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[07 Sep 2009|09:36pm] |
Look, we made a pretty thing:
So exhausted. Burning man was amazing, but I'm glad to be home.
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| More Books |
[12 Jun 2009|09:55pm] |
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Well, I only made it through Atwood in my alphabetical reading plan of doom before my magical fount of books dried up (The Blind Assassin was a good read, by the way -- one of those stories within stories within stories kind of books). So now I need to supply my own reading materials for the upcoming trip to Italy, and that's where YOU come in, dear reader. I'm looking for book recommendations -- what's your favorite book, or what fascinating things have you been reading lately? Send me a book suggestion to help wile away the lonely nights in rural Italy, and I will be ever so grateful!
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[04 Jun 2009|10:56pm] |
Hello dears, long time no post. Life has been unreasonably good to me lately, but oh so busy! How am I busy? Let me count the ways...
- I just got home from the first East Bay tweed ride, which was absolutely delightful! The general spirit of the group reminded me more than a little of old times with the League. As a matter of fact, maybe next time I should bring my croquet set...
- I have been working lately with a group called the Flaming Lotus Girls, which is a group of artists who make huge fiery metal sculptures for burning man and other occasions. I have been working in the shop, learning about fire effects, welding (harder than it looks, but so fun!), and metal working. Last weekend we had an installation at the Marker Faire, and it was really nice to see people's reactions to our work. The little kids were the best -- they loved pushing the buttons to control the poofers (big bursts of flame).
- I've been trying to invest more time in neglected friendships, hanging out with all the awesome people in my life, and one amazing girl in particular...
- Work is ramping up in preparation for our collaboration meeting at the end of the month. I am leaving for Italy on the 18th, which is (!) in exactly two weeks.
All told, I'm happier than I've been in a long time, and really excited about this summer. I will probably be going to Burning Man this year (a first for me), even though it conflicts with some other commitments. Are any of you going?
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| Earthquake |
[06 Apr 2009|11:28am] |
The city of L'Aquila, which is the nearest city to the Gran Sasso lab where my experiment is located, was hit by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake this morning.
According to an email I received today, nobody affiliated with the lab was hurt, and neither the underground nor the external lab facilities were badly damaged. However, many people in the city and surrounding villages were killed or injured, and the historic center of L'Aquila sustained heavy damage. It is so strange to think that these beautiful streets where I walked just a few months ago are now filled with rubble and lined with cracked or collapsed buildings. I wonder how the city will look when I go there in June.
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| Books |
[24 Mar 2009|11:26pm] |
So, my girlfriend Arcadia has a *lot* of books. This is one of the perils of being an English grad student, or so I'm told. Anyway, after walking past these shelves of books day after day, I suddenly had a crazy idea -- I should read them. All. In alphabetical order.
Now, this is no small task even for a devoted bibliophile, much less for a literary dilettante such as myself. But, after letting the idea rattle around in my head for a while, I decided to give it a shot -- the worst that could happen, I tell myself, is that I lose interest after reading a few books whose authors' names start with 'A'. And actually, it turns out that there are a lot of good authors whose names start with 'A'.
So here's my plan: I will start in the "fiction" section (conveniently also the first section on the shelves). I will read the books alphabetically by author, except for: A. Duplicates (yes, there are duplicates -- that's why the Austen section in the photo is so big); B. Those I have read before and remember; or C. Anything I really don't want to read. Then I will try to post here as a way of keeping track of my thoughts and hopefully starting some conversations.
So far, here's the score:
Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy I actually read these books for the first time about a year ago on a trip to Italy (not really sure how I missed reading them earlier). Reading them was a continual series of "ah-ha!" moments as I recognized the source of many cultural references and jokes that I had never understood before. I found the books to be quite funny, though the writing was mediocre and some of the jokes became repetitive after a while. Also, the pervasive casual sexism really started to grate on me.
Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women I'm pretty sure I read this book as a kid, but I didn't remember it very well, so I decided to read it again. Although I remembered parts of the story, I had managed to completely block out the ending, which came as a horrible shock (troubling on so many levels!)
Alcott, Louisa May: A Modern Mephistopheles Alcott's twisted side comes out in this retelling of Faust. Having only read Little Women, one might assume that Alcott frowned on the sort of "sensation stories" that Jo writes (and which Mr. Bhaer shames her into giving up), or even that she was ashamed of her own history of scandalous writings. So I found it very interesting that, although A Modern Mephistopheles was deemed too sensational for publication when it was first written, Alcott pushed to have it published after the success of Little Women gave her more bargaining power with the publishers.
Allison, Dorothy: Bastard out of Carolina This book is really good, but brutal.
Atwood, Margaret: The Blind Assassin I'm reading this one now, and quite enjoying it so far.
Next, there are a few more Margaret Atwood novels (of which I have already read A Handmaid's Tale, but haven't decided whether to re-read it or not), and then on to Jane Austen.
On an unrelated note, we had beautiful pies for pi day.
