Hey everyone! Figured I'd drop this tid-bit of information here, the movie club will be back next week. I have been bogged down at work recently so I decided to push everything a week. Sorry about that but I'll have the next voting thread up on Monday!
Full Disclosure: I have not seen or discussed any of the films in the hubski movie club. But I do discuss films with thoughtful friends, so here's my one cent: There's no need to "discuss" movies if you went for fun and distraction. Some movies more than others might be enhanced with discussion. Any movie that makes you ask "What was that about?" might be worth discussion. On the surface the film might be about "a woman suffers from early onset Alzheimer's" (Still Alice) -- and yeah, that's what it's about. But even more so, I'd say the film is about how families deal with change...and that's where the interest might be for younger viewers -- if anyone under 40 gets around to seeing that movie. Here's some other things to consider: Did the protagonist change? Is that the story: how someone goes from one world view, belief, position, attitude, affection, affectation to another? Do you think about the movie at least once the next day? If "yes" -- then why. Did it strike you emotionally? Why? That might be a good beginning point of discussion. What do you think?
Scored an internship!! Just found out last night. I'll be at a law firm in the empire state building, and who cares what they'll tell me to do, it's paid and it's awesome. I'm incredibly lucky for this. My spring break went abruptly from break to crunch-time though, and I'll be off the 'Ski as I prepare for that, as well as a concert this Saturday at my music school :) ^One of the pieces I'll be playing on Saturday. It's gorgeous, and nothing technically difficult, but just controlling myself through all the intricate details in the composition is challenge enough. Oof, gettin busy again! :S
Sidenote, I stopped by the Barnes Foundation art collection while in Philadelphia. Happened to learn about Wols, an artist whose tiny works were hung up between Cezannes and Modiglianis, and many people seemed to skim over them. I loved his stuff, everyone should check him out.
I'm sick :( too much walking outside in the freezing cold in NYC.
Friend got me a cool figurine, I think she noticed how much Boulder is wearing me down. Aced the three tests I had this last Monday, even though my last test ended at 9PM, my last bus to my apartment leaves at 8:30, and it was 15F outside. And I finally got my tax return, so I was able to put enough into my savings to hit "I can buy a car HOLY SHIT FINALLY" territory, if I do some looking around, with enough to save over for a PS4 because you know what l'oreal I'm fucking worth it. Edit: Oh yeah, also my professor wants me to take his place for a lecture on representation in Video Games in a few weeks. Not sure if I'm gonna do it.
I was finally able to do my taxes too - did 'em V-Day. I love getting a nice chunk of return. I actually might be able to buy a new laptop this year (on top of my house fund) - my laptop's been dying-dying-dying for a long time and I tried to replace it with an iPad almost exactly a year ago. The transition wasn't smooth and the iPad screen's shattered (thanks cat) which costs $250 to replace which is just...not worth it. So a year after I was like "holy shit I need to prepare for this monster to die" I might actually be able to get a functional replacement! - or do you guys think I should try and eke out another year? :D Had the POS since at least 2012. The disk drive started making a clicking noise constantly and randomly so I just took it out like, last year. Three of the 4 USB hubs work intermittently at best (they might not work at all, tbh). I have Open Office and haven't updated in forever and OO is another POS anyway. Oh, and something's wrong with/stuck onto/dragging on either the mousepad or the mouse nub, because sometimes, randomly, my mouse will start dragging in an upwards diagonal on the screen. It's a real fun laptop!
So you know your funds and how much you care about getting a new laptop than I do But Just hearing you describe that laptop has me cringing like a motherfucker. Especially the USB thing, that's a huge pet peeve of mine. And mousepad moving on its own, gah. So I'm going to say yes, three-ish years is enough time to upgrade imo, especially if it's working for you that poorly. And if you want something that last's a while, I'd get a macbook. Busted my ass a whole summer to get mine, but I also don't think I'll need to buy another laptop for another 3 years - and that's including the two I've already had this thing for. Knocks on every piece of wood in the bar
It's kind of hilarious to me how broken the laptop is, that is, when it's not infuriating. The laptop's slow af too, of course. I started uninstalling programs so they wouldn't automatically start with the laptop (yes, I'm not that technologically advanced, either, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to stop Spotify from doing that. And Spotify made start-up take probably 10 minutes before I could really use the laptop). You're describing my dream, specifically, I really want an Air. I will be able to swing it shortly and I really do think it's time to buy a new laptop because I think one day my current one is going to refuse to start up or something and I'll be left with a brick. I'll let you guys know. If I really feel like treating myself I'll get a mechanical keyboard and plug it into the new laptop (suppose that's not possible with an Air now that I think of it) and be Really Trilly Fancy.
