I had these two songs on repeat as I was working at the coffee shop tonight.

I’m kinda in love with this song right now:

I mean, I think I could listen to it on repeat for about two days straight, at least. Not too sure what it is about the song. And that music video? LOVE. I want to go to a hockey game now. Please? Surely some team somewhere is playing hockey right now? Right?

And the next:

This is on my workout mix for the mornings and it’s just such a lovely, upbeat song. Yay Blues Traveler!

Some of the blogs that I read have been talking about the Bechdel Rule.

Basically, the rule states that movies should have in them:
(1) At least two women
(2) Who talk to each other
(3) About something other than a man

Seems easy to name movies that pass this rule, right? Um. Try it. A friend and I sat for a while today trying to come up with a list of said movies. We came up with two: Juno and Serenity. Now, had we tried a bit harder, I’m sure we could have come up with more. But it’s harder than it might initially seem.

And that points to a very sad state of affairs regarding the portrayal of women in movies.

I’ve been bugged about posting a picture of the bike. So I shall comply.

Here it is:

It’s just your regular old bike (with the HUGEST AND MOST GARGANTUAN seat ever. but it’s comfortable, so stop making fun of me, yo.) but the blue is a very pretty color and, well, it gets me places faster than just walking does. So there’s that.

Best commercial ever?

If not the best, then pretty damned close to it. (And, as an added bonus: the XKCD tribute to it.)

I was on the bike at the rec center today (is it absurd that I ride my bike TO the rec center only to go and ride the bike IN the rec center?) and noticed that it was a few minutes past seven and I cursed at myself for getting such a slow start of it this morning.¹

It’s Monday. And I need to set myself a goal for the week. So the goal for the week is going to be to finish the first section of the second chapter (it’s muchly (though not mostly and definitely not entirely) written. But the hardest part (the ‘OK, so just what IS the knowledge like?’ written in a way that doesn’t seem too repetitive from the previous sections) still needs to be written. So that’s the goal.

It’s also been stormy lately. Woohoo! to that.

OK. To work I go! :)

1. Dan helpfully offered ‘Going 0 to 60 in five years’ as a useful idiom to use for being perhaps a bit slow. While I have obviously not opted to use it, I still feel the need to record it for posterity’s sake.↩

You like Joss Whedon? You miss Joss Whedon? You like sing-a-longs? How about super-villain sing-a-longs? How about super-villain sing-a-longs that star Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion (captain of Serenity, yo’s.), and Felicia Day?

Then, um, click that banner and have fun for the next 30 minutes of your life. But do it soon, because the videos disappear into the aether tomorrow (Sunday!) night.

I was sorta thinking of posting lots and lots of small entries today. Because I have one-thought entries. So instead of writing about 5 different blog posts, I’ll just include them all in one post!

Progress!
I finished the draft of my paper last night! So now I just need to turn to my second chapter and get that whipped into shape before the semester begins. I have about a month to do this. It’ll be pushing it, but I have high hopes!

(Further) Proof that I’m a Complete Dork
I saw Batman today. Very, very good. Highly recommended. But I’m sure you already knew that. And simply watching a great action flick doesn’t really give evidence for dorkiness. What’s the proof that I’m a dork? I was at the theater at 9 IN THE MORNING to watch Batman. Yes, yes I was. (It was a 10 am showing and we wanted to have good seats.)

Tonight’s Tasty Dinner
Doesn’t this look utterly delicious?!

It’s tonight’s dinner. It’s basically eggs with half an onion, some garlic, a small potato, a small zucchini, and a handful of spinach. Tasty goodness!

And Don’t You Forget It!
A friend sent me an email saying this: “That’s why you’re a good friend. You wish chlamydia on all the right people.” Damn straight, yo. :)

I think There’s a Little Bit of Sleepy Toddler in All of Us
Last night, I was goofing off on the internet before bed. I had just finished up the draft of the paper, had emailed it to folks, and so was on a bit of a high. But as I was goofing off, I was getting so tired that I was starting to feel nauseous and, well, just extraordinarily sleepy. You’d think that I’d put away my computer and go to sleep already. But no. Instead I stayed up still reading more and other things, almost obstinately, until I realized how completely irrational I was being. But still, it reminded me of toddlers who are obviously tired but fight it So! Hard! until, finally, they just crash.

OK, that’s it for now. I think I’ll escape my very hot house for a bit and go do a few hours of work in an air conditioned building. Happy Friday!

Tonight’s dinner:

Baba Ghanouj with some pita, carrots, and cucumber. I know I wax rhapsodic about food often (part of my charm, right?!) and you know what? Well dammit, I’m going to do it again tonight. Because that unappetizing looking tannish blob o’ somethin’ is actually a smokey, complex, creamy bit of deliciousness. That’s baba ghanouj which is, basically, roasted eggplant pureed with some other stuff.

