| Baseball is a Game |
[May. 15th, 2008|09:19 am] |
I never blog about sports.
Last night in Baltimore, Manny Ramirez, star slugger and outfielder for our beloved Boston Red Sox, ran full tilt to catch a bouncing double. He made a spectacular catch, and then he used his momentum to JUMP UP ON THE WALL AND HIGH-FIVE A BOSTON FAN. He then landed, turned, and threw the ball in field to COMPLETE A DOUBLE PLAY and end the inning.
That's bliss.
That's joy on toast.
That's what life should be like, all the time.
(Video Link)
Boston lost the game, but it's almost worth it... |
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| Orange You Glad to Be Alive? |
[May. 13th, 2008|10:25 am] |
"Don't do it Bob! You've got so much to live for! Nooooooo!"
(Thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) exoterica for sharing the pic!) |
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| Rejection |
[May. 12th, 2008|10:31 am] |
When other people reject us or judge us, they are responding to something within themselves: some part of themselves that is not compatible with something we have done. It has as much to do with them as it has to do with us.
When other people adore us, or approve of us, the same rule holds.
I can not define my value based on how worthy I am in other people's eyes. That road leads to madness! I must define my value based on my own evaluation of myself.
When I am judged or rejected, I should certainly listen for advice or ideas that might help me become a better person, but I must discard the excess.
If I take their rejection personally, then I am listening too closely to something that largely comes from their own insecurities or ideas about the world. This is the key to loving someone who dislikes me: recognizing that their dislike is fundamentally a part of the box they live in, not a true reflection of my worth. When two personalities struggle with various incompatibilities, it is not the "fault" of either; one person is not more worthy of love than the other.
Similarly, when I am adored or appreciated, I should certainly enjoy the love and affirmation and listen for clues about how to grow as a positive force in the universe... but if you like me, you like me because some of my qualities fit well with your story.
I must not let approval be my lifeline, I must not depend on love to tell me I am good or dislike to tell me I am bad. These responses are not the road... they are but road signs where our two stories intersect. |
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| Moms |
[May. 11th, 2008|03:58 pm] |
I'm bad at long-distance relationships. I love my mother and father and my siblings desperately, but I am very poor at maintaining our connection over distance.
But I DID call my mom on Mother's Day.
And so should you.
CALL YOUR MOM.
Your mom, like mine in this picture, is waiting for your call!
(Your mom probably does not have as cool a phone as my awesome mom. Sorry.) |
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| Graffiti |
[May. 10th, 2008|01:16 pm] |
On the train to New Yorker, Jana and I read the New York.
If you look carefully, you can see that beyond the magazine, on the seat in front of us, is some graffiti.
Here's the graffiti up close:
For those who need translation: someone scrawled the usual suggestion, and later someone else crossed it off and wrote in, "Think in Kindness."
Needless to say, the writing made me happy for the whole trip. The world has plenty of dark corners, but a little light goes a long way.
Think in Kindness,
-Douglas |
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| Amulets |
[May. 8th, 2008|01:51 pm] |
Between the ages of 14 and 16, amulets were cool. I collected stuff that I could wear around my neck.
My parents recently sent me what remains of my collection, along with my collection of buttons.
I took some pictures.
I intended to write some deep, meaningful, nostalgia-laden post about them.
But nothing is coming to mind.
Except that these amulets REVEAL THE DEPTHS OF MY AWESOME SOUL!!1!
You can peek at the rest of the pictures on my flickr stream. Have a nice day. |
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| NYC Has Changed |
[May. 7th, 2008|04:54 pm] |
I am in New York City.
Looks different than I remember.
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| Battle Planning Pie Chart |
[May. 5th, 2008|05:05 pm] |
(Yeah, I made this one, too. Still refining my craft...) |
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| Weather |
[May. 2nd, 2008|09:39 am] |
It snowed on Tuesday.
And this morning, May 2nd, 2008, we had frost on the windshields.
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| IRON-E |
[May. 2nd, 2008|07:54 am] |
This is funny. And so sad. Quoting directly from Engadget:
"Need some irony with your angst-battered diet this morning? Swell, try some of this. Disney and Pixar are set to release their latest animated blockbuster, WALL-E, this summer.
The premise of the film finds WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class) cleaning up the Earth's trash after rampant, unchecked consumerism made the planet uninhabitable.
So how do they promote the film? You got it, they launch a new line of plastic WALL-E robots developed in partnership with Thinkway Toys which no child could possibly live without.
