More Election Stuff

Ok, I'm really close to figuring out some more image processing stuff on my Mac. I consider myself fairly computer savvy, but have been totally stumped with the question, "What is the Mac equivalent to MS Paint?" Apparently, other users of this here internet seem to think that using Gimp is the answer. Which is fine. It's more complicated than Paint, which I will never stop longing for though I am in love with my Mac, but it'll do the trick. 

My intention was to make a mosaic of sorts of election night photos (from my phone) and post them, but I used up my alloted time for blogging on figuring out image software. So, you'll have to check them out on Flickr. 

So, yeah, Obama won. Wasn't that great? Today I was amazed at how many people I see still wearing Obama apparel. It's almost as if wearing Obama '08 shirts and hats has transitioned from, "I hope he gets elected and you should vote for him" to, "I love my president in the same way I love a sports team." I spent a large portion of today wondering how long it will last and if any other presidents had such a fashion impact. I mean, I don't remember anyone wearing Clinton or Bush t-shirts. Anyone. Ever. I asked my housemate if he knew anything about this, thinking maybe JFK inspired fashion. His reply was - in an only half-joking manner - "they didn't have t-shirts then." And, also, "JFK killed the fedora." Which is true to some extent. Weird. 

Obama outfits it is then, I suppose. 

"F*ck 'Yes we can,' 'Yes we DID!!'"

Adrian's Obama cookies

That's what I heard some guy say around 1am on the corner of U & 14th last night. Quite a site. I've been searching around Flickr for some photos and a few people have things posted - search and check 'em out. It was everything people will say it was for years - historic, amazing, inspiring, loud, hilarious, and like nothing I've ever seen. The only crowd I've been in in DC that rivaled it was for the IMF/World Bank protest in 2000, or, like, Adams Morgan on a Friday night. But, this was way better, more positive, less assholes. In summary:

• number of strangers who hugged me: 3
• number of strangers who kissed me: 1
• number of people shooting off fireworks in my street just after 11pm: 1
• number of people shooting off fireworks on U st between 1 and 2am: too many to be safe (but still awesome)
• number of drunk, dancing hippie dudes: 2
• number of people standing on the tops of cars parked in the streets yelling: >15 (in the couple of blocks I was in)
• what time I got up yesterday: 5:45am
• what time I went to bed last night: 2:45am
• number of people doing the electric slide on U street around 2am: more than I could count
• number of Obama decorated cookies I ate: 3
• number of bottles of wine consumed at our house: 2.5
• number of people consuming wine: too few

I have some cell phone pics that I'll upload later. 

best. shuffle. ever.

on the way home from school tonight:

jay-z .. sleater-kinney .. old crow medicine show .. stars .. kickball .. al green .. okkervil river .. little wings

Campaign news from our nation's capital

• Yesterday on the green line, the man sitting next to me turned and quasi-yelled something at me. I had my headphones on, listening dreamily to the smooth voice of Bob Boilen tell me all about 1000 recordings I had to hear before dying. It took me a minute to get them off and say, intelligently, "huh?" to the man, who then repeated "You vote Obama!?" in a way that I couldn't distinguish between yelling and asking. I quietly said, "uh, yeah" and he yelled again, "You like him!" and I said, "yes" with a bit more confidence and he got up and sat elsewhere. I think he's like one of 6 Republicans around here. Prior to watching Monday night's episode of The Daily Show  (amazing, btw), I would have said this man probably lives in Northern Virginia, but now I'm not even sure. 

• This morning's Post had an amazing article on Sarah Palin's outfits. It is the only article I read this morning while breaking fast. Read it here. I had to get over myself and stop thinking, "why won't the RNC give me even like $500 to go shopping?" and then I donated $25 to the Obama campaign. I think her outfits suck anyway. 

• A nice young man approached me on campus today to solicit money for HRC, which I think is a pretty rad organization as far as organizations go. (I mean, they did sponsor the L Word Season 5 Premier Party, duh). He told me that its illegal in 35 states for gays and lesbians to get married. I said, "lame" and he said, "I know, right." I told him I didn't have any money but I was somehow already on the HRC mailing list and he said, "cool, cuz those right wingers are gonna try to block this bill in Congress to support gay marriage rights." I said, "yeah, they're assholes" and he told me to have a nice day.

• Elsewhere on the internet, Wonkette has been keeping me hilariously entertained this campaign season. This is quite worth 8 minutes of your life.

• Vote for Obama people, seriously. Ok?
  

Virtual to-do list/procrastination

Frankly, this blog does not get updated as frequently as I would like. Like everyone else, I'm pretty busy and I think about you, dear blog, but don't always give you the attention you deserve. In my dreams, you and I are a on the fast track to internet fame, wittingly reporting on the just-slightly-under-the-radar political news, linking to all the best kitten videos on YouTube, and wowing the people with our ability to use HTML. Alas... we're lucky if I update once a week. 

Is being busy an excuse? It has to be, right? Please? I'm in school and school the first time around was pretty hard, I think and then the second time it was a little bit less hard and the workload wasn't overwhelming, but this time it's all holy shit challenging. Not because I'm learning anything that's confusing or tough to grasp, but because I have to read and write and read and write and read and write. I love it though. And, I don't want to sound like the freshman I hear walking around campus in their gym shorts and Terps t-shirts on the phone saying things like, "omg, I like just had to read something. ug." So, I'm not complaining - really - just justifying the infrequent updates of CD. I'm aware of it! I still love you!

