6 rules, 6 facts

Playing Tag

1) Link to the person who tagged you: Crystalee at http://crystaleecalderwood.blogspot.com/

2) Post the rules on the blog: Posted

3) Write six random things about yourself:

1. i just ate chocolate cake and cream of mushroom soup together...the soup i treated as my drink.

2. it's a lot easier than i thought to get up at 4:40 am

3. a camel tried to eat my arm off

4. i know why hot dogs come in packages of 10 and buns come in packages of 8, my friends.

5. i started riding my bike again and it makes me feel like a kid

6. i might dress up as hannibal lecter for halloween

4) Tag six people at the end of your post.

5) Let each person know they have been tagged. .

6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

"Tag, You're It!"

i tag laura, mark, elizabeth, chad, april, and carolyne

I Am Not A Movie Snob

To be clear, I do appreciate indie movies, foreign films. I like movies that make a statement, are an act of protest, or try experimental camera angles. But it must be said, I still find merit in movies that are released to more than a limited audience and/or don't have subtitles. Some people criticize the pop culture movie as being fluff or the same old stuff. But to me, most of these movies serve to affirm our common humanity. Regardless of if we physically resemble the characters, or if our situations differ, we can almost always identify with a situation or emotion in these movies. Because they are "formulaic," they tap into the archetypes that occur in every culture. The quest narrative, the questions of identity, the struggle/agon/angst... We can see a part of ourselves on the screen. We can also feel a part of ourselves in the audience. When everyone in a darkened theatre gasps at the same time, sheds a tear for the same tragedy, laughs together... it shows that despite our many differences, we are all human, and can perhaps one day get along when the lights are up.

~S

I *heart* Math

Addition Combos for 2-10

If I keep trying to convince myself I love and enjoy math, eventually it will be true... right? Well, I spent an hour proving to myself that there are indeed 45 unique addition facts. First I wrote out all the possible combinations of adding positive integers to get the numbers 2 through 10 and then I figured out the 45 unique addition facts. If you memorize these facts, you can figure out any addition problem (well, you have to know how to carry or how to add without carrying, which is what the next math post will be about.

45 unique addition facts

Washington Landing, Herr's Island, Allegheny River

I laid on the wall in the sun for a while. It was below 50, but it felt warmer in the sun.

I climbed down the hill beside the wall and looked through the bits of glass and shards of pottery and sticks and stones.

I imagined I was an anthropologist or archaelogist in the future, what these pieces of life would mean to me. There were even a couple of old spoons with designs on the handle
i almost found the whole bowl to reconstruct! (not quite...)

this is what i kept:

a smooth purple glass orb
a piece from the bowl with greco-roman looking fresco type enamel.
also, a piece of what, if i remember my college geology class at all, is granite (maybe feldspar in it?? i only remember feldspar cause it's a funny word), a river shell, and a perfectly round stone.

Beauty

found: Eloise Street, North Side, Pittsburgh


the text:
Beauty
must be defined as
what we are,
or else the concept itself
is our enemy

To see beauty is
simply to learn the
private language of
meaning which is
another's life--
to recognize and
relish
what is.

Why languish in the shadows of a standard
We cannot personify and ideal we live

In Case of Apocalypse, Go to Chatham...

...they're prepared:

drinking water container to be reused as a commode, found in the basement of coolidge hall, chatham university....odd...

Insomnia

the view from my bed at midnight

Tactile Learner

the people who talk about pedagogical theory say that some students need to be doing something with their hands while learning in order to focus and pay attention. to their minds, doodling in class can be a help rather than a hindrance. i hope they're right since this is what i did in my class....hmmm

It's Uncanny!

