Lobster Pharmacopia

2 Sustainable Products that You Didn't Know About

2011-08-14T21:44:00.003-04:00

Composting Toilets

I'm not ready to install one in my house yet, but this seems pretty cool. According to today's Times, the Gates Foundation is apparently sponsoring a competition to reinvent the toilet, a 19th-century invention.

Recycled PET fabric clothing and bags

Recycled plastic water bottles are woven into a lightweight nylon-like fabric. I bought a Lily Bloom recycled PET bag awhile ago, and it was great.

Excerpts from The Pale King

2011-07-30T16:58:00.004-04:00

On corporations and civic responsibility:

p. 136
We've changed the way we think of ourselves as citizens. We don't think of ourselves as citizens in the old sense of being small parts of something larger and infinitely more important to which we have serious responsibilities. We do still think of ourselves as citizens in the sense of being beneficiaries - we're actually conscious of our rights as American citizens and the nation's responsibilities to us and ensuring we get our share of the American pie. We think of ourselves now as eaters of the pie instead of makers of the pie. So who makes the pie? .... Corporations make the pie. They make it and we eat it.

I don't think of corporations as citizens, though. Corporations are machines for producing profit - that's what they're ingeniously designed to do. It's ridiculous to ascribe civic obligations or moral responsibilities to corporations.

But the whole dark genius of corporations is that they allow for individual reward without individual obligation. The works' obligations are to the executives, and the executives' obligations are to the CEO, and the CEO's obligation is to the Board of Directors, and the Board's obligation is to the stockholders, who are also the same customers the corporation will screw over at the very earliest opportunity in the name of profit, which profits are distributed as dividends to the very stockholders-slash0customers they've been f---ing over in their own name. It;'s alike a fugue of evaded responsibility.

On consumerism:

There'll be this incredible political consensus that we need to escape the confinement and rigidity of conforming, of the dead fluorescent world of the office and the balance sheet, of having to wear a tie and listen to Muzak, but the corporations will be able to represent consumption-patterns as the way to break out- use this type of calculator, listen to this type of music, wear this type of shoe because everyone else is wearing conformist shoes. It'll be this era of incredible prosperity and conformity and mass-demographics in which all the symbols and rhetoric will involve revolution and crisis and bold forward-looking individuals who dare to march to their own drummer by allying themselves with brands that invest heavily in the image of rebellion. This mass PR campaign extolling the individual will solidify enormous markets of people whose innate conviction that they are solitary, peerless non-communal, will be massaged at every turn.

On boredom:

I learned that the world of men as it exists today is a bureaucracy. This is an obvious truth, of course, though it is also one the ignorance of which causes great suffering.

But moreover, I discovered, in the only way that a man ever really learns anything important, the real skill that is required to succeed in a bureaucracy. I mean really succeed: do good, make a difference, serve. I discovered the key. This key is not efficiency, or probity, or insight, or wisdom. It is not political cunning, interpersonal skills, raw IQ, loyalty, vision, or any of the qualities that the bureaucratic world calls virtues, and tests for. The key is a certain capacity that underlies all these qualities, rather the way that an ability to breathe and pump blood underlies all thought and action.

The underlying bureaucratic key is the ability to deal with boredom. To function effectively in an environment that precludes everything vital and human. To breathe, so to speak, without air.

The key is the ability, whether innate or conditioned, to find the other side of the rote, the picayune, the meaningless, the repetitive, the pointlessly complex. To be, in a word, unborable. .... It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.

Enjoy the Silence

2011-07-12T20:22:00.001-04:00

Excerpt from David Foster Wallace's The Pale King:

"For me, at least in retrospect, the really interesting question is why dullness proves to be such a powerful impediment to attention. Why we recoil from the dull. Maybe it's because dullness is intrinsically painful; maybe that's where phrases like `deadly dull' or `excruciatingly dull' come from. But there might be more to it. Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain because something that's dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way, and most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from feeling, or at least from feeling directly or with our full attention. Admittedly, the whole thing's pretty confusing, and hard to talk about abstractly . . . but surely something must lie behind not just Muzak in dull or tedious places anymore but now actual TV in waiting rooms, supermarket checkouts, airports' gates, SUV's backseats. Walkmen, iPods. BlackBerries, cell phones that attach to your head. This terror of silence with nothing diverting to do. I can't think anyone really believes that today's so-called `information society' is just about information. Everyone knows it's about something else, way down.

The memoir-relevant point here is that I learned, in my time with the Service, something about dullness, information, and irrelevant complexity. About negotiating boredom as one would a terrain, its levels and forests and endless wastes. Learned about it extensively, exquisitely, in my interrupted year. And now ever since that time have noticed, at work and in recreation and time with friends and even the intimacies of family life, that living people do not speak much of the dull. Or those parts of life that are and must be dull. Why this silence? Maybe it's because the subject is, in and of itself, dull . . . only then we're again right back where we started, which is tedious and irksome. There may, though, I opine, be more to it . . . as in vastly more, right before us all, hidden by virtue of its size."

''Enduring tedium over real time in a confined space is what real courage is....'' a character says at one point. ''Routine, repetition, tedium, monotony, ephemeracy, inconsequence, abstraction, disorder, boredom, angst, ennui — these are the true hero's enemies, and make no mistake, they are fearsome indeed. For they are real.''

Chia's Spa experience

2011-07-07T21:23:00.008-04:00

Went to a day spa today and it was almost as rejuvenating as a trip to the mountains to see Nature. What is it about spas that is so refreshing? Now I don't mean simply relaxing, because the massage was merely mediocre - my beefy friend usually does a better job. I mean soul-cleansing, escapist, transporting-you-to-faraway places kind of relaxing. I found the serene setting and peace and quiet (evocative of nature) to be the best part. What is it about the slowing of one's breath, the quieting of one's mind, and the connection to one's creator and terra firma that is so calming? Not only are we taken away from the hustle of industrial life, we are reminded of that which nourishes us. We are reminded that we are God's children, that we are loved.

The trick about these places is that they evoke "home," if for a short time, at a premium. Now if I'll just fix up my home the same way - darkness, good lightning, sound of water, flowers, candles, relaxing music, good feng shui - I wouldn't need to visit these fancy places.

July is here

2011-07-01T20:29:00.003-04:00

Here are some things that I've found interesting lately:

Solar-powered LED lantern kit.

Despite her reclusivity and elusiveness, Princess Masako of Japan has always been my favorite royal.

Organic Chocolate Milk, and season 1 of The Good Wife.

St. John's Eve

2011-06-22T22:46:00.002-04:00

I dreamt of blood that washed ashore, of eyes that spoke of sin
The lake was smooth and deep and black, as was her scented skin.
A mask I wore as I approached, I was what I am not
And though the pattern was unclear, its meaning could be bought.
Drawn to Bacchus's abode, I sought there to conspire.
But it was in the city of the dead that I found my heart's desire....
I spoke to one who smelled of death, he gave to me his ears.
And crosses that were marked were made into a veil of tears...
The road was blocked, the truth was shunned, the white flag had been waved.
Reversal cost me all I had, and everything I'd braved...
And then the night became as day, I glimpsed nature's reddest claw!
The face of fear looked back at me as I gazed into the maw...
My last ally laid to waste, I ran towards the light
I prayed for one to change my path, to give me strength to fight...
Inside a hidden chamber where I had no right to be,
I found the wheel at last, or, could it be, the wheel found me
And then the wheel went round and round, I could not find my way
Twelve and three and turn the key, I heard the madman say
Deep in the earth I faced a fight that I could never win
The blameless and the base destroyed, and all that might have been.
-Gabriel Knight

On Growth & Capitalism

2011-06-20T21:28:00.005-04:00

Excerpt from Jonathan Franzen's Freedom (2010):

"Mainstream economic theory, both Marxist and free-market, Walter said, took for granted that economic growth was always a positive thing. A GDP growth rate of one or two percent was considered modest, and a population growth rate of one percent was considered desirable, and yet, he said, if you compounded these rates over a hundred years, the numbers were terrible: a world population of eighteen billion and world energy consumption ten times greater than today's. And if you went another hundred years, well, the numbers were simply impossible. So the Club of Rome was seeking more rational and humane ways of putting the brakes on growth than simply destroying the planet and letting everybody starve to death or kill each other.

