Administration
Happy birthday to doeeyedbunny and eyewrist!

Medical
Exhausted/achy, but being out and about for 13 straight hours will do that to you. Especially if you are wearing boots that aren't the greatest (but they are waterproof, which was necessary) and you're stomping about in heavy snow ---> heavy rain with heavy wind and struggling to hold onto your umbrella.

Phew.

Today
Work 9-1, tabling at the MA Conference for Women from 1:30-3:30 - possibly tabling at South Station from 4-6, if they still need people. Apartment hunting with mnfiddledragon this evening. Read: I will not be on the internets til like 10pm again, just FYI.

This may or may not be so tomorrow; depends on FiddleDragon's apartment-hunting schedule. But it won't be the norm. Most days, I'll be online around 2, 3.

And on that note, must dash - schedule requires lunch to be a peanut butter sammich, and those do not make themselves.

Current temp 4°F
Windh Chill -12°F
Winds 17 mph, gusting to 28

Happy Birthday, riverheart!

Michelle Obama is Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of 2009.

Almost a year since the Obama family moved to Washington, D.C., the first lady reflected on the transition to the White House.

"It has been a whirlwind. But it's been amazing," she told Walters. "I mean, if you think about this year, I had to get these two beautiful girls settled into a new city, into a new home, into a new school. We got a dog. I visited eight countries with my husband. I planted a garden. I've started a mentoring program. It has been everything. And now, here we are at our first Christmas in the White House."

The Rest Here

Of all the paintings by this artist I have seen, this one is the best. He often painted wild flower strewn, unpeopled landscapes around Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County. This one shows people working the land. It has a subtitle: When Hearts Beat As One. This painting is pretty striking on the wall. I only showed about the center third of the painting. The two figures are dwarfed in the expanse of wheat. HERE is the whole painting.


The Mowers, 1907.



oil on canvas
Granville Redmond, Californian, 1871 - 1935.

Eskimo was adopted! Yay!! I didn't even have a chance to write about him yet! Recently, I spent so much time with the FIV colonies (where Eskimo lived) that I didn't have time to spend in the Willow Room (where Goody Goody lived.) But, I went through the Willow Room on my way to Maple and Magnolia and I gave the cats that wanted attention a little bit of love. Goody Goody was one of them. And then I read tonight on the Scratching Post that she was adopted! Yay!!

The winter blast approaches and we should be in the sub-zeros overnight and tomorrow. In Eskimo, "pirsuk" means "snowstorm." It's just something I know. *snort*

Also, today I was in Jewel (or Albertson's in other parts yonder) in line at the checkout aisle when the gentleman ahead of me took a Coke Zero from the cooler next to us. So I asked him, as I've been meaning to try it, if it really tastes a lot like Coke. He said it tastes exactly like Coke, not like Diet Coke at all. This is high praise and promising. So I bought a 16 ounceCoke Zero. A bit later, on the bus, I pulled out the Zero and took a sip. OMG, the diet-y, fake-sweet-y taste exploded on my tongue! EW!! Tonight, I found THIS SITE. Check out the TWO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS in Coke Zero. I certainly won't be buying it again. 'Cause, EW.

Today I put down my deposit on an apartment in Treme, juuuuuust in from I-10. I'm excited about moving back to the New Orleans area (this summer I lived out in St. Bernard parish, and my new job is in Arabi) and life in Treme. Is anyone a current or former resident of Treme? Any tips or favorite places to check out? Blogs by Treme residents? In case my username doesn't make it obvious, I'm from the Mississippi Gulf Coast but I've lived all over the country, and overseas in Istanbul.

Um. "'Ugly' Betty" gets all the guys.

...Just sayin'.

Yesterday we had snow, then rain

Today we had rain, then snow

There was a snowstorm today, the first of the year. I hope that there will be more snowstorms this year. It won’t be any fun if climate change causes the snow to be replaced by rain and ice storms. ~ The snowfall was enough to make driving more interesting but not enough to shut down the city. It will have to snow a lot more than this to make the front page.

Today I went downtown to have my vaccination against the now-fading threat of swine flu. The news reports say that the second wave of flu has peaked and this has prompted the city to scale back on its free injection sites. However it would be a mistake to assume that because fewer people are getting flu now means that it is no longer a threat. Winter is just getting started and I think that the flu could still reappear before spring.

