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September 30, 2005
Hi Christina -
You asked me to tell you when this CD arrived, and it's here!
PETE AND J: Without A Band
CLICK HERE TO BUY IT:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/peteandj
It's back in stock now. You're the first to know. It just got here
an hour ago.
We can send it to you in tomorrow morning's mail. Just click this
link:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/peteandj
Posted by christina at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2005
now you come around / your familiar sounds
They repaved one of the street I cross in the morning on my jog. In the area that would be encompassed by crosswalk lines, they imprinted lines in the asphalt. They then coated the area with red. It reminds one of an actual crosswalk made of brinks, but it wouldn’t fool a blind person. It doesn’t make the area look better. It just makes it look strange, red painted asphalt with lines.
Posted by christina at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
i can still recall / the way you looked that fall
Well, it is that time of year, the end of September has arrived. We spent last night at our last baseball game of the season. It was beautiful weather, especially compared to Saturday in which we sat through an hour rain delay. The rain delay was cool as we got to see the field being covered and dried. No one fell, sadly, but it was fun times with my sister + friend (both named the same) in town.
We had hot dogs and nachos to commemorate the end. The Cubs lost. So it goes. Both pitchers pitched full games, which was awesome as that combined with few hits resulted in a short game – just over 2 hours. It gave us plenty of time to shop the shirt/hat sale at the fence. Porch boy got two shirts and I got one. Leta got a hat. All of it was one sale. It was awesome. I am a sucker for a sale.
The weather is starting to feel like fall. After a warm weekend, it was nice to feel the crispness last night. The leaves are starting to turn a little, but not a lot. The running path is only dotted with leave, not covered as I expect it to become in the next couple of weeks.
Pete and J’s cd will not stay in stock! It turns out that CdBaby has a strange stocking system. I understand they don’t want a million random cds in their warehouse, but they ramp up strangely. I hear you send them 5 cds, then when those sell out, you send them 10, then 20, etc. It is strange, but whatever. I’ll let you know when they have it back in stock. (or you too can sign up for their e-mail notification!)
In research news, I hate both of my chambers. The magnets, they are loosing their strengths at record rates! It is so strange, but I think that is what both of their problems boil down to. I think I am going to have to take one apart totally to mix it up. And the other, I just talk nice to it. According to one of the companies, I should not have to change the magnets at all, but I find if I do, my films turn out much better. It is annoying. How many more month of this?
Also, I am really come to the conclusion that I will be chased from Chicago by CTA buses.
Posted by christina at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2005
said your hellos and goodbyes
Well, it has finally happended, Pete and J's cd is avaiable for you to get right now. I really recommend it, and not becuase it is pete and j and I adore pete and j. I think all of you (at least those of my college friends who read this) would love it. They are folky acoustic that you have all known me to love and I have known you to love. Of course, you can check out some clips at their website. You should also order their cd it is only $12 and totally worth it.
Posted by christina at 2:13 PM | Comments (1)
thinking....
someone please explain to me how one can ask the public to conserve gas and cut out unnecessary trips while you keep making trips all over the country in your gas guzzeling not-efficient-at-all, only carrying 50 people monster of an airplane.
Posted by christina at 1:02 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2005
random, random, randomness
in keeping with the theme of my life: random, i have been invited today on a trip to japan on Oct. 15. yes, in three weeks i shall be going to japan for a week.
it is for work(school). part of the research center i am in takes international trips to broan the education of the students.
good thing I got that passport renewed this summer.
i did predict this to ben. how things work around here, i predicted that at one point i would get a call and need my passport.
and, in the random things happening to those I adore, lots of people are evacuating from the houston area, including liz. tom from Miaimi says it is right to evacuate because if your windows aren't protected that it can't be very dangerous.
dude. the warm gulf of mexico. it is going to be a rough couple of years, i predict, for the gulf coast. becuase of that i am predicting a warm late summer next year, how shall this effect the date i must choose?
