Daily Journal Entry #11674 12/16/07 Sun
- Woke very very late and time passed.
- In the evening I went to Chester Street for a drag show with Kiril and Maria. To our surprise it was the annual Christmas show. The show itself was only somewhat amusing. It was also odd for the show to be closed out by the MC (who is the son of a Baptist minister) saying that no matter what religion we are, even if we are an atheist, we all need spirituality, because you can’t get through life without God, followed by Ave Maria.
- I finished Vertigo. I was impressed that I could be surprised and weirded out by such an old movie. But there’s something I don’t like about Jimmy Stewart. I think it’s his voice.
- I didn’t go to bed.
Daily Journal Entry #11675 12/17/07 Mon
- Completed and cleaned up various outstanding tasks.
- Went to IHOP for “lunch,” then stopped by Walgreens (root beer) and Starbucks (coffee).
- Went to Staples (replacement folding crate) and Target (couldn’t find a good book crates replacement).
- Finished reading Mysterious Girlfriend X. There is a part I think I can use to talk about how we respond to others’ pleasures.
- “Early” to bed after being up for over thirty hours.
Daily Journal Entry #11676 12/18/07 Tue
- Recorded my journal entry (much easier now), then spent a lot of time learning how to tweak Quicktime Pro (masks and picture-in-picture).
- In between I watched I Spit on Your Grave. It made me think about the connection between movies like Monster, Kill Bill, and Death Proof. Spoiler alert: I was also surprised at the lengths she went to to kill the offenders, willfully using her sexuality but not her gun. Somewhere in there is an article on her rejection of the male gaze.
- I also watched the finale to Tila Tequila (Lesley told me it was on), and it was interesting to see that she chose a boy (Bobby). How did I get sucked into this program?
- Finally got a chance to read more Death Note (spoiler alert: I’m at the part where the second Kira shows up).
- I was amazed at how quickly and unproductively the day passed. I never left my room, and most of it was spent in front of my computer. I partially blame it on the scratchy throat I woke up with.
Daily Journal Entry #11677 12/19/07 Wed
- Processed, looked at Hubert’s statement, and did some laundry and cleaning. As usual, I got sidetracked while glancing over incompletely processed books before their trip back to the library. I was struck by a part about Temple Grandin in Zunshine’s Why We Read Fiction, and ended up watching a video about her on YouTube. I was particularly interested in the fact that she explicitly tried to observe the world “from the cows’ perspective,” and made her observations based on “extended fieldwork.” Her eye for detail and patterns, as well as her sensitivity to sensory stimulation, made me wonder about similar personal characteristics.
- Went to El Toro with Maria, and we talked about labels. She doesn’t care for them because she finds them restricting, which seems to be common in my generation and those that follow. The problem isn’t so much with her own experience of labels, but the way that others try to use these labels to discipline her into a particular mode of subjectivity. I told her that for whatever reason I’ve never felt restricted by labels, though I often achieve this effect by combining multiple labels or playfully modifying them, such as listing my religion on Facebook as “Atheist/Pantheist/Humanist/Unitarian Universalist/Discordian/Buddhist/Catholic” or identifying as “mostly straight.” Maria replied that it isn’t that simple because this causes people to ask, “What do you mean?” But I responded that that really is the point and is much better than someone just assuming what a label means instead of asking for an explanation. Whenever someone describes themself using a particular label we should always ask, “What do you mean?”
- Read at Starbucks after dinner, then got sidetracked while cleaning again. I still don’t care for John Ashbery. I did read a poem of his that I liked, but I can’t find it now. On the other hand, Steinbeck is still incredibly wonderful.
Daily Journal Entry #11678 12/20/07 Thu
- I went to assist this girl Jessica who asked for help with Drupal on the local LiveJournal community. She wants to have the blog module say “news” in the breadcrumbs, and it looks like she’ll either have to change the module code, change the database, or make a custom module.
- Dropped off books at the library and left a very small gift for Nancy.
- Processed feeds and installed Twitter Tools. Steinbeck is so good.
- Holy crap did I have a wonderful evening. I spent some time in Am-Ko (there was a strange section of burned CDs and DVDs in the back, but I couldn’t tell if they were music, movies, or both) trying to find a white elephant gift. I considered some canned squid, then ended up getting some soju and some One Cup Ozeki sake (which I was surprised to find and brings back vivid memories of Tokyo).
- The white elephant party was at Mike ‘N Molly’s. Jennifer mentioned one of her dog’s toys spilling out its plastic innards, and I said it would be interesting if someone purposefully made the insides of a plush dog toy look like entrails. I ended up with some really nice pads and a multi-colored pencil. Jennifer asked me why I knew anything about Drupal, and I explained that it was from running my own blog and looking at software to use in the classroom.
- After the party we went over to Jupiters, and Jennifer told me about her love of umeboshi and these exquisite umeboshi she got in Kyoto that were about $10 a piece and individually wrapped.
- From Jupiters I went over to the Canopy Club with Kelly and Jessica. MITN was experimental and very cool, and made me miss making music. The Duke of Uke was cool too. Then I was tired and left after meeting a surgeon who moved here a year ago from Springfield and thought I looked like a musician.
Daily Journal Entry #11679 12/21/07 Fri
- Met with Ellen. We talked about “science” vs. “humanism” in prosem, the department admitting anthropologists who don’t like anthropology (which she said is ironic given anthropology’s heavy self-critique), and the details you have to ignore to do activism. She said that my use of indexical pleasure is okay, and she is one of the few people who didn’t have a problem with the notion of humans perpetually trying to optimize their experience of pleasure.
- More cleaning, shirt for dad, burger at Murphy’s (which was quite deserted, as is the rest of the town), then packing. Excited about my next video, but not about driving.
Daily Journal Entry #11680 12/22/07 Sat
- Left around 10 a.m. and got to Fort Worth around 2 a.m. I got slowed down by wind and rain, stopping to browse and eat, and a gap in my directions. The trip itself was perfectly fine. I listened to Keith and the Girl, in addition to bits of Red Bar Radio (which wasn’t that funny), The Word Nerds (which was too nerdy), and Free Talk Live (which was ridiculously libertarian).