| Sick update |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|07:38 pm] |
Today I took myself to the doctor - or rather, the wonderful and long-suffering girlfriend took me to the doctor while I rather imperfectly served as navigator - and I was officially diagnosed with "yeah, that's probably the H1N1 virus." Also known as, The Swine Flu.
Apparently, they don't actually test anyone for it because 1) the treatment is the same as for "normal" flu and 2) the tests don't really work. But my symptoms, combined with the fact that I fit the "typical profile" ("Young, healthy, normally doesn't get sick but just got completely laid flat by this flu -" "Yeah, that's me!") indicates that yup, I probably got hit with the swine.
On the bright side, today was the first day this week that I haven't had a fever (hurrah!) which means I'm definitely getting better. And to be honest, I haven't felt that awful, provided I kept myself drugged up and horizontal. Got lots of sleeping time in (up to 16 hours a day!), read a few books, watched some TV and movies. It helped a lot that the girlfriend came over two or three evenings to keep me company, so I haven't had that crazy "I've had no human contact for days!" feeling that being bedridden can give you.
So overall, swine flu: not that bad. Yes, my week did have plans other than "sleep excessively" and "make some good headway into my roommate's YA fantasy collection," but when you get down to it, it's not a bad way to spend a feverish week. |
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| Sick |
[Oct. 14th, 2009|09:37 pm] |
I am Sick. The kind of sick where I take four hour naps in the middle of the day.* The kind of sick where spending three days (and counting) in my bedroom isn't make me stir crazy.** The kind of sick where taking my book outside to the porch to read for an hour is pleasant but exhausting. More specifically, it is the kind of sick where I have had a fever for three days, a fever that broke for an hour or two yesterday but has spent all of today climbing higher and higher, despite regular applications of Dayquil occaionsally supplmented by Ibuprofen.
On the bright side, I seem to have graduated from "everything hurts and I'm hacking up a lung" to "everything is fuzzy and my nose is doing its best impression of a glacier in spring."
On another bright side, I have great friends:
Jess: everyone else online right now is gay, so enjoy! http://www.behindthebadge.com/2009/10/photo-of-the-day-the-body-issu.php
you can appreciate a beautiful set of boys
Also Kate bought me juice. Also the wonderful girlfriend came over for a long time to keep me company even though she had an exam. Wonderful!
Would still rather be healthy, though.
*I pretty much never do this.
**This? Also never true. |
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| The National Equality March |
[Oct. 12th, 2009|08:18 pm] |
Sunday morning I woke up in a bit of a funk, as sometimes happens when one is stressed out and tired and in the early stages of a nasty cold caught from one's girlfriend. As I was brooding over an uninspiring bowl of oatmeal, roommate Kate suggested, "You know what would make you feel better? Thousands of gay people with rainbows!"
And so it did.
We didn't start out with the march at the beginning, but walked to Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue to meet it partway. The marchers hadn't made it that far yet, but we were waiting for a scant few minutes before we saw the Harbinger of the Gay - a delightful young man with a rainbow flag in each hand who danced enthusiastically to music on his headphones.
And then, everyone arrived in force.
Kate and I stood on a raised planter on the Plaza for half an hour watching hundreds and hundreds of people march by. Scores of people carrying signs or rainbow flags or simply lending their presence to show that they believed in equal rights for everyone. Great, huge, happy, delightful masses of people marching their way down Pennsylvania Avenue, more people that I can properly comprehend, all of them People Like Me.
Kate and I laughed and took photos and pointed out people and read interesting signs to each other. And I'll admit it, there were several times when my voice got caught in my throat and my vision got blurry and I almost cried, right there on my big hunk of marble, as I watched the great ocean of people and rainbows wash past me.
After countless people had passed us, and with countless more still to come, we joined some of Kate's teammates who had taken an overnight bus down from Brown to be a part of it all. We continued to march down Pennsylvania, past the Newseum's ten story copy of the First Amendment, and on towards the gleaming white Capitol building. And maybe also - I know it's corny - but I'm sure we were also marching towards a more equal future, where the love and acceptance that flowed down Pennsylvania Avenue on a bright Sunday in Washington, DC has kept going and infused the whole country with love and acceptance.
And by golly, by the time we got to the Capitol, I felt not just better, but great.
