Sweet Surrender
Man, I haven't listened to Sara McLachlan since, what? 10th Grade?
Today had two themes: chocolate and claustrophobia. Dad and I went to the Asian Art Museum to see their special exhibit, Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World. We were overwhelmed by the complexities of Tibetan Buddhism and underwhelmed by the quality of the explanatory material. There was lots of (rather dull) information about individual pieces, but very little that allowed one to synthesize the information into a coherent whole. The museum was also very full, and the (very bad) docent from whom we could not escape reinforced my determination to volunteer as a docent at the Oriental Institute.
I received a nice letter from Susan Art, Dean of Students today, which has me several leagues over the moon, considering my first-year GPA of something like 2.4.
This evening we went to North Beach for dinner at Brandy Ho's, our favorite Hunan restaurant. Tourist season, Saturday night, and the North Beach Jazz Festival combined to create a particularly frustrating type of pedestrian congestion. Mom and I bought books at City Lights, and then we went for Gelato. I've been so bad on my diet recently. Just a minute ago I was eating chocolate Pocky... I won't even tell you how many points they are. Maybe it won't count that way. I've lost about five pounds, though, so... that's a start towards dumping the dining-hall weight.
Last time I went to City Lights, I bought A Middle English Reader and Vocabulary, by Sisam and Tolkien. The time before, I requested Machiavelli's The Art of War. This time? An Abridged Samuel Johnson's Dictionary and LeGuin's Steering the Craft, a book of writing exercises. While I agree with Tom that many of LeGuin's theories of gender are a bit off the wall, I love the way she writes about writing. They didn't have the book of hers that I wanted (The Language of the Night), so I bought this one instead. This type of logic may be why my bank account is in the state it's in.
Tomorrow, for a change of pace, I am joining some of the Opus Dei ladies for a free concert at Stern Grove. I haven't been in Stern Grove since my Graduation, so it will be nice to see the result of the... you don't exactly "renovate" an outdoor theater, do you?
Speaking of Opus Dei: one of the reasons I fear for humanity is that someone has written a Dashboard Widget that counts down the days until the release of the DaVinci Code movie.
In other news, my computer is back and better than ever. I decided that there was no better time to upgrade to OS X 10.4, and I am very happy with the changes. As none of you want to listen to me mourn for my lost Agriculture Bookmarks, I shall instead provide you with a brief account of what I am doing with my computer these days.
Adium My favorite chat program. It's a duck. It's free. It works for most any chat account. I do think that Adium X has a few too many bells and whistles, but that's just me.
Quicksilver Also free, and an excellent way to make OS X do what you want it to do, quickly and efficiently. I can't describe it as well as Merlin at 43 folders, so I won't try. Go read what he has to say (look for "Quicksilver" in the archives).
CopyWrite Billed as "Project Management for Writers", it seems to be an intuitive, practical way for writers like me, who always have more pages of background planning than actual writing, to manage their creativity. Not free, but the "Full Screen" option itself makes it worth the $30.00 for those of us trying to take down our Writer's Block, and it is much, much, much cheaper than the comparable Ulysses, which costs 100 euros. I'm moving from the demo version as soon as I get my next paycheck.
NetNewsWire A program for downloading and managing RSS and Atom feeds. An easy way to get news and see if one's favorite bloggers have updated recently. I know that they have Safari RSS now, but this is much more intuitive, at least to my brain. I like checking the news this way, but I'm giving it the month to decide if it is worth buying.
ecto The client with which I am writing this post. I got sick of accidentally closing my Safari window and losing long posts (like this one). I get nineteen more days to decide if I want to buy it, and I'm still undecided. It's useful, but I don't know how useful.
TinkerTool Free, but mostly useless for people like me. A program that lets you get to some extra options in OS X. If I get really good with Quicksilver, I suppose I can use it to get rid of the Dock, but that's about it. And I mean, I already use a Dvorak keyboard layout. I can't think of any people I know who would be able to use my computer if I got rid of the Dock.
Extra bonus program! I love iTunes with podcasts. My current favorite is sparkletack, a collection of "musings" on San Francisco culture. The current musing is on the Mission Burrito, a food that is particularly anathema to the Weight Watchers program, but... they are so very good. The University of Chicago and UC Berkeley both have their own podcasts, as well. The death of my hard drive interrupted further investigation (I would particularly like to try some of the Catholic podcasts), so expect more recommendations in the future.
I got your letter, Vanessa, and owe you a response. However, as I managed to write an entire three-page letter to Margaret and completely leave out the main point of the letter, I wouldn't have any high expectations.
Currently listening to: Ian's "Better than Homework" mix, aka "Bad Wifeing Music"
Wifeing? Wifing? Wiphing? I'm going to bed.
Today had two themes: chocolate and claustrophobia. Dad and I went to the Asian Art Museum to see their special exhibit, Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World. We were overwhelmed by the complexities of Tibetan Buddhism and underwhelmed by the quality of the explanatory material. There was lots of (rather dull) information about individual pieces, but very little that allowed one to synthesize the information into a coherent whole. The museum was also very full, and the (very bad) docent from whom we could not escape reinforced my determination to volunteer as a docent at the Oriental Institute.
I received a nice letter from Susan Art, Dean of Students today, which has me several leagues over the moon, considering my first-year GPA of something like 2.4.
