Full Day Yesterday

I had an interesting dream last night where a friend of mine turned into a god, like Apollo, and lived as a shining, bright center of truth for some time. Then a visitor came and showed him that he and the gods were turning into mysteries of smoke and shadow. It was actually quite touching. The gods went off to find a cure, though my "awake" mind knew it was almost hopeless.

Last night I was too tired to write an entry. We went to the Tate museum and and Stonehenge yesterday. I get angry when people compare side-of-the-road and cheap artists to these people. My favorite were the English romantics,and my favorite painting was "The Deluge", the second picture on this site. This was extremely powerful in person. I could hear the waves and the people. I also saw the first picture, "The Death of Ophelia", which I have wanted to for years. It is much sadder in person, and the foliage is much more defined. There was also this awesome picture with children lighting Chinese lamps in the Victorian section. After lunch, which was good, I went back and got lost in the Pre-Raphealites, and it was actually quite painful to pull myself away.

I want to turn part of my house into a workshop. I've always wanted to do metal and glassworking and grow crystals and crap, and now I can sort of do some of that. We'll see.
I have a lot to do when I get back, including learning a lot of math and physics stuff that I want to.

We took a tour to Stonehenge, which was the most efficient(and cheapest) way of getting there. The guide was nice, though muffled. It was a two-hour drive there and we only got one hour at the site, not enough for me to go explore the barrows and pine forests, which I reallly wanted to. The first henge on that site was erected 5000BC, and the country used to be all forest. Isn't that cool? You can sort of see how the creators meant it to be and connect with people from 3000BC. It bears a strange resemblance to the colosseum, and the altar in the middle reminds me of cult horns.

I was thinking more, but no more time to write. Tommorow we fly back.

Taking a Boat, Train, and Plane: Literally

Side Note: Everyone seems to think that we were either British or Indian in Italy.

Today we went to the airport in a water taxi. Venice is beautiful, chock full of history from foundations to roofs, and I am definetly coming back there again. The buildings are so old and reused in so many ways because of necessity. Here is where the ghost of Titian is supposed to live; here Wagner gathered inspiration. Perhaps Venice's decay is a symbol of the place great art has in the world today, though in my opinion the bricks and age make the buildings even better in most cases. Venice is better taken care of than Rome and Florence, though. At least it has the glass and lace industries producing new works, whereas the other cities seem to be depending on tourism. We bought an awesome book about legends/folktales/history of Venice, which I read on the plane.

Coming back to the UK made me extremely happy, though. The systems here are so much more efficient. For example, to check in Venice airport the entire flight has to wait in one queue. It was extremely easy and cheap to go by public transportation the equivalent of two hours driving, besides a few flights of stairs which we had to haul suitcases up. Two nice men helped us at one point. I've met a lot of nice Italians, French, and British people on this trip who have made this easier on us.

My cousin took my mom, aunt, and I for a walk through the forest and cemetary in the back of her house. Seeing the momentos on the graves made me wonder if my sentimentality is already building mine, brick by brick. I don't know how to express what I mean in this case.

We came back home, talked, and are now relaxing.

I'm on a Boat anndd, it's Going Fast anndd...

Today we mostly relaxed.

We went down to the Riallto bridge, which took a few hours as we shopped in every store in Venice. Or maybe that was how it felt. Anyways, I wasn't blameless since I got a (droool, I love this)pendant, earrings, and other things. I also bought a beautiful scarf for cheap which looks as if it is of expensive Spanish make. I wanted to buy a duck for Chris but didn't have any extra money at that point, and it wasn't that great quality. Hopefully I can get some pasta for him; I know how much he would appreciate that. I saw a jazz cd but didn't know if the music was good or not.

Most of the figurines would break in the suitcase, so we are not considering them, though we got a bird.

We ate in a delicious side place run by a Chinese man who had low prices and well-prepared shrimp salad. The Italians don't serve salad dressing from what I have seen, so I mixed some balsamic vinegar, pepper, salt, and olive oil into my salad, which tasted delicious. It was very cheap, too.

The businesses here in the tourist sector seems to be mostly split into lots of small stores and the high-end designers. I like it, as most of the stores sell made-in-Italy goods at reasonable prices. Hopefully Italy does not make its people slave to produce them, but I doubt it. The goods are also higher quality. I wish that we could have businesses like that, though I haven't seen any, say, office supply stores in Venice. Today was the first time we saw a chain store, which was called coin. It obviously catered to tourists, though, since everything in there was written in English without any Italian subtitles. I really like the "clocky" which runs away, but not at 55 euros. It felt kind of depressing to go in there after all the small businesses.

I wish we had time to visit the Venice where the Venetians live.

We got dressed again after showering and relaxing away from the heat. We ate at a restaurant while it got dark and the street entertainers came out, which was nice, though I felt guilty passing one without giving him change(no hers were present at this time). We walked to the canal and watched the gorgeous water seethe. It reminded me of a beating forest. I don't think it's a coincidence that this picturesque lagoon city is connected with glass. The inspiration is so close by, shining with a light that nobody has ever been able to capture. We watched the boats, talked, and came home.

One thing that bothers me about ancient art is certain symbols such as dark skin meaning evil or slanted eyes meaning evil. We must imbibe those to appreciate what the pictures mean, and personally it doesn't affect my day to day life, but it still makes me uncomfortable. Western society really needs to move on from those.

Tommorow I go back to the UK.

Dance, Dance

Tired; too tired to write a real entry, probably.

-Had a private tour of the Murano glass factory with a guide named Frederico.
This was included in the price of the hotel. We caught a water taxi which was nice with leather seats. Apparently there are "roads" in the water. The art pieces are amazing; the silica sand is so pure that they look as if lead is in the glass. Some pieces looked like porcelain, some had fishes in them, and many were dyed amazingly. There were even cubist pieces. Many were plated with gold and hand painted. We bought a necklace and two sets of earrings from the showroom, where you can't take pictures. It sort of spoiled all the other glass pieces selling around the place, which now look like plastic. From the cheaper room I got a necklace and a pendant, but the difference was clear. I think that, many years from now, museums will feature pieces from this place. So gorgeous. Our guide/salesman was very nice and strangely honest at the same time as trying to sell us things. I liked him a lot.

