Stuff from December, 2005
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on December, 2005.
Hello, Camera
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on December, 2005.
WBGO - The best Jazz station around today. A wonderful “listen online” tool means you don’t have to live in New York to enjoy. I listened to this through many hours of cat dissection in anatomy and physiology.
Anechoic Chamber - The first ever built. When you sit in one of these rooms, you can hear your nervous system and circulatory system.
Time without updating the website sure flies when you are busy with school. That said, I am indeed busy with school. I have to hand it to mother nature, though - today is a perfect winter day. Big fluffy flakes have been gently falling all day, the air is cold but not too windy, Christmas music from the little cafe in the science building can be heard echoing off the concrete floors, spreading cheer to floors above and below. I will be doing homework between now and the beginning of Christmas break, but nevertheless I am sure something exciting will happen to me that I will be able to write about. In the meantime, here’s a quick Dane Cook bit I had to type. (My favorite is the part about the exhaust.)
Ghost Writer - Who remembers this from when they were growing up? It could not have been that good … but memories, people.
I think Alex Oray summed up the zeitgeist of school right now:
How many opportunities does a person get to bomb 2 exams back to back? Cherish every moment folks.
True insight, he has.
Looking through my mirrors hung on the bulletin board attached to my desk. Pointless.
Hard to get a good picture of “it’s snowing out.”
Pronounce GIF correctly, dangit - I was right!
For some reason, this picture makes me laugh. I see a first-person video with a bike as the protagonist in the works.
The Reindeer Run is an awesome 5K costumed run every year in early December, with an official “Ho Ho Go” by Santa, etc. I was sick this year, but had still signed up, so I got the lovely race paraphenalia.
I always liked the typography and graphic design on this little label. I find myself sometimes more interested in the materials, artificial aging, graphis, and fonts of the labels of these clothes than I do the clothes themselves - these people really know how to brand.
Best Firefox skin I have used in some time - Apple’y, customizable, light colored. A great replacement since my GraphiteFox theme is outdated.
The closest I ever came to dying was over two years ago. Like many teenage near-death experiences, this one was entirely unexpected and so quickly recovered from that it barely registered as a blip on my adolescent radar screen. And yet, looking back now, I can frame the event in my mind: an inch or two one way, a half second more slowly or quickly, and I would exist either in a vegetative state or as a memory of existence, whose tenure on earth would be marked in cold marble on a sunny hill near a church in Woodbury.
Turbo Minivan - I’d just like to point out how unbelievably cool it is that this guy turbocharged the same model as my first car: an old-school 1980s Dodge Caravan / Plymouth (Chrysler) Voyager.
My watch: a little rough around the edges, but it gets me where I need to go.
Cufflinks out of NYC tokens - Very cool. Way too overpriced.
My ceiling is Cretin’s roof, so the 45 degree angled windows collect a lot of ice and snow. Sometimes, a peak of sunlight comes through.
Tanker bag - A bag made from the cloth used for nautical sails. Therefore, ridiculously strong. Way overpriced.
I. Am. So.
Stupid.
The flash is usually very harsh, so I filtered it through two sheets of printer paper, which seems to be about the perfect thickness for softening.
Charlie Brown Christmas - Every year I tell you to watch this. This year should be no different. It’s on Friday, the 16th of December.
Thought I’d toss in a little summer to brighten your winter.
Yesterday, while biking at a furious pace to check-out a book and photocopy it in time for a noon deadline, I found myself skidding almost completely sideways for 20 feet at 19 miles an hour. My bike tilted from the normal 90 degrees to the ground in slow motion. 80 degrees. 70 degrees. As it did so, my brain managed to register the high pitch squealing coming from my tires, a squeal which was abruptly stopped when my pedal slammed into the ground and bounced me back to a normal, upright riding position. I laughed nervously, and continued biking.
Spaghetti made by Ryan, assembled by Mykala. Thanks guys!
Crazy Japanese Case - Beautiful, with a bamboo water color, hand fit joints, and shoji doors. Phenomenal.
I think I got this when I got my tonsils out.
These were a gift from my mom to my sister and me (is that correct English?) I know mine (the one not wearing blush) will go on my Christmas tree.
Hollywood’s commentary on current events is doomed to be packaged into a format that will sell tickets, avoid details required to truly make points, and a feeling of detachment due to the time required to make a movie. Nevertheless, if a standard could exist by which films could model their political statements, Syriana would be a good start. Certainly, I will have to see it again when it comes out on video to fully understand (or at least make a better attempt at fully understanding) what is going on in the movie’s plot.
