Monday I spent 0 hours on the computer. Tuesday I spent 13 hours on the computer. I liked Monday better.
Also, I believe I have lost my love handles. And I'm not going to look for them anymore.
5.30.2007
5.29.2007
Updates, Various
I've been up to this and that recently.
Last weekend, I got flown to Detroit to film Bright Eyes in concert. My good friend Joey Lynch is on tour with them doing visuals, and so I got to spend some time with him, too.
Last weekend, I got flown to Detroit to film Bright Eyes in concert. My good friend Joey Lynch is on tour with them doing visuals, and so I got to spend some time with him, too.
One of Joey's screenprints, called Social Studies
Another videographer who went along to Detroit -- and who shall be known as the future Mrs.2000 -- is part of the No Coast Derby Girls, and she manages all their taping. Saturday, then, I got back into derby taping, and got the fun job of following jammers. My congratulations especially to Shiv #66 and Sylvia Bullet #45 to a bout well jammed.
Doing these side jobs, I've been feeling really good about my camera work, and I've also been enjoying not being the director of the shoots, and having just a bit of direction to work with in each case. I've been feeling ok about work, when I'm editing or shooting, but have found that I'm really not interested in much beyond that out of my work scene. Also, teaching is looking good for the whole "summers off" bit, though when I mentioned this to my retiring 30+-years-of-teaching mother, she replied, "there's a reason for that."
Grad school or post-bac classes are seeming like a really good idea no matter what for, and I had a nice long talk with Marco at the farmers' market early Saturday morning about sustainability, greenprints, urban/rural planning, and environmental studies while eating pea shoots, local pain de campagne and artisan cheese on a street bench. When I think about the heated discussions I get into, they tend to be more on this bent, therefore making these choices possibly more logical (and certainly more fundable) than film school.
Lots of people are gearing up to move out of town. Hmm.
Doing these side jobs, I've been feeling really good about my camera work, and I've also been enjoying not being the director of the shoots, and having just a bit of direction to work with in each case. I've been feeling ok about work, when I'm editing or shooting, but have found that I'm really not interested in much beyond that out of my work scene. Also, teaching is looking good for the whole "summers off" bit, though when I mentioned this to my retiring 30+-years-of-teaching mother, she replied, "there's a reason for that."
Grad school or post-bac classes are seeming like a really good idea no matter what for, and I had a nice long talk with Marco at the farmers' market early Saturday morning about sustainability, greenprints, urban/rural planning, and environmental studies while eating pea shoots, local pain de campagne and artisan cheese on a street bench. When I think about the heated discussions I get into, they tend to be more on this bent, therefore making these choices possibly more logical (and certainly more fundable) than film school.
Lots of people are gearing up to move out of town. Hmm.
5.24.2007
America, It's Finally Opening
A few years ago, my good friend Taylor Baldwin told me about a museum under construction in Kentucky. Sponsored by Answers in Genesis, the museum is none other than a natural history museum grounded in the premise that the earth is 6,000 years old. Displays therefore include Adam and Eve, just after the fall, cavorting with dinosaurs. Fossils, it seems, all come from the great flood, and you can even ride a ride designed by the same guy who did Jaws and King Kong rides at Universal Studios -- but, mind you, is a true believer -- that simulates being on Noah's Ark.
When Taylor heard about this a few years back, we were going to road trip there together. Now, perhaps, we can.
When Taylor heard about this a few years back, we were going to road trip there together. Now, perhaps, we can.
T-rex hangs out, quite docile, next to a child.
This is Taylor with a dinosaur-sized cricket. It's no wonder he wanted to go.
5.23.2007
Weekly S(ex)cience Times Update
This week in Science, a Nebraskan female bonnethead shark has given a virgin birth. This is the shark-christ-child, in photographic form.
5.18.2007
I ♥ Brian Faas
My friend Brian and I were in film classes together at Brown. Now, he does awesome shit while I sit in Nebraska and blog about it.
5.15.2007
Science Times: Egg Donors
The ads in the Brown Daily Herald always freaked me out. Couples were posting ads looking for attractive Ivy League women -- often even including desired SAT score ranges, heights and weights -- offering anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 for egg donations.
I knew these ads were aimed at women just like me, faced with the prospect of college loan debt falling right in that price range. Seemed like a great idea sometimes, for sure, when classmates were taking semester-long trips to far-off destinations or taking fabulous unpaid internships in New York.