Just so you know, sometimes you learn cool things in school. The other day I learned about some non-Google search engines. Try them. Expand your horizons. The first one is pretty no-frills and presents the search results in columns instead of in lines. The second uses a different technique of allowing you to narrow down you search and pick and chose what types of websites you want to look at. It's good for you, ok?

Cuil

Ujiko

So, besides being all dreamy about the potential power of CD in the blogosphere, there are other things I want to accomplish. I thought that maybe if I put them on the internet, someone, somewhere, sometime might hold me accountable for them. 

1. Learn how to use (and actually use) my new camera. This would require sitting down with the manual, trying things out and leaving the house to go places where there are photo opts. I dream big some days. 

2. Clean out my closet. I hate all my outfits right now. I need new ones but Mr. Buddy says I can't get any new ones until I get rid of some current ones. Impasse.

3. Fix my bike. It squeaks, the U-lock bracket fell off this week, the tires need air, and it's a 12-speed but really is, effectively, an 8-speed. I could have probably fixed the U-lock bracket and put air in the tires in the amount of time this blog post is taking me. Shit.

4. Get a pedicure. Seriously. I'm not trying to be fancy. Have you ever trained for a half-marathon? Did you retain all of your toenails? Are they in beautiful shape? Sometimes I think the only people that really understand me are my aunt and the random coffee shop customer who asked me, "do you still have all your toenails?" when I told them about the race. It doesn't even have to be a really fancy pedicure. Toes. Just. Need. Attention. 

5. Move the garden. It's in a shady spot. Nothing grows. Worst garden ever.

6. Do more yoga. I was doing lots before the race training time grew and grew. I'm taking a class now that I sometimes skip because I'm tired and sore from running. 

7. Learn how to do fancy things on the blog. Like build some sort of mp3 player. I want to share so much with you, especially musically. If you know how to do that, email me and let me know. Or, write book reviews. Or, have time to read books that I could write reviews about.  

Ok, now I've shared my (current) secrets and desires with you. I mean them all from the bottom of my heart. But, now I have to go do some homework and then head out to my volunteer shift. Till next time...

Finished!

So, we did it. We ran the half-marathon on Saturday in Baltimore. It was partially amazing and partially horrible, but that's about what I expected. My parents and brother came and helped drive and park and my mom even ran the last mile with me. There are more photos on Flickr, but here are a couple of shots of the race. Yeah, it's a lot of people. I came in somewhere in the 4000's out of 6000-ish runners. Not an amazing placement, but whatevs, you didn't run it, ok? (Unless you're Heather in which case you did, in fact, run it and came in also in the 4000s, but earlier than I did). 

We had tons of amazing Baltimore residents cheering us on from their stoops and SUVs blasting hip hop. Handing out gummy bears and bearing signs that said, "why be the best when you can B-more?" Strung-out, toothless people yelling things like, "you fucking got it! go! run!" Then there were the thousands of visiting spectators around the inner harbor. I mean it when I say they were all being awesome and positive. 

So, yes, I'd do it again, but I'd do some things differently (basically like everything else in life). Yes, I'm going to keep running, but not as much for right now. Yes, I'm sore, but yes, I feel good too. I would run this same race again, even though... Baltimore. Is. Hilly.

Things I can't eat anymore - on a daily basis - once the half-marathon is over

Lately I've been realizing that my snack needs are great. Which makes sense, I'm running a lot and when I'm not running, I'm busy and moving. However, I plan on taking it easy after this weekend's race. I hope that my snack needs will go down because I've become expensive to feed and also it's difficult to plan ahead and bring all of my snacks with me on any given day.

So, after Saturday, I shall try my best to refrain from eating the following things on a regular (ok, daily) basis:

1. a bagel with (two things of) cream cheese

2. 1200 calories before noon

3. breves

4. 2 quorn patties, microwaved, with mayo

5. croissants 

6. peanut m&m's

7. boxes of WF mac & cheese (they're bigger than Annie's)

8. Izze sodas

9. huge portions of 5-6 meals per day

10. whole bags of butter popcorn

Ok, I think that's it. For the record, I have been eating a lot of good things too - fruits, veggies, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, beans, green tea, etc., but I'm ok with that, so I will continue to consume them. But, I probably do not need to eat an entire thing of asparagus, slathered with butter and salt, alone, at 10pm. 

Thursday mornings/seven miles

The past two Thursdays I've gone for a seven mile run in the morning. Heather and I are training for the Baltimore half-marathon. It's next Saturday, October 11th. It's going to be hard. Really hard. All the training I've done has (almost) prepared me for it, but I'm still dreading the last 2-3 miles. You always hear that the race day adrenaline will take you the last bit. The training programs never have you running the full race distance until race day, expecting just that. The long Sunday runs we've been going on (10-11 miles this past month) have been really challenging, to the point where I forget that I like running. I finish and feel like dying, puking, and never running again. So, wtf, right? Why am I doing this? My best guess right now is that I'm doing this for the Thursday morning runs. In the past two weeks I've realized that - hey - I have become a much stronger runner, despite the post-11 mile run feeling. I feel great right now, I felt great over the course of the past just-over-an-hour it took me to run 7 miles. It's fall, it's finally chilly outside, the air is clear and I loved running in it. Please remind me to read this blog post once I'm done throwing up after finishing the half-marathon. 

NewCameraNewCameraNewCamera!!!

No one wants to hear what you dreamt about, unless you dreamt about them...

