few of them good things). I’d really like my old boring life back now, please.

Im going to go get dinner heated up and listen to Lin practice the guitar. He’s getting so good at it. I’ve warned him now that I have a schmancy-fancy computer that makes recording things easy, he’s going to have to let me record him sometime so I can make you all listen to his playing. Naturally the mere mention of being recorded made him put on his earphones and run to the other room. He’s still suffers from severe stage fright.

Babble at you later! I’ve got ravioli to chow down!

Simplified spelling is in the news again. It pops its ugly head up ever few years or so, and I am forced to roll my eyes and sigh deeply.

Don’t know what simplified spelling is? Here’s an example:

Carnegie tried to moov thingz along in 1906 when he helpt establish and fund th speling bord. He aulso uezd simplified speling in his correspondens, and askt enywun hoo reported to him to do the saem.

A filanthropist, he becaem pashunet about th ishoo after speeking with Melvil Dewey, a speling reform activist and Dewey Desimal sistem inventor hoo simplified his furst naem bi droping “le” frum Melville.

Oh yes, THAT is much more simple isn’t it? Maybe they mean “simple as in “simple-minded”?

Those in favor of simplified spelling say children would learn faster and illiteracy rates would drop. Opponents say a new system would make spelling even more confusing.

No, illiteracy rates would not go down. I couldn’t even finish reading the news story, because it was giving me a headache trying to read the simplified spellings. If all written material around me used simplified spelling, I, and many others, would be functionally illiterate … incapable of quickly and easily reading a passage and understanding the meanings of the words. Not to mention, if I were expected to write using this simplified spelling, I wouldn’t be able to do so.

To the folks who think simplified spelling is a good idea: Get over it, buy a dictionary, and stop insisting we all need to lower our standards because you find spelling to be HARD.

What to know more about this? Visit the web site of the Simplified Spelling Society, where on the Kid’s Cornersimplified spelling page, you will discover “there are 3,500 words in English that contain exceptions to the spelling rules.” If your average American had a vocabulary of more than a few thousand words maximum, this might be a problem (though I doubt it), and I rather believe anyone who’s vocabulary is significantly larger than your average American’s is likely intelligent enough to learn both the rules and the exceptions.

In closing, let me say I am rarely upset by other people’s spelling errors or grammar errors, so long as what they are trying to communicate is understood clearly. When I get upset about spelling and grammar errors is when it’s obvious the person does know better and is only being lazy. Simplified spelling smacks of laziness, and every time I am reminded there is a “movement” to make spelling easier by screwing it up completely, the only image in my head is one of a small child pouty,whining and holding his breath, because SPELLING IS HARD … WAH WAH WAH.

Groh th fuk up.

I ended up riding around with Lin to his work sites, and we stopped at the vet’s together to pick up Fuzza’s urn. We were really nervous on the way over, but it actually ended up being a somewhat jovial occasion. By the time we had gotten back on the highway, we were actually laughing out loud. I wouldn’t say that normally I have a morbid sense of humor, but for some reason having a pile of ashes that used to be your cat in a little black urn in a rosemary scented box was suddenly hilarious to me. To be honest, I can’t even remember what I said that set us off laughing in the first place. Just some odd random “cat in urn in box” thought I blurted out, but laugh we did … and if you would have told me only a few hours earlier that I would be giggling while speeding down the highway and shaking an urn containing my dead cat’s ashes to see what they sound like and how much was in there, I would probably have smacked you in the face. Yet that is exactly what I did.

Well I am a curious monkey, and I’ve never had the chance to be near to or handle an urn full of cremated remains before. I had questions.

Lin laughed too, so it wasn’t just me being crazy either. There was definitely a lighthearted feeling in the truck, and that was completely unexpected. In fact, I haven’t felt deeply sad or felt like crying since we got home. I didn’t expect to feel quite so comforted by my dead cat’s ashes sitting in an urn on a shelf, but I do. I haven’t quite worked out exactly how or why yet, but when I do, rest assured, I’ll let you know. All that matters now is that having an urn full of ashes on my shelf makes me happy. Whether this is a sign of impending insanity or not, I don’t know.

You’re going to laugh, but … I’m thinking of knitting an “urn cozy.”

You laughed, didn’t you?

Also, my intense urge to get another cat has diminished. It isn’t gone, but that can wait for now. Lin and I should take some time to be “empty nesters” and do those thing we wanted/needed to do but which the cat would have made a hassle … like impromptu road trips, putting in new flooring, going on a real vacation, replacing the roof. When the next cat is ready to adopt us, it’ll happen. No rush. The house doesn’t seem as empty now.

All around, today turned out differently and better than expected. Human nature, when faced with unusual circumstances, is always interesting … even when it’s your own human nature.