[The Club of Rome is] a group of people who are challenging our preoccupation with growth. I mean, everybody is so obsessed with growth, but when you think about it, for a mature organism, a growth is basically a cancer, right? If you have a growth in your moth, or a growth in your colon, it's bad news, right? So there's this small group of intellectuals and philanthropists who are trying to step outside our tunnel vision and influence government policy at the highest levels, both in Europe and the Western Hemisphere."

Walter, not seeing the little neck-slicing gesture that Patty was making, pressed on. "The whole reason we need something like the Club of Rome," he said, "is that a rational conversation about growth is going to have to begin outside of the ordinary political process. Obviously you know this yourself, Joyce. If you're trying to get elected, you can't even talk about slowing the growth rate, let alone reversing it. It's total political poison. But somebody has to talk about it, and try to influence policy, otherwise we're going to kill the planet. We're going to choke on our own multiplication."

....

Capitalism can't handle talking about limits, because the whole point of capitalism is the restless growth of capital. If you want to be heard in the capitalist media, and communicate in a capitalist culture, overpopulation can't make any sense. It's literally nonsense.

"The reason the system can't be overthrown in this country," Walter said, "is all about freedom. The reason the free market in Europe is tempered by socialism is that they're not so hung up on personal liberties there. They also have lower population growth rates, despite comparable income levels. The Europeans are all-around more rational, basically. And the conversation about rights in this country isn't rational. It's taking place on the level of emotion, and class resentments, which is why the right is so good at exploiting it."

--------
America, you do excess like no other. Perhaps you are rivaled only by Saudi princes in your wastefulness.

My Enlightenment Salon

2011-06-09T21:45:00.021-04:00

"Reading from Moliere," Jean Francois de Troy c.1728

France, 1793

"But what of social occupations in America?" said Talleyrand. "Do they have salons as in England or France?"
"Once you've left Philadelphia or New York - which are full of Dutch immigrants - you'll find little more than frontier towns. The people sit by the fire at night with a book, or have a game of chess as we're doing now. There isn't much of society outside of the eastern seaboard."
--Katherine Neville, The Eight (1993)

I seem to have forgotten how to write, apart from terse business communications (We'll have that deliverable for you by Monday. Have a great weekend!) and dry, technical sales prose (I'll spare you the torture). On the other hand, I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking. Since moving to the Confederacy and former capital city of the KKK, and a very, very red state, I've been thinking a lot about capitalism, communtarianism and what it means to live life in America. After reading that bit in The Eight, I've realized that we don't have salons anymore. They've been replaced by TV, games, and other cheap entertainment. There must be more than this.

American society has denigrated since the Enlightenment. How did this happen? We developed an irresponsible consumeristic society in tandem with the Industrial Revolution. A responsible consumerism is shaped by the common good, while an irresponsible one is not. We have lost touch with the lessons of the Enlightenment, and failed to allow humanistic morals to shape our practice of capitalism. See Nicholas Kristof's recent article on how Pakistan might be representative of America's ideal model of a government with low taxes, little regulation and traditional family values. Everything is privatized. Our goals no longer line up with those of the common good, but what is best for ourselves.

Mindless consumerism affects every aspect of our life because it is a huge drain on our time. Time spent consuming products means less time spent with our loved ones, less time building relationships, less time participating in our community and serving those in need, and less time for us to become well-rounded people, to better teach us to pass on the torch of our time with the lessons of this age to the next generation. These are the things that truly matter the most.

I propose that we as a society return to a more enlightened age, a more civilized and humane time where citizens respected and valued each other and the common goals of humankind. Share your gifts with the community. Talk to your children and really get to know them, understand their motivations, peer into their souls. We would all fare much better if we had those post-dinner discussions, if we were only able to turn off the television and our manifold electronic devices, quit our addictions to shopping and awaken our minds. Quit reading the internet and read a proper book. Come to my salon.

Some Other odds and ends:
- Southern people say "like I said," Northerners say "as I said."
- Southern people pronounce insurance with the accent on the first syllable ("IN'-surance"), which annoys the bollocks out of me.
- I've gotten heckled here in 6 months more than I was ever heckled in New York City for 15 years. Long stops at red lights, and
- I'm coming to terms with the realization that I am actually enneagram 6w5, not 5w6 as I've believed for over ten years. My obsession with hegemony, hierarchies, and the evolution of state societies probably stems from that motivation. Another post to come about that....

An Enneagram Poem

2011-06-06T23:24:00.001-04:00

The Stages of the Work

If we were to really observe ourselves,
we would become aware of our habits.

If we were to become aware of our habits,
we would let go and relax.

If we were to let go and relax,
we would be aware of sensations.

If we were to be aware of sensations,
we would receive impressions.

If we were to receive impressions,
we would awaken to the moment.

If we were to awaken to the moment,
we would experience reality.

If we were to experience reality,
we would see that we are not our personality.

If we were to see that we are not our personality,
we would remember ourselves.

If we were to remember ourselves,
we would let go of our fear and attachments.

If we were to let go of our fear and attachments,
we would be touched by God.

If we were touched by God,
we would seek union with God.

If we were to seek union with God,
we would will what God wills.

If we were to will what God wills,
we would be transformed.

If we were transformed,
the world would be transformed.

If the world were transformed,
all would return to God.

–from The Wisdom of the Enneagram

Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson

I'm Alive! and May's almost over.

2010-05-27T23:33:00.007-04:00

My reason for the lack of updates: Between Twitter, Google Buzz, Facebook, Livejournal, and all the other sites I use, I've been spread thin on the social networking circuit lately. Perhaps the deluge of information I'm exposed to - a speedily flowing volume of bits and bytes of news and info - reduces, or detracts from, deeply-considered thought.

These days, one is more likely to quickly scan a huge deluge of short bursts of ideas, rather than process something substantial and complex for a long time. And so, continuing in the same pattern, my poor audience has only been getting 140-character tweets instead of deeply considered, thoughtful posts. Some sparks:

On why being a person of faith is almost a revolutionary act in these times:
In the greater part of the 20th century, most of the enemies that the Western world fought against were atheists and Communists. Religious orthodoxy was wholesome in comparison at that time. However, the bad guys who want to blow us up now are religious zealots. Devout religious belief is suspicious and anti-democratic (Keller).

May is National Suicide Prevention Month and Asian American Pacific American (AAPA) Heritage Month. My brother sent me this article from KimchiMamas: "Raising Your Asian-American Teen"
A great excerpt:
The model minority myth for Asians states that we are smart, hard-working and overcome the difficulties of acculturation. This stereotype can also promote depression, as it’s difficult to live up to, and can hinder teachers and parents from identifying youth to help. Asian American girls, for example, are positively rewarded for being compliant, persevering without complaint, and putting others’ needs before their own. So parents and teachers may overlook their isolation or withdrawal. This creates a difficult dynamic for the child who has learned to withhold emotions. Shame, a sense of low self-control, and a culture that limits expressing emotions lead to helplessness and isolation.

Reach out to a brother or sister today.

May 29th is World Enneagram Day.
I perceive the world as a Five with a Six wing. Do you know what your number is?

Real Life Bambi and Thumper

2010-04-07T19:50:00.002-04:00

Since it's Easter season, and the newborn animals abound. From here

Excerpt from Counterfeit Gods (Tim Keller)

2010-04-06T22:36:00.008-04:00

Archbishop William Temple once said, "Your religion is what you do with your solitude." In other words, the true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. What do you do enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about? Do you develop potential scenarios about career advancement? Or material goods such as a dream home? Or a relationship with a particular person? One or two daydreams are not an indication of idolatry. Ask rather, what do you habitually think about to get joy and comfort in the privacy of your heart?

