It's been awhile. Except for my erroneous post about the elephant, over two weeks in fact. I've been away from the computer a lot, and been engrossed with house guests and Dragonball Z (I found out I could download all the episodes auf Deutsch). I'm also lost in some new boring state of mind. The new place hasn't helped, in fact, I think the new ultra-comfort level may be making it worse. Why ever leave such a nice cozy space? I'm struggling with all the normal problems. What should I be doing with myself? Should I be doing something with myself at all? What is something? Should it mean something? Open-mindedness can lead you down a bewildering road. I've become so open-minded that I have trouble drawing any kind of conclusions. Especially when it comes to myself.

I always feel that something's got to change. I feel this way almost constantly, and have for years now. But looking back, things have changed. I've moved between places (cities, states, countries, continents), between friends, between different ways of looking at life. I've considered myself a student of math, music, politics, and science. I've tried-out a couple different relationships, and even altered the basic unit of a relationship. And after all that, I'm still looking for something.

The guy sitting behind the couch tells me now that the problem is that I'm trying to alter my environment when what I should be altering is myself. I agree to a certain extent. Maybe I'm set in this pattern of searching for a perfect world that I'm just not ready to find. Maybe I've been sitting in it for years and haven't been able to recognize it for what it is. Maybe. But maybe there really is some other type of experience that is out there waiting for me. I don't believe in destiny, but I do believe in infinity, which means there's always going to be many more experiences out there than I can possibly fit in one lifetime. And it comes back to the decision, which I'm so bad at, making a choice. So I slide along, waiting for things to bump me into new ruts, and never taking the wheel in my own hand.

when you have this:



In Aceh, India the elephants are helping with the relief effort. Wow.

Mexican food is my favorite. I like to eat it all the time. One of my favorite recipes is for tasty chicken enchiladas in a green (verde) sauce. They are tastalicious, and oh-so bad for you. Like all my favorites, it combines just about all types of dairy products: butter, cheese, cream, and you can have sour cream on top!!! Here's a link to the recipe (which I dabble a bit with, so feel free to dabble a bit yourself).



Voila! The finished product! And I can't believe I managed to post the whole thing before diving in.

Five major libraries (The Oxford University library, the New York Public Library and three big US university libraries - Michigan, Stanford and Harvard) have teamed up with Google to make portions (or in some cases, all) of their book collections available online. The idea is to allow Google users to search through the actual page-by-page contents of books when using the Google interface. The service is called Google Print and their web page has an example:

"To use Google Print, just do an ordinary Google search. For example, when you search on "Books about Ecuador Trekking" or "Romeo and Juliet," and we find a book that contains content that matches your search terms, we'll show links to that book at the top of your search results. Click on the book title and you'll see the page of the book that contains your search terms, as well as other information about the book. You can also search for other topics within the book. Click "Buy this Book" and you'll go straight to an online bookstore selling it. If the book was scanned from a library, click the library link to find a local library that has it."

This sounds pretty neat and I think it is about time that we get the books digitized and available to the masses. I'm just wondering what the catch is. According to Google, as long as the book is not copyrighted (which means most "classics" and stuff older than 50-100 years), it will be available in its entirety (which is already being done by a couple different services today: Project Gutenberg Literature.org Bibbliomania ). But there are already a couple sites that are charging for the same services (see Questia which charges $15.00/month, but to be fair also has Scientific journals and other online resources). Even if it's not outright charging for services, but only making users view an ad per page or some other obnoxious device, I'm sure that the now publicly-traded Google has something up its sleeve to please the shareholders. So I just hope that these libraries, for example, haven't given the rights to digitize their libraries solely to Google. Otherwise eventually we'll be left with a company or two controlling all this information, which for the most part should be public. Hmmm, maybe it'll all be fine and I'm a nut though...very possible.

