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THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE

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[Sep. 5th, 2008|10:46 am]

getfuzzyfeed

[misery_chick]
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Party unity my ass [Sep. 5th, 2008|10:18 am]

sinfest_mod

[misery_chick]
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tonight's sign [Sep. 5th, 2008|06:48 am]
loolix_rss

simply reads:

THE MAVRICK

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FUDCon Brno Thoughts, Day Zero [Sep. 5th, 2008|02:48 am]
gregdek
[Tags|, ]

1. When splitting up into groups to have dinner in a foreign land, make sure that you have a native speaker in each group. Although pointing randomly at the menu served me well enough -- the pork cutlet with mushroom gravy was excellent. Also, thanks to Dimitris for inadvertently ordering greek salads for everyone at the table.

2. I will find a karaoke bar in Brno before the weekend is done. Even if I have to go all by myself.

3. Jeroen appears to know a great deal about how to break the law in the Netherlands without being prosecuted for it. Not sure what to make of that observation.

4. The Brno office is gorgeous. I continue to be impressed by the ability of the facilities team at Red Hat to give every office worldwide that unique Red Hat character.

5. There's cigarette smoke everywhere in this town. Meh.

FUDCon starts in an hour and a half. I'm particularly pumped to see various guys from Sugar Labs and OLPC. Should be an incredible few days.
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ok, wow [Sep. 5th, 2008|06:48 am]
loolix_rss

i am not sure this is exactly how it works, but kudos to bill frist for going there:

HIV/AIDS continues to hollow out entire generations of people at the prime of their lives. It's easy for people to lose hope.

And when they do, the vacuum is filled with desperation, instability, and - yes, the seeds of terrorism.

up until that line, i thought this was a repeat from last week's convention.

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Bike 4: I roam the streets on my own [Sep. 4th, 2008|11:03 pm]

sculpin

And by “the streets” I mean two and a half blocks. But hey. That’s streets.

I knew it’d probably be a strain today for Josh to get home in time to take a trip to the parking lot with me, and that served as encouragement for me to step it up some. Today for the first time I got on the bike without having him around as moral support. (It is much nicer to have him around cheering me on, let me tell you.) The parking lots were sure to be full, so I took a deep breath and decided to go all out and play in the street.

We live on a hill, and starting there seemed like asking for trouble. So I walked the bike up to a local flattish side street and halfway up to what I figured was about the crest of its tiny hill. A car immediately passed me, which seemed like a bad, bad omen. But I hopped on the bike all the same and… nothing. I can’t convey the feeling of how weird it was when it did not go. I checked the gear: yeah, first gear, okay. I tried again. No go. Apparently I’d learned to start, sure, but only when starting downhill. Or maybe I’d just lost my touch. It brought home to me that, oh boy, I really did not know what the hell I was doing. I was on the tiniest little upward slope, and it seemed ridiculous that that was the problem, but okay, I walked the bike forward twenty feet and started again. This time it went, and I went with it, feeling significantly less confident than I’d hoped to be feeling. It didn’t help that the bike was making strange and horrible noises. (I think I have to fiddle with the front fender.)

Josh enlightened me later. “Yeah, the gearing on that bike is really meant for use with the motor on. It really doesn’t have a low enough gear. You could get it started going uphill if you were ok with standing and mashing on the pedals. But sitting down? Difficult.”

I came to the sharp right turn I’d intended to take and my confidence entirely fizzled out. I could just about hear it, over the fender noise, going flat. At the last moment I took a gentler curve instead and wound up going down a side street that I’d never been on before in more than five years of living here. It was a bit steep, and I rode the brakes down, my eyes bugging out. Then a right turn to another block and I was done. My knees felt too shaky to bike the last half-block uphill to our house.

I’d thought I’d bike around and around my little circuit, but it was time to sit down. There’s no point freaking out my subconscious.

In some ways this time is the hardest part, and in some ways I suspect it’s the easiest. I hit a lot of milestones every day. Later I’ll want to learn to do them well, which is less easy to quantify. Plus there are some things coming up that really seem intimidating to me. Signaling, for one. I can just bring myself to unclench my fingers from the handlebars enough to brake; actually removing a hand from the bar and holding it well away? Whoa.

This seems to be the day, though, to be one of the universe’s designated brave people, in a very mild way. After my .2-mile road trip, I figured I’d earned a latte, a big one. When I came into my local coffee shop, the owner and barista were freaking out over an enormous wasp that was buzzing inside at a window. Who can blame them? It was the size of my thumb and probably weighed five pounds. They had a cup to put over it, and some paper to put under the cup, but they couldn’t bring themselves to get close enough to do the job. So I volunteered. (Though I did ask for some stiffer paper, because I did not like the thought of having nothing but a sheet of office paper between my hand and an enormous angry wasp.) Then on the way home I helped a nervous kid cross Lake City Way.

I’d probably have done these things anyway — well, possibly not the thing with the five-pound wasp. But learning to ride a bike as an adult is doing a number on my head. For just a few hours after facing the bike, I’m a little bit braver, a little more open, and a little bit more compassionate with people who are afraid. Only a little, but it’ll do.