I had to make an appointment at the allergy clinic at the hospital to receive the eggless vaccination because I am allergic to egg-based vaccine. This is a specialized vaccine and they don’t just give it out to anyone. I had to demonstrate that I had a chronic medical condition that necessitated this injection and for this I had to get a consult referral from my compassionate hematologist. I was surprised to learn that the eggless vaccine does not have the same shelf life after being opened as the regular vaccine, so any that is not used during the day has to be thrown out. I was also surprised to learn that far fewer of the egg allergy sufferers have received the injection.

I was told that regular flu vaccine would be available in mid-January and the hospital would notify me when it was ready. Until then I have to stay away from crowds for ten to fourteen days until the present vaccination has roused enough response from my body to give me immunity.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/shorpy/~3/3fM6TprhiE8/7256

http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/footpowder.asp

About a mayoral election won by a foot powder.

but thus far, they've been arriving eventually.
c'est la guerre.

Just got back from seeing the single screening of Act of God which I loved. Also saw Lars Von Trier's Antichrist TWICE since Friday -- a profoundly gorgeous and harrowingly beautiful film. However, due to life's complications I just do not have time to write about movies right now, but I'll write them both up next week. Too many movies I've seen this year have slipped away from me before I wrote about them. I do not intend to let that happen with either of these, but for now, I just need to get through the next two days of work and other obligations. It's an insane time of year for everyone. I'm going to breathe deep and not even attempt to write until things slow down. And I'm not going to beat myself up about it either. I'll catch up next week.

...because I am medicated and what to read a bit more of The Devil's Alphabet before I conk out, because it is verra good indeed...

Job = awesome. One cannot underestimate the awesomeness of
a) actively working to make the world a better place
b) doing exactly what you ought to be doing and are passionate about
c) getting paid to do stuff you've been doing/would do for free
d) having a wonderful friendly workplace
And with this job, I have all of the above. WIN.

...also I feel a bit like a celebrity, as apparently my Gala speech made an Impact. I think that was my real job interview!

Weather = heinous. Soaked to the skin, umbrella blowing inside out over and over. Chores should've been fun. This made them hell.

Read a good book at Peet's, though, and started another at Starbucks, waiting out the rain.

New volunteer info session/interviews = also good. This is a thing I'll be running from now on. Volunteer coordination is part of the job.

Getting home at 9:30, twelve and a half hours after leaving home = not so fun. But that's an unusual circumstance.

Tomorrow I have two back to back tablings after work, but they may not need me at the second, in which case HOME. And then helping mnfiddledragon on ApartmentQuest '09.

For now? Bed plz kthx.

a quiet sort of guy.

So I'm working a paper on external sandhi for my linguistics class, and I figured I should touch on it in Sanskrit since 1) sandhi's namesake is from Sanskrit and 2) Sanskrit is famous for having tons of sandhi. I am including examples of actual phrases in which sandhi has occurred, but I am having trouble translating them because there is no glossing and my knowledge of actual Sanskrit vocabulary is null. Could anyone possibly tell me what the following phrases mean? (They are also romanized only because I can't read devanagari and it's way easier to look at phonology in the romanization, at least for me)

aśvinoṣásam (aśvinā uṣásam)
aśvinā (aśvinā ā)
śamitéva (śamitā́ iva)

I just read an article that someone at meeting shared with a few of us about depression. It's a personal reflection, and the author goes on a bit about how everyone she's known who have been depressed have, like her, found it hard to get out of bed and sleep in.

My sleep dysfunction goes the other way. I want to go to bed. I think part of the mental construct is that i've "failed" at today, let's just get it over with.

I think i will go to sleep and (in my classic fashion) get up early. I know i feel guilty about not writing a document: i won't have it written before work, either. (There, i set a reasonable expectation.)

Remaining awake, however, isn't going to be productive. I shan't sit here and refresh LJ then FB then twitter then LJ over and over. (In grad school, Usenet was *perfect* for cycling through. By the time i'd finished all my news groups, there were fresh articles in the alt.* groups.)

Oh.
My.
God.

Peeps store opens near D.C.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/shorpy/~3/WfTumodF2Tw/7278