Thursday, June 30, 2005

Link Level - Orange

Hey, if you get a chance this long 4th-of-July-JKD-and-Dave-Party-weekend-which-I-won't-be-a-part-of-cuz-
I-live-in-the-middle-of-the-middle-of-the-country,
check out my friend Pete on Best Week Ever on VH1. (Wow, that's a lotta links.)

Anyway, this'll be the 6th or so week in a row that Pete's been on the show. I know cuz the first time was when I was in Oberlin for Commencement, right after I had arrived, running around desperately looking for an unused TV with cable in East (harder than you think).

And it's a good show, too. Along with the Daily Show, SportsCenter, and Conan, it's how I get most of my news.

Oh, and the Onion.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

From Russia, with love

This has to be a mistake.......RIGHT???

Bob Kraft shows Putin his Super Bowl ring, and Putin pockets it???

This would be funny, if it weren't true.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2005/06/29/for_putin_its_a_gem_of_a_cultural_exchange/

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Dogs in boxers

Inspired by ABL's commentary over on WIMM, I decided to use my newfound picture posting powers (there's some alliteration for ya) to display a picture of Teak from Valentine's day last year. Kia decided that Teak needed some Valentine's boxers to celebrate the holiday. We captured the moment. Clearly he is less than pleased, although he eventually got used to them.


Teak  Posted by Hello

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Juxtaposition is fun

I stumbled upon a blog, or perhaps it's a site for the International Bible Society, that provides you with a quote from the Bible everyday. Which is fine. But then next to it, there is a quote from a very different source -- a Christina Aguilera song. I'm not sure if they see the irony, but I do.

Oh, the sweet sweet irony.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Fun with Neuroscience

I just received the preliminary program for the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, taking place this year in Washington, D.C. It's packed with tons of useful (and not-so-useful) information, but I think my favorite part is the description of the social events. Here's a sample:

Alzheimer's Disease Social: Karaoke Night - A purely social event with karaoke. Hear your favorite AD researchers bellow out the hits!

Cell Death Social: Neural Stem Cell Fate (yeah, nothing makes me want to be social more than talking about CELL DEATH)

Excitatory Amino Acids Social: Come and Make an Acid of Yourself (I kid you not, that's what it said)

Hippocampus Social: Open Mike Poetry Slam - The Hippocampus Social this year will feature an open mike and invites all interested parties to present their most inspired ideas in brief poetry or performance art pieces (3 minute maximum). Performances will compete for attention with ongoing drinking and socializing, and each of the three best works judged by the audience will win a free drink. (this is my favorite part) Hippocampal content is encouraged but not required.

Oculomotor and Vestibular Systems Social - Don't be passive! Come discover the effects of animated conversation and alcoholic stimulation on your vestibular and oculomotor responses.

Pavlovian Society Social - (I can only imagine what's going to happen at this one)






Side note: Anyone in the DC/MD/NoVA area in the middle of November, let's hang. I have a craving for some Brickskellar and Chipotle.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Let the blackmail begin


Neil drinking whiskey on North Quad. Probably one of the funnier pictures of the weekend. Posted by Hello

Now...

...with this newfound capability, does anyone have requests? Pictures I may have promised but did not deliver on?

While you consider that, I will update on a couple of things:

-last Wednesday night's Sox game went quite well. After the 3-hour rain delay had ended, David "Fat Man" Wells ripped through the Cards lineup, Ortiz homered, Renteria homered, and the Sox got a much-needed W in the Lou. We were in the bleachers, and in the 9th decided to move to the front, to the chants of "Check their ti-ckets!" We were pretty near the home run Renteria hit.

-The wedding location is final: it will be at Belhurst Castle in Geneva, NY. A beautiful location, right on one of the Finger Lakes. And two words: wine spiggot.

I can now post pictures -- welcome to the 21st century


The guys on Wilder porch. Note that Dave is not looking at the camera. Note also that Dave is STILL wearing that stupid coat with the patches on the elbows. Note that I am rather sunburned. Note that Neil is the only one there who can play the guitar. Posted by Hello

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Return to the scene of the crime

Off to see the Sox play the Cardinals tonight, first time seeing the Hometown Crew since their big WS win. Perhaps you heard about it? First time in 86 years? Yeah, that one.