Ultimate WALL-E will list for $190 when launched sometime this summer and feature 10 motors, a remote control, and plenty of sensors to avoid obstacles, respond to touch, and feel the mocking satire of its own existence. The bot will be joined by a $25 iDance WALL-E (think i-Species) and a $40 WowWee FlyTech Tinker Bell when they make their May 29th debut in San Mateo at the Maker Faire."
[end quote, back to Douglas]
See... if the WALL-E robots actually did something useful, and if they were durable and long-lasting and easily hacked, I probably wouldn't mind so much. (Actually, I'd probably want one!) But I have a sneaking suspicion that a million plastic WALL-E robots are going to be filling landfills in about two years, tops... rendering ludicrous one of the key messages of the film.
Oh Mother Earth, we have made you a MILF.
*sigh* |
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| My First Career |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|10:58 pm] |
When we were young, we sent away for these. (All three of us had them, I believe, along with a membership card!) Prized possessions, the very ultimate cool. My brother was a bigger fan than I, so if this is the last surviving, it should probably be his. But last week my parents discovered and sent me my secret collection: An Apple pin from a Toronto convention dad took me to when I was 12, a pin I won from Mrs. Godfrey on Michigan's sesquicentennial, several Michael Jackson pins and one Def Leppard, a half dozen other pins from career fairs, garage sales, etc., and proof that I was once an Intergalactic Crime Fighter.
And you know what they say. Once an Intergalactic Crime Fighter, always an Intergalactic Crime Fighter. |
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| Trod a Deep and Surly Path |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|03:01 pm] |
I am in a dark, bricked up room underneath Winooski, repeating phrases into a microphone over and over again with different inflections.
I look over to the right, towards the door, and see something odd.
What could that strange panel be?
I take a closer look.
There is little in the world as awesome. I particularly like that the word "TROUBLE" is faded and worn from time.
When I am finished recording the audio for the pam01 video, I attempt to backup the Captivate file onto the server over the wireless. Seeing as I am quite literally below Winooski, it doesn't work. Probably because the wireless connection keeps dropping. But Windows XP gives me a really lovely alternative explanation:
Ladies and gentleman...
may all your paths be too deep!
With love,
Douglas |
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| An Oldie, But a Goody |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|09:08 am] |
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[Apr. 28th, 2008|11:10 pm] |
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Why is wet hair sexy? |
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| The Last Patch |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|02:49 pm] |
My dad is a funny guy.
When the Beagley clan went on early-spring treks in the woods, my dad would occasionally stop suddenly in his tracks, his mouth would drop open, his eyes would grow wide, and he would point to something like this:
He would gasp, and then proclaim: "There it is! The fabled LAST PATCH OF SNOW! This is the last patch of snow in all the land!"
The Beagley children would oooh and aaah. And sometimes we would make the courageous fabled, "last snow ball of the season" and so forth. And my dad would take pictures, and we would all treat the occasion with some joyous solemnity. And if, an hour later, we passed another LAST PATCH OF SNOW, well, there was no harm in replaying the ceremony...
Even when we got to the teenage years, our cynical and sarcastic selves could not help but occasionally play along. And after all, how were we to know if indeed, perhaps, we really were standing next to the LAST PATCH OF SNOW... at least for our relative latitude? Sometimes, we may have been right.
I took the above picture in front of my workplace with my iPhone. Many, many plows had built up that patch of snow, construction trucks had driven over it and packed it down, and as you can see it is melting on top of a sheet of plywood, which seems to have (oddly) helped it survive. The area is only in the sunlight early in the morning, as in this picture.
It melted away this past week, however. It may have indeed been the last. patch. of. snow. A moment of silence, please.
*sighs dramatically*
Happy spring, everyone,
Douglas
p.s.
Reader cest_la_vie may want to compare the buildings in a photo in her recent post to this photo... |
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| American Media Consumer Geek |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|01:50 pm] |
So,
- Iron Man: May 2nd
- The Fall: May 9th
- Chronicles of Narnia: May 16th
- Indiana Jones: May 22nd
- The Happening: June 13th
- The Incredible Hulk: June 13th
- Wanted: June 27th
- Wall-E: June 27th
- Hancock: July 2nd
- Hellboy II: July 11th
- Batman: July 18th
- X-Files: July 25th
( click here to see the math ) |
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[Apr. 23rd, 2008|04:23 pm] |
When you are dreaming, you can kiss anyone you want.
I think everyone should take advantage of this. You never know what you might learn.
Just don't forget to stop when you wake up. |
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| Quickie on Hybrids |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|04:35 pm] |
Some pleasant numbers today...
Total auto sales in the U.S. declined by 3% in 2007.
But sales of hybrids rose 38%.
