Surreptitious Opinionation

Our nearby, potsmoking, collectively owned coffeshop, the hard times, has very tasty baked desserty things. Sometimes they’re even vegan. Yesterday, they had vegan ginger molasses cookies. I got two. So tasty. They didn’t last long. Somehow, miraculously, there were still two left in the day-olds section today. I’m saving the last one for later. But really, I need to learn to make my own. I loved molasses cookies (archway generally) before I went vegan, but haven’t had much of them since. The undertone of ginger makes it even better.

In the spirit of a recent entry by , instead of bitching about how livejournal uses the word “friends” to describe the journals I subscribe too, I did something about it. I spent about 2 hours figuring out how to customize my view so that the only places that the word “friends” shows up are in the url, on the user info page, and on the menu bar on the default view pages, because I can’t change any of that. I also changed the layout to one that uses more of the page’s width, so that I’m less vulnerable to oversized images resizing my pages.

A useless waste of time and simply a procrastination technique? To that, I plead guilty. =)

In response to ‘s request of me in March, here’s a bit about my reading habits

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

• into the breach good friends

So, my department is having a little shindig this evening. I bought a ticket, I guess so I would have the option of going. And now that the time has arrived, I’m just as happy not to be going. I hope those who do go have fun, but I have things I’d rather be doing with my evening. I am not an extrovert, and have plenty of useful stuff to be doing anyway.

So, my understanding is that there is a loungerat presence on crimson crusade horde side. Is there a guild yet?
I also feel compelled to associate myself with the alliance guild, vice & valor on proudmoore for a few minneapolis peeps, and to surprise a third party.
I hear that there are some bay area ‘mo’s doing alliancy things on daggerspine.

Hook me up with your server/allegiance/guild if you think you’d enjoy playing with me when the time comes (t-minus a week and a half). I’ll probably only take 1 or 2 characters past 20. And no more than 4 past 10. I don’t enjoy multitasking that much. =)

Whee. =)

Ever been writing up the stirring conclusion to long post about the changes you’re going to make, only to hit the ‘close tab’ hotkey? Talk about resisting change. 😉

Here’s the cliff’s notes. My basic pattern for writing a paper is to assemble everything that looks like it’s probably relevant ahead of time, and start reading and writing at the last minute. I form the outline as I go, and I usually figure out the conclusion after I’m halfway through the paper. I do this all at the 11th hour. If there were a goal-reason for this, I’d say it was bragging rights, but there really isn’t. This is an evolved, and deeply ingrained habit that’s dragging me down. Deeply ingrained does not mean unbreakable.

Growing old happens inevitably, with no effort on anyone’s part. Growing up is a choice. Or a series of choices. I’m ready to grow up a bit more, and I’ll make the changes I need to. This shit ain’t gonna fly forever.

I had a triumphant buzz this morning, coming out of gymnastics. I nailed my front handsprings fairly consistently for the first time. I hit my feet, and then my knees shortly after, almost every time. No spot. It rocked. My quads are in serious muscle-building pain. Like almost limping.

And I finished my paper, and even got a couple hours of sleep. 8.25 pages. But it feels complete. It’s a report on the pittsburgh regional economic development authority (the southwestern pennsylvania commission)

I’m enjoying the rush. My slight embarrassment at doing it within the past 24 hours, well, I’ll discuss that in my next post. =)

I am: -9% Republican.

“You’re a damn Commie! Where’s Tailgunner Joe when we need him?”

Are You A Republican?

Saturday morning I went for a run around Lake Calhoun with Scott. We chatted a great deal about personal histories and a little bit about politics. But the main feature for my current purposes was that my standard 4ish mile run knee pain was triggered. It wasn’t enough to stop me at the time, but Sunday, stepping down of the curb or down a stair hurt. Plus I had the muscle soreness to go with it.

Then today was gymnastics. I was wearing my knee brace, just in case. As part of warmup, we did a few backroll-into-handstands. Or rather, I tried. I think I tried 8 or 9 times. I only kneed myself in the face once when I collapsed. I nearly succeeded once. Clearly more practice is required. Then it was front tucks. Lots of front tucks. Given that my usual problem is under-rotation, it’s probably a good thing that my first tuck resulted in me landing first on my feet, then very quickly thereafter on my knees and chest. In fact, all of us using the same mat overrotated at first. Yay overrotation! After that, my compatriots expressed amazement at how high I jumped and yet how little I rotated. Still, I managed a few good tucks. Then when we were supposed to be putting the mats away, at the urging of these gentlemen, I did my first unspotted front handspring, and did a good one, if not for the minor collapse of my braced knee. I was up again in no time, none the worse for the wear.

Gymnastics is a hell of a lot of fun. It’s kind of sad that running and my knees get along so poorly, though. And now my back from the small of my back to the top of my spine is having heavy muscle fatigue ache going on. Whee-oof-Whee. =)

The mysterious poster strikes again, commenting on another way old post of mine.

Housemates are good, they balance us. My main fear is that all my experiences with a couple in group living situations have involved one of the couple disappearing (if one of the members is not a housemate) or the couple going individually or collectively psycho. Karl & Janet, Paul & Glen-Paul, Shannon & Scott, psychoness ensued.

… Conveniently, I listed my roommates in the post in question, so I rapidly found the exceptions. and . They were sane. It was good. We got along swimmingly. And my brief time living with and Virginia (his wife) wasn’t bad at all, though I wasn’t around much either. Whether I went psycho on Choli while dating or she went psycho on me while dating is an interesting academic question. may have an opinion as the trapped third roommate. Mutual psycho-ness may be a reasonable perspective on the situation.

Regardless, I had feared that I was doomed to picking at least one of asshole, single, and/or living with no one other than my siginificant other, if applicable. I am now reassured.