Aaron

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for many things, among other things a few days off from school :-p

Back to school on Monday, 2 exams and a paper due this week, gonna be a busy week!

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I see no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's mercy he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A fagot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah!

Speaking of number before, I read this to all my interns at the end of the summer. Some really cool numbers in it:
---------------------------------

• This summer we used 9000 UV beads, 800 pipe cleaners and 900 marshmallows.



• We used 1100 pennies, 121 oz shaving cream, 130oz of salt, and 1200 sqr
  feet of aluminum foil.



• We soaked the pennies, salt, foil, and our hands in 114 gallons of NYC
  tap water (in which you will find some nice, tiny copepods) .

( read the rest of the numbers )

Why, Hello LJ, I believe I'd forgotten you. I think I need to neglect this journal (and commenting on everyone elses) less. Very busy summer, will post more later tonight, but for now - Hi FList, I will online more, around and commenting!

...Strange how certain the journey
Time unfolds the petals
For our eyes to see
Strange how this journey's hurting
In ways we accept as part of fate's decree...
~Vienna Teng

Strange how well that fits my mood right now.

Should be helping out with the 4m move today, what am I doing instead you ask? Sitting at home sick :-(. 'least maybe later I'll have time to catch up on LJ and such. Right now... back to bed!

Classes over for the spring, finals begin. Actually had my first final of the sem and the last class of the sem back to back this morning.

This semester went by fast it seems, and yet I weary of it. I want it to be over... Now! 3 finals and 1 paper more to go though, so back to book and metaphorical flog I go.

Good luck to everyone else taking finals!

Me: I have this half-dollar, cool! Still worth 50c but I'd rather hold onto it, god knows what I'd spend it on.
Andrea: You could always get a 50c hooker!
Me:...
Me: Sorry, the horrified silence was me contemplating what you'd manage to *get* for 50c..
Andrea: Syphilis!

Gonna be headed out to the island in a bit, I'll be around campus but mostly in the 4m for a few hrs, anyone wants to hang out give a call or comment!

Was re-reading Sweet Myth-tery of Life today and a couple quotes stuck out at me as wise and poignant, to wit:

On work:
"[...]let me educate you on the harsh realities of the universe, partner. It's one thing to practice a skill or a hobby when you feel like it, but whether it's writing, singing, or playing baseball, when you've got to do something whether you're up for it or not, it's work."

On being liked:
"[...]Doesn't everyone want to be liked?

Maybe at some level [...] but most people realize it's a wistful hope at best.. like it would be nice if it only rained when we want it to. The reality is that it rains when it bloody well feels like it, and that some people aren't going to like you no matter what you do. The up side is that are also people who will like you no matter what you do" [bolding mine]

Both of those wisdoms are spoken by Aahz (no relation :-p), and maybe like Skeeve I try too much. Food for thought.

Adib: Sing with me matt
Matt: I don't want to sing..
Adib: Singing with two people is cool, if I do it by myself I'm just an asshole.

Matt and Adib sing

Heavy use of AJAX + a slow web link makes the internet weep

(xposted to sf4m, leave any comments there)
So the 40th was yesterday, and it went off (*I* think at least, from my admittedly biased perspective) quite well!

First of all, to everyone who came: Thank you so much for coming, thank you for awesome stories, your company, and particular thanks to anyone who donated - you have earned your place in stovokor.

To everyone who couldn't make it: We missed you, the 4m is a poorer place without you, and I hope to see you all at the 45th!

Now, to the people who ran this thing/put quite a bit of time into planning this:
Ian (our damn good president),
Jackie (our overly busy Vice-President),
Lukas (our unbelievably competent librarian),
Matt (our impressively enthusiastic Activities coordinator),
Allison (our lolcat obsessed former AC),
Julia (our excellent treasurer),
Hoskie (our amazing secretary)
Anthony (He can surprisingly often be found in a toga)
Bobby (who showed up, took over food, and I cannot thank enough for that)
Thank you all, your aboveboard efforts made it possible to get this done, and get it done right.

To everyone else who came and helped out: Thank you from the bottom of my heart, we couldn't have done it without you!

There will be pictures, copies of speeches, and some stories up on the site ASAP, as well as the new catalog.

I also need to add a special thanks to JC for catching a lot of things I missed on the web side of things and generally Getting Stuff Done(tm).

Finally to Jim Frenkel for coming and an amazing speech, Bill and Victor for hosting him, and Phil for providing early morning driving.

A final special thank you to the 4m as a whole, you guys are like family and the 4m is my home-away-from-home. I know many of you feel the same way. So thank you!

