20 June 2006

Isolating iTUNES

Sea Hag,
I know you wanted a list of "sad (because someone I like doesn't like me) songs". This playlist is for you dearie!
:) LJS

My Doorbell The White Stripes
I Want To Be The Boy The White Stripes
Your Heart Is An Empty Room Death Cab For Cutie
16 Days Ryan Adams
La Cienega Just Smiled Ryan Adams
When Will You Come Back Home Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
A lover i don't have to love Bright Eyes
Land Locked Blues Bright Eyes
Jane Barenaked Ladies
Dear John Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
Honey Please, Can't Ya See Barry White
Standing In The Doorway Bob Dylan
The Blower's Daughter Damien Rice
The Brilliant Dance Dashboard Confessional
As I'm Leaving David Gray
Be Mine David Gray
Here With Me Dido
She Elvis Costello
I've Got A Crush On You Frank Sinatra
Looks Like Rain Grateful Dead
Lover, You Should've Come Over Jamie Cullum
Now You're Gorgeous, Now You're Gone Joe Firstman
Lies Joe Firstman
Split Screen Sadness John Mayer
Hurt Johnny Cash
Back to Me Kathleen Edwards
Your Eyes Open Keane
I Alone Live
Have Mercy Loretta Lynn
Miss Being Mrs. Loretta Lynn
One Of These Mornings Moby
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get Morrissey
I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday Morrissey
Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup Nat King Cole
Jealousy Natalie Merchant
Which Will Nick Drake
In your eyes Peter Gabriel
Jealous Guy Roxy Music
Let Down Radiohead
What Sin Replaces Love Ryan Adams
Possession Sarah McLachlan
I Love You Sarah McLachlan
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now The Smiths
I will not take these things for granted Toad the Wet Sprocket
All I want Toad the Wet Sprocket
Love Rescue Me U2
All I Want Is You U2
Space And Time The Verve
We're going to be friends The White Stripes

15 June 2006

Fear me!

Meander over to International ___ Day for some phobia pfun! :) ljs

11 June 2006

"Nice legs"

And with those two words, I had found a new meditation during today’s run.

Let me back up here. I don’t like running with music; I find it counter productive to my desire to be as unplugged as possible. Plus, it IS dangerous because you can’t hear cars, or some psychotic flasher/crazy person running after you. So, I look forward to my long runs because they’re a great chance to sort out my mind; separate out the good, the bad, and the ugly of psychic cowboys. My long runs have been a blessing, especially in difficult times. Today I was considering the misuse of the word “myriad”, living in the country versus the city, the emotional fortitude of vampires, and noting the beautiful landscaping in some yards.

I’m about 3 miles into my run and I pass by a *guy* who said to me “Nice legs” in response to my “hello”. Ummm, yeah. “Nice legs” is not, to the best of my knowledge, the most socially acceptable greeting but I laughed it off because it was just so surreal. As I ran on, I realized that I was simultaneously

a) weirded-out

b) disappointed at myself for being flattered for a millisecond. Gloria and Betty were so not happy with me and may revoke my membership in the “we are self-respecting women and thou shall not treat women as objects” group.

Overall, I figured that the *guy* was harmless but very inappropriate.

For the next 3 miles, I began to ponder the acceptability of such statements to total strangers, and I wondered why it was more likely that a man would say that to a woman but not vice versa, or even for a woman to say that to another woman. Now I’m curious. And, if a Gen X-er such as me is curious, then I will actually do something about it. Heh. As I’ve told Lord Mullett, “the world is our oyster, but all I want to do is take a nap”.

If you have a story or something to add, please do in the comments.

I use the word *guy* with intent because I was reminded from this quote from “Say Anything”: No. The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don't be a guy.

I'm off to re-read "Love in the Time of Cholera", it's a wonderful novel. It may even surpass "Wuthering Heights" as my favorite book.