C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, never wanted his books turned into movies. Who can blame him? Was the cinematic technology really present any time other than now to bring his world to life? (I don’t know the answer to that, but the rhetorical question sounded cool, and asking questions sure is easier than answering them). Anyhow. Having read the Chronicles of Narnia twice, once as a rather young lad, the descriptive word “beloved” certainly rings true to my ears. Let me back up a few paces and describe to you how I ended up seeing the movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
This guy has been hated by some and loved by many over the years - I made him out of candy and marshmallows in something like third grade, and he has since hardened into a mass of sugar that just doesn’t seem to decay. He received a place of honor towards the front of the Christmas tree this year: other years he has been relegated to the back of the tree.
The couple who advertise the presence of bathrooms has begun dating - And they are holding hands. Aww.
While waiting for my ear appointment today … wait a second, I’ll digress for a minute. Dr. Wilson has been treating my ears since I was two years old. He has, over the years, pulled my tonsils, adenoids, put in ear tubes (none of which I remember), fixed the hole that would’t heal from the ear tubes, and monitored my ears since that hole opened back up. I hear the phrase “could you write down a 1-2% TPM perforation” at regular sixth month intervals. There has always been hope of this healing, and right now it looks like my left ear, holy for all this time, just may be on the mend. Fantastic news for someone (me) who has always wanted to pursue things like water skiing and diving, but has always been hindered by the requisite ear protection. Maybe I’m just making excuses for myself. Regardless. While I was waiting for this appointment, I read the Newsweek cover story on anorexia from the December 5th issue. The article itself was nothing earth-shattering: a lot of personal stories and a point to a paradigm shift in the diagnosis; parents are no longer being blamed as “causing” the illness.
I was one of the three people in the United States who had not yet read the book The Da Vinci Code, and so as a part of my mission to not suck at life this Christmas break, I decided to read it. Also, the remaining two people who have not yet read the book are probably under enormous peer pressure to just read it and get it other with … my apologies to you both. That said, the reading has only lasted an intense couple of days. I casually opened up the book to read a few chapters, and suddenly it was somewhere after 3am, and I was 250 pages in. My mind was certainly thirsty for some novel’age after the textbooks I have been buried in, but the book also happens to take a deathly tight grip on your mind, compelling you to turn page after page and pound through to the conclusion. My expectations were high, yet vague: I avoided even reading the book jacket description so that my experience would be as the author intended; unbiased, greenhorned, vaguely interested. This tactic paid off. Case in point: after hearing the ending to Million Dollar Baby, I still haven’t watched it. Not so with this book … oooh no. I had absolutely effin’ no idea what to expect upon cracking the cover, and was thrilled to be sucked in to a web of thrillingly thrillingsten thrillful plots … the way vacuums suck up dirt or the souls of the authors of bad analogies. Whew, I really can’t write tonight.
I have all the music required to host one effing cool dance party. Ideally, the event would incorporate the best of hip hop and euro dance music, opening the eyes (well, ears) of people on both sides of the dance music spectrum. There are some tracks by ATB, certainly one Oakenfold, some PvD, and others that I would love to share with a dance floor. I’ve got the amps and the speakers … and with a borrowed projector shooting iTunes visualizations onto a wall, things could be pretty sweet. I am missing, however, a critical part of this equation. And don’t say “people willing to attend.” I’m missing a venue. Slot this into the equation, budget a hundred bucks for miscellaneous ephemeral costs, get a group with the right dynamics together, and we’ve got ourselves a sweet sweet night ahead. Folks in the country generally do stuff like this in barns, which makes a whole pile of sense: no noise violations, a big space that is easily cleaned up, and parking galore.
The neighbor’s lights cast a warm glow over the snow.
My grandpa turned 80 yesterday. I always thought it would be a bit of a bummer to have your birthday combined with Christmas like that … the celebration would be so concentrated in one part of the year. “Bup” as we affectionately call him, is my only grandparent remaining, I hope he is with us for many Christmases to come.
Our home tree, bought right after we moved in … in late December of 1990. It is holding up well after all these years.
Shure E4c Headphones - The better you fit earphones in your ears, the lower the volume can be.
I think some day it would be nice to have colleges have programs, very strong programs, in this sort of user interface but with a very humanist attitude point of view, and start playing around with new approaches. Some year, some decade, it might just come into the popular conscious to start making things more beautiful for people.
Well, it’s been one heck of a ride this year, folks. The site received a complete overhaul, a long-anticipated digital picture section, and recently some ads to test out a new revenue stream. No, I don’t anticipate tumbledry “selling out” in the near future - we don’t get enough traffic to do that. But running a website still costs money, and we aim to offset that wherever possible. This year I blew up my first stuff in summer chemistry lab (the glass top of a sep funnel), drank my first cup of coffee (black), ran my first almost-sub 20 minute 5k (20:08 i think), had my first weird knee injury (still have to get that looked at), saw my first cross-dresser in person (at Whole Foods), got my first iPod (thanks, everyone!), grew my hair out long for the first time (it was curly), ate my first crab (less than 24 hours old, shipped chilled), and dissected my first cat (more fun than I would have thought).