Another way to discern your heart's true love is to look at how you spend your money. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there is your heart also" (Matthew 6:21)...Most of us, however, tend to overspend on clothing, or on our children, or on status symbols such as homes and cars. Our patterns of spending reveal our idols.

A third way to discern idols works best for those who have professed a faith in god. You may regularly to to a place of worship. You may have a full, devout set of doctrinal beliefs. You may be trying very hard to believe and obey God. However, what is your real, daily functional salvation? What are you really living for, what is your real - not your professed - god? A good way to discern this how you respond to unanswered prayers and frustrated hopes. If you ask for something that you don't get, you may become sad and disappointed. Then you go on. Hey, life's not over. Those are not your functional masters. But when you pray and work for something and you don't get it and you respond with explosive anger or deep despair, then you may have found your real god.

A final test works for everyone. Look at your most uncontrollable emotions. Just as a fisherman looking for fish knows to go where the water is roiling, look for your idols at the bottom of your most painful emotions, especially those that never seem to lift and that drive you to do things you know are wrong. If you are angry, ask, "Is there something here too important to me, something I must have at all costs?" Do the same thing with strong fear or despair and guilt. Ask yourself, "Am I so scared, because something in my life is being threatened that I think it is a necessity when it is not? Am I so down on myself because I have lost or failed at something that I think is a necessity when it is not? If you are overworking, driving yourself into the ground with frantic activity, ask yourself, "Do I feel that I *must* have this thing to be fulfilled and significant? When you ask questions like that, when you " pull your emotions up by the roots," as it were, you will often find your idols clinging to them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From pp 168-169 of Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters. There is only one who can wholly hold the weight of our human needs and desires.

School Lunch Nostalgia

2010-04-05T18:27:00.005-04:00

Ann Cooper's Dream School Lunch: Grilled beef salad with tatsoi, brown rice and tofu salad, bok choy stir-fry, pear and 1 percent milk via TED blog.

Mmm, I miss those subsidized government lunches we ate in public school for $1. Things that I remember the most: cheeseburgers in those microwaveable foil pouches, beefaroni, overcooked green beans, French Bread pizza, chicken nuggets, tater tots, and the best part: chocolate milk!

School lunch in Korea:

Choose conscience over ease.

2010-03-17T21:49:00.002-04:00

Does anyone really doubt that the corporations that control the vast majority of animal agriculture in America are in it for the profit? In most industries, that's a perfectly good driving force. But when the commodities are animals, the factories are the earth itself, and the products are physically consumed, the stakes are not the same, and the thinking can't be the same.

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals (2009)

Hikaru Dorodango

2010-02-08T18:59:00.002-05:00

Hikaru Dorodango are polished balls of mud made by Japanese children. Since they take great focus and concentration to make, I think this would be a great form of stress relief - and fun. (Yes, you can polish a turd.)

Neat.

Whee! Mammals.

2010-01-26T20:46:00.001-05:00

Dolphins at sunrise.

Open-Source Education

2010-01-26T16:28:00.005-05:00

Some free online courses to help expand your horizons:

Open Yale

MIT Open CourseWare

Academic Earth

Peachy Keen. This is not spam.

Music for Monday, Auto-tune not included

2010-01-25T18:11:00.003-05:00

Acoustic version of Creep by Radiohead accompanied by a clip from what looks like an enchanting French Johnny Depp movie.

This came out 10 years ago! Stuck in my head since I heard it last weekend.

2010 #1

2010-01-11T16:40:00.012-05:00

Happy New Year. Some links to keep you entertained:

1) Introverted Intuition (Ni) and the Meaning of Music

2) Songs in the key of life: What makes music emotional

3) I finally came across a description of Extraverted Feeling (Fe) that makes sense to me. Coincidentally, it happens to use music as a metaphor.
Music is a flow, a series of notes that invoke certain things. Music is essentially strategy with more feel than logic. You have a goal in mind, to make a friend, or emotionally bruise an enemy, and use what strategies you know (from your perceiving function) to reach it. Music is the same, you want someone to feel a certain thing and you use what strategies you know to reach that end.

Basically Te, but with an F instead of T. Fe users are just much more in tune with feelings of people and their reactions rather than the Te's use of hard data.
(Source: Fe as Vibration in the Ether)

4) Flavors of Enneagram Fives. Who knew that there were so many varieties? I tested as 5.1.3. I was definitely very strongly 5.3.1 about 10 years ago. I shudder to think of the word "glacial" as an accurate description (ugh).

The idea of the tritype is new to me. To determine your tritype, find your preferred type in each of the three triads: heart triad (ennea type 2,3,4), head triad (5,6,7) and gut Triad (8,9,1). I took this test here.

Happy Winter Holidays.

2009-12-24T21:58:00.006-05:00

We now have a brussels sprouts tree in my brother's place, thanks to Trader Joe's! It looks similar to this one:

Ah, California. As a visitor to your state, you have succeeded in making me feel inadequately green. You've made my efforts to recycle, save, and spend a sustainable dollar feel insignificant compared to your conservation-friendly, sustainable infrastructure and your abundance of widely-available organic food. Sadly, New Yorkers often only embrace a green, sustainable diet/lifestyle because it's the "trendy" thing to do. It's OK to be crunchy here.

Be blessed in knowing that, now, in the most desolate time of year, God loves you.

Amaranthine flowers feel no decay.

2009-12-10T14:51:00.005-05:00

I drank something with elderberry liqueur, ginger, and absinthe in it recently, so I've been thinking about the language of flowers.

Amaranth = immortal, Rose = fleeting.

Milton, Paradise Lost:
"Immortal amarant, a flower which once
In paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,
And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven
Rolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream:
With these that never fade the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks."

Winter cheer to brighten your cold day.

2009-12-08T12:50:00.003-05:00

In this photo provided by Disney, the canine stars from Disney's new holiday DVD 'Santa Buddies: The Legend of Santa Paws' pose on Sunday Dec. 6, 2009 on Main Street U.S.A. at the Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., while taping a segment for the 'Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade' TV special. The annual holiday telecast is scheduled to air December 25 on ABC-TV.

A participant rides with his eagle during an annual hunting competition in Chengelsy Gorge, some 150 km
(93 miles) east of Almaty, December 5, 2009. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

Finally, a use for lazy cats.

Sesame Street's 40th birthday

2009-11-10T18:29:00.004-05:00

Some songs have gotten stuck in my head over the years. Others, for example, the Letter "U" video, have been more like nightmares - downright scary.

The Ladybug's Picnic

Do De Rubber Duck

Offensive Halloween Costumes

2009-10-23T09:29:00.001-04:00

Chinese Food Delivery Guy

"Fee Ling Yu"

Elderly Hip-hop choir

2009-10-20T11:31:00.001-04:00

Green Halloween

2009-10-13T23:34:00.005-04:00

Every year, it kills me to see the amount of packaging wasted on single-serving bags of candy passed out on Halloween. Tiny bars of chocolate, each wrapped in their own plastic covering, sold in a huge bag of 50, are cute - and safe, for practical, hygienic reasons - although the amount of wrapping used seems wasteful. Several ideas for a more conscious breed of candy-giving:

Give out things that come packaged in recyclable cardboard or paper rather than plastic. Whoppers (in the cardboard box), raisins, paper-wrapped candies and gums are a great start.

Avoid high-fructose corn syrup and other artificial products. Organic lollipops, natural licorice, fruit leather and fruit snacks are an alternative to heavily sweetened pseudo-foods.

Go for foil-wrapped chocolates that are low on wrapping. Earth chocolates are pretty cool.

Non-food items I used to get when I was a kid included pennies/spare change, small toys such as whistles and puzzles, and stickers. If you own your own business, this is a great opportunity for free, wide-ranging advertising: print your own candy wrappers and distribute.

Don't forget, candy wrappers can be recycled as craft material. Save bright plastic wrappers for art projects, such as this woven bracelet.

Rare Cloud Formations

2009-09-30T20:23:00.003-04:00

Spotted on Wired: Weird, Rare Clouds and the Physics Behind Them.