Okay, so I've been slacking about updating the blog. I've taken lots of lots of Pittsburgh pictures, I just have been dreading sitting thru the arduous process of exporting, uploading, organizing....but I will put them up soon. They are pictures of extremes- one batch from the warmest day we've had this winter so far, and one from what appears to be the coldest thus far.
In the meantime, chew on this. Apparently this X needs Google Game is all the rage these days. I had to skip over other listings and just wrote out the actual headline ones, not the compilations. So here's how it works. You type your name followed by the word needs in google in quotes and see what comes up. So mine was "Sarah needs" and here are the top 30 results:

Sarah needs:
1. Sarah needs a cold shower, self-esteem
2. Sarah needs to kick him in the nuts (You know who you are...)
3. Sarah needs your manly vote
4. Sarah needs you.
5. Sarah needs a video channel.
6. Sarah needs to make a cake and some cookies
7. Sarah needs adopted- time is up tomorrow afternoon.
8. Sarah needs a life
9. Sarah needs to lean on her man.
10. Sarah (the chinchilla) needs a family
11. Sarah needs to get her life back and establish herself as the person in charge.
12. Formerly Feral Sarah needs a Forever Home
13. Sarah needs batteries
14. Sarah needs a good cuddle
15. Sarah needs more love lyrics
16. Sarah needs to cut down on the overtime!
17. Sarah needs a break
18. Sarah needs Nat and her computing skills to survive and find whatever she needs to keep ahead of her faceless pursueers.
19. Sarah needs some more lovin
20. Sarah needs to respond to a student inquiry regarding the latest assignment
21. Sarah needs a reality check, as well.
22. Sarah needs the help of the notorious Captain Jamie Kerrick.
23. Sarah needs someone with a mature, hardened presence.
24. Sarah needs a root canal.
25. Sarah needs a story about Tina One Life to Live
26. Sarah needs to be hooked up to a respirator in order to survive.
27. Sarah needs someone who can escort her from port to port.
28. Sarah needs special glasses.
29. Sarah needs advice on setting up a wider wheel base.
30. Sarah needs a better agent.

How DID they know all these things about me? Especially number 18. I mean, who knows that? And obviously number 30 refers to a "special agent" Maybe his name is Capt Jamie. But notoriety is a warning signal to stay away. If i had more lovin' maybe I wouldn't need a cold shower. and I am now on the look out for a man to kick in the nuts (numbers 2 and 9 combo). Oh well, I'm sure once I have my special glasses, setting the wider wheel base will be no problem. Now if only I could breathe easier.

Marketing Design

Since I've began my foray into the graphic design world (i.e. trying to improve my web design skills, doing some copy writing, trying to teach myself photoshop and freehand, etc.), I have started noticing design everywhere. Sometimes commercial design simply astounds me.

Take Wrigley's 5 Gum for instance. I, too, fell prey to the clever packaging. It's about the size of a carton of cigarettes, and done in black with a different brilliant color for each flavor. Here is my flavor choice, cobalt.

Since anyone can get free condoms at any Planned Parenthood and various other locations, I guess the condom industry has had to step up to the marketing design plate. Meet ONE, the condom that comes in a shiny tin (aka sleek metal case with a plastic hinged back for easy dispensing!)
Even the individually wrapped condoms have a design--a graphic illustration, along with a witty sound byte...See samples HERE

And look-- you too can design a condom! (AKA be the "Rembrandt of Rubber, the Leonardo of Latex, the Picasso of Prophylactics")

What WILL they think of next?


Why, clever instructions that are still informative of course!

Methods's airfreshner (aka pluggable aroma pill) maintains a witty sense of humour whilst instructing users in its preparation (italics are mine added to the parts i found particularly apropos):
1. Holding fragrance bottle upright, remove cap. Do not remove wick. It's pretty important.
2. Keeping fragrance bottle upright, insert into bottom of aroma pill.
3. Rotate bottle clockwise until tight. You know, righty-tighty.
Rotate plug of aroma pill to accomodate vertical or horizontal wall outlet. Insert aroma pill into wall outlet with glass bottle pointing down. Do not turn sideways or else fragrance oil will spill. Gravity is mean like that.

