The handmade homemade christmas present extravaganza

Since the completion of my semester, I've been a-craftin' up a storm. I've made a hat and scarf for a cold friend in Michigan, started a new super-secret scarf project for an unnamed beneficiary, painted a box for Nathan, painted a box for my grandma, painted some holiday thingies for me and Nathan, and painted a Noah's arc thingy for my nephew. I've been working on these things for probably 5-8 hours a day, no joke.

Here's the hat and scarf I made. I wanted a picture of them before I mailed them off to the midwest. I'm still waiting to hear if they've been received and dutifully loved.


This is a Christmas thingy that I started painting years ago. The last time Nathan and I were in AZ, I found a tub full of my old craft supplies and decided to bring it back to Berkeley. I was digging through it a few days ago and found this half-painted thing and decided to finish it. Below it is the box I painted for my grandma, who I will be seeing in AZ in just a few days. Grandmas always love little knickknacks, right?


I just finished this present for my nephew Daniel last night. I think it turned out pretty cute. My brother has some weirdly strong urge to decorate the kid's room with Noah's ark stuff, so I guess this should fit in nicely.


I'm looking forward to giving out all these presents. Nathan and I are leaving for AZ on Thursday, but we're not having our replacement Christmas celebration until Saturday. So I've got a few more days to wait. In the mean time, I've got about a million things to do around this place before leaving, including coming up with some new way to thwart the invasion plans of the ants that live in our crawl space. (If it's not a raccoon it's another thing.) I'm really looking forward to our trip though. We're going to be staying with our friend Richard in his new house, and then Richard and us are going to Disneyland!!! Anyway, fun times ahead, I'll post about them when I'm back.

Conclusion of the raccoon saga

The raccoon has been captured!!!

We've had a raccoon living under our apartment off and on for over a year. Recently, he started chewing at the walls to get in to our warmth, and therefore, he had to go. We had some critter control people come out and set some humane traps to catch the little dude. At first, he proved elusive. Maybe he wasn't interested in the marshmallows with peanut butter or maybe he wasn't interested in being in a trap that smelled like purified skunk stink (true story, stupid critter people). Nevertheless, we did eventually hear little raccoon scuffles outside our bedroom window where the traps were located. Now begins our story.

The setting: A small cruddy apartment in Berkeley, CA, USA

The time: The deep cold of night, the witching hour, 12 midnight

The players: Nathan (brave giver of food), Allison (the photographer), raccoon (the antagonist)

Scene: (There is an eerie noise outside.)
Nathan: Do you hear that?
Allison: Yeah, it sounds like something got caught in one of our traps.
N: Let's go check it out.
(Nathan and Allison grab coats and a flashlight and head outside. They see an animal-shaped lump in a trap.)
A: Look, it's the raccoon!!!
N: Oh, he's looks so sad in there. Maybe we should give him some food. We've got carrots, right?
A: Yeah, but let's use the celery, it's longer.
They head back into the apartment to get the celery. Back outside, Allison takes a couple of pictures of the raccoon.
A: Go ahead and give him the celery.
(Nathan pushes an end of the celery through the slats of the cage. Unfortunately, he keeps on pushing, hoping to make the celery more accessible to the raccoon. The raccoon, however, interprets this act as a threat.)
Raccoon: {snarling and lungeing} Grrrr, I'm gonna get you!!!
N: Ahh! Don't get me raccoon!!!
(Nathan drops the celery and he and Allison run back into the apartment.)
A: That raccoon was angry!
N: I don't feel sorry for him anymore. I could have lost a finger. He bit right through that celery, stringy bits and all!
A: Phew! He's a rodent, not friend...even though he's not a rodent, but you know what I mean.

End Scene

Look at the evil red glint in his eye.

Ok, ok, he's still cute, but don't try to feed him.

Cute kitties yeah yeah!

Fred and George boggle my mind with the extent of their cute. I can't even take it sometimes. And, boy, do they love sleeping on their dad!