-Took a boat back to St Mark's Square
My dad and I saw the Archeological Museum, Correr Museum, Historical Museum and Art Museum. The Archeological Museum had a lot of Grecian statues and Roman copies of Grecian statues. The Historical museum featured the life of the Doge and some war pieces, including intricately carved...pikes/scythe hybrids and pistols. The art and historical museums featured art from many different periods, which was nice because of how close we could get to the paintings. I kept getting lost in them.

We then went to The Church of Gold. The line was about 20 minutes long; bring an umbrella. The ceiling is covered in gold and painted with Byzantine figures. We didn't see the treasury, though, but we went behind the altar. Reallllly pretty and different.

Since everything closes at this time, I bought a quick calzone(mmm blue cheese) and headed back to the room, where I took a long nap.

-Wandering Around
We sort of wandered the streets and shopped. I bought a little octopus and crab for Afif and Ilya, just because. I also finally got a mask, which are selling everywhere.

-Getting cheated for Dinner
Again. Plus Mosquitos. I hate these types of mosquito bites, as they don't stop itching and swell up to huge sizes like the ones that made me stop going to Trinidad for four years. That should give you an indication of how bad they were. Bring a bug zapper!

Little story on that later.

Abbr. Version of the Day

Yesterday my mom, dad, and I got up early to go to the Uffizi museum. Though we arrived there at 8:30am, the line was already about 20 minutes long. Apparently they only let people in in groups. The highlight was seeing Botticello’s Rite of Spring and Birth of Aphrodite. They look so much better in person, and the women’s hair glitters with real gold. There were also Titians, Rembrandts, Giottos, a lot of Grecian and Roman statues, and other notables. The ceiling was adorned with paintings. The medieval art glittered with gold and symbolism.
We then walked down to the Ponte Vecchio, which is full of gold shops.
We wandered around a bit, then my dad and I went to Santa Maria Novella. This is one of the few churches that felt as if it had a holy presence inside. Boticello’s Adoration of the Magi and Cross were inside, as were many beautiful works of art. The walls were full of frescos, tombs(?!), and paintings. It really is a must-see if you come here.
We also checked out a Roman fort, but it was closed. Everyone then went down to the Ponte Vecchio, Neptune Fountain, and Piti Palace. We ate at a restaurant with disgusting food, then went home.

Today I got up late to go down to the Eurostar. We took to train to Venice and a water taxi to the hotel. It’s very different. Venice is a city without cars or bikes; only pedestrians and boats roam the islands. It’s also gorgeous, without graffiti and seems more organized than Florence or Rome. Our hotel is luxurious, but has no elevator. We were starving but had arrived in time for the siesta, which takes place for good reason since it is boiling hot. My family ate leftover salami sandwiches and I had to eat gellato. We were all going to go to the grocery, but a bunch of us left and went back home. I saw a gorgeous church in the Venetian style, and we returned to our room to wait until the siesta and burning ended. The grand canal is big and everything glitters with white marble and water, which doesn’t smell contrary to popular opinion. I also bought postcards for people.

It’s funny because I’ve seen a bunch of people walking around with California t-shirts who obviously are not Californians. Also, there seem to be more Americans here. Why is all the music here English when most people speak it brokenly? This is not just in the tourist spots.

We then went to San Marco’s square. The Church of Gold is covered in it and shines when the sun hits the walls, but was closed. We wandered around a bit among pillars and gondolas and columns, then had trouble deciding where to eat. We accidentally ate at an expensive place and went home.

Argh! Mosquitos!

Falling into a Mud Puddle in Pisa

Little note: They serve vinegar and oil instead of butter in Italy. Also, straws are rare.

I feel better today. We got up early and took the train to Pisa. The Italian countryside has the same fractal distrubition as Los Angeles.There are cultivated sunflowers everywhere. There are a lot of decrepid places which we passed. Italy seems to be slowly degenerating from a lack of enforced rules.
We arrived after an hour later, to discover the tower was far away. I slipped in a mud puddle and fell. Yes, I got covered in it. Thankfully, there are a lot of taps in Italy, but there was no way to take the dirt off my white skirt which covered it the entire day.
My dad, mom, and I decided to walk to the tower. Pisa is very broken down, it seems, besides a few areas. My aunts and cousin were shopping. We saw the tower and my mom decided to join them. My dad and I bought tickets and saw the inside of the cathedral and battisere, which were beautiful. The architectural style is very different from Rome; less clutured but still involving many paintings. The ceiling was filled with gold flowers. I really want more time with those paintings. When I am an old, grumpy woman I'm going to come back to every major architectural wonder and museum and gaze at each painting for at least fifteen minutes each. The Battisere was simple, though coloums were carved with great skill. The simple altar was solomn brass.
My mom wanted to know why I like the churches so much. Besides the fact that beauty is not determined by religion, this art is created by the masters of the period using the full extent of their craft to celebrate what was most important to them. Religious art is sort of a doorway into the cultural subconcious and a look into how people viewed their idols and icons, another doorway into that mysteriosness of being human. The medieval icons I saw in retrospect seems to be respective of the period; technically proficent and yet flat, though this changed in later periods.
I wonder if taking pictures instead of writing those thousand words is detrimental in some way to eloquency? Anyways.
We though we had lost mom but I found her, the bus passed us by, and we all took a taxi back to the train which was not air conditioned this time and let us roast whenever it stopped. The train goes very fast, faster than Amtrak.
We returned, ate pizza, and my mom, dad, and I saw Il Duemo. The inside is actually fairly simple, with soaring ceilings and pretty windows. The outside is, well, complicated, full of green and white and statues and gold. Gorgeous. We wondered around for a bit on the streets and then came back to the hotel.

