well accessorized rice

heads

2011-05-29T15:07:00.000-04:00

I recently discovered a new tumblr, Awesome People Hanging Out Together, which, as you might imagine, is pictures of various celebrities hanging out together. As tumblrs go, it's just okay, but I had to point out this one picture.

Can we talk about the size of poor re-re-looking Ringo's head compared to Little Richard? That's just ridiculous.

Summer Jams

2011-05-13T16:26:00.000-04:00

I think I need an dance party soon.

best snack

2011-05-11T16:43:00.000-04:00

xylophone

2011-05-02T15:36:00.000-04:00

hug

2011-04-26T13:08:00.002-04:00

Stamos

2011-04-20T11:27:00.000-04:00

Penguin Threads

2011-04-19T14:16:00.000-04:00

A series of classic books with hand-embroidered cover designs from Penguin. I especially love Black Beauty.

via the Atlantic

Nic

2011-04-07T11:10:00.000-04:00

"Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine ride bikes." from Rides a Bike

Foxy

2011-04-04T15:41:00.000-04:00

I would be totally okay with it if anybody wanted to get me one of these domesticated Silver Fox pups.

"For over 50 years Siberia's Institute of Cytology and Genetics has been breeding a population of foxes, selecting for tameness. Over the generations they've become increasingly dog-like. Best of all, they're available for adoption!"

via Buzzfeed

Rubik's

2011-03-31T15:21:00.000-04:00

A new Rubik's cube for the blind. A lovely design. Probably still really hard.

By Konstantin Datz via Buzzfeed

Khan!!!

2011-03-31T14:47:00.000-04:00

It's true, he was a total badass.

Baby Joke

2011-03-09T09:48:00.000-05:00

White Ninja

friends

2011-02-17T13:34:00.000-05:00

teh best thing

2011-02-04T16:21:00.000-05:00

Leonard Nimoy with a kitten

via cuteboyswithcats

Runaway

2011-01-21T10:53:00.002-05:00

Happy Merry

2010-12-31T15:24:00.002-05:00

Something small and simple and lovely to end the year

Sing a Song for You - Christmas Mix 2010

2010-12-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

I have finally finished my Christmas Mix for 2010 (yay!) and for the first time in recent memory I have even finished it before Christmas!

You can download a free zip of the mix from Dropbox here: http://db.tt/ix2vVLz

(You don't have to sign up for Dropbox to get the file, but I have found that it's a handy (and free) filesharing site that works pretty well. If you think you might want to sign up, use my referral link! https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTY3ODYyNTU5?src=global0)

Merry Christmas and enjoy!

Sing a Song for You - Christmas Mix 2010

Hang With Me - Robyn
Shutterbug - Big Boi
Postcards From Italy - Beirut
Klara - Olof Arnalds
Sorrow - The National
Streets of Philadelphia (With Concern) - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
On A Good Day - Joanna Newsom
Impossible Soul - Sufjan Stevens
Radiolarians - The Pandas
Go Do - Jonsi
Shark In The Water - VV Brown
Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) - Janelle Monae
Clap Your Hands - Sia
Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Cudi
This Must Be The Place - Talking Heads
Shelter From the Storm - Bob Dylan
I Know It's Over - Jeff Buckley

cat gif

2010-12-13T15:02:00.000-05:00

These made my day.

via Yaldabaoth

JD +MPs

2010-12-13T01:49:00.002-05:00

FYI

2010-12-09T18:37:00.000-05:00

All I want for Christmas

2010-12-01T12:29:00.001-05:00

Anybody can feel free to get me these:

Henry VIII ladies pants from Five Go Mad

For less than 20 quid you can make me deliriously happy and give a gift fit for a king!

Frames

2010-11-29T18:51:00.000-05:00

Sue says they make me look Asian and a co-worker told me that she had basically the same pair when she was 8. I don't know that either of those things are compliments, but I think I like them anyway.

Pursuit Of Happiness

2010-11-23T14:29:00.000-05:00

Specs

2010-11-22T16:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to New York for the afternoon to look at glasses and hang out with my friend Heather. I impulse bought a pair of new frames from Moscot. The style of frame is called Yale, so I figured it was pretty much meant to be.

The most charming and perfectly round old Columbian man named Frank helped me pick them out after making me try on a host of wacky frames and "seeing what happens". They didn't have my lenses in stock (damn you, you astigmatic eyes), but they're going to ship them to me, hopefully before Thanksgiving. I also went to Fabulous Fanny's and got a pair of very large round frames that I would describe as being a burnt ashy blonde. I haven't decided if they make me look like I'm trying too hard to be "ironic" (not my goal) but they were pretty cheap so I figured they're worth a shot. I need to get lenses put in and then pics will be posted.

The rest of the evening involved lots of walking around LES (I only JUST figured out what that means. I'm so not cool), eating the most meat-full sandwich ever at Katz's, HP7pt.1 being sold out and chocolate truffles. Not too shabby.

connecting

2010-11-20T19:06:00.000-05:00

I feel like this is a pretty good representation of me trying to meet and connect with people.

Pumpkin

2010-11-19T10:41:00.000-05:00

This past week has been one of my worst in recent memory. Luckily I have some things to look forward to in the near future.

For Thanksgiving I'm going to be in Philadelphia looking after this

and this

I love these guys and I'm pretty excited to see them. Additional Thanksgiving day plans involve seeing Andy at some point (because we've seen each other on Thanksgiving for like the past 12 years and now it's a tradition or something like that) and some type of potluck with Ashley and co. where I'm really looking forward to making this:

Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

Along with a few other bits and bobs and possibly a very large quantity of some type of meat.

I've generally been feeling pretty lonely here and unsure of what to do with myself (aside from copious amounts of baking). So if you feel like visiting or you have any suggestions, let me know.

Also, HP7pt1 opened last night and for almost all of the other HP movies I went with a huge group of friends to opening night and it was all a super fun clamorous hullabaloo. This year, I didn't have any one to go with so I passed on the midnight show. I can't decide if going to see HP alone as a single girl in her 30's who is also a librarian and has a cat is fine/funny or just the lamest thing ever.

killing them softly

2010-10-05T23:48:00.000-04:00

I love how gracefully they all just roll over.

So

2010-10-05T15:32:00.001-04:00

I've been told before that I should blog more about things in my life and less about things I find on the internet that I like. However, I think my life is pretty boring because I don't know tons of people here and while I find talking about working in a library really interesting, not everybody else does. However, there have been some interesting things so here are a few highlights:

giant ceilings/big windows
pretty leaves
every other weekend trips to Philly
dinner parties
so much cooking/baking
sailors/hickeys
apple orchards/book barns
apple themed baking
Saarinen womb chairs
extremely tall German nano-physicists that love electronic music
really cute Asian children
tights!
cast iron

I am also planning on posting some pictures of my apartment soon. I haven't gotten around to hanging everything up on the walls yet, because it's hard to do that kind of thing by yourself; you never know if anything is really straight or not. It'll happen soon, though.

better

2010-08-20T13:53:00.000-04:00

My friend John pointed me towards this funny site, Better Book Titles. The (obvi) premise is they alter books titles to more accurately capture the book's essence. Alright, I've already over-explained this, but some of them are pretty good.

Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient

James Joyce: Ulysses

Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

Craig Thompson: Blankets

Dan Brown: The DaVinci Code

this must be the place

2010-08-17T23:48:00.000-04:00

I can't stop watching this video over and over again. love.

Philadelphia Love Letter

2010-08-16T11:38:00.001-04:00

I remember hearing about the Love Letter mural project going awhile ago while I still lived in Philly. I think I may have even seen a picture or two on people's blogs (was that you sue?) Anyhow, these murals are full of whimsy and lovely and often pretty funny.

Recently, I have been missing Philly more than ever as I am getting ready to transition to a new city/state/job/life again.

I'll be passing through Philly on the 26th on my exodus north and will be back again the weekend of September 18 for Siobhan's wedding. I think during one of those trips I need to go find some of these.

Anatomical Typography

2010-08-11T09:27:00.000-04:00

love.

covers

2010-08-10T10:44:00.000-04:00

Coralie Bickford-Smith is a book cover designer at Penguin. I stumbled across some of her work on the shelves at Borders and was delighted to find her website. Her work is so beautiful; at some point I must get all of her hardcovers. There are few things I find more lovely in life than a beautiful book.

Lions

2010-08-09T14:50:00.000-04:00

Learn something new every day. Do it.

New Haven

2010-08-05T14:57:00.000-04:00

I'm moving to New Haven in exactly 3 weeks. It terrifies me to write that out because that is so so so soon.

I'll be working at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University. I have an apartment in New Haven, but I haven't seen it yet. A colleague from the library took pictures for me. The woodwork is Arts and Crafts and it has a private porch.

I don't know anyone in New Haven at all. Come visit me?

changing

2010-04-08T12:31:00.002-04:00

Things look weird because I'm changing everything up. bear with me.

they're people

2010-04-08T10:14:00.001-04:00

Solar

2010-04-06T11:06:00.000-04:00

A lovely Solar System music box.
(click on the image to try it out)

Whitevinyl via Information is Beautiful

junior

2010-04-02T09:51:00.001-04:00

So last night I went on a first date with a boy who is a video game graphics programmer, enjoys taking pictures of baby animals, has a Norwegian Forest Cat named Link, is bi-lingual in Croatian, and spent a good bit of his childhood living overseas because his father is in the diplomatic service. So far, in every email he has sent me there is at least one smiley face and usually 1-2 exclamation points.