George loves his dad

George loves sleeping on his dad

George REALLY loves sleeping on his dad

Fred loves being a sleepy rag-doll-like lump on his dad

Random Musings...Fat and The Simpsons

For some reason, when I woke up this morning I remembered how in the sixth grade I dissected a frog. Even more oddly, my brain connected this event with The Simpsons. Let me explain.

In the sixth grade, my friend Amie and I were lab partners assigned to dissect a dead frog. This is the one cutting-an-animal-open-for-science school assignment which I did instead of opting to writing an excessively long report about the animal's physiology (i.e., the humane option). While I was working through the assignment, Amie was cutting out the frog's tongue and stretching it, but that's beside the point. Within the frog, I discovered short yellow tubular thingies. I asked the teacher what they were, and he said it was fat. Yellow tubular thingy = fat.

Are you seeing the connection?

So, this memory floated to the surface of my mind this morning and then latched itself to The Simpsons. The connection thread that my brain used is that the Simpsons are yellow tubular thingies AND they're fat. Not really an interesting connection, but I thought "how appropriate." Jumbo-sized Homer, with his substantial gut, is a fat yellow man. The fat in the frog was yellow. Almost all of The Simpsons' characters have bulbous midsections. They're chubby and cute. They're yellow and fat (except for the ones that aren't, LOGIC).

That was my morning. Why don't you tell me about yours?

The final hurdle

Test grading. Hmph. Start the "Chariots of Fire" music and let me at them. I am going to grade tests like there's no tomorrow. Final exams, re-take exams, entering of grades, work, work, work. I will get to my winter break!!!

The jibberish above is attempting to convey the sentiment that I'm not really wanting to grade, but I do want to start my relaxing, and so will suffer through this last hurdle. Is a necessary post? No, probably not. Am I doing it anyway? Umm, are you looking at it? Yeah, I'm doing it anyway. Am I a bit aggressive currently due to my distaste for my present predicament? Indeed! Careful, Nathan, don't get within fist reach.


By the way, there are no pictures for this post. You'll take it and like it!

Obama : Smoking :: Kooky Aussi : Oil Spill

The other day, Nathan read me a yahoo news report about Barack Obama and his deathstick addiction and his supposedly quitting smoking. Here's what stood out to me:

"Appearing on NBC's 'Meet the Press' program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC's Barbara Walters.

Noting that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, 'Have you Stopped smoking?'

'I have,' Obama replied, smiling broadly. 'What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon.'

'Wait a minute,' Brokaw interjected, 'that means you haven't stopped.'

'Fair enough,' Obama said."

Heh heh. This exchange really tickles me for some reason. Obama first answers with, what I can only imagine to be, a shit-eating grin (= "smiling broadly") and then immediately flips his answer from a flat out statement of having quit smoking to basically saying, "Nah, I was just joshin' ya, I smoke all day everyday."

I don't give two flying squirrels if Obama smokes. But the fast-paced (and to me, quite humorous) exchange reminded me of an hysterical video clip of an Australian "politician" talking about the front end falling off of a big boat and causing an even bigger oil spill. I honestly don't know if this guy is a real politician and this interview is legit, or if this is a genius parody. (Oh, please, be a parody. I fear for our world.)

I could watch this a dozen times in a row and still laugh out loud.

I've got vision on my brain grapes

A fellow graduate student e-mailed me this awesome picture...I mean...Look at this awesome picture I took back in the early 1900's.

{phew, that was close}

Before I tell you anything about this picture, take a quick look at it.

You probably see a large Jesus-shaped head floating between two people. Yes? Take a second look at the picture, and try to get a different perception of the "hey zeus" patch. This is a bit trickier. What if I told you that you could also see that patch as a child sitting on the left man's knee? Still can't see it? Cover up the floating head's hairdo. Still nothing?! Come on, people! Ok, ok, the floating head's "eye" is actually the child's face cowled under a white hood, and the giant head's mouth is the kid's arm coming out of a white sleeve. Got it? Finally, I was beginning to worry about your brain grapes.