Morning Glory

Lenticular

Noctilucent (Creepy!)

Aliens in a Crowded Establishment

2009-09-29T21:00:00.006-04:00

I recently read John Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008). See a short, interesting guide here. The indoctrination of mass consumerism starts at a very young age in America. I always knew that high school was always about being popular and having the clothes/toys/things of the moment, but now I understand why.

The Scholar's Desk

2009-09-20T23:19:00.004-04:00

Some interesting things that I've seen in professors' offices over the years:
-Dog testicles from a neutered pet, dipped in gold and framed on a plaque. (She was a veterinarian/evolutionary biologist)
-6-foot tall Greek sculpture
-Academic regalia (perfect for those days when you're out of normal clothes, or when they're being laundered)

My desk is my creative space, my Paracelsan alchemical laboratory, my place to think and tinker. I'd actually prefer to have the thing entirely clean and clutter-free, that is, without a single object in sight - but at times, when one gets writer's block or needs to take a break, it's better to have some kind of inspiration than to stare off into space (or at the very worst, a blank cubicle wall). Blank, empty spaces are supposed to be better for sparking one's imagination, but I have too much junk and distractions on my desk. Toys are good for breaks, too (think of slinkies, rubik's cubes, and puzzles that you turn over in your hands, such as the breakable sphere, Jacob's ladder, infinite edamame toy, etc).

Worst possible thing for "inspiration" breaks: picking up any kind of handheld electronic device such as an iphone, checking e-mail or FriendFace.

Here's what's in my workspace. Even if you are not Dan Brown, feel free to interpret the symbolism of each object.

Framed painting of Darwin

Color-changing LED eggs

Vase with no flowers, at the moment

Framed family/friend photos

Stuffed Chihuahua, an old friend

To add:

Sculpture #1: Glass sculpture of embryo inside a round-bottomed flask

Never:
Food, with the exception of coffee/water/tea

Funnies for Friday

2009-09-18T00:27:00.001-04:00

A Caveman Can
September 3, 2009

While channel-surfing, my dad stops at an educational channel that’s showing a documentary on Neanderthals—at a part of the documentary that happens to be without narration. After two full minutes of watching a Neanderthal going about his business in silence, Dad uttered: “This is a really long Geigo [sic] commercial.”

Why Puccini makes me cry.

2009-09-13T00:21:00.004-04:00

Spotted at MedGadget: Latest Print Ad Campaign for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

Metaphors of Mind

2009-09-12T00:26:00.005-04:00

M.C. Escher

Excerpted from Roger von Oech's A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative (Hachette Book Group, 2008, p. 56):

The models people use to understand mental processes often reflect the technology of their time.

For example, in the 17th century, people thought about the mind as though it were a mirror or lens, and this "reflects" the advances made then in the fields of optics and lens making.

The Freudian model of the mind, developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, seems based on the ubiquity of the steam engine locomotive. Ideas billow up from the subconscious to the conscious in the same way steam moves from boiler to compression chamber.

In the early twentieth century, the mind was viewed by some as a vast telephone switching network with circuits and relays running through the brain.

For the past forty years or so, we've had a new model of the mind: the computer. This model does a good job of describing certain aspects of our thinking. For example, we have "input" and "output" and "information processing." There is also "feedback," "programming," and "storage." This is fine as far as it goes, but some people take this model literally and think that the mind really is a computer. Indeed, they may not only dismiss the soft types of thinking for not being "logical," but even treat other people like machines.

I believe that the mind is not only a computer that processes information, it's also a museum that stores experiences, a device that encodes holograms, a playground in which to play, a muscle to be strengthened, a workshop in which to construct thoughts, a debating opponent to be won over, a cat to be stroked, a funhouse to be explored, a compost pile to be turned, and forty-one others [including a drunken crazed monkey that has St. Vitus' Dance, cavorting in a cage. Take that as a compliment, human.]
-------
I'm guilty of thinking of my mind as a machine. Why do we bang our heads repeatedly against the wall when we're frustrated, or against a desk? It's like when we smack a vending machine to get it to work, futilely.

I've also thought of my brain as a huge filing cabinet, one of those memory-ball keeper things from The Neverending Story, and a labyrinth with many unknown rooms to be discovered. If only we could. My brain is aware of itself? Sorry, it's getting pretty embarrassed right now.

My hair's way too long, therefore...

2009-09-05T00:52:00.001-04:00

It's within one's capacity, as a native speaker of English, to understand and explain the difference in meaning between the following two sentences:
1) I really don't like pizza.
2) I don't really like pizza.

However, how would one explain the following difference? I've been thinking about this all evening.
I freaking need a haircut.
I need a freaking haircut.

Stuff to keep you entertained while my brain organizes its thoughts...

2009-08-26T17:52:00.004-04:00

An 18th-century German physician designs a cat-piano (katzenklavier). The possibilities for LOLCAT captions are endless.

I am frequently guilty of using Thought-terminating Cliches when I assume neutrality on bothersome issues. (No one needs to know what I really think until I know you well enough.) I am also guilty of using these phrases when I don't want to engage someone in a dialogue that might lead to an argument. (Thanks to Best of Wikipedia blog)

IKEA catalog from 1965. The Scandinavian gestalt or aesthetic is still there. What did living room items look like in 1639?

Facedown - Matt Redman

2009-08-23T23:13:00.000-04:00

Welcomed in to the courts of the King
I've been ushered in to Your presence
Lord, I stand on Your merciful ground
Yet with every step tread with reverence

And I'll fall facedown
As Your glory shines around
Yes, I'll fall facedown
As Your glory shines around

Who is there in the heavens like You?
And upon the earth, who's Your equal?
You are far above, You're the highest of heights
We are bowing down to exalt You

So let Your glory shine around
Let Your glory shine around
King of glory, here be found
King of glory

Three Wise Monkeys

2009-08-18T14:21:00.003-04:00

"See No Evil, Hear No evil, Speak No Evil"

17th-century carving at a shrine in Nara, Japan

The origin of this ditty is debated. It has been attributed to a phrase in Japanese, a play on words, "Mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru" (don't see, don't hear, don't speak).

At the interface of Man and Machine

2009-08-05T23:15:00.001-04:00

Gary Numan, cover by Nine Inch Nails

We're in the building where they make us grow
And I'm frightened by the liquid engineers
Like you

My Mallory heart is sure to fail
I could crawl around the floor just like I'm real
Like you

The sound of metal I want to be you
I could learn to be a man
Like you

Plug me in and turn me on
Oh everything is moving

Heinlein - Specialization is for Insects

2009-07-27T21:31:00.001-04:00

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

Core Human skills

- post via Kottke.org

Children Full of Life

2009-07-23T00:12:00.004-04:00

A must-watch documentary about the teaching of compassion, empathy, and team spirit in Japan.

Dumpster Dipping (NYT)

2009-07-21T21:54:00.003-04:00

Dumpsters: 6-7 feet deep, and often hugely wide (have you seen the 30-footers?). Line with sandbags and waterproof material. Add water, and you get an instant swimming pool!

Check out the urban oasis below.

Things to Eat and Not To Eat

2009-07-18T23:50:00.006-04:00

Some interesting and unfamiliar food items that I came across on Wikipedia.

The common ingredient: Egg!
Scotch Egg- hard-boiled egg wrapped in mincemeat and fried
Welsh Rarebit (Welsh Rabbit) - toasted bread covered in cheese sauce
Croque-Monsieur- grilled cheese and ham sandwich
Brain (as Food!) - GROSS, MAN...which brings us to the next article,
Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy
Loco Moco - Hawaiian diner meal consisting of rice topped with burger patty, fried egg, and gravy

Others (mostly bacon dishes):
Angels on Horseback (UK) - oysters wrapped in bacon
Meze - Middle Eastern appetizers
Sfiha - Chaldean pizza
Baconnaise (I shudder to think...) and Bacon Lip Balm
Chivito - Uruguayan sandwich
Luther Burger - Burger with Glazed Donuts in place of bun

And now, I have the serious munchies for bacon & eggs.