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[20 Jan 2008|09:42am] |
Ummm, right. So I'm in Italy again. I put some pictures online.
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| Seattle plans |
[19 Dec 2007|08:42am] |
Hi all,
So here are my plans for the next couple evenings:
Wed (tonight): Cards around 8:00, location TBA. Let me know if you are interested in joining.
Thu: College Inn, 8:00. Drop by if you are around!
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Ahh, Seattle. I missed the rain. Really I did.
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[23 Nov 2007|01:53pm] |
I am now the proud owner of a tandem bicycle.
so! excited!
Now i just need to find someone to ride it with me...
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[22 Nov 2007|11:36pm] |
So... stuffed...
Just took the BART home from thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house in the city, and on my way out of the BART station, i ran into a group of people playing bicycle polo (?) in the parking lot. Stopped to watch for a few minutes, then continued on my way. Couldn't help but smile, though, at a bunch of kids on fixies wielding mallets.
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[21 Nov 2007|11:08pm] |
This thanksgiving, i am thankful for:
- Loved ones, near and far -- the amazing friends i am so lucky to have in my life
- Food -- delicious, nourishing, fundamental
- My job -- which allows me to study fascinating things, go wonderful places and meet amazing people (really, i mean wow!)
- Endings and beginnings -- two sides of the same coin, sometimes painful, but necessary to the progression of life
- My cats -- the adorable little miscreants
- The view from the lab of the sunset over San Fransisco -- lucky lucky lucky me
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| Two firsts |
[15 Nov 2007|12:27am] |
Two firsts for me tonight:
1. Yoga - Never really done yoga before, but I went with a friend to a bikram yoga class tonight and it felt really good. I feel like i did quite well, owing largely to instincts acquired during years of childhood ballet training, but i had serious difficulty due to the heat. The room felt like it was about 100 degrees, and extremely humid. I suppose the heat relaxes the muscles, but there were points in the class when I felt really faint. But after the class, my muscles felt great, and I was ravenously hungry, which was a wonderful feeling because I have had very little appetite for the past week or so.
2. Drag king show! - Went with a couple friends to the weekly drag king show at the White Horse, which was awesome! I can't believe I haven't been before, esp. because it is only a few blocks from my house. Why is gender performance so fascinating? Ahh, but it is past my bedtime now and i have Italian class in the morning, so I am going to say goodnight!
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| Some things, briefly. |
[16 Oct 2007|11:29pm] |
It's been too long since i updated this thing last, but here are some things that have happened:
-Contemplating a trip up to Seattle Dec. 5-9th for my sister's culinary school finale, but can't decide if i can justify taking off during the last week of classes and the expense of the plane ticket.
-The rainy season has begun again, abruptly, which means the return of my sworn enemies, the ants.
-I've been to some good shows lately, specifically Girlyman, who were new to me, but quite good, and Stereo Total. The Stereo Total show was a while ago, but they were, as I had expected, a really fun band to see live. Bretzel's crazy antics on stage played off Françoise's drier humor and lent an energy to the show that was really unique. Plus, I ended up onstage (along with a good fraction of the audience) when they invited us to dance with them during the encores (much to the dismay of the flustered security guards at the somewhat snooty club). And the band that opened for them, The Octopus Project, had a really good theremin player!
-The girl is taking me to the Gaskell Halloween Ball (one of 6 yearly victorian ballroom dances held by Ye Gaskell Occasional Dance Society). We went thrift-store shopping and found an amazing vintage tailcoat IN MY SIZE at the Buffalo Exchange in the mission for $15, but the catch is that the fabric used to line the lapels had aged poorly and was in tatters. So we (ok, mostly she) are fixing it up (exciting!), and meanwhile I'm starting to get worried about the prospect of death by overheating from dancing for four hours wearing a wool tuxedo.
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[31 Jul 2007|11:52am] |
I have accomplished something that I am rather proud of since coming to Italy. In the past 2 weeks, I learned how to drive a stick-shift. I think i've had a kind of a mental block about this ever since my abortive attempt to learn on the old pick-up truck my father briefly owned back when I was in high school. I had somehow accepted that it was one of those things I just can't do. But actually, it came surprisingly quickly. Each time I went driving, I noticed a dramatic, gratifying improvement. After my 5th lesson from generous colleagues, I went to L'Aquila, rented a car, and drove it back to the lab.
Previously, I had just accepted that driving in Europe was basically off-limits to me. But it is a remarkable sense of freedom to know that if I needed to, I could now drive basically any car, anywhere in the world.
Of course, my driving is still a little rough... I'm not always sure which gear I should be in, and I sometimes forget to step on the clutch when starting the engine (which makes a HORRIBLE noise), and I really start to sweat when someone stops close behind me on a steep hill. But basically, I can drive a stick-shift, which is an extremely useful skill to have in Italy.