My photos of the march are on Facebook here. |
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| Coolest bookshelf ever |
[Sep. 22nd, 2009|05:22 pm] |
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If you only knew how much of my childhood was spent sitting on the steps reading (hands-down one of the most comfortable places in a house to sit!), you'd understand why I want this so badly. |
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| Minutia |
[Sep. 21st, 2009|03:13 pm] |
Today, two different people sent me this link, suggesting that both my preference for cute things and my problem with aggressively air conditioned offices are widely known.
I had been planning on fingerless gloves, but handwarmers shaped like bears would suffice, as well. |
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| A Quick Life Update (in list form) |
[Sep. 17th, 2009|02:45 pm] |
In no particular order:
Things That Are Brilliant
- index-card sized heating pads that can be shoved down the front of my pants to relieve menstrual cramps
- finished painting my bedroom
- my new roommates, including: communal food policies, moral support, and decorating plans
- getting voted B-side Vice Captain of my rugby club (!!!)
- have home games for the next month, after having to go to Philadelphia three weeks in a row
- happy-lovey girlfriendom, including officially passing the "longer than any previous relationships" landmark
Things That Are Not So Brilliant
- deciding that it would be fun to mix a can of paint by shaking it without checking to see that the lid is firmly in place
Overall, life is pretty damn good. |
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| Things that are prettty awesome |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|02:41 pm] |
Guess who, as of today, has officially been in a functional relationship for a month?
I'll give you a hint: this same person has successfully painted her ceiling white (from mint green) and one wall a beautiful "Twilight Blue", and is planning on painting her trim white (from forest green) and her walls "Avalanche" (from old ugly marked up white paint) in her new bedroom. Which is in the same house as she previously occupied, but with completely different roommates and increasingly new paint.
She has also just begun the competitive (and therefore intensive) rugby season, and between this and the above activities, plus the whole "having to go to work every day to earn money" thing (who invented that concept, anyways?), has been super busy and not much on Livejournal.
But aten't dead. Just busy. |
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| Photos! |
[Aug. 7th, 2009|03:29 am] |
I've uploaded my photos from the trip so far to Facebook, for those of you who are interested. I have this intention to do a "highlight" post with just a few photos that I love best, but I also have a feeling that I won't actually get around to doing it. And I'm kind of sleep-drunk (walking around for hours = tiring), so I think the commentary on the Facebook photos is pretty entertaining.
San Francisco the First
Pier 39
If we're not friends on Facebook yet and you'd like us to be, feel free to friend away! |
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| San Francisco vacation, part 1 |
[Aug. 3rd, 2009|03:44 pm] |
Subtitle: SWEETEST VACATION EVER
I mean, come on. I flew in first class, for practically free (using up the frequent flyer miles that have been accumulating since I was [literally] three weeks old). I boarded the plane first. I was served a drink to compensate for the time I spent waiting for those poor souls in Coach to slog on and find their seats. My breakfast - cheese omelette, seasoned potato wedges, fresh fruit, crossaint - was served on REAL china plates with REAL metal silverware. They came around with a basket of snacks and I got to take AS MANY AS I WANTED (chips! granola bars!! biscuits!!!). And then when I got to San Francisco, my bag was the FIRST one on the belt!!
And then Carmen came to pick me up and I was so excited to see my wife for the first time in MONTHS and took me to her lovely house and fed me and introduced me to Oliver, the adorablest puppy ever, and we talked and talked and talked like we haven't been able to do for aaaaaaaages, and then Krsna came over and Carmen dropped us both at the house where I'm house-sitting, and, oh man.
This house is SO sweet! It's a little one-floor bungalow, crammed full of bookcases and shelving and everywhere you look is something else fun and interesting that surely has a story to it, and there's a cute little garden in the back with tomato plants and one big lemon plant, and it's exactly the kind of place I'd want to live in if I lived by myself, and for a whole week it's MY house, just me and the sweet little kitten I'm in charge of feeding.
And after Krsna meditated and I took a nap (because of course I was up all night with the girlfriend, and then had to get up at 5 am for my flight), and then we went to a delicious all-vegetarian restaurant called Herbivore and I had a wonderful blueberry banana milkshake and a giant bowl of sweet and sour soup, and then I went home and crashed early.
