I Hate Winter

01.29.10. A fortunate night, except if you live in Dallas. The brightest full moon of 2010, and we are instead blessed with 32 degree weather, clouds and potential ice.

All in all, it has been a disappointing day. My time was not mine to spend as I wished, it was a day of incredible non-normal frustration, and awkwardness reigned supreme barely winning over boredom and hostility.

It never had the high points it deserved. This is just the cake topper.

Picture is related if you know anything about Greek mythology.

I Love My Boss

So I spent a long time on the phone with my boss tonight after leaving both a voicemail and a text, neither of which is my custom. After over 30 minutes on the phone I was much more calm, hence being able to type this rather than throw the laptop through the wall. Or, into as hard as possible, seeing as the wall is rather strong.

I ended a dinner tonight. I am not often confrontational, especially in public, but tonight after 4 whiskeys and enough abuse, I was pissed. I told someone to shut the hell up and if they had a problem bring it to me in the correct way instead of bad mouthing my people in the form of yet another tasteless joke.

I have evidently a rather large ability of shutting things off and not fighting. I am on an even keel most days, so far as I have been told. I do not seek out a fight, I normally find a way to logically shut a debate down.

Tonight I was angry. It was one too many times of being told that the people that work for me are no longer as good of quality as the ones before, the department used to be fantastic before women were allowed in, etc. Every joke like this has a true belief behind it, and it both makes me angry as well as sickens me when it is given and believed as verse.

Yes, my department could be better. Yes there are problems. There always are when dealing with enough people and rules constantly changing every day that are just to be remembered without documentation.

For our new system, most process changes have had upwards of 25 test scripts to change for the new system to be put in place.

Mine has 300+ to test, all without the benefit of someone showing us what to do or how to figure out what we have in front of us.

And dinner was a work function-after thingy that had people who used to have my job who then felt the need to go on about how it should all work in the new system if we would just act as managers and do our jobs. Which led into the discussion of how my people are incompetent and how I am a shitty manager. Words, of course not said in that way, but in every way meant as such.

...But of course, they like me as a person.....

I love my boss. She is greatness, we get along, we have similar hobbies, and after 2 years we know how to deal with each other and our moods. She obviously got my urgency and anger from my attempts at contact, and called me. After 30 minutes of calm down from her to make me hang up (and even now way too long later I am still festering with this boiled up anger.)

All I asked for in my call was help. Help I cannot expect from the sources already proven, sources I don't really expect at all, but have to ask for, for both sanity and practicality sake.

Really, I'm stuck, I'm fucked in only bad ways, and I have a whole fun shitty new relationship to get used to that was previously okay. On the plus side, I have the promise of help, b/c there is no way to get through this standing without.

It is up to tomorrow to figure out if defuse = anger.

Tonight, I just can't bring myself to care.

Because It Would Be Better.....

.....than all day meetings for weeks. Go selling out to corporate life. :(

The Gods

Photography by Eugenio Recuenco. I'm on love with this photo of the Olympians, particularly Artemis and Athena.

Microbiology by Luke Jerram

"It's great to be exploring the edges of scientific understanding and visualisation of a virus. Scientists aren't able to answer many of the questions I ask them, such as how the RNA is exactly fitted within the Capsid? At the moment, camera technology can't answer these questions either. I'm also pushing the boundaries of glassblowing. Some of my designs simply can't be created in glass. Some are simply too fragile and gravity would cause them to collapse under their own weight. So there's a very careful balancing act that needs to take place, between exploring current scientific knowledge and the limitations of glassblowing techniques."

Captcha

Why does it seem the internet knows me too well?

Sleepy

Earth as Saturn

Artist depiction of what Earth would be like with Saturn's rings.

Personally, I think this would be amazing. More in the sky to look at would be beautiful.

Crayon Color Chart 1903-2010

Ever industrious, Velo also calculated the average growth rate: 2.56% annually. For maximum understandability, he reformulated it as “Crayola’s Law,” which states:

The number of colors doubles every 28 years!

If the Law holds true, Crayola’s gonna need a bigger box, because by the year 2050, there’ll be 330 different crayons!