Which is funny because I spent like 10 minutes last night trying to tell Heather about my dreams over the past week or so. I will spare you the details because you weren't involved, but it seems as though my sleeping brain has been tapping into the files of "people who I once knew and spent a lot of time with and I guess was friends with but maybe was never close enough to keep in touch with." There's a lot there I was unaware of. Anyway, my dreams have taken me to malls, farms, and downtown DC, and I've been thinking about them all week. As with most dreams, when you try to share them, it comes out stupid. So, that's what I've got... retrospection. 

Which is fitting because yesterday was my birthday (!) and we went to see Built to Spill perform "Perfect from Now On" in its entirety. I'd like to say it was "so 1997," like the Breeders show we went to which was rife with flannel, combat boots and baggy t-shirts (NOT from American Apparel), but the BTS show was full of 20 year old dudes who were like, totally rocking out. Oh well, it was still great. Only we had to run out before it was over to catch the last trains home. Lame. I'm going to be stalking the All Songs Considered website until the show comes out. Actually, I don't know if they'll have it or not.

Here's a video I took at the show on my phone. I think it might be a candidate for the worst video that exists on the internet. But, I wanted to see how it would work out. Not well, I think, is the verdict, but what can you expect when you have a phone designed for a 13 year old.

But I Don't Wanna Get Over You

Sarah Palin is like every unrequited crush I've every had, like everyone that ever bullied me in middle school and high school. I know the best thing to do is to ignore her and to take things objectively, at face value, and move on. She's not worth my time, right? She's not worth moping around over or obsessing over; the time spent trying to find ways to retaliate against her evil actions. She's not worth the energy it takes to long to go back in time to when things were different; before I was ever introduced to her. She's not worth feeling disappointed about.

Sigh. But, I am obsessed with her – just like everyone else.

I've taken a fair amount of math and statistics classes and read the news regularly and recently learned a bit about prediction markets, but I still don't really actually understand how pre-election polling works. My obsession with Palin's positive addition to McCain's campaign is in part due to the fact that the media is doing its best to expose how absurd she is (ok, well, the liberal media I tend to pay attention to), at the same time they're writing headlines about how white women who were devastated about Hillary are brightening at the thought of Palin in the White House. I'm sorry – WHAT? Can anyone explain this fucking logic to me? How is this the cornerstone of every political news piece lately and, more importantly, how is it true? It's got me so angry and I can't stop thinking about it.

Mud-slinging. It sucks. Amanda sent this along today and it gave me some inspiration and hope about real things that are going on that have nothing to do with Tina Fey (omg! love her), or with pigs. It's the American Association of University Women's congressional voting record for 2007-8. She nicely summarized it in an email:

In case any of y'all are interested, AAUW recently released our congressional voting record showing how our reps and senators voted on AAUW issues (such as pay equity, higher education, min. wage increase, etc.) It's here if you want to check it out: http://www.aauw.org/advocacy/issue_advocacy/voter_ed/upload/votingRecord110.pdf

Obama was only present for 70% but voted 100% support while there. McCain was only present for ONE vote, for Pay Equity, and he voted against it. Yeah! Umm, women should still only make 70 cents to the dollar that men make. Put em' in their place! What a fucking douche!

Let's stick to the facts – Palin's not qualified to be involved in the level of politics she's trying to get involved in. That's it. She doesn't deserve me. I don't care that she wears skirts or won a beauty pageant or thinks she can see Russia. I care that she's inexperienced and hates women, the environment, people, and probably kittens and puppies too.

I'm very tempted to do some ill-advised internet searching to find some articles that respectfully support my argument that giving Palin too much air time gives her more political respect that she has earned for herself at this point in her career – Slate's podcast this week discussed just that, and I've come across it in a few other places as well. However, those of you that know me know that life is super hectic right now; I've put a moratorium on “doing extra things” and, really, I shouldn't be blogging at all. But. Can't. Stop. Thinking. About. Palin. Grrrrr.... so, I thought I'd share.

So, do your research, talk about the facts, sling a little mud if you have to, but remember... wallowing isn't healthy. Go outdoors, talk to your friends, exercise, eat healthy, don't drink too much, avoid sad music, and try to stay positive. Remember that she's only doing this because she's jealous of you, because she likes you but can't communicate it properly. She didn't mean to hurt you, maybe, she just needs to focus on herself right now. You'll feel better soon. Someone else will come along, someone that's better for you. There are other fish in the sea:

My cat is smarter than Sarah Palin/we're going to MEXICO!!!

Look how cute she is! She loves sleeping in bags. Anyway, now onto some serious content. Jake has kindly donated his latest political thoughts to CD (which is what I just now nicknamed my blog). I guess perhaps since election season is in full swing all over the country, but especially here in the DC area, I should have periodical political updates. Ok, here's one. From Jake. He was pissed.

At the Republican National Convention the other night, speaker after speaker mocked Barack Obama's past as a community organizer, turning the job into a punch line.

“Community organizer... What?” Rudy Giuliani asked incredulously to laughter and cheers. 

John McCain's new VP pick Sarah Palin took some digs at community organization itself, suggesting it lacked “actual responsibilities. “ The barb went over so well she’s started using it on the stump.

I don't get the joke.

In his early twenties, Barack Obama ran an organization in Chicago's impoverished South Side called Developing Community Projects. It was a church-based outfit that helped poor people get job training and prepared low-income kids for college.

How is this funny? In the mid-nineties I was an adult literacy tutor, and I worked for a nice guy named Dave who was a pudgy, middle-aged...community organizer.

There are small, community-based organizations doing valuable—even essential—work all over this country. Republicans used to say they were the party of local control and local solutions. What is a “faith-based initiative” if not an organization of people working toward the common good? Why are the Republicans mocking someone for running one of these organizations?