I may not be able to post tommorow.

The Vatican

Today we took a taxi to the Vatican out of practical considerations. Our taxi driver was honest and charged us under the pre-agreed price. The line to get into the museum was long but quick. We walked through room after room of detailed ceiling, faded but intricate tapestries. and walls covered in art. It was very obvious who was a master vrses who was a painter; a painter simply painted flat scenes, but a master made them come to life, like in the Sistine chapel. I love Michelagalo's work on form and shadow, but couldn't see his faces close enough to really appreciate them. Also, we were ushered in the opposite way the church was supposed to be seen, so most of the paintings were upside down. It's frustrating to be around a work of art in its original element and not be able to appreciate it.

No talking or pictures in the Sistine Chapel.

It interests me that everywhere I go I see people with cameras doing more snapping than seeing. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it almost seems as if sometimes people forgo living in the moment for taking a picture of it. I never really thought about this before I read an essay on it. Perhaps it is related to the fact that we are rushed through all of these places without time to truly appreciate the art or carvings.

The food at the Vatican was delicious, but the toilets had no seat covers.

We then headed over to the security check for St Peter's Cathedral, after which my dad and I got seperated from the rest of the group. We thought "Oh, the Cuppola, that seems like a good place to see". Unsuspecting, we bought tickets and took an elevator up to the heart of the beautiful church where all the saints were painted on the ceiling backed in gold. Then there were steps. 320 steps, to be exact. My dad and I nearly gave up, but it was one way only and we made it to the top of the tower where I took a couple pictures. Going down involved the same amount of steps but was not nearly as hard. We exited into the Basilica, which, well, no words. Michelangalo carved many statues in there, and the walls were filled with gold and paintings. Pictures didn't come out well inside, though.

We finally made contact and went into a few shops before going home with another honest cab driver, who charged us very cheaply.

(Will Not) Fade Away

Since I accidentally locked myself out of the room and my mom and Brenda have gone to greet my other aunt and cousin who are arriving today, I decided to write that entry on decaying art I meant to.

Seeing the statues in the British museum, I sensed some irony in their decay. After all, didn't the Greeks have an overarching belief that art is eternal? I believe that age has given them character, but has the defacement that some, or even most, of them have faced really made them more beautiful? Or would we gasp even more in awe at how the artist meant his work to be portrayed?

Like a source of radiation, these works have inspired hundreds of thousands of images and copies, but none are as good as the original.

Should art realize its decay and embrace it? Create slight faults so that pieces come off in a certain order? Plant the plants that will eventually engulf the piece?

I know there are certain schools of thought which say yes. For me, it's just an interesting ideology to think about. Though I believe if we as a culture simply stopped attempting to reach for the eternal in some way it would destroy an essential part of the soul.

PS Marian Churland's "Beast", I wants.

Walking

Yesterday my mom and Brenda went shopping until my dad and I got frustrated and we separated. Nothing against them, but that's just not what we wanted to do. Dad and I walked down to the end of the street and saw the middle of the heart of ancient Rome, that huge propaganda monument which is gorgeous, part of the colosseum and a Trajan's colomn. Two stray cats were around. I tried at first to take a picture of all of the Roman architecture I saw, but it appears the ancient ruins are really the heart of the city and stick out in many places. Rome feels frozen in time to its glory days in the 1800s when artists flocked there in numbers and the might of the Romans, though it could be the fact that most of the locals have left the city and tourists abound.

I also finally got a messenger bag I am happy with. It's so nice that I don't want to mess it up and am considering getting a "casual" one. Why is my extant one not sufficent? Because it doesn't zip and I am constantly in fear of things falling out. It's also too big.

We ate at a restraunt which was very popular. I think there were a lot of native italians there, though the food seemed soaked in oil for tourists. Accents abound, and I've heard French, German, and British. I think I saw Icelandic graffiti.

Today we got up too early, in my opinion, and I cleared my camera off onto the computer. The hotel provides free food which we took advantage of. We waited for my aunt and uncle, then left for the huge metro station Thermini. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get train and metro tickets. Things were very unclear, partially or mostly because we don't speak Italian, though most people speak some English. There is an excellent book store in the station, though most of the books are in Italian.

We took the subway to what was advertised to be the Trevi Fountain. However, we still needed directions and the map to get there. It's always a shock when walking up to these monuments. Usually they are blocked by buildings, and all of a sudden this huge, intricatley carved things comes into view. I can see why the Romans liked fountains with this weather, though. This is the first place with heat to match the valley's that I have ever travelled to, and to make it a little worse the weather is slightly humid. We then ate at a nearby cafe and went towards Hadrian's temple. My dad got lost and then my aunt and mom got lost and then my uncle got lost. Then we finally made it, seeing another Trajan colomn along the way. My aunt and mom also stayed in a souvenir store for a long time before meeings us there. I have no idea why they decided to put the ministry of agriculture in there.

We then accidentally got to the Pantheon, which is amazing, as you can probably imagine. The church was much more oppressive than St Peter's Basilica, which we visited yesterday. Oh! I forgot to tell everyone about that. It was so pretty I nearly cried, no joke. The architecture and paintings are amazing. Also, ironically, they had dedicated part of a cloister to celebrating Gallelio and relativity. It had soaring ceilings and beautiful paintings.

So after everyone was found, we went to the Piazzo de Navona, which is a huge building with a huge fountain in front of it. A nice French girl gave me part of a cracker she was feeding the pigeons with and one sat on my lap. We then walked to the Campo de Fiori, which was supposed to be a huge market, but had one or two stalls and a lot of neglected buildings. Dad and I checked out an interactive exhibit of Leonardo Da Vinci machines which turned out to be for children, while my mom, uncle, and aunt got gellato.

