I can has cuteness

Tink is very protective of her foster piggy Pink (Tink+Pig=Pink). My mom sent this to me and

Free books? Not at Baltimore's THE BOOK THING?

The Future of Reputation, a book by Daniel J. Solove, is (each chapter as a PDF file). For anyone interested in thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif phenomena of being Dooced, here are the chapters in the book: THE FUTURE OF REPUTATION: GOSSIP, RUMOR, AND PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET by Daniel J. Solove Yale University Press (2007) Chapter 1. Introduction: When Poop Goes Primetime PART I RUMOR AND REPUTATION IN A DIGITAL WORLD Chapter 2. How the Free Flow of Information Liberates and Constrains Us Chapter 3. Gossip and the Virtues of Knowing Less Chapter 4. Shaming and the Digital Scarlet Letter PART II PRIVACY, FREE SPEECH, AND THE LAW Chapter 5. The Role of Law Chapter 6. Free Speech, Anonymity, and Accountability Chapter 7. Privacy in an Overexposed World Chapter 8. Conclusion: The Future of Reputation Notes & Index Once again, I wish I could put all of this filtering of information and research into an art piece, but I have no idea where to begin, or where I would end on such a project. Part of me is very into high-touch art, physical constructions that are strong, purposeful, durable, and full of meaningful matter. The other part is into hypertext, interconnected dynamic flow of information, vast fonts of knowledge. Anyway, let me know what you think of the book if you read it!

What is it about a guy who writes songs?

Somethin' that almost insists upon swooning, the offhanded poetry seems to be easy easy easy to them. The words fall from their lips, their voices cut through the sounds of their acoustic guitar and you know, you just know from the way those words escape their lips that they can only be such good singers from being good listeners. These are the boys who listen intently as addled and oxytocin-fueled words drizzle sleepily from your lips in hours that don't belong to night or day. Blue-eyed curly-haired boyish men that your mother can't help but love and approve of. Not to say they didn't approve of the last one, just that this one, they'd love, sometimes greeting him before you as they come home from work. Of course, that's the fantasy of the sweet poetic singer-songwriter boy rolling around in my head. The reality I'm sure includes burps and forgetting anniversaries and losing shopping lists and forgetting milk, but the nice thing about speculation is that the spectacles can be as rosy as I please. And of late, I am pleased to order those glasses tinted near-magenta. I like to know, I like to plan, but I am not what one would call a "planner." I'm a "Oh this is what I'd like to do yeah I'll make that work I think..." kind of girl. I like to know where I'll be, but I'm fairly flexible, and fairly pleased to try and be happy in every situation, take them all as learning experiences (painful and bloody as they may be). You never know what will lead to the next step, the next big thing, the next love of your life or life's work. And that sort of open-ended-ness is the scary thing, but it's also the most exciting bit of moving on. And who knows, maybe I'll fall in love with a musician? [edit 3.4.08 @ 7:18pm EST] I guess I should note that the boy who inspired this post was playing in front of me at the time at Baltimore Hostel--he's a Maryland-area acoustic folk singer-songwriter-guitarist named Michael Berkowitz, who just released A Song For Every Station and sold me a copy of the CD that night (his site here).

If you are what you self-publish, then this is me.

This is the Yahoo! Pipes diagram of the content-filtered SuperFeed that I created. This "pipe" aggregates my Blogger entries, my Pandora bookmarked song feed, and my Google Reader Shared Items. I'm pretty pleased with myself. Certainly there must be some way to turn this pipe's output into an art project.

Things I am in love with (right now)

Pie for breakfast from Dangerously Delicious Pies (3 berry). Kola Champagne "Ginseng UP" carbonated beverage. XM Radio. Marla, who put the entirety of the X-Files on my external hard drive (yes, Kate M., you can get in on that action). My new cordless mouse care of the ex, who got it for half retail at his place of employment. And it's orange. These new artists that I am going to get more of as soon as I figure what is taking up so much darn space on my computers' hard drive. I'm sure there's an application that has some sort of beautiful graphs and things but I'm too lazy to go looking right now.

Good morning, neighbors **puts on sweater**

It's helpful to get this pep-talk from Mr. Rogers in the morning, as I did (initially from NPR's "most e-mailed stories" podcast, so to all my friends who are going through tough times, missing their loved ones, feeling lost and alone, or just feeling like underachievers, it's going to be okay. We all do the best we can at any given time, and that's all you can do. So many of my friends in so many ways are heroes of mine...I think you all are some of the most compassionate, creative, level-headed, and brave individuals that live on this planet. I mean, I'm a little partial to you all, but you all really are amazing. Now, if you excuse me I really have to get dressed.

Testing

I've played a little with Yahoo! Pipes beta which is some sort of visual programming console. I like it a lot, but I don't know if it's aggregating my shared item and blog rss feeds in order of date and time posted, which is what I would like. [[Edit: think I fixed it]] Anyone who can help me troubleshoot it, please comment. The pipe is meant to put my blog and shared google reader items together and edit out any entries having to do with carnal relations so that there's nothing inappropriate flowing into Facebook, which is where I want to link to the pipe's feed from and where I know lots of girls from camp who just aren't "of age" to view adult material. [[Edit:Not sure why it's truncating the entries from the RSS XML of my blog though, only first couple hundred words instead of entire entries...)