They imply that Obama is using his past as a community organizer to pad his resume. I don’t see it that way. He worked with DCP just after he graduated from college. After that he had a career as a law professor, a state legislator for the 13th district of Chicago, and a United States senator. His background as a grassroots organizer is instructive only insofar as it shows us what he cared about as a young man.

The attack on community organizers, however, is instructive in another way. It demonstrates the Republican insecurity about their ticket and their need to distract from it. Since John McCain is a career politician with a history of corruption reaching back to the Keating Five Scandal, his campaign has decided to trumpet their new VP pick as an agent of “change.” And while Sarah Palin has already demonstrated raw political skill, her much vaunted “executive experience” boils down to two things: her twenty months as governor of Alaska, a fine state which has fewer people than—just to pick one place at random—the 13th district of Chicago, and her two terms as mayor of a town which had, at the time, about the same number of folks as Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.

Maybe none of that matters, but next time you hear someone insulting “community organizers” put it in some historical context. In the early 1980s, Barack Obama was running an inner city program designed to help people stay off welfare. John McCain, at the time, was setting himself up for a rebuke from Congress for his part in the Savings and Loans scandals involving Charles Keating. And Sarah Palin's big accomplishment of the early eighties? Winning first runner-up in the Miss Alaska  contest.

Ok, so that's what I have to say about that, and by "I", I mean, "Jake, and I agree." Moving on... we bought our tickets to Mexico last night! YES! We're not going till January, but whatevs, having tickets is a big commitment and I'm totally stoked. We got 4 tickets, we clicked on the "purchase" button ceremoniously simultaneously and it was amazing. How? Oh, well, since you asked... we set up a sweet, fully early-90s, Zack Morris phone-style, conference call. Yeah, like the kind you had with your friends in junior high until 8:30 pm when phone time was over. Except this was with modern technology - cell phones and the internet. See below:

I called Adrian on my phone (the blue one), and Heather called Gin on her phone. We put them next to each other on speaker phone and did a lot of laughing and yelling. They're sort of spooning, phoning? Anyway, you can see our guidebook and airline ticket research. It was an official conference call and one that way, I might add, more productive than many I had as a consultant. 

Anyone been to Mexico City and cool 1-3 day long trips outside it? Input welcome. We're interested in beaches, weird sculptures, art, hiking, eating, drinking, and seeing things.

Yeah, I predicted David over Goliath

Today's brief/in-between-doing-homework-and-working blog entry is brought to you by me, sort of via John who copied and pasted an article called Christians learn the art of dating into our gchat a few minutes ago. Yes, I was just as captivated as you are now. The whole thing is worth reading, but, of course I will summarize my favorite part - Christian pick up lines - for you below...

1. Now I know why Solomon had 700 wives. He never met you.

2. Is this pew taken?

3. I just don't feel called to celibacy.

4. You float my ark.

5. I didn't believe in predestination until tonight.

6. My parents are home, wanna come over?

7. Is that a thinline, duo-tone, compact, ESV travel bible in your pocket?

8. Let me sell you an indulgence - it's a sin to look as good as you.

9. How many times do I have to walk around you before you fall for me?

10. I like to arrange the substantial Christian section of my bookshelf into alphabetical order. Coffee?

11. The name is Will. God's Will. 

And, what ended up happening was that I closed the original gchat to log into my blogging account so I (seriously) googled "christian pick up lines" in order to find the article again and came up with a million gems of information. I had one of those moments like I have when I see a really great cat video on YouTube and think, "ooohhhh, this is why the internet was invented."

Here's some of my favorite ones, from The Catholic-Pages: 

1. Nice bible.

2. God told me to come talk to you.

3. Oh you are cold, Ecclesiastes 4:11 (this will make Jake laugh out loud, the rest of us will have to google it).

4. Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

5. You don't have an accountability partner? Me neither.

6. Is it a sin that you stole my heart?

7. Have you ever tried praying at a drive in movie before?

8. (for the ladies) Excuse me, I believe one of your ribs belongs to me.

9. My friend told me to come and meet you, he said that you are a really nice person. I think you know him. Jesus, yeah, that's his name.

10. You know, they say you have never really dated, until you have dated a christian

11. Yeah, I predicted David over Goliath

12. What? Friends listen to Amazing Grace in the dark.

And, finally, some more juicy selections from Real Christian Singles: 

1. Nice bracelet. What would Jesus date? I mean, "do"?

2. Want to practice speaking in tongues with me?

3. I don't see it, but some people think I look like Sampson

4. What's your name and number so I can add you to my "prayer" list?

5. Hey baby, you wanna take the church van for a spin?

6. God broke the mold when He made your sweet face.

7. (check a person's shirt tag) "just as I thought... made in heaven."

8. Excuse me but can I drinkith from your cupith?

9. If Eve was tempted by an apple then you must be my fruit.

People, I am copying this word for word. 

If anyone successfully uses one of these, please email me your story at: coseismicdislocation at gmail dot com and I will put it on the internet. Please. 

I'm not even sure what to blog about right now

I was thinking about some of these things:

1. the RNC, Sarah Palin, assholes

2. taking the bus for hours and hours like I've been doing this week

3. all the people that have tried to hand me Jesus-related literature on and around campus in the last two days

4. library school - thus far

5. getting re-addicted to coffee in a major way

And, possibly some other things. Like, for instance, I feel as though I did not accurately blog about my trip to the west coast. Is there such a thing as accurate blogging? Does it include text, videos, links and images? Some? All? None? Will this post pass the blog test if it doesn't have a picture? I've been inundated with questions like, "what is information?" this week and I knew I would be but its still new and weird and interesting and exciting (and, ok, sometimes a bit boring...).