My aunt convinced us to get a taxi to the Spanish Steps ,which dad and I walked up. The church at the top contained the usual amazing paintings and marble, and apparently was first sponsored by a courtesan. At this point everyone was tired and we decided to go home. We got seperated for an hour during which everyone got very angry, and then rested at home.

Please Mind the Gap Between the Train and the Station

Today I woke up from a series of reoccurring nightmares where I woke up too late to go to to the British Museum and had to go socializing instead to my mom handing my chocolate milk and saying "Get ready, we have to go to the Museum". We went and saw the Grecian art section. Words can't describe these artifacts. One day Grecian statues are going to just get up and walk while proclaiming that cannons and age have just given them more beautiful gravity with gracious arrogance. There is something about them that I have never seen in other statues. We also saw plenty of Myceanean and Minoan art, which was even more pleasing about reading about them, and parts of one of the former wonders of the ancient world. I was so freaking happy. I love the British Museum so much. It's the freaking Parthenon, people! Sometimes I just want to shout at everybody. "Don't you get the SIGNIFICANCE?" "Don't you see how beautiful these things are?" "Don't you get how people carved these works of art without half the tools we have today?" It seems like so many people just see these things without seeing them because they feel they should. Pictures will be added soon.

Then started the train ride to Heathrow to meet my aunts, which was an hour and a half long. On the train I realized that we had bought day passes for zone 1-4 and Heathrow was in zone 6. When we got out we nearly got fined 50pnds each. We then took the bus, which didn't give us help and dropped us off seven stops too late. We had to wait for the next bus, which we nearly had to pay for. Needless to say, everyone was very, very upset at the end. "Are you guys hungry?" my aunt asked. "And angry!" I said. Everyone laughed and the tension diffused. I don't look foward to the day when I'm too old to technically do that. We talked to my two aunts for a while, took pictures then headed home and watched The Queen, which was excellent.

Imagination

(Image credit; By artist Dean Yeagle)


Some moons ago Boing Boing posted a link to this Flickr gallery featuring Soviet radio apparatuses.

They also posted a link to the online archive of the American eugenics movement. We like to censor our social attitudes at the time of WWII in retrospect, but I really think that in this case we could benefit from learning from it. Also, it strikes me as blatant propaganda to hide this ugly truth. Perhaps it is beneficial that the story is alien from us as it makes it all the more repulsive, but America is guilty and needs to answer for that. It is also beneficial to face the realities of a society where quote-unquote scientific enlightenment ruled, or rather, how easily "common sense" and misinterpretation/failure to take into account variables in/of models can turn into a destructive force. As someone who welcomes intellectuals as leaders this era has especially served as a cautionary tale: yes, in ideal form, this would not happen, but a lot of things work in ideal form and Joseph Stalin does not come to power, for example.

So I don't have a Wii, but the images for the new Steampunk "Epic Mickey" freak me out and make me want to. As long as they don't have that six-legged MechaMickey in there, because I would probably accidentally throw the controller through the screen when he turned up. This is probably the most blatantly psychological steampunk I have seen, filled with a landscape of broken childhood innocence. Imagine a post-apocalyptic fairy tale, or set in a formerly fairy land. I had a dream like that, where fairyland had been transformed into suburbia and it was my job as the leader to lead my people to wake the fairy queen. We had to escape guards at Disneyland and she was in a pond where houses and graffiti were encroaching; it was nevertheless a beautiful place, much like a lake I saw in Scotland. In fact, it probably was that lake in Scotland, a lake where we thought that an oil slick made the water shine from afar but was in fact a healthy and living beauty. I was the only woman, I made fire and water dance together for a couple's wedding and accidentally made it rain. But I am all about actual utopias(or as near as humans can get, or a civilization where everyone is enlightened and can fullfill their creative urges...something), so someone else will have to write the story.

Here is an interesting story from Wired on the economics of the Somalia pirates. Note: an average pirate makes seventeen times the income of a regular Somalian citizen.

You know, all of this buisness news is blending into "estimated this and that". I'm suprised economists haven't included into their own model the estimates of what reporting can do to stocks.



If you love stop-motion animation, you'll love this. It's seriously amazing.
(Credit: The PEN story, found via Boing Boing, is another amazing stop-motion video made as an ad by Olympus. They mention him as their inspiration in their credits. )

Honestly? I can't wait for Italy and England. My blood is boiling from the need to travel to Europe again. I've been having dreams about it, and finally I'm going. And yes, I am going to be posting while there, which will probably be my only contact with the outside world.

Reading Into it All

Thanks for the link Anonymous, I finished reading the story today.
As someone who has read Flatland I am hoping he got to copyright first, which he probably did.

I am a sworn enemy of the Twilight series. Everything I have read about it reinforces my resolution not to read it, especially Edward's line "You're like my own personal brand of heroin". What girl actually wants to hear that? Well, apparently many, many teenagers these days, but still. It doesn't help that my usual reaction to romance scenes is to skip them unless I'm reading a classic or it's a very good book. And here is my problem with most fantasy novels:

1.) Guy meets girl, guy and girl fall for each other. Cool.
2.) Guy and girl go through tribulations together, keep love to themselves. This is realistic.
3.)Guy and girl confess love and then get married/spend eternity together shortly thereafter. Wait, what? No?