Caught A Lite Sneeze (by Tori Amos) - Evans Blue Cover

2009-07-16T22:18:00.001-04:00

A little less delicate, much more angry. How often do male bands do covers of female-sung songs, anyway?

Green Mobile Phone

2009-07-11T23:26:00.005-04:00

Motorola recently released a new cell phone for T-Mobile that is made from recycled plastic water bottles.

The Moto Renew claims to have a carbon footprint of zero, based on the fact that Motorola will purchase carbon credits for every Renew consumers purchase. (Could it be any clearer that their target market is people like me?)

Checked it out in the retail store today since I'm shopping for a new phone (and possibly new carrier). I was kind of disappointed, since plastic isn't the best material for cell phones. It was very light and felt like a toy in my hand, almost like a Barbie play phone. I imagine it would get very hot after a few hours' use and that the plastic, however nicely recycled, wouldn't dissipate heat very well - not quite as well as the cold-to-the-touch sleek titanium gadgets that I've been spoiled by. It didn't help much that T-Mobile didn't have a live model available for me to play with. I was almost going to switch carriers for this phone!

Riff that gets stuck in my head and hits me when I'm least expecting it, like 2pm on a Tuesday at work.

2009-06-26T19:01:00.001-04:00

In The News

2009-06-17T20:49:00.002-04:00

"I Got the Sucker!" The White House Infested with Flies.

Cappadocia, Turkey

2009-06-02T22:54:00.005-04:00

LA TIMES: Cappadocia's Fairy-tale-like landscape.

2009-05-30T17:27:00.001-04:00

I WANT TO EAT EVERYTHING.

2009-05-23T22:55:00.005-04:00

White Castle

Chicken Nuggets

Croissant Sandwich

Xiao Long Bao

Ravioli

Which of the above would actually taste good after going through a blender?

FOOD IS EVERYWHERE AND I AM NOT IMMUNE TO FOOD ADVERTISING. ARRGGHH. I HAVE TO EAT BABY FOOD FOR AWHILE WHILE MY MOUTH HEALS.

The Lamb, the Ram, the Heavenly Scales...

2009-05-13T23:03:00.003-04:00

Go Dipsy! Go Dipsy! Go Dipsy!

2009-05-09T21:08:00.001-04:00

More stuff I found interesting lately.

2009-04-19T17:54:00.005-04:00

A pretty good article from the March 2009 issue of Fast Company titled, "What Should I Do With My Life Now?"

Earworm of the moment.
Beyonce-Halo.

Naturaleza

2009-04-11T21:10:00.004-04:00

I realized why I prefer eco-vacations to culture-vacations: because God's glory will always be greater than anything ever made by man. The most marvelous architecture and art in the world, the world's splendid steel-and-glass cities, museums, streets lined with cafes and beautiful people - All pale in comparison to God's glory.

Some people like to go to Vegas, casinos, or take decadent cruises to tropical beaches. I like cold-weather winter vacations to see nature. It gives me great joy to see clear blue skies, endless dark seas, rocky mountain peaks, the northern lights in winter, constellations of stars in twinkling in the infinite night sky.

Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim, You Are Amazing, God.
Happy Easter!

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13, 21...

Mandibles!

2009-04-01T20:48:00.002-04:00

Huge Rabbit.

English Mastiff PUPPY.

Just Born, the place where Peeps are fabricated.

Acai, "Purple Gold."

2009-03-15T21:49:00.009-04:00

After much exhortation from my mother, I was finally convinced to take a trip to Costco to buy some cactus juice. (It's good for you!) I couldn't find what she was telling me about, so I bought Acai berry juice instead (~$9.50 for two one-liter bottles).

I drank a small glass of it with my dinner. It was bittersweet and had a thick, viscous consistency, almost like a syrup - not like any of that watered-down Apple Dandy stuff that kids drink today. I was pretty buzzed for awhile, and I'm wired on it now! I don't know how I'm going to fall asleep; it's almost 10pm and I feel pretty energetic. I should've had it early in the morning as recommended, as a replacement for coffee/tea.

This stuff is great and claims to have the equivalent of 110 servings of fruit in terms of antioxidant power in one serving. I don't know if it would be great for losing weight, though. In terms of taste, the bottle I got had blueberry juice mixed in, so I couldn't tell what the pure juice tasted like. It might be pretty bad....

It's pretty amazing that the acai berry has gone mainstream, a lowly, once-unknown fruit from the Amazon now blown to stardom by Oprah and spam generators. This once-humble fruit is now available to the general public, Walmart shoppers! According to this NYT article, 53 new acai-containing food products were introduced in the US in 2008, up from 4 in 2004, with over $106 million in sales in 2008.

Sunday

2009-03-09T00:01:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you wish you could go back and undo something. Sometimes you wish it were as easy as pressing CTRL+Z, but unfortunately, there's no "undo" button on life.

The only person who can hit the undo button for us is Christ. Through his blood, we are made perfect again, and all our flaws become nothing.

Fried Eggplant Sandwich

2009-02-17T23:41:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of content. Eat this in the meantime.

EDIT: One of the neat features of Blogger is that it saves old drafts that you never published and allows you to retroactively publish them. I just went and published a few of those half-thoughts from earlier this year.

Slumdog Millionaire - Mausam and Escape by AR Rahman

2009-02-07T11:12:00.002-05:00

Pretty intense.

Work and Life Poll

2009-02-06T16:25:00.001-05:00

Harris Poll, why must you torment me?

Paean.

2009-02-04T10:24:00.002-05:00

I'll say it loud here by your grave, those angels can't ever take your place.

One of Tori's most mournful songs, written for the daughter she miscarried while on tour in the 90s. She blames herself for being a rock star mother, inadequate, etc. I didn't understand that this song was a paean for her lost daughter until I listened to it about 100 times and finally understood the meaning. Definitely listen to the CD version - some covers have too fast a tempo, a flirtatious bent, and forget that this is a song of mourning.

Omnia Vanitas

2009-01-31T00:38:00.009-05:00

Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas. -Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Vanitas, -atis, f. (L)- falsity, unreality, deception, untruth, bragging, lying, vanity, worthlessness, frivolity

One of my favorite painting styles is the Vanitas still life, a medieval kind of symbolic art that captures the transience of the mortal life, the futility of material possessions, and the inevitability of death. Wikipedia article, I couldn't have said it better myself. Some examples:

David Bailly. Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols, 1651.

Oh great, this is cluttered, this is as messy as a dorm room desk, but there are always some things that I don't understand, so many different layers of complexity. The man holding a portrait of himself as an old man, for example. His expression is unreadable. What is he feeling? Does he know that he is going to die?

Charles Allen Gilbert (1873-1929). All is Vanity. This image is more popular in the optical illusions circuit, I'm afraid. I think this painting would be better if the mirror were broken.

An artist by the name of Alain Khadem has done some 21st-century retakes on the vanitas style to fit the "absurdities of our fast-paced modern life. I especially like the one with the Molotov cocktail, and Overacheiver/Underacheiver.

/absinthe.

Megalomaly

2009-01-29T22:07:00.003-05:00

chronological anomaly = Anachronism

I was looking down my flixster queue and realized that I had several movies about Guantanamo Bay on it. In the future, hopefully, we'll look back on Guantanamo as a horrible relic of the Bush administration, or even think of it as a place like Auschwitz.

To think of it, a third of my life was spent under the Bush administration and wartime conditions.

Barack Obama: he completes us.

2009-01-22T22:39:00.002-05:00

I saw this on the Daily Show when Obama first accepted the Democratic party nomination in November, and it's still as inspiring today, after the inauguration.

Engrish

2009-01-21T21:14:00.005-05:00

Some Great Instructional Videos.

2009-01-15T21:30:00.002-05:00

How to be Happy.

Step 6: Stop Dwelling.
Leading psychologist Sonia Lubamersky has found that the happiest people don't dwell on negative or ambiguous events. Furthermore, excessive introspection may sap your mental resources, making it harder for positive changes to occur. So turn off that Morrissey record and go outside!