I totally want that box of 330 colors. And yes, I'm still bitter about blue gray and mulberry being discontinued.

My Day So Far

Netflix Patterns

Interesting, but I cannot understand the most rented in almost all of Dallas area if 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'. Not sure what timeline they are going on, but really people, just watch Forrest Gump again. It seems faster.

Thank You, Roger Ebert

To: Rush Limbaugh
From: Roger Ebert

You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation.

Having followed President Obama's suggestion and donated money to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, I was offended to hear you suggest the President might be a thief capable of stealing money intended for the earthquake victims.

Here is a transcript from your program on Thursday:

Justin of Raleigh, North Carolina: "Why does Obama say if you want to donate some money, you could go to whitehouse.gov to direct you how to do so? If I wanted to donate to the Red Cross, why do I have to go to the White House page to donate?"

Limbaugh: "Exactly. Would you trust the money's gonna go to Haiti?"

Justin: "No."

Rush: "But would you trust that your name's gonna end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes?"

Justin: "Absolutely!"

Limbaugh: "Absolutely!"

That's what was said.

Unlike you and Justin of Raleigh, I went to Obama's web site, and discovered the link there leads directly to the Red Cross. I can think of a reason why anyone might want to go via the White House. That way they can be absolutely sure they're clicking on the Red Cross and not a fake site set up to exploit the tragedy.

But let me be sure I have this right. You and Justin agree that Obama might steal money intended for the Red Cross to help the wretched of Haiti.

This conversation came 48 hours after many of us had seen pitiful sights from Port au Prince. Tens of thousands are believed still alive beneath the rubble. You twisted their suffering into an opportunity to demean the character of the President of the United States.

This cannot have been an accident. A day earlier, a sound bite from your show went viral, in which you said Obama would exploit the situation to "please his black followers -- both the light-skinned and the dark-skinned ones."

Setting aside your riff on Harry Reid, consider what you imply. Obama will aid Haiti to please African-Americans. Haiti has lost untold thousands of lives. One third of the population has lost its homes. Countless people are still buried in the rubble. Every American president would act quickly to help our neighbor. You are so cynical and heartless as to explain Obama's action in a way that unpleasantly suggests how your mind works.

You have a sizable listening audience. You apparently know how to please them. Anybody given a $400 million contract must know what he is doing.

That's what offends me. You know exactly what you're doing.

The entire post above comes from Robert Ebert's website, a place I would never have thought to ever visit without the benefit of the Stumble button. However reading this, I have a new hero in someone who I have never thought twice about, since I was raised to determine my own view of how good a movie is. (Shut up, Dragonball: Evolution was awesome!)

I have new respect for Ebert. And at least for Limbaugh, if there is a hell, he can share it with Pat Robertson.

Musical Anatomy

Art by Shawn Feeney. Really digging this piece, especially liking that I can get a signed print for $10 +s/h. I think I could really use some new art around the place. Since Goran's, I haven't added anything that I haven't made. Nihil, that's a hint. :)

Also, check out the Collapsed Music project, where Feeney took 16 albums and made them into a 30 second footprint of an album. I couldn't actually determine a single album, but a few were very familiar. Of course, I am musically ignorant for most traditional cultural references from the last 50 years. For example, i am very content at this moment listening to Mahler's 5th Symphony in C-sharp minor on vinyl. I'm so hip.

Take the Credit

The Time Traveler's Cheat Sheet - Basic information to make yourself wealthy and famous when traveling through time.

Ever Have That Feeling?

Source unknown. One of those nights I just do not expect to sleep. Glad tomorrow is Thursday.

All the Uses

I have always wanted to see this first-hand: The full function and beauty of the Antikythera device remained hidden until recent studies subjected it to more advanced imaging techniques.

via io9

Percussion Drum

White Rabbits "Percussion Gun" Music Video from White Rabbits on Vimeo.

Catchy, engaging. I like the simplistic dual drumming. That takes some trust even as it seems so easy.Plus, they look like jacked up meth heads. And the camera movement/moving stage is nice.

Wow, I just explained my musical tastes as simplistic, catchy, and amphetamines. I am obviously looking to indie for the wrong things 95% of the time.