First love sells, which is just a matter of fact. But these novels include only the honeymoon phase and none of the ecstasy or pain that comes with real love or spending a significant amount of time together. A partner is a person whom you know for years and will still be a surprise sometimes and totally predictable in others. These saccharine, unrealistic portrayals are not doing anybody any favors, ultimately. Why would you want a love like that if you could have the real thing?
Also, as far as I understand Bella follows Edward to the exclusion of everybody else and then gets pregnant right after high school. What a great example. Also, talk about communication issues between Bella and Edward. As far as I understand, in the second book he leaves without telling her why.
I know that people are going "it's a book for teenagers, you shouldn't expect better". And there are plenty of examples of other books where the characters meet, fall in love, and get married soon thereafter. It's usually their saving grace that this is not the central pillar of the plot which excuses this.
Ok, so people in my generation were reading Harry Potter in middle school, and I would love to say that nobody took them too seriously, but it's Harry Potter. I have read all of those books, and while they are entertaining and do use actual mythology/characters from history in them(eg Nicholas Flamel) they are entertainment and nothing more. I do not get why so many other just as good or better books did not gain the popularity of this trilogy. Maybe it was a changing climate in regards to fantasy, or the series was simply extremely accessible to people, or a bit of both. Either way, LOTR was then produced, which I approve of. Then there was Wicked. I never finished the book, but it is dark and graphic and I'm willing to bet most people don't actually read it. I've heard some of the songs from the musical and read the Wikipedia entry on the play. The songs are very simple musically and tap into generalized emotions. "I'm not that girl" is something most, if not all of us, have felt in the past before and probably associate with deep emotions, but it's not exactly brilliant writing. The whole the popular girl and the outcast can get along! and the popular girl has problems and can feel like an outcast too is good. Of course, I believe most of us learn this immediately after high school if not before then.

Today's speed run: 12 minutes to the end of 6-3(got killed by the world boss).

One of the differences between photographs and paintings, at least, to me, is that, in a painting the subjects are beautiful shells waiting to be filled with meaning, but a photograph is of someone extant, a person who's shoes we may attempt to step in but can never replace. In fact, completely replacing the person in a photograph dehumanizes the model in a way, because they become simply tools, vehicles for ourselves. Of course, many fashion photographers attempt to take the image of a model and make it their own in the way painters made model's images a work of art. One could argue that the ending photograph is as far removed from the model as a painting, but this is not intuitively extant to me. Perhaps because when looking at a painting, the first "person" considered is the painter, but when looking at a photograph, it is the model. Or perhaps it's my perception of models then and now.

After reading this article on horrible, horrible US companies that again throw the phrase "first world problems" into harsh reality, I had a heart attack when Nesquick was #1 on the list. Child slave labor, some of it from human trafficking, harvests the cocoa in their drinks. I love chocolate milk and consume vast quantities of it. I am never buying Nesquick again. The Kirkland milk I buy is organic, certified by the American Humane Society and obviously sold by the awesome Costco, but where does the cocoa in it originate? Here is a site called "Rountable for a sustainable cocoa economy". Declaration of Trinidad and Tobago?! This hits much too close to home. But I can't find out where the cocoa is from. Most likely a middleman.

It's Personal

A girl running through lavender fields. Pic via Jezebel via the Getty.








An illustrated Mario death by John-
ny Yakon, via Offwo-
rld.




































Today's speed run time: 14 minutes until the end of 7-1. I tried out a little bit of "Super Mario: The Lost Levels". Here was my reaction: "I don't see why this was considered too hard for Western au-"/murdered.
I used to suck at the first Mario. I played a single game today, got up to 5-3 and then was killed by Bowser's castle.
My mom used to play the first Mario with us and actually was very good at beating it. In fact, she was considered "the expert" in the family on that game.

Speaking of my mom, she picked up Clingy today, who was so shocked he didn't even struggle. She put him down and he proceeded to hide, then come back and play on the patio. My mom corrected me, as it has been over two weeks since we last saw Gaiylee herself.

Look at the language in this article from the Reuters:
"But Paal cautioned Clinton against hanging her reputation too much on improved relations with China.

"We are not in a position to control them," he said."

There is always the possibility that this man's quote was taken out of context. However, it is very telling of the imprints of foreign policy in this country, even if Obama is trying to change them.

I didn't copy or write down a lot of stuff today.

Wouldn't it be cool if there were bridges that were water and held together by water tension in a theoretical world? It would be so trippy to swim through them and put a hand out into the air.

Physorg.com published an article on friction free computer circuits via quantum mechanics. I'm too lazy to link. Go do it yourself!

So I have over two hundred entries in this journal, which is impressive. I love writing and I love sharing cool stuff with people. Blogs are a perfect balance of the two. I feel strange writing a diary on the computer, especially since I don't want to have one somewhere that is ultimately hackable, but I dislike writing by hand since, well, I'm faster at typing and my handwriting starts to resemble random loops after a while. I just figured it out! A flash drive!

Flash drives, though certainly hackable if you put the wrong things in them or leave them connected to the computer, are the first ultra-easy ways to distribute data that don't require linking computers directly and actually keep the information remote from the rest of the digital world(if you don't keep them connected to the computer, again). They are our first private digitilized miniaturized domains widely available to the public. And don't tell me about external HDs, because those are not miniaturized, at least in comparison to the flash drive.

Of course, unlike a book, you need a computer to make a flash drive work, an extra piece of equipment that must take part in the process. And boot before starting the process. Ah, the booting.

The original Star Trek is an entertaining, theoretical and thoughtful show. What it is not is in any way realistic. Which is now I bring to you this parody; look for upcoming ones about Grecian gods appearing, geniuses going insane, and time travel. This particular one is based on "it's scientifically impossible!"; specifically "Shore Leave" from season one, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit.

1.) The landing party beams down and everything looks perfectly normal on their sensors because their sensors are crappy. Also, everywhere looks like Earth because of Somebody's Law of Planetary BS(or, we reuse the same drawings as alien backdrops several times).

2.)Something impossible is seen and hard proof of its existence is found, usually corresponding with the word "fascinating". Spock's soul dies a little more.