As good as the dollar signs may have looked, though, there were a lot of pitfalls that really bothered me, one being that I might actually be tempted to undergo a questionable procedure just for the money involved. Then there was the fact that rich couples were offering huge amounts of money because someone like me (if, I guess, I passed the smart and pretty muster) has desirable eggs. I always imagined my half-child somewhere in Westchester County, being fawned over by controlling, overbearing, overachieving suburbanites who probably wouldn't let their expensively acquired little rascal run in the woods or enjoy childhood much, and who would put this same kid into high-cost SAT prep classes (which I didn't take) to get into Harvard. And what would I say if this kid ever looked me up? "Sorry, kiddo, I had a bunch of debt and wanted to party like my friends from Westchester County."
Yuck.
I knew these ads were aimed at women just like me, faced with the prospect of college loan debt falling right in that price range. Seemed like a great idea sometimes, for sure, when classmates were taking semester-long trips to far-off destinations or taking fabulous unpaid internships in New York.
As good as the dollar signs may have looked, though, there were a lot of pitfalls that really bothered me, one being that I might actually be tempted to undergo a questionable procedure just for the money involved. Then there was the fact that rich couples were offering huge amounts of money because someone like me (if, I guess, I passed the smart and pretty muster) has desirable eggs. I always imagined my half-child somewhere in Westchester County, being fawned over by controlling, overbearing, overachieving suburbanites who probably wouldn't let their expensively acquired little rascal run in the woods or enjoy childhood much, and who would put this same kid into high-cost SAT prep classes (which I didn't take) to get into Harvard. And what would I say if this kid ever looked me up? "Sorry, kiddo, I had a bunch of debt and wanted to party like my friends from Westchester County."
Yuck.
5.11.2007
5.10.2007
GOOD Magazine
GOOD Magazine, for which my good friend Jon Miller is a cameradude contributor, has a series of excellent short film pieces on the 'tube.
5.09.2007
Science Times: NYT's Excuse for Raunch?
I have become convinced that the New York Times Science section, featured on Tuesdays, is the paper's outlet for all-out raunchiness, albeit generally of the animal variety.
From yesterday's "A Lonesome Tortoise, and a Search for a Mate":
By coating her hands in the genital secretions of female tortoises and gently stroking him, she managed to demonstrate a couple of times (in the course of several months’ work) that George was capable of an erection. But whereas her touch could induce other male tortoises to reach orgasm within a few minutes, with George she never managed to collect any sperm...
Dr. Nicholls even raises the possibility of showing instructive videos to George — and if tortoise porn is what it takes, I say go for it.This is merely the latest in a series of articles (see also duck phalli, chimeric marmosets) in which the Times uses cute, flippant, yet decidedly campy high-brow going low-brow language to describe scientists getting all sexy.
5.07.2007
5.04.2007
Bicycle on the Brain
I have a few bike-related events on my mind, mostly because mike ➔ is going to be building me a sweet-ass, very Gucci bike this summer.
First, there's the annual Ride of Silence on May 16th at 7PM. This is a ride that honors cyclists that have been hurt or killed on public roads.
Lo and behold, Lincoln has one!
Nebraska
Lincoln
Contact: Hal Smith <--Send email Distance: 10 Notes: Our ride is to start & stop at Nebraska State Fair Park, just north of the Devaney Sports Center. The ride will travel south, past the State Capital building to "A" St., east to 20th. St., south to Van Dorn St., east to Sheridan, then northwest to South St., west to 20th St., North to "A", west to 17th St., and north again to the State Fair Park. The ride is being supported by the Great Plains Bicycling Club.
The second, two days later, is Bike to Work Day on May 18th. Let's do it!
5.03.2007
5.01.2007
the tentacled duck phallus/the spiraled oviduct, or "you need a garage to park the car"
gotta love the science times:
The champion phallus from this Meller’s duck is a long, spiraling tentacle. Some ducks grow phalluses as long as their entire body. In the fall, the genitalia will disappear, only to reappear next spring.
“So what does the female look like?” she said. “Obviously you can’t have something like that without some place to put it in. You need a garage to park the car.”
Female ducks seem to be equipped to block the sperm of unwanted males. Their lower oviduct is spiraled like the male phallus, for example, but it turns in the opposite direction. Dr. Brennan suspects that the female ducks can force sperm into one of the pockets and then expel it.
“This guy’s the champion,” said Patricia Brennan, a behavioral ecologist, leaning over the nether regions of a duck — a Meller’s duck from Madagascar, to be specific — and carefully coaxing out his phallus.
The champion phallus from this Meller’s duck is a long, spiraling tentacle. Some ducks grow phalluses as long as their entire body. In the fall, the genitalia will disappear, only to reappear next spring.
“So what does the female look like?” she said. “Obviously you can’t have something like that without some place to put it in. You need a garage to park the car.”
Female ducks seem to be equipped to block the sperm of unwanted males. Their lower oviduct is spiraled like the male phallus, for example, but it turns in the opposite direction. Dr. Brennan suspects that the female ducks can force sperm into one of the pockets and then expel it.
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