So this is my awesomely ambiguous photo for which I've won numerous Nobel Prizes. What's causing this double perception? Perceptual grouping at its finest, AKA figure-ground, betches!

You may be familiar with the concept of figure-ground from the ambiguous vase/face picture. I've just found a rather unique example of this:

This drawing can be perceived as either one face or two, depending on what you group as the figure and what as the ground. If you perceive the vertical object under the candle as being closer in the picture plane, then you will perceive the eyes, nose, and mouth as belonging to one face that is behind the candlestick. BUT, if you can split your perception to include two faces looking at each other head on, then you will see those faces as being in front and the shape under the candle as being farther (and maybe not even a candlestick anymore, but an accidentally candlestick-shaped space formed by the contours of the two faces). For me, this picture is also bistable, meaning my perception of what's in front switches automatically as I continue looking at the image.

Another famously bistable image is the Necker cube:

From this single simple wire-framed cube, you can get two depth perceptions. The front face can look like it's pointing down and to the left {"Back and to the left. Back and to the left."} or up and to the right. What you "see" will flip back and forth as you continue looking at it. Wh-Wh-What?!?!? Oh my god, it's wonderful!!! {that's for you, Nate}

Awww, perception. My one and only friend. Maybe Perception and I should get together for a round of Boggle this weekend. I sense good times on the horizon, people!


Old-timey photo from some crazy website.
Figure-mutha-truckin-ground from some other such site.

I'm helping!!!

I'm helping Nathan write his papers right now. Nathan's had a bit of a hard time getting to work, so I implemented my love for violence and punching to motivate him to start. I told him (as he perused facebook with glazed over eyes) that I would punch him every 5 seconds until he got to work. I then sat in a chair behind his chair and counted down "Five, four, three, two, PUNCH!" and punched his arm. Don't worry, I was gentle, I didn't bruise the precious little peach. "Five, four, three, two, PUNCH! Five, four, three, two, JAB! {poke in the rib} Five, four, three, two, CHOP! {karate chop to the arm} Five, four, three, two, TAP {smacked the top of his forehead}" Needless to say, he's now working. Hooray ME!!!

Side note: He was so cute and twitchy with fear as he got to work. Man, I'm a good wife!

Look at him go!

Blog on facebook (A.K.A. The story of the raccoon)

I've just uploaded my blog on facebook, and am curious to see if facebook will automatically import new blog posts. So this is my test run, but I might as well tell an interesting story while I'm at it.

Nathan and I live above a raccoon...or, a raccoon lives below us. There's a crawlspace under our apartment, and some ingenious raccoon discovered how to get in there about a year ago. He/she has been our little rabid friend every since. He/she (that's getting old, so lets name the raccoon Dragon)...Dragon typically lives under our bathtub. Quite disconcerting when you're showering, let me tell you. But sometimes in the middle of the night, Dragon will crawl under our bedroom and scratch at the walls. Last night was the worst. Dragon, or maybe one of Dragon's rodent friends (i.e., rats) was chewing at the drywall and trying to home invasion us. It was pretty terrifying to wake up to at 4 in the morning. Because of this breach of our cohabitation contract, I've had to call the apartment company about Dragon. Frankly, this situation has gone on for far too long, so I won't be too sad to see Dragon go. Plus it will be nice to have a full night's sleep sans wild animal attack.

As much as I'd like to believe Dragon is like this cute little fella


He's probably more like this big dude.


Goodbye, Dragon friend.

Presentation time, booyah!

Today is the day of my big fMRI presentation. Well, not "big" per se, but presentation is true enough. I'm still a bit nervous, but I practiced a few times last night, ran through it with my advisor and got his feedback this morning, and have practiced it a few more times on my own. So now I'm feeling ok. It will not be phenomenal, but it will be pretty good.

I wonder what a presentation by Chuck Norris would be like...

"Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs."

