Insomniac Sleep Addict

Too long for Twitter

2011-07-21T19:01:00.007-06:00

You know you read too many manlove romances when, while watching "The Human Spark: So Human, So Chimp", you automatically assume both Brian Hare and Danny Povinelli are gay and start imagining what might happen when they meet at conferences.

∞

I really need to change up my reading habits for a while. Perhaps some hard sf and non-fiction, since the questions of what makes us different and are we alone (and what if we are!) have been constantly on my mind for months now.

But that PBS series is fantastic, well worth watching (as most on PBS are, of course).

Also, This:

2011-03-11T19:34:00.003-06:00

If the films in this list were arranged in order of ascending awesomeness rather than chronologically, Primer would still occupy the final slot. Made on a budget of $7,000 (seven! thousand!), Primer is one of the few movies I have ever watched twice in a row—and certainly the only movie I’ve ever watched at 8 a.m. after having watched it twice in a row on the evening prior. It’s like a deep-tissue massage for your brain—afterwards you may hurt like hell, but you’ll also feel strangely invigorated.

—Mindfuck Movies by Matthew Baldwin

I finally saw Primer a few months ago, and yes, I watched it thrice. Plus jumped around a bit watching sections, to see if I'd figured it all out completely and where I tripped up, a fourth time. If you haven't seen it yet, go, now, get your hands on a copy. And be prepared to spend the rest of the weekend watching it again and again. The rest of the movies on Baldwin's list are favourites, too. About the only one missing that immediately comes to mind is The Fountain. But of course that may be because I believe (Hugh Jackman + Darren Aronofsky) x Clint Mansell score = WIN!

I know it's disgusting, but I have to share

2011-03-11T18:07:00.003-06:00

After a couple of months of dealing with cold/flu/infection, it now seems that when I blow my nose, it also comes out my eye. Yeah, I know, I had to google it to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

So it's been happening for a couple of weeks, about as long as my right ear has been plugged, but I still keep forgetting. I'll be goofing along, moving trees around on my FarmVille farm, when I'll absently do the pressure-relieving trick you do when flying, holding your nose & blowing, to relieve the pressure on my ear, and SPURT!, snot bubbles out my eye. Very disconcerting.

I See Colours

2008-11-15T12:39:00.003-06:00

The FM 100 Hue Test is a quick, clever little thing. I scored 12! A perfect score is 0.
(Hat tip to Dustin Sacks , who scored 82.)

Also, I am currently, shamefully, addicted to  Farm 51 this week. I have even visited the Strange Planet. That's a lot of sugarcane into sugar.

Sexy SpaceX

2008-10-11T21:19:00.006-06:00

This video, Flight 4 of Falcon 1, the world's first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit, is incredible.

(h/t Phil Plait,  Bad Astronomy Blog)

Open Salon FTW

2008-10-05T16:41:00.004-06:00

Posts such as this amazing, thrilling one show why the Open Salon project is a good idea.
Can't wait for Homer's book.

(h/t CJR)

Chad Van Gaalen

2008-09-24T21:21:00.004-06:00

Beautiful things can come out of a basement in Calgary:

Willow Tree (mp3)

David Foster Wallace Dead

2008-09-14T08:25:00.019-06:00

I'm still in shock even now, almost an hour after first hearing about this. A few thoughts that must get out:

As suicidal as I've been over the past six months, I still wish for the chance to talk him out of this act.

This one is very hard to put into words, but I'll attempt it. With all of his writing that I've read, DFW thoughts hummed like a plucked string in my head, resonating whenever I watched tennis or contemplated Quebec politics or visited with the DJs at CJSW or even when I ate a trial-size chocolate bar or diapered a baby, for example. But now that string is broken. And there is no repairing it.

I cannot imagine a world without more DFW to look forward to. It's just WRONG.

Infinite Jest, at 1079 pages, was too short.

If you want to get a sense of his writing without plowing through nearly 1100 pages (although you would do that gladly once you started that book, I promise you), try this piece, Roger Federer as Religious Experience. As always, some of the best stuff is in the footnotes, so do not skip those. Here's the first one, as an example:

(1) There’s a great deal that’s bad about having a body. If this is not so obviously true that no one needs examples, we can just quickly mention pain, sores, odors, nausea, aging, gravity, sepsis, clumsiness, illness, limits — every last schism between our physical wills and our actual capacities. Can anyone doubt we need help being reconciled? Crave it? It’s your body that dies, after all.

There are wonderful things about having a body, too, obviously — it’s just that these things are much harder to feel and appreciate in real time. Rather like certain kinds of rare, peak-type sensuous epiphanies (“I’m so glad I have eyes to see this sunrise!” etc.), great athletes seem to catalyze our awareness of how glorious it is to touch and perceive, move through space, interact with matter. Granted, what great athletes can do with their bodies are things that the rest of us can only dream of. But these dreams are important — they make up for a lot.

Update to add:
More DFW on the web:
·Good People (fiction)
·Host (about talk radio)
·Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage
·Consider the Lobster (pdf of Gourmet magazine article)
·Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address
·list of more at The Howling Fantods

Understanding why this means something:
·Thynk2much's entry expresses that connection one feels when reading his work. (That's also where I learned the news.)
·John Seery knew him.
·Infinite Space: Wallace by David Gates An appreciation.

He had a mind in which I wanted to dive and swim around, luxuriating in the complexity and sincerity.

Someone finally says it

2008-08-19T12:07:00.007-06:00

Of the many reasons why, if I were an American, I could not vote for McCain, his flip-flop on the treatment of "detainees" is the one that should get much more press but doesn't. At last, conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan delves into the question of torture then and now.

Oscarology

2008-01-28T12:24:00.001-06:00

Oscarology is "a system of astrology [...] based on what movie won the Best Picture Oscar for the year you were born." Brilliant, and much more accurate than an other astrology I've ever seen. (Although I am not at the moment devoted to my work as my In the Heat of the Night profile would have you think, mainly because right now I have no job, I'm sure I could be.)

Thanks to the Mental Floss blog for the link.

Oh what a geek I am

2008-01-25T12:32:00.001-06:00

Even with one ear nearly deaf because of sinus infection/plugging, I scored only one point less than lucius_t!!.

	I received 64 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Quiz by SheGoddess: weight loss

The old one was elementary!

2007-11-20T15:07:00.003-06:00

I do love goofy little gadgets like this. (Found on Eat Our Brains.)

Update Nov. 15/08: Is it because I now rarely post?

Ah hah, no, it's the DFW quote! Must do that more often.

Why I Love the Internet #467

2007-11-19T00:58:00.000-06:00

Real life is too weird (brain shrinkage on the MRI) and frantic (moving; Mom back in chemo) right now to post, but the web is still providing joy. Here (from the Children in Need telethon on BBC), my first Doctor and my favourite Doctor meet:

Thanks to Unlimited Rice Pudding for the tip (and always interesting reading).

Advertising that works

2007-10-03T09:14:00.000-06:00

I now want a Volvo! And it is solely because they are clever enough to hire Stephin Merritt to (re)write their jingle. That deep, wry voice, immediately recognizable:

From the House of Tomorrow e-newsletter:

No, you are not dreaming -- that is indeed Stephin's voice in the new commercial for Volvo's XC-series wagon. There are two commercials, "Wheels" and "Showroom." The latter, airing in mid-October, features a new song titled "I'm in a Lonely Way," which will be available for download from iTunes -- filed under "Stephin Merritt" -- on October 3.

[snip]

iTunes USA
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=15149318

Yay! New Stephin! And he's getting paid! Woo!!

I should be excited

2007-09-24T08:04:00.000-06:00

I just received emailed photos of my new home (in its raw state). Unfortu-nately (or fortunately, considering the size of the place), the kids aren't included in the deal. New place, big move, closer to people I love, I should be filled with anticipation and plans.

But right now my mind is focused on Mom and how long she might have left. (She's already having trouble sitting because of the pain.) And, horribly egocentric as it is, I am worried about what's coming up for me. I talked to my own family doc last week and he agreed, the vertigo isn't caused by any of the medications I am still taking. The three primary possibilities, he told me, for causing a "more central" (i.e. brain-related) vertigo like mine are: multiple sclerosis, acoustic neuroma, or brain tumour. The MRI is scheduled for Oct 26th.

A part of me is going "Ohshitohshitohshit", especially when I read the wiki page on MS and I wonder if I've been misdiagnosed all these years with Fibromyalgia. (The overheating, that's the one that strikes me.) Or when a longtime friend, the one with whom synchronicity was always most meaningful, emails out of the blue that one of his friends has just been diagnosed with a brain tumour. But that shock also snaps me right out of my moping stupor, and makes me realize I need to follow my grandmother's advice: Don't borrow trouble.

I'm sure the MRI will be clear, and we (the various docs & I) can go on to explore what else might be causing constant vertigo for nine months (and frequently for long periods before that), unceasing headaches (that aren't sinusitus, the ENT says) & pressure, tinnitus, parasthesia, pain & muscle stiffness, extreme fatigue, vision weirdness (but not prescription changes), cognitive, memory, & speech problems, bladder & bowel problems, hyperosmia, and, most recently, balance & coordination difficulties. (Yes, those could almost be copied straight from the MS faq, but they weren't. The list is from the notes I made for myself to talk over with my doctor.)

Picking out flooring and paint colours will be a good distraction. The big question is whether or not to paint out the kitchen cupboards.

They wore whites!

2007-09-16T22:19:00.000-06:00

Cricket whites! Vivid against still green grass with yellow leaves falling from a bright blue sky.

For the first time ever, I saw cricket live today, and it was astoundingly beautiful. In Riley Park they play every summer weekend, but normally I work weekends, so I've never been able to get over there to watch. Today I had the day off, and in spite of my bed calling "sleeeeeeeeeeep", I dragged myself over there. (It's an epic transit ride, especially when the LRT is down for maintenance.)

I knew I'd made the right decision when the red ball rolled over the boundary line straight towards me to just a meter away from my feet as I walked up. If I hadn't slowed down I could have picked it up before the fielder. I was afraid I'd accidently crossed into the field! But there was a park bench still in front of me, and the painted boundary line was just a foot or two in front of that. I spent the afternoon blissed out, mostly from that bench, for a while in the shade on another, a few times teary-eyed at the pure joy of watching it all. Two matches were going on, one in front of me on the large field, one just off to the side and behind on the smaller one. I was too far away from either scoreboard to track those details, but that didn't matter. I was there to watch — and listen to — the play.

The little things surprised and delighted me:
• The non-striking batsman really does stand in that classic leaning pose, lounging on his bat while waiting for the bowler to throw. So elegant!
• They really do shout like crazy for a call from the umpire. Once the fieldser in front of me and I both heard what sounded like the ball hitting a pad. He started to shout! But then none of his teammates joined in, so he let it die. But that batsman was walking funny afterwards, I'm sure of it.
• They really do polish the ball on their....thighs.
• Freaking seagulls, they really are stupid! We're 1000 km inland, over the Rockies!, not even a lake to be seen for god knows how far, and still there were seagulls wandering around the field.
• Batsmen really do swipe the grass with their bats when they take that walk away from the pitch after losing a wicket. Is there any walk so lonely and so long?
• As bizarre as the names already are for the fielding positions, they really could be stranger yet. Cover and mid wicket (I think; I'm still not 100% on these, and I was flying solo) should be called rabbit and squirrel, they way the leap and dash about after the ball. I saw some amazing catches, though. And no gloves, of course, except for the wicket keeper. Very strange from a baseball/hockey/etc. perspective. My hands still sting in sympathy.
• They have a batting cage. Surprised me! Don't know why it did. More of an alley, really, but well of course they do.
• This is either the slowest fast game or the fastest slow game in the world. Nothing happens nothing happens nothing happens and then wooshbangwhoaomgwhoopswow and relax. I caught fielders of each game watching the other match in progress instead of their own at times.

So many wonderful, gorgeous moments, but I think I had two favourites:

On one field, a batsman popped up a fly ball so easy that even I could have caught it. The fielders were jeering and hooting, and I expected the poor guy to stomp off the ground in humiliation. But he just took off his helmet, grinned, tried a bit of an explanation to his teammates (yummy British accent), and finally just laughed, while he walked off the field.

On the other field, after a wicket where the pegs went flying, there was a moment when the umpire was holding the stumps while the batsman pounded them into the ground again. Of course, this batsman's job after that would be to protect them. I wondered what he was thinking while he bashed them down. Against the western sun, he looked fiercely intent.