This evening we went to North Beach for dinner at Brandy Ho's, our favorite Hunan restaurant. Tourist season, Saturday night, and the North Beach Jazz Festival combined to create a particularly frustrating type of pedestrian congestion. Mom and I bought books at City Lights, and then we went for Gelato. I've been so bad on my diet recently. Just a minute ago I was eating chocolate Pocky... I won't even tell you how many points they are. Maybe it won't count that way. I've lost about five pounds, though, so... that's a start towards dumping the dining-hall weight.
Last time I went to City Lights, I bought A Middle English Reader and Vocabulary, by Sisam and Tolkien. The time before, I requested Machiavelli's The Art of War. This time? An Abridged Samuel Johnson's Dictionary and LeGuin's Steering the Craft, a book of writing exercises. While I agree with Tom that many of LeGuin's theories of gender are a bit off the wall, I love the way she writes about writing. They didn't have the book of hers that I wanted (The Language of the Night), so I bought this one instead. This type of logic may be why my bank account is in the state it's in.
Tomorrow, for a change of pace, I am joining some of the Opus Dei ladies for a free concert at Stern Grove. I haven't been in Stern Grove since my Graduation, so it will be nice to see the result of the... you don't exactly "renovate" an outdoor theater, do you?
Speaking of Opus Dei: one of the reasons I fear for humanity is that someone has written a Dashboard Widget that counts down the days until the release of the DaVinci Code movie.
In other news, my computer is back and better than ever. I decided that there was no better time to upgrade to OS X 10.4, and I am very happy with the changes. As none of you want to listen to me mourn for my lost Agriculture Bookmarks, I shall instead provide you with a brief account of what I am doing with my computer these days.
Adium My favorite chat program. It's a duck. It's free. It works for most any chat account. I do think that Adium X has a few too many bells and whistles, but that's just me.
Quicksilver Also free, and an excellent way to make OS X do what you want it to do, quickly and efficiently. I can't describe it as well as Merlin at 43 folders, so I won't try. Go read what he has to say (look for "Quicksilver" in the archives).
CopyWrite Billed as "Project Management for Writers", it seems to be an intuitive, practical way for writers like me, who always have more pages of background planning than actual writing, to manage their creativity. Not free, but the "Full Screen" option itself makes it worth the $30.00 for those of us trying to take down our Writer's Block, and it is much, much, much cheaper than the comparable Ulysses, which costs 100 euros. I'm moving from the demo version as soon as I get my next paycheck.
NetNewsWire A program for downloading and managing RSS and Atom feeds. An easy way to get news and see if one's favorite bloggers have updated recently. I know that they have Safari RSS now, but this is much more intuitive, at least to my brain. I like checking the news this way, but I'm giving it the month to decide if it is worth buying.
ecto The client with which I am writing this post. I got sick of accidentally closing my Safari window and losing long posts (like this one). I get nineteen more days to decide if I want to buy it, and I'm still undecided. It's useful, but I don't know how useful.
TinkerTool Free, but mostly useless for people like me. A program that lets you get to some extra options in OS X. If I get really good with Quicksilver, I suppose I can use it to get rid of the Dock, but that's about it. And I mean, I already use a Dvorak keyboard layout. I can't think of any people I know who would be able to use my computer if I got rid of the Dock.
Extra bonus program! I love iTunes with podcasts. My current favorite is sparkletack, a collection of "musings" on San Francisco culture. The current musing is on the Mission Burrito, a food that is particularly anathema to the Weight Watchers program, but... they are so very good. The University of Chicago and UC Berkeley both have their own podcasts, as well. The death of my hard drive interrupted further investigation (I would particularly like to try some of the Catholic podcasts), so expect more recommendations in the future.
I got your letter, Vanessa, and owe you a response. However, as I managed to write an entire three-page letter to Margaret and completely leave out the main point of the letter, I wouldn't have any high expectations.
Currently listening to: Ian's "Better than Homework" mix, aka "Bad Wifeing Music"
Wifeing? Wifing? Wiphing? I'm going to bed.
5 Comments:
Argh! That reminds me I haven't been a-wife-ing in a while. Time is running out! What sort of music is on a bad wife-ing mix, just so I can know what to avoid? Perhaps my choice of tunes has led to my lack of success, but I refuse to believe that anybody would be put off by Arvo Part's "Kanon Pokajanen"...
By
Mr. G. Z. T., at 6:18 PM
Don't you mean of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"?
Speaking of computers though, I just got a new iMac. 'Tis sweet.
By
Anonymous, at 8:38 AM
No, Paul. Machiavelli also wrote a book titled "The Art of War". Trust the Medieval/Renaissance historian.
Mr. Thompson: When I'm not (as usual) running late for work, I'll look up the song titles for you. Let it suffice to say (for now) that the first song has the refrain "I hope you die... I hope we both die."
Like I said. Bad music for going a-wife-ing.
By
Alice Teresa, at 12:44 PM
I'm glad to hear that you got my letter. I might point out that my letter lacked a point, so the only real difference between what I wrote and what you're telling me to fear is that I never intended to have a point (as referenced at the beginning of the letter). Glad to hear that you have new books.
-v
By
Anonymous, at 4:33 PM
Re: Wifing. You may recall, I asked the same question a year ago May when I had that dream where Suzanne was trying to elope and her parents called me and asked me to try to stop the wedding.
Hope your summer's going well.
By
Anonymous, at 2:51 PM
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