Feline Visitor

We had a visitor today. Kristin called her Muffin and Anth seemed quite attached, but I think she already has a home-- seems pretty taken care of and domesticated. Well, we had fun playing with her for a little bit anyways. I made an improvised cat toy out of a card board strip (a great success). She also hunted down a fly and a moth. She seems young, as she doesn't quite fit into her paws yet. She had a bushy tail like a raccoon.

Possessed by Pigeons?

The pigeons are haunting me. That's all there is to it. Why, oh why, won't they leave me alone. It's been a long saga with pigeons. At times I have hated them ("rats with wings"), others I've been ambivalent or apathetic, more recently intrigued. I posted earlier of how I wasn't sure how to feel about the forced pigeon birth-control in Hollywood, of how I ordered a book about pigeons to research before I formulated an actual opinion. Well, since then, I have been encountering pigeons everywhere. Even on the murals of Pittsburgh. This mural was by Whole Foods in East Liberty. Why the pigeon has bling is beyond me, but it is a pigeon with gold chains and a diamond ring (You would think such accoutrements would weigh it down in flight).

Mysteries of Pittsburgh (not the Chabon novel)

Ah, Pittsburgh. A city of infinite mysteries. Like the spot on a sidewalk in S. Oakland where, according to MRW, you can stand to be teleported. Like the button in East Liberty outside of Kelly's Bar that you can press to disappear. This I saw first hand. I thought about pressing the "button," and was documenting the attempt (see above), but then I started thinking about the definition of "disappear." Now, if I would become invisible, cool...but, if it means I would cease to exist in past, present, and future incarnations, I became a little wary. After receiving advice from a bar patron awaiting the door opening for Happy Hour ("How will you be served if they can't see you? I'd at least wait until after you had a couple of drinks"), I decided not to tempt fate at this juncture. Maybe next time.

~S

Pigeon Problems

Sonny Valerio: Where's he live? (regarding Ghost Dog)

Louie: That's the next strange thing. I mean, I can't just call him up. Instead, he contacts me every day through a bird.

[pause] Sonny Valerio: Did you just say he contacts you through a bird? Did I just hear you say that?

~Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

I don't know where to categorize this in my mind. "Hollywood turns to birth control to clean up its (pigeons') act". I admit that I did not particularly care for the pigeon poop raining down on me in Amsterdam so that I was forced to raise my sweatshirt hood. I, too, have called them "rats with wings." Then in 2005 I met a woman whose husband breeds show pigeons. ("You can show pigeons?" I asked. "Yeah, there're all different colors and types," she answered) Then I saw the Forest Whittaker movie, Ghost Dog, and started thinking about the services pigeons can provide, as he used them to deliver messages. In the movie, and this just might be Hollywood, the pigeons seemed to show some sort of affection or at least loyalty to Ghost Dog. Then I read the article on forced pigeon birth control. I don't know how to feel about this. OvoControl P is basically a poison that they are putting in the pigeon feed. It is supposed to just interfere with egg development. How they're going to make sure only pigeons eat it is beyond me. What they will do if it completely sterilizes the pigeons is also beyond me. I know there is a difference between pigeons and humans, but it still brings to mind what hospitals used to do when undesirable women gave birth-- they would birth the baby by c-section, then just take the uterus while they were at it.

The first country to concertedly undertake compulsory sterilization programs for the purpose of eugenics was the United States. The principal targets of the American program were the mentally retarded and the mentally ill, but also targeted under many state laws were the deaf, the blind, the epileptic, and the physically deformed. Native Americans were sterilized against their will in many states, often without their knowledge, while they were in a hospital for some other reason (e.g. after giving birth). Some sterilizations also took place in prisons and other penal institutions, targeting criminality, but they were in the relative minority. In the end, over 65,000 individuals were sterilized in 33 states under state compulsory sterilization programs in the United States.

~"Compulsory Sterilization" on Wikipedia

I know this isn't the same, but it still strikes me. I still feel like something bigger or more metaphorical might be being said, but I'm not sure what. My feelings on pigeons are somewhat nebulous at this point, so I am seeking more knowledge. I ordered Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird. Perhaps it will help me process this.