Sunday, May 6, 2012

Yet More Journaly Bits Since Last Post

Although documenting things that I am busy with besides science writing were once something that I'd hoped that I could do less of, I kind of see this as becoming a theme, especially because these are so much easier/faster to write. Not to mention, they tend to be shiny!

may 005 bluebell detail 

The events of this week start out surprisingly mundane, considering their overall strangety levels...


Wednesday May 2, 2012: 

I have to say that Spanish class has been interesting as of late: Our presentation of fake inventions -- the Box of the Fourth Dimension, an alien invasion protection kit (hil-arious!), a robot dog that does chores, and mine was a mind control helmet.
` One guy, however, made an invention that really could work -- a SASER that you can aim at people just to tell them to shut up, without disturbing anyone else. Another student, wielding a hammer, declared himself dictator, so I tried to put the mind control helmet on him.
` Then, Monday's class started out with the teacher being late because a student in the previous class apparently had a heart attack or something.

Today, I observed that one woman brought her newborn to class for a few minutes, and four other women -- all moms -- gathered around. Mom psychology?

Later, educational researcher-or-whatever-he-is, Daryl Dieter talked about Argentina's crazy history and government and stuff, as he had recently been living there for a while. I had no idea that he could even speak Spanish! You learn something new every day.
` I asked him what the craziest belief he came across was, and it was the fact that they use wood grills for their meat, and also something else, but I forget.

After class, I went to the vet's to pick up some flea killer for my Vada, the vole-killer, and instead of being able to get 4 months' worth of Advantage for under $20, I was only able to get one month's worth of Revolution for $20. There were dosage issues, apparently.
` The upside? Revolution doesn't stink horribly to the point where Vada didn't even bother trying to run away from the smell when I put it on her! Also, Revolution protects against heartworm and hookworm, so that's a plus.

From there I went to the gym, was glad that it was largely empty there, and then came home without buying food because I wanted to have some time between then and before I had to leave for this evening's outing. I had anticipated eating the other half of my bagel, with cream cheese that Lou Ryan had said he would save for me, except he saved me just enough for one quarter of the bagel.
` One quarter!
` Instead, Lou sent me to Taco Bell, so that took up about half of my time. While I was just pulling up to the window, Brianade called to tell me that he had missed the bus and so would get home about when we had to leave. That was a good thing, because I'd forgotten that my phone was in my coat, and that my coat was still in the backseat.
` While I was writing a very quick email, he called again to ask if I was too busy to pick him up at the bus stop. Alas, I was -- as it isn't as though I'm going to even be home until way late. However, I've finished the email and back to typing this blog post. It has taken me all of ten minutes to do. Not bad timing! And now it's time to go!

Day After: This is where the mundanity ends -- in an unspecified and thus mysterious setting.

We were hanging with a bunch of people, mostly trans/gender queer folks! I sat down next to this one gender queer guy wearing a yarmulke, who said ze thought I was so pretty and ze loved my hair. Zir name is Angel, or sometimes, Spongebob.
` I spent much of the time listening to others talk about their relationships and how difficult it is to find people who will accept them as they are, and how some people will treat them as a fetish. And then, it happened.

A cell phone rooster-alarm went off -- we were rudely interrupted by her cock!

Upon recounting this, I said, "I love cocks!"
"So do I!" said Angel.

Brianade and I had been going to go do shoulder exercises at the gym, but decided that it was more fun to stay at the Phở restaurant and goof off with a few of the people. By the way, I had one of the last orders ever of Seafood Phở to be sold at this particular place, and then later drew some bad sketches. (The two are not related.)

I only wished I had thought to write down some of the double-entandres that this lady was making -- it was so hilarious, especially her back-and-forth with Angel.

May 001b Birly Birl

Who is allegedly a demon. Or a fairy? Or a Birl, because ze's definitely not a Goy, being the token Jew and all. Ze's the fairy queen, and I broke zis stick! (Only a chopstick, but still...)

Jeremy was talking about how people expect him to be all manly, and also not a Christian, but he says that he's sick of the stereotypes. Also, the subject of drawing came up, since I was doing that, and he said that he is no longer able to draw or look at computer animation because his father had beaten him in the head so much.
` This also led to his interesting story of what it's like to not have health insurance in this country: He was at work, doing construction or something, and had a seizure while still talking to his boss. This incident caused him to lose his job, and then for a while he was homeless, and he said that just down the street from where we were, he once had a seizure for a whole hour until the police confronted him, demanding where the drugs were.
` By the time the emergency room workers had figured out that it really was seizures, not drugs, they refused to treat him and shoved him out the door, because apparently it's too expensive for them to treat. I didn't ask, but I wonder if they at least let him clean his underwear before they kicked him out?

We were all turning to leave when Angel was all like "Where is my wallet?" Everyone looked around, and the only place I could think of that the wallet could be was between the curved benches -- I reached down in there and found that there was a space.
` Then, I managed to move them apart a bit and saw the wallet down there. For this, ze'll give me a dollar next time we see each other!

And, the day was not over -- I got some new and blue dish soap and continued with the dishes. The eye of Saruman is watching!

may 002 Blue in orange soap


Thursday, May 3:

It's almost 5:30 and I've done a lot today. When I got the the gym, I kissed Lou while he was on the phone with Random, and then he took off for the shoot. He's playing some Hop Head in some big-budget movie that he keeps forgetting the name of. [It's You Can't Win! However, this movie won't be completed.]
` However, the podcasts I had downloaded for keeping the noise in the room from driving me crazy were somehow blank, so instead of doing cardio, I did shoulders and legs both while blocking out the annoying gym music with my own damn workout music.

Then, I drove down to my school, paid the rest of my tuition, and as I was leaving, noticed a sign advertising that a particular parking space had been reserved for a former child soldier, Michel Chikwanine, to give a talk a couple of hours before I had arrived.
` That would have been interesting to get a photo of, I thought, and remembered how I had forgotten to write something down the other week. It had been a gorgeous day and the cherry blossoms were really nice-looking -- they still are, but they're starting to fall off the tree while the leaves grow in.
` I had regretted not bringing my camera then, both for that and for the Honda Civic that's covered with a pattern of different-colored floppy disks, and the license plate says 'DISKDRV'. I saw that car again, and, not having my camera with me again, went home and typed in 'floppy disk-covered car' DISKDRV into Google.
` The first hit was two photos of this same car! What are the chances? (Pretty good, I'm sure....)

Actually, before I even got online, I took out the garbage, retrieved those of our recycling bins that hadn't already been retrieved (if you can retrieve one, then why not the other two?), gathered the garbage and recycling on the kitchen counter into their respective receptacles, washed some dishes, and made some stir fry:

 may 008 Stir fry with fake beef

Can you believe that's not real beef? It was so good!

As my alcoholic roommate is doing an interesting combination of singing and ranting, I'm going to go out to the living room in order to ScienceBlog about last skeptic's meeting.

First, though I would like to comment on the pattern of people 'Favoriting' my photos on Flickr. Two of the most recent are Vada faceplanting and the bottom of my deformed foot with receding warts. Others have included the back of my head, people taking their shoes off, a bunch of ugly and blurry photos of not very interesting things, and even one of the side of my fridge, which I got a compliment for "that's my kind of photo", and a link to this guy's photos.
` I am skeptical of that commenter's claim that it is not spam -- why is it that I take all these great photos of wildlife and sunsets and stuff, but I've had very few comments on those?
` This one, for example -- that's the sun on the left:

may 013 The rain blasting through clouds

I don't really understand why, but anything pretty or shiny doesn't get as much attention as things that are commonplace in everyday life -- and what's with compliments on really bad photos?
` I wonder if people are just sick of looking at nice pictures, or is it more because they are just looking for specific subjects and so don't even see my other photos? Not even anti-Saruman!

may 014 Orange soap in blue

Lou finally came back from the You Can't Win shoot at like 2 a.m., and clipboardless, as the wardrobe lady wouldn't let him get his clipboard back from the wardrobe trailer! Yet, he gained so much -- a slot in the credits, for example, is priceless.
` He was also appalled by being surrounded by so many cow-eyed idiots, and did a smash-up job at playing a passed-out opium smoker while the other extras didn't even know how to smoke properly, or use the sticks, which are meant for rolling it into a ball!
` This movie is about the infamous outlaw Jack Black, who is played by, Michael Pitt -- OMG, not only was he in Boardwalk Empire, he also played the guy who liked Hedwig, but not his Angry Inch!
` Apparently, Lou was so convincing at being a hop-head that Pitt examined him for actual signs of being all messed-up on opium! Lou took the opportunity to tell him that he did a good job, which was technically forbidden, and then the wranglers hated him more than ever.

What's really crazy is, this dilapidated and supposedly-abandoned building they were shooting in had an exposed-to-air courtyard upstairs that was all weathered, the lead paint was all peeling off in crazy spirals, and electricity had to be wired in from outside.
` Yet, as they were leaving, there were these Chinese people who lived downstairs who were curious as to what was going on!


Saturday, May 5:

As soon as we get the rent from everyone, the plan is to kick the crazy and the drunk roommates out. Rent is due today, and the drunk roommate apparently forgot yesterday and is going to pay today. I can see how he would forget, however, as he's been ranting very loudly for the past few days about an apparent manipulative bitch named Laurien Kablinski, as well as other folks and injustices.
` I know this because Brianade and I have heard him sometimes-clearly, since our rooms are adjacent to his, and in fact I took a nap on the couch just earlier while he continued ranting in the shower. I've even been videotaping myself listening, just for laughs.
` The crazy roommate has already paid this morning after arriving home at around 2 a.m. He said yesterday that he'd pay on Friday evening, but that is a strange notion of what counts as "today", much less the same banking day. But you know, he is crazy.