We just got the last disc of one of our favorite Animes yesterday. It's called Fruits Basket (yes, exactly that way, not fruit basket or fruit's basket, but fruits basket, ahhhh...) It is the heart-warming story of Toru Honda who has just lost her mom and starts living with the Soma family, who happen to have a curse placed on them. The curse is that whenever one of them is hugged by a member of the opposite sex they transform into a member of the Chinese Zodiac. It's all very cheesy and just so strange sometimes. I would reccommend it to anyone that likes anime or Japanese culture (maybe that's stretching it). (e:Matthew) loves it too! [inlink]matthew,168[/inlink] [inlink]matthew,169[/inlink]

So this is from an episode we watched a couple nights ago. There's an interlude scene and then this totally unrelated thing happens (though the rice ball itself is a recurring theme).

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

The song is played as the rice ball moves from right to left across the screen (which reads furutu basuketo, or fruits basket). The lyrics: Sailor suit, sailor suit, a rice ball alien in a sailor suit. WTF, mates!?!

This is Toru's reaction:

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

God I love the whirly eyes and the teardrop of consternation.

And we finally met the character who has my zodiac animal. Hiro Soma is very smart but confused and irritable. He is very cute, especially when Toru hugs him as punishment for playing a trick on her, and he turns into his zodiac animal.

Picture from Thanksgiving evening with my inlaws. But really, if anyone ever has the urge to tear a tabletop apart feel free to give me a call. But know this! I am wily, nimble, and fleet-fingered!

I think I might take a stroll down to this here meeting (I stole the ad from artvoice):



I found this link to some of the things they've done and "plan" to do in the future. It has a very neat looking picture at the bottom which can be clicked on for more details of the various projects. I shudder a bit to think of a beach at the end of Buffalo River, is this a beach that people might possibly swim in? I guess there are kids swimming in the Scajaquada... I would guess that none of these things are actually ever going to happen, but it's nice to get the visions of what could be possible in a viable city.

And, the budget iissue is still looming over us. Our lawmakers found a little used loophole to delay another day. So maybe tonight...unless of course the next magic loophole is pulled from the hat.

I have made two hats in three days. I am a machine. My nimble fingers weave fine handiworks with alacrity. The first was a mean sketch, the first of the season.



My powers had regained their former aptitude, and I was ready for a challenge. (e:Matthew) was in need. I heard from my telephone booth that he had a cold-head emergency! I whipped into gear. My crochet-Ting needle was in my fist faster than a lickedy-split. I decided upon a simple single stitch weave which allows for a flexible yet quite windproof material. Since I was using a heavier thread than suggested by my pattern, I opted to deviate, using a penta-point structure rather than the hepta-point illustrated. I am quite pleased with the result. Please, gander at your leisure.



Take a look at the owner's journal for some better shots. [inlink]matthew,468[/inlink]

I shall perhaps begin a business. Is $20.00-$25.00 too much for a handy-made hat? I can not afford to do it cheaper. The materials are almost $10.00 themselves, and the wear-and-tear on my carpal-tunnel prone hands alone makes it pricey. In any event, if you wanna learn (or better yet, if you know how and wanna share) give me a buzz. I should be pretty free for the next month or two.

sidenote (but very exciting nonetheless): My sister, Alex, might be coming to town very soon. Like in the next couple weeks type soon. Which is nice, cuz she can help us move. And of course, I love her and would love to see her and stuff... So cross your fingers and maybe you can meet another desert star in wintry B-flo.

The NY Senate and Assembly have managed to override Pataki's veto on an increase of the minimum wage. Some good news to tide us over until we get our bad new here in a couple hours. More sales tax or no libraries. What a choice. How is it that these have become (seemingly if not truthfully) our only options? A lack of creativity and, dare I agree with (e:Jason)!?! a same-ole-same-ole stick to the status quo attitude. Let's fire the lot of 'em (both those voted-in and appointed) and hire one for every two currently in power. But back on planet Earth we sit and await our binary fate.

We've seen about 10-15 places so far. A bunch of duds, a couple gems, and the one we want.

The applications are filled out and will be handed in tomorrow. Now we just have to hope that our current landlord doesn't screw it up for us by saying mean things about us. We had, shall we say, not the nicest parting discussions. But we lived here for over two years and the apt. still looks very nice (about 10x nicer than when we moved in) and our only crime was using the heat that was included in our rent. But, hopefully we'll know in a couple of days and ya'll can come to our fancy new place for our homewarming. Cross your fingers for us.