A few months ago, Tessa left a comment on this blog asking if it is dead.

Yes and no. My writer's block has combined with so many years of blogging here at the same place to leave me unable/unwilling/unwanting to update this one.

So I'm starting a new one: Kat in Oregon.

Pls update your bookmarks/RSS feeds/etc.

where in the world is osama bin laden?

morgan spurlock? motherfucking hero.

from nova's twitter the other day

"is anything more subversive than being an optimist in the face of harrowing adversity?"

i like it.

more posting later, quite likely. but for now, work to do.

forget r&r

what you really need when you're under the weather is b^3:

books and beer in a bath.

two thousand and what?

so suddenly it's a new year, i haven't blogged in decades, and i'm home early from work because the persistent cough i had over vacation has turned back into something that makes me not feel good; the hacking and the mild nausea from the post-nasal drip has left me completely exhausted. i managed to crawl from the bed to the couch around 8:30 this morning, and then proceeded to sleep until 10:30, roll into work around 11, and then leave promptly when i was done with all i needed to do (timepoint + group meeting) and take the bus home. i'm planning on hopping back into the sack for a few hours here in a second, but i thought i'd blog in the meanwhile, since i never seem to do that anymore.

2008. january. three times i've written and deleted this paragraph, and i just can't figure out what to say about 2008. i guess i'll just leave it at this: everything is lined up for a year of hard work that pays off. my goals for 2008: get into grad school, get at least one paper, and preferably 2 or more (plus a lead author one), accepted to a journal; maintain good relationships with all the amazing people i've met in the last year or four; and keep my fingers crossed for the right set of conditions to make another attempt at the mountain that kicked my ass last spring. in short: to do more of the things i'm constantly thinking about doing. will that apply to blogging? we'll see.

and now, since i'm far too tired and lazy to write more paragraphs about what i've been doing, i'm going to forgo sentence structure and just start listing things.

been reading:
middlesex, by jeffrey eugenides. (quite possibly the best book i've ever read; read it together with mutants by armand marie leroi for maximum impact)
night watch series, by sergei lukyanenko. just an awesome fantasy world, fun read but not fluffy.
do androids dream of electric sheep? by philip k. dick. not sure if i'll finish it; probably not dick's best story, but with the new cut of blade runner out i felt like i needed to at least give it a try....
requiem for a dream by hubert selby, jr. fucked up book. almost definitely won't finish it; almost as unitelligible as naked lunch. more readable to modern audiences than finnegan's wake though.

currently listening: live at kexp volume 3. it's good. you can't buy it anymore.

lots of new flickr photos up, but i'm too tired to go through them and post a few right now. expect some photoblog posts soon. in the meantime just go look at them if you want.

ok. i think it's naptime.

turkey day

thanksgiving was pretty successful, i'd have to say.

gregg cleans up alright, it turns out... despite all my worrying, he managed to come through and not just survive my family but even managed to impress them. Macallan scotch and being a closet Coug for the win.

all in all not a bad turkey day.

giving thanks

it's that holiday again, the one on which we are supposed to reflect and give thanks for all that we have. i have plenty to be thankful for, to be sure, this year more than others, it seems. i'll spare you the list, but needless to say i do not live a life of need.

this year, thanksgiving is going to be an adventure; not only am i bringing the new boyfriend to meet my family, but we are having a huge dinner with 18 people. i've never had a thanksgiving that large, and i'm not sure i've ever seen 18 people crammed into my grandparents' house, but it'll be fun.

we're going to have:
my grandparents (all 3 surviving)
my parents, my brother, my sister
myself, the boy
aunt and uncle (mom's older sister and her husband)
aunt, uncle and cousin (mom's younger brother, his wife and their 6-year-old)
aunt (dad's younger sister), her 11-year-old daughter
aunt's fiancee and his 24-year-old son.

and that's just the people, that's not the food. there'll be more than enough food, i hope.

should be interesting.

early november

and we're a third of the way through november now. past the midpoint between the equinox and the solstice, so more than a quarter of the way through the dark part of the year, and coming into the darkest. i kind of enjoy it, though, when it's pitch black by 5:45. except for the whole commuting in the dark thing... makes me glad i have good lights on my bike. (thanks in no small part to a certain someone who makes sure i am well illuminated.)

i've never been particularly prone to seasonal affective disorder; in fact, some of the deepest depths of my depression were during the summer. the lack of light doesn't seem to affect much other than my sleep schedule; however, with other factors at work on my sleep schedule these days i have found myself out of bed by 7:30 and out the door before 8:30 most mornings, instead of ignoring the alarm clock through 10 snooze cycles and bombing down the hill at 9:00, then pretending to be on time to work. plus, the mornings are still nice and light right now, so it's like i'm wasting daylight if i'm not up and at 'em before 8.

grad school application deadlines are rapidly approaching; i'm trying not to panic. they'll get done, i'm sure, it's just a matter of sitting down and writing. and filling out damn online forms. harvard wants not only a transcript, but also a form-based enumeration of all the classes i took in my major field of study, in related fields of study, and in mathematics. plus $90, by credit card, for the privilege of applying to their university. it is where i want to go, though, and i'm really excited by the research going on there, so I'll buck up and pay the fees. I'll just bitch and moan about it in the process.

it's a three day weekend, which is awesome, and which also means that my new sweetie and i will have a day off in common this weekend. this has never happened before; it should be fun.

and, completely unrelated, here's a picture from the latest episode in bicycle hooliganery: