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*****There are around 140 (!) cemeteries in Washtenaw County. UPDATE: Ah, it's not 2 games, but 2 against 1 in a 3-person game. Got it. Well, I played "pansy" for a pitiful 18 points (hey, I thought that "A" would count as my blank tile and add up to 21 points!--dangit!). Current score: "Dear Ypsidixit, (may I call you Ypsidixit?): Dear Prettynails: Send your question to ASK YPSIDIXIT. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-17-8:19 p.m.: CROWN PAPER MILL IS COMING DOWN: Ypsi city council approved the demolition of the old Crown Paper Mill in order for an Ohio developer to build "upscale" student housing on the site. Here's the down-and-dirty. Bye-bye, my beloved abandoned paper mill. (Beloved because it's a Civil-War-era fixture in the landscape I travel every day en route to work).Kinda makes one reflect on urban exploration. Email me if you have any thoughts on the matter. Others have explored the site. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-17-7:42 p.m.: NEXT TIME YOU DRIVE ON ZINA PITCHER PLACE, a tiny stub of road leading from Washtenaw at Huron to the U-M nursing school, up by Couzens Hall, you'll be driving on a road named for a U-M professor, later regent, who directly supported the body-snatching trade that supplied U-M's medical school in the 19th century. Excerpt: "Edmund Andrews was the president of the U-M class of 1849. After graduation, he studied medicine in Detroit with Zina Pitcher. Forty years later, after having built a career as professor of anatomy at Chicago's Rush Memorial Hospital and then of surgery at the Chicago Medical College, Andrews wrote his reminiscences for a memorial book of his class. In that 1889 work, Andrews described his duties as a "resurrectionist," when he got bodies for Pitcher's classes: Parking distractions? So glad my tuition is no longer going to U-M. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-17-1:59 p.m.: CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN TO ME why Wal-Mart is advertising with a jillion little spots on NPR this past week? Including a plug for their "career opportunities." Yah. Um, who in their marketing department decided that NPR listeners are a good target market?! ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-17-12:27 p.m.: MY SISTER AND I tease each other a lot, so I sent her this obnoxious email in the hopes of getting a rise out of her:"Hey, you copycats,  GRAPHOLOGISTS NEEDED TO DECODE GWB SIGNATURE from a little billet-doux the White House shyly left in my inbox. Is it me or does this really say, "Jove Bid"? Or maybe "Zarc 3ud"? Zarc 3ud? That's not a good ol' Texas name...is it?
____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-16-8:49 p.m.:  THE MUSEUM OF BAD ART (MOBA).Pictured: "'Lucy in the Field with Flowers,' the masterpiece that started it all." I think we can all agree that this is a terrible piece of art for several easily articulateable reasons. 1. Subject matter is maudlin. 2. Poor rendering/depiction skills...artist cheated on depicting the flower stems, and what's up with her legs? 3. Discordant color scheme...in an otherise naturalistic scene, what's with the nuclear-holocaust-yellow sky? 4. Unbelievable details...why is her skirt doing that?--it shouldn't. Without naming names, what's the worst piece of art you've seen in Ann Arbor-Ypsi? Was it in a gallery? At the Art Fair? Describe the piece. Why did it repulse you? Does bad art...design...architecture...matter? I have about 15,000 comments on this topic but I'm more interested to see what other people view as bad art. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-16-7:06 p.m.: NEW CHARTER SCHOOLS NOT GOOD NEWS FOR YPSILANTI: Ann Arbor News story reports that three new charter schools chartered by Bay Mills Community College are to open in Ypsilanti, and leaves it at that.This sounded fishy to me given that Michigan has capped the number of charters (those started by universities, anyways) due to questions about accountability. Digging around on Google, I find that Bay Mills Community College is a tiny 450-student school in the U.P. Normally, colleges are restricted to opening charters in their own area, presumably to ensure oversight by the parent school. It appears that Bay Mills is exempt because it lies within and/or is run by a sovereign Native American nation. And it's been churning out charters, which are more or less just seals of approval for some other group's idea for a school, by the carload, since around 2001. TROUBLING QUESTIONS: 1. What qualifies this undistinguished school to evaluate schools in order to issue charters? Why do I, childless, care? Because I have friends with little ones and I've seen firsthand how bad, how lax, how bullshit-greasy, and worthless charter schools (in presumably enlightened Washtenaw County) can be while looking for one for my ex-stepson, and because this could really hurt the Ypsi school system, under the guise of offering "choice." A good article on the problems with MI's charter schools. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-16-12:22 p.m.: QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The Hubble looks beyond astronomy...almost to theology." --some guy on Diane Rehm this a.m. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-15-1:32 p.m.: ROCKUMENTARY FILM "MC-5: A TRUE TESTIMONIAL" is coming to the Michigan Theater April 25-29. Previews say it's very good. Check out the film's site. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-15-9:46 a.m.: NEW PLANET FOUND: Read the amazing story of its unlikely discoverer, an undergrad Brit, here The planet is named Sedna, after the Inuit goddess of the sea. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-14-8:58 p.m.: I LIVE WITHIN SPITTING DISTANCE of the oldest house in Washtenaw County. "How cool is that"? The site is now a tiny gas station on the northwest corner of Michigan Ave. and Harris, across Harris from a CVS, across Michigan Ave. from Michigan BBQ, and kitty corner from my beloved Value World. Edited excerpt from James Mann's "Footnotes in History": John Bryan and his wife and five childrn set out from Detroit in 1823, following the old Indian Trail [Sauk Trail, later Michigan Ave.] with an ox team. They arrived at Woodruff's Grove, the forerunner of Ypsilanti. It had taken them four days to make the trip, because they had to clear the trail for the team. They were the first to reach Woodruff's Grove by way of the trail. All those who had come before had come on rafts on the Huron River. John Bryan built a log cabin for his pregnant wife. She gave birth to a son, Alpha Washtenaw Bryan, the first white child born in the county, on February 24, 1824. John in 1826 built a sawmill at the intersection, and in 1827 built a 12-room house from hand-hewn walnut. The house was not called the Plank Road Tavern until 1937, but it was probably used as a tavern from day one. What is now Michigan Ave. was the only land route linking Detroit to Chicago. Travelers leaving Detroit in the morning would reach the Ypsilanti area by nightfall, and seek shelter at the first available place. So every house along the road was in effect a tavern. The problem of mud and dust on the road was dealt with around 1850 by the building of the plank road. This was a road made of wooden planks laid across the highway. The house was moved 300 feet to the west in 1948, to make room for a gas station. Lost in the move was a big bake oven in the basement, only one of two bake ovens in the area...the house was demolished in 1967 [the year I was born]. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-14-6:32 p.m.: VANISHED TOWNSHIP: Ypsilanti used to border the now-vanished township of Panama. From the Superior Township site: "The first lands were sold to settlers in the early 1820's by the Federal government. At that time, the present Superior Township was part of a larger Township known as Ypsilanti. In 1829, the Township of Panama, which consisted of the present-day Superior Township (south) and Salem Township (north) was divided from Ypsilanti Township by the Legislative Council. The present day Townships of Superior and Salem were created from the Township of Panama by a legislative act in 1831." The next time you take M-14 out of Washtenaw, you'll be traveling right through the erstwhile Panama. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-14-9:42 a.m.: FCC CLAMPS DOWN: From Cleveland classic rock radio station WNCX's homepage:"We wanted to play "Darkside of the Moon" in its entirety since it is the #1 album voted by YOU!! But we are unable to since the album contains the song "Money", which is deemed indecent by the U.S. Government since it contains the "S" word. Current pending legislation calls for a fine of $275,000 if we play that song." Check out the nebulous "three-prong test" the FCC uses to determine if something is obscene, from the FCC homepage. What about blogs? Even this minute blog is more powerful than many a radio station by virtue of being accessible anywhere in the world, I daresay, anytime. It's visual radio of sorts, complete with the call-in talk show aspect. Am I flirting with disaster if I dip into what some mouth-breathing bunched-panties bureaucrat three-prongs as obscene? (fuse lit by metafilter) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-14-2:54 a.m.: REMINDER: The Current's fiction and poetry contest's deadline is March 19, next Friday. Since I suspect 90% of bloggers or blog-readers have homebrew poetry/song lyrics/fiction floating around, I would encourage people to enter--why not?--you have nothing to lose. Yes, it's not the Nobel prize, but there's cash to be won, so go look at the entry guidelines. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-13-10:23 p.m.: AN YPSILANTI INSTITUTION practically is Sheridan, the affable yet iconoclastic guy who runs the Cross Street Book store. I stopped in there today, and was amazed when he mentioned that he remembered I liked WW II-era humorist S. J. Perelman and he'd just gotten a Perelman book. I had mentioned Perelman to him more than a year ago, in passing, and somehow he dredged this inconsequential aside from his encyclopedic memory. Well, at that point I had to buy it. He also mentioned a new Shackleton polar exploration book that looked very good but wasn't priced yet--he kindly let me call dibs on that--and we had a long rambling chat about the various books I picked out--each one summoned up an anecdote from him till I ended up lounging around there for nearly an hour and a half. The store is still in chaos, with huge dusty piles everywhere so that it's difficult to get around, but I didn't mind, since it's always a pleasure to talk with Sheridan and be treated as if I were his only customer in the world.I think he scrapes the slenderest of livings from the store--I know he doesn't have a car, since I've seen him biking with a big backpack to the Kroger's on Michigan Ave. in the dead of winter. I've peeked in but haven't yet tried out the White Crane or White Heron or whatever bookstore on Michigan Ave., but I kind of prefer the cluttered aisles and bonhomie at the Cross St. store. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-13-8:42 p.m.: SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL TO CHECK OUT IF YOU"RE PASSING BY: the amazing, weird ukeleles mde of colorful cigar boxes for sale ($135) in Herb David. Plus some little cantaloupe-sized wooden lutes, beautifully stained and so appealing in color and shape that one is tempted to learn how to play just so as to be able to own one. Lots of sheet music there, almost none of it for piano, unsurprisingly, but I did find a good book of basic-level folk songs and another of Beatles songs, both for piano. Had a great time later discovering that chords I'd learned when just a wee girl were still hibernating, amazingly, in my fingertips. The schmaltzy "Danny Boy" somehow sounded wonderful coming from the piano. Major excitement. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-13-8:26 p.m.: REVIEW: LA FIESTA MEXICANA. Saturday night is NOT the night to go there. The staff was completely overwhelmed by a full house, including a large birthday party, and my order took a long time. For an appetizer, I had what is doubtless served also in Heaven, guacamole, with chips. The guacamole was creamy and fresh, but the portion was on the dinky side--about half of what is served at Sabor Latino in AA. For an entree I had a beef burrito which arrived with an incongruous garnish of a tiny pile of shredded lettuce topped with a wee wafer of carrot. The burrito was good, with dice-sized chunks of beef. I noted nopales (cactus) with mole on the menu, to try next time.It's amazing that something as divine as guacamole is so easy to make. I make mine by scooping out & mashing the meat from one good-sized avocado, adding 4 big cloves of garlic, minced, enough sour cream or mayo to make it smooth, maybe a tiny bit of minced onion, salt to taste and mmm. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-13-12:08 p.m.: YPSIDIXIT HAS LEARNED through osmosis that AAIO is in his last semester of classes here. I for one would be quite sorry to see the site and the large community that swirls around it dissolve. It's one of my favorite sites, and I always enjoy the vinegary tone and the insider info various people contribute. It's the most popular blog in the bi-cities area, for Pete's sake. A shame if it evaporates.UPDATE: Sources close to the center of the AAIO solar system reveal that despite classes ending, the site's mysterious creator will remain in town for "a disconcertingly long time." Yay! ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-12-8:52 p.m.: THE STRETCH OF DIXBORO between WCC and Geddes has been razed of its beautiful trees in the past week. What in Heaven's name are they planning there? A giant swath of trees on the east side of Dixboro has been chewed down by big machines. It used to be a beautiful overgrown countryish wild area by the river, on either side of Gallup Park, that I enjoyed looking at while gliding by in my faithful #3 Huron River bus. Now it's scarred, naked earth, with hulking machines parked everywhere and the trees ground down into hideous piles of splintered logs. This is not an improvement. What in God's name is going on here? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-12-8:24 p.m.: IN CASE YOU MISSED the many product placements in "The Passion of the Christ", the kind folks at SomethingAwful have assembled them into one [warning: gore, irreverence] spot. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-12-12:37 p.m.: HILARIOUS GARDENING SONG LYRICS for everyone as itchy as me to start grubbing around in the dirt:Well, it starts with a catalogue that comes in the mail And there on the cover sits THE juicy red So, you fix a cup of cocoa, sink into your easy chair (thanks to Jim) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-12-12:22 p.m.: TIDBIT FROM A FRIEND:"from Patrick Smith's Ask the Pilot column on Salon today The valleys around Phonsavan are pocked with craters. In the rainy season, the locals use the craters to catch swallows. This afternoon I had lunch at the bottom of one, listening to war stories and eating deep-fried pumpkin dumplings, the upthrown earthen rim blocking the wind. Your Lao menu:  IN THE DIVORCE CAPITAL of the US, the result of a weird marriage lives on: the liger. EXCERPT FROM RENO'S SIERRA SAFARI ZOO PAGE: "A liger is the result of breeding a male lion with a female tiger.....a hybrid cat that inherits most of the strengths of both parent species and is larger than either....male Siberian tigers average between 400 and 600 pounds. We estimate Hobbs to weigh about twice that.....He exhibits traits of both parents; his mother was a Bengal tigress and his father an African lion. He roars like a lion and swims like a tiger." "A note about ligers and tigons: A cat born to a tiger father and a lion mother is known as a Tigon. We know of at least one instance of a tigon being born fertile. [Her] offspring was fathered by a tiger so it was called a ti-tigon. We have [seen] other examples of tigon/liger offspring, including a very nice looking female tig-liger." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-11-1:25 a.m.: CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN TO ME why Red Lobster restaurant's website was banned in China? (listed 3/4 way down page). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-10-6:44 p.m.: YPSILANTI: MUSKRAT-EATERS: Ypsi is smack dab in a region once known as muskrat-eatin' country--ranging from Port Huron down the Thumb to Ohio."We assume that the early French voyageurs who settled Detroit and Monroe, Michigan in the 18th century were introduced to this North American delicacy by the Indians. The foodway became established in the French homesteads to such an extent that by the end of the 19th century these people and their dialect were dubbed "Mushrat French."* In May, 2003, the city of Monroe, south of Ypsi, commissioned a prototype for a series of public 4-foot-tall painted fiberglass muskrat statues. 1. Clean the animal and remove all musk glands in legs and shoulders and as much fat as possible. Parboil in unsalted water for 20 minutes. Run cold water over the parboiled carcass to set the remaining fat. Now remove all fat. *excerpted from the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor winter 2004 newsletter Recipe for braised muskrat from the Axe-Woodsman Bacon-Grease Bear-Paw Cookbook ("A collection of recipes based on the notion that nearly everything that moves is edible"). From the Freep story: "LANSING - John Ramsey, father of slain child pageant star JonBenet, is seriously considering a run for the Michigan House of Representatives. That's what Michigan needs. Representation by flaky unqualified possible child-killers. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-09-10:55 p.m.: INFO REQUEST: SHEET MUSIC: Due to divorce fallout I am now the owner of an upright piano. I played years ago and would like to relearn those skills and practice up to the point where I can play again. But I can't for the life of me think of where to pick up some sheet music books. I'd like to practice things like old Billie Holiday songs and maybe simple transcriptions of Chopin nocturnes--love those Chopin nocturnes. I was thinking of calling Oz's music tomorrow, but if in the meantime anyone might know of a sheet music source I'd be grateful. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-09-10:08 p.m.: "YPSI RADIO" is allegedly Ypsilanti's first Internet-based radio station. Seems like they're still working out a couple bugs on the site, but interesting nonetheless. Note: click "high-speed connection"; slow-speed link not yet hooked up. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-09-7:46 p.m.: "ONLY IN ANN ARBOR": Turns out one of the pricey cooking demos at Whole Foods in April is a class on how to make...macaroni and cheese.EXCERPT: "Everything Old is New Again!� Please join us as we revisit the comfort foods of our past.� Together we will discover the joys of Macaroni and Cheese the way mom "should have" made it. ......Presented in the Cooking and Lifestyle Classroom at Whole Foods Market.....Fee: $20." [END OF EXCERPT] Excuse me--my mom made it just fine, thank you. So do I, with my patented "slow-cook" method. For God's sake, who in their right mind would shell out $20 to learn how to make a neurotic fetish out of the simplest food in creation? There's also a class on how to make "low-carb vegetarian" sludge. Delightful. Let's just strip away every iota of sensuality and flavor out of food, shall we? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-09-12:03 p.m.: MEMO TO NPR: I'm an inquisitive person, but I do not want to hear about John Ashcroft's pancreas! That is more information than I want to absorb about that individual. I do not want visions of John Ashcroft's pancreas dancing in my head, NPR--please, tone it down. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-08-9:14 p.m.: URBAN EXPLORATION: A girl and her Kawasaki explore an abandoned city in the Chernobyl "dead zone." Lots of spooky pictures.(Metafilter) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-08-7:58 p.m.: HOMETOWN PRIDE: A story in today's AA News gushes over a series of talks going on at the downtown Ypsi Library. The talks focus on techniques for maintaining historic homes & creating period gardens. Well might the AA News gush. Ypsi has the state's second-largest historic district, second only to Grand Rapids, according to a friend who is a member of the Ypsi Historical Society. Yep--our historic district is larger than that of a certain nearby town 4 times as large. Plus there's EMU's interesting historical-building preservation degree program, which I don't believe U-M offers. This wealth of history is one of Ypsi's strongest assets as far as quality of life and is one of the things I love most about the town. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-08-4:33 p.m.: NPR reports that the body of Spalding Gray was just found in the East River. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-07-11:35 p.m.: THE YPSILANTI AREA HAS, BY FAR, MORE VACATED OR ABANDONED CEMETERIES than any other spot in Washtenaw County, according to the Washtenaw Cemetery Index Page. They are:1. Woodlawn/Roselawn: abandoned. Huron River Dr. between Hubbard and Timothy. approximate map  CALLED "THE WEIRDEST BOOK IN THE WORLD," the Codex Seraphinianus is a mock encyclopedia made up of surreal paintings of imaginary people, animals, and plants by contemporary Italian artist Luigi Serafini. Pictured at right are creatures he calls "junktheds."More vaguely disturbing art by Serafini. My favorite work: the first one in the gallery, the weird bullfight. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-06-11:30 p.m.: MONITORING THE HURON: Judging by this chart from a river-monitoring station in Ann Arbor, it looks as though the past week's warm midweek temps caused a slight bulge in the Huron due maybe to meltoff, followed by a big spike from the rain we had on Friday. I know, it's just geeky data; I find it interesting to keep an eye on the river, though.I once chatted with a guy who was going through the park with a metal detector and a shovel. He was finding all kinds of historical coins, and showed me some antique pennies and nickles, which I thought was really interesting. As for me, I wouldn't want to dig too deep in Prospect Park. This wickedly satirical portrait of academia centers on a low-level English department instructor who acquires supernatural powers that he exploits to hack through the jungle of academic politics and ruthlessly rise to department chair. It is said that this novel's mythical "University of the Midwest" is actually U-M, and readers familiar with AA can catch disguised references to the Red Hawk, Shaman Drum, Espresso Royale, State Street, the Diag, and the Grad Library. Hynes's Dantean depiction of the doomed souls in the hellish English Composition department, his description of the library's decrepit "Poole Collection," and his icepick skewering of fashionable academic ideologies make this an entertaining read, despite an over-the-top and unraveled ending. "i think it's fascinating that there are people, like yourself, who really want to keep and love ypsi in it's long time "gritty" sort of state, while i've always thought people would want to change it, and make it brighter...." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-05-12:21 p.m.: MUSICIANS THAT MAKE SOPHISTICATES JEER: From a conversation with a friend:he: "You never know when you're going to be suddenly defined as cool. Time was, you could get a sure laugh from sophisticates by mentioning Johnny Cash." me: "How can you get a sure laugh from sophisticates these days?" he: "I don't know. Toby Keith? It's interesting to me to compare his two patriotic-American songs with Merle Haggard's two from the 1960s, "The Fightin' Side of Me" and "Okie from Muskogee." Would I have disliked those then? Probably. Will TK in time be regarded as a profound artist by those who love country music? Hard to say. Willie Nelson seems to like him, and he's a pretty perceptive observer. But there is a major difference. Country music was expanding in terms of its resources of expression in the 1960s, and that time period saw both affirmations of small-town culture like "Okie from Muskogee" and body blows to it like "Harper Valley P.T.A.," coexisting side by side. The progressive voice is a little harder to find right now." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-04-8:12 p.m.: NEXT YPSI PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING is Tuesday March 23, 6:30 p.m. in the Civic Center boardroom, 7200 S. Huron River Drive. No info on the agenda is posted on their website but you can call 485-3943 to find out (I'll call tomorrow & add the info to this post). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-04-7:32 p.m.:
YPSI BLOGGERS PROFILED BY YPSI COURIER'S CHARLIE KONDEK: Wow! What a thrill! Kondek details the SOTR's ongoing Coolest of Ypsilanti poll (reminder: voting continues till March 15, be sure to vote!), includes some thoughts from Mark Maynard, and reprints some especially pretentious and silly garglings from yours truly. Read all about it!A big *thank you* to Charlie Kondek for this article! Woo-hoo! ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-04-9:12 a.m.: The Huron River Bus #3 is a rolling soap opera. First Mr. Vet Hospital Intern came gasping onto the bus and said to the driver, "I forgot my wallet." I watched his face fall at the driver's reply. Just as he stepped off the bus, some guy behind me yelled out, "I'll pay for him" and walked up to stuff a dollar in the meter. "That's nice," I told him. "He's got places to get to too," he said.There's a group of three older people who always get on at Huron and chat all the way into town. Today a younger woman was chatting with them. "My boyfriend spends over $200 a month on his hair," she said. I immediately lost the ability to focus on my droning secular humanism magazine so I eavesdropped with incredulous indignation. "My dog got hit by a car," she said, "and it cost a lot, so I asked my boyfriend for money, and he was like, no. But then he goes and spends $600 on a haircut." Boy, did I have a choice word or two for this guy, not that it was any of my business. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-03-11:35 p.m.: IT'S HIGH TIME TO START THINKING ABOUT GARDENING, PEOPLE. Time to start making lists for those projects. Seed catalogs are overflowing my mailbox--they've even tracked me down at work; I'm getting catalogs there too. What projects are on your agenda for this year? I plan to: continue planting day lilies on my little hill to turn it into a daylily-covered hill; muck out the odiferous silt in the goldfish pond that has been fermenting there all winter (when I broke the ice with a pickaxe the other day I got a delightful whiff); shovel out the kitchen-garden plot behind my kitchen to get it ready for planting; slowly transform the front yard into an all-flower zone and get rid of the silly lawn. And find some floriferous and vigorous climbing thing to mask my chain link fence, since the shrubs I planted there for that purpose refuse to grow higher than 3". Tell me what you're planning to grow please. No matter if it's a single pot of basil or a 40-acre orchard I want to hear about it. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-02-10:38 p.m.: THE "CHO ANIKI" VIDEO GAME gets my vote for most...umm...original video game. Warning: scanty Speedos, lurid musculature, daisies. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-02-8:38 p.m.: BLOG INTO THE FUTURE: I have to wonder what blogs and blogging will be like in a decade or two. Can a site like Diaryland sustain the sheer weight of a zillion diaries, each with ten years' worth of archives? Will the mammoth sedimentary piles of 20-year-old blogs hog too much bandwidth? Will it make downloading a blog impossible for the dial-up modem contingent like me? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-02-8:27 p.m.: CARING FOR YOUR INTROVERT: An excellent analysis on the different way in which introverts see the world and process information. Good info for those who wonder about their quiet, reserved friends who seem to love time spent alone, in a world that champions extroversion.Excerpt: "Science has learned...that introverts process information differently from other people....Introverts are not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say "Hell is other people at breakfast." Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring." [END OF EXCERPT]. This is an excellent definition, with "tiring" meaning physically/emotionally tiring, not tiring "because they're so shallow." I experience this all the time. I like social interaction, in small doses, but it exhausts me. I just feel drained afterwards and it takes a good few hours of downtime on my own to regain an even keel. The author correctly points out that introversion is a basic personality orientation, not a choice or a deficiency. And I'll go along with that Sartre quote. Complete silence while I eat my soft-boiled eggs and drink a glass of Spicy V-8 please. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-03-02-7:28 p.m.: THE VEIL OF MYSTERY shrouding the Diaryland archives system has finally, mercifully lifted. To visit past entries, please see archives on the left there. Note: To save loading time I'm gonna delete most pictures from entries once they're archived. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
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BOOKS READ: James Hynes's "The Lecturer's Tale." 