"Scientists have estimated that the energy given off during the Big Bang is roughly equal to 1CNRhK (Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick)"

"Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice."

"Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship."

"A Chuck Norris-delivered Roundhouse Kick is the preferred method of execution in 16 states."

"Chuck Norris doesnt shave; he kicks himself in the face. The only thing that can cut Chuck Norris is Chuck Norris."

For more on Chuck Norris, visit chucknorrisfacts.com .

Fact: Chuck Norris was the best man at my uncle Kenny's wedding.

fMRI presentation : (

I would love to slack off for the rest of the long Thanksgiving weekend, but I have a presentation to prepare. Boo! I have to present an fMRI research paper to my fMRI class on Monday, and I believe I'm the first unlucky soul to present. So that's what I'm doing today and tomorrow. I guess it's a good thing I finished all of the Stephenie Meyer books I was reading, because now I can concentrate more on my work (though I am going through intense withdrawal from the books).

I've never presented fMRI work before, and I'm supposed to comment on the methods and their appropriateness. Since I'm not a pro in fMRI methods, hence my taking this course, I'll try to gloss over those details as much as possible. I don't really mind standing up in front of the class and presenting, but this will count as almost all of my course grade, and that does make me nervous.

At least I can have "Frasier" on while I'm working.

Thanksgiving without all the cooking

Nathan and I decided to not do a big cooking kick this year for Thanksgiving. Instead, we went to the way overpriced Andronico's market up the street (or as our friends call it "Astronomico's") and bought some precooked turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I made scalloped potatoes and stuffing, both from a box and both delicious; and Nathan steamed some carrots. What does all of this food equal? DELICIOUS THANKSGIVING FOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!! Check it.

Nathan's crazy face aside, that's some fine lookin' Thanksgiving food steam!

Yeah, Nathan's excited.

I think I should probably go eat some of that food right now. The talking walnut told me to, that way it's not my bad thing.

Explanation time

I've been preoccupied for the past couple of weeks, hence, no blog posts. Let me explain (by the way, it's all Nathan's fault).

For my birthday, Nathan bought me a new book, "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. I was hesitant about the book because the author is mormon (yes, yes, I should be more open mided and/or accepting...) and because of it's crappy movie trailer. But Nathan said the book was right up my alley because it is "about a teenage vampire." So I gave it a try. As I began the book, my first impression was, "You can really tell this is a first-time author." It was not very gripping initially, and the chronology of the first person telling was muddled because of the author's stylistic choices. But that rapidly changed into an amazing book (and I don't know if it's my imagination, but the writing got a lot better too). The story is written from the perspective of a teenage girl, and the way it's written you really feel like you could be that girl. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that when the girl experiences an emotion, the reader experiences the emotion. For myself, I could really feel as if I was in the story and not just sitting on my bed reading a book. Oh, by the way, I finished the book in two days (498 pages).

So naturally I wanted to read the rest of the books in the series. Nathan and I walked up and down Shattuck and looked in two or three bookstores, but this being the sh*thole that is Berkeley, they didn't have the second book. Especially irritating is the fact that it took us about 15 minutes just to find a parking spot, but that's life in Berkeley. When we got home I hopped on Amazon, and much to my delight, I found the next three books all on sale. I ordered all three and spent the next few days anxiously awaiting my delivery, which got here last Thursday or Friday. Much to Nathan's chagrin (though it's all his fault, remember), I dove into the second book. And finished it. I dove into the third book. And finished it. I dove into the fourth book. And finished it just last night. So....um.....that's why I haven't posted anything for a long while. I've been reading reading reading, 2,442 pages of reading.

Here are the four beautiful books.

Apparently, I'm not the only on in the family who likes the books.

George does too! Although Fred feels they're "below him"...

