muses
Nov. 9th, 2009
05:30 - despite the deaths it is clear in panel 2 that t-rex is still a bit excited about the whole idea
 | |||
archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about–  | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | November 9th, 2009 | next | |
Nov. 8th, 2009
19:15 - competing desert high speed rail
I just discovered that there are two projects independently trying to send high-speed rail from Las Vegas to the LA metro area. This sounds like a good thing at first, but I'm very worried about it.
It sounds like Desert Xpress has managed to advance quite far in just a few years perhaps even including some initial construction. It has the advantage of being far cheaper (about $4 billion instead of $20-30 billion) and being based on already-existing technology rather than relying on further development of maglev technology.
But it's got some big problems too, most notably the fact that its western terminus would be 40 miles from Riverside, putting it at the far outside edge of the LA metro area. I worry that this might make it basically unusable. I guess it could be workable if it was basically treated as an airport, with a huge parking area - it would just be an airport that serves only Las Vegas and gets you there slightly slower, but without the security hassle. Hopefully travel would be cheaper than plane too.
The California-Nevada Interstate Maglev on the other hand has planned stops at the new Las Vegas airport (planned for construction by 2019 to increase capacity once McCarran is full) and two tine desert cities, as well as Ontario and Anaheim, bringing it well into the LA metro area. Of course, this is why it's so much more expensive, having to get right-of-way through dense urban areas.
It's unfortunate that different government groups seem to be giving money to both projects. I don't know how much productive cooperation there can be between the two plans. Perhaps the best plan is a cheap version like the Desert Xpress with a possibility of extending service from Victorville into the California High-Speed Rail corridor.
17:53
Anyone have a travel agent to recommend? We're trying to figure out flights for the holidays and the various possible permutations are giving us headaches.
Nov. 7th, 2009
18:12 - 11/06/09 PHD comic: 'Mundane details'
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham |
www.phdcomics.com
|
|
 |
||
|
title:
"Mundane details" - originally published
11/6/2009
For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! |
||
Nov. 6th, 2009
12:20
3 months. The babies continue to grow. They both gained 1 lb, 4 oz this month, for a total of 6.5 lbs over their birthweights. Oddly enough, this means that Zinnia is right on target as far as the percentiles, but that Neil has dropped in percentiles from last month to this month. The pediatrician was a bit concerned about this yesterday, but in a sort of, "well, that's something to keep an eye on" way, rather than a, "this needs immediate action" sort of way. But it was a little weird to me that she was concerned about the weight of the bigger baby, since when I worry about their weights at all, it's more about Zinnia's weight. Anyhow, both of them are right about average size for 3-month-old babies, and the 1.5 lb difference is typical of boys vs. girls.
I want to do a write-up of a typical day here soon (like ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sbtorpey and anemone), but of course a typical day doesn't have a big chunk of time for updating LJ, so it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'll try a list later today.
07:02 - T-REX VAMPIRES CAN HAVE KIDS AND LITTLE DINOSAUR VAMPIRES SOUNDS PRETTY CUTE TO ME
| |||
| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about– | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | November 6th, 2009 | next | |
November 6th, 2009: I mentioned I like out-of-genre cover songs and you guys sent me so many out of genre cover songs! THIS IS EXCELLENT. I also like money and solid gold cars you guys! Here's some of the cream of the crop! The Baseballs do 50-style covers of modern music, and Umbrella has a great video to go with it.. It's a window into a universe where rock and roll never stopped rockin' and rollin'! Kate Nash has done a few of these (and she's got a great voice!), Hollaback Girl is one of my favourites. Amanda Palmer does Creep on the ukulele, and here's Karen Souza doing a sexy lounge version of the same. And I've linked to her before, but fellow Torontoian Kay Pettigrew's cover of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme is totally rad. With more irony we've got Jenny Owen Youngs doing "Hot in Herre", and you're probably already familiar with Alanis doing My Humps, Mat Weddle doing Hey Yah, and The BossHoss who do pop music "in the original country and western" and who I've even seen live! How about we go with I Say A Little Prayer from them. Anyway hooray for music that sounds like other music! – Ryan | |||
Nov. 5th, 2009
14:35 - 11/04/09 PHD comic: 'Command structure'
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham |
www.phdcomics.com
|
|
 |
||
|
title:
"Command structure" - originally published
11/4/2009
For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! |
||
00:12 - sheesh maybe i'll just sit in silence and listen to my own thoughts instead, maybe i'll just act lik
| |||
| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about– | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | November 5th, 2009 | next | |
November 5th, 2009: I think I have a "thing", and this "thing" is for hip young women singing out-of-genre covers of pop songs with a pure sincerity that completely transcends irony. Enjoy Molly Lewis doing Poker Face and Pomplamoose doing September. Enjoy them knowing that I just listen to them back to back, one after the other, over and over again! – Ryan | |||
Nov. 4th, 2009
07:36 - i wouldn't use the word in a comic that was actually about the word itself, but andrew hussie adds "
| |||
| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about– | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | November 4th, 2009 | next | |
November 4th, 2009: I've got Christmas Cards for sale! A bunch of TopatoCo artists have made cards and you can buy 10-packs of your favourite design. MINE IS THE AWESOMEST THOUGH BECAUSE IT HAS T-REX ON THE FRONT – Ryan | |||
Nov. 3rd, 2009
21:53 - Oh, I forgot
This is funny. But probably only if you live in my town. Apparently, they even turned on the snow emergency lights outside the Somerville Theater for this event. Tom Champion is the local snow emergency/broken water main/alien invasion robo-caller.