3.)People still think that it's a good idea to split up because that makes for dramatic death scenes which lead to dramatic scenes for Captain Kirk to lament over his crew member. Or Kirk still thinks that crew members can handle themselves even though they keep dying because they have PHASERS*
*Note: phasers usually knocked out or taken away by the end of the episode

4.) Captain Kirk meets THE GIRL. All girls in this galaxy have an inexplicable attraction to at least one member of the crew, usually the one who's name is an anagram for "Tiberius Kirk James". And that specific member tends to "genuinely" fall for this woman in return because they have sexual ADD. McCoy, Spock, and Kirk have at least 5 women each who are waiting for them to settle down with.
In this episode Kirk meets a special lady from his past of which he has 6 million. He must have been dating some of these girls at the same time as each other or be a serial monogamist, because, how many relationships can you have in twenty-something years?
P.S. Kirk's charm has won more battles for the federation than the Enterprise herself. The Federation should just package up an "essence du Kirk" and send it around instead of spaceships.**
**Working parts included.

5.) Their phasers stop working. Suprise! Also, The Enterprise is helpless for one reason or another because the scientists in this time period are too busy focusing on how cool it would be to be able to "blow up half a continent" rather than "shields that work properly", despite the fact that the Enterprise is mainly a defensive ship. Communicators are out, too, and for some reason it never occurs to them to use the injectable trackers besides as a deux ex machina for prying them out of their arm and setting things on fire in a Nazi jail. Yes, this actually happened.

I mean, nothing usually goes wrong, right?
Wait.

6.) So now the crew is being chased and seduced by a wide variety of things that turn up for no reason despite the fact that it's pretty obvious now what's happening. Everyone seems to have lost their critical thinking skills....

7.) Which leads to the Shatner vrs. somebody fight. Badly choreographed and involving lots of rolling, I'm never quite sure what the point of these are.

8.) Spock and Kirk figure out the solution and start acting on it, because the show is running out of time and Shatner's shirt has finally ripped open. Then the solution appears out of nowhere, in this case a peaceful creator who was waiting to intervene until the emotional scarring occurred. The explanation is cool, but sort of leaves you going "wait, but what about...". Also, the skimpily clad girls couldn't not show up, so they decided to include them at the end. Everybody is happy and Kirk decides to spend time with a cellular cast of one of his many long-lost loves.

Huh?

Mooning

These Flickr shots from India, China and Japan of the most recent lunar eclipse are awesome. I found them via the Freak-
anomics blog. This is where today's picture (s)comes from. I can't even begin to post all of my favorites. I love the steam-punk-ishness of the first shot and the fragile humanity of the second.

Shell has been accused by Amnesty International of horrible crimes in the Niger Delta. The report which has been put together is pretty damning. Please click.

Someone please remind me to get my hands on Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald". Apparently it's his fusing of HP Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes. This sounds like it could go horribly wrong, but it most likely it didn't. And I want to see it.

Speaking of Gaiman, a short while back he posted a link to Jamie Kennedy's hilarious bid to take the Newberry award from him.

".. And I, Jamie Kennedy am the Sarah Palin of fiction!"

The third video of three:

If you want to see Gaiman being wrestled to the ground, here is your chance.

I believe that there should be a ban on political ads. In this day and age of the internet the off-hand access to a candidate's information is easy to find, and the horrible excess of money that is wasted while running for office on every level of government is disgusting. Of course, I have no doubt that politicians will then attempt to rig the sites with the most hits for the apposing candidate, even if it is illegal. Can't the public win? In a way, though, website traffic is much more traceable and easier to investigate. If only society didn't insist on drowning us in nonsense information and untrustworthy leaders. You can't only blame the politicians, though. What if we all participated in the primaries and the big name candidates were not the only ones who received grassroots funding?

This makes me think about celebrity and de-humanization. The earliest humans always portray other tribes as evil or less than themselves in some way. Celts are Frost Giants, enemy tribes are motivated by jealous demons, and the other tribes are actually monkies that look like humans. Yet it is extremely rare to encounter a racist child. A judgmental child, though, is not hard to find. We all have "that uncle" or someone who's views are directly the opposite of ours, sometimes for all the reasons we dislike the opposing side, too. Yet would any of us wish them to die or call them the names we call our politicians?

All of these are just snippets of thoughts I'm having.

PS New Mario 2 speed run time: 20-21 minutes, got to the middle of 7-2(the last level)

I kind of like the wacky layout of this particular post.

Cowgirl

Source

"First, some people like to suggest that men are programmed by evolution to find a particular body shape attractive. Clearly, if judging women’s bodies requires this much instruction, either (1) nature has left us incompetent or (2) cultural norms defining beauty overwhelm any biological predisposition to be attracted to specific body types.

Second, the chart reveals the level of scrutiny women faced in 1959 (and I’d argue it’s not so different today). It made me think of my years in 4-H. I was a farm kid and I showed steers for several years and also took part in livestock and meat judging competitions. I was good at it, just so you know. Anyway, what the beauty pageant image brought to mind was the handouts we’d look at to learn how to judge livestock."

Source

Baboons demonstrate why you should not take the car friendly route anymore in Knowsley Safari park (source).

The Onion is pretending to be a Chinese publication.

Tales from the Pond (Aquarium)

Source


Horrible article everyone should read

Yesterday I changed the water in my aquarium and parted the mess of Hornworth which has invaded it while I have been busy. I can't bring myself to throw any out, especially since it has become apparent both filters have not been working for a while. The aquarium is now completely dependent on its plants, which also means that I'm not going to add any other animals to that particular tank. The java moss has also experienced a sudden growth spurt. The inhabitants actually seem to enjoy all of the growth, and the only other plants present are crypts, Windelov, and Anubias, which are doing fine. The nana petite and barterii have both grown plantlets and there are little windelovs and crypts in various places, too. The moss ball has exploded.