Serendipity

I just ran into the director of development here at MICA at my open studio today (part of parents weekend) who had dinner last night with someone on the board of Outward Bound Baltimore. While I love working at camps, Outward Bound or Educo are the types of companies and jobs I'd love to have come graduation, so I'm getting the hookup. Her last name is Hopkins. Read: blue Baltimore blood. Jawsome! Back to the homework.

Oh, Baltimore, cops. Haven't you something better to do?

Eric Vs. Officer Riveri of Baltimore Downtown (read: Inner Harbor) police. Eric Bush and his friends (14-year-olds and thereabouts) get chewed out for skating at the inner harbor (which has, by the way, the best ever smooth pavement and concrete for biking and skating and probably even 'boarding on), and the officer is a big jerk-face and assaults the kid. Then he steals his skateboard. I'm not sayin' the kids was in the right, but I am gonna say that guy has got some serious anger management issues. He also doesn't like conceptual art: here's a video shot of Salvatore last summer getting angry at an art student with an RC car (original source is ABC) Oh, I'm sorry, did you want the link to the February 12th article in the laugh of a paper that is the Baltimore Sun? I'm not the quickest on the wires with this one, but no doubt it will make expat Baltimoreans teary-eyed for their fair biggest little city. For those who don't know Bodymore, Murdaland, I just have to say that for as many awesome people there are in the city it doesn't take a whole lot to make a poor impression. That goes for the cops AND the robbers.

Onward and upward?

I'm not sure what my summer holds. I'm thinking of doing applications to work pre-college. I'm thinking of applying to work as a residence director at Interlochen which is a school for the arts in Michigan (or someplace like that). Basically, I could work my job that I worked last summer, or I can move on and try for greater things than being a unit director at a little girl scout camp in northern Colorado. Anyway, tonight I tailored my interview dress and took the hem up, I've got to extend the side-slits, but it looks pretty fantastic now, and the sleeves no longer fall down past where the flesh of my palms started. I look almost like a grown-up. The twin pig-tails don't make sense, the jeans underneath the striped dress, but somewhere under there is the young woman I'm supposed to be come May, and I really hope I can figure her out soon. The pins are 1940's lapel pins that belonged to my great aunt (I think), on a jacket I got at the thrift store that I'm thinking of using for interviews paired with a great trouser and a nice button-up.

IFC

On IFC I have seen a ton of great shows lately. I couldn't stop watching Darkon, which is about Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP-ing), and this afternoon while slaving away at my typography homework I saw Loves Labour Lost, which is a 2000 version of the early Shakespeare play set in the 1940's and inspired by Fred-and-Ginger Ethel Merman musicals (Karen, are you reading this?)

Did you know...

that a machete costs just $5.95 at the local H&H Surplus Store? Including holster for your belt.

Mmm, global warming

A moment ago I stepped outside of my building and was struck at the warm, humid air. Here I am, leg-warmers, scarf, and tights, and yet it is most certainly no cooler than 70* F outside. Warm, muggy, with a pervasive dampness, this global warming thing is not really working for me. I keep waking up sweaty and clammy it's so temperate in my room. If this is what is in store for the future, I'm going to have to ditch the layered, artsy look so characteristic of a MICA fibers major. The other day we got our senior packets with our applications for graduation from MICA, details about ordering class rings, beret and gowns, graduation announcements, et cetera. I modeled the gown and beret on stage, and it was so bizarre to be in the same place we all were three-and-a-half years ago, shiny-faced and innocent. Little did we know then what wonders awaited, what trials were ahead of us. I mean, to be fair, we're still not aware. I'm still worried about insurance, where I will live, where my stuff will be. In other news, I continue to suck at the internet. The quickness with which one can post, twitter, comment, e-mail, is far shorter than the amount of time it takes to fully consider what one is doing. Luckily, no jobs to lose or money at stake, but feelings and people are not to be belittled. At the same time, one of my former campers just came out as being gay using a Facebook post, and I have got to say that of all the people who continue to closet themselves and hide their true identities, I know that the true powers of the interweb can be used for "good" as well as "evil." So many older people are less honest with themselves and their families and friends, for so long, and I hope she has escaped much of that unhappiness, even as she is choosing a life path that is still somewhat unconventional and will no doubt not always be easy. Plans for the day are contacting my Performance Garment partner (blog here) to talk about going to take photos of us playing around in a clothes shop.

so sleepy....

I worked out hardcore weight training this morning and I'm pretty exhausted. I'm sorry this is just an update of a photo of a little dead wet mouse.

No primary for you!

Despite having been very careful to re-register to vote in the demo primary in California, I called my county elections office and they said that I was not registered to vote-by-mail, and could vote at my regular polling place. Except I'm in Maryland. So, really, County of Ventura, that is not something I can do. Lame. And registering for November won't help me because I don't know where I'll be in November. Needless to say, I'm pretty damn ticked off. It's only my constitutional right. Whatevs. I'm sure I'll get over it soon.