(Monday Update:
I've figured out I was watching the Star XI Vs Glenmore (I) on the small field. I think it was Stuart Robinson who popped that easy one. The results aren't up yet for the large field, but it was the Crown Vs Cavaliers (I) scheduled.)

On the midway

2007-09-12T07:35:00.000-06:00

Life is a speeding rollercoaster at the moment. The corkscrew kind.

Work is frantic, but I can handle that; working full-time (a two-person job) will be done by Sept. 24th for me, after all.

What I'm not sure I can handle is not seeing my mother. Amid all the gafuffle of the job & the possible move & all the doctors' appointments, I lost the plan to see her this apple season. And now her cancer is back. Ovarian. She was originally given two years to live, not quite three and a half years ago. The doctors aren't really sure how to handle her because they aren't accustomed to anyone surviving like this.

The new mass is still too small to treat so it's "wait and see" as yet. Yeah, right, like there's gonna be some outcome other than the usual. These are the same doctors who told her she was "just depressed" (the multiple ways that offends me is an epic rant I won't scream out in this post) for years while the original mass was growing so large they had to take out half her insides when they finally did figure out what the fuck was happening and removed it. Even the surgeon was a bit shocked when he was done. ("We had to do extensive surgery," he kept repeating.)

I'm 1162.92 km (722.76 miles, thank you Mapquest) away from her and I may not get to help her pick apples and make pies and sauce and whatever else we can come up with. I have to figure out a way to do this.

Sorry, just found out last night, still reeling from the news, even though it wasn't unexpected.

Somehow all the wonderful, joyful moments aren't ending up in here, just the stuff I need somehow both to remember and forget, usually upsetting. Maybe I'll change that.

Wrinkle in Time author dead

2007-09-07T19:36:00.000-06:00

Madeleine L’Engle, children & young adult's writer, died Thursday.

A Wrinkle In Time had a profound impact on me as young reader. Not only did it change the way I view the world — most good books do, in one way or another — it helped form who I wanted to be, how I thought, and gave me a sense of hope that has rarely left me. Neither has the book. I gave away or sold many of my childhood books, and left most of the others with my father & step-mother (the glass-enclosed bookcase in the sunroom is a pleasant home for them — my earliest books, that is), but my original Dell Yearling edition of A Wrinkle In Time has stayed by my side.

“Why does anybody tell a story?” Ms. L’Engle once asked, even though she knew the answer.

“It does indeed have something to do with faith,” she said, “faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

She wrote with such liveliness and complexity, vibrancy and profundity, about family and morality and science and love, all well beyond what a child is supposed to understand, while never being condescending. She was gifted beyond measure.

If you haven't read it, maybe give it a try. In any case, buy a copy for a young girl or boy you know.

World keeps spinning

2007-08-21T15:06:00.000-06:00

...and sometimes that's a good thing.

What a difference a few days makes.

Still in pain, but screw it, I've got better things to do. Lots of changes that were slowly building have suddenly crested. Time to surf the wave, baby!

Moving, jewellery business, working more, getting off meds, even becoming a moderator again. I swore I would not do it, that last one! In the end I volunteered. Can't escape your own nature. Maybe mine's not that bad after all.

Ignoring the greater outside world helps. Paying too much attention to all the horrors I can't do anything about is unbearable. Fix myself first, then I'll get to the rest of you.

Ten Years Today

2007-08-17T18:35:00.000-06:00

Ten goddamn years of constant preschooler-like nerve endings demanding attention, pinching & punching me when I shrug helplessly, "I don't know what you want!"

Ten years of carefully planning each venture out because just shopping a string of four outlet stores in one day means being unable to move without doing the old-lady shuffle the next day, and the next day, and the day after that.

Ten years of feeling like a complete fuckup because I'm not pursuing a proper career, unable even to hold a full-time job, not only because of the pain but more because of the brutal, crushing fatigue, in spite of sleeping on average 11 hours a day and up to 17 some days. And it was days — sleep inversion happened almost automatically, no matter how often I struggled to get back to a proper awake during the day/asleep at night pattern.

Difficult to have a social life under these conditions: "Hi, how are you?" "In extreme agony, thanks." "Oh. Yes. Well. What are you doing?" "Uhh...Sleeping, mostly. And you?"

Not much has changed since this time last year, except that life has blessed me with constant vertigo as well. Sometimes I really hate meatspace.

