always a way to procrastinate with technology

at our temporary home, we've found close to no internet available to us. a few days ago we could sit at the very front edge of the house and get two little bars of activity, signaling we had successfully latched on to a neighbor's account. they may have noticed, because now there are no bars. last night we resorted to reading for hours. it took a while to get used to this new arrangement. nate kept fiddling with his iphone, trying to send lengthly emails and show me new posts on dlisted, which just strained my eyes. and rather than dig right into an exciting new chapter in the psychology textbook, i tried one last time to connect to email, failed, and then - lo! - i discovered i had downloaded one of dirtyboots' november novels to my desktop, and had never read it. salvation, once again, from my own best interests. so that's how come i'm a few chapters into a story about a time-traveling older brother and a sister who is trying to find him using audio archeology and a few chapters behind my abnormal psychology readings.

[psst...clare... i never saw the X-files episode you mentioned, but i recently saw the same premise on Fringe: they were playing back a window pane which had melted a little wavy bit in an intense heat blast from something akin to sponteneous human combustion! a two-fer!]

housing update

no turning back now. we've shut down the dojo temporarily. as of wednesday afternoon we and all of our stuff were out. for the week and a half while we have no place to call our own, we have shelter courtesy of V's extended lease. we're living in cramped but quiet quarters, trying our best to fly under anyone's radar.

tomorrow morning dad and i sign paperwork in exchange for money, and my home for the last 4 years legally becomes someone else's joy and headache. nate and i take over our own joy and headache next friday. we'll be moving from between Harvard and MIT stomping grounds to near Tufts stomping grounds. Ah, Greater Boston - never too far from school.

the next week and a half we'll be finding excuses to leave our temporary digs for more hospitable and less claustrophobic climes. i'm thinking more bike rides, more trips to the gym, more lazing about on public green spaces. sounds really great, actually.

i've also decided on a summer course, and will be busy each week, starting next tuesday, learning about abnormal psychology. this is the fascinating stuff that generally gets exploited by news and movies: ooh, mood disorders! aah, personality disorders! ohh, shizophrenia!

so the summer is shaping up: we'll have a house to make into a home, i'll have coursework to keep my brain spinning, and a few little fun trips and activities to keep us feeling fresh and energized. by the time we get to all that, perhaps the weather will actually cooperate and act it's season.

knock some wood for us

the big news of the day: nate and i got the approval letter from the bank for our mortgage. we're about to take on the biggest debt in our lives, and actually, i'm really happy. how could i not be? this was the last big hurdle between us and a home to call our own. i'm very excited. of course, all that excitement comes with a bit of apprehension. i've never taken on any type of debt at all. nate has more experience at this - he's taken out loans for school and his car. i don't know if that's preparation, but owing vast amounts of money may not be the entirely unfamiliar situation for him as it is for me. regardless, i'm a grinning palm-sweating jubilant mess. dad emailed to welcome me to the american dream. (yes, thanks.)

another month and we'll be plunking down a big ol' check of our own, a big ol' check from the bank, and ready to move into a new home. in the meantime, all the big pieces that were causing me stress are now in place and i can sigh the biggest sigh of relief. that, and i had a good review from my supervisor at work and the reassurance that my job is still mine for another year, and i'm about to have a second great weekend in a row. thank you, world.

damn good weekend

i was just looking back a couple of posts ago and realized my calf injury was just about two months ago. i'm actually doing well. i've got lots of get up and go, and my calf has been cooperative. two months seemed like it would take forever, but it flew by after all. it helped that i have been able to bike now for weeks. but i can see and feel how i still won't be at full "HIYA!" power for a little while longer. i'm jonesing for a dance class, and plan to try again in maybe a week or two.

speaking of biking and jonesing...

this weekend has been full of lovely things. i rewatched "Se7en" on Friday night; took a road trip with nate, V. and S. to North Adams to attend the 10th anniversary ball at Mass Moca and ended up on stage with v. singing back up for Miss Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings; showed up late and during the torrential downpour on Sunday afternoon to a cook/hang out at the house of nate's former co-worker, Ted, and gorged ourselves courtesy of the potluck offerings and the big tent draw, Meat-a-palooza; and today, a slow leisurely start followed by a 30something mile round-trip ride to Walden Pond.

i crossed several things off my life's to-do list over the past three days, and feel utterly relaxed and happy. with all that and my leg feeling stronger...well... that's one damn good weekend.

dang

i am impressed:

giving back my keys

early next week dad and gil leave nyc and head to california, and 41 5th gets a new owner. nate and i visited last weekend, but i left my keys in boston by accident. at least i think it was an accident. this morning i mailed back my set of keys to the apartment.

41 5th.
where dad thumped around my room, chasing a mouse in the middle of the night without waking me up.
where i got ready for the prom my junior year before being picked up for a double-date, and dad had to run outside with the camera because i refused to wait around for the obligatory photo session.
where we watched 5th avenue paraders in the summer, and cross-country skiing in the winter.
where one year eric got ready for halloween in the middle of the night, donning a cheerleading costume and making me spray his blond wig with gold glitter, which landed in every conceivable crack in the wood flooring and drove dad crazy for years afterwards.
where there used to be a murphy bed in the second bedroom and i sometimes fell and got wedged in the gap between the head of the bed and the wall unit.
where i recovered from the chicken pox in 5th grade and an ovarian cyst in 10th.
where i put a "no smoking" sticker i got at school on the mirror in my room and finally took it down years after dad quit.
where doug brought his mom to meet us for a bagel brunch before our first date in sixth grade ("the naked gun" at a theater on 8th street)
where dad used to have a white shag rug and a mirrored wet bar in the living room.
where i could find dad for the past 23 years.

ok, i'm lame... i promised a picture of the lovely handiwork sent to me, but i am now proven a liar. i'll post it soon, promise! now, for the news:

1. i turned in a paper and got a decent grade!
2. i created and performed a research proposal presentation and did okay! even though public speaking makes my voice and legs shake!
3. someone wants to buy my apartment and i'm going to let them!
4. that means nate and i are really looking for real for a new place to live!
5. i can walk again! my calf muscle is healing, and i've even gone to the gym and used the stationary bicycle for a few minutes!
6. it's feeling like spring! about time!
7. i started flossing my teeth again!

the belly of the muscle

last night i was getting my groove on in dance class and had a freak accident ripping my calf muscle. the name of the muscle is the gastrocnemius, the large and bulky muscle in the back. the doctors tend to call it the "gastroc" in conversation, which of course sounds much cooler. i like to think they are really saying "gastROCK!"

the injury is in the belly of the muscle, which also just sounds ridiculous. but yeah, right in the middle where all the magic happens, that's where i tore it. the upshot: i'll be crutchin' around for about a week, and after a weekend of icing the muscle, avoiding weight on it, and generally acting protective, i'll switch to heat and start some gentle stretching. by gentle stretching i mean, flexing and pointing my toes. after i can do that well and without a problem, i can start standing on a stair with just my toes and use gravity and resistance to work the muscles more.

i am really not patient enough to be a good patient. however, i could get used to the white-glove-five-star-hand-servant treatment i'm lucky enough to get from nate. this alone helps me want to treat myself better. this much effort and energy into assuring i rest up and do right by myself from someone else would be such a shame to waste. i was even loaned ninja pillow this afternoon - he's been watching over me as i rest and nap and stay out of trouble.

here's my not-so-secret secret: i am pissed off. it's the first day of spring for crying out loud. it's beautiful and glorious and i want to be riding my bike, and i want to be enjoying the blue sky and the fresh breeze in the air with a spring in my step. my step is decidedly unspringy right now. leaden is more like it. certainly there are so many worse things that could have happened, involving long term rehabilitation and physical therapy, even surgery. so all in all, i'm not doing too shabbily. so when i feel a bit bummed i just think about the belly of my muscle and how seriously dumb that sounds, and it makes me crack a smile.

plus, i am totally going to enjoy the crap out of the rest of this year. once i have two working legs i'll be walking and springing and skipping and biking and street-funking and yogaing all over this piece. so just watch out. i will seriously gastROCK all over 2009, so don't say i didn't warn you. in the meantime, can you hand me the remote so i can watch my programs?

(p.s. - next time i post here i'll show y'all a picture of the awesome needlepoint that miss dirtyboots sent me. handmade! quite a saucy renaissance woman, that clare.)

jon stewart & cnbc mayhem

i watched the first daily show clips of jon stewart going after cnbc, and i watched jim cramer's appearance on the show, and then i read the new york times article about the entire brou-ha-ha.

it kills me that both jim cramer and the new york times missed, or ignored, the point jon stewart was making.

cramer attempted to cover his ass, essentially by saying no one can see the future and he should have done a better job, but didn't. and i don't blame him for his defensiveness, since cnbc basically threw him to the wolves on this one (hey - that cramer fellow, he's funny and acerbic, he'll be able to take on stewart! yeah, let's send him to do the clean up!)

alessandra stanley spent most of column space talking about the way stewart "act[ed] out a cathartic ritual of indignation and castigation" with cramer during the interview. she seemed to find most interesting stewart's use of embarrassing footage of cramer.

come on - really? that's the best each of these people could do? stewart repeatedly and continually uses his show as a forum to ridicule the sad state of affairs in news media: that should be a hint. stewart even admitted that it was a shame that cramer now had to be the face of cnbc in this public 'feud' since his point isn't that it's just cramer (although he is part of the problem):

it's the ethos of cnbc, which bills itself as the place to look for financial information, in that they are in the business of entertainment more than they are in the business of helping the regular joes and josies figure out how to protect their financial resources.

stewart's point, which cramer couldn't see during his sacrificial place in stewart's spotlight, and stanley didn't bother to write about since it's not the more entertaining hook to her coverage of the segment, is that cnbc lets its reporters get away with not being reporters and they have just as much responsibility as any other news media source to check their facts and sources, build their cases, and report the truth behind the PR talking points.

the daily show and stewart make their living from criticizing what and who makes the news. like any good jester, stewart mocks the power players and tells more truth than any one in the court. the fact that he and his team actually do a better job as journalists/reporters within the confines of their comedy show says way too much about how the news is told today.

they aren't going up for any pulitzer prizes, but the way everyone else goes about the business of telling news, it just looks like that wouldn't be such a far-fetched idea. the daily show has more credibility than any of the rest of them, and that's just sad. and that is the part that gets jon stewart the most angry.

love

elephants on wheels, by Croatian ceramic artist Saulius Dirse:

huh?

today at 1:28 pm, the following quote from President Obama was posted on the white house website as part of a larger story:

"Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end,"

so, the question on my mind, perhaps taking dave's recent post into consideration, is when did we start a combat mission in iraq, and what happened to the war?

i just saw this video posted at d*s - it's beautiful and simple. just lovely. and it doesn't hurt that the vocals are reminiscent of neil halsted. all details about oren lavie and the folks involved with the making of the video can be found at orenlavie.com.

for artists, book-lovers, design junkies, and nerds

designsponge worked with the new york public library and artists in nyc to put together a short video series that follows the artists (who use various media) as they draw inspiration from the collections at the library. this is a fun and neat look at artists' processes, the breadth of the collections in the libraries, the accessibility and versatility of research, and cross-polination of ideas. (not to mention, the total awesomeness and rocking of librarians and librarianship.)

check out the video series from start to finish (posted in reverse chronological order)

fyi

it's never going to stop snowing.