I saw my paler Dario Dario at the front, which strangely appeared to be decked out nearly in battle colors and was showing the dominant "eye stripe". I was confused as to what had happened. I finally managed to spot Dopey doping around at the bottom and then Trixie, who proceded to boink her head on one of the filters. Dopey is an H. curp. hybrid in the tradition of irresponsible Petsmart suppliers. Trixie and Little Frog are obviously at least strongly influenced by H. bog., the more succesful subspecies. Dopey reminds me of a little man, an adorable little man who does funny things all the time. They were so cute I had to give them food. Little frog came out, obviously excited. He was bought at Aquatic Warehouse after stowing away in one of their tanks for a while, where I spotted him and decided he would be the final ADF. I proceeded to watch Little Frog figure out where the food was and then miscalcuate and go towards the bottom again. Naturally, Trixie was the first to figure out where it is, and LF joined her again while Dopey spun around the bottom like a dope. Trixie accidentally bit LF a bunch of times. Meanwhile, by the moss ball I see proof that the paler Dario has won his/her fight as she half heartedly chases away the more dominant male, who has a bite in his tail. I love the extra blue ruff on the top of his fins. These guys are so much fun and tiny. They don't really care about the food, as they feed on the multitude of microoganisms in the now very established aquarium.

Last I saw Trixie and LF were feeding, while Dopey..will figure things out one day.


Videos from Jezebel commentor/Jezebel

Robots, Plants, and Dystopias

I love this simple yet salient article on the Freakanomics blog criticizing the way data is used in today's journalism.

"The lead article is by John Noble Wilford (who’s still going strong, btw), and includes one of the most elegant little uses of data I can recall seeing in a news article:

Although Mr. Armstrong is known as a man of few words, his heartbeats told of his excitement upon leading man’s first landing on the moon.

At the time of the descent rocket ignition, his heartbeat rate registered 110 a minute — 77 is normal for him — and it shot up to 156 at touchdown."

MIT is also tracking trash in an effort to show how far it can reach. I think the criticisms present about the sampling are relevant, though they may be showing how even conscientious people can have far-reaching affects with their disposables.

NASA apparently secretly launched a moon rock into space to celebrate yesterday's anniversary of the moon landing. Why?! We only have so many and I want one, you could have given it to me instead! Also lost opportunities for science, blah blah blah.

You know, after reading a couple accounts of the UK terrorism laws on Boing Boing I'm starting to understand things like V for Vendetta, Quatterman, and Warren Ellis (who is a person not a thing and in San Diego where he can do horrible, horrible things to me). Damn, it makes here look like a a veritable utopia of individual rights in some cases. I'm not going to go into debating the amount of freedom they have versus our amount of freedom because I don't know enough on the subject and am too lazy to do the research. All I will say is that this issue is not black and white.

Lego Microtome


"A microtome is a small machine that biologists use to slice specimens into very thin sections to examine under a microscope. Instructables user lemonie made his own out of Lego! In this video demo, the device cuts garlic in slices just 250 microns thick. That's about twice as thick as a human hair. Seems like the Lego Microtome could be scaled up for slicing paper-thin prosciutto! Lego Microtome (Thanks, Christy Candida!)"

People are thankfully working on shark repellants to save them from fishing lines.

It's amazing how Twix and Burger King cross the line from using women for sexy points to using women. Thanks, I love being objectified and taken for granted! I'm not a person, I'm a walking Barbie doll who's all plastic with no inside.

These paper robots are awesome! That's what that picture is, btw.

How NOT to raise a chimp in your family:
"I collect books by people who have raised apes in their homes. One of the first, The Ape and the Child, was written in by behaviorist W.N. Kellogg, a man with a peculiar brainstorm: that he should raise a chimpanzee as a twin to his own infant son, treating them in exactly the same fashion, and comparing their development......Results? Mixed. The chimp, Gua, took more quickly to her civilizing education than her brother. She appeared smarter, stronger, and more emotionally developed on a number of counts: she was better at using glasses and silverware, walked earlier (chimps generally don't walk upright), responded to verbal commands sooner, and was more cooperative and obedient......For example, though Donald had learned to walk before Gua joined the Kellogg family, he regressed and started crawling more, in tune with Gua. He'd bite people, fetch small objects with his mouth, and chewed up a shoe. More importantly, his language skills were delayed. At 19 months, Donald's vocabulary consisted of three words. Instead of talking he would grunt and make chimp sounds..."

My new plant from Trader Joe's named "Blue Wonder"(pictured) was rootbound, so today I bought another pot for it. When repotting it it looked so happy in the outdoor sun that I decided to leave it there(yes, it is a full sun plant). Now I need an indoor plant and the cycle continues. Maybe I'll get bamboo?

Will Arnett praying for breasts.

MechaBarbie(or Bush) Makes Children Cry(and Other Issues)

Source
This is what my kids are going to be playing with. Aren't you glad I'm not having any?

So I was walking to Trader Joe's today and suddenly felt angry thinking about how men's bodies don't go out of style. Then I realized that this simply was not true. Henry VIII was considered extremely attractive and we've gone through several versions of the "ideal boy" in recent years, from various bad boys and star jocks in the 80's and 90's to Zak Efron and Edward Cullen. And I realized that I actually know a good number of men who have body issues. It just seems to go un-discussed, most likely because of the macho hetero-normative male now dominating our culture. Body issues are for gay people and girls, God.

One of the many reasons guys need a masculist revolution of their own.

We live in a disposable culture. Everything is thrown away with regularity, from trends to toys to paper towels without us noticing.

I am kind of loving this article on the future of books. But I think what a lot of us are experiencing when we profess our undying love to the smell of a library(which I do) is nostalgia. Please keep in mind that nostalgia is what keeps people from having integrated proms and such. The one thing that disturbs me is that, counter-intuitionally, data is much more fallible than paper. What if some large world war took place? I would like to think that information is distributed too far and wide to be lost in the manner of the Library of Alexandria, but there is so much that is not. Books go out of print and are lost in the halls of The Library of Congress.

Books are personal experiences. They affect our mind and soul in a profound way. Games and movies do not move many of us in the same way. Yet for those who movies do, they are content with a flat disk and pretty cover.

Perhaps we can invent something akin to flipping pages and the "permanence" of paper. I'm sure the person who does will be very rich.

