Surreptitious Opinionation

Apparently my iPod is a very delicate piece of machinery. This is the second time in the slightly over a year that it’s been in my possession that it’s broken. Since it’s slightly over a year, the warranty is toast. Great. Perhaps this is a sign that I should never be nit-picky with my gifts again. Bleh.

So, Brokeback Mountain is a good movie. I wouldn’t go back to see it a second time and I’m not sure how I feel about seeing it the first time. And here’s why (spoilers)

http://fuckchristmas.org/ (links to http://www.fuckthesouth.com/)

Also led me to look for interesting information about the god Mithra. Apparently, it’s not just an ffxi race. =)

Thanks to giving me very explicit step by step instructions, I can now play my favorite board games with people all over the world at any time of day or night. Fun, but bad for productivity and the gaming that had been part of my social life. Mmmm, tichu. I even made a grand tichu or two.

One paper on time.
Two late.
One not due til Wednesday. (It’s a short one, fewer than 10 pages, but still, ugh).

Is it gonna be a happy new year?

In a recent post in ‘s journal, I commented about how it seems that the religious extremists who value the prohibition of gay marriage over feeding the poor, etc, love Paul more than Jesus. It seems a simple observation to me, but I’d hope it would be offensive to the parties in question, even though I somehow doubt it would. I think it would be more befuddling than insulting. Sad that.

In the segments of time too short to be useful (the time between lunch and bus is turning out to be one of those), I have a variety of time wasting strategies. Of them is to browse international airfare deals. It seems that there is a $303 r/t ticket between minneapolis and frankfurt, for weekday travel after January 10th and before march 31st. You normally can’t get tickets that cheap to san fran, let alone germany. Spring break is included in that time span. I think I’m going to do it, but I’m not sure where all I ought to go in Deutschland and neighboring countries. =)

There is a certain gentleman I’d like to visit in Dusseldorf, a few ljers it’d be cool to meet (at least I’d know I wouldn’t be swimming in totally unfamiliar waters the entire time), and I’d kinda like to check out Amsterdam. Maybe Copenhagen, if I had enough time. Hmmm.

While working on my papers, I’ve been obsessively and repetitiously listening to Ragtime, which Rice introduced me to. Or at least a few songs on it. I can’t tell if it’s trying to parody or represent the zeitgeist of the era. So much of it is like some sort of bizarre propaganda. Originally, I wasn’t sure if it was modern or not. Turns out it is (see article linked to above).

But some of it is just, like, wow I’m torn between laughing at it and crying at it. For instance, from the song “Henry Ford”: “See, my people, well here’s my theory of what this country is moving towards: Every worker a cog in motion, well that’s the notion of Henry Ford” “A genuflection to Henry Ford. Hallelujah! Praise the maker… of the model-t” “Even people who ain’t too clever can learn to tighten a nut forever.” “mass production will sweep the nation. A simple notion, the world’s reward.” all sung in a celebratory air. The cognitive dissonance is simply overwhelming. This has to be tongue in cheek right? And yet, there are people today who really do feel that what’s good for general motors is good for america. Full stop.

Don’t get me started on the condescending admiration in the song about the immigrants. Or the bit about Evelyn and her publicity.

How this helps me concentrate on writing papers, I do not know, but, gift horses, mouths, you know the story.

I finally found that essay that Simon’s old officemate posted on their office door. I like it, though I roll my eyes at it a bit too.

And also showing up when I googled ‘gender geek’ was this article about gender, computer science, and the monofocused geek from my beloved alma mater, cmu. =) Somewhat interesting. I can see myself in there in places.