How to Give a Man Hug.

Blessed be.

2008-12-25T07:54:00.003-05:00

Happy holidays! A reminder of how small we really are, and how great His glory.

In this, the darkest time of year (in the Northern hemisphere, at least), stay warm, love one another, and go on doing good.

Cheers,
J

Marketing Hysteria 101

2008-12-23T21:14:00.004-05:00

Create a problem. Bonus points if this problem is psychosomatic, caused by microscopic germs or other parasites invisible to the naked eye, or something that causes your skin to crawl and reach for disinfectant (ACME* Brand Ultra-Antiseptic Strength).

Create a product that solves this imaginary problem or tries to address it => $$

Examples of hysteria created by the advertising industry:

DUST MITES

RESTLESS LEGS SYNDROME

Soap the only way Tyler Durden would have it.

2008-12-21T16:47:00.010-05:00

There's a new ad campaign by a major soap company that starts with D* that shows how most soaps leave an imperceptible scum or residue on the skin after showering, while D* doesn't. The ads show two different women using soap, one with D* and the other using a competitor's product, and then compare the two under a mysterious purple UV/infrared light. The competitor's soap leaves streaks of soap scum on the woman's skin after showering, while D*'s doesn't.

This ad campaign bugs me on a number of different levels because we shouldn't be using detergents on our skin.

Most "soaps" on the market today are actually detergents.

Detergents: harsh cleaning agents common to laundry detergent, shampoo, antibacterial liquid soaps, body washes, etc, that usually contain sulfates, artificial colors and fragrances.
Soaps: made in the traditional way from boiling animal fat and alkali (lye).

Detergents are better cleaning agents than soaps because they don't form soap scum in hard water, while fat-based soaps do. Of course, this is great for laundry, leaving your white clothes brilliantly white, or for scrubbing bathroom floors and shower walls sparkly clean.

However, detergents strip the skin of natural oils, leaving it dry and flaky, which is why I use oil-based, sulfate-free soaps as often as I can. I look for natural products with a high content of natural oils, moisturizers, and plant extracts. I've found olive oil soaps to be the best.

My favorite is Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap. At first, bathing with something enitrely oil-based may seem strange, but I've found that these products are just as effective as detergents. They don't leave any kind of "invisible" residue that I care about (yeah, that's the soap product market creating more hysteria so you'll freak out and go buy detergents) and in fact, I WANT the olive oil and plant extracts to stay on my skin and moisturize and nourish it.

This goes the same for shampoos, too. At first I was reluctant to use Dr. Bronner's as a shampoo, thinking that all of the oils would make my scalp oilier, but it cleaned just as well as my sulfate-based shampoos, and lathered well too. The only issue I had is that it left my hair with a coarse kind of texture, I guess the way nature intended, not with the polished, fake, shiny, smooth, silicone-coated sheen that that cosmoceutical marketing departments love to try to sell.

Use real soap, not detergent.

Some further reading:
Truth and Lies in Organic Personal Care
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

SNL Lazy Sunday - Parnell/Sandberg

2008-12-20T21:18:00.002-05:00

This really cracks me up.

How Hot Dogs are Made.

2008-12-09T21:07:00.001-05:00

Are you disgusted yet?

Green Gifts

2008-12-06T18:45:00.002-05:00

Timbuk2 Hidden Tote, Recycled PET Fabric.

Folds up into a zip-up pouch. Should've had one when I went to the market today! Also comes in a backpack style.

Grim Fandango trailer (1998)

2008-11-28T16:45:00.002-05:00

I'm replaying this great film noir epic, and enjoying the lush Art Deco Aztec art.

The Illusion of Food

2008-11-26T22:15:00.006-05:00

This is the title of a painting that my mind has not yet created, born of a quote of my brother's. It might also be the title of a diet book that no one has written yet (so is Eat Neolithic).

The illusion:

The reality, which is lost behind smoke and mirrors and the flashing neon lights of consumerism:

Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone eats Neolithic on our day of gratitude.

Eating Neolithic

2008-11-16T23:48:00.007-05:00

I'm reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food (a follow-up to his successful Omnivore's Dilemma from a few years ago) and I'm awed. Some interesting points:

-The American Paradox. Everyone knows that the French eat a high-fat, buttery diet and drink wine and yet remain slim and have long lifespans (the French Paradox). On the other hand, Americans, the people most obsessed with diet and nutrition, have the highest rates of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer (!).
-Our diets are precisely engineered. No other animal needs PROFESSIONAL HELP figuring out what to eat.

In order to avoid the slew of Western diseases and live healthier, longer lives, we ought to basically eat what we evolved to eat. (We haven't evolved responses to high fructose corn syrup, which has been around for about half a century, whereas the human species has consumed maize for thousands of years longer.) Eat what our Neolithic ancestors ate, he says. That means a diet of whole-grain, nonprocessed food, foods prepared according to cultural traditions that unlock key nutrients (for example, processing maize with limestone unlocks niacin), and nothing that ever passed through a factory or manufacturing facility. Would you eat something extruded through a nozzle? Squirtable Go-Gurt? Hydrogenated cardboard Pringles? Fluorescent orange plastic cheese? Splenda? Some other unrecognizable chemical compound that was made in a lab? This stuff is completely unrecognizable as food, but this is our post-industrial diet.

Neolithic or Paleolithic?
This made me think about whether a Paleolithic diet or a Neolithic one would be better.
Hunter-gatherers were the original affluent society. Before agriculture, foragers would spend 20 hours a week acquiring food, and then have plenty of leisure time left over to shoot the breeze, visit relatives, make jewelry, weave baskets, play with children, and so on. With agriculture, cultivation of crops became crucial and people spent 7 days a week, 24 hours a day slaving away on a farm. Generally, the foraging diet was more diverse and higher quality nutrient-wise than an agricultural one based on few key crops and livestock, but it probably tastes terrible. Let's see what I can gather....Insects. Raw weeds and tough, fibrous leafy greens. Okra. Bizarre seasonal fruits like durian and mango and avocado and grapes and pears that grow only at the foothills of the most remote mountains in China, but have incredible antioxidant and nutrient properties. Crustaceans. Minimally cooked.

Taste-wise, definitely go Neolithic. I'll take some stone-ground wheat bread and home-churned butter and cheese any day. Soba noodles. Beancurd, mmm. The Neolithic diet sounds yummy and feels like home. It's been 10,000 years and we're still around! Don't eat any of that processed post-industrial garbage.

Home

2008-11-13T20:00:00.003-05:00

Some Random Things

2008-11-08T11:36:00.002-05:00

When I came home on Wednesday night, there was a vehicle illegally parked on the sidewalk in front of my apartment building. It looked abandoned. The model? A pretty new Power Wheels, I'd say 2007 or so. How very curious --children these days leave their CARS behind.

The next day, as I was leaving the house early in the morning, I saw that it had been pushed to the curb and piled high with garbage bags. I guess no one wanted a free Power Wheel, or maybe it had belonged to the pediatrician's office next door and didn't work anymore.

Yesterday someone left a message on my answering machine saying that they had my tickets for the INAUGURATION (!) and didn't have my phone number or mailing address so they looked me up in the phone book and found my number. Hehehe

World's Deepest Cave -Tian Xing, China

2008-11-04T23:40:00.003-05:00

Top 10 Best foods for your face

2008-11-03T20:55:00.002-05:00

1. Avocado - niacin (vit B3)
2. Mangoes - vit A
3. Almonds - 150% DV Vitamin E
4. Cottage cheese - selenium (antioxidant w/Vit E)
5. Acerola Cherries - vitamin C
6. Oysters - Zinc
7. Baked potato - 75% DV copper
8. Mushrooms-Riboflavin (vit b2)
9. Flaxseed oil - 2.5 mg omega 3s
10. Wheat germ - biotin

Introversion or Sleep?

2008-10-30T18:50:00.004-04:00

Me time or sleep time?
Computer/brain/books or bed?
Daydreams or night dreams?