Stay vertical, :) LJS

08 June 2006

Her Blondeness

If it’s not one thing, it’s another eh? As blogger is temporarily on hiatus, I am typing this blog on Word. It is not without a hint of irony that I said I am typing on Word, because it was giving me problems since last Thursday. I would try to open Word, and see…nothing…blankness. But, it would follow shortcut keys and actually open. I thought many things:

1) Oh drat, it’s the end of my productivity

2) A file is corrupted! Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

3) Office had gone beserk, despite the fact that all the other Office applications worked just fine

4) A spyware or virus had eaten Word as a tasty snack

5) By enabling a “feature” to save versions of my documents, I had unleashed the Hounds of Hell and they were attacking Word. Poor helpless little software. {sniff sniff}

So…trying to be e-savvy, I did the following. Reupdated virus definitions and ran Norton several times, bought (ack!) Spybot, uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003, defragmented my C drive, ran scan disk, and prayed to the all knowing Gatesian god from (longitudinally) above. Alas! None of this worked, although now I must mention how awesomely fast my computer is running. I know that y’all are wondering what caused this problem, and took away many hours of grad student productivity.

The answer is…


My blondeness.


Yeppo. In a blonde moment of epic proportions, I had *forgotten* that I was using two screens when I was visiting Montreal and hence did not revert my laptop back to the single screen. I was using Word on the 2nd screen, and my computer thought that I was still using 2 screens and THAT’s why I wasn’t seeing Word. When I switched back to a single screen mode, Word magically reappeared and all is now right. Egad, that was painful to even write. Damn, I need tequila.


Word out, yo. :) LJS

04 June 2006

More mundane running babble

Except that, maybe, it wasn't so mundane. I signed up to run a 10K, and today was the DAY of the Dexter-Ann Arbor run. Each year a 5K, 10K, and half-marathon is run along Huron River Dr. The road is quite scenic and totally worth getting up at 5:30 am (yes, Domie...AM) for it. I enjoyed the run immensely, gazing at the wild phlox, the poison ivy (itch itch itch), and the masses of people passing me by.
Today's journey starts at 5:30 am, no wait...5:00 am...when NPR started discussing religious tolerance in the Middle East. I dragged my butt out of bed, finally, at 5:30, and breakfasted on a yummy (oh so yummy) Montreal bagel (they're REAL good) and some coffee. Now, while I may have a fleet of pirate ships along the Oregon coast, I have no motorized transport here in my exile of Michigan. I just have a bicycle to get around. And, it was raining this morning. And, yours truly had to bike and slosch her way to the loading area where buses took us to the start. All I have to say right now is...thank you sweet lord for creating synthetic fabrics. Because, the all-powerful Oz knows that wet cotton really sucks to run in. So, no problem! Even though I was pretty soaked from my bike ride, I dried out quickly.
I ran with G-man, a post-doc in my lab, and the race started off without a hitch. Feeling semi-delerious, I thought that I could finish without taking my usual walk-breaks. Of course, I made that decision at mile 1 when the energy is still high, you're warming up and feeling good. So..maybe not the best time to go all egomanic on one's suffering legs. But, I stuck with it and only had one brief walk break for less than a minute. THAT, I was most pleased with. And, it did make a difference in my finish time. I broke my goal pace by ~30 seconds, and my pace was 10:36 min/mile.
Another bonus was seeing the elite runners finishing up the half-marathon. Imagine someone running 13 miles in the time it take you to run 6, the winner of the half-marathon had a pace of less than 5 minutes per mile...these men are zooming! It was awesome, and inspiring, to see them chugging faster than most scooters toward the finish. They even had a police escort, how awesome is that?
The last quarter of a mile was hell for me because I had side stitches and I wasn't about to walk. (bad ego, bad!) But, when we finished, I was happy because a) I finished and b) I made good on my goal to not use too many walking breaks. The post-run picnic was pretty tasty with all the usual suspects: chocolate cherry bread, bananas, and tons of water. I'm resting now but I feel great. Can't wait for October!
A big congrats to Mattie, who finished the half-marathon with an awesome pace of 7:13 minutes/mile! :D

Trodding along, :) LJS

30 May 2006

Anyone, anyone?

C'mon baby, twist and shout your way over to International ____ Day and check out what your favorite doctor pirate has in store for you on June 1st!
:)

19 May 2006

Monkeying around

I contribute to the Monkey Barn, it's great fun to blog with people who are fun and think in ways that are both alike and very different from me. We're on hiatus until the Barn Overlord (Hyperion) decides to let us play again. Bummer, indeed. To honor the temporary passing, and alleviate my high level of boredom, I thought it'd be fun to make a top 10 list of sayings that incorporate the word "monkey". And I'm currently listening to the Dead ("Looks like Rain", natch).

