Big Fonts, Small Minds: Andrea Jones-Rooy and the APSA 2010 Experience

Prepare to be Dazzled!

A Diversion, Dear Readers!

Dear Friends!

I come to you, poring over the Internet, and a spoonful of Raw Almond Butter, with the following invitation to EXPRESS YOUR OPINIONS to Strangers! You, too, can answer questions about Raw and Vegan THINGS.

Rule 1: I like surveys

Rule 2: I am forever against the abbreviation of the word "vegetable" to "veggies"

**Bonus Rule 3**: Go ahead, take this survey, and vote for Pure Food and Wine for Best Restaurant, Mighty-O for best vegan bakery, Sarma Melngailis for best vegan chef, and Vancouver for best vegan International city! Now you are an informed voter.

Or, please COMMENT HERE and correct Yours Truly! For I am but a humble servant.

The end! Except, the beginning:

Take the "Veggie Awards" Survey Here.

P.S. Bonus Bonus Bonus that is not actually a Bonus: I will not reveal for whom I voted for best national vegan city. One reason is that I don't remember. The other is that, no matter what upon which I settled, said settling caused Much torment.

oh, Hark! The innocent days of Ice and High Speed

Dear Readers!

Yours Truly has a Hobby! Yes, a HOOOOBBBBBBYY. That looks like it says "hooby", which, for the record, is different.

The hobby is, after it has Snowed and there is Snow on one's Car, scrape off only the windows, and leave all other snow piled on top of it -- the hood, the roof, the sailboat you carry behind it, etc.

Then, drive at high speeds and enjoy the snow Rrrripping off the car in a giant cloud of danger!

More to the point: It is not that dangerous (don't tell Yours Truly otherwise), and it makes you feel like you are living a high school physics experiment. On ... erm... wind ... and Force! Wind and force, sir!

Ode to Myself

Traveling is my favorite thing in the entire Universe, or at least in the Parts that I've Seen.

In addition, today is the Anniversary +1 Day of the tag to this entry that is not the one that says "very good". Imagine -- if we had settled on a different calendar, we could have had more or fewer anniversaries. Or, perhaps we'd have devised a way never to have them at All.

How would we commemorate things that happened before? Maybe whenever we felt like it.

Some Days I am Organized. Some Days I work well under Pressure. Other Days, I Despise My Team Members.

Earlier This Week, Yours Truly overheard a Woman in a Café participating in an event that very exactly approximated a Job Interview. Your Fearless Leader overheard her proclaim about herself that she had a "dynamic skill set."

Your Leader wonders: does this mean that what she is good at changes?

If Anyone Reading This is a Character Developer for Heroes (if that show is still on), Yours Truly has three words for you:

You

Are

Welcome!

Another Day in Altruism City

Dear Readers!

Yours Truly is currently sitting in a Café next to a Person wearing a Stanford T-Shirt. Someone just walked up to him and exclaimed, "Stanford, Michigan?!"

The original Person said, "No, the school ... in California." There ensued a Horrible Pause, as Nobody Could Tell who was Joking.

Graciously, Your Fearless Leader coughed and Cleared the Air of Awkward Demons.

{fín}

Red Meat Causes and Is Caused by Death!

I've said it before, I said it again (and again), but now I never need to say it again: "Daily Red Meat Raises Chance of Dying Early."

And not only that, but the meat is worse if you:

Cook it
or
Process it.

AND: It destroys the environment.

End of discussion. Good day, gentlemen!

the public services

This article (from 1990!) discusses a lot of that about which I wish we in the social sciences thought a bit more -- or at least remembered before we embarked on a study.  (It also reminds me why I really like the work my advisors do.)  

I often think that the social ones are most hubristic of the sciences.  Indeed, the motivation for the work taken up by psychology, political science, economics (etc) is (supposedly) to understand and improve ourselves and our living conditions.  Frequently, I find this a source of profound dissatisfaction with my chosen field of study.

But, it's difficult to think of any science -- the biologies, the chemistries -- as anything more than another version of selfish pursuit.  While in these the goal is to understand the non-human elements of the universe, the understanding we seek is similarly usually for our own advancement [link to bunnies with bleeding eyes here]*.  

We debate the "unselfish good deed" endlessly.  Perhaps we ought also to wonder of the "unselfish curiosity".

(I may have just given the physicists even more ego than they already have.  But even their work is selfish if you consider that we'll all have to end up on Mars anyway.)

*you're welcome.

Perfect Storm of Human Excellence

It's a collision of Olympics and Del Close and Your Fearless Leader is wildly overwhelmed by these things in which she is already unhealthily interested.  Among all the fanfare, I am  currently most obsessed with Becky Kim, and you should be, too.

But think about it!  Improv is thrilling because it's among the most raw and truthful human behavior one can observe.  As for synchro, as Steven Strogatz, another person with whom everyone ought to be obsessed, puts it: "in its most refined form, persistent synchronization can be spectacular" (SYNC, p. 2).  Thus, in one weekend we celebrate two intensely impressive feats of people in groups.

Thus, the intersection of one of the biggest weeks in synchronized swimming and one of the biggest weeks in Improv calls for something special.  Something REALLY special.  And that is ... the one and only Truly Reminiscent moment that will ever appear on this blog (we operate in a spirit of presentism over here, friends.  For more on that subject, read this book.  Incidentally, it was written by my undergraduate dance teacher's mother.  It's also set in China, so there's some Olympic Spirit for you).