Do you know anyone who actually gets inspiration from sleep? I mean real, night-time, restorative, REM sleep?

Unlike Einstein, whose dreams gave birth to his ideas...

Most of my inspiration comes during the day, when I'm quietly introverting while in the shower or while I'm cooking dinner or out for a walk/run. Not so much while I'm DEAD in my BED. Sleep is mostly out of exhaustion for me, and I rarely get the kind of insights and ideas I get that from intuiting during waking life. Most of the crazy overachieving people I've known for my whole life have slept very little, and yet had the most brilliant ideas and produced some of the most wonderful work.

And so it comes to pass for people like me, who spend several hours a week commuting to work while juggling classes and languages and several other hobbies and such, to make a choice between staying up late introverting and real sleep, dream sleep, beta-wave sleep.

Do I stay up and write for a bit, reflect, study my various thingers, enjoy art and music and be imaginative, connecting with my intuition, or do I let my brain rest? Do I go to sleep? Sigh. After using my brain as a G4 processor during the day, the very least it deserves is some fun. (How about a nice sonata, at least?)

The very worst thing I could do during my precious introversion time, of which I seem to have very little these days, is bombard my brain with an overload of sensory information. No TV and online shopping! Restless internet surfing and TV just make me feel more restless and make me stay up longer doing NOTHING. Repetitive computer games like Pet Salon and Emperor, which are pretty management/detail/strategy-oriented are pretty bad too, and they whittle away your introversion time.

Some tips to spur your creative imagination, from this website:

1. Behave like a child while learning: Be curious about every thing what you learn.
2. Start reading novels, create Mind Maps, Draw some pictures and colour them.
3. Day Dreaming: Dream at least for 5 min daily.
4. Use your right part of your Brain: Right part of the brain has the ability for creative thinking. Practice some exercises which makes improves creativity imagination.
5. Think creatively for day today problems you have and try to find alternate solutions.

Don't forget to BREATHE DEEPLY!

Fight Club - This is your life.

2008-10-27T20:24:00.007-04:00

I post this because my life feels like this, and because this embodies the sentiment of a generation of wage slaves.

Insomnia

For six months, I couldn't sleep. With insomnia, nothing is real. Everything is far away. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be corporations that name everything. The IBM Stellar Sphere.
The Philip Morris Galaxy. Planet Starbucks.

IKEA

It used to be that when I came home angry or depressed, I'd just clean my condo, polish my Scandinavian furniture. I should've been looking for a new condo. I should've been haggling with my insurance company. I should've been upset about my nice, neat flaming little shit. But I wasn't. The basic premise of cyber-netting any office is make things more efficient. Monday mornings, all I could do was think about next week. Can I get the icon in cornflower blue? Absolutely. Efficiency is priority number one, people, because waste is a thief. I showed this already to my man, here. You liked it, didn't you? You can swallow a pint of blood before you get sick. It was right in everyone's face. Tyler and I Just made it visible. It was on the tip of everyone's tongue. Tyler and I just gave it a name.

Visions of my Neolithic Living Room

2008-10-19T20:49:00.010-04:00

We caught a couple of special exhibitions at AMNH today: 1) Reptiles, 2) Horses, and 3) Climate Change. The last special exhibition I caught was the Darwin exhibit ages ago, in spite of my having a STAFF pass which I barely utilize. (Yes, I know I should use it more often.) I thoroughly enjoyed all of them - they're like a breath of fresh air when I get to visit my old familiar friends like the HWhale, who will be around longer than me or all of my descendants. Ah, to be a museum specimen, frozen in time, embalmed for all perpetuity.

The Horse exhibit had some great Paleolithic cave art blown up as 10x10 paintings that would look marvelous in my living room. When I have my own house I want to decorate a room with a prehistoric theme: the Lascaux cave paintings, minerals, quartz lamps, fossils, everything made of stone.

Chauvet

Takhi! (Przewalski's horse, my favorite)

I can't see myself decorating with Neolithic goddess figurines or pottery, however, in spite of how much I love everything else about the Neolithic. I just don't get the goddess figurine aesthetic. Ha, it must be a reflection upon my distorted 21st century perception of "ideal" body image.

The cave paintings, on the other hand, are oddly familiar and haunting. Something about the horses reminds always me of "home." There must be something in our collective human memory that understands these symbols at a subconscious level.

Going to an old, familiar place with new friends is also fun because they make you see something you might not have thought of before.

Gusseted-Crotch Pants

2008-10-17T23:12:00.005-04:00

I learned the difference between a gusseted-crotch pant and a non-gusseted one while shopping for shorts online. Gusseted ones are better for rock climbers because they prevent the shorts from splitting while you hyperextend your legs out of socket. They must be great for rock climbers (and other athletes like yogis and gymnasts), and have great practical construction for durably-built clothes, but why must they look so ridiculous? See this ad for Gusset Jeans.

Top 5 Most Stressful Cities to Live In

2008-09-28T23:30:00.002-04:00

1. Chicago, IL
2. New York, NY
3. Detroit, Michigan
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. San Francisco, CA

Leave New York before you get hard, leave LA before you become soft.

Gray Matter

2008-09-25T00:01:00.003-04:00

Concept art from Jane Jensen's latest project, which deals with a neuroscientist and magician grad student in New Orleans. I always enjoy the concept art much more than the game itself - my preference for the surreal over realistic detail. Why do all characters have to look the same these days? She looks like she would fit in with the characters from Grand Theft Auto, or any similar shoot-em-up, or a man's idea of what a woman should look like. More realistic female representations, please.

Wonder Girls

2008-09-22T22:17:00.001-04:00

Saw them live in concert this weekend. Was one of the better concerts that I'd gone to in quite some time, pretty good for a free one.

Hermes Kelly or Birkin

2008-09-13T18:51:00.010-04:00

This is terrible but I want one of these. The purses cost upwards of $7,000 to six figures. On the black market they can sell for about $350. I inspected one today and the quality was horrendous. I then went to Filene's and saw a faint glimmer of a replica (around $150) that was much better quality than the black market Kelly, but not the right size.

I don't care about the object as a status symbol. It's the look that I like - the clean, classic lines, elegant simplicity, and the excellent functionality. It's as organized as my Timbuk2! Personally, I can't stand carrying tote bags or shoulder bags that I have to dump everything into. My notebooks and papers get edge-worn, and then all my other junk gets scrambled up. Short of carrying a boxy, rectangular men's briefcase, this is the ideal bag.

I also saw some cute mini-Kellies on the black market that were about 6" square ($270). I guess I might consider buying the Coach take on the Birkin/Kelly, but it's an entirely different beast.

-----
On another note, I am planning on preparing an emergency survival kit (something I've been thinking about since 9/11/2001, but never got around to doing). We had several of them at Trip, with most of the stuff in buckets (which doubled as toilets) which made me feel safe most of the time. I'll stuff everything into a backpack so I can just grab it and run if the zombies come.

- 1L water in bottle
- iodine
- first aid kit
- sleeping bag
- rain jacket
- whistle, matches, lighter, flashlight, standard camping stuff...
- emergency heating blanket
- MREs / other food
- radio
- knife/multi-purpose tool
- duct tape
- Zombie repellent
- crucifix, garlic, holy water
- Zithromax
- gas mask
- Kevlar trenchcoat

Dracaenaceae

2008-09-10T23:06:00.003-04:00

These trees are really cool. Whenever I see them, I see Yggdrasil.

Socotra Island (Indian Ocean), a UNESCO Heritage site. Dragon Trees.

In my life, I wish to visit as many UNESCO Heritage sites as possible.

Chewing Gum Doesn't Biodegrade

2008-08-29T21:01:00.005-04:00

Most commercial chewing gums are manufactured from a combination of synthetic rubbers, artificial sweeteners like Xylitol, and preservatives - not natural saps or gums. Gum isn't digestable (so don't swallow it) and not biodegradable!

Here's another prime example of a disposable convenience product that is basically garbage as soon as it hits the retail shelf, and pretty much garbage for the rest of eternity.