Posted by christina at 5:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
Where the rivers unwind, rust and in the rain endure.
Articles like this bother me on a couple of levels.
The first being that I focuses on women from Yale. Women who go to Yale are way more likely to either be from the upper class or marry into the upper class than the rest of the generation. The stay-at-home mom debate bothers me because no one bothers to mention all those women who have to work for economic reason, not just because they value their career over family. I tire of this debate for this very reason. Most women don’t choose to work because they value their career; they choose to work because you need money in this society. In most cities, it is impossible to raise a family on one person’s salary, especially if you want to be in the middle class-upper middle class range. We all want our luxuries growing up, and usually it takes to salaries to provide those.
Some people say, oh, my mom worked and I respect her decision to focus on her career. Other people say, oh my mom didn’t work and it really made the difference that she stayed at home. Really, most people who do not reside in the upper middle class or above should say, you know, my mom did the best she could and that included going to work so I could you know, eat, and live in a nice neighborhood with nice schools.
I also tire of the implication that men are more into their careers than women, just because more of them work. No more men are more into their career than women. Most men, if asked, would like an excuse to quit their job for any reason. I read something last year that same most women quit their jobs not to raise children, but use children as a good excuse to quit their jobs.
I certainly am tired of work. I would like to have porch boy days of sleep in, painting, cleaning, bathing the cat, vacuuming, and in general making my life much better. He’ll enjoy it until he goes back to full-time student life in a couple of weeks. And someday, I will happily do it also, and it isn’t because I don’t value my career, but because a change of pace is nice.
Posted by christina at 2:59 PM | Comments (2)
September 19, 2005
Love come knockin’ on my door
Some how 2 years pass alternately fast and slow.
Saturday was porch boy and I’s two-year anniversary. We celebrated by going apple picking. I love apple picking. I had read that this year’s crop was especially good because of the dry weather of the summer. We planned better this year (and by better, I meant at all) and went close to the start of the season. The apples ripen at different weeks. This past weekend we picked empires, Macintoshes, and galas. The trees were full of perfect apples. It took us 15 minutes to fill our bag with 12 pounds of beautiful apples. They are on the small side, but I think that is a byproduct of the short tree variety they have to have so I can reach the apples.
We went to a farm other than the one we went last year. The apples were nice, but the farm wasn’t the rural, especially compared to the countryside we had just driven through. We did get excellent applesauce, apple cider, and apple cider donut. Homemade applesauce is one of the best things on earth, how did I live so long without it?
Apple picking coincided nicely with a small jaunt up to Lake Geneva, WI. It is quite beautiful up there. We found this lunch place that had amazing onion rings.
Here’s a story – this morning I left the apt ~ 8 to go a couple of blocks to get my blood drawn (mmmmm, adult tests like cholesterol and glucose). As I made my way down the stairs, I noticed that across the street a guy is laying on the garden apartment stairs. He is not moving and doesn’t look homeless. (Homeless people usually have stuff near them, this dude didn’t look homeless nor did he have anything near him.) I thought about the dude all during my bloodletting and decided to go back by to see if he was okay. I got back about 30 minutes after I left. He was in the exact same position, so I went upstairs to consult still asleep porch boy. We decide I should call 311, which is Chicago non-emergency number. They connected me to 911, who connected me to the fire/paramedic dept. While this is happening I see the girl walk by, stop, go back, and throw stones at the dude. He doesn’t move. She continues on. They dispatched someone and asked me to wait for them and make sure no one moved the dude.
So I head down and of course I run into the new below us neighbor. I hadn’t meet him, and so had to have a small exchange and then had to explain why I had to run outside. (Dude, quite nice, quite cute. Porch boy and him were wearing the same hat this morning. And he found out that they both travel during the week.)
