Foul

I cryptically posted about my most foul mood earlier. It is still with me.

Joy.

I am hunkering down and waiting it out, but it’s difficult. I cannot completely withdraw from the universe. I should. I want to.

I was fine but tired this morning and then the mood descended like a shroud … or the iron curtain. Suddenly I discovered that everyone is exasperating and stupid and working against me. The mood triggered what will, in the calm light of morning, be a clearly irrational reaction to an email this evening; the only good news is that I didn’t respond the way I really wanted to.

I have raged at a lamp.

I have sworn at my computer.

I hate this.

Paint

But not just any paint. Pantone paint. Eeeeexcellent.

Why I hate political campaigns

John Kerry has certainly covered himself in glory:

“You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t you get stuck in Iraq.”

Okay. Listen. These are the rules:

1. STOP SAYING STUPID SHIT LIKE THIS. Did Kerry mean to insult the soldiers and label them as an underclass of goblinlike creatures, or was he making a Fortunate Son kind of point? if the former, then he’s an even bigger asshole than I imagined he was; if the latter, then he botched it baaaaaaadly.
2. Stop puffing up in righteous indignation over something someone said and casting it as an insult to [insert group of people here] and then further acting like you give a damn about said insulted group of people. WE KNOW YOU DON’T. You’re a politician.
3. Stop demanding apologies on behalf of [insert group of people here] because they don’t like you any more than the other guy.
4. Stop getting all serious and self-righteous in response to the other guy’s self-righteous response to your stupidity. Like the saying goes, two pompous assholes don’t make a right.
5. Don’t go off script. Your handlers and speech writers all die a little each time you do and we have to put up with all this extra bullshit.
6. Just please shut up. God. I am so tired of the righteousness and the hysteria and the indignation and the fake care and all the other bullshit we are subjected to during a campaign. You are ALL bastards, okay?

The latest theory about left-handedness

I’ve come to accept that I will never know why I am left-handed; I just am. Here’s the latest theory that will, I predict, fail to stand up to scrutiny just as all the rest of them have failed:

“Left-handedness is established or ‘programmed’ during a baby’s early development in the womb, probably because of the amount of nutrition received during the pregnancy, according to new research by the University of Southampton.”

[via]

NASA announces a new servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope

“NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced plans for a fifth servicing mission to Hubble Tuesday during a meeting with agency employees at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Goddard is the agency center responsible for managing Hubble. Astronauts will use the Space Shuttle to bring new instruments to Hubble along with gyros, batteries and other devices crucial for the telescope’s continued success through the year 2013. At the end of SM4, Hubble will be at the peak of its capabilities.”

\o/

In a mood

…most foul.

Little people … and a terrible lizard

Little People – a tiny street art project

The mossballs saga continues

So.

This evening I almost acquired a small mossball. There was motive and opportunity, but ultimately I just couldn’t do it. And here’s why:

1. I didn’t want to risk being known as the woman who was caught stealing a mossball.
2. I didn’t want to risk being known as the woman who, instead of stealing a mossball, asked a store employee if she could just have one, a small one, you know … just because.

You see my dilemma.

It’s too bad really because it would make a great gift, and I know exactly who would have received it.

Bookish

I am gathering a small stack of books to send to a friend. I don’t want to overwhelm him but do want him to read certain books rather urgently. Some of them I need to get back from other people; some of them I’m not even sure he’ll like. He might hate them all.

It is always a gamble, isn’t it? That’s why I hesitate to say – and cringe when I catch myself doing so – “you must” read/see/hear something. I was told by numerous people that I must read A Confederacy of Dunces and, frankly, I could not stand that book. It was so unappealing to me that I didn’t bother to finish it.

Compiling anything for another person is an interesting process. Even if it is someone you think you might know rather well, there will be surprises. We all want the other person to have the same visceral reaction we had. We want them to enjoy it like we did. We want to not be crushed if they don’t because, really, we shouldn’t be.

I don’t know when I’ll finish this compilation or even how many books it will be. That will be as much of a surprise as his eventual reaction(s).

You know who you are. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

New form of ice

“Researchers looking for better ways to make and store hydrogen have accidentally discovered an entirely new kind of ice. Made of molecular oxygen and hydrogen, the highly energetic and as-yet-unnamed compound currently exists only under rarefied laboratory conditions. It is different from the 17 known forms of ice, but researchers think its discovery could advance understanding of the nature of water under extreme conditions, such as in the interior of planets and even inside nuclear reactors.”

I’m sorry … what? There are 17 known forms of ice? Why wasn’t I informed until now?

[via]