Nick's Livejournal Blog, which is often not about monkeys.
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Nick" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:33 pm
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Drunk with power
(11:33:55 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: Hey, does my IM status show up as the same as my Identica status?
(11:34:27 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: I mean, does it say something about bookmarking and print media becoming obsolete?
(11:40:29 AM) Wilson, Christine: yes, it does
(11:40:37 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: Sweet! Go Pidgin and Gwibber.
(11:45:19 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: My microblogging empire is nearly complete. *taps fingertips together and raises eyebrow while looking at a globe*
(11:45:44 AM) Wilson, Christine: ohboy....it’s only a matter of time before you become drunk on your own microblogging power
(11:46:16 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: Matter of time? Excuse me, I’ve already done the fingertips and eyebrow thing.
(11:46:41 AM) Wilson, Christine: meh, you’re just a little tipsy
(11:47:01 AM) Wilson, Christine: it’s only a matter of time before you’re totally wasted, puking all over yourself and blacking out
(11:47:14 AM) Wilson, Christine: not remembering what you did with all that power the previous night
(11:47:46 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: Oh man, I identica’d things I can’t even remember last night.
(11:48:37 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: I think I drunk Identica’d old girlfriends and wrote them dirty haikus.
(11:48:56 AM) Wilson, Christine: ROFL!
(11:51:38 AM) nckclrk@gmail.com/AF3D821D: I babbled on and on for almost 120 characters to this one girl I’m pretty sure I didn’t even know.
Tags: christine, drunk, identica, im, power
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07:52 pm
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If you're shopping for me...
http://amzn.com/w/W3QXDUEL5LYG
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02:31 pm
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Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary
(cross posted from my identi.ca account)
http://is.gd/4PKvB This literally made me salivate. I would spend $360 (if I had it) on this in a HEARTBEAT.
(end of cross posted portion)
What it is is the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary.
the biggest thesaurus ever and the world’s first historical thesaurus: It takes the enormity of the OED and arranges it thematically and chronologically. A glance at any page is a look at language evolution from Old English to the present, and it’s no less startling and amazing than watching sea slime slowly morph into monkeys and Neanderthals.
I believe it. And I want it. So bad. I’ve never been so avaricious. This is just too beautiful a thing not to own.
This is like the intellectual equivalent of a kitchen sink; you could live without it, but for $360, there’s really no reason not to have one.
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12:15 pm
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I love this thing.
This is simultaneously cute, sweet, and terribly effective. I love it, because it’s got all the great elements of a romantic comedy crammed into a few seconds, and it makes a solid political point in a way that’s easy for people to identify with.
It reminds me of this article from GOOD, which I initially read pretty skeptically; the take-away is that the increasing popularity of the expression “I love [something other than a human lover] so much I’d gay-marry it” indicates a wider acceptance of gay marriage. My first thought was that a person would proverbially gay-marry a delicious apricot because s/he saw the two prospects as equally realistic - that the expression reduces homosexual love to the kind of flippant fancy felt for flavorful fruit for example. One of the comments, helped me at least understand the author’s perspective;
Maybe to Gay Marry something brings attention to how badly you actually want it?
you have to want something bad enough, to fight for it, rally in the streets, and even oppose constitutional amendments for it!
The way romantic comedies, fairy tales, and the like really get hold of an audience is by showing you the passion and sacrifice that love is worth. While true love is absolutely worth knocking on the majority of doors in your country to ask permission, nobody in their right mind would actually require that kind of sacrifice of someone. That’s what makes it romantic. But think how much more romantic a grand gesture is when it isn’t the minimum requirement. If you rallied in the streets for that apricot, fought a constitutional amendment for it, without ever having had to, by gum you really like you an apricot.
All this is by way of saying that I think this little video is just brilliant.
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01:05 am
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Hey, I'm actually using that identica account
Well, I’ll be jiggered. Turns out for all my celebrating of freeing myself from the terse confines of the F***book “status” bar for the lush, luxurious pastures of verbosity afforded by good ol’ Livejournal, some of the stuff I like to internet-say are only a few words long. My point of course is that I’ve actually found myself using that identi.ca account I thought would just be a novelty. That’s me - nrlucre on that thing. Believe it or not, I think some of what goes there is actually interesting.
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07:52 pm
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Canvassers are OUT OF HAND.
There are so many canvassers (“clipboards” as I sometimes call them) around the UDC-DCSL campus that setting foot outside the building is often best avoided. I can see why people feel like walking and public transit are for losers when we have to deal with this.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Two days ago, as I waited for a bus, attempting to text for arrival times from NextBus with one hand, while working a crossword with the other, a canvasser came up to me, asked me whether I’d like to hear about her cause, but launched into a spiel without pausing to give me an opportunity to say “no”. After having initially begun to put my things aside to interact with her, I went back to them as soon as it became clear she wasn’t going to give me an opportunity to say no. If I hadn’t been able to communicate my disinterest before, perhaps it would come across now. Well it did, and eventually she said “are you interested” to which I simply replied “no”.