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Daily twitter babble [Sep. 5th, 2008|02:02 am]

grahams
  • 08:22 I knew it would be the Post, those assclowns: tinyurl.com/5sfrqp #
  • 17:33 Waiting for the work shuttle to Harvard^2, enroute to Penang for a mini Rovia reunion. #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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Microsoft debuts new Vista ad with Gates and Seinfeld [Sep. 4th, 2008|10:15 pm]
waxyo
aside from Bill's mugshot, a rambling and unfunny ad [via
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I nom at the end of a 5-and-a-half-minute short stack [Sep. 4th, 2008|10:48 pm]

rhiannonstone
[Tags|, ]
[mood | amused]
[music |Poe - "5-and-a-Half-Minute Hallway"]

Wow, the latest XKCD is aimed at an even narrower audience than usual. But if you've actually read House of Leaves, it's brilliant.
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Spokes in the Helix Nebula [Sep. 5th, 2008|04:45 am]
apod

At first glance, the Helix Nebula At first glance, the Helix Nebula


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Slave To The Dragon No More! [Sep. 5th, 2008|12:13 am]

ursulav
It's done.

Dragonbreath is DONE.

I mean, I still have to do the cover, but that's in their court for another day or two. Until then...DONE. Even those last two spot illos they sprung on me after I had finished all the pages...DONE.

Yes, they want the sequel around the end of the year, but...well, I'll deal with that later. DONE. DONE. DONE.

Now I can move. And do those paintings buzzing in my brain, and those commissions that need to get done, and that one carousel thing and the thing for Sofawolf, and...write the sequel, I guess...and all the other stuff. Like move. Yes. Move. That.

Did I mention the moving?

I smelled the moving smell today. I cannot even begin to tell you what it smells like, and it may only be a product of my fevered imagination, but it smelled like moving. This should probably smell like cardboard or bubble wrap or dust or musty plaster or hastily ordered pizza eaten with a box as a table or SOMETHING, but I don't know if it did. I don't know what it was at all. It was just...I was in the car and there was a smell and I'm moving hit with that kind of hammering memory of all the other moves I've done in recent memory (which is a lot. I worked it out once that this is something like the sixteenth time I've moved in my life that I can remember.)

I never even knew there was a moving smell, but as soon as I smelled it, I knew what it was.

So I came home and dragged a bookcase into the car and took some art down, and now my apartment looks like moving. And that's okay. I have most of a month to get everything switched over, and since I won't be doing Dragonbreath every bloody day, it sounds practically like a vacation.
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House of Pancakes [Sep. 5th, 2008|04:00 am]
xkcd_rss
Fuck it.  I'm just going to Waffle House.
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Twitter, digested by birdcage.pl [Sep. 4th, 2008|11:59 pm]

detritus
[Tags|]

16:06:45 — Best thing about getting software keys for stuff on linux? The files are called key.tar
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catchup: Southland Tales, jam, network compliance [Sep. 4th, 2008|11:47 pm]

badger
[Tags|, , , , ]
[music |Mietek Glinkowski Trio, live show last month]

things )
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Request for a Good Massage Place? [Sep. 4th, 2008|11:13 pm]

b0st0n

[graycie23]
Dear B0st0n,

Question one: Why the lack of good memory entries after 2006?

Question two: Why are all of you so much better than the Yelp posters?

Question three: What's the best place for massages in Brookline?

Like five hundred thousand other people in this city, I had to move on September 1st. I have awesome friends who helped me on both ends of the move, and wanted to say thanks with a massage. But the best I could find on Yelp was $60 for a half hour, and that doesn't seem very good at all. So I was wondering if you guys knew of anything better.

I know someone very recenltly posted a question about shiatsu, and you all recommended Inman Oasis, but we all live in Brookline and none of us have cars, and I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for good, simple, not exceptionally pricey massages closer to Beacon St.

Thanks in advance!
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the final countdown [Sep. 5th, 2008|06:48 am]
loolix_rss

it's been a tough two weeks, but now there's just one more night left, and then we can all vote tomorrow and not have to worry about another election for the next eight years. woo!

putting that motorized vehicle death number into some perspective, it's about one 9/11-level event, every month, every year. instead of this global war for automobiles, we really should be having hundreds of local wars against them.

and speaking of paying for wars, why is losing a child to a war patriotic, but paying taxes is the burden?

i better get started with the tv so i can get to bed before midnight.

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Info on neighborhood man [Sep. 4th, 2008|11:06 pm]

davis_square

[anomie666]
[Tags|]

Its a strange thing to ask, but here goes anyway.

Has anyone lately seen the very large man who rides the 88 bus and would sometimes hang out in the Square? He is probably around 50 and very obese.

I haven't seen him for literally months now and I'm a bit concerned. He was extremely friendly and I would often see him around Somerville. I don't know if something happened to him or if he moved away. He always seemed to know many people and I'm sure some of you might know the person I'm referring to.

If you have seem him lately please let me know. I don't know his name, but would often chat with him when I saw him on the bus or in the Square.
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The stars are aligned...aaaggghhh [Sep. 4th, 2008|10:18 pm]

badger
[Tags|]

politics and the Grand Old Ones Party )
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Jason Scott on Phil Lapsley's upcoming book on the history of phone phreaking [Sep. 4th, 2008|05:16 pm]
waxyo
wonderful goodies within, including the YIPL/TAP FBI files and readable guides to filing FOIAs and reading FBI files  
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Autumn [Sep. 4th, 2008|08:18 pm]

komejo
Such a balmy night
I think of times good and bad
and wish for Autumn.
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