It's possible to plug a mech into an air. Monoprice has a really nice $60 mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Blues.
There are two Airs in this house, primarily because a well-specc'd Air ends up benchmarking higher than a low-end Pro for less money. Are you on OS X currently? 'cuz the Apple Tax is a real thing, but it does buy you a nicer neighborhood in many regards. Gaming is not one of them.
gaming has really improved on Mac since Steam. Have you tried Darkest Dungeon? I've currently got about 30 hours sunk into it.
No, but it looks so awesome! Worth it, you would say? Also: fantastic comment on my post, by the way.. Funny enough, last game I could think of that passed the Bechdal test was Hyperdimension Neptunia.. That's a sure sign were in a bad place gaming wise.
definitely worth the scratch, especially since it's going to have two more areas once it is out of early access. Hard, kind of unforgiving, very playable. If you're on the fence, look at BaerTaffy's youtube let's play to see if you like it. Edit: It also technically passes the Bechdel Test, if you call what the characters do around the fire as "talking".
LAWL My behemoth, possibly-stolen (though not by me), slowly-dying Dell is running what I think is XP. I think I have OS X on my phone. No idea about the iPad, but I either need to shell out $250 to get the front re-glasses, or mostly-brick it. Don't game much, actually. Not at all.
my professor wants me to take his place for a lecture on "representation" in Video Games in a few weeks.
That's fantastic. Huge topic though. Is representation consistent - or does he want you to choose perhaps the top 5 video games. What representation concerns the professor? Race? Gender? Does the professor have a "thesis statement" that the two of you can debate?
He's basically leaving it up to me, since I've broached the subject a couple of times. I'd talk about race and gender, for sure. And probably consistency - or lack thereof, considering that 2 of the top 5 games as defined by Metacritic are GTA games, one is a game about rescuing a princess, 1 has a bunch of girls in sexualized armor, 1 is a Sports game, and 4 out of 5 have no Black characters.
I would be hugely excited so instead I am mega thriller pumped for you and I hope that you get to use this as an opportunity to say many important things you would like to say, and feel deeply about, in regards to this topic. Don't be intimidated. You have a perspective on this subject many of your classmates don't, and may not even have considered. Doooood, totally do it. Put it on your resume or write a blog about the experience. Keep it.
That's a big class. If you accept this mission... you could be helping those 150 students see video games in a new way. It might be interesting to start by asking them what messages they think video games deliver (about the representees or absence of them). What is the actual course called?
Sounds like the Computers and their Impact on Society class everyone had to take when I was an undergraduate. Everyone had to give a lecture. It was at 8 in the morning, and this was a commuter school so everyone had to wake up at wtf in the morning to make it. Because of that and the fact that absolutely no one wanted to take the class, you lost a letter grade every time you were absent. I talked about free software. Someone actually said "but that's communism! That's not how we do things in America!" out loud and I couldn't think of a response other than "that might be the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to me." The professor laughed his ass off and called me 'Comrade bfv' the rest of the semester. Hated that class.
That sounds way worse than my class, haha. Luckily not every student does a lecture in this class, the Prof. just approached me because he saw some of my gaming stuff (I have no idea how he found it, actually). Brb making a Hubskina character named "Comrade." He'll be a pirate.
Have you seen the latest Extra Credits episode? It might be a good leeway into the topic of gender in gaming.
We meet with the accountant next week to do this. I am not looking forward to how much money I owe. Enjoy the car! What kind are ya thinking? Lease? Used car? Super old used car? Craigslist? Good luck!