...really they're below George (heh heh heh)

Anyway, I loved all of the books. Stephenie Meyer was able to write the characters as growing, but in a satisfying way, so that the reader is just as happy with each subsequent book even though the characters are not exactly the same, but changing. That probably sounds silly or "d'uh!" but I would imagine it's very hard to do. I loved the first book for one reason (and in the attempt to not ruin the reading experience for anyone else, I'm not going to say what that reason is), the second book for a similar reason but also many different reasons, etc. I see my generalities in attempting to hide the plot of the books is making my explanation a bunch of vague gobbledygook, so I'll stop here. Suffice it to say, I loved the books, and I want more!

Check out Stephenie Meyer's website here, did I mention she's from Tempe and does signings at Changing Hands? (I know I didn't, but I am now). Another reason to miss AZ, I'd love to get a signed copy of one of these books.

Also, I saw the movie "Twilight" and it's very "eh". When I first saw the preview (before I knew anything about the books), I thought to myself, "Wow, another crappy vampire movie. Great! Oh look, it's the guy that played Cedric Diggory in 'Harry Potter'." After I finished reading the book, I really wanted to see the movie. It was bad. I knew it would be bad. But it was bad. Neither of the two leads could act. Period. And the vampire special effects left a lot to be desired. I will say, however, that the guy that played Edward looked that part. So whenever he was quiet, he did a decent job, you know, just having a face and being seen. I'll still get it on Netflix when it comes out, but not for itself, for the book.

Awesome 90's videos

In case you haven't heard, MTV has started uploading ALL of the music videos they've ever aired at mtvmusic.com. Naturally I've been taking advantage of the prolific-ness and free-ness of this, and this morning this taking advantage took the form of AWESOME 90'S VIDEOS!!!!

First, we have 4 Non Blondes. Do I even have to put the song name? Probably not, because there's really only the one. This is the pop-up video version, because pop-up videos were awesome and I miss them with all my heart and soul (overly dramatic moment!!!!!):

4 Non Blondes |MTV Music

This song reminds me of summers in Missouri for some reason. There was a playground right by my dad's house, and I would spend loads of time there. I would usually sing to myself, and this is one of the songs I would sing. Before this morning, I hadn't heard this song is years and years, yet when I heard it today I was able to still sing along. Isn't music amazing? Also, does anyone else see Angela's friend Rayanne from "My So-Called Life" in the wardrobes of this video, they're both epitomes of 90's "fashion" and 90's-ness in general.

Second, we have Pearl Jam's "Jeremy":

Pearl Jam |MTV Music

My memory with this song has to do with carpet cleaning. Let me explain. My mom used to get our carpet cleaned once or twice a year, which would mean us moving all of the furniture out to the garage for a day or two. Because of that, the living room would be just a big empty space waiting for some kid to run around on it having a good time. I was that kid. One carpet cleaning day, MTV was doing a Top 100 or some such video countdown, and this song was the #1 or 2 video. I remember jumping around the living room and "dancing" in awesome 90's fashion, just basically jamming out to this song. Sort of embarrassing, but a guaranteed good time. Nathan told me that this was the last music video Pearl Jam ever made, not because they broke up or disappeared into obscurity, but because they decided against participating in the commercialism that is music videos. I think that's pretty cool, though you know they still made gobs of money and bought many pointless belongings for themselves.

And finally, "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum:

Soul Asylum |MTV Music

I believe this song was also part of that song countdown I mentioned above, but this is based on probably-faulty memory. Anyway, I would dance around all crazy to this song too. Nathan told me something interesting as we were watching this earlier. He said that when this video first came out, all of the missing children that were shown in it were found. So the band started cycling through pictures of other missing kids, and they kept getting found. As long as that song was popular and getting regular play, they kept finding more and more missing kids. Awesome not just for the song, but for the impact as well.

Plans for the weekend

Grade Midterms, play soccer, read about fMRI, knit and watch Netflix ("Project Runway" and "Friday Night Lights")...oh, and drink coffee. I guess the good outweighs the bad, but I really, really, really, really, really, really hate grading exams! Bright spark, I grade with "Frasier" on, which helps keep me sane and offers distractions when I need a nano-break.