The ass-kicking top ten phrases/sayings that use the word "monkey" are...


10. Monkey Business:



9. Monkey see, monkey do:



8. Spank the monkey: no picture necessary
7. I'll be a monkey's uncle

6. "Why can't you do it? Why can't you set your monkey free? Why can't you do it? Do you love your monkey or do you love me?" (George Michael):

Hee hee hee. In light of (curious) George's escapades, these lyrics are tragically hip.

5. More Fun than a Barrel of Monkeys


4. "Oh boy, the monkey is going to pay." (The Simpsons, 32 Short Films About Springfield)

3. Monkey on your back

2.
Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees, and people say we monkey around

yeah, you knew this was coming...but who doesn't love "Sprockets"??

1.Vould you like to touch my monkey? Touch him! Love him!


OK, now I am as happy as a little girrrrllll.

Chow and Gatty five, :) LJS

12 May 2006

Evil Sith Queen


Today's it is cold and rainy, and I was wearing my raincoat with the hood on it. For some reason, I was thinking that I could easily be an evil sith queen because I already have the forebearing hood. I was even walking to the "Star Wars" theme too. My first item of business would be to eliminate all furry rodents from Canada, and use them in my evil experiments.
So, if you ever need a pirate doctor ala evil Sith queen, you know where to go. Admit it...a Sith pirate would kick ninja ass any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

The force is strong with this one.

01 May 2006

Orange food bender

Some people have "orange food days", I'm on an orange food bender. Seriously. I made a batch of Dragon's fine carrot soup with orange and tarragon on Saturday. So I am now enjoying the final tasty bits of that for lunch. And, orange candy after the race on Saturday, soup on Saturday, orange juice with breakfast, cheese and crackers for lunch, soup yesterday. I just hope I don't turn orange, like I've had an attack of self-bronzer.
I wonder what a purple food bender would be like. Ideas? And, does red wine count since the grapes were purple at one point??

28 April 2006

Lady Jane, you Goonie!

Heyyyyy you guys, I totally love "the Goonies"! I even travelled to Astoria, OR where they filmed the movie and I have a photo of me and a Baby Ruth bar (natch) in front of the Walsh house. Plus, there's an awesome pirate! Which of the Goonies is your favorite?

27 April 2006

Happy Trails!

I'm kinda psyched because I am running my first race this year on Saturday! I will be running with a couple of other folks in my lab, and so it should be a great time! It's *just* 5 miles on a hilly dirt trail, and I've been subjecting myself to various hills in training so I hope that I'm ready. Because I run pretty slow, and don't really care about how I place in my age group and all that other ego-related jazz, I'm just looking at Saturday's race to be a good run in a beautiful park. But...if I manage to run near 11 minutes/mile, it'll be icing on the cake.
Keep it real. :) LJS

PS: Yipppee! Marathons!
__________________________________________________________________
5/1/06 update: My time was...11:07 min/mile... which is good for my slow-poke self! Next up is the Ann Arbor-Dexter 10K on June 4th!











20 April 2006

April 21st, a 31st for one

I was reading an email from Mad Sweeney about defending his home from the brigands of New Jersey-ites, and it reminded me of my favorite passage from Rumi.

"The worth of a treasury is indicated by the many locks upon it. The greatness of a traveler's goal is marked by the intricate windings of the way, and the mountain passes to be endured, and the brigands infesting them"

Domie; Happy Birthday! Today we celebrate with you as you mark another trek around the sun. May your travels be marked with joy, love and difficult turns, for it is these that make the journey worthwhile. I thank you for a quiet ear, a happy laugh, many jokes, and your caring soul.

Hugs and kisses from afar. Love, LJS

PS...The Depends, denture fixatives, and large-print Readers' Digests are in the mail! :P

John Sinclair

Last year, I had seen John Sinclair present some of his poems at the Ann Arbor Library and I thought two things.
1) He is an amazing poet. Some people write poems to be read, John's poems are meant to be heard.
2) He does these presentations for himself as much as he does them to for the audience. It's evident that when he recites his poems, he is taken back to when he wrote it, to when he had these experiences.

With that in mind, I had written this.
_________________________________________________________
When I am an old man,
my beard will be wild.
I'll wear a fanny pack
my khaki's are torn
and, of course, my shirt is black.

