Sometimes you just gotta wonder how our species survives.

I have to eat or I feel bad fast, why? | Ask MetaFilter

top THIS!

to be fair, I'm sitting right next to the signal repeater.

2nd floor of the student union

I'm sitting in the union, not getting much of anything done. 2 apparently homeless people in the same lounge area, sleeping. One other student. I'm supposed to be writing a paper on the history and future of transportation planning in Milwaukee. It's not exactly difficult, but it has that lack of urgency about it. Besides, I prefer wasting time here than at home. At home, I'd think I should be doing the laundry/cleaning the kitchen/vacuuming or whatever. Or I'd get annoyed that the bf wasn't doing it.

He got all philosophical on me last night, talking about Nietzsche (pause for spellcheck...). It just sounded like Buddhism to me, basically. I know that Buddhism and existentialism are not the same thing, but the parts my BF was referencing sounded very similar. He even said "Maybe I'm a Buddhist" last night and I had to laugh. I wasn't trying to convert him, honestly.

It seems like almost every guy I've known has gone through this trajectory of materialism to spiritual crisis to finally realizing that relationships are the only thing that matter. Some guys get there in their 20s and become poets. Some guys don't get it until their 50s. Mine is getting it at 36, and I knew this moment would come, which is why I've stuck around to this point. After this point, guys are awesome creatures. Prior to it, they're really only good for hot sex and lifting heavy things.

further asshattery

There have been 23 armed robberies in the last 30 days near campus. How come I didn't get an urgent e-mail about THAT?

Followup: they sent one out today, titled "Campus Security Update." An excerpt: "If you see someone who makes you feel uncomfortable, leave the area immediately." Thanks. That's helpful.

sheer asshattery

Less than 10 days after the Virginia Tech massacre, I get an e-mail in my school account with the subject Urgent News Affecting ALL UWM STUDENTS!

Upon reading just the subject line, I was ready to dive under a desk. I fully expected to hear gunshots, or smell smoke.

Instead, the e-mail was about the potential revision of the student non-academic misconduct policy to include punishment for illegal behavior off-campus, and asked us to voice our opinions on a Web site and at a forum on May 7. This is not "urgent." This is not even important to anyone who doesn't break the law. Furthermore, I highly doubt the e-mail is even true. "If some of the proposed changes go though, you could be kicked out of school because of a noise violation or drinking ticket." If that were so, we'd be devoid of half of our undergraduate population in about a year or so.

I wrote the sender back, but I also want to call her out here. Samantha Prahl, President of the Student Association at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, you are officially an asshat.

Flayed

flay (flā) pronunciation
tr.v., flayed, flay·ing, flays.

1. To strip off the skin or outer covering of.
2. To strip of money or goods; fleece.
3. To whip or lash.
4. To assail with stinging criticism; excoriate.

If this were Livejournal, this would be my mood at the moment.



I think this is only funny because I'm taking Transportation Planning this semester.

3 more weeks..... 3 more weeks.... *sigh*



If you want me to vote for you, you have to be able to spell.

This is on a college campus, FFS. Directly outside the library, fercryinoutloud.

A dozen dead roses on someones front lawn. Taken in the rain, while walking

I check Woot every once in awhile, and I'm fascinated by the culture of the forums. Many posters detail everything they've ever bought from the site in their signature, like this guy. It's like they're bragging about winning a competition or something. I feel like next time I go to Target, I should wear a T-shirt stating what I bought on my last trip:

2 - Colgate Toothpaste
2 - 4 pack Cottonelle
4 - pair of white tube socks
1 - pair of silver hoop earrings
1 - rust orange henley shirt (size XS)
1 - 64 oz bottle of Tide (Mountain Fresh scent)
1 - 12 pack Coca Cola

A Brief History of the Apocalypse

This is a fascinating site about all the times the world was supposed to end... and didn't. An example:

Lotharingian computists foresaw the End on Friday, March 25, 970, when the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day. They believed that it was on this day that Adam was created, Isaac was sacrificed, the Red Sea was parted, Jesus was conceived, and Jesus was crucified. Therefore, it naturally followed that the End must occur on this day!

A Brief History of the Apocalypse

I extend my heartfelt condolences to all those affected by the VA Tech tragedy yesterday. I hope the victims and family members are able to find peace. I hope all of us are able to reflect on the fleeting nature of life itself, and to make the most of our time while we still have it.

Our song...

Snow Patrol, "Chasing Cars"

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words,
are said too much
they're not enough
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars

Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes
They're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things
Will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Why I'm not an architect



Fuckin' around with Google Sketchup.

Why Geeks Make Good Lovers

This article is definitely true in my experience. My geek doesn't stray, he's got l33t skillz, and a wicked imagination. Not so sure about the "no bad habits" part, though.

WW III

I had a dream that Bush declared war on Iran, and the dream was so vivid that I didn't realize it wasn't true until just now, as I'm perusing my RSS feeds. What a fuckin relief.

My favorite house.

omg, now I'm on technorati.

I expected a James Earl Jones voice to boom, "You have now entered the blogosphere!"

Add to Technorati Favorites

Due to all the fuss on Lifehacker, I started using Netvibes and I'm considering abandoning Google Reader. Don't expect me to start using Twitter anytime soon, though. I'm not that much of a sheep. Plus, I can't get past the name.

Here's a button. I don't really know what it does. Something about subscribing to my modules. If you hack your own machine, it's not my fault.

Add to Netvibes

struggle for independence

I haven't done a serious post in awhile. I guess I've been hiding from the monsters in my mind. I think one of the great travesties of being female is that we are constantly told we're overreacting, and that we should pay no attention to our emotional states. It sets up a dynamic within a woman that tells her that she can't trust her own feelings, and that any reaction she has to them might be regarded as hysteria. Worse, this is coupled with a desire for connection with others, which often manifests (unhealthily) in a desire to please, above all. So the irrational side of her is enslaved, and the truly horrible part is that she's the one doing the enslaving.

It's a biological conundrum. Yes, our hormones at times make us irrational and prone to heightened emotional sensitivity. Yes, our evolutionary history makes us the nurturers, the social fabric, the peacemakers. Each one of us must reconcile these two facets within ourselves. So must those around us. Men acquiesce to our irrational demands and ignore our sensitivity because we have what they want. We acquiesce to the internal enslavement so we can have what we want - the company of a man. There are various attributes bound up in his company, some healthy, some not: safety, security, a feeling of validation.

You start to wonder if the tradeoff is worth it all. Men say they just want us to be who we are, but they really don't, and the evidence for this is made clear by their reaction when we fully express ourselves.