I think the "how my life is improving" part of this post will have to wait for another time.

He said it!

2007-08-14T14:13:00.000-06:00

John Lithgow is in England to work with the RSC right now, playing Malvolia in Twelfth Night. His fellow cast members are teaching him the joys of cricket, and he so somehow he ended up the lunchtime interview guest on Radio Five Live Sports Extra Live Test Match Special (yes, "Live" twice in the full title) on Sunday.

The host obviously didn't know much of Lithgow's brilliant work, but luckily TMS takes emails from listeners. One of them tried this claim: "I'm one of the biggest if not only fans of the film Buckaroo Banzai—". Lithgow didn't even allow the announcer to finish reading the letter before replying, "Oh, no, he is in the company of millions of very, very weird people." He takes a moment to explain the film to the unenlightend host then continues, "It is one of my favourite films too. It's completely zonked out." He then describes his character and in a moment, he says it! And I recorded it!! *

Overall, Lithgow proved to be a more than amiable guest, an enthusiastic learner of all things cricket, and an engaging speaker. If I hadn't already been a fan, this interview would have made me one. Full Lithgow Segment. (mp3, 34.3 Mb)

From the previous day:
Preview Patter (mp3, 1.2 Mb)
Shashi Thoroor (mp3, 30Mb)

Other TMS interviews online from the BBC site:
Daniel Radcliffe at Lord's
Johnny Borrell (of Razorlight) at Lord's

*I don't know why it loops like that. The version I uploaded did not.

Carrot or Stick

2007-08-09T12:32:00.000-06:00

Calgary commuters going green, says study

Calgary residents may still love their cars, but more are walking, cycling or taking transit downtown than are driving, according to a new study by the city.

The report shows 55 per cent of morning commuters arrive on foot, bike or transit. That's up from less than 40 per cent a decade ago, said John Hubble, the city's transportation manager.

"The community has put a lot of investment into public transportation and I think these numbers validate that investment and they show that we are on the right track," he said.

[snip]

"Colleen McCracken, a spokeswoman with local environmental group Sustainable Calgary, said people are ditching their cars because they are too expensive to run, parking is expensive and traffic is terrible.

"I am not sure if the city can take credit for this in their policies, but I think people are changing and it's up to the city to catch up to that change."

This would all have happened a lot sooner if we'd been paying the true monetary cost of being a fossil fuel society.

I've lived here since 1992 and never owned a car. Only three things can momentarily make me wish I had one: missing a bus (and thus knowing I'll not catch the connections and be late for an appointment. Happened yesterday with the bus pulling away from the corner as I was crossing the street to get to it. Bastard driver, who idled there for minutes before the light changed, saw me running to get to it, I know it!), wanting to go to Banff for the afternoon, or needing to lug home a purchase from IKEA.

Mindgrope

2007-08-08T09:52:00.000-06:00

I get all sorts of Google Alerts. Some to keep track of friends' reviews, others to check for new releases from favourite authors, musicians, etc., but the primary one is for Toby Stephens. ( to all the Tobettes for whom that just triggered an Alert as well. Thanks for stopping by the new digs. Please excuse the bare walls; I haven't decorated yet, except for winam's beautiful photo.)
But I also track my own name (names, actually, both my full real name and my nickname), just to see where it shows up. So when this

Google Web Alert for: snowsim

Toby Stephens [Powered by Invision Power Board]
Snowsim - in this post you can clearly see what I was deleting!
... Many thanks, Snowsim & Cupcake! I think I've
got it now! ...

This as-it-happens Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

showed up, my brain shorted out for a few seconds.

The strangest thing is, when I followed the link, it turned out to be a mutant version of the board.
Very odd.

Blue Sand

2007-08-07T21:06:00.001-06:00

Farewell Spit, originally uploaded by Winam.

Now, jumping through most of Winam's entire "New Zealand 2004" set had already made my jaw bounce painfully off my desk as it dropped. Incredible beauty. But this. You just don't expect to come across images like this outside of dreams.

No need for a God

2007-08-07T06:28:00.000-06:00

We can make this ourselves.
Anna Olson's Cappuccino Ice Cream Cake

The transition begins

2007-08-07T00:55:00.000-06:00

I haven't even finished the "So Long LJ" post yet and here I am fiddling with Blogger.

Playing with the colours is fun, though.