udderless bookworm

I watched the new Superman movie last night: eh. Singer is almost too reverant with the subject matter and it comes across as fanboyish sometimes. But Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was fun.


I travelled three hours to an OEFFA farm tour Saturday morning at Rose Ridge Farm in Malvern, Ohio. It's an organic Hereford cattle farm where I ate my weight in hamburger and barbequed beef sandwiches.


On Sunday I went to Blue Rock Station to help build a straw bale composting toilet with Jay and Annie Warmke. Most of the time was spent retieing straw bales to appropriate lengths to fit into the walls, but lunch was fantastic. I really like the idea of making homes and buildings out of reclaimed building materials (old barn wood, tires, bottles)



Today I'm reading Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn. He keeps showing up on NPR and McSweeney's. But even more strange than this: Laura and I roomed with his sister, Mara Lethem, in New Jersey in 2001/2002. She was incredulous that we had never heard of him, perhaps rightly so.

here IS work

I'm visiting my family here in Euclid for the rest of the week. If anyone needs to call me, try (216) 531-7689.

The Oracle of Bacon: we played an elaborate game on the ride from Columbus to Cleveland last night and this would have been an invaluable tool. Kendra and Brandon came from Cincinnati while Caitlin and Steve came from Cleveland yesterday to visit, watch a movie and eat dinner. All hail the Proctors!

Making gnocchi for lunch. I'm going to the David Bazan show at the Grog Shop tomorrow night. Don't forget to come if you're in the area: even if you've never heard him you'll come away a fan.

Did you do that? No, you did.

To have your mind blown by sheer audacity, continue reading.

The government's warrantless domestic spying faced its first courtroom test Monday, with the Bush administration arguing that the program is well within the president's authority but that proving it would require revealing state secrets.^*

I can't get this image out of my head lately.

A tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica is displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York City, at the entrance to the Security Council room. It was placed there as a reminder of the horrors of war. On February 5, 2003, a large blue curtain was placed to cover this work, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations.^*

the flesh was willing but the spirit was weak

After work last night I was able to spend some time at MILO with people I don't get to see much: Chad, dreadlocked and bass-playing; Abby and Jaymee, back from Florida; Gabriel, who seems to be moving to Clintonville in the near future; and Chris Cropper, the crazy socially inept artist I like finally has a show thanks to Josh. But that means that by the time I got home and stretched, the birds were up and the sun was starting to show. So now I am horribly out-of-whack with sleep.

Geoff is in town for OSU's commencement so I think were having lunch today at the Dube (where else, really?). He's been spending time near Cincinnati lately so I haven't been able to see him as much as I'd like. Get a job near Columbus, Geoff! Can't your life choices revolve more around my convenience?

It's very rainy right now so I think I'm reluctantly postponing my run today. It's a good thing I'm not really training right now: from an outsider's perspective it might be misconstrued as laziness.

they're building a Robo-Pelé

I watched The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension for the first time last night. On the surface, it seems like a terrible action/sci-fi movie. But the more I think about it, the better I like it. It has references to Thomas Pynchon novels in it, uses unusual storytelling devices throughout, and the math in one scene was genuine stuff.


Everyone I know tends to forget about ComFest until it's right here.

Caitlin and Steve are back in Euclid for two weeks on vacation. Hopefully I'll get to spend some time with them before they disappear back into the underbrush of North Carolina.

Also, I'm trying to find cheap tickets to Prague for next month for a math conference. Anyone have any good ideas? I still haven't been reimbursed for my last trip: would that my pockets were infinitely deep...

the PirateBay is dead, long live PirateBay

Excitement! David Bazan's new EP, Fewer Moving Parts comes out June 13^th. The angle of the EP is five songs, two versions of each song: full instrumentation for one and acoustic for the other. Check out his MySpace page to hear some new songs. How I Remember is the only one I haven't heard before in one form or another, but I still adore Cold Beer and Cigarettes. Also, I'll be seeing him in Cleveland at the Grog Shop. You should come too (if you are within a 200 mile radius of Cleveland on June 16).



We are full of lightning and colossal thunder here in Columbus presently.