It Is Rare

"The city of Berkeley mailed coat hangers to 20 members of Congress on Wednesday."

Yes, the city of Berkeley. Berkeley's City Council sat down, debated, and voted (7-1) to protest the anti-choice Stupak-Pitts amendment by dropping the symbol of desperate back-alley abortions off at the post office. Intended as a stark reminder of the danger in infringing on women's reproductive rights, the hangers were sent to members of the House who, despite a previous pro-choice record, supported the dastardly amendment. (The council figured it would be a waste of perfectly good coat hangers to target hardliner anti-abortion representatives.)

I rarely post anything for feminism or women's rights, as I have issues thinking that in this era it should even come to any sort of fight. But yet, abortion I always have a strong feeling for. Without getting 'preachy' about my beliefs, I think this is a great play by Berkeley to show that going backwards is a terrible idea. Unfortunately, the 'Land of the Free' also includes those that have mistakes or are too stupid to use birth control regularly. No woman should have to go back to old methods of pain and very possible death.

Kudos.

Rum

Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn.

- Charles Bukowski

Not to be Mistaken for Tumblr...

Real content for the masses soon....as soon I find something worthwhile. In completely unrelated topics, antique malls are magical.

I've Been Doing it Wrong

If only I really enjoyed eating meat all the time. Instead, I guess I'll be first on the chopping block.

A Good Day...Eiffel Towers Optional

Tons of alone time, nowhere near the amount of seeing people I would have liked, lots of time talking to one of the most really awesome people on the phone. Not an ideal day, but really, not bad either. For a reclusive Friday, I was incredibly productive, creative and personable. Now I just need some awesome dreams to round it out.

Smoked Trout

Migraines Suck

Picturing the Past 10 Years

Teeny tiny piece of the chart by Philip Niemeyer. Click for full piece.

Fin

..via Cardboard Manifesto

Not my first choice...

...but I wouldn't mind having amazing memory skills as a super power.

Especially as much as I enjoy details and memorizing minutiae yet forget so very, very much at the same time, this would be incredibly handy. I cannot really see a strong downside to this, as my mind already seems to like to never be able to undo the metal images planted due to all of the rather repugnant conversations I find myself engaging in daily.

And yes, I am 6 months late in finding out about this.

Photography by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies
and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension.

The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at
some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires.
This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time :
being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things.

Photography appeared to us as a modest way
to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state.

Somehow the abandoned buildings of Dallas just don't compare to the ruins of Detroit, Germany or the theatres as captured by Marchand and Meffre.

Lack of Moment in Time

I just spent a perfectly lovely evening hanging out with this beautiful girl, her husband and a few friends, and I forgot to take any photos of her before she spawns in about a month.

So I stole this photo from her.

And while I'm not one for kids, I can't wait to see this one, because I fully suspect it might be a very hairy troll, due to Bria's teeny tiny size and James's vast amount of dark hair, as seen here.

Plus, I got to have my breasts verified as real thanks to James's soon to be patented vertical mammogram hugs. Good times.

Pearl of Wisdom

"But the thing is...you know when you're a kid and they tell you 'let's all grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid' and that's it. Ah, but the truth is the world is so much stranger than that. So much darker and so much madder. And so much better."

--Dr. Who, episode Love and Monsters

I'm a Dork

So this is the kind of stupid stuff I notice while watching television. Watching old Dr. Who episodes while my brain tries to beat its way out through my temples, and I happen to see in some inane scene that the character talking just happens to have the same blue Ikea rug I used to own.

This was a big moment for me.

Yeah, I do happen to be a nerd who sits at home with my migraine on a Friday night. Happy New Year to me.

I Don't Belive in Resolutions

"Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past." ~Henry Ward Beecher

New Year, New Decade, Medieval Thinking

From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine. The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted.

Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them, and we unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalised, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement.

Can we also put into laws that it is illegal to speak against someone's political views, gender choices, disabilities, car choices, foods they eat, etc? We could solve the entire political process by just banning everything!

This is not a step forward. Progress requires freedom of thought, not legal restrictions. Let everyone state their beliefs as they wish, not hold one belief as higher than any other. As the website states after quote #24: "Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection, we include the statement here to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.