Just as I get outside, people appear from the building dude is laying on. They rouse the dude. I then try to make the dude stay as I explain that I though he was really hurt and that I had called the paramedics. He said he was not going to stay, but thanks. He was younger than I had thought, and was not in good shape. His check was scrapped up and his lips were all swollen and bruised. He left and I called 911 to cancel the dispatch. I was relieved he was okay, but wished he had stayed for some help. He did not look like he was in a good way.
Oh well, I did what I could.
Posted by christina at 12:31 PM | Comments (3)
September 16, 2005
you seem so out of context / in this gaudy apartment complex
The mornings have gotten dimmer, even more so this morning with rain clouds blocking the sunrise. It is harder to get out of bed compared to mornings in the early summer when sun has been streaming in the bedroom for an hour.
The misty mornings must discourage people from running. For the second jog in a row, people on the trail have been sparse. The wind was blowing something fierce. I enjoyed it as I ran south. It was at my back. Running north, it was brutal. The lake was quite rough; the wave hit the rock pier with such force that water splashed the 50 feet on to the running trail. Fog covered the tops of the tall buildings downtown, and as I ran toward them, I wondered if the people on the top floor were above the clouds today. I wonder if they saw only sunshine and blue skies. I wonder if that is a benefit of wealth – to live so above the masses, your mornings are always blue sky and sunshine.
I know that isn’t true, but as we have all learned in the wake of H. Katrina, wealth provides comfort on grey and rainy mornings. I hope that we will all walk on with a reminder of how divided this country in on socio-economic terms.
I ran across yesterday this poem in the tribune about being poor. It was interesting.
I occasionally google my full name to make sure that this blog is not traceable from it. I’m not worried about being found by people in my life. Most people know the address. Nor am I afraid of losing my “job”. Mainly for the reasons I put quotes around job. I’m note quite sure how you loose this “job” at least not for reason like a blog, not matter how much you were complaining about the people you work with. Plus, I don’t do that. I complain about my research, and the weather. Neither of them have a libel case. Anyways, two really old entries on friend’s blogs showed us. They were from 2001 and 2002, and have just shown up in the past month or so. How random is that! Anyways, not that is a big deal; I still sent those random e-mails that were like, hey, could you take my last name down. Of course, they both were awesome and said sure. I just think it is a good idea.
Here’s a story – there was this boy that tried to date me during college. Hmm, I guess makes it seem that I wasn’t interested, but on the contrary, this story is how I went to this random party just to hang out with him. He was from another college in town. I drove the 15 minutes in a driving rainstorm to join this party. I had a good time, but the memory that appeared to cause me to write this, is that a bunch of people (including him) left to go to the Pink Pony. It (I heard) is one of those strip clubs that people just make fun of (as opposed to the Cheetah, where people when for other reason than to be amused ironically). Any who, I didn’t go. But I laugh when I remember that moment. Oh, the pink pony. If I remember correctly, I don’t even think they ended up going. It was more of a funny plan than anything. In support of the dude (as this story makes him feel kinda skeezzie), he did end up taking me on my favorite first date so far. No dinner and a movie for him, it was a local bluegrass concert in the Georgia hills that was fabulous.
Posted by christina at 12:51 PM | Comments (1)
September 14, 2005
I’m a train wreck waiting to happen
After a couple days (or months) of hot and muggy weather, a breeze brings cool relief. Every day when I run(jog), I curse the hot, but know that come January, I will remember that hot is better than cold cold freezing penguins could live here weather that comes in the winter.
It has been an unseasonably hot summer…though that it has not been hot all the way – we’ve had our nice Chicago weekends, but it got hot early and has been hot late.
I use to say(think) that spring was my favorite season. In the south, it probably remains my favorite season. I love that point in March where things suddenly turn green. Here, in the artic, I have come to love fall so much more. Yeah, spring is nice as after the winter that seems to never end (unless of course you are falling in love and then it seems to fly). Spring is hope of being able to walk outside without every piece of clothing you can fit on your body.