My tales of lore, looking back
to a yesteryear where men were cats
and women were babes.
Take me away, my poem, take me
to my old glory days.

Of baseball and jazz and pot
I still think of Lennon (alot)
and my love of Monk grows
like Sunshine beads through my woes.

Take me away, my poem, take me
to my glory days.
When my rage would awaken
the sun, rise me too.
My cries howl with the hoardes.
My beat goes on and on.

My rages of youth replaced
by a calm and mellow oasis
slowly spreading
over my heart's arid landscape.
In my soul, I feel her
Somehow, through my pain.
I love, though, for sure.

Take me here, my poem, take me
to my glory days where I live.
My wife, my love.
I adore you until I have no more life.
Let my mouth tell you through and through.
All my days, I love you. I do.

19 April 2006

Release your inner ninja

Daniel-san writes so well that I can't help to contemplate grabbing some ninja jammies of my own. Enjoy his fine fine literary musings. If he's agreeable, I'll post more of his writing. But, hopefully he'll soon join the esurient mass of bloggers.
Setting sail, stealthly and in my jammies...
:) LJS

RELEASE YOUR INNER NINJA

By Daniel

Today, I have nothing to do. Well, I do, but my boss is on vacation

and when the cat is away, the mice will play. This is true in even

amongst the hardest groups of workers. Since I am stuck here in front

of my brain sucking computer, I thought I might share a few thoughts I

have had recently in an effort to get them out, make sense of them, and

then laugh at them. My wife says I have a sick sense of humor and often

wonders whether she should laugh or worry, so to clarify, you all may

laugh. No need to worry.

A few days ago, a member of a message board I was on posted an

aggravated question about his new neighbors and their desire to ride

un-muffled dirt bikes at one in the morning, and what he should do to

stop them. The suggestions that followed were those from every walk of

life (religious preference, ethnic background, law breaking, law

abiding, etc.). My suggestion? Learn the ways of the Ninja.

While the various people argued (people argue over anything

nowadays) back and forth over their beliefs, I plugged away with my

philosophy on what should be done. Mostly from a humorous standpoint.

My thoughts were well received by the originator, but as most people do,

the over-analytical political correctness of today's American took over

and my thoughts were discounted. To each his own. I sat back and

watched as the "love thy neighbor" crowd got their butt kicked by the

"kick his ass" crowd, and then trampled every rational idea in between.

It is just like us to argue so much that we move from the original

problem and begin attacking each other on a personal level. Which of

course leaves the individual with the problem standing there, shaking

their head in disbelief, and of course with no solution.

You are probably asking what this has to do with the Ninja. Well, in

reality, nothing. It is simply just a state of mind on how to deal with

a pesky neighbor. The Ninja today is more commonly acquainted with

something one may see on Saturday morning cartoons, or in a video game,

but the actual history of the Ninja is shrouded in secrecy. Today's

versions are merely modern interpretation of fables dating back 1100

years. In fact, the word Ninjitsu, which the word Ninja is derived

from, means "the art of stealth," and I can see where this could be

handy in dealing with the annoyance in question. You see, there is

nothing funnier than watching someone (the annoyance) get up quickly and

look around dumbfounded wondering what happened to them. Sort of like

falling flat on your face and then getting up to see if anyone saw it

happen. I think the art of stealth is a much more fun and satisfying

way to rid yourself of the pestilence next door. Some may argue that it

would be sinking to the level of said individual, and that the police

should be called or ask him nicely to stop, but I say, fight fire with

fire. Release your inner Ninja.

In the case of the midnight motocross, one could play many tricks to

curtail this behavior in the future, and not even break the law. The

first thing you will need is jammies. Yes, that's right, Ninja jammies.

Those solid black outfits that give the true Ninja his stealth. But

lets get creative. There is a certain creepiness about running around

in the woods at night, and even the most boozed up motorcycle rider as

invincible as they may seem, can easily have the bejesus scared out of

them. So along with your jammies, you'll need a ghoulish mask.