Anyway, here's why I'm not going to write extended blog posts about the aforementioned five items....

1. Well, you can probably just read the news, read any news and they'll tell you about the Sarah Palin, et al. Duh, of course I hate her, but also.... I hate the scrutiny she's being put under. I hate it in the same theoretical-though-not-content-based way that I hated the scrutiny that Hillary Clinton was put under. I don't care if she's hot, or a mom, or her kids are preggers (though, I love that the right wing will flip out over that shit), I care about her politics. And, well, they - to be blunt - kinda suck. Unless you hate the environment. But, you can read about it. I don't have the time, patience, or brain space to intelligently summarize all the crap she's done tonight. Please people, let's focus on politics and not gender.

2. OMG! My commute... ok, ok, ok... I've ridden a LOT of public transportation in my life, for years and years and years (starting with the school bus in 1984), and I'm fairly good at adapting to it and reading schedules and getting to and fro in a timely fashion. I guess I'm just not used to millions of bus transfers. Which I'm doing now. It's annoying me and it's annoying me that it annoys me because tons of people do it everyday and work it into their lives and, frankly, I should just shut up. But, it's f-ing hot outside right now and I have textbooks to carry and I can't ever decide what to wear. Yeah, serious, real world problems - I got 'em.

3. Ok, so only 2 people have tried to hand me Jesus literature on campus today. I was nicer to them than I wanted to be. Just kidding.... I'm updating it to 3 people. I just got a nice, shiny flyer for a group called "The Gathering" that is meeting at 9pm tonight in the Stamp Baltimore Room. It's 8:58 and clearly I will not be attending. I didn't make that up for the sake of this blog post, either. If I had a scanner, I'd scan in the flyer and send it to you.

4. Library school will probably seep into my posts over the next few months (two years?). The first couple of classes I had were boring... they were sort of like going to environmental graduate school where I had to stop thinking in equations and start thinking more qualitatively and read and write stuff. Except there I at least had a content-based connection trickling down from undergrad... here, I have nothing. And, I don't know what information is, or what knowledge is, or the difference between the two, and I want to do math problems and not try to figure it out. Ok, I'm lashing out... I'll stop. I just came from what I think will be a really interesting course in reference. Using stuff to find stuff. I'll let you know how it goes.

5. Yeah, I work at a coffee shop now, have another part time job and am in school full time and need lots of time to get to and from each of these places via the buses. I'm totally hooked. I'm moving in high speed/anxiety mode all the time now (or, since Tuesday). 

See? None of those things were things I was ready to blog about in detail. But, I do want to keep blogging. I feel better just focusing on this and letting words and thoughts flow out instead of in. 

I learned about the Telegraph's Weird News today from someone I have all three of my classes with. We read some articles together in between classes and it was great. For instance, I read about an elephant who became addicted to heroin which is sad, very sad, but he got clean! After months of methadone injections. See? Who needs the damn conventions? And, also about some trans women living together as lesbians. Kind of like Lisa, the lesbian man on the L Word who was also Brian Krakow in MSCL which was a completely amazing TV moment for me. But, these people are real. And, also they have great taste in sweaters.  

So, that's that. Now, its 9:12 and I missed The Gathering meeting and I'm ready to go home and need to go find Heather...

Neglect/the First Week of School

I know, I know... I started a blog so I could learn about blogging before I started school. I am about to start school and I don't know much more about blogging than I did when I started this thing. Sigh. I hope that will change, but for now, I've been very busy with life. The non-internet variety I suppose.

I made another huge list, as I tend to do. I have been feeling busy-to-the-point-of-overwhelmed with the re-entry from the west coast/getting ready for school. Plus, I became totally addicted to coffee once again. I had the worst headache yesterday and couldn't figure out why until I drank coffee and felt immediately better. What does that mean?

I'm not ready for school. It starts on Wednesday and I have homework in books that I haven't gotten yet. That is basically how the past week has been going. I think last week at this time, Sarah and I were lunching in the Pearl in Portland. It sounds sorta fancy, and maybe it was, but right afterwards we went to a dive bar and met some characters. Sarah also kicked my ass at Ms. Pacman.

Now I'm sitting in my room, I haven't left the house and its a holiday because I am working. Ok, well, I'm blogging instead of working right now, but you know what I mean.

Portland and Olympia were really great. I spent two lovely weeks feeling right at home among friends and geography. I think I have come to determine that my life's interests and things of importance are split between the coasts - very little overlap. Big things and little things like going swimming in Puget Sound on the Evergreen campus.

And then going to UMD during a football game and being swarmed with drunk 18 year old dudes wearing red t-shirts. Are these really both my colleges? This is kind of what both the trip there and back were/are like for me. I did all the things that I love to do in the northwest and all the things you're supposed to do - drink coffee, microbrews, go to house shows, see friends' bands play, see mountains, swim, hike, and, well, hang out. But, it seemed like a lot more, in a non-internet/blog-y way. So, if you want to know what I was up to aside from hiking and getting swarmed by wasps, check out trip photos here and here.

So, check back soon.  I hope to be less scattered, more caught up, more excited about the East coast and less homesick for the West one. I'll maybe have some school updates, stories of the C2 Metro Bus, frat boys, football fans, library students, and being back in school in general.