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It is my 4th time ever driving a stick-shift; I am in the car of my friend and co-worker. She has insisted that today we must drive on real roads, since tomorrow I am to rent a car of my own. Until now, I have been practicing in an enormous parking lot at the foot of the mountains. It has a helicopter landing circle painted in the middle, and on various days when I have been there, it has harbored sunbathers, joggers, a naked man in a trailer, other student drivers and once, a man with a parafoil and a huge propeller strapped to his back who ran across the parking lot and, incredibly, took off and flew away into the distance.
But now we are on the highway, the twisting mountain highway which leads through several small villages and eventually to L'Aquila. I am nervous, driving slowly and tentatively around each sharp, blind corner. Drivers are piling up behind me, and occasionally passing recklessly despite the lack of visibility on the road.
"Should I turn around now?" I ask hopefully.
"Ok, if you want you can turn around," she says, "Just pull off when you see a good spot."
We are in Camarda now, and after missing a few good opportunities, I make a turn onto a steep, narrow street leading up into the village and pull off awkwardly into a little parking area. I see immediately that this was a poor choice. I am wedged in at a funny angle and the ground slopes steeply under the car. "Time to practice starting on a hill," I say. I promptly kill the engine. Some people walking down the road ahead look curiously at us as they pass. I kill the engine again. I take a deep breath.
"I can do it if you need me to," she says, then, laughing, "Half of Camarda is watching."
I laugh too, and look back over my shoulder. I immediately wish that I hadn't. Ten or so men are standing around at the bus stop at the bottom of the hill watching us, clearly amused. "No, I can do it," I say, gritting my teeth.
I start the car and swing into a sharp U-turn to go back to the highway. The car will just barely make the turn in the narrow street. But as the car begins to swing around, a tiny, impossibly frail old man steps into the road; stooped over his cane, he inches across the road. As I stop the car again to wait, we burst into laughter, laughter that lasts past the old man, past the jeering men at the bus stop, down the highway, and all the way back to the lab.
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[22 Jul 2007|05:26pm] |
today in colors:
tan for the dusty dry fields
silver green for the olive leaves
today in numbers:
200 kilometers
36 degrees C
4 liters of water
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| Photos |
[16 Jul 2007|01:28pm] |
Gran Sasso
The seaside
Brussels
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[14 Jul 2007|03:57pm] |
Just got back from spending the day at a beautiful beach on the adriatic sea, about a 40 minute drive from gran sasso. the sand was white and fine, the warm water sapphire blue; bright umbrellas dotted the beach full of darkly tanned italians becoming darker. "everyone" was there. A canadian girl and i studyed italian from a 1974-edition textbook that she found in the office. A serious-looking russian boy in a jaundiced speedo stood around solemnly, his genitals protruding grotesquely in a way that both disgusted and fascinated me, so that i could not stop looking.
We bathed, we swam, we lay around on the sandy beach and ate fruit, the sand gritting in our teeth.
Now my skin and hair are covered with dust and salt residue which makes them slightly sticky, like the skin of a ripe honeydew melon. My skin is splotchy with pink streaks where i missed the sunscreen, mostly on my thighs, and a bit on my torso, but the worst are the tops of my feet, just at the ankle. they are a tender bright pink, and, though they have been out of the light for several hours, burn as though still being scorched by the rays of a phantom sun. this will be very unpleasant tomorrow when i have to put on my safety shoes and go into the tunnel. But now i am relaxed and contented, and ready for bed.
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[07 Jul 2007|07:06pm] |
Well, i'm in Brussels visiting my ex-roomate from Giessen, Thierry (previously referred to in this journal as My Dear Roomate, MDR) before committing myself to a month of shift at the lab in Italy with no days off. I am quite enjoying Brussels so far. It seems like an interesting city, very international, being the de facto capital of the EU. Most of Thierry's friends that I have met here speak german (being EU-employed polyglots), which has lightened the language strain a bit, though it is still very difficult to keep track of which language should be coming out of my mouth at any given time.
The weather here is very strange. Strong, gusty wind precipitates mercurial changes in weather, from sunny and hot to cold dark and raining in a matter of minutes. It is very difficult to figure out how to dress, though I guess i'm a master of bay-area layering tactics by now.
Yesterday I went to a museum of musical instruments, which was cool (lots of really beautiful instruments), but disappointing because it was not nearly as good as it could have been (poor organization, little supplementary information about history, fabrication, function, etc.) With such an amazing collection, i think the museum has the potential to be really great, but fell frustratingly short.
Thierry lives just off of the longest street in Brussels, which, in my usual style, I have walked nearly the entire length of in the course of getting lost. Twice. Yesterday carrying two heavy bags of groceries, no less.
Went to a fabulous drag show last night Chez Maman. Danced like there was ass in our pants, and today I am sore sore sore (between the dancing, getting lost carrying heavy luggage, and getting lost carrying heavy groceries, i have reason to be sore). But, i'm having a great time, and i think we're leaving in a minute to go get dinner, so i'll leave it here.
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| College Inn Friday |
[16 May 2007|06:55pm] |
OK kids, College Inn this Friday at 9:00. Be there or be... dodecahedral?
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