I've finished the hat I was working on, and I started the scarf last night. I might unravel that though, I'm not sure how the design is going to look. It's just a 3x3 ribbed stripe pattern all the way up, because I thought (and Nathan agreed) that the basket weave pattern that I was planning might be too feminine. I love the basket weave ("I love Santino!" ~that's for you, hon). I've made myself three scarves of that pattern. Take a look.

The coffee just a-finished a-brewing, so I'm gonna get what I want, which is coffee. Adios.

Follow the election tallies, courtesy of MSNBC

Election 2008

Today is the presidential election. I've got butterflies in my stomach because I do not want this country to continue down the same path that it's on. I've cast my vote via mail ballot already. Let's just hope that the people's voice is properly heard this time and that there's no funny business with hanging chads, too few voting sites in Democrat areas, or whatever evil nonsense the Republicans can cook up. Go out and vote!!!

Weekend fun...knitting

I'm nearly finished with the hat I'm knitting for a friend. I haven't made a hat in a really long time, so I've had to sort of relearn how to do it. I think it's turning out ok, and I should have enough yarn left over to make another one.

Mocha and Dark Leaf

I really like making stuff with my hands, as silly as that may sound. Even sillier, I was thinking about trying to sell some of my knitted stuff at one of the copious Bay Area farmer's markets. I think that crazy anti-mass-production Berkeleyites would be willing to pay pretty well for handmade things. Maybe I'm cuckoo.

Weekend fun...soccer

The weather cleared up today, so I finally got to try out the new cleats that Nathan bought me for my birthday. They were so pretty and clean that I wanted to take a picture of them before running around in the mud.

So pretty!

I love my new cleats!!! I can't wait to join a game. There's a neighborhood game and a psych grad student game that I'd like to try out. We'll see what happens, either way I had a lot of fun running around in my new shoes today.☺

Weekend fun...food

Nathan and I splurged a bit this weekend by having some delicious food. We bought bagels on Friday, so we decided to get some smoked salmon and have bagels and lox for lunch Saturday. Yum!!!! Here's Nathan about to dive into the deep end of delish:

Here's a close up of my bagel, complete with cream cheese, tomato, and red onion (no capers because I'm cheap and I can admit it).

To top off the yummy food, I made some chai tea in our slow cooker (water, black tea, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger, and cloves). It was really easy and turned out nicely. Plus it made the apartment smell pretty after the onion slicing that happened for the bagels. Overall, a very good complement for the cold rainy day that was Saturday.

I'm gonna get my knit on!

I friend of mine is living in Michigan now, and because the weather is leaning into winter that far north, I'm going to knit him a hat and scarf. I've been thinking about adding a series of posts about my knitting projects anyway, so I'm going to start with this. Here are the colors I chose:

I'm going to make the hat striped brown and green, and the scarf will just be green. If I have the energy, I'll do the scarf in a basket weave, otherwise I think I'll just do a really basic one-side knit one-side garter or chunks of rows of knit then garter repeating. Anyway, I'm excited to get started, I haven't knitted anything in about a month.

On the sadder side, I'm going to start grading 100+ pop quizzes now. Boo (not Halloween "boo" but sad "boo"). Thankfully, this grading is mindless enough that I can have "Frasier" on while I'm doing it. Being set in Seattle, this show is the appropriate choice for this evening. After I'm done grading, Nathan and I are going to watch some "X-Files" and I'll start my hat. Yay! I'll post some pictures as I progress (on the knitting, not the grading).

I ♡ MOVIES

I "heart" movies. Wow, I'm annoying even myself. I hate when people "heart" things, but I just found out how to insert symbols on Firefox (for macs, press apple/option/t).Here's another one: because it's raining today in Berkeley, don't forget your ☂.

Alright, Nathan and I are about to go to see "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" in Emeryville.