"We're having a pee problem"

Yesterday, Sarah and I took Constance for a walk. We were standing on this corner in North Portland for a minute while a neighbor lady loaded her dog in her car. Constance, while a lover of all strangers, is sort of a dog hater. So, we waited for the dog to be in the car before we crossed the street. While we were standing there, the lady said something rather indecipherable that we thought was, "We're having a pee problem." We didn't pay attention. I guess what she meant to say, or what we were meant to hear was, "Don't walk down this street, there are swarms of bees and you will be stung."

We walked. Sarah and Constance were in front of me and then they were covered with bees and then we all started to get stung. This is what we did:

1. Ran
2. Flailed our arms and tried to squish the stingers
3. Took our hoodies off in the middle of the street with complete disregard for traffic
4. Flung the Chuck It and lost the tennis ball
5. Screamed a lot of swear words for about 2 blocks

We came home, with lots of stings and without our hoodies. We borrowed a car, took Constance to the Doggie ER to make sure she was ok (she is), and got ourselves some bourbon and hydrocortisone cream. We also complained. A lot. That shit hurt. Drummer said, "are you sure they're bees? The only swarm bees around here are honey bees and the rest are all solitary. They were probably wasps." So, we looked. Sure enough, Yellow Jacket Wasps.

Please note the following information we found:

"It is always best to avoid unnecessary stings. Should a yellowjacket wasp fly near you or land on your body, never swing or strike at it or run rapidly away since quick movements often provoke attack and painful stings."

"Never strike, swing or crush a wasp or bee against your body since it could incite nearby yellowjackets into a frenzied attack. Wasp venom contains a chemical "alarm pheromone," released into the air, signaling guard wasps to come and sting whomever and whatever gets in their way. Unfortunately, many serious accidents have resulted when one runs away from attacking wasps and into the path of automobiles."

"Yellowjackets have a lance-like stinger without barbs and can sting repeatedly whereas honey bees have a barbed stinger and sting only once."

"The colony then expands rapidly reaching a maximum size of 4,000 to 5,000 workers and a nest of 10,000 to 15,000 cells in August and late September."

I also read something about how they become the most aggressive in late August. Good. To. Know.

Unfortunately, the lady who tried to warn us also got stung... but not as badly as we did. She said she found out where the nest was and was going to take care of it.

We came back to the house with our anti-sting cream and booze and drank a bit while a bunch of traveling musicians played a nice show downstairs. The stings hurt intermittently throughout the evening. First the ones of our heads hurt the most, then they got better and other ones started hurting more. It was pretty bizarre. They still hurt today, but mostly itch, but when you scratch them they hurt like hell.

Sigh. And, I just took out a ton of student loans. I'm in a big "looking up" phase right now...

"If you're a nice person, you'll be ok. You can make it if you're just a good person"

Tidal pool at Hole-in-the-Wall

That's what the guy on the bus said as we sat at the downtown terminal in Olympia Tuesday morning. We were pretty stinky - 5 days of hiking and all. We had big packs, trekking poles and a bucket that we hung our food in a tree with. The guy on the bus was one of those bus people that talks to everyone, is friendly, a little bit weird and maybe mentally ill, but who cares. He told us that in the 60s and 70s a lot of young people used to hike around and now they don't. He said its hard because its expensive but that you can make it if you're nice. I spent a lot of time thinking about that, especially after what happened. I wondered if you could just really get though life better by being nice and it seems like its probably true, maybe. More on that later in the post; here's our trip, in a nutshell:

We started off by getting dropped off at Lake Ozette; its in the far northwestern part of Olympic National Park, Washington State and the Continental US as well. From there we hiked in the woods, due west till we hit the ocean at Cape Alava (right).

We hiked down the coast for 3.5 miles until we hit Sand Point and camped for the night. It was late, dark, chilly, and kinda rainy. We were feeling a bit tired and frustrated. We camped in beautiful woods and even though I've seen it quite a bit, I was newly amazed at the closeness of the forest to the ocean. The huge forest and the huge ocean.

The next day we got up and things seemed brighter... it rained a bit but the sun was rising instead of setting, we had a long stretch of beach in front of us and we were like, "yeah! the backcountry!"

We set off for Norwegian Memorial (named after a shipwreck). I kept calling it Norwegian Woods. That was a looooooong hike. Over rocks. So many rocks. So many rocks that were hard, and sharp and sometimes slippery and had a tendency to create blisters on feet that were covered in nothing but sand, salty water and some running shoes. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Some of the hiking was easy. Some was hard.

Easy hiking.

Hard hiking.

I loved Norwegian Memorial. We met someone there who was super nice and also knew someone that I knew. Weird. But, great. These were some of the nice views from there (sandpipers at the freshwater source, campsite view out toward ocean, view from edge of campsite toward ocean):


The next day was more hiking. More foot destruction, muscle soreness and ocean beauty. We hiked down to Chilean Memorial (another shipwreck site). More bouldering, sand walking, tidal pool exploration and overland trails. There are some places where the headlands are too eroded to hike around so there is an overland trail on the shore. It looks (really hardcore) like this:

cheri. hiking up the overland

It was at Chilean Memorial where lots of things happened... we revisited our tidal charts and maps and realized that because the tides were not fluctuating greatly that week that we wouldn't be able to hike through one of the points at all, we realized how sore and tired we were, we wanted to be there more and travel less - particularly see some tidal pools, and we made some nice friends. We ended up having lots of time to explore at Hole-in-the-Wall, which is about a mile north of Rialto Beach - a day trip from the Puget Sound area if you're so inclined. It is amazing.


