"mind-shifting realities" written by Museumchick on estrip.org

Category: books

06/09/08 11:28 - 83ºF - ID#44593

mind-shifting realities

Aaron came up for a couple of hours yesterday, and we went yesterday to the beach. It's been a long time since I've been to the beach, I really enjoyed it. It was really good seeing him. Afterwards, we went to this cemetery in town and looked up war monuments and memorials. I know that probably sounds morbid, but it was interesting.

i just finished up a research project last week, so I'm looking for a job. I also want to get my license (it's kind of a long story why I don't have one). I'll let you guys know when I'm taking the test, so you won't be out on the road that day.

I just finished reading several good books. One book was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and the other was Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. Dick's book was good, but it's hard to wrap your mind around it. A lot of it deals with transitive realities, mind-shifting drugs, and the corruptibility of organized religion and power. In the end, you have no idea what is real or what truly existed. I like some of his other books better, but I would recommend it. I definitely would recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns. It's amazing. I don't even have the words to describe how great of a book that truly is.

Permalink: mind_shifting_realities.html
Words: 229
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: life

06/08/08 12:12 - 72ºF - ID#44582

summer and babies

It's been a good weekend so far. Yesterday, I ended up dropping off some things at Buff State (long, long story). At any rate, I was able to get a ride up there with my parents. We ended up going to the Galleria, and we had dinner at this restaurant called Jack Astor's. It was a chain restaurant, but I liked it. Today, I went out with my friend and her daughter (she's about a year old) to the local Ribs festival out in Celeron. (I don't eat pork products, but I received confirmation from various sources for their rib excellence).

I really enjoy spending time with that particular friend and her daughter. I can talk to her about things that I normally wouldn't feel comfortable speaking about with other friends. I like being around her little girl a lot. It's fun watching her constantly learn new words and new ways of doing things. We take her daughter out shopping or to the park a lot.

I've been realizing more and more over the past year of how much I want to be a parent. Not now, but someday, I would love that. I don't know if I can have children. Women with lupus can definitely have children, but I have a relatively severe form of it.

It is kind of cool to be Aunt Jessi to all my friends kids, though! You get to have all the fun without doing very much of the work.

Permalink: summer_and_babies.html
Words: 246
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: movies

05/25/08 11:25 - 59ºF - ID#44452

i'm not exactly jeff simon

I finally saw Juno today. I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It was funny and it seemed to get better as it went along, but the first half of the movie didn't seem quite as good. Maybe I didn't give it a fair chance.

One movie that did exceed my expectations was August Rush. It surprised me how much I enjoyed watching it recently. I thought it might be kind of lame, but it really wasn't. I really found myself rooting for the characters and enjoying the way that their stories came together. I definitely enjoyed the music in the movie. Even if its not exactly treading new ground, it was worth renting.

I'd like to see "There Will be Blood," "Eastern Promises," and "No Country for Old Men" (Saw part of it recently, it's great so far).

Permalink: i_m_not_exactly_jeff_simon.html
Words: 152
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: life

05/21/08 12:37 - 48ºF - ID#44405

(just go ahead now)...

It's been a little awhile since I've updated.

So here's what's been going on:
1. The semester ended last week. I was able to get a 3.9 this time, which helped.

2.A few weeks ago, I went with some friends to the albany tulip festival. We listened to the Spin Doctors play. The music wasn't the greatest (except for two princes, lol) but the festival was really fun!
Here are some photos that I took:

3.

Last Saturday, I packed up my stuff and headed out for Rochester. After I got there, A. and I went to the same amazing brewery that we did on New Years Eve. They have wonderful Irish beer. The next day, we stopped at Letchworth State Park on the way home. I'll have to post some of the waterfall photos soon. I love it there. It's definitely one of the gems of western new york. Then A. took me back to Jimmytown, and we ended up going to dinner with my dad and sister.

4. It's good being back with the family for awhile.

Permalink: _just_go_ahead_now_.html
Words: 185
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: photos

04/26/08 11:04 - 52ºF - ID#44161

a few April photos

Permalink: a_few_April_photos.html
Words: 8
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: news

04/24/08 04:26 - 67ºF - ID#44127

pregnant men

The first pregnant man?

This was a story I found about a guy who carried his twin in his stomach for almost forty years:

(I never knew something like that could happen as well).