Judging from the sound, though, you'd almost think the guy below me was the crazy one. "Oh ya got a problem? Well, you can suck my dick!"

I'm wondering where the hell my stethoscope is so that I can hear better.

"Fuckin' DIE!" "YOU FUCKING GAY-ASS SORRY EXCUSE FOR A FATHER!"

Then on about people doing things behind his back, and raging about how stupid, loserish stuff isn't really gangster. "Crack, crack, crack crack crack, all fucked up on crack, 'but it feels so good!' Do you know... when you're on crack. Anyone ever heard that? ... I hate you!"

And then, something about "now I have an infection in my pee-pee!" That would explain, just before he got into the shower, I heard him scream in the bathroom, "OWWWWW THAT FUCKIN' HURTS!"

Now I can understand why he's so pissed about this manipulative bitch! Other than that, it seems that I've heard a lot of this stuff yesterday. Anyway, Lou Ryan and I have a date to get to, so we're taking off, all STD-less and care-free-like.

may 016 Looking down the path

 We had some delicious sandwichness, after which I became fixated on a beautiful Ericaceae plant of some type or other, which was making a few bumblebees contented.

may 023 Bumblebee, yay! 

Then, we stopped by the chocolate shop across the way, and I got some peanut-butter-chocolate fudge. Here's the reflection of the restaurant area in the glass case:

may 027 Interior view

I've come back to my room and my roommate is still raging. Something about faggots and people thinking he's gay, and saying he's "a fat worthless... who no one finds sexy."

Blah blah, it's seriously old, and sad. Well, time to occupy myself in some other way.

Later on: I think I'll just take some pictures of the moon. Short exposure:

 may 031 

Here's a longer exposure, where you can see the actual tree branches:

 may 040 

Oh, and by the way, I think my stethoscope is in my art box. Why I would put it there, who knows? Not even me! (Just checked -- it's not in there, so evidently no one would put it there.)


Sunday, May 6:

This morning, Vada is as playful as ever -- so I must pretend to stomp on her!

 may 045 Knock Vada down 

It was just after that when I noticed a little dead bird by the door. What? Did Vada actually kill it? But then, Lou pointed out that there were some feathers stuck to the window:

may 048 Feather from bird hitting window 

Evidently, the bird had doomed itself, and Vada may have only finished the job:

 may 049 Vada thinks she can take credit 

Apparently, it's an orange-crowned warbler -- or at least, it was.

Today, the roommate isn't really raging -- although he has been playing his music off and on. I don't think he's paid rent yet. Anyway, people have been mowing their lawns literally all day. A few people did this morning, then when Lou did I went to the gym so as to escape the noise, and now another neighbor is mowing, and it sounds almost as loud as if it were in this yard!

Thanks, single-pane aluminum windows!

In other news, besides the noise, it is sunny and warm at least. Oh well, I should just shut up and eat my lettuce, cut fresh from the garden. It tastes so much better than the stuff in the plastic containers!

may 050 Our garden 

That's all I have for now. And yes, I've been working on my next post, slowly but surely. I'd try to get something else I've already written in the past up and displayed on this blog, but even finding the right one would take some time.

So tired.

But at least my roommate, who has calmed down, has paid rent, and the crazy roommate has provided me with Toblerone S'more Goodness. And a second space heater from the junk sale. It apparently works, although it's the kind with a fan in it and makes a lot of noise.
` I was sitting out here in the living room with my computer so as to get away from the drunken roommate's music, as I often do, typing this very post, as I have been for a few days, when he turned it on to test it out. It does work!
` He asked if he should leave it running, but it seems that the way I said, "No thanks, I think the noise will probably drive me crazy," offended him, although I didn't think I sounded rude at all, and didn't mean to be. Perhaps if I were going to go back to my office, I would have said "yes" and taken the other heater into there, as we had worked out.
` Ironically, tonight it seems warm enough not to need a heater in my office, as the weather is not quite cold.
` In fact, I've just opened the window to check it out when I heard Vada chirp at me. After trying to get a few pictures of her yawning in the moonlight, I eventually coaxed her in through the window.

Those pictures, and the roommate's reaction to being kicked out, in my next installment of Journaly Bits!

P.S. And on second thought, I think my roommate's more down as far as his being upset that when he brought mail to Brianade's door, the response was both weirded-out and nasty, and Lou and I considered this to be a normal response to his weirdness.

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