I think everyone should drive total pieces of shit when they're young. It builds character. My first three cars cost $1850 combined. Not that I don't love driving sweet cars, but there's a je ne sais quoi in being young and not giving a fuck that your mirror could fall off again at any moment.
Bourgeois pig. I bought 3 cars for $350 all in when I was 16. Hell, I got a '72 Ranch Wagon and a '66 Corvair Monza for free for hauling them off; parted out the Ranch Wagon for $500 and sold the Corvair for $600. The first "college car" to replace the fact that the Monster wouldn't drive without a cooling system redesign was a '77 Ford Granada bought at auction for $125. I sold it a month later for $900 in a different city, bought a $350 synthesizer and a '77 Scirocco with a salvage title for $200. It became my all-around off-road beater; I used to flog it up logging roads on weekends. Remember coming around a corner that I didn't know was a corner while I was in mid-air and thinking "I'm going to roll this thing." My next thought was "but I can probably walk to the road from here and I paid $200 for it." Liberating. I didn't actually roll it and spent the rest of my afternoon not pretending to be Colin McRae.
I literally drove one car until it seized up. Why? Because I could. The car was basically $100 and some sweat equity. I had a Plymouth Horizon (replica pictured below) that had holes in the floor that I covered with ply wood. It was referred to as the Flintstone Mobile, because you could see the road below as you drove. It also had no heat and well, this was Michigan. There were times that I would literally hold the car lighter in my hand to keep warm. Also, I would drive for a mile and have to get out and scrape the freezing windows again. It was awful and was essentially a death trap. How my parents ever let me drive that is beyond me. 
bought a '77 skylark for $250 the engine. Ended up fixing it instead. Drove that piece of shit to Ministry in San Diego in back; that vintage Skylark has a water-soluble windshield seal and it snowed the entire 1200 mile journey. Tried to dogleg around some debris and the tires were so bald (and buicks are such shitty handlers) that I spun out and punched out the rear drivers-side door on a parked VW Golf. Golf was fine. Buick was bent. We pulled the door off with a cumalong thinking we'd replace it (I had revolving "have a penny" credit with two local junk yards) only to discover the fucking unibody was bent. So I had a 3-door buick. Drove it that way for another year because money and interest was going elsewhere. It came up in a County Council meeting about the epidemic of "abandoned cars" plaguing my town. A couple people stood up and said "no, the scary kid drives that thing every day."
A couple people stood up and said "no, the scary kid drives that thing every day."
-That is fucking hilarious. The scary kid, -I love it.
The shittiest car I ever drove was a Pontiac Lemans (not the cool muscle car; the shitty 80s garbage bucket of the same name). My guess is you would never let your kids drive cars as terrible as what we drove. I don't blame you. Basic safety seems reasonable. But, hey, we didn't die! And it wasn't for lack of trying.
I think I know what to get you for Christmas this year:
One of my best friends had a Lemans and we loved it. He was a crazy fucking driver. He loved to pass cars on the median and to pass cars on the right that were in the right lane. Crazy guy. He's now a pretty successful actor. We are lucky to be alive.
Among the dumbest things I have ever done in my life is driving like that while riding as dirty as it is possible to ride, and without a license the four of us. We were breaking so many laws I can't even piece together what would have happened to us if we'd been caught.
I was once openly doing lines of cocaine on a barroom table in Honolulu, because... it felt like it should be legal. I mean, it's not really the US. Ah, what a young idiot I was. Now I'm a much older idiot.We were breaking so many laws I can't even piece together what would have happened to us if we'd been caught.
I hear ya.