After a lot of discussion and mind changing we redid our plan. We opted out of 3 more days of tough coastal hiking and impassable tidal lands and choose a day on the beach of tidal pool playing, and light hiking. We decided to leave 2 days early because we met some really great people who were driving from the coast back to Eastern Washington via Olympia and they said they'd give us a ride. In my head it was a weird moment. Can you just trust anyone? It seemed like "yes, they're super nice and great and we just camped with them and shared a fire and played a really great game," but I'm really accustomed to not trusting people and it was kinda hard to make that leap. But, I did. And I was better off for it. It worked out great. We even stayed at Lake Quinault one night with our new friends and saw a bit of the rainforest and freshwater. I experimented with the 16 shot continuous feature on my borrowed camera.

We planned on trip and had another. The point of the trip was for it to be a relaxing vacation, a restoration of sorts and it was. Even though it was hard and painful (blisters!), it served its purpose. We saw the ocean, the tides, the mountains and old growth forests. We saw a sea otter and sea lion, lots of sea stars, anemones, interesting rocks, huge drift logs, and tons of birds who's names I don't know. We met really nice strangers who reminded me that not everyone is an asshole and sometimes people are just really good and kind and can help you through life when you need them to.

There's tons and tons and tons of pictures here. Check out the sea lion carcass if you think that kind of thing is interesting and you're more into nutrient cycling and less into feeling sad about the death of megafauna.

I Went to School in Olympia...

Ok so I'm off... tomorrow I fly to Portland, not to return for nearly 3 weeks. I'm excited, for sure. It's a great time to be in the PNW - its dry, not muggy and everything looks beautiful. I have a few things planned while I'm out there - some are logistical but most are fun. First I'm going to head up to Olympia for a day or so to meet up with a friend and prepare to go hiking. The plan - as of now - is to hike from Ozette Lake down to Oil City - just north of the Hoh River. We have to watch out for tides and trees but I think that'll be the extent of our worries for a few days, in theory.

Then, back to Oly for a few days to hang out with old friends and at old haunts. Then off to Portland to hang out with old friends at new haunts. I'll be working a bit while in Portland and also dealing with a lot of pre-school stuff - tuition, jobs, residency classification and other really fun time user-uppers.

In spite of that, it will be a great trip. It seems like a good time to leave and I mean that in the best way possible. I'm ready for a change in cities and weather. I want to see the ocean and the volcanos and huge trees and an appropriate number of bike lanes. And coffee. Coffee...

So, more later. I'll blog throughout the trip, but probably not until I get back from hiking on the 14th. I have a temporary camera that I'll try to use to share some pictures with you. For now, please enjoy the world's second most amazing dog; I will see her tomorrow:

No Pictures

On Saturday night we were walking home from the metro station in Takoma. We had just eaten dinner with kind and interesting people at a delicious Ethiopian place on 14th St. We opted to walk down Maple Ave, right along the DC/MD boarder like we usually do. That neighborhood is pleasant and beautiful. The people that live there have really nice gardens with tons of flowers and there are a lot of cats that are usually lounging outdoors waiting to say hello to passing strangers. I remember thinking, "blogging about these cats seems like a good idea."

We have conversations about the different cats - there's Mr. Fluffy and his housemates - the orange one and the tiger. They're all at one house. There's the cat that sits, in a very mature manner, on a bench staring at the street. There's the gray, fluffy, polydactyl, and the little black cat that I thought (hoped) was preggers because her belly was a giant barrel. And so on. This is all within 2 blocks.

Saturday night we ran into a couple of these furry friends and got distracted petting them. Until we were drawn very much back into reality as a small SUV came wheeling up to where we were standing and two men got out, holding a shotgun toward us. Yeah, super scary. What happened is mostly a blur to me now (all those cliches you hear are true, you forget it fast). They hit us, they patted us down and felt us up. They took everything we had on us. Cameras, purses, wallets, phones, pocket knives. They were intimidating. They loaded the gun and demonstrated to us that they were very serious by depositing a live round on the ground nearby. We laid there until they had turned the corner, as per their threats.

I'm sort of shaking now as I write this and wondering, "is it too personal? should I put it on the internet? how do you know what to blog about and what not to blog about?" But, I'm writing it. People should know about stuff like this. It's sad and real and true and scary and awful. I guess. I don't feel as though I have anymore authority to speak toward violence than I did before; I think I just learned that.

What's weird is that these strangers totally violated us. Not in the worst way, but in a way. A scary and highly inconvenient way. But, within minutes, strangers helped us. Neighbors let us in and they called 911 and gave us water and a place to sit down. That was all we needed and it felt weird. Not all strangers are bad, I learned that too.

So, we're shaken but ok. No more or less safe than before. Highly annoyed at the inconvenience of having to replace everything. In particular, cell phones and phone numbers. I had never lost my phone before. So, friends, I'm keeping your phone numbers in my email inbox. Getting a new license and student ID was time consuming and expensive. Also, bank cards and car keys and trust.

Last night the dectitive called me to say that they arrested these men. Partially because of us, but they did so immediately after they robbed someone else and were fleeing from that scene. They cops found them because they used our bank and credit cards at a 7-11 in DC and a McDonalds in Hyattsville. Places with security cameras. Everyones decriptions matched, the gun in the car matched and I guess they're off the streets. I don't know how I feel about the criminal justice system and what it will do to three young, black men, but honestly, I'm glad that that particular gun won't be shoved in anyone else's face.