Well, she was upset that I “could have just said ‘no’ in the first place” (exactly what I would have done if I could have) and “didn’t have to just ignore” her (exactly what I wound up having to do). It ruined my day, and probably hers.
I was marked by five more canvassers that day near UDC-DCSL. One of them twice.
Was there a better way around this? A way that makes human scale urban community living advantageous over automotive suburban distance?
Hopefully.
WHAT I HOPE IS A BETTER THING TO DO:
I made some cards to hand out to prattling clipboards (preferrably pre-prattle). The idea is to acknowledge the importance of spreading awareness of important causes, and to make sure that the interest in polite and respectful urban interactions is given primacy. The text of the cards, for those of you who don’t wish to download it:
In the interest of civility & expediency, please know that I do not commit to charitable contributions during face-to-face encounters. In exchange for the courtesy of this understanding, I solemnly promise to carefully consider & evaluate materials & web addresses you offer quickly and quietly.
After handing out a few, perhaps the big symbol can be worn as a badge to make what is essentially a contractual agreement (don't make any decision about your rights on the basis of this statement - it is not intended as legal advice; seek advice from your local bar association or other legal professional) clear to the canvassers. The point is not to act in any way anti-canvasser, but to make the whole process more humane by offering the canvassers what they want (serious consideration of their materials and more notoriety for their cause) in exchange for their part in making the sidewalks more courteous places.
Tags: canvassers, cards, clipboards, courtesy, udc, urbanism
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01:27 pm
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Trains between IC and CR are not "light rail"
I’m definitely into the idea of using the CRANDIC trackage between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City for regular passenger service. But it bugs me that whenever the idea is discussed, it’s described by Iowans as “light rail”. For heaven’s sake, people, “light rail” describes vehicles like streetcars, not the sort of things that can share tracks (there is one special exception in New Jersey where Light Rail Vehicles travel briefly on heavy rail tracks, but it’s generally impractical as well as illegal) with freight trains.
Helpful chart:
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02:20 pm
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Do I love this thing‽ You bet.
Guess what everyone: did you know you don’t actually have to type a series of alternating question marks and exclamation points any longer to punctuate incredulity‽
Interrobang is the name of this little guy: ‽
Cut and paste ‘im, or, according to Wikipedia, “it is at Unicode code point U+203D. It can be used in HTML and XML documents with ‽ or ‽. the Interrobang can be used in some word processors with the alt code ALT+8253”.
Is this great or what‽
How much do you love this li’l piece of punctuation‽
Is this the punctuation equivalent of “WTF”‽
(The article I link to above says as much)
What, aren’t you going to go and use this yourself several times now‽
(I beg anyone reading this to use interrobangs at least twice online this week.)
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09:26 am
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That last entry got me in trouble
I deleted it, but it was a link to a social networking site that’s based on the Open Source “Ruby on Rails”. I won’t name it again, for fear of inviting more unpleasant spammish comments, but the site looks good, even if mentioning it elsewhere doesn’t. I got three comments in Japanese, one of which was something to do with florists, and one in English.
In any case, it looks like less of an awful thing to use than Facebook, and I have a profile up there.
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07:28 pm
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"Not marrying until everyone can marry" is self congratulatory BS
Ordinarily I would post a somewhat incendiary, somewhat personal rant like this “friends only,” but I think this is important, and frankly, I hope people do see it.
You’re a “solidarity single”, shall we say; in a straight relationship and refusing to get married “until everyone can get married”.
Bullshit.
ESPECIALLY if you’re pointing it out in situations where it only kinda makes sense to bring it up;
•You are USING INEQUALITY to make yourself feel special.
•You are making involvement in the struggle for marriage equality uncomfortable for folks in opposite-sex civil marriages.
•You are NOT ACCOMPLISHING ANY DAMN THING. (Unless the conservative wingnuts who don’t want marriage equality suddenly started to care if a few hippie lefties opt not to get straight-married).
While the vote of solidarity might mean something to some folks who aren’t permitted to civil-marry their significant others, the choice comes, ultimately, more from a position of privilege than of solidarity, and cheapens the struggle for marriage equality.
-The choice of an opposite-sex couple not to civil marry is. . . a CHOICE.
•Doesn’t treating civil marriage as something you can live without defeat the point? If the straights can go without civil marriage, what the hell are the gays complaining about?