Day 2 was just as relaxing. I woke up, curled up on the couch and read for awhile, and then finally succumbed to my complaining stomach and went to Trader Joe's - just around the corner! - to stock up on tasty foods. Then I read some more, took a nap, and went out to Berkley to meet up with Carmen. We walked around, she pointing out interesting stores and eateries, we wandered through a gallery with some great art and delightful dragon figures, and finally, when I was getting hungry, I got take-out crepes and we went and sat on a grassy knoll on the UC Berkley campus. I ate and read a book, Carmen napped, and every so often I stopped reading just to watch the clouds go by.
So far, I haven't done an ounce of planning. I haven't bought a guide book or even a map. But I have already read four or five books, taken three or four naps, and slept for hours and hours and hours. I am SO relaxed and happy and this is exactly the kind of vacation I wanted! |
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| In which the morning starts out bad and gets suddenly better |
[Jul. 30th, 2009|09:41 am] |
This morning started off not well at all. First, I was grumpy because I hadn't gotten enough sleep (through no fault but my own - I'd been watching an episode of Angel while I did my shoulder PT, and then I had to fold my laundry so I started watching a second episode, and that ended on a serious cliffhanger so I had to watch a third episode, and by that point it was already way past my bedtime, but when I went to get in bed I found the fantasy book I've been reading [Deep Wizardry] so I just had to read one or two or five chapters of that, to help me get to sleep, of course.)
But despite all that, I actually got up on time, which means I actually got out of the house early since my alarm is calibrated to account for at least fifteen minutes of snoozing. And I was excited because this meant I'd get to work early, so I could take extra time out of my lunch break to go deposit everyone's rent checks, so I could get a check to our landlords before I leave from San Francisco! And I was so excited by this plan that I LEFT THE ENVELOPE WITH ALL THE CHECKS ON MY DESK. AT HOME.
So there I am - tired, grumpy, really pissed off at myself - when the internet gives me this beauty.
....
(moment of muscular mediation)
Aaaaaand I feel better! |
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| A morning |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|09:26 am] |
My alarm this morning woke me up in the middle of a dream in which I was reading 2 emails, one chatty missive from Obama and one from Lyndon B. Johnson that had Obama's birth certificate as an attachment. Both had something to do with the fact that I'd tried to walk (or possibly instantly transport myself) to California but gotten lost in Indiana.
It was really weird.
I also read LOTS of interesting news stories! Here's two:
An interesting article on the history of gender-neutral pronouns, for some reason also about Twitter.
Not a Victim, But a Hero: After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and thought her problems were over.
Then, she said, four police officers took turns raping her.
The next step for Assiya was obvious: She should commit suicide. [...] Instead, Assiya summoned the unimaginable courage to go public and fight back. |
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| "White male" IS an identity |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|04:57 pm] |
Eugene Robinson says everything I've been thinking about the Sotomayor hearings, but way more eloquent:
Whose Identity Politics?
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The only real suspense in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is whether the Republican Party will persist in tying its fortunes to an anachronistic claim of white male exceptionalism and privilege.
Republicans' outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor's musings about how her identity as a "wise Latina" might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any "identity" -- black, brown, female, gay, whatever -- has to be judged against this supposedly "objective" standard.
Thus it is irrelevant if Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. talks about the impact of his background as the son of Italian immigrants on his rulings -- as he did at his confirmation hearings -- but unforgivable for Sotomayor to mention that her Puerto Rican family history might be relevant to her work. Thus it is possible for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to say with a straight face that heritage and experience can have no bearing on a judge's work, as he posited in his opening remarks yesterday, apparently believing that the white male justices he has voted to confirm were somehow devoid of heritage and bereft of experience.
The whole point of Sotomayor's much-maligned "wise Latina" speech was that everyone has a unique personal history -- and that this history has to be acknowledged before it can be overcome. Denying the fact of identity makes us vulnerable to its most pernicious effects. This seems self-evident. I don't see how a political party that refuses to accept this basic principle of diversity can hope to prosper, given that soon there will be no racial or ethnic majority in this country.
Yet the Republican Party line assumes a white male neutrality against which Sotomayor's "difference" will be judged. Sessions was accusatory in quoting Sotomayor as saying, in a speech years ago, that "I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage, but attempt . . . continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate."
This is supposed to be a controversial statement? Only, I suppose, if you assume that there are judges who have no opinions, sympathies or prejudices -- or, perhaps, that the opinions, sympathies and prejudices of the first Hispanic nominee to the Supreme Court are somehow especially problematic.