Sincerely,
Aaron Pellman-Isaacs
Chair, 40th Anniversary, March 2009

EDIT: Fixed typos

I have a new userpic, courtesy of http://thatguywiththeglasses.com,

::grins::

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere,
I'm all alone, more or less,
Let me fly, far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun!.

Thought of the day (and no offense to my friends at/from NYU, you weren't among the idiots in the cafe):

NYU has a number of astoundingly stupid people...


Follow-up to the thought of the day:
Earth has an astounding number of astoundingly stupid people

::cough cough sneez::

I know I've been silent lately, on IMs and LJ. Just been *really* busy. I'm gonna try and catch up w' LJ this week, and maybe be online more as well.

Also, for any of my friends who are fans of Oysterband (and if you're not, you damn well should be :-p): I always knew the group originated from fiddler's dram. What I didnt know was that other pieces of fiddler's dram plus some of the original oysterband combined with people from steeleye span and fairport convention to create The Albion Band (which has actually been a couple different sets of people, hence all the diff bands it drew from). They are quite awesome, I've been listening to some of their stuff lately. Very cool eh?

WTF??? Were the writers even trying anymore?

I don't usually write up movie reviews here, I'm going to make an exception for a truly exceptional film. I'll start by saying this: if you haven't seen Milk go see it, it's one of the few films recently I'd say is a must-see.

Milk is a biographical piece about Supervisor Harvey Milk. Supervisor Milk, for those of you who don't know, was a brilliant, thought provoking man, a breed of politician that doesnt rear it's head nearly as often as we need them to in my opinion. He was the first openly gay elected official in California and one of the fathers of the Gay Rights Movement as it exists today. Harvey Milk was largely responsible for turning the movement in California from a series of fractured efforts into a cohesive force that shaped not just California's policies and politics but the country's as a whole. In talking about the man the movie is easily one of the best of its kind around. You get a feel for the men and women who shaped this piece of history that sinks into you and touches you deeply. The movie doesn't just show Milk and those around painted with a broad brush based on issues; the artist (in this case director Gus Van Sant) also used a significant amount of detail work to give a sometimes grittier and definitely closer, lovelier, more human feel to the work.

The film follows Harvey Milk's move to San Francisco from a closeted life in NY, his burgeoning anger at the treatment of gay men and women by society (even in such a "safe place" as the Castro in SF), his rise to political power and the social forefront as more and more people unite behind him, and his eventual death at the hands of disgrunted, former fellow SF Supervisor Dan White. It is somewhat strung together with a background narrative done by Milk as a posthumous explanation of the major events. While traveling on this journey you see the start of the ultra-conservative Christian movement into politics and the conflicts that begin to result. The whole movie (as it was in real life) is cast on the backdrop of the the beginnings of the national Gay Rights Movement and the right-wing Christian attack on the fledgling movement.

Similarities between the situation in the late seventies and present day are starkly shown, for example plain to anyone who's watched Sarah Palin recently and then watches Anita Bryant seen in all her self-righteous, vitriolic religious fervor spouting self, taken from old newsreels. The rhetoric used, both in the news reels from the actual period and in the script about Proposition 6 is nearly exactly what is used today to defend Proposition 8. Of course for much of you on my friends list here that's no surprise (I hope). I do think it should be noted that the right wing conservatives have not changed their rhetoric on gays in schools in 30 years, despite having not a single shred of evidence to support it. This isnt the best time for this rant, but this movie is one of the best pieces of media I've seen to inspire such a rant.

In terms of acting, the performances given by all of the cast are incredible. The actors, particularly Sean Penn (as Milk) and James Franco (as Scott Smith), are believable, true to life, and bring charm, charisma, and exceptional talent to bear. You watch sadly as the rift forms between Franco and Penn as politics forces strain on their obvious love (and btw, the chemistry there is fantastic). Blustering, sad, angry, and then sometimes taciturn and earnest Dan White is played brilliantly by Josh Brolin. Brolin portrays a many-layered man, complex and troubled. Even going in knowing the history you find yourself hoping that maybe he wont take the dark turns that bring about the violent end of the movie and the real life tragedy that spawned it.

I'd be remiss (not to mention murdered by several people on my flist) if I neglected to mention that the music for the movie sets the perfect feel. It's done just right to prime you for the scenes, to make your heart race, your eyes tear, your throat to clench, or to make you laugh as the characters sweep through the lows and highs of life. The music is of course done by master score composer Danny Elfman, and his work here, as it usually is, is superb.

Overall, I think everyone should see this movie. Hell, if anyone wants to go see it, I'll happily go see it again... and again... and again... I laughed, I cried, and I came out thinking "so what have I done lately to help further human rights? I should do more!" Any movie that does that to me is damn good in my book.)