Forever stuck to NYC sidewalks, stuck under chairs, in school desks, and under the soles of your shoes, those chewed-up pieces of gum will be around longer than you or I. How old do you think those stains on subway platforms are, 50-100 years old? Even if someone comes along and scrapes them off, they'll still be a permanent mess somewhere else, ultimately, in a landfill. The New York Times identified the problem of chewing gum litter removal over 10 years ago (great article); the UK has also considered an initiative for disposing of gum in special bins. There has been some recognition of this fact, so it seems, and a call for patentable, more quickly degradable products that are easier to clean up, but has anyone really taken it up? I haven't heard of anything lately, and in fact; gum marketing aims at making gum last even longer (flavor, that is). (See Stride commercials.) If they *really* wanted to make money, gum companies should produce natural gum-based products that quickly degrade and are easily to clean up.

Chewing gum gives health benefits such as stress relief, improved concentration, and an increase in calorie burning of ~10 calories/hour. But the increased motion of chewing can disrupt orthodontic correction, moving teeth, so don't chew if you have braces. If you're going to chew gum, at least dispose of it responsibly - in its wrapper, and into a bin.

Disposable Lifestyle

2008-08-24T20:43:00.006-04:00

We need to change our mindset from a post-industrial one to a pre-industrial one if the human race is going to survive. The western mindset is: use it once, throw it away, buy another one that can be easily bought since everything is mass-produced in a factory. The industrial revolution gave us every convenience that we could ever want, saving thousands of hours of housewives' time. Canned vegetables, frozen food, gallons of soda are all stockpiled in huge warehouses so that no one could ever go hungry even after a nuclear holocaust (that stuff has got enough preservatives to outlast the apocalypse).

But we've abused the benefits of the industrial life. We see food as an unlimited resource. It's not. Our resources are precious. Wasteful consumption affects everyone.

Get rid of your disposable mindset. Do your part to reduce landfill litter.

-Never purchase drinks that come in a plastic cup from any kind of fast food establishment. This includes soft drinks, Starbucks, and slurpees. You'll use it for at most an hour, and then when you're done, your trash will sit in a pile with dozens of others of cups in an overflowing trash can on a street corner. Do you really need to drink something while you're walking down the street? Bring a thermos of coffee if you really need it, and always carry a Nalgene. I do.

- Turn something that has outlived its use into something useful: make a skirt from old ties, or turn ratty undershirts into rags that you can clean your car with. Use the last bit of butter on the wrapper of sticks of butter to grease baking pans. Think in terms of molecules, not dozens: always finish the last bit of juice in the carton, and squeeze out every last drop of toothpaste.

Don't contribute to paper garbage:
-Don't use anything that's single-use, or "Wipe and Toss." This includes alcohol wipes, any kind of disposable cleaning item, or "100-calorie" packages of food. These things are 99% garbage to begin with and the creation of greedy marketing departments. You'll use the product once, throw it away, and then have to buy another package of 30 for the future. How sneaky is that? The product is pretty much garbage at the time you buy it off the shelf. It's much better to buy more durable products (such as a good scrubbing sponge), and use natural cleaning agents like vinegar.

-Women: sanitary napkins are like diapers. They contain not only bleached white cotton, but plastic, gels, rayon and other chemicals that don't biodegrade quickly. Would you bury used pads in your garden outside your house? Then don't contribute to hygienic product waste. Use alternative menstrual products like Gladrags, Lunapads, or Lunacups. Women used cloth pads and natural sponges for hundreds, if not thousands, of years before disposable sanitary products were mass-produced in the 20th century.

-Use Tupperware instead of Ziploc bags to store your lunch. Did I mention to make a packed lunch every day instead of ordering out?

-Always use china instead of paper plates, plastic cups and cutlery. Washing dishes is always more friendly than throwing the remnants of your meal into a pile of trash that will rot in a landfill.

- Save, save, save! Something that is not useful today might have a use in the future. Perfectly good items like buttons and fabric are always useful. It's OK to hoard. Think like your grandparents who lived through the Depression.

- If it's broke, fix it. Don't buy a new one. This goes for shoes (get them repaired by a cobbler). Don't buy crappy $5 sneakers that you wear for a year and then throw away. Make an investment on a good pair of shoes that will last for years. My parents both have shoes that they've worn for at least 20 years. Go for classic, timeless styles and cuts made with durable, lasting fabrics. Don't pay any attention to fashionistas who tell you to get rid of clothes once they go out of style within a season or two, as inevitably they do. In fact, don't buy into American trendism at all. It just contributes to more waste. I'd rather buy a good, classic piece that's slightly more expensive than a cheap, flimsy garment that lasts for a few washes and then disintegrates *and* goes out of style. Mend the shirt instead of buying a new one.

Most important of all is mindful consumption. The next time you're about to throw an item into the trash, think about where it's going to go. Is it going to sit in a landfill until kingdom come (like unrecyclable plastic packaging and junk)? Will it get blown away by the wind or slowly disintegrate (hair and nails), becoming dust? It always makes me happy when I recycle my cans and plastics to know that they'll be melted down and made into other useful things.

Feeding my existential hunger with hummus and Al-Jazeera

2008-08-20T21:40:00.010-04:00

Margerine by Sadgasm (Simpsons parody)

I have no idea why this Simpsons parody song has been stuck in my head since yesterday when I watched the episode it was featured in, randomly, but it's pretty catchy, without being a direct parody of the song (same melody). I guess it evokes some of the best parts of Glycerine without actually being Glycerine, making it an ever better version of it.

Things that rhyme with Glycerine:

Margerine (margarine)

Listerine

Mercedes Benzene

Tangerine

Aubergine (Eggplant)

Magazine

Alizarin (red dye)

I really enjoy eating Middle Eastern food for some reason. I guess it's because the flavors are so unique and different from what I was raised on that I can understand why Jewish people really like Chinese food. Everything about the spices, flavors, and their different combinations is so appetizing to me and I crave it! Just now, I had a huge craving for hummus and just ate a hummus sandwich with Taiwanese cucumbers. (No pita, so white bread had to do.) For dinner

I had couscous with chicken that I'd marinated in cumin, curry powder and paprika.

Cross-section of a hot dog

2008-08-18T19:58:00.005-04:00

From the latest NYMagazine article on organic hot dogs.

Saturday

2008-08-16T22:42:00.003-04:00

I think not conditioning my hair keeps my hair cleaner for a longer time. Just shampoo alone gets my hair clean. I feel like conditioner weighs down my hair and absorbs pollution and smog from the air, so it feels dirtier sooner. But conditioner is supposed to protect my hair from pollution, so by not conditioning, I'm exposing it to more damage. It's all backwards!!!

I went to Bay Terrace today to see if Ann Taylor Loft had a certain dress that I wanted in my size (they did not). Then I walked around a bit and went to Love My Shoes. Didn't buy anything. I'm supposed to get a knit shell to wear with my suit, preferably in white, but it has been elusive.

Breakfast: Cocoa crispies

Lunch: Ellios pepperoni pizza with garlic, cranberry juice

Dinner: egg and tomato stir-fry, rice, chinese broccoli

Snacks: Kudos peanut butter granola bar, strawberry yogurt, Xinjiang pear

Distribution of Single Persons in the US

2008-08-15T11:09:00.004-04:00

Why is there such a discrepancy in the distribution? I can see tech types (heavily male) on the west coast, while lots of women might be drawn to New York City. I blame Sex and the City for that, and before that, Working Girl. I should probably move out West!

How do you draw hegemony?

2006-04-27T01:04:00.000-04:00

One of these days, someone will have to come up with a really hard version of Pictionary. Some things are so abstract or technical that most people will have no idea how to begin drawing them. For example:

Hegemony
Civilization
Empire
"Knack" "Craft"
Science

Communism
Language

Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

This would probably be more hard or frustrating than fun to play.

Hello!

2005-08-05T14:45:00.000-04:00

This is my first post. I hope using this website is as fun as LiveJournal.

Your friend,
Chia