Monthly Archive for March, 2007

BSG, now with almost-spoilers

Published on March 27, 2007 in ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

I just watched the latest Battlestar Galactica.

Dear iTunes Store,
Thanks for being so slow to get that posted.  I hate you.
Love,
Cola

Ahem.  Anyway. Damn.

Damn.

So apparently they’re going to Earth to attend Woodstock.  Or rather, at some lame club called Woodstock with a horrible Hendrix cover band playing.  Maybe Chief, The Non-Widow Starbuck, Tory, and Tigh will start a funky 70s style rock band themselves since they seem to be able to group hallucinate Dylan songs.  I bet Tigh does an awesome Dylan impression.

Really, people, you couldn’t have sprung for the Hendrix or the Dylan?  Really?

Birmingham England

Published on March 25, 2007 in DailyGrind, England, Netherlands, ResidentHipster and Travel. 1 Comment

I went to Birmingham, England this week to accompany ‘les on a visit to Birmingham University.  ‘les is applying for a Ph.D. in composition there and so it seemed like a good idea to go meet the staff and have a look around at the city.

We were in England from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday morning.  It turned about to be about two days too many.  Birmingham is England’s second largest city, but it reminded me of nothing so much as an overgrown Emeryville.  It’s an old industrial town which has started a massive, highly planned urban renewal project.  There is a small canal system in the city, part of which they’ve cleaned up and added a big resturant/shopping/office building complex to.  In the center of town they’ve built a huge mall which is connected to the train station.  They seem to be looking to pull in the business travel and convention crowd rather than trying to get tourists interested in visiting.  I think this is a smart move since they don’t have a lot in the way of tourist attractions but they do have big parks and a decent down town area.  If you were to come to Birmingham for a conference, you’d probably go home having a lot to recommend it since most of your free time could easily be taken up walking around downtown and poking your head into shops or getting coffee.

I found being in England to be a bit odd.  I kept having these surprised moment where I realized that everyone around me speaks English and I can just assume that they’ll understand me.  I think it’s because I live in the Netherlands right now.  Lots of people here speak some English and I’m not often caught behind a horrible language barrier when going about my day.  But all my interactions here involve a little negotiation – that moment when I have to apologize for not speaking Dutch or the person that I’m talking to has to register that I’m speaking English and figure out how to respond.  These moments are extremely short but they happen every time I leave the house.  So being in England I kept having to remind myself that although there was a definite accent barrier happening, we were all speaking the same language.  I’d have these moments where someone would say something to me and I’d hesitate for a second before realizing that the person I’m speaking with will actually understand every word I say and I don’t even need to slow down or use simple vocabulary words.  I found myself being surprised that all the restaurants not only had English menus, but that English was actually the only language on the menu at all.  ‘les and I walked into bookstores and exclaimed “Hey!  Everything in here is n English!” like this was an unexpected delight.

Oh, and then there were my troubles with getting the hang of crossing the street.  All over London, and I’m guessing the more touristy cities in England, there are signs painted on the street telling you which was to look before crossing.  I found these signs to be only marginally helpful because while it reminded me to look the correct way, I wasn’t used to looking for cars coming that way.  Even when I’d see a car my brain didn’t know how to process the information and I’d almost step out into traffic on accident.  Birmingham has very few of these signs.  I think I only saw one the whole time I was there.  I was left to my own devices were traffic flow was concerned, which actually made me a lot more careful.  I had to stop at every corner and figure out where the cars were coming from before I could venture to guess whether or not it would be safe for me to cross.  Do they drive faster in England or did it just seem that way because I was so slow at figuring out what was going on?

So to wrap this up: being in England after living in The Netherlands was weird. I have an unexpected appreciation for Den Haag right now.  The exchange rate between the Dollar and the Pound is horrible.  English food is awful but they have excellent vegetarian sausage.  I like English ales and they’re cider ain’t bad either.

Do you keep soy sauce in your fridge?

Published on March 20, 2007 in DailyGrind, France, ResidentHipster and USA. 0 Comments

This is really weird. There’s an article up in Salon right now about how Americans tend to refrigerate things that have long shelf lives. Mustard, vinegar, and soy sauce were used as examples.

I have to say that I’m guilty of sticking everything in the fridge. However, in the Netherlands everyone seems to have dorm fridge sized things. So while it doesn’t stop me from putting my apple cider vinegar in the fridge, it does keep me from letting anything go bad because I don’t have room for left overs.

I’m posting about this article, however, because the photo that goes along with it is of a French refrigerator door. The carton of OJ gives it away as European in any case. And I’m absolutely sure that it’s a French super-saver type brand.

