We recently cleaned up our office and uncovered the long-forgotten zen garden. Here’s what the Snook created. Any interpretations? Personally, I find it interesting that the rocks are “unbalanced” and seem bunched up on one side. Also note that he’s “buried” the rocks beneath layers of straight lines. So perhaps this “unbalanced” side is something that’s contained and buried deep within.
Or maybe he just likes making straight lines with the little rake. *shrug* I dunno.
Awww, my friend Nora wrote some nice things about me for the last Friday Five that just cheered me right up today. She also correctly recalls that she was present for my first ever night of drunkenness, when I drank a liter of crap red wine at our dorm section’s “Freshman Disorientation” party. (I was a sophomore and we were hosting.) Man, puking in a trash can is just not fun.
Since I always suck at predicting these things, I’ve decided to share my humiliation with y’all. How many can Academy Award winners you get right? It only takes a second to enter and the person with the highest score gets a custom-made sock monkey!
If Max does it, it’s a meme. Therefore I fired up iTunes and hit random play to see what came out. With 3,198 songs on our shared server, you’d think the results wouldn’t be so embarrassing…
1. “Whenever, Wherever” – Shakira
2. “#41” – Dave Matthews Band
3. “Back Home Again” – John Denver
4. “We Walk” – Steelpole Bathtub (from Surprise Your Pig, an REM tribute album)
5. “The Arrival’s Gate” – Ani Difranco
6. “Seasons of Love” – Cast of RENT
7. “Lazyhead and Sleepybones” – They Might Be Giants
8. “Thanks Bro” – Filter
9. “Crawl” – This Way
10. “Bad Moon Rising” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
I was all set to complain that those make me sound lamer than I am, but after reconsidering I’m forced to admit that it’s actually a scarily-accurate picture of my music-listening personality. Yes, I listen to Broadway soundtracks and Top 40’s pop and feminist folk rock and classic rock standards.
Me: So I took the antibiotics like you said and they made me feel better, but I finished them on Monday and Tuesday night I woke up with a sore throat and a headache.
Dr: Sounds like you’ve still got the bug!
He shines his little light down my throat again.
Dr: They certainly look… juicy.
Me: JUICY??
Dr.: I recommend that you have another course of antibiotics, and that you have your tonsils removed soon.
Me: REMOVED??
So that appears to be that. The Snook thinks I should get a second opinion before agreeing to have bits lopped off. Personally I’m a little nervous about the whole prospect. I’ve never had an operation in my life. Any of you had your tonsils taken out?
Folks sending me packages from the U.S. should refrain from including food, especially unprocessed stuff like popcorn. Because if the sniffer dogs catch it, Customs will quarantine it for months before eventually throwing out the popcorn, and I’ll get my remaining Christmas presents three months late. 
Ebert has added The Right Stuff to his list of “Great Movies”. I was surprised to see him almost arguing against manned space flight in his review.
Back in grade school, one of my friends bought a “slam book” and brought it to class. Each page had a category, like “Favorite song” or “Boy you like”, with a bunch of numbered lines for everyone’s answers. One page puzzled us though: “Pet Peeves”. As I was the class brain, everyone turned to me for an explanation. “I think it’s, like, stuff that annoys you… about pets.” Okay, so I was sorta close. I remember everyone then writing down stuff like “When they pee in the house” and “When they jump on you” as their answers. It was years before I figured out my mistake.
Anyway, my Pet Peeve O’ The Day: people who touch your computer monitor while pointing at something and leave greasy fingerprints all over it. That drives me nuts! Okay, now it’s your turn to vent…
The The Age ran a great interview with Dr. Atkins today entitled “Look Mum, No Carbs”. It’s an excellent introduction to the low-carb lifestyle and addresses some of the criticism that’s been written about it. It also tries to explain how the diet works, which is something that often gets lost in the usual “You can eat steaks deep-fried in butter and still lose weight!” tabloid angle.
“Tens of thousands attend Sydney peace rally.” Yes, the Snook and I were among them, and yes, we made those T-shirts ourselves. (Full props to the ladies at Glitter for inspiring my slogan.) I’ve posted my pictures from the event here.
Did you go to a demonstration? Did you not go for any specific reason? We wanna hear about it.
