Frogs and Ravens

Sorrow

To all the people affected by the recent massive earthquake and subsequent tsunamis, my heart goes out to you.

For the rest of us:

InterAction.org provides an excellent list of agencies to contact.

(And if anyone has any news about Nancy of under the fire star, please let me know. She hasn't been posting lately, but she is in Chennai, one of the affected communities.)

Update: Nancy is fine (see comment below and her blog) but the devastation remains enormous.

Tom Tomorrow is good this week, if you want to get angry.

Away

I'm going out of town for a bit.  See you in January. 

Happy holidays to you all.

Hopeless

I don't really know why I blog anymore. 

Increasingly, I suspect that it is merely a way to delude myself into thinking that what I think is relevant and meaningful, a way to distract myself from the reality that by all the standards I've used to judge my life I'm a failure.  But it's not.  It's just the random observations of a has-been (or never-was) with no future beyond mere existence, spewed out to no good purpose at all.  What a waste of time.  What a waste of a life.

I used to have hope for and trust in the future as a place of possibilities.  I don't anymore.

Happy Holidays.

Bitchy Quizzing

In the name of owning the insult, I bring you a wad of Quizzilla quizzes...

ANNOYING BITCH

Is there ever a time in the day when you SHUT UP?!
You ALWAYS seem to be bitching! Everyone is
SICK of hearing that mouth of yours. Cool down
a bit! Everything is not everyone else's fault.
What type of bitch are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Are you a Fuckwit, Asshole, Bitch, or Psycho?

YOU BITCH!! Congratulations, you are a BITCH!
Probably female, you don't like putting up with
anyone else's crap, and you make that quite
clear. Many people probably don't like you, but
who cares what they think?

brought to you by Quizilla

Who's Your Inner Bitch?
brought to you by Quizilla

(btw, there are a LOT more "what kind of bitch are you" quizzes at Quizzilla. It's a very popular category.)

Hysterical and Shrill

I was going to write a post tackling this irritating trend in lefty poli-blogging of equating being "strong" or "hard" in politics with a sort of caveman, knuckle-dragging, balls clanging in the wind, obscenity-laden aggression, and write that what we really need is more the kind of persistent, stubborn fierceness that is embodied by mother bears and women in third-world countries, but I'm feeling a bit bruised, gender-battle-wise. 

Let's just say that the longer I'm away from academia's good ol' boys club, the less I regret my departure.  Sad thing is, I was toying with the idea of some day coming out of the pseudonymous closet -- but it's been made pretty clear to me that this is still not a safe thing for outspoken, thinking women to do.  Shut up and let the men blog, bitch.

Random Thoughts

If you are a person who likes to wear black pants, black shoes, and a black hoodie, wouldn't it be better for you to cross the busy 4-lane road at a stoplight?  At the very least, find a street light to make it easier for drivers to see you as you amble across the road at night.

I hate panic attacks.  HAAAAAAATE them.  Especially the ones that happen in the middle of the night for no goddamn reason at all.  F'in' MVP syndrome.

On the other hand, I looooove crossword puzzles.  Calming, soothing, mind-distracting until I can get back to sleep crossword puzzles.

I have bought a pair of the most kick-ass bright red vinyl boots.  With a big silver buckle.  And a funky retro-poster lining.  For only $20.  And they don't hurt my feet!

Aaaaaaah!  I'm leaving the state Thursday and I haven't got ANYTHING done!

On the other hand, clever me has decided to give gift certificates for hand-made gifts for Christmas.  Though this may mean I spend the rest of the year going insane as I try to knit all those gifts at once.

It is weird eating tentacles for breakfast.  Even teeny weeny cute ones wrapped in phylo dough.

It is hard to come up with anything else to say after typing the two sentences preceding this one.

Errands

I'm off to go buy a fresh computer ink cartridge. Whee, fun, expensive.

What makes it even more galling is knowing, in part through my dad, who used to work for a printer company, that printers are really just gadgets designed to make people buy the real products, the ink and paper. But, ha ha, I'm going to buy either generic or from a competitor, whichever is cheaper.
Nyaaah-nyaaah...

Sometimes I Feel Like A Nut

I just spotted this exchange over at Michael Bérubé's blog; the second clause of first sentence of Michael's response cracked me up:

Is it Academe or should it be Academia, or are both correct? I have a good reason to know.

Posted by Daniel  on  12/09  at  01:04 PM

Both are commonly used, but I prefer “academe” partly because it doesn’t sound like a nut.  It’s also the name of the official journal of the AAUP.

Posted by Michael  on  12/09  at  03:27 PM

Yes, I am easily amused.  I think I've been playing too many of these geography games.

States Quiz

Another fun game for all you geography buffs out there can be found here.  You click and drag US states to their proper locations as fast as you can.  Points are taken off for inaccuracies.

My first three scores (go, me!)

1)  92% 23 miles 354 seconds
2)  94% 18 miles 276 seconds
3)  98% 2 miles 205 seconds

c/o julie.

Apocalypse Now

This is scary.  Not surprising, but scary.

This is part of the reason I'm suspicious of worldviews that believe in an afterlife which is better than this one, and which therefore see this one as expendable.  Sorry, but I just can't get into the notion that this glorious, living world we inhabit is little more than a tissue to be soiled, wadded up and thrown away as we move on towards to some glorious new reality.  It's dangerous and selfish and immature.  And, I would add, it is likely blasphemous as well, given that the presumption that it is okay to treat the Creator's beautiful creation like a piece of shit.  (Worse than shit, actually -- even shit can be used to feed dung beetles and make plants grow.)