21:34
A couple of weeks ago I visited my buddy Farmer Kerry in Western Massachusetts. She's cool--she did Peace Corps in Togo with me, and then decided that her true dream in life was to be a farmer, and now she's an apprentice on an organic farm. Kerry also has a crazy culture shocked Togolese dog, who seems to be mellowing with time. I don't think she snapped at me once during the whole visit, although she's gotten in the habit of sticking her nose in guests' crotches, which embarrasses Kerry. Another Peace Corps friend and I share Kerry's farm's CSA. I also visited Krzys from high school and his kid, which was fun. They live in this communal house with some other folks (and Krzys' wife), which reminds me of Cal co-ops, except everyone seems to really like each other. Krzys is a cute dad--he's teaching his kid how to build simple machines and use power tools and stuff, which is like way cool. The weather was nice; the leaves were pretty. All and all, it was a good trip.
This past weekend, I went to a couple of Halloween parties dressed as an alien prom queen. It was a fun costume, but it took some explaining. Fortunately, no one disputed that I was a believable alien prom queen.
And that's the way it is...
05:07 - not all dreams can come true, you may never be an astronaut, you may never be the one your friends c
| |||
| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about– | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | November 3rd, 2009 | next | |
November 3rd, 2009: I've got Christmas Cards for sale! A bunch of TopatoCo artists have made cards and you can buy 10-packs of your favourite design. MINE IS THE AWESOMEST THOUGH BECAUSE IT HAS T-REX ON THE FRONT – Ryan | |||
18:52 - Racism in running
Interesting article in the NYTimes, about the first American to win the New York Marathon in 27 years. Apparently people complain that it isn't a "real" American win, because he immigrated to the US from Eritrea when he was 12.
Apparently the most recent American winner (in 1982) wasn't American-born either - he immigrated from Cuba when he was 2. He didn't get the same sort of complaints though. He suggests (or maybe the author of the article?) that it may have something to do with being Hispanic rather than black, but I think it's more complicated than that. Part of it is surely also the point that although Keflezighi is "black" in some sense, he's East African, while most African-Americans are of West African descent. (Obama is too, though I have no idea if the groups Obama is related to are connected to the groups Keflezighi is from. I'm pretty sure the most widely-spoken languages in Kenya are Bantu (at least, Swahili has a lot of Bantu origins), which would connect them to southern and western Africa, while the languages of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea tend to be more closely related to Hebrew and Arabic. But I have no idea what that means about ethnic, cultural, racial, or whatever connections.) Thus, although the article mentions that Patrick Ewing didn't face this sort of criticism when he was on the US Olympic basketball team (he's originally from Jamaica), part of it is that Ewing has the ancestry that an American black person is "supposed" to have (presumably being a descendant of slaves in a British colony), while Keflezighi doesn't.
Additionally, the winners of the New York Marathon in recent years have tended to be from East Africa. (In the recent winners list I see that in the past 12 years, the winner has been from Kenya 7 times, Ethiopia once, and from other place (Brazil, South Africa, and Morocco) four other times.) So somehow he also fits the stereotype of "foreign marathon runner". I suspect that if he had immigrated from India or Korea when he was 12, rather than Eritrea, he would have counted as "American enough". On the other hand, if the competition he won had been some annual computer programming or engineering competition, and he was the first American to win in 27 years, I'm sure he would have counted just fine, but would have endured these criticisms if he had been born in India or Korea.
At any rate, it's certainly unfair to say that someone is "not American enough" to count as an American marathon winner, when he's lived in the US for 22 years. But it's more than just garden-variety racism at work here - it's a whole collection of intersecting stereotypes about what an American looks like (even though people admit an American might not be white, there are still limits) and what it takes to be "an American marathoner" as opposed to "an American computer programmer" or something else.
Nov. 2nd, 2009
19:05 - 11/02/09 PHD comic: 'Mike's motto'
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham |
www.phdcomics.com
|
|
 |
||
|
title:
"Mike's motto" - originally published
11/2/2009
For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! |
||
10:57 - I can't believe I read the whole thing
I suppose that when the subheading of an article is The Parthenon, Mona Lisa, Billie Jean … they share a secret formula. And the influence of the Fibonacci sequence doesn't stop there, I have only myself to blame for not summarily clicking on the little x at the top right-hand corner of the screen. Still, though: this stuff should not be published. Anywhere, ever.
(Less ranty version here.)
05:39 - anyway when does tennis for two 360 xtreme come out, i have been waiting FOREVER
| |||
| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about– | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | November 2nd, 2009 | next | |
November 2nd, 2009: I took a flight down to NY this weekend (TO PARTY!!!) and on the flight back we were delayed several hours because the President was landing at same airport we were at and so nobody else was allowed to use any planes. You guys, this was probably the closest I've ever physically been to President Obama! Was he also saying "Wow, you guys, this is probably the closest I've ever been to Canadian cartoonist Ryan North"? He was certainly not; there is no possible way he was saying that; we are all allowed to dream but that is the most ridiculous dream imaginable and you should feel ashamed. – Ryan | |||
11:52 - [PSA] Room in SF available
Re-posting for a friend:
900 dollar room in my amazing flat
I still am looking for a housemate. There are six billion people on this earth, and I only need the right single individual to move in to my house. Know anyone? Gender is not important. Neither is age. Good communication and boundaries, compatibility is mui importante. Please send this around!
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/roo/144
09:44 - 10/31/09 PHD comic: 'Detained! Part 3'
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham |
www.phdcomics.com
|
|
 |
||
|
title:
"Detained! Part 3" - originally published
10/31/2009
For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! |
||
12:59 - Song lyrics by Iris
Take me out to the big old ball game
Take me out to the big old ball game
Take me out to the big old ball game
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack
And it's, "woot! woot! woot!" for the home steam
If they lose it's a shame
And it's one, two, three shirts you're out
At the big old ball game
14:06 - Thieves Oil
I seem to be having this conversation a lot lately.
Person X: Hmm, you smell strangely yummy. What is it that you are wearing?
Me: Thieves Oil
Person X: Whaa?
I started spraying myself down with it before mingling with the germy people in the scary world that goes on outside my apartment after The New York Times reported that cinnimom oil kills a number of common and hospital-acquired infections
Plus it kind of makes you smell like medicated Christmas cookies.
So now you all know, and can quit asking me. The more you know and all that stuff.
05:09 - spent a long time deciding whether to write "captain crunch cereal" or "cap'n crunch cereal", in the
| |||
| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about– | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | October 30th, 2009 | next | |
October 30th, 2009: Many web hosting companies - with a few exceptions, including Voxel.net, who host me! - are terrible, terrible beasts, relying on consumer misunderstanding and literal hostage situations to make their money. Kate Beaton is unfortunately in one right now: her host shut her off, wouldn't even let her upgrade, and then everyone at the company turned off their phones and stumbled home for the night. ANYWAY. Her site was down, but we said "You know what? No it isn't." and put together an Emergency Backup Site running here, at qwantz.com/harkavagrant. It's quickly-adapted Qwantz Code on the backend, and it's only got the most recent comics, but it's where you can go for Kate Beaton goodness until she has the hosting situation sorted out! Harkavagrant.com is pointing there, but depending on your DNS servers you may still see the old site for a few hours. – Ryan | |||
Oct. 30th, 2009
Oct. 29th, 2009
16:47 - a question for people who are in fact friends with someone who says "major snorefest" lightly: how d
| |||
| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about– | |||
 | |||
| ← previous | October 29th, 2009 | next | |
Oct. 28th, 2009
22:18 - 10/28/09 PHD comic: 'Detained! Part 2'
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham |
www.phdcomics.com
|
|
 |
||
|
title:
"Detained! Part 2" - originally published
10/28/2009
For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! |
||
Navigate: (Previous 40 Friends)