Weird.

Yes, but I don’t know when

Published on March 15, 2007 in ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

‘les is working on an album of short pieces. Each is about a minute or so long, most so far have been analogue synthesizer works.

In an attempt to earn a little bit cash, you now have the opportunity to buy the naming rights of a work for the low, low price of 7 euros. (Act now! The price goes up to 10 euros on Friday!).

I had the chance to name the first piece in this series. I decided to call it “Yes, but I don’t know when.” Which is the answer I got when I asked if I could hear the piece again for naming purposes. Good times.

Yes, but I don’t know when.

Looking for a new bag

Published on March 4, 2007 in DailyGrind and ResidentHipster. 1 Comment

So my current favorite bag has finally given up the ghost and I’m in search of a new everyday bag.

I’m rather pleased that this bag held on as long as it did. When I bought it back in 2003, I was worried that it wouldn’t last a year. I’m hard on my bags. I pull them around constantly, I kick them, I drag them across floors, I get beer spilled onto them, I bike with them. I also tend to carry a lot more stuff than anyone should be carrying around on their person. At the moment I’ve taken to carrying several pounds of camera with me at all times along with the several pounds of just “stuff” that I feel anxious being outside my residence without. I also have a habit of trying to shove things like cans of beans or five pound bags of flour into my bags because I hate having my hands full if I can avoid it.

I’m having trouble finding a good replacement for this bag. I ask a lot out of a bag and I fear that I may never find just the right one.

What I need out of a bag:

-It needs to be big enough to carry my camera, my stuff, a smallish knitting project, and a book. I don’t carry my laptop with me much and I already have a gigantic messenger bag that fits my laptop and my camera along with everything else. So something large but not too big.

-It needs to be waterproof. I loath getting caught in the rain and having my bag soak through.

-It needs to look like a normal bag. I’ve been looking at camera bags and they’re all so..camera bag-ish. Why they all *have* to be made out of canvas and be overly rectangular in shape is a mystery to me. I’d rather not announce to the world that I have anything worth stealing in my bag. I mean, it’s false advertising. My cameras are cheap and beat up. You’re going to get 50 bucks for them, tops. Why tempt fate with false advertising?

-It has to have a strap that goes across my chest. I hate totes. The bag I’m carrying while I look for a new one is a tote and it really drives me crazy. It’s constantly falling off my shoulder and the bulk of the bag makes it difficult to do anything. Backpacks make my back sweat and are hard to get into quickly. I need something that I can just open up and dig through with minimum amounts of effort.

I was actually looking for something new before I noticed the giant hole forming underneath the spot that the strap attaches to the bag. My bag was always a tiny bit small, and since I’ve taken to carrying not just a big camera, but a camera case that adds a lot of weight and a couple of extra inches to the camera itself, I’ve been in desperate need of more room. My bag fit most everything I carried, but there wasn’t really room for much else. I couldn’t add, say, a publisher’s paperback sized book to the bag because there just wasn’t room.

Even with it’s shortcomings, I’m still considering just getting a new bag from the same company. Queen-bee doesn’t make the exact bag I have anymore. Mine is black with a baby blue star cut-out. I really like a couple of the current designs, though. I especially like the one with the hexagons. I think that they might be a tiny bit bigger, too. They claim to be 15 inches wide, and my bag measures about 12 at the base. They also added a couple of pockets on the outside, which is dandy.

LSAT score

Published on March 3, 2007 in DailyGrind, ResidentHipster and USA. 1 Comment

I got my LSAT score via email today.

Your February 10, 2007 LSAT score is 171. The percentile rank is 98.

Just for some context, that’s 171 out of 180. The percentile rankings for anything over 175 is like 100. The median LSAT score for the incoming freshman in 2006 at Boalt Hall (that’s Berkeley) was 166. The median for the 2006 freshman class at Hastings (which is a law school in the UC system in SF) is 162, with the top score being a 173.

Wow. So I’d been taking a lot of practice tests to study for the LSAT. I generally got between a 165 and a 167. I’d been hoping to get above a 165 so that I’d be in the right range for Hastings applications. I’d written off even applying to Boalt since my undergrad GPA wasn’t so hot but maybe I’ll put it back on the list?

My plan right now is to take a class or two over the summer somewhere and try to get a job doing at a law office of some kind. Schools start accepting applications in September or October so I’ve got months and months to write my personal statement, resume, and statement of purpose. I also need two references. My advisor at Mills (who is now the assistant provost or some such nonsense) said he’d write me one but he was pretty down on the idea of me going to law school so I’m thinking about getting someone else.

So yeah. Lots of stuff ahead.