Category Archives: true life 2004

I'm cancelling the rest of the month.

I’ll be back here around the beginning of April, and maybe I’ll have repaired the archives by then. Maybe not.

Thanks for the nice notes, I’m still checking email and I think I’ve almost caught up with my replies. I can’t type much at a time, so don’t be offended if you get back 10 words when normally you’d get a manifesto. Nothing personal.

It’s been strange making this sudden transition to being unmoored, totally dependent on other people for everything, and now it has grown very likely that I will soon be without health insurance. I’ve officially withdrawn from grad school and shelved all my projects, but I guess the upside of being this sick is that I don’t miss any of these things right now. It could be much worse, however, and I know that. I do have to say that the motto of the British Arthritis Research Campaign is quite brilliantly on the mark: Arthritis may not kill you but it can take your life.

I’ll be back when I’m (hopefully) feeling a bit better, or at least feeling less sorry for myself – I know a large part of that is the horrendous array of awful drugs I have to take, and then the horrendous array of drugs I have to take to cope with the side effects of the primary drugs.

In the meantime, go watch the Happy Tree Friends.

children

As you might have noticed, I’m irritated by Yuppie children who are encouraged to do whatever they want whenever they want no matter where they are so as not to stifle their giftedness – and make no mistake, they are all gifted, even the one eating cat poop over by the oak tree.

Lingering at the pharmacy, I realized that the other species of children – the demonically well-mannered children – frighten and annoy me just as much as the self-actualizing hellions. It’s not the Eddie Haskell factor, they seem genuinely extremely well-mannered, but they annoy me. And scare me.

Actually, when I say “they” I mean all of them. All children are equally frightening and annoying, and the amount of snot and other mucous-based substances they can produce in a short amount of time is mind-boggling, but that’s a whole other post.

Aside from being a viable source of protein, what purpose do the little beasts serve?

is somebody making sure they dress themselves properly?

“See Astrophysicists in Captivity”. I see them in captivity every day (when I’m working), so I know that what lies behind this link could be really frightening.

It turns out that, unbeknownest to me at least, the American Museum of Natural History had an exhibit called SCIENCE LIVE: THE RACE TO DECODE THE HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD IMAGE, which they described as:

Science Live: The Race to Decode the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image offers the public an unprecedented opportunity to watch competitive space science in action, as teams of astrophysicists from the American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University, and Stony Brook University race to decode strange space objects revealed in a newly released Hubble Space Telescope image. These image and the data behind it will be released to the New York-based teams, along with the public and scientists worldwide, on Tuesday, March 9, 2004.

Surrounded by racks of computers and working against a backdrop of the spectacular new image displayed on the Museum’s 16′ x 9′ Astrobulletin, the Science Live astrophysicists will crunch numbers and debate around the clock in an attempt to be the first to publish results. Scientists will provide progress reports for the public daily throughout this weeklong event.

[more]

I think the idea is interesting and I’m sure I’d find the exhibit fascinating. And, from the pictures, it appears that everyone remembered to put on their pants and shoes so that’s a plus.

What concerns me deeply, however, is that close examination of the site photos fails to reveal the most important component needed for this kind of work: a coffee maker (preferably an espresso machine). That’s just flat-out dangerous to everyone involved.

Should we have been exposing children to potentially uncaffeinated scientists? It’s a terrifying question with chilling implications.
—–
EXTENDED BODY:

I’m teasing. I love astrophysicists as much as physicists. They really do throw swingin’ parties.

the unicorn song

I was bored with WPFW and scanning radio stations when I landed on the classic rock station, which was playing the Rovers cover of that American Irish pub favorite, Shel Silverstein’s Unicorn Song.

As if this wasn’t odd and amusing enough, I realized when the last chorus started that many people in surrounding cars were sort of dancing along. In their cars. And presumably sober.

I was near tears watching the Boomers act out “cats and rats and elephants” as they waited for the light to change. I think it may well have been the single weirdest (and funniest) thing I’ve ever seen while driving to work.

hello ganesha

Yesterday I left work and went to the one place in town that I can always count on for peace, the Sackler Museum of Art.

It was bedlam.

I’ve never seen that many people there. Not even cumulatively in the history of the museum have that many people been there, let alone visiting all at once. It was a horrible, loud, perfume-drenched crush of old ladies – several busloads of them from the looks of it.

I was extremely agitated when I got home. Husband suggested that there was a Buddhist lesson to be learned from the whole experience, but the best I could come up with was “Never turn into one of those.” I don’t think that’s what he meant at all.

This morning, because he’s such a swell kid, Husband took me back to the museum (such a luxury to live less than 10 minutes away, I know) and we enjoyed the Himalayas with far fewer disturbances. Better hurry, it leaves January 11th and you’ll be sorry you missed it if you don’t go.