I'm boring. Life is boring. I spent yesterday in the land of Frustration. Today I am in the valley of Slight Irritation and headed to the river of Vague Discontent. -- House fell through - parental concerns about the neighborhood won out. I didn't realize how much I wanted to move out until I thought I was going to move out. In the course of one exuberant weekend I had already started thinking about design styles and sorting through my possessions to get rid of all the old crap I didn't need to carp into my beautiful, Brand New House. I've looked at the listing for every house in half the county in my price range. Got nada. Seeing three houses tomorrow but whatever. Now I'm looking at houses in double my price range just for funsies. It might be called "encouraging" that I want nothing in those price ranges either. The dearth I see on the market isn't my price range; I suppose it's my taste. At least I know I'm not going to jump and settle on something just to get out. Also GOD people have some terrible taste, by which I mean "personalized" taste, I suppose. I've seen walls the brightest, most awful shades of green, pinkish-red, and so on. Why wouldn't you paint before you put the house on the market? PAINT IT ALL IN NEUTRAL. Sadly nothing can help interior wood siding. EDIT: I'm actually at the point where I find new listings on my own faster than my realtor can send them to me with his once-daily automated little system. -- After giving up on the lovely house in a fit of "might as well fucking do SOMETHING" I applied to one super-selective super-special all-costs-paid grad program. With the idea of, "well can't go to grad school if I have a mortgage, guess I can give this one stupid shot," and also "my brother wanted me to apply there, he also applied there." Got the confirmation they'd received everything today and should hear mid-March. Not expecting anything. Odds are less than 1000:1 I'd get in, I'd have to quit my job if accepted, and I wrote my cover letter that day. -- Crush on bartender is "same as it ever was," aka, gloriously obvious and going strong since the early summer. He feeds into it some, but I don't think he's interested in dating (or dating me) at the moment. That's really okay, as I keep saying, because I can see why the relationship might not work in practice. All I know is that I just want to talk to him all day, basically. - I'm boring. Life is boring. Things will get better. This is winter's final frigid push and the warm weather will finally be here and maybe then I'll be able to persuade myself to exercise with a vengeance the way I want. More houses will go on the market and some of them will even be beautiful and I will find one in a good neighborhood, or my house will stay on the market until spring, we'll tour the neighborhood and realize it's okay, and I'll buy it. I'll pine after my crush forever and ever until he realizes it's time to give it a shot and we'll do it and we'll be in love forever! (More likely: my attention/patience will fade as I find people who more actively reciprocate my affections.) (But disclaimer: Crush has lasted since early-summer at this point, which by my standards is fairly impressive, and I find I have oddly accurate & good memories of our interactions to date, which is spooky.) Blah blah blah blah for now, though. blah blah blah blah - One super shining point, since the bf and I broke up, I've saved like a crapton of money mysteriously. Guess it's from not driving to & from Philly all the time, and also not going out so much or so decadently, and also only paying for me (we traded off).
Did my exit counseling for my student loans and signed up for an account with my loan provider. Made a tentative budget, but I might just use YNAB instead. Also thinking about getting a credit card since I don't have one. Probably a Discover It card if I can get approved. Money is weird.
Make an Excel spreadsheet for your budget and don't spend $60 on YNAB. Or, I mean, if you find YNAB worth $60, go on and buy it, but I manage to keep a budget, pay my bills on time (and extra), save, and etc., without YNAB and without allocating every penny. I think budgets are fun numbers problems. I like to make them. The hard part of a budget is not making the budget. It is sticking to it.
I'm one step ahead of you on that one, I've just seen people raving about YNAB lately and got intrigued. I'll probably stick to my custom spreadsheet because, you know, pivot tables and stuff like that are amazing tools. Do you use a budget? I'm assuming yes from your comment.
Here you go, download their free budget planning Excel sheet It's a little simplistic but it'll do everything YNAB does and get you in the ballpark.
Provisional marks, but I got a distinction for my 10 minute composition hand in and a merit (2 marks off of a distinction) for my essay on how genre impacts the creator. I was hoping for distinction, so was a little disappointed, but the feedback was great and I've got some solid points to work on for my dissertation. I'm still waiting for feedback on the projection mapped skull project.
As I've mentioned in the resolutions roundup, things are going pretty sweet here. I didn't think I could top the awesome year that was 2014, but 2015's looking to be even better. Because I have nothing else to say than "I'm happy", here's a neat poem I heard today: Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope —
not the prudent gates of Optimism, which are somewhat narrower;
nor the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;
nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness, which creak on shrill and angry hinges
(people cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through);
nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna be all right.”
"Hope," by Victoria Safford. But a different, sometimes lonely place,
the place of truth-telling,
about your own soul first of all and its condition,
the place of resistance and defiance,
the piece of ground from which you see the world both as it is
and as it could be,
as it will be;
the place from which you glimpse not only struggle, but joy in the struggle.