•By counterexample, my wife and I eloped because she would not have been able to go to college if we hadn’t. We love each other very much, and would have married eventually anyway, but I know it’s this kind of necessity that should be available to same sex couples that the “solidarity singles” (in my experience) are privileged not to face. Furthermore (while saying this feels a bit like stooping to the level of a same-sex-solidarity-pissing-contest, which is essentially exactly what I’m criticizing), my wife and I are the birth parents of a beautiful young man with two open-adoptive fathers: the desire for these dear and special friends to have the option to enter a civil marriage, and for my child to know that his two dads’ relationship is legally considered as valid as his birth-parents’ gives me a pretty intimate connection to this issue. I would venture to say it’s invested my wife and I with a dearer personal stake in the issue than if we had fabricated some restriction on our relationship.
Finally, do you even know what you mean when you say “We’re not getting married until everyone can get married.”?
A) Do you mean when same sex marriage is permitted in your state?
B) Do you mean when DOMA is repealed?
C) Do you mean both A & B?
D) Do you mean when every state recognizes same sex marriage?
E) Do you mean when every state permits same sex marriage?
F) Do you mean some combination of the above?
G) Do you mean when same sex marriage is permitted in every country?
H) Do you mean all of the above AND when committed, serious polygamous marriages are civilly recognized? I happen to think that committed, loving, valuable polygamous relationships are possible, and deserve legal recognition, but this is the kind of thing that creates the slippery slope the conservative wingnuts are afraid of.
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02:19 pm
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"the Gay Divorce Fandango"
From here:
If a man has a husband in Iowa, he might take a wife in Texas without being charged with bigamy. If a married couple from Connecticut has an accident in the Lone Star State, a woman could be barred from her wife’s hospital bedside because she isn’t family.
Texas could become a safe haven for the gay deadbeat dad who empties the joint account in Vermont and runs out on his husband and kids.
Texas, is your public policy against gay people in committed relationships really important enough to warrant this?
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12:01 am
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Dear Me, this is awfully neat.
This is a pinhole camera. Make it, use it, be awesome.
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04:42 pm
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Today's "GOOD" invention: A "love me for myself" drug.
Once again, GOOD’s goofy invention has proven amusing and, this time, perhaps even a tiny bit poignant.
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05:15 pm
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Link-a-rama
I’m not sure where the “O-Rama” ending to describe celebrations actually comes from.
But.
Awright,
Here’s a few links to stuff I think that piqued my interest, and that are internet links:
( The first few are only interesting if you're into cycling or planning advocacy. )
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A fun essay on why and how food is sexy, with a list of sexy food films and books (e.g. Tampopo).
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Duh, don’t throw a thing away, use it for another thing.
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Choose your own apocalypse.
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What’s cheaper than a hostel? Sleeping in airports.
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Duh, this is what escalators were made for.
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Good seems to have a series where slightly famous people show up and describe their ideas for stupid inventions. Here is one of the few of these I’ve actually found amusing.
Current Music: Mur Lafferty - 12. War 12 - Heaven - Season Five: War
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10:37 pm
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WOW, holy hot damn, hotmail.
I thought getting rid of a facebook was hard until I tried getting rid of a hotmail / MS Live account. I deserve a medal if I pull this off, which apparently requires a bare minimum of FOUR MONTHS inactivity on your account. Again, the difficulty in closing an account convinces me that I really don’t want that entity having access to the information about me that it does. Oy Gevalt, hotmail.
Current Music: TV on the Radio - The Wrong Way
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08:24 pm
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I wonder if this ever would have surprised me...
This reminds me of this. Spanking once or twice in a kid’s life might be fair way to communicate the boundlessness of the parent’s disappointment, but if a parent spends all that much time being disappointed, that’s a problem no amount of whacking a kid’s backside can improve.
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01:05 am
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Velocitweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!!!!!
This is awesome. This is something I want. Badly. To happen. In D.C.
It’s a Tweed Ride. Arising in part from frustration with the popular equation of cycles with spandex (a mild peeve of my own), it’s mostly about foppish, courteous fun, and that is something I heartily endorse.
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07:11 pm
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Save the DC Youth Court
( forwarded from Joe Libertelli )
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09:07 am
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An old frustration, but I think it's valid
Dear everyplace that serves hot chocolate; if it said “ReddiWhip instant marshmallows” on the can, I could see putting it on a drink. It doesn’t, so don’t. You literally make me sick.
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01:25 pm
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Tape Exchanges time.
Realizing as I do that relatively few people will actually see this, tell your friends.
I want to do a tape exchange.
It goes like this.
Let me know you’re interested.
I’ll let you know who to make a tape for.
Put together a mixtape. Make it good. Don’t feel obligated to use actual “audio-tape,” which has ceased to exist outside of my bedroom, I think.
I’ll try to make sure everyone has a way to get all their stuff to the other person.
All done!
Current Music: Not playing
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