(source)
I know the verdict is still out on how environmentally-friendly the hybrids will really end up being, but I thought that little tidbit was pretty encouraging.
-d |
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| I'm Catching Up |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|08:40 am] |
...draw your own conclusions. |
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| Improvement |
[Apr. 18th, 2008|11:37 am] |
This one is dedicated to a friend. You know who you are.
( Cut for Your Co-Workers ) |
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| More Great Art |
[Apr. 16th, 2008|02:00 pm] |
Recently, at breakfast, I claimed that I had very little artistic ability, but I could draw stick figures pretty well.
To illustrate this point, I drew the best stick figure I possibly could.
This turned out to be a pretty good stick figure.
(larger)
Then, when our food arrived, I informed narfnitsirk that I wanted to try her blueberry pancakes. She looked me in the eyes and said, "How does it feel to want?" So I added that brilliant and scintillating line of dialogue to my work of art.
narfnitsirk was wearing a necklace that featured large, red, round balls. It is quite eye-catching... and let's be honest-- boys like big round things, so it was probably very sexy in some subconscious way to which I was immune.
So, when I next drew an overhead map of Doughboy's, the wonderful greasy diner in which we were eating our breakfast, I included a close-up schematic of her necklace, as visible above.
After breakfast, we walked to Breugher's Bagels to work on our novels. Along the way, I met this man:
(larger)
And I asked him, "How does it feel to want?"
The end.
-d
p.s.
Actually, I asked him if I could take his picture, because he is clearly awesome. He said yes. |
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| Great Art |
[Apr. 15th, 2008|02:57 pm] |
My father found this while cleaning out a filing cabinet:
He wrote my brother, sister, and I an e-mail asking who drew it.
It was like a lightning bolt to my brain. Not only do I remember drawing it, but I can remember moving my pencil along specific parts. I remember stealing the idea of a "diagonal" picture from a magazine photo or some other piece of art that I thought was cool. I can remember talking to my mom about the background. I remember being thrilled with how the pockets and the cape turned out. I can remember deciding to add the spokes to the little circles on his shirt but then worrying that they looked a little too much like a kind of pasta. I can remember being very proud of this picture.
And clearly I still am.
Scary magician dude totally rules!! Look upon him in awe!
And look at that deck of cards, the ruffles on the clothes, etc. Clearly I was a pretty detail-oriented tyke. Maybe I should quit my job and go to art school! Create art all day long!
Oh, wait, that's right... this is what some of my fellow colleagues spent the afternoon doing at PCC recently:
The above is a great example of the kind of hard work we do at PCC.
So maybe I'm already at art school. "Hello Kitteh" art school.
Oh, that wily, wily kitteh. Will she ever stop being so cute? |
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| Taxes 2008 |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|10:19 pm] |
I finished my taxes.
A whole 25 hours early!
As usual, I vastly prefer the Federal forms. Honestly, I'm half tempted to go ask for a job improving the layout, design, and instructions on the Vermont State tax forms. I would completely reformat them. They are ugly, difficult to read, and the instructions do a horrible job of explaining whether or not you should do certain forms. Vital information appears underneath inessential information, the Homestead form is filled with a bunch of nonsense, instructions are difficult to find in the book, and etc. and so forth. I recognize that it would be a massive undertaking to rewrite the forms and the booklet properly-- I am not saying it would be an easy job. But I sure wish it were MY job. I think it would be really fun.
Okay, taxes suck.
In recompense for mentioning them, here is some really yummy homemade pizza that we made for a Writer's Potluck a few weeks ago:
Mmmm. Garlicky goodness.
For those of you who are curious, I intend to mail my taxes in Burlington at about 11pm tomorrow. |
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| Snow and Mocha |
[Apr. 13th, 2008|12:17 pm] |
It is Sunday, April 13th, and in Vermont the snow is falling.
It started as just a few flakes, but now it is really flying. I doubt it will stick to the ground, but it is pretty bizarre anyway. I was outside with just a t-shirt last week.
It is definitely time for warm mocha with a warm friend...
(Since today is too busy for such things, I will have to content myself with a photo.) |
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| Protest Pics |
[Apr. 13th, 2008|12:01 pm] |
If nothing else, a war protest is a moment of solidarity—solidarity in grief, solidarity in anger, and solidarity in hope.
We might not change the world today, but sometimes it is enough that we come together and share our grief, our anger, and our hope.
That's what this was about, for me.
( More Pretty Good Protest Pictures )
All Together Now...
Even with recession threatening, we are all very comfortable, comparatively.
Enjoy life, eat the fruit with which you are blessed, but don't ever forget what's really going on. |
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