There is, after all, a context in which these confirmation hearings take place: The nation continues to take major steps toward fulfilling the promise of its noblest ideals. Barack Obama is our first African American president. Sonia Sotomayor would be only the third woman, and the third member of a minority group, to serve on the nation's highest court. Aside from these exceptions, the White House and the Supreme Court have been exclusively occupied by white men -- who, come to think of it, are also members of a minority group, though they certainly haven't seen themselves that way.
Judging from Monday's hearing, some Republican senators are beginning to notice this minority status -- and seem a bit touchy about it. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) was more temperate in his remarks than most of his colleagues, noting that Obama's election victory ought to have consequences and hinting that he might vote to confirm Sotomayor. But when he brought up the "wise Latina" remark, as the GOP playbook apparently required, Graham said that "if I had said anything remotely like that, my career would have been over."
That's true. But if Latinas had run the world for the last millennium, Sotomayor's career would be over, too. Pretending that the historical context doesn't exist -- pretending that white men haven't enjoyed a privileged position in this society -- doesn't make that context go away.
Yes, justice is supposed to be blind. But for most of our nation's history, it hasn't been -- and women and minorities are acutely aware of how our view of justice has evolved, or been forced to evolve. Women and minorities are also key Democratic Party constituencies, and if the Republican Party is going to be competitive, it can't be seen as the party of white male grievance -- especially in what is almost certainly a lost cause. Democrats, after all, have the votes to confirm Sotomayor.
"Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed," Graham told the nominee. He was right -- Republicans probably can't damage her. They can only damage themselves. |
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| Money! |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|11:51 am] |
As a part of being a responsible adult, a year or so ago I began a system of tracking how much money I spent. At the end of each month, I'd gather up my pay stubs and bank account statements and ferret out my receipts from where I'd stuck them in my wallet and bags and pockets and gather up the piles on my dresser and desk, and I'd spread them all out and organize them and, after several hours of frustration, would have a pretty little Excel spreadsheet that gave me a vague idea of how much I'd spent on what.
Around March of this year, my momentum began slowing. I think I did eventually do my March spreadsheet, in mid-April, but since then, it's been too much trouble. I pushed the whole pile of accumulated receipts into my trash can, checked my account balances online occasionally, and spent my weekends doing other things, totally NOT like a responsible adult.
But then someone recommended Mint.com to me. It's a website that pulls directly from your financial accounts and uses that data to make charts and shiny, multicolored graphs, oh my god the GRAPHS. I plugged in my debit and credit card accounts and check back obsessively to see how my chart has changed. It can automatically categorize things (like it knows Starbucks is Coffee and Safeway is Groceries and Sunoco is Gas), and although you have to correct it sometimes, it's very flexible and you can add your own categories if you need to.
It also has a little budget widget that sets up automatically, based on how much you have spent in the past. You can change it, but it's awesome to have that starting point. The graphs also subdivide - I can see, for example, that in June I spent 26% of my money on food and dining, and that 89% of that was groceries. It can't track what I spend cash on, of course, but it can tell me that cash was 5% of what I spent.
Seriously, responsibility has never been so much fun. I can't wait until I've been using it for a few months and can amass a decent bulk of data for further analysis!
And as a bonus - one of my favorite blogs recently posted a graphic of how the average US consumer spends their paycheck so I can compare my pretty chart to theirs. SO MUCH FUN. |
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| Still waiting for the change I voted for |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|10:12 am] |
I love this letter to the editor:
To the Editor:
Re 40 Years Later, Still Second-Class Americans, by Frank Rich (column, June 28):
As a 19-year-old gay American who cast my first ballot last year for Barack Obama, I read Mr. Rich’s column with great interest. I voted for Mr. Obama because I hoped that he would act, in his own words, as a “fierce advocate” for gay Americans. So far, he has failed to live up to that promise.
Under current American law, I am not allowed to serve openly in the military; I am not allowed to marry in most states; and I cannot receive many health, Social Security and tax benefits available to most Americans.
So far, I’m still waiting for the change I voted for. And gay Americans will keep waiting — and keep struggling — until we are recognized fully as citizens, afforded the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution.