Anyway, we've got some seats in the center field bleachers which should be excellent. Kia will certainly enjoy looking at Johnny Damon's butt all night. And maybe we'll catch a home run, who knows? Check me out, I think it's on ESPN. And let's hope they can win at least one game after getting steamrolled in the past two. Yeeesh.

It's probably just that the Sox are recuperating after their "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" makeovers. I'm telling you, their scruffy hair and unkempt appearances help them win! The "Queer Eye" guys are sabatoging my team! Blah!

Sunday, June 05, 2005

The O.C.

After an estimated 27 hours of driving and 1560 miles, Kia and I returned home this afternoon. We spent last night in scenic (read: not scenic) Terre Haute, IN. Its one redeeming feature is that it is home to Indiana State University, where Larry Bird played his college ball. His birthday is December 7, Pearl Harbor Day. He is from French Lick, IN.

Larry Bird aside, our travels took us to Oberlin, then to Rochester, and finally back to St. Louis, Misery. That's not a typo: it is truly miserably hot here. Yes, that being said, all was well in Oberlin for our cluster reunion. I still do a double-take everytime I see the new Science Center, because it just looks kind of out of place. It's so new, so modern, so...damn big. But it's beautiful, and it kind of makes me wish I had done a few more majors so I could still be going to school there.

Our class kind of had a weak turn-out. But it's just as well -- fewer people trying to jam themselves into the Black River Cafe, which is where the soon-to-be-famous list was born. You should go to Dave's blog for more information on said list. Needless to say, I'm winning. And Black River is still as good as ever.

....ok, I just Googled "Black River Cafe" for a potential link to the restaurant website, stumbled upon something entitled "A Rough Guide to Dining at Oberlin," and there found a link to an article entitled "Sleeping with Freshmen" by one Charles Haine, apparently published in some Oberlin publication. This I find remarkably ironic and hilarious, as much of the weekend was devoted to hearing Dave describe in vivid detail how he was going to punish Mr. C. Haine for previous wrongdoings. Mr. Haine also mentions "Kicking and Screaming" in his article, which is also hilarious on so many levels. Well, maybe 2. It's certainly worth a read.

Anyway, Oberlin was Oberlin. Apart from a few changes here and there, it was what it was. There was frisbee, there was guitar playing, there was wiffle ball (which managed to injure both ABL and Kia). We encountered some guys who were apparently alums and who were apparently both lawyers. They invited us out on North Quad for drinks. One of them was very intrigued by my haircut. When more people came along, they seemed to be bored with us.

Kia and I slept in a single bed in East. I can honestly say that's the most time I've ever spent in that building. There's something about it that makes it constantly feel deserted. But we weren't there much, so no harm, no foul.

The feeling I got from the reunion hit me yesterday on the drive home. Kia recently bought a best of the Counting Crows album, and their song "Recovering the Satellites" seemed to sum up what it is about reunions. Not the lyrics of the song necessarily, who the hell knows what Adam Duritz is saying anyway. No, just the title. After graduation, we were symbolically spread throughout the country and the world, gathering information and stories and ideas, and then reunion comes around and we all come back (or at least that's the idea). I feel like I have this network of people all over the place, people I could potentially visit or stay with or learn from about other places. It feels good to have so many of these "satellites," to stay with the metaphor. I can almost take pride when good things happen in other places because I know someone there, or I can imagine what someone I know would be feeling or saying in reaction to something happening where they are. And reunion is essentially all about that gathering of information that others may have gotten. The over-arching theme of most reunion conversations is: So what have you seen? What have you done? Where have you been? We all come back again and fill each other in on where the last 4/5/6 years have taken us.

Kia remarked that at her cluster reunion, we will have been married for two years already. [segway to wedding plans]

After Commencement, it was on to Rochester. Over the course of the week, Kia's parents took us to many potential wedding ceremony/reception sites in upstate NY, particularly the Finger Lakes region. All were nice, and we narrowed the list down to about three. My favorite so far is at a castle in Geneva, NY. I think I'd be happy with any of them though. I'm hoping we can decide soon and set a date.

With all the driving place to place in Rochester, we listened to a lot of radio. My favorite station was called FICKLE 93.3, "Random Radio". I kid you not, that's what they were called. And random they were. I wish I could remember some of the song pairings. It was literally your playlist on shuffle.

And to update: driving standard was relatively successful. I confined myself to highway driving, and handed it over to Kia at the slightest sign of traffic. But I was able to help with driving, and that was the point. Score one for me.