And we stand there, beckoning and calling,
telling people what we are seeing, asking people what they see.
I mentioned the other day that I've been making microcolumns. They're tiny hollow cylinders (1/10th of a milimeter in diameter) filled with even smaller beads and are used in protein purification right before one injects those proteins into a mass spectrometer for analysis. Columns has been used in biology since before I was born, so normally this would be a trivial topic, but this lab is pretty particular about their sepcs, so I have the fun of cutting, filling, and washing these things myself. Still in trivial territory, but because making them is a somewhat stochastic process with an almost infinite number of ways to fuck it up, I like to multiplex the task. So I've been fencing off the area around three helium tanks and running back and forth between the bombs (smaller tanks that the columns are attached to), switching out buffers and beads, trying to get something that isn't snapped or blocked somewhere along the line. Unfortunately, these tanks have a very specific order of operations when moving the compressed air around. There are 5 valves that need to be closed or opened before I can remove the column or buffer from the bomb. When done correctly, you hear a small woosh and nothing flies in your face. When done incorrectly I either hear a loud bang, the column turns into a gusher, or the column shoots out at a high velocity. If chance has it that it collides with the ceiling at the right angle, I get what appears to be a game of darts.
Today makes one week with no meat. ButterflyEffect, how are you doing?
Two weeks in, doing good. No time to make dinner tonight but tomorrow or Friday I'm making lentil soup, should carry over for a couple days. Thinking about making quinoi and black bean burgers sometime.
"Awww... what a cute idea," -my wife in regards to the finger prints on the inside. I was honored to receive this BLOB_CASTLE
I'm never participated in a Pubski because I don't know what it is. What is it? Also, you're welcome! I did the exterior, Kathryn did the interior and envelopes. It was a very fun process making those.
Imagine that you are sitting at a bar, I just walked in and said to you, "hey man, I got the save the date." I then catch the bar tenders eye and say, "I'll have what he's having." and you say, well, what do you think?" and I reply, "I was honored and my wife really dug the art." and so on....
That's what I imagined. Well this is a nice thing going on then. If you can make it that's be great, if not, totally cool too. I imagine traveling and having to consider a bunch o' babies could be an issue.
Yeah, it's not likely... but we'll see. Again, I'm definitely honored, it's really cool of you to invite us. Cheers! Now that we're at the pub, any new music to share?
Yeah man, definitely. In terms of stuff I'm been listening to or created? I'll answer both. I've been enjoying the music of the Project Trio a lot lately.
I'm currently making dinner and am listening to a recording I took of a gig I had on Thursday. It was the first time I played in Portland and it was with my roommate and another rural music teacher.
I've developed a conviction to practice a lot lately, and it's certainly been paying off. Gimme something that'll make my ears weep with joy.
Damn, when that cello starts in, is a pretty kick ass moment. I dig this, love me some jazz flute. Ears weeping with Joy? Have some Nusrat:
Pleasantly surprised. Also, I'm making these things: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-orzo-wit-158228 http://www.livestrong.com/article/447896-how-to-cook-couscous-in-a-rice-cooker/
That orzo recipe looks very tasty! Did you buy the orzo or was it left in a dumpster, unopened somewhere?
My dumpster days are behind me (for now). I actually have an interesting story regarding the orzo. (The meal turned out very delicious. One of my favorites to date). So, I was in Portland for the last few days and had been wanting to go to People's Food Co-Op near where Kathryn lives. That's where I went, bought the orzo in bulk, got a great price.
Over the Summer, I was biking along near People's, and I saw Fred and Carrie of Portlandia filming there. I stopped, tried to get a picture, but a cronie shooed me away before I got proof for this story. Carrie did smile at me.
Well, the clip they were filming was in an episode in this new season (Season 5 Epidsode 3).
Nothing substantial about the story, but it was really cool seeing them. I've seen them filming another time at the feminist community center (they get upset when you call it a bookstore) as it's across the street from the music center I rent instruments from for my students. Fred was walking around one day in his skirt, all nonchalant.
The other tune you posted was very nice. I love when bands incorporate horns in and do it well.