Something realistic. Next time Knievil gets on his bike for a midnight

cruise, don your outfit and head out into the woods. The biggest part

of the plan at this point is to figure your escape route. This is most

important as a true Ninja will never be apprehended. Once you have

figured out the plan, find a tree or any suitable shrubbery and hide

behind it. When the biker comes along, with perfect Ninja skill and

timing, jump towards the motorcycle, but not in front. Although you must

be seen to get the full effect of the scare, it would only be

momentarily, and will leave a lasting impression. Do not wait to see if

your plan worked, as escape in the opposite direction of your home is

more important. You will know your plan worked when the motorcycle goes

back inside never to be heard from again unless the sun is out. Then

sit back and revel in your success. Your spouse will wonder what you

are constantly snickering at, but you must never tell as a Ninja never

reveals his secrets.

***This article was written only as a parody. The world of the Ninja

can be very dangerous, and the writer assumes no responsibility for

injuries occured while attemping. Do not try this at home.

Professional driver on closed course. All models are over 18. Objects

in mirror are closer than they appear. If rash occurs, discontinue use

and seek professional medical treatment. This product not 100 percent

effective against preventing pregnancy.***

18 April 2006

Random Kvetch

I'm glad to see that even a fool hasn't pforgotten the fundamentals of running a company. I wish I could get paid $15 million/year to run a company to the ground. And my stock hangs out at $24/share like a unwashed drunken house guest at 4am. It's just not going anywhere...dammit.

17 April 2006

New...Everything!

Hey y'all,
I redid the whole damn blog! New name, new link, new template, new links! Wowee-zowee! I adore the artwork, many thanks to Selina for being so nice to us bloggers.
And, thanks to Hypey for "letting me" use the template 'cause it really wouldn't have fit in the Institute...anywhere.
Ahoy! :) LJS

Friendly

I love Ohio, people are super friendly and kind. I thoroughly enjoyed my run yesterday in Hinckley Metropark yesterday because I saw so many people who said "good morning" and "hello" back to me. Contrast that to my experiences here in Michigan where people will look at you, after you've greeted them, and completely ignore you. It's still a culture shock for me, especially after growing up in Ohio and going to undergrad in Wheeling aka "the friendly city" WV. Have you experienced anything like that?
:) LJS

11 April 2006

Unpimp

I'm totally digging the "Unpimp" VW commercials, many thanks to Monkey Boy for the link.

da Blog has a contest!!

Yours truly is a runner. Well, come to think of it, I should be saying I am a foot shuffler. Semantics aside, my old pair of Mizunos has seen better days and I am retiring them to the land of casual tennis shoes. They will be very happy indeed. The retirement party will involve tequila.
I have two (yes, two!) new inductees to the LJS method of torturing shoes, otherwise known as long-distance running, and I'd like to bond with them. In addition to running in them, I want to name them. Actually, I'd like you to help me name them. So...I'm holding the first-ever grand and exciting contest on da Blog. And it is "Name my Shoes". Awesomely cool huh?
To get you started, I'll give you my ideas. I want your comments people!

a) Spunky and Kinky
b) Fred and Barney
c) Dick and Jane
d) Betty and Boop

Happy trails, :) LJS

08 April 2006

The Joy of Discovery

After spending a day impaling little mousey legs onto a thumb tack, I was getting pretty sick of the minutae of doing research such as the pettiness and frustration and (sometimes) egotism that is typically associated with these endeavors. Last night I saw Samuel Ting, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, speak. This dude found a new subatomic particle, the J quark, that has properties that are very different from other quarks. He won his Nobel prize only two years after publishing his discovery, which is the shortest amount of time anyone has won a Nobel after publishing.
And, he loves UM football.
Earning your respective field's top accolade gives one a unique perspective and I was very curious on what he would talk about. He had five lessons, based on his career. The last lesson, the one I like most, was always find joy in discovery. Think about that. The joy of discovery. How simple, how wonderful.
How many times have you found something new or seen things in a different light? How do you feel afterwards? Excited, happy to learn, joyful? Or, depressed because you don't have things "right" and your safe haven of reality is thrown off kilter?
I'm off to discover the effect of diabetes on bone health. Even though the data analysis is routine, I'm excited because I'll be discovering something new. With spring here, there are so many chances for new discoveries and much joy. The crocus flowers, the chirping robins, new career opportunities, watching amourous squirrels chase each other, new loved ones.

PS, This morning in yoga class, I learned where my kidneys are located. I've been wrong all these years! Cool huh?