They took our cash, obviously, but they used our cards in weird ways. At 7-11 and McDonalds. Does that mean anything? Does it seem weird? They could have taken so much more money than they did. The charges at these locations were for no more than $17. It's so stupid, and so sad.

And, I have no camera anymore. So, for the time being, the blog will be adorned with old pictures or none at all. Bear with me.

Cyanotyping

Art Projects. Do 'em.
A couple weeks ago, Buddy showed up at my house with two bottles of photo chemicals and an old, white, thrift store sheet and said, "let's make some cyanoprints", and I said, "ok." We did approximately 8 minutes worth of internet research to try and figure out the concentrations of each chemical that was needed as well as the ratio of the two mixtures and came up with something that worked, but not amazingly. However, it proved to be a great starting point and after a couple more trials, Buddy shared with me the ideal numbers to make successful cyanoprints.

Wait, what the hell are cyanoprints? Ok, look at this. Or, look at that picture - those are early examples of ones we did... on the left is a print of a scarf I had knit and on the right is a bunch of holly. Below, I (try to) describe why these didn't come out great - the contrast is low because we didn't expose them for long enough, and with the holly, because it was raised too far off of the sheet and lots of UV light got underneath.

In a nutshell, you mix some ferric ammonium citrate with potassium ferricyanide with some water, in the dark, soak some sheets (or water color paper) in the solution (still in the dark), and then try to find the most efficient way to put something you want to create a silhouette on top of the sheet or paper, rush it out into the sunlight and let it sit for a few minutes. The UV light reacts with the chemical solution that the sheet or paper has been soaked in and wherever the UV rays hit the sheet or paper, it turns blue. So, whatever you place on top will remain white - or some shade between blue and white should there be small amounts of UV light getting through.

So, you should try this. I haven't ventured out to purchase the chemicals, but rumor has it they're cheap on the internet. And, a little bit goes a long way - you need a tablespoon-ish of each one in order to make about 20 prints - depending on the size you prefer. Ok, so, get the chemicals, make the solution (see below), cut up some sheets into random, manageable sizes, soak them thoroughly, let them dry for a few hours - IN THE DARK - we set up some old screens on paint cans in a windowless basement room, and then try your best to set things up on them while still in the dark and rush them into the light. Watch the magic.

DETAILS

Substances:
A = Ferric Ammonium Citrate
B = Potassium Ferricyanide

Ideal Ratio:
[X amount of water + 20g of A] + [X amount of water + 8g of B]

X Amounts:
Most experiments were conducted with variance in X... a problem of measuring in the dark, not being very good scientists, not properly determining grams of water, etc. However, we finally did some "science" around the mysterious X and used amounts ranging from 15 mL to 200 mL. Note: X is kept the same for both solutions - you just put 20g of ferric ammonium citrate in one container, and 8g of potassium ferricyanide in the other.

When X was 200 mL = pale prints
When X was 100 mL = less pale, but still too-pale, prints
*When X was 50 mL = gorgeously blue prints of perfection
*When X was 15 mL = veeeeeeeery blue prints which looked pretty rad
*done without drying the sheet first, so, as they say, not all else was equal, but I think it would work anyway

Actual Ratios We Used:

The A:B ratio kept creeping toward 2:1, but was always between 2:1 and 3:1. Basically 20g:8g. But, the internet gives you lots of other options, so check it out. Ps. It's hard to measure in the dark.

Prepping:

The first thing you want to do is cut up the white sheet you got at the thrift store. Make it different sizes. Then, find some things to put on it... plants work great. I tried knitting needles, shapes cut out of paper - fyi, some UV light gets through the paper so the contrast ends up being low - clothespins, a knitted scarf, and lots of leaves of various types. Some came out better than others. You'll just have to experiment to see what you end up liking the best. I think we found that the more stuff you put on each piece of sheet, the more interesting it ends up looking. We also found it really interesting to print out some of our photos on transparencies (we would invert them first in a photo editor), and place the transparencies over the sheets. Here's what some of those looked like:

the transparencies are on the bottom, the resulting prints on the top

Some may question the seriousness of our methods, but they basically involved getting the dried sheets out of the very dark room in the basement, setting them down in a sorta-but-not-really-super-dark part of the basement, on a long board, putting stuff on them and then placing some glass over the top to keep things from blowing away. We tried to do this pretty quickly since we knew the sheets were being partially exposed. Then, we rushed them out into the sunlight and let them sit for between 5 and 45 minutes. That's me taking a picture of them in my yard, mid-exposure.

5 minutes is too short. 45 minutes is too long. Somewhere in between. Try it in 5 minute increments because it depends on the type of sunlight you're getting. We found the reactions slowed down/stopped, and the results didn't get any darker, after 25-30 minutes in direct, bright, afternoon sun.

Finishing:

When you've found the optimal time and the sheets are done, its important to wash them, for a couple minutes, in cold, running water. The water serves as a stop bath and stops the reaction between the chemicals and the UV light. Some sources say that rinsing them with perioxide helps to more quickly oxidize the solution and stop the reaction, but we didn't notice a difference.

Hang them up all over your house so your housemates come home and are like, "wtf?"

Hem them, sew them together, frame 'em and give them for presents. Your relatives will be amazed.

Google it, research it, the internet is littered with info about this type of thing and you can buy (for pretty cheap) the chemicals online too. Feel free to ask me any questions though I have limited experience. As a side note, all of my best prints I have given away to my aunts for their birthdays, so I don't have pictures of them - they ended up coming out a lot better and with higher contrast than those pictured here. Good luck!!