The problem with spring here is that it is still cold. The breezes still bite. April at the ballpark can be torture. It take until July (usually) for the cool breezes to feel good and then it is pretty freaking hot. September rolls around and fall appears sporatically and then settles in. The breeze has a chill, but it feels good. The city smells a little fresher. There is apple picking to be done. Classes start up again, and though the influx of people onto campus again inconveniences me, I love the first day of the new school year feeling. I like seeing the faces of undergrads filled with hope and promise of a new year.
I like the wind rustling the dying leaves, reminding me that life is a cycle. There are up times and down times, the only thing that remains constant is change.
Last week I received some hopeful news that my stay in grad student life won’t be forever, which I had previously been convinced of.
Posted by christina at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2005
you read my mind
exactly what i have been saying
Posted by christina at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
i get all the news i need from the weather report
From the nytimes.com, the caption for a picture of Mr. Brown.
"Michael D. Brown is a lawyer who came to the agency with political connections but little emergency management experience."
This caption can also be used for someone else: insert John Roberts and judging experience
Posted by christina at 5:04 PM | Comments (0)
September 9, 2005
so you think / you can hold the world up by a string
My major problem with the John Roberts nomination is not that his politics disagree with mine, but that it appears that he is getting the job not because he is a great, wise judge, but because he knows the right people. It makes me sick. How is a man that has not sat for more than a couple years as a judge going to be Supreme Court Chief Justice? Where is Congress to point this out? Is it not their duty to make sure this very thing does not happen – that the president doesn’t get to appoint whomever he feels like, but that they make sure he is appoint the right person for the job.
unlike hunk o’ man’s blog, mine in not Katrina news free. Here Barbara Bush comments that evacuees are much better off now that before. I don’t even no where to start to being to counter that claim. Yes, I guess if you consider having your living situation washed away, not knowing where at least all your friends are, if not where all your family is, having spent days in shelters fill with lawlessness, being exposed to air borne diseases, GI disease, not know if, when, or where you will get a jo, being basically trapped in Houston which has basically no public transportation, better off then I guess they are better off. Just because she doesn’t consider the conditions they were living in before ideal, at least the majority of them had some sort of support system of family and friends, and now that has been disrupted, if not destroyed. I, like many people, drive through poor neighborhoods and feel pity for the condition poverty provides. I am sure most people would like better surroundings, but they do the best they can, and many are happy, if not proud of what they’ve managed to do in the situation life gave them. Who is she to judge that they are better off now, in a shelter, instead of in their homes. I am sure most of them would have rathered Katrina didn’t happen. I doubt more than a couple are saying, thank god for Katrina. Why do well off people do this? They judge those less fortunate; they think they know what is best for them.
Posted by christina at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 8, 2005
You find it too damn easy to get bored,
dude. leave me be.
I am currently try to break several habits in my life. I’m always trying to break some habit – e.g., finger nail biting. I’ve gotten so I only do it when I’m nervous about something.
Currently I am trying not to cross my legs when I sit. This is incredibly hard. I always cross my legs, to the point where I am not comfortable unless I cross my legs. Turns out that crossing your legs is hard on your S.I. joint. Mine has been bothering me for at least a month. According to Dr. Jenny (the newly minted PT doctorate), crossing my legs is very bad for my SI joint, so I am trying to stop.
In response to the slackerness that I am, that is my parent’s puppy pictured below. God, I love that dog, but dude, she goes crazy for bananas.
My soon to be, hey, yeah, I know them!, pete and j have launched a rock awesome new website complete with sexy rock star pictures and mp3 for your listening enjoyment, and a link to their new cd…though I can’t find it on cd baby, I’m sure it will be found soon and when it is, you should buy it so you can say hey, yeah, I know someone who knows them and I’ve been listening to them since they were just two kids moving to new york to change fame. peteandj.com if you can't figure out to click on awesome new website.