I've got quite the warm spot in my heart for Jewish guys: Seth Rogen, Zach Braff, Adam Brody, Adrien Brody, Adam Goldberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David...awww. Yeah, it's a little weird...I'm a little weird. Gotta hurry to the movie now.

UPDATE:

Just got back from the movie. Wouldn't recommend spending the $10. Parts of it were sufficiently funny, but not enough. I like Seth Rogen, but he was doing his same-old same-old thing. The plot was surprisingly transparent, even for a comedy. The most disappointing thing was that you never get to see if their porno was successful. I give it a ::shrug:: m'eh.

Grey weather makes me happy

Today is one of the first really grey, damp, chilly days of the semester. I love this weather! Because it was so cold when I left for school, I had the pleasure of wearing some of my knitted gear. I taught myself how to knit and crochet from books about a year and a half ago, and have enjoyed making way too many hats and scarves ever since. Here's a picture of one of my basket weave scarves and the most complex hat I've ever made (it's got fair isle color pattern, some lace which make the scalloped bottom, and some cabling at the top, very cool).

Nathan gave me this pretty sweater for my birthday : )

I also had the pleasure of leaving school early today ~1:30. When Nathan picked me up, we decided to get some bagels from Noah's. When we got home, I put on a pot of coffee, Nathan toasted up some bagels, and we enjoyed some happy bellies while watching "Friends." Oh, and of course I changed back into my pjs before snuggling into my chair for caffeinated delicious time.

Last night some super warm and crowded snuggling was happening in the living room. Nathan was in his orange chair, covered with a blanket, joined by George, and then buried under Fred.










Here's a cute-tastic pic of Fred (right) and George (left) encompassing all of their dad's lap/abdomen. Soooo sleepy!

And can you believe how adorable George is???? Because I can't. I love how Fred's and Nathan's heads look to be tumorous growths of George's back. Doesn't sound cute, but it is!

Blah!!! I hate doing homework

I haven't written for a looong time because I've been so busy. My mom was out visiting for my birthday. That was fun and took up all of my time. Then after she left, I had mucho work for school. And now I'm having to do another batch of delicious bullshit essays for the class I'm teaching! YAY! I teach my sections on Thursday, which means I cover material immediately after it's covered in lecture on Wednesday. Because of this, the students are rarely well prepared, and this becomes a much greater issue before a test like now. I'm supposed to hold a review session this Thursday for chapters 4-7. We haven't even started discussing chpt 7 in lecture. The essay questions for chpt 7 have not been posted yet. But I'm supposed to be well prepared and be able to cover all that in two days. What's wrong with this picture? I'm pointlessly ranting right now to avoid writing out these essay questions, but every second I waste I can feel my stress level increase. So adios.

sad and crazed

Why is grad school so much work?

Can't they just give me my PhD already? Ugh, I'm so tired! My mom is coming out to Berkeley this weekend for my birthday, which is great, but that means I'm going to be severely limited in time to do my work. I'm a pretty bright spark, I figured this out before she got here. I've therefore been working like a drunk panda on crack for a week to get ahead of the work curve (I don't really know if drunk pandas take crack or if they work harder than non-crackhead sober pandas, but it feels appropriate). Inebriated pandas aside, I taught my three weekly sections this morning and have finished mounds of reading, so now I'm looking forward to a few days of relaxing and eating birthday pie.

Interesting videos

I came across this video weirdly enough when doing a google search for "magic eye," but it's John McCain clips spliced together. He basically goes back and forth in what he claims in order to suit the current atmosphere.



John McCain seemingly believes that everyone is his friend. He's constantly referring to...well, anyone, as "my friend." Frankly I feel nauseated when I hear him say that. I'm not your friend, buddy; I'm not your buddy, guy...Here's a humorous take on McCain's near Tourette's-like compulsive usage of "my friends."

You just have to laugh sometimes (corny cobby pal, come on!).

You can find almost anything on youtube these days. Here's a compilation of "my friend" from last week's presidential debate (I still can't sit through it).


