Stuff from June, 2009
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on June, 2009.
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on June, 2009.
I’ve been thinking rather strongly about starting a team for the Twin Cities Breast Cancer 3-Day. This summer, it is from August 21-23. Let me know if any of you all are interested; I can think of no better way to spend three days.
Some might say
We’d be better off searching
For an eternity of happiness
Wading through the detritus of our own minds
I would posit the opposite
That, seizing that which
Presents itself to us
Brings us home
To hear the earth-shattering chord
Is to hear nothing at all
For the power of it springs from within
Nodding off in the library while reading operative dentistry is not such a bad thing. However, dreaming followed by waking up to some vocalization that you yourself are making is extremely not recommended. This technique does, however, earn you a row of study carrels free of people.
And now, some real poetry. SCENE III. A room in PETRUCHIO’S house.:
Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father’s
Even in these honest mean habiliments:
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor;
For ‘tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his fathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
It’s raining outside (without thunder) and Mykala is gone on a long Iowa dance working trip, followed closely by a camping trip. When she’s back, we’ll be close close to our wedding wedding. In the meantime, I just wish she was here… we’ve been enjoying the too-short minutes we’ve had together lately, and this is quite the unwelcome interruption. I’ll go on and finish the last of my summer classes, and she’ll take care of work things.
REALLY, RADIOLOGY? REALLY? These notes are telling me about the UNATTENDED PARKING LOTS for occupancy factors?!
What is an “UNATTENDED ELEVATOR”?
AHHHHHHHHHHH!
The website of Nick Disabato (aka nickd) is the second link post I ever made from this website (that would’ve been back in the middle of 2002). In fact, his was the first blog I ever read regularly. I think that would’ve been around late 1998. Back then, he had this dark brown design (before dark brown was a popular color for t-shirts and websites) with some pixellated video game characters at the top, and he was funny. He was this geeky kid with curly hair who lived in the Chicago suburbs, built his own computer, and was transitioning from high school to college. Reading nickd.org was a strange thing since I was only accustomed to chatting online, requiring constant attention. In a chat, there is an actual, live conversation in real time. In contrast, reading blogs catches you up with other’s lives whenever you have time to spare. I see Facebook as a standardization of that communication format — instead of visiting 20 websites to check on 20 friends, you just load up Facebook and soak in the information overload. (For the record, I’m posting anything I want to save permanently here at tumbledry, and disposable nonsense at Facebook. I hope to be around here at tumbledry long after Facebook has evolved into something less useful.) Anyhow, reading nickd’s blog, I was experiencing for the first time that weird juxtaposition of intensely personal content yet highly public delivery that blogs and most forms of online expression have. The concept is aptly summarized in the title of comedian Mike Birbiglia’s blog: My Secret Public Journal.
Now he pulls the needle out. Puts this thing in your mouth.
This will suck up your face.
This dentist goes outside to laugh at you. And you sit, grown up, intelligent human being, arguing with this thing.
“Work-life balance” - Wikipedia:
In the 1920s, the workers were coaxed into believing that they wanted to work longer hours and that they would be harmed by measures that limited how many hours they were allowed to work. Social scientists would later name this force the “gospel of consumption.” Beginning in the 1920s, advertisers persuaded Americans that happiness would not come from leisure time, but from purchasing commodities, and he concluded that this made it easier for managers to “allow” workers to make more money by working longer hours. Social scientists would conclude that a new work ethic began as Americans left the psychology of scarcity and adopted one of abundance. Some argue that this mentality of consumption or “consumerism” persists to this day.
Tomorrow is the last day of dental school before my longest break for my entire 4 year tenure: 10 weeks! 10 consecutive, glorious weeks without having to go to school. Later summer breaks are substantially shorter… about 3 weeks at most.
The forecast for my last day of school? 93°F. And thunderstorms.
Poll time! First movie of summer vacation: Pride and Prejudice (2005), Wedding Crashers (2005), or Blade Runner: Final Cut?
As promised: extremely heartening piece declaring online social networking as the beginning of the end of conspicuous consumption, and the start of something significantly more environmentally sustainable. Conspicuous, but not Consuming, by Stephen Linaweaver:
An interesting snippet I saw today in a wonderful illustrated piece in the Times about Thomas Jefferson:
Time wastes too fast: every letter
I trace tells me with what rapidity life follows my pen. The days and hours
of it are flying over our heads like clouds of a windy day never to return
A bit on Moving Apartments and the End of the Semester ‘09 soon. In the meantime:
Attn Rupert. Chris Rupert. Josh Womack’s crazy bat skills at Long Beach Armada 2009 Training Camp:
Womack’s ability to swing the bat around and catch it again are only surpassed by his sharp wit. After he realized camp had stopped down to watch him, pitcher Jose Lima yelled out “nice pants!” to which Womack replies “Nice face.” ZING! Should be a great season.