This morning, during my jog, I saw a bunch of cop cars – including a lot of unmarked ones, yellow police tape, and a bike and a body leaning against a tree in the middle. Looked like a crime scene to me. I was about 100 yards from it, so couldn’t see much as I jogged by. The first jog by, I wasn’t sure about the body against the tree – i.e. like was it a body, was it a dead body? One my war back home, there was more police vehicles and a guy taking pictures of the body against the tree. It was my own little law and order episode. I keep trying to find a story about it, but am having no luck so far.
Posted by christina at 3:14 PM | Comments (1)
September 4, 2005
now listen closely to the verse I lay
Porch boy and I are home for the Labor Day weekend. For the first time in the past week, I’ve spent a lot of time watching cnn, etc. I spent the week looking at the Katrina victums on the times website, but it is different to see them on tv. It is so depressing. Between the news, and the day spent listening to NPR while driving down, I heard such interesting and thought provoking comments.
- This was predicted, has been predicted for many years.
- 32% of the New Orleans population lives below the poverty line
- Imagine if there wasn’t the warning, if most people (with cars) didn’t have a chance to get out – if it is was terrorist attack, how would the government have handled that?
- On The World, the BBC commented on the difference between covering the tradey here and covering tradigies else where. He said that the difference was that this was the richest country in the world. In poor countries, victums doesn’t have the expectation that they are going to receive help. Here, people do. I do. This is the richest country, I pay a lot of taxes, I would expect if something was to happen to Chicago that the federal government would evacuate me.
- It makes me so angry to hear people say "people should have gotten out, there was warning". With 33% of the population below the poverty line, many of the people didn't have cars, if they did, they didn't have money for gas, or money for hotels. The evcuation plan was for the well off with cars. The city, the government should have had a plan for transporting those without cars out of the city. There was enough warning (since friday before the storm) to get bus down there and start getting people out of there.
Anyways, just a lot of time to think about things, watch a lot of movies, and hang out…and love my puppy.
Posted by christina at 11:39 AM | Comments (3)
September 1, 2005
just bend the pieces till they fit / like they were made for it
lava tube enterance
So, I’m looking for information on sulfur adsoption vs. oxygen adsorption on my best friend, google. I find an interesting page, click on it. Safari can’t find the server. I check my internet connection and try again. No luck. I look again and realize I am trying to get a page from a Tulane.edu server. Yep, no luck today, I seriously doubt their servers have electricity.
this http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/09/01/national/01sat.184.jpg is amazing. I would never have thought something like this could happen in this country.
Just figured out the first causality of the dead computer – all my endnote entries.
So it goes. Endnote is this amazing bilbilography program. You put your references in it. It is a plug in for word. You insert the ref and then at anytime formate the reference mark or the bibolgraphy to any format with a click of a buttom. It is an amazing tool for those of use who submit to a dozen different things all wanting a different formatting.
Anyways, it is not a big deal as I just figured out how to make web of science (the search engine for scientific journals) to export reference information to endnote. What the heck did people do before technology? Not even technology, but cool applications like that.
I rarely get gas. I get gas so rarely that I (1) never pay attention to the price and (2) it always surprises me, oh! I need gas. I fill up maybe every two week. I that is beautiful of living less than 7 miles from work, and that is pretty much the furthest I drive for anything. Of course, it takes me 30-45 mins to drive those 7 miles, and therefore get horrible gas mileage. (~20 mpg, compared to >36 mpg on the highway).
Yesterday morning, I was surprised to see that I needed gas. I also noticed that the price was $3.10. Since we are leaving for Arkansas tomorrow, and therefore will reach somewhat cheaper gas when we get out of the city, I decided to just put in half a tank. This morning I drove by the same station and saw that the praise of gas had risen 10 cents during the past 24 hours. Crazy. Thank goodness that it doesn’t matter that much to my pocket book as (1) I have a fuel efficient car, (2) I don’t drive far and (3) I can afford the increase in the cost of living. So many people can’t.
Posted by christina at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)