It would appear that my OCD has latched onto politics. Must. Stop. Posting. About. Politics!

I just voted! Wait, I just voted?

I received my ballot in the mail yesterday. I didn't request this ballot. I was sent it because apparently the precinct of which I'm a member "contains less than 250 voters" and "has been designated a mail ballot precinct."

I thought this sounded a little odd, since I live in a highly populated area. Surprisingly, when I told Nathan what the letter said, he immediately jumped to the conclusion that it's a right wing conspiracy. It does feel fishy. I live in BERKELEY, CA, perhaps the most liberal city in the country, located in the bay area's Alameda county, population ~1.5 million. And I'm being told there are too few voters in my precinct? Admittedly, I don't know how "precinct" is defined, but I can't think of one definition that would equal fewer than 250 registered Berkeley residents.

For the past two presidential elections, there have been odd occurrences with regard to historically blue or swing-likely-to-go-blue voting areas. And it looks like politics as usual this election. Theoretically, whether I cast a mail-in ballot or physically mark my ballot at a polling site should make no difference. But if my ballot gets "lost" in the mail, maybe because it's coming from a liberal locale, then my vote doesn't get counted. Period. If that were to mysteriously happen, I don't suppose it would make a huge difference for CA, because it's nearly guaranteed that CA will go blue. But if a bunch of Berkeley, San Francisco, etc mail ballots get "lost" then what? I dunno.

Opinions welcomed.

Fun in the park!

Nathan and I discovered this really cool park near our apartment over the summer, and have been taking regular walks there ever since. More recently, we've been playing soccer there. Really we just kick the ball back and forth and try juggling. But it's a good work out. I'm hoping to join a neighborhood pick-up game after I buy some cleats and get in better shape. Here are some pictures of tonight's fun.

Really beautiful park.

Juggling the ball. You can see the new bag I just knitted on the ground.

Notice the tight-rope walkers practicing in the background. Berkeley's crazy.

Whatcha doing, Nathan, kung fu fighting?

Nope, he's juggling too.

I was talking to my mom earlier today, and she said I should post more videos. So here are two of us in the park. Unfortunately, I'm still trying to get the videos off of our proper video camera, so this is from our picture camera, which has no microphone. Hence, no sound.



Mom, you should get facebook, because I put a bunch of pics on there.

Palin guilty of abusing gubernatorial power

The republicans tried to delay the release of this report until after the election, but failed (as they do with so many things). Now the public can read all about how Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee of the Republican party, abused her gubernatorial powers in Alaska (300 page report). The bipartisan panal found her to be "... in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain."

On an even more disgusting note, attendees of McCain/Palin rallies are turning into future lynch mobs. I use this term literally. They have been heard to chant "Kill him" at the mention of Barack Obama's name. Does this scare anyone else? Palin's response to this, "Boy, you guys just get it!"

Full "The Daily Voice" article:
"Senator John McCain and his running mate Governor Sarah Palin have been accusing Senator Barack Obama of associating with terrorists in recent days, and as a result, audience members at McCain and Palin rallies have called Obama a "terrorist" and threatened to kill him.

"Sarah Palin was on the verge of inciting a race riot in northern Florida" this week, the Nation reported. The paper said Republican audience members "hurled a racial epitaph" at an African American member of the media while other audience members yelled "kill him" and "treason!" when Barack Obama's name was mentioned. Palin did nothing to stop the attacks and reportedly responded: "Boy, you guys just get it!"

Palin began the attack on Monday when she told 8,000 fans at a rally in Florida that Obama "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist," according to the Washington Post. "This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America," she said.

The McCain-Palin ticket has become increasingly negative in recent days and some have called their attacks "dangerous" and "racist." But it's not just Obama who has come under attack.

Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank describes the scene at a rally in Clearwater, Florida this week, where he said "arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin blamed CBS News anchor Katie Couric for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." Palin supporters then "turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse," Milbank reported. "Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, 'Sit down, boy.'""

Just 'cause.