Hastings looks hopefully toward the future with a dawning sense of the inevitability of all things NUMBER 5

...and yet... I still want to smack you.

HOTT!

No, ICE COLD.

It's like we never left high school!

(I'm a lot meaner than I used to be.)

(xpost)

Dan, if we never left high school, my brain would be working better than it is. I used to think I could learn organic chemistry through osmosis. Now I'm staring at the definition of osmosis and thinking, "hmmm... can I remember this for more than 30 seconds?"

I'm reading "The Know-it-all" by A.J. Jacobs (about his attempt to the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica), "Driving Mr. Albert" by Michael Paterniti (about driving cross-country w/Einsteins brain), and re-reading "Finley Wren" by Philip Wylie and "Infinite Jest".

Just finished "The Men Who Stare at Goats" by Jon? Ronson.

I've been curious about Infinite Jest ever since it came out; I bought it for my friend Curt and he seemed to enjoy it. Was it the footnotes that he enjoyed so much? I can't remember. (Fiction plus footnotes! That might be even better than my undying adoration of parentheses.)

If you like footnotes and parentheses, Infinite Jest is the book for you.

IMPORTANT NOTE: most people I recommend it to hate me afterwards for a while. It's not exactly an easy read.

Hm, well, I'm sure I still have a voodoo doll of you somewhere I could re-use.

Actually, if I'm remembering right, Curt really enjoyed it as well, although by the end he was somewhat exhausted by it. (This scares me since he has a disturbing ability to concentrate on things, so much so that I will only talk to him anymore if we're in a group. Otherwise I feel like a bug under a microscope. I'm not sure how M4rn13 lives with that.)

But yeah, I loooove parentheses.

And, obviously joking about the voodoo doll. I save those for politicians.

FB, did P3rry steal all your money last night?

Technically, most of my money went to Z4ndy and J4ck. Perry took almost al of R0z's money in one fateful hand of Texas hold 'em.

Hey guys, guess which former German exchange student who lived with my family became a father early last week??????

So he should be buying my drinks for the next week in celebration, no?

xpost: WAHT.

RLY! F4b has a DAUGHTER.

OK, $10 betting pool on what age F4b's daughter is taller than daddy.

I'm betting on 5.

I'm not betting until I get a report about the birth weight. Until then, I'm voting for prenatally.

His girlfriend is 3 inches taller than him.

Wow, congratulations to him. (I barely remember him, but do remember that he was not in the super-tall category.)

My bet: 7 years. I like long shots.

Does that make her a dwarf, or a midget? I could never get those two straight.

xpost

I need a new username. Suggestions?

Jane?

Hirsute Ho Habadasher

Come on now, I need CONCEPTS to build upon. I am an architect of nonsensical confusion.

Well, how about "architect of nonsensical confusion," then?

You're welcome.

1. fajitas
2. ninjas
3. dental dams
4. Julian Casablancas

GO

Ok, 'lots of books' people is TWO groups.
The "A is for Anything" people who read anything where they have/get to guess the ending before it happens!
Then people who actually CARE about what they read.
This can be broekn down into teo types of people. People I like, and people I hate.
One is smart and well-informed at the least. These are people I like.(cheapo)
The other is self-important, pretentious, STUPID despite their reading, stupid despite their years yet expect the respect ACTUAL wisdom commands, or under 17 years old. HATE.
Any combination of the above paragraph also applies.(guitar center)

Why did i choose Target? Well, they DID have a fair amount of interesting stuff, but it was buried among SHITE AND SHITE last time I bothered to walk through thir record section on the way to get batteries.

That's what it's like looking for REAL books at Barnes and noble.
I read alot of manga in 2 languages.
I read a couple translated cheesy dumb romance novels...which I own the original language prints of...

Written language is almost like computer code to me. You can be intensely verbose and thus convey the meaning with severe accuracy, or you can say alot less with a cultural and poetic compression scheme and get the same info across, but they need that same frame of reference.
Combined, these methods are most interesting, but how effective...
Language is a virus.
I prefer speech and music at this point in my life is what I'm getting at.

Incidentally, I'm translating a chapter of a manga.
and doing a better job than I expected to.
It's an easy peasy lemon stompy manga.

DONE.

Note that a big part of me reading piles of manga that I may or not enjoy or even like much is a desire to get some kind of a triangulation on actual japanese culture beyond the surface through the various views and moods, situations etc that are expressed by various authors.

I'd be working on the language as well, but It's hard to find free-to-read orignal language stuff. legally or not(downloading).
Well, hard to find stuff that's not porn.
Filthy porn for the most part.

John wasn't allowed in that folder in order to protect his innocence.

Hmmm. Better?

GDDMNIT.

There we go.

How's my innocence doing, by the way? I heard he lives in Biwabik and has a couple adorable kids.

Well, I blame myself of course.

(Who else was at J3ssic4 St4b3n0w's How to Host a Murder party when it turned out that I was not only the killer, but also a prostitute! All your innocence is belongs to me.)

hahaha

I'm glad someone was amused. I hate it when all my secrets are revealed at once like that. It makes me blush.

I remember that night. Did we ever finish the game and find out who the imaginary killer and prostitute was?

John, John. It was me, John.

Surprise!

MURDER WHORE

Actually, I am just relieved to know that you don't remember that my face actually did turn bright red! Ah, to be 18 again, and ashamed of my life as a prostitute/assasin. (It's all so mundane now...)

Mountain Goats FAP tomorrow? This never seems to work out, but I keep trying...

Otherwise NOMEANSNO FAP Monday?

You should plan things further in advance; that will help you.

Planning is for sissies.

Another point where I see we will never agree...

I am definitely meeting my friend Lousene for dinner at 7:30(ish) on Monday night; you guys are welcome to join us (probably Cafe Latte again, because I do not fear the drive). I don't think I will be up for your crazy Nomeansno thing that night, however (I know I horrify you and FB every time I say, "well, it's 11 o'clock, I need to go home!). But you and FB and K4l1 should come eat with us. Lou is fun.

Fun is for sissies.

I'll check out when the show is and let you know re:food and fun.

John, you are no fun.

(Er, I mean, okay then. Also, I will try to get hold of M3liss4 because my last two attempts have failed. She's probably tired of my panicking about school into her cell phone by now. But... I actually have LAB tonight! *fears* Even if you guys don't make it, I should introduce M3l to Lou since they are both lawyers now.)

So many lawyers, so few places to slip and fall by the mop-bucket.

At least our friends aren't all dental hygenists or patricides.

I have to post this here, because I can't possibly post it enough times:

http://www.michaelhanscom.com/graphics/familycthulu4ld.gif

Grrrr I want to Mountain Goats FAP.

Start walking Dan. (Actually, at this point you'd probably want to run REALLY fast or take a plane).

I'm not sure what kind of lawyer Lou is, to be honest, but it seems like every one of them that I know has something to do with patents. That sounds dreadfully dull to me.

Dental hygeine would be worse, though. (Being around the sound of the drill all day... brrrrr. CREEPY!)