Peter W. Fulham
Edgartown, Mass., June 28, 2009 |
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| I love my team |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|03:23 pm] |
As many of you know, I've been struggling a lot lately with my rugby/life balance - both in general and in particular now that my team is a part of a new higher-level league.
Just now, one of The Fucking Badass players on the team (and also my Vet Buddy*) sent out an email that basically said, "Look. This shit is hard to balance - we want to do a lot without so much time/money. I'm struggling, and I know I'm not the only one - so let's all get together and figure it out as a team. Who's interested?"
Oh man. ME.
*Each of the rookies get a more experienced player as a Vet(eran) Buddy when they join the team - just a designated person that's officially there to ask questions or whatever. |
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| Housing |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|11:40 am] |
To any LJers who live in the District, or who know someone who does - I currently live in a four-bedroom townhouse in Capitol Hill that I absolutely adore. However, all three of my roommates are moving out so that means I am looking for three NEW roommates!
If you or any awesome people you know are looking for housing starting in August, please let me know/pass on the information, as you see fit.
The house is 2 blocks from the Stadium-Armory metro stop, which puts it walking distance from Eastern Market, RFK Stadim, Congressional Cemetery, the Phase, and other fun things. The house itself has four separate bedrooms, two full baths (completely renovated less than a year ago), a pretty spacious downstairs, and both a front yard and a back patio/yard situation. The whole house except two of the bedrooms is hardwood flooring or tile, and pets are welcome. Rent is $2950 a month, not including utilities.
The landlords live just around the corner and are available when we need them. They're young, cool, and also have a habit of giving us useful pieces of furniture.
I'm a clean and fairly easy-going roommate, looking for the same. All I ask is that there are no wild parties before rugby games!
I really love both this house and the neighborhood, so I'd hate to have to look for a new place to live once the roommates leave. If you or anyone you know might be interested just let me know.
Thanks! |
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| Overqualified |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|04:57 pm] |
I have read Joey Comeau's Overqualified job applications before, but I guess I wasn't in the right frame of mind at the time - I thought they were vaguely clever, but ultimately boring.
What was wrong with me?
Utopia awaits!
To: Irving Oil
Re: The future is ours
Dear Irving,
I am writing to apply for a job with your company, and my assigned mission is to take you down from the inside. Little things, you know? I'm supposed to fudge your tax records a bit, leave you open to audits. Misdirect shipments. Eat away at your profits so that your costs go up, too. I'm here to speed up the peak oil problem, because after that the world starts getting better.
It gets better and better, Irving. By the time I'm born, a hundred years from now, there's no crime. There's no more pollution. Human beings are living to be almost two hundred years old. Every year that number gets bigger. They tell me that means I might live forever.
So I volunteered to be sent into the past. How could any kid grow up, hearing about crime and violence and war and sexually transmitted diseases, and not think, "Fuck, that sounds exciting." My mission is to sabotage you, but really, I want to help you. I don't want to live forever, Irving. I want to live and die and be afraid and excited and injured in a daring rooftop escape.
I spent seventy years sitting around in classrooms just learning. Oh, how can we live longer? Oh how can we make ourselves more perfect? Oh, we're all very wise. But I want to kill something. I want to get drunk in a bar and fuck a dude with a scar down the side of his face. I want a scar down the side of my face. I want to get an alcoholic woman pregnant, and when that little freak squirts out, nine months later, I want to tell him, "Live for today, you retarded little shit. The end is near."
Joey Comeau |
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| The Nerd Chart |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|03:30 pm] |
So, have you guys seen the most recent XKCD? Because I just read it and didn't get it, so I consulted the internet which informed me about the Erdos Number.
Now, the concept of the Erdos Number (which, more or less, indicates how many degrees of separation you are from Erdos, measured by scientific paper authorship) is pretty interesting in and of itself. It makes me want to find someone with a definite Erdos number so I can write a paper with them (which I guess is the point of the comic).
However, reading the Wikipedia entry on it, I got a niggling sense of familiarity - the language and phrasing reminded me strongly of.... something.
People connected to each other, sometimes by chains of other people - the Erdos Number reminds me of The Chart. Not just the one in The L Word, but the kind you find in actual lesbian life. The only real difference is that there's no "Erdos" equivalent - you can just pick a person and figure out if you can connect to them and, if so, how many degrees it takes.
It figures that nerds would take gossip and create a scientific theory out of it! |
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