Permalink: pregnant_men.html
Words: 47
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: family

04/23/08 09:20 - 57ºF - ID#44120

wishing

I wish I could help out my parents more with financial stuff and things that they need. My dad had to stop working a couple of years back because of illness that was pretty serious. He has a good attitude about his disease, even though he's in pain most of the time. My dad gets a pension which is decent and my mom works part-time, but the medical bills are high.

I'd like to help them with their bills. I also wish I could buy them a stove that actually worked, and a good dryer. I'd buy them the materials to fix the porch. I'd treat my mom to a vacation because is under a lot of stress much of the time.

I don't make a very big salary. After paying rent and bills- it's hard to find much extra. I wish there was more I could do for the people I cared about.

Everything is going well here. It's a little stressful the next couple of weeks with papers/projects/grading/teaching etc. I've really been liking the school and my job lately. I've felt a lot better about both this semester. I may have a couple of part-time jobs this summer that might be decent. I'm not 100% sure if they are hiring me, though.

Thank you all for the advice about the internet stuff. I have been using safari as my default browser, and I really like it. I may try firefox too.

Permalink: wishing.html
Words: 245
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: tech

04/12/08 08:32 - 39ºF - ID#43993

a (silly) question

I was wondering... if you had to make a choice between Internet Explorer and Safari as a web browser, which one would you pick? I've always had IE, and recently Safari was downloaded for me along with the newest version of Itunes. I was trying to figure which would be the best as my default browser.

It was another gorgeous, warm day here. I love it! I went to a coffee shop and just sat outdoors and did my work. I felt so much better to be able to do that in the fresh air.

The sky today:

jenks writes at 03:09:22 04/13/08 - Comment #33868: anything but IE.

zobar writes at 01:27:43 04/13/08 - Comment #33863: My web-development browser is Firefox, but my web-browsing browser is Safari. Firefox is quick and has better geek tools, but Safari's even snappier and, at least on a Mac, looks better. IE is sluggish, does terrible things to web pages, is difficult to develop for, and kicks puppies.

But if you're the kind of person who's ok with puppy-kicking, maybe you're also the kind of person who's ok with using IE. Just saying. (-:

- Z

metalpeter writes at 11:30:38 04/13/08 - Comment #33855: First of all Nice Picture. In terms of what one to use as your default. I would say I like Firefox myself but it isn't my default. The thing you need to remember is that some sites work best with each one, it is really about what interface you like the best. I myself like firefox the best. I think for fun you should play around with all of them. Go to all your main sites with each one and do different things and see how there downloads are and viewing picture sites and things like that and just keep your default your default one for now. It might even be that your default is different from how you go online. For example my mother has Verizon DSL I think it is and goes on line with MSN I think. I can go on that way but I don't have MSN mail or anything so I just click on firefox or sometimes Safari just to test it out and then go on the web.

paul writes at 01:22:23 04/13/08 - Comment #33847: Wow I think I left out some words there, lol.

paul writes at 01:01:11 04/13/08 - Comment #33846: I still prefer firefox. but I also use safari a bunch. Anything beats IE. Firefox on PC will allow for you to get lots of cool extensions that browsing the web that much cooler or efficient. I would suggest Firefox.

james writes at 09:10:15 04/12/08 - Comment #33845: I used Firefox for years until I switched to a Mac. Safari has a lot of the same features and plugins available. But if you are running Windows, Firefox is pure gold.

libertad writes at 08:41:53 04/12/08 - Comment #33843: That is such a beautiful pic! I use FireFox and I like it a lot.

Permalink: a_silly_question.html
Words: 100
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: life

04/07/08 02:40 - 62ºF - ID#43935

the first sounds

After work today, I sat outside under the trees, listening to podcasts and eating lunch. It felt so great to be out in the warm weather and fresh air. I've been feeling happy in general lately.

One of the podcasts I was listening to (NPR Science Friday) is about some of the first recorded sounds, some created by french scientists before Edison developed phonographic technology. Some of those first sounds are actually on this website (

).
There are actually photoautograms sounds from 1857 on it. It's not very discernible, but I still find it interesting. The first guy who really developed this kind of technology was a french scientist. He wasn't interested really in the idea of records. Mostly, he just wanted to translate sound into a record on paper. I guess that was where he and Edison differed.

Oh, and I went with a friend lately to a good Indian restaurant downtown (Gandhi's). I wasn't sure if that was the one (e:James) had suggested to me, but I liked it. They made excellent Naan(?) bread and a chicken dish that I can't remember the name of.