things that make me happy

an unsorted sampling

really smart humor; preferred modes are sad, bitter, violent, sardonic, or--above all--filled with childlike wonder
being alone, or mostly alone, in the middle of nowhere--desert or mountains
ocean
outside
sunsets
rain
the smell of conifers
fine sand in my toes
oranges
Nietzsche
anywhere smelling like Indian food, but especially my house
Indian food
garam masala
blueberries
blood oranges
Kafka
Aurthur Grumeaux solos
Yo-yo Ma
Piano
Harps
vampire stories
chocolate muffins
almonds
running
road trips
ballet
spinach
crunchy lettuce
lavender
fresh herbs
rosebushes
neiflings
being barefoot
snow
running
yoga
Bartenief
Crime and Punishment
The Little Prince
Vesper Holly
dear friends
the Prydain chronicles
sleep
sunlight
moonlight
trees
New cities
intelligent plays
concerts
long walks at night
architecture
sharp, rich, mild, or smoky cheeses
mushrooms
brussels sprouts
fresh peaches
classical guitar
libraries
new books
old books
books in general
jujitsu
traveling
the SLC library
sex
writing
dance
swimming in spring water
quiet
endurance
movement that comes from music
movement that comes from breath
beautiful arguments
beautiful ideas
math
soft, cold, thick grass underfoot
peace
working hard
working as hard as I can
breaks
long breaks
cold filtered water
mint-beeswax lip balm
sharp pens
beautiful books
dance that supersedes all other activity or thought
good bread
precision
music
Shakespeare
poetry
being seen



Things that make me unhappy

children being hurt
waste

This was how I knew

that I wanted to go back to school: I no longer felt the need to burn an injunction to work into my skin.

And so it was that in the course of about 72 hours, I went from being one of the least busy people I know to one of the most. . . again.


Oh. . . wait.. . you wanted the bit that goes in between? I was recruited to join a competitive radical-leftist ethics/debate team. I will be obscenely busy till mid November.


On a different note, while terrible at commitments to myself, I am usually much better than this at keeping publicly announced commitments and commitments to others. In the future I shall try not to let this blog slip down that line. ;)

beautifully done

sometimes I love post secret.

Notes on eminent women

Taken from a biographical study of 30 “eminent women,” as described in chapter 4 of Smart Girls. While I don't particularly agree with her selections—not a huge fan of Gertrude Stein and Margret Mead—the results are interesting.

Eminent women had not necessarily had
-Consistent/good parenting—often at least one parent was absent or irresponsible
-Recognition of their talents in childhood
-A good education—many had spotty educations and many preformed well only in their specialties

Eminent women had had
-Time alone
-Voracious reading
-A sense of being different or special
-Individualized instruction
-Same sex education
-Difficult Adolescence
-Separateness and the ability to avoid confluence—strong sense of individual identity and goals, rather than identifying as relationship
-Taking existential responsibility for self—identify self as someone working on something, rather than as relationship
-Love through work--”first you must find your work; then you will find your love.”
-Refusal to acknowledge the limitations of gender
-Mentors
-Thorns and shells
-Integration of roles
-Ability to fall in love with an idea

a couple of favorite political images

from back in the day. . .

Two things

1) I do not often talk or write about quantum physics. This is because every scientist I've ever talked to in anything near that field says you really need to have all the math to understand it, and that descriptions for the lay public are uniformly crap. Therefore, I try not to reference any but the most commonly known facts, and to avoid having these as key to my arguments.

2) It turned out that I got ten minutes to ask Minch my questions, which was ok, because it was a pretty cool ten minutes, and basically the answer was, "read Pettit."

However, I did also find this article in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which doesn't entirely agree with the way Minch put it (philosophy can be that way) but is still pretty cool.

Three original jokes

composed by Taran Weathercolor:


What do you call a female supervillian?

a girlfiend!


What's poisonous to a clock?

tocktick.


What did the teenage zombie say after he wrecked his parent's car?

I'm dead.


Also, it's been an excellent day. :)