Now, baba ghanouj may not look like much:

But what it lacks in outward aesthetic beauty it makes up for in every single other way. It’s delicious, it’s healthy, it’s a fantastic summer dish, it keeps well for a few days (and improves the next day), and it’s quite fast and easy to make.

Here’s the recipe I used:
1 regular eggplant. I have a gas stove and so cook the eggplant directly over the open flame on my stove top. Cook it until it’s charred and wilted. (You can also roast it in the oven. But I’m not sure how much of the smokey flavor will come through.) Then put it in a bowl and let it cool a bit. With your fingers (or fingers and a fork) peel the eggplant. Also try to remove as much of the liquid as possible. Then throw that mass o’ eggplant into a food processor. To that, add a couple cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and three tablespoons of tahini. Add a healthy pinch of salt and pepper. Then puree. As it’s pureeing, drizzle in a scant 1/4 cup (I actually used about 1/5 cup) into it. At this point stop and taste and adjust the seasonings. Then put it in the fridge for a bit to let it cool down and let the flavors mingle a bit.

Then try not to eat it all at once. Or, whatever, DO eat it all at once. It’s basically just a big ol’ eggplant with other tasty (and healthy!) stuff mixed in!

This is a fantastically cute video of Feist singing a version of her song 1234 on Sesame Street. So. Cute.

And here’s the music video of the actual version of the song:

I *heart* Feist. So very much. :)

I bought a bike today! It’s just a big-box store mountain bike. But a pretty blue. :) And, in a sure sign of the levels of bike theft in the area, I bought a lock that cost almost exactly half of what the bike itself cost. $80 bike, $40 lock. Why a $40 lock? Because it’s the only one that won’t get cut and stolen. You have a cable lock and you can virtually guarantee that your bike will be stolen within a couple of months.

But the important thing is that I have a bike! And it’s fun to ride! Woohoo!

I feel some very weird obligation to post a blog entry, though I don’t really have anything to write about. I’m back in Tucson; I got back on Friday night. The visit to see family was fantastic. I love my family. There was a lot of playing with the nieces, some rides on roller coasters, picking strawberries at a farm, and a good ol’ family reunion. And there are lots and lots and lots of pictures in my flickr feed. :)

It’s good to be home, too, though. Tucson is in the middle of monsoon season and so we’ve had storms and rain and such. Beautiful! And it’s nice to be near the kitties again. I spend a week away from them and I get to missing them wake me up as the sun is rising each morning.

At the moment, though, I think I’m coming down with a cold (am currently sipping on warm water with honey and apple cider vinegar. surprisingly good, actually. also very good on my throat) and so am a bit tired and grumpy. Maybe I’ll go and read my book (The Yiddish Policeman’s Union) and call it an early night. Yeah. That sounds like a grand idea.

Hello! I like you. My name is Kiara. I am having fun with my aunt Shelli. I like horses and cats. I can almost tell time. I am 5 and a half. I like playing with my friend.

goodbye!

I hope your week is going as well as mine is!

Hello! And, um, goodbye! I’m off for a week with family in Washington. I get to see both of my beautiful nieces! And both of my sisters! And my parents! And aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins and cousins of even later iterations!

Perhaps some posts. Perhaps not. Who knows!

Oh, hello there! So, um, yeah. Not blogging much lately. Not really any reason, other than that life has been quiet and not much bloggable going on (or being noticed in teh internets). It’s hot out and since it’s monsoon season, the swamp cooler in my house only works sorta kinda (it’ll blow air, the air it blows just isn’t all that cooler than the air outside) so my house is basically non-habitable for several hours a day. I’ve also been busy working and feeling pretty crappy. Oh, and thinking about how much I need to clean my house but feeling too crappy to actually, you know, clean it. Oh! And my blasted charger for my computer died yesterday (that was the second charger to die in the year and a half since I’ve had my computer) so I had to shell out $84 to get a new one! I really don’t have $84 for a damned charger! How marvelous, no? :) (See! I told you that there hasn’t been much to write about. Though lots, it seems, to complain about.)

The house best get cleaned, I best start feeling better, and the draft of this paper best get polished, though, because I head out for a family reunion on Friday.

And you know what? That’s about all I have to say today. I’ll go back to reading Chris Gill’s fantastic Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy (well, a really fantastic chapter IN the book, at least) in a wonderfully air-conditioned Barnes and Noble while drinking what has to be the most delicious tea on this here planet. (This one!)

(Well, one more thing — the most awesome article EVER was on CNN today. Here it is. And you thought that theoretical physics had no bearing on our day-to-day lives. There’s a 1 in 50 million chance that it will have substantial bearing on it! (I mean, I do find it at least a little disconcerting that the scientist actually laid odds on a global catastrophe rather than rejecting the very idea as ludicrous.))