Bioastronautics, a scanned book about some of the things that really go into space flight(like spit).

It would be so easy to engineer a fountain using $3.99 plates from Ross, a pump, and a background. But then my parents could justifiably kill me.

Good news: violent crime is down all around the country, even though nobody is reporting on this. One cynical commentor says that this is because "People can't afford bullets anymore".

Picture from Jezebel

History: The Video(s)

Image via Boing Boing

In America I am considered tiny, but in Trinidad my weight is normal. This makes evolutionary sense, as people in the blinding heat of the tropics need a fast metabolism and little fat. It also makes sense that people from the colder parts of Europe would evolve to be beautiful and curvy. This is just a theory, as I have no scientific, controlled evidence to support this hypothesis.

While I voice my support against the dreadfully anorexic girls present in modeling today, I also sort of wonder what will happen when people with normal(read: another select segment of the population) weights come back into style. Will people mock my size? Will they tell me that my weight is obviously a product of neglecting myself, as is done to plus-size women today? I want to believe that we can accept the fact that people naturally have more than one body type, but this does not seem to be a concept native to the fashion industry. I do not have whatever BMI is being enforced on some of the European catwalks today. While I still completely support the regulations, it feels sort of strange that some years from now I might "go out of style". It's not fair that this has already been done to Rubenesque women, though. We're people, not ephemeral fashion trends.

Just to clarify, it's more the fear of being actively discriminated against than anything else which wrote these last two paragraphs.



Oh. my. God. It's NABOKOV. I LOVE YOU.
It's crazy how Youtube has in a way democratized history. We can now experience moments from the past like previous generations never had the chance to, all within our personal computers. It's so cool! This was from Boing Boing, btw.

Also from Boing Boing: there is apparently a black market in moon rocks. As in actual rocks from the moon, not LSD. I can completely understand this. If I ever get engaged again I want an extraterrestrial rock for my ring like in the "Bones" episode "The Science in the Physicist".



"PLEASE – do yourself a favour and turn the sound OFF – NOW. I’m almost willing to throw the towel in admit that creationists are right when I hear it. However the video is just brilliant (if you ignore the silly text as well)... Here’s 500 generations every SECOND backed up by actual fossil evidence – shoved in to a computer and animated together. It’s fantastic to watch." Source

I have to watch this video again to take in what changed first, hypothesize why the did, etc.



OH MY GOD IT'S THE MOON LANDING. /hyperventilates. They look like ghosts that are hopping around. Even though his voice is level you can feel the excitement coming through the video. Or maybe it's just me trying to live this vicariously.


Here is Buzz Aldrin punching a conspiracy theorist in the face.

Why you should NOT fly with regional carriers, as written by an experienced pilot.

"Flying from Chicago’s O’Hare to Denver is routine, right? But it wasn’t a few decades ago. We, the pilots, make it routine too. But I challenge you on this. Is your life worth less because you are over the heartland of America in the dark of night rather than climbing into the skies of Rio over the Amazon or headed out across the Pacific? It is worth less if you are on the low-cost regional carrier because you chose to pay less. If you are on the regional carrier headed to Denver and the engine is on fire, I am sure that it is comforting to know that you saved 15 percent by shopping the Internet for the cheapest fare. Isn’t it great to know that you have the newest, least-experienced, exhausted, starving young cockpit crew that this regional airline could find? Good for you!"

PS apparently the Alaskan blob is not Palin after all.

Boom! Boom!

Source

So I just realized that I sound very cool, calm, and relaxed on my blog.

This is a lie. I am actually dying of stress, but complaining is not going to help that, and I'd rather not talk about it. Instead I will run around my studio like a crazy person and proceed to collapse on the bed, weezing from the fact that I have way too many obligations.

Help?


Via Boing Boing

Part of the reason I think old film is so fascinating is because of how delicate it seems in its shaky and silent monochrome. Even though the picture is factual the world it presents seems to be remote.


Gravy Stress may waste your time if you like looking at random funny images. I am not going to click on it anymore. If your name is Chris or Frosty you may wish to check this website out.

I wonder how ridiculous our commercials look to foreigners?

In any case, here is an awesome quote from BLDBLOG:

"If you'll excuse the rambling nature of this post, meanwhile, my wife and I are actually staying in Potts Point, and we're located basically right across the street from a Saturday morning farmers' market where we got into a conversation early on our first morning here with a man selling gourmet mushrooms that were grown, he said, inside repurposed railroad tunnels south of the city in Mittagong. I would love to visit those tunnels!
Cockatoo Island, in fact, is actually honeycombed with old tunnels dug directly out of the site's bedrock – so perhaps some strange form of subterranean myco-agriculture might pop up in a few student designs over the next two weeks. Mushroom farming in the underworld. Or perhaps even the high-tech cultivation of pharmaceutical biocompounds by UV light in what used to be a submarine-repair facility (the island also houses a former submarine-repair facility!)..."

Geoff's post "The Thirteenth Room" is also rather fun, as is Reburbia. Reburbia falls directly into my sphere of interests. If you like architecture or imagining the things I do, CHECK THESE OUT.

Here is a quote from Mr. Ellis:

"The next movie I write will be Jurassic Park 4: ADAMZOIC, in which a group of committed Creationists sneak onto a dinosaur-infested Island in an attempt to prove that humans and slavering proto-avian carnivores can live in harmony, as in Eden. The film will be 3 hours long; will feature multiple variations on the theme of Cute Naked People being disembowelled while trying to sing hymns; will include at least one incidence of punning, based on the words “pray” and “prey”; and will end when the sole survivor realises the error of her ways, embraces the Power Of Darwin, and spontaneously evolves a set of wings to escape."

Soil bacteria injections make mice happy. This may explain a lot. I've always said that dirt was good, though now and as a kid I refused to eat it.

Here is an interesting article about personal transformation in the internet age. I could comment on it right now, but I don't want to.
Damn, I may have to get this novel: