Musings, rants, monodies and valedictions
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Syrith" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:28 pm
[Link] |
Just sayin'...
some CNN Headline writers need to give it a second thought befroe they consult Nancy about recent events...
Current Mood: slotheriffic
Current Music: heavy breathing
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03:19 am
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Rarer than a unicorn at an orgy...
is an update to my journal, I know. Sorry 'bout that folks.
I am currently home for Chrismahanukwanzadan, enjoying relaxation, food, and previously unimaginable bouts of laziness in Chi-town... Highlights: pulling NON-35-page-report-caused all-nighters; making fun of friends from home (Hi friends! ), watching my sister take Glod to school on -her- LJ (Hi Glod!), teas, lunches, midnight snacks, and neighborhood cruises with missed people, etc. Once the New Year has arrived, in all its arbitrary Gregorian glory, I'll be soon returning to NYC (on the 3rd). From there, it will be time to WORK - at the recycling center, thank god, and not on policy reports... for a week, until huzzah for roadtripping on the 10!
Oh. Except for a teensy-weensy problem I'm currently experiencing... no car. Teensy.
So yeah, roadtrip - car = short walk around the block. It is proving something of an obstacle. Given my lack of car, and my location in NYC (which I thought would be helpful, NY being the only state that rents cars to drivers under 21 - except that companies charge 50 bucks a day extra! damn gauging cheats), given these things, Iwould love advice, suggestions or aid from the peanut gallery about any of the following:
1) Ideas on how to get ahold of a car for a week, from the 10-17 or thereabouts... this includes cars any of you might want to lend-rent to me (Mucho cash, sexual favors, and slave duties are all acceptable options), cars other people you know conceivably might want to rent to me, really cheap rental agencies which rent to minors, etc. - any ideas welcome.
2) Less ideally... ideas as to other places to go with other forms of transportation - I know I can hop a bus or train, or maybe even plane, to a lot of places for moderately cheap (thinking $200 or less about)... if you have brilliant ideas as to specific places I ought to go or things I ought to see, send them my way... maybe it will console me!
3) Conceivable depending on the circumstances/other plans, if anyone in the greater NY state area wants to meet up during said road trip, let me know! I'll probably visit you. To extend that thought, if anyone has a car of some sort and wants to come along, that may work as well.
Let the games begin. I'll see you NYU folks soon. Happy New Years Eve!
Current Mood:  sore
Current Music: Computer game theme music... sigh
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05:38 pm
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CNN.com Headline, Sunday afternoon
I am so appalled and confused. WHY, why would they pair this headline with this picture? Does no one else find this disturbing? I can't believe 1,000,001 people just read this and nodded somberly and said, "Yes, Betty, I hope those Iraqis have learned their lesson... and gee whiz are they gonna be grateful." WHAT THE FUCK???
We live in a world populated by imbeciles and pathological psychopaths.
Try this:
http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war.html
Rar.
Current Mood: Ah'm Pissed Oaf, is wut Ah Am.
Current Music: Nellie McKay - It's a Pose
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08:30 pm
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Mrrrrp robot kittens.
Hey everybody. This is the obligatory really-late update-apology. And I'll even spare you folks the links this time!
What's new in my life, you might ask? Well. Most of it this week consists of painting things. My house, to be specific. Painting has occupied most of my time, because I was a ginormous slacker and didn't spread the work out, and I'm wooking at a very cranky mama if I don't get it done before this Tuesday. Why this Tuesday, you might ask? I'll get to that.
Other than painting, my life has largely been quiet. I got home to Chicago about a month ago, and have been slacking, eating and seeing old friends... often all at the same time. And getting lost and ending up in Indiana on the way back from northwestern suburbs... I've been doing that a lot too.
So Tuesday, my oh-so-delicious and sexy babeski, Jay, is arriving from NYC. I'm rather eager to see her, not least because she likes slacking and eating, too, but also because I love her and we're about to hit the road, Kerouac-style...
Yes, it's roadtrip time. I'm going either to Toronto, or South Dakota. I'm very conflicted. There's an excess of cool things to do on each trip, and at best we'll manage like 1/2 of them either way...
South Dakota trip: Galena Illinois, Western Wisconsin, cross the Mississippi to Minnesota, out to South Dakota and the Black Hills, see Mt. Rushmore and maybe the old west town Deadwood, then loop through Nebraska and Kansas into Missouri, stop in St. Louis for some Ted Drewes frozen custard, then up to U of I to visit my buddy Sean and then back home.
Toronto trip: Drive up through MI to Toronto, hang out amongst the liberals and the low drinking age and the CN tower, then head west through beautiful, COOLER Canada, over Lake Huron. Cross over at the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, in the Upper Peninsula, and visit the family farm up thataway. Then a trip to lovely Mackinac Island, renowned for its fudge, its lack of cars, and its wolves and elk, probably in that order.
Very conflicted.
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06:54 pm
[Link] | Hey all. I'm here to offer joy, revenge and hilarity (not necessarily in that order:
1. Patton Oswalt's "Sixteen things I would be willing to vote for instead of George W. Bush": http://www.theonionavclub.com/ssf/index.php?issue=4025
2. The Anti-Bush Game (play a cast of characters including Hulk Hogan, Howard Dean, and Jesus, and wield Ninja stars and special moves to defeat the evil alliance of George Bush and Voltron...): http://www.emogame.com/bushgame.html
'Nuff said.
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: Old 97's - Murder or a Heart Attack
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04:49 pm
[Link] | Alright folks. I'm poooostingggggg.
Not excited? Wait... you don't remember that I even have a livejournal?
...
What's that you say? Oh... oh dear. You don't remember who I am, or why I'm on your friends' list?
...
OK guys, I'm back. Sorry about the laziness. I'm hitting off this post with a bunch of links, in various and sundry categories.
First, to get them out of the way, political (be grateful I'm sparing you the details, and just giving you link-options).
Huge Supreme Court decisions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/politics/25CND-SCOT.html?fta=y
5-4 decision (left and right - very odd!) affecting justices' sentencing abilities...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/politics/28CND-SCOT.html?hp
BIG ONES! 8-1 and 6-3: court has to except detainees' habeus corpus requests for Guantanamo, and then 5-4, sent Jose Padilla case back down on a technicality, so no resolution there...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Medical-Marijuana.html?hp
They're going to take the medical marijuana case...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Miranda.html?hp
The final in a series this year of decisions refining rules on Miranda warnings... this one rebukes cops, some others have been in favor of police.
Swing states news:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2102496/entry/2102497/
Shameful things:
US Aggression Since 1801: http://www.adbusters.org/jams/history/flash.html"
Enemies List (top conservative contributors): http://www.boycottbush.net/consumers.htm
Hilarity:
"Girthy": http://slate.msn.com/id/2102940/
"Um... those wacky Danish...: http://www.omelet.dk/spil/index.htm
Squirrels and Fishing - Eureka! http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/%7Eyaz/en/squirrel_fishing.html
Challenge:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/common_cents/index.html
Current Mood:  mellow
Current Music: Pixies - Where Is My Mind
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10:19 am
[Link] | Hi everyone! I'm being threatened at gunpoint to make an actual post.
So, um, hey. Shit, I think I've forgotten how to do this. Or maybe I've watched enough of my friends post things they shouldn't online, and am now jumpy. Nah, that couldn't be it =)
Let's see.
School: almost over, but gettin' nasty.
Work: still dismayingly absent, need job.
Jay: pretty darn cute.
After school: hangin' round here til near the end of May.
After that: performing environmental testing on my family's land in the wilds of Northern Michigan. Yes, really.
Otherwise: I'm gardening a lot. I have my own plot of land in the East Village! So tranquil. And playing dulcimer. Annnnd... Oh! I'm more or less leading the countercharge against the NYU administration, which is trying to silently cut the budget for the Recycling Program. NYU administrative politics are scary. But so am I, once I'm armed with a WSN news story and thousands of signatures...
Oh, and Cara got tattoos.
That wraps up today's headlines. Don't touch that dial.
Current Mood: brisk
Current Music: Bok, Muir and Trickett - Lock-Keeper
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01:14 pm
[Link] | you are darkviolet
#9400D3 |
Your dominant hues are blue and magenta. You're the one who goes to all the parties but doesn't quite fit in at every one... you know what you want, but are afraid of what the world might think of it. You're a little different and that's okay with them, and if you're smart it's okay with you too.
Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right.
Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.
| | the spacefem.com html color quiz |
A lovely shade, don't you think?
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Dar Williams - Another Mystery
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02:44 am
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Yeah! That's right! Um.
Garage rock! I like you... I like you alot! You
and indie are on the same plane for me! You
bring rock'n'roll down to its dirty roots,
whether being minimalist like The White Stripes
or retro like The Strokes. You keep on doing
what you're doing! Oh...and did I mention I
like you alot?
What genre of rock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Current Mood: content
Current Music: October Project - Now I Lay Me Down
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08:31 am
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Country Test
You're Bhutan!
With the body of a gnat and the mind of a dragon, you are a bundle
of energy. You enjoy mountain-climbing, rock-climbing, stair-climbing, pretty much
any kind of climbing you can manage. This has lifted you into the clouds in more
than one way, helping you achieve some inner peace above the fray of madness all around
you. People would seek you out for advice if they could ever find you.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid</p
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08:19 am
[Link] |
Book Test
You're The Grapes of Wrath!
by John Steinbeck
You're mired in a deep depression that encompasses you and everyone
you know. You're trying to get out of the depression, but your idea of help is, in
itself, pretty sad. While some are convinced that this all has a deeper meaning, you're
really just dull and tedious. And utterly obsessed with dust. You really need to focus
on something other than dust. Your best moments center around turtles.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
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09:02 am
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Mrrrr survey...
Answer away:::
If you could be anywhere where would you be?
In the arms of my love.
What century was Pope Innocent III born in?
Damn. No idea. Um. Early. Let's say... prior to 1000. Then let's say... oh, hell. 713 AD. ... damn. 1198. What can ya do?
Would your rather lose a moment of your time, eat a lime, of save a dime?
Mmm... citrus-y...
Does the individual exist?
Affirmative. I'd bet my life on it... and do...
Is time important?
I don't think so, except inasmuch as we have a limited amount, here, to work with, and should do something with it.
Chaos or order?
Chaos.
Fire or water?
Fire.
Life or Death?
Life.
Open or Closed?
Open.
You suddenly wake up one morning and your bed is standing on a cliff, leaning precariously on the edge. There are ten vultures arranged in a semi-circle around you. Two of the vultures can talk. One is a carcass. You are blinded by a strange light. There is a wild badger at the foot of your bed. There is an angry mob exactly three yards away from where you are lying, who think you are a vampire, and will kill you should you try to jump off the bed and run. You have a revolver in your hand which has one bullet. What do you do?
The angry mob won't kill me until I try to jump off... and I can't move or I'll send the bed over the cliff. I kick the wild badger gingerly off the bed, and as it scampers away the vultures go after it. The loss of the weight of the badger on the foot of the bed restore's the bed's equilibrium, so it's no longer teetering. I point out to the angry mob that, it being morning and daylight (not to mention being blinded by strange light), I can't be a vampire or I'd be dust. I call the talking vultures back and suggest that they eat the vulture carcass nearby instead. The ensuing flying bits of entrail and whatnot act as a distraction (as if the strange light wasn't enough) that allows me to hop off the bed, which goes over the cliff. Then I realize that the angry mob will only kill me if I “run.” I stick the gun in my waistband and calmly walk away from the scene...
What kind of toothpaste do you use?
Mmm... Rembrandt... yeah dark masterpieces...
Do you have any theistic beliefs?
Sure.
If you could be a country, what country would you be and in what time period?
Oh that is unacceptably hard. Actually though, the past isn't all that great. I'd be 2004 America, and I'd change my direction.
What do you think of yourself?
I think I'm pretty awesome.
Who do you hate?
I hate the president. I hate people that don't believe in women's, gay or environmental natural rights. I hate smart people who deliberately avoid cultivating moral or social consciousness, because it hurts and distracts them from wearing Armani and fucking drunk chicks at vicious, shitty-musicked clubs. I hate water, mornings, and work that I don't want to do. I really hate being far away from Cara.
What do you fear?
That I could lose her.
What do you think has the worst smell in the world?
Wow. Not feeling that imaginative (nor do I want to dwell on this)... ass.
On an average sitting how much toilet paper do you use?
Tons. I think one-ply toiletpaper should be abolished; it's idiotic.
How much time do you spend on the internet on an average day?
Oh Christ. 6 hours?
What do the following things have in common?
Sock, wind, light
external weather indicators.
Fog, smog, log
Annoying rhymes.
Beaver, computer, Charles Martel
R's? Sad lack of creativity, I know.
If you could make the world any shape you wanted to, what shape would you make it?
Oo. Mobius strip-y. Just for fun.
Where do you eat dinner?
At my computer, or on my bed, or at a restaurant, or in class.
What would you improve about yourself?
My capacity to do work that I should but don't wish to do. My ability to have patience with things I don't understand, or don't know how to fix.
If you were a weapon, what weapon would you want to be?
A fifteen-inch, backedged vintage Bowie knife with a parrying hilt.
What is your favorite movie (list one and only one, preferably the first movie that comes to your mind when you read the above question)?
Argh. No. Fine. Doctor Zhivago.
On a hand which finger is your favorite (ie. thumb, index, middle etc.)?
Ring finger.
If you could be any animal what animal would you be?
Ferretttt!
Current Mood:  drained
Current Music: Doves - Here It Comes
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06:51 am
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New Poem
Current Mood:  anxious
Current Music: Pentangle - Somali
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12:30 pm
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Whoohoo, yeah lustfulness
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Incubus - Agoraphobia
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05:56 pm
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Good times...
create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide
Ah, states. What goofy things. Yeah federalism!
Current Mood:  energetic
Current Music: Dar Williams - I Won't Be Your Yoko Ono
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08:48 am
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Hand Song
1-20-04
Stop and look at your hand.
Look away from this flimsy inked sheet and look at your hand.
Don't tell me, then, that there isn't a cohesive sense to it all;
mathematics or dream logic will get you there.
I -
I I I live it every day
in love with a girl. Yes,
well that explains it, no?
The certainty of purpose,
the assurance that we find
what we look for.
But there is more.
Not in the love,
but in our hands.
Just by pressing them together.
Battles are won every day
in continued belief
and limitless creation.
Look at your hand, and note its translucence.
You know what's behind it. Observe
the hatchwork lines and hangnails.
They lead somewhere; you can follow.
Press your fingers together. The feedback
loop will get you there.
Don't tell me, then, that there isn't a cohesive sense to it all.
Current Mood: Tranquil
Current Music: Dar Williams - It Happens Every Day
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02:49 pm
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Complain, complain
Bitch, bitch, bitch, loyal readers. If any more of you message me to complain that I haven't updated, I'm going to get an ego. How was I to know people were actually reading this? =)
Fine. I'll update! heh.
Academic Hell Week was, well, academic and hellish. It is also something else: OVER. Jesus Christ on a bicycle, was that exhausting. The papers and reading assignments seemed to be raining from the sky. But last night, I slept 12 hours to catch up, and am reborn, rejuvenated, and ready to chill for the rest of the day, play Civilization III, shower, patch the hole in my pants, write some Howard Dean letters to undecided voters in Iowa, download folk music, pick up some condoms at the health center, answer emails, and maybe get drunk and watch Pirates of the Caribbean tonight. We'll see. =)
OK, I guess all that doesn't exactly constitute "chilling." But it's as close as I get! I have no fixed schedule for the next 24 hours, and that's a pleasure itself. Moreover, I am SO coming home in 6 days. SIX DAYS! wah! It will be so nice to get a good homecooked hot meal and see the family. It will be geniusly excellent to hit the Lake Michigan beach and see the frozen coast in winter. And most importantly, it will be another visit through the firmament to heaven, to see my girl Cara, who I've been separated from for six weeks now. About 5 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours and 50 minutes more than I can comfortably handle :P
Other than that, anyone who reads this needs to go and download some Dar Williams. Dar Williams is the most unbelievably talented singer-songwriter I have encountered this year. Try "February", "Are You Out There", and "It Happens Every Day" to start. Aaaamazing.
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: John McCutcheon - Wild Rose of the Mountain
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03:51 pm
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Been Awhile
But I am not dead. Just resting.
Happy Thanksgiving, loyal friends and compatriots! I've been busy with several doses of visitage from my lovely girl Cara, my lanky, odd and ultimately charming old friend Sean-boy, and my also-lovely, but also-odd (and also sooometimes cool) sister, Angeliiita. Um. Yeah, I'll hear from all of you soon! :P But in any case, those are my three good excuses for the lack of updates.
I have a very special gift for you all. In my Great Poems class at NYU, our assignment this week was to read all of the anthology Best American Poetry 2003, and then choose and write about the best and worst poems in the anthology. Then, we were to right a poem that was even worse! My least favorite poem was an elitist, faux-intellectual, self-righteous, nominally feministic repetition poem by Susan Wheeler called "In Sky." My response poem is reproduced below:
In the Bathroom
Dedicated to Susan Wheeler for her poem, "In Sky"
My toothbrush is filthy and unloved.
My toothbrush leaves a mark on the sink where it lay like a pool of blood.
My toothbrush is unwanted, because of its filth.
My toothbrush was left unrinsed two weeks ago before I went on vacation.
My toothbrush is expecting to live a life of happy fulfillment, but is disappointed.
My toothbrush is like a bird that has fallen out of its nest.
The world is unfair, and cruel.
Oleanders. Persephone. Exequy. Jeremiad. Rouge. Other
Words that highlight and outline my despair. Oh, despair.
My toothbrush: oh, injustice,
My toothbrush was a high-grade Colgate model with a flexible neck and triple bristles.
My neck moves, too, and bristles at the injustice.
Something should be done about it, but I can't tell you what.
My toothbrush needs me.
Something should be done though. Remember that. And
You also should feel guilty, filthy reader, for causing
My toothbrush so much pain.
As Proust said when he wrote The Gettysburg Address on a train
Flying at 500 miles per hour from Boston to Shanghai,
"I think, therefore I am nothing more than a toothbrush
Caught in time and space and obscured by String Theory,"
Or possibly something else that sounds technical and erudite.
My toothbrush should have been shrink-wrapped and kept clean,
Unlike my poem, which is hermetically sealed and utterly unreachable
By ordinary people. Like you. Yes, you.
You too.
The thistle in Scotland in autumn. A monk wails beside a snow cave. The superego
Begs me to acknowledge my toothbrush, scratching at the windowpanes of Troy,
A truism wracked with doubt and (NOT) in any sense (insensible or otherwise) or scene,
A fairytale. Also, men suck, and are terrible. I plan to live in the sky instead.
Because I am a very, very brave poet. C'est la vie. La cucaracha. Ich bin ein
Berliner. Kimochee! U menyan nyet kenigi.
My toothbrush is supposed to do the cleaning. But it is dirty. Surely
My toothbrush, then, is metonymous with expectation and oppression.
My toothbrush will clean no more!
My toothbrush will tear out its bristles!
My toothbrush weeps! As I weep.
It all goes down the sink. Maggots.
As Robert Browning, traditional, turns over in his grave.
~
Mwah! Magnifique!
Current Mood: lethargic
Current Music: Dar Williams - As Cool As I Am
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03:26 am
[Link] | hah. it is late. i have been awake for a long time. my essay lies snuggled in one corner of my monitor, complete. nappies for jeremy. ahhh...
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The rattle of my radiator
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05:19 pm
[Link] |
Ah, Fridays
I love today. Very much. Today is the kind of day when I don't set an alarm, have a full night of strange, twisted dreams, and then get out of bed and hit the dining hall for breakfast at 2:35 PM. That's love. Today is the kind of day where I clean my dorm for a while, drop by K-Mart for some Kleenex, bread and condoms (current grocery list), and then read a Nicholson Baker book for half an hour. Love. Today is the kind of day where I listen to music, sing at the top of my lungs, and chat to my sister (hi cutie!) while talking to the small lemon balm plant on my desk, just because plants like being talked to (they grow better!), and probably don't get talked to nearly as much as they like. Plus, the love of my life is getting on a plane to cut the distance between us from 3,500 miles to absolutely nothing.
Love.
Current Mood: Elated
Current Music: Counting Crows - Einstein on the Beach
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