On to the Truly Reminiscent:

Once in a synchronized swimming workshop at Michigan a prominent coach came and for an exercise had us do 15 minutes of Improvised Synchronized Swimming.  She played music and told us to do whatever "moved us". We all scattered around the pool and did random things until she turned off the music.  Most of us felt ridiculous, but trusted that she knew what she was doing.  I remember spending a lot of time underwater (they can't see you there).  Finally it ended.  She looked at us blankly, paused, then started talking about something else.  No one ever mentioned it again.

This means worlds shouldn't collide.  That's why Olympics and DCM are stressful.  That's also why I'm intensely grateful the Zebra F-301 Enthusiasts' Summer Spectacular was mercifully scheduled for the week after next.

Your attention please

First, a review of the headlines for your fancy:

1. This article is important for obvious reasons: The US Government is, unsurprisingly, but still terrifyingly, a propaganda machine.
2. This article is important for less obvious but far more fundamental and far-reaching reasons: Some languages don't have different words for the color blue and the color green!

Second, two acts of self-indulgence: the first, a Miserable Observation; the second, a Triumphant Announcement:

1. Today is day 22 of the 30-day Hot Yoga Challenge and Andrea is verrry sick of it.
2. Daystallion will be competing in Cage Match at UCB on Thursday, May 29!

Third, one complaint:

1. I had the misfortune of watching "The View" for several minutes on a television in a lobby today. The subject for the day was "hot topics". They spent 1 minute on the election, where, in addition to announcing to everyone that, yes, the war in Iraq is still going on, they made clear the general fact that the economy is bad. As quickly as the subject came up, it was abandoned. The rest of the conversation was dedicated to the issue of Kristi Yamaguchi as a cast member in "Dancing with the Stars." I do not know what the point of "The View" is actually supposed to be, so my reaction may be wholly misguided, but I essentially found the experience entirely disheartening.

Fourth, one truth:

1. Selectively and sparingly used, the placement of an exclamation point instead of a question mark at the end of a statement that is undeniably interrogative can be masterful.

Fifth, a first installment of our new series, dear readers, of An Eye For An Eye*:

1. Today I watched someone who normally puts people on hold get put on hold.

Sixth, a review, in order, of all the numbers used in this entry:

1. 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 22, 30, 2, 29, 3, 1, 1, 4, 1, 5, 1, 6, 1
   

*working title.

Formative!

Every paper I've ever read -- or even so much as looked at the title of -- by Brian Arthur is one that I wish I had written.

New Experience 1: Running into an old friend on the street and up and going for a drink right then and there. That shit only happens in movies.

New Experience 2: Running a giant q-tip around my mouth alongside 2 other people doing the same, while a perfect stranger counted us on. Then doing it again.

New Experience 3: The Deconstruction form in longform improv. Beautiful, hilarious, insightful. What more could you want?

wings and wheat

New Experience 1: "Trivia Night" (TM) at a Hooter's in New Jersey. I went with my improv team last night. Verdict? Excellent. Daystallion came in a proud third place! (against a crowd of 99% frat boys on their home "turf", mind you.) Most common categories of questions? "Sports", "Comics", "Music", "TV", and "Entertainment". What is "entertainment" if not "sports, comics, music, or TV", you ask? I don't know, either.

(For you raw enthusiasts, take note, you can get an entire plate of celery at Hooter's for 69 cents!)

Lest I leave you, dear readers, out of the fun: What were the first four flavors of absolut vodka? Where do the Mets go for Spring Training? What city is hosting the Final Four next year? I am now the proud owner of answers to all of those questions. Test yourselves!

New Experience 2: Wheatgrass shot. Verdict? Completely vile. Even though I expected it to be not that great, it was still a shock how vicious it was. I'll probably have another tomorrow. (Self-challenges are the secret to my success!)

Truth For The Day: Standing in a shower where the drain is blocked so the tub fills up a little feels a lot more disgusting than it really rationally should.

Finally, I ended up watching When Dinosaurs Roamed America the other night. It was disappointing at best, and pretty much portrayed evolution as magic.

maladroit

New Experience of the Day 1: I'm in a syllabus!! Page 7, friends.

Granted, it is an unpublished manuscript. Hell if I know how those unlucky undergraduates will get ahold of that. Short of using Google, that is.

I went to see one of my favorite improvisers do stand-up today. I had every intention of standing anonymously in the back and disappearing right away afterward so that I wouldn't look like a groupie. Alas, as luck would have it I was one of approximately four others in the audience. Needless to say, a 1-to-1 comedian-to-audience member ratio means no standing in the back and no anonymity. That's all well and good, and it ended up being lovely, but the trick of it is that the only way I could have known about the stand-up event at all was by reading his blog. That day.

In my defense, your Honor, I am a graduate student. My job is to read things on the internet.

Later I went to Harold Night at UCB for the first time since October, thus making this the first Tuesday I have been in New York for 4 months. That is perhaps the least impressive statistic in the world right now.

Suggestivity

An article on semicolons! Who says there's no good news in the paper anymore?