We had our first monsoon storm of the season today.

Indeed, we’re sorta in the middle of it (lightening and wind, a bit of rain. keeping fingers crossed for much more rain.) and I’m going to go sit outside on my porch, in my lovely white rocking chair, and enjoy a bit of it.

:)

(Update: since I was sitting outside, I decided to let the cats go out if they wanted to and, of course, they did. Dusty immediately walked out beyond the covered portion of my porch and laid down and enjoyed being rained on. (Not kidding. At all.) Adele proceeded to dart out into the rain, stand perplexed for a couple of seconds, before darting back into the house. Then, when she noticed that Dusty and I were still outside, she again darted out, felt the rain, and darted back in. This was repeated at least 10 times. It’s still raining, but someone at the apartment complex a couple of houses down called an ambulance and so there are sirens and loud lights and such and so I retreated inside. Besides, it’s its own particular sort of bliss to be able to listen to rain as it falls on the roof.)

I’m quickly coming to the opinion that it would be AWESOME to teach a seminar on the Form of the Good.

You could begin by thinking about the nature of Forms.
Continue by thinking about Plato’s account of goodness (or good things, perhaps) in the dialogues.
And end the seminar thinking about what the Form of the Good might be (we’ve got some weird statements from Aristotle, the famous passage about Plato’s lecture on the Good from Aristoxenus, and a few other scattered references. Not to mention, of course, passages in the Platonic corpus).

I think that seminar would kick ass. And kick anyone’s ass who would (1) teach it or (2) take it. But. Still. It would be nice to get clearer on just what the Form of the Good might be. Wouldn’t it?

I got my haircut today! Whee!! And yay! It’s quite short and I no longer have hair that sits on the back of my neck. Hurrah! Some day I’ll write about my stylist, who is the most wonderful, snarky gay guy EVAR. And he gives a great cut, to boot! Hurrah! (No picture posted. I get a bit queasy having to look at my picture every time I visit the blog. I did post one on my flickr feed, though.)

The real purpose of the post isn’t to boast about my lovely haircut, but rather to talk about dinner. Dinner today was this:

A nice, basic, and COOL dinner of hummus with pita and cucumber. And that hummus right there (the one drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with cayenne)? Rocks. Worlds.

A quick recipe:
Two cans of garbanzo beans. Reserve the liquid from one of the cans.
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 t cayenne (more to taste)
1 T cumin
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves
juice from 1 lemon (more to taste)
4 T tahini
salt and pepper

Begin by blending the garbanzo beans, garlic, cumin, cayenne, and salt (healthy pinch) and pepper (to taste) in a food processor. Blend until pretty smooth. It’ll be quite dry at this point. Next add the lemon and tahini. Blend a bit. Then, as the food processor is on, add the oil. (Adding it as it’s blending will help it all emulsify.) At this point, take the reserved liquid from the garbanzo beans and use it to thin out the hummus to the consistency you want it. (Add a bit. Blend. Test. Add more. And so on.) At this point, taste it and see whether you want to add more (1) salt, (2) lemon, or (3) cayenne.

That’s it! The cayenne leaves just a bit of heat at the back of your throat and the cumin adds a smokey flavor.

The lovely thing about hummus is that it stores really well and can actually freeze quite nicely (for about a month). Oh, and it’s delicious, of course.

This made me laugh:

I guess they’re refinishing the floors of the racquetball courts at the rec center and so they’re closed for the time being. But…out of order? Can rooms that have nothing in them be out of order? (What would it mean for them to be in order?)

Well, apart from some smallish changes to the chapter, I think I’m pretty much done with that first chapter. I rewrote the section (on the theoretical education) that needed to be rewritten and I’ll spend today rereading and making sure things flow and such, but I think that’ll be it for that chapter for now. Instead of moving directly on to the next chapter, though, I think I’m going to spend the next week or so working on a paper that I hope to submit to a conference. That paper is already in draft form, so I just need to make some revisions, flesh out some footnotes, add citations, and, oh yeah, try to make the case for why this is a compelling project. I have a feeling that the revision process will involve a lot of rewriting, though, because that’s the way I roll.

I’d like to give several folks (beyond Julia and Rachana, who get drafts of stuff from me all the time) a copy of the paper and ask for comments, though, so I want the draft to be quite good.

So, the goal for the next couple of weeks (until I head out to Spokane for the 4th): clean up the draft of the paper that I’ve got so that it’s in quite polished form. Then email folks asking them to read it and for comments.

Second goal: find money tree.

That’s it! (Other than, still: HOT and poor and sewing and hanging out with friends.)