We met up for dinner (Afghan restaurant, Kebabs), and had a totally normal nice conversation. We split the check (also fine) and each put half on our respective cards. They only brought one pen, though, which he got to first. I began digging around in my bag for a second pen, and came up with what was actually a pencil, with something brown and sticky smashed around it. He could clearly see the confused and perplexed look on my face as I picked it off and I could clearly see the perplexed look on his face as he wondered what that gross brown sticky thing I now had in my hand was. I then realized that it was an errant Junior Mint that must have fallen out of the box the other day when I went to see 'The Third Man' at the AFI. I got a little flustered and said, "oh, it's a junior mint, haha" and then said, "oh, and now my fingers are all sticky, I'll be right back." At which point I left to go wash my hands, and my pencil. Awesome.

oh hai guys!

2010-03-26T12:23:00.002-04:00

I'm so excited to be headed to Philly this weekend!

Health

2010-03-23T10:09:00.003-04:00

to be completely honest, I haven't followed the whole health care debate, even though I now live in the fishbowl of D.C. It seems like wanting everyone to be healthy and have access to health care is something we should just all want for one another and I don't have patience for all the arguing. All of the interviews I heard on NPR last night were just about how angry everyone is at one another and how long people are going to stay upset. All that being said, I like the colors in this poster.

Good Luck Zerbe

2010-03-18T13:05:00.000-04:00

Do you remember that awful-looking Dane Cook/Jessica Alba movie "Good Luck Chuck"?

I've never seen it myself (although I'm pretty sure Nick watched it at one point), but my basic understanding of the "plot" is that every time Dane Cook's character sleeps with a girl, the next guy she meets is the guy she's going to marry. I know it's a bit of a stretch for me to equate myself with this character, but it seems like most of the guys I've met down here and gone on dates with have immediately met someone else and moved on to something serious after hanging out with me. It's honestly not that big of a deal to me, I wasn't feeling any of them anyway, but I am surprised at how often its happened. Oh, and I didn't sleep with them either, which maybe means that I am even more "luck-ful" than Chuck?

Data Crunch

2010-03-12T12:26:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across this interesting article that crunches data about Girl Talk's album Feed the Animals.

Some of the data is what you would expect (list of samples from the whole album, number samples per song, etc.) but they take the data further and also chart the start times of each sample across each song, the median year the samples from each track came from, and the actual sample release dates for each track.

The most interesting thing to me was the fact that a lot of the data was crunched using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I had never head of this before today, but Mechanical Turk describes itself as a "marketplace for work that requires human intelligence". It seems like you can sign up to do small tasks that take a very short period of time for minimal amounts of money. For example, I stumbled across another site called The Sheep Market that is collecting 10,000 drawings of sheep by online workers for $.02 a piece.

Anyhow, I think the whole Mechanical Turk thing is pretty interesting and I don't know why I hadn't heard of it before now because it sounds like it's been around for awhile. If anybody has ever done it or looks into it more, let me know what you find out about how it works.

vortices

2010-03-09T16:59:00.001-05:00

the classiest one

2010-03-05T13:38:00.003-05:00

supplement

2010-03-02T10:40:00.001-05:00

I love charts, especially pretty self-regenerating interactive ones with really interesting information.

undo

2010-02-25T09:44:00.000-05:00

by Jon Schramm

late

2010-02-22T08:51:00.000-05:00

Alexandria Neonakis aka Beavotron on deviantART

old-timey

2010-02-18T10:51:00.002-05:00

spectral

2010-02-18T10:41:00.000-05:00

Finally!

2010-02-17T12:03:00.002-05:00

I expect visits from everyone! No more excuses.

brother doctor

2010-02-16T17:08:00.001-05:00

I got an email from my dad this weekend that just had a link to a news article about my eldest brother Dan, who apparently went to Haiti for a week at the end of January.

Perry Doctor Back from Haiti Mission (article)

In general I have some issues with my family's beliefs and how it affects they way they live their lives and treat other people. However, sometimes I am truly humbled by the strength of their faith and how selfless they can be. I know it's super dorky, but I'm really proud of him.

How to

2010-02-16T11:03:00.002-05:00

unprepared

2010-02-16T10:02:00.001-05:00

I just realized that today is Fat Tuesday and therefore tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. The craziness of all of the snow we've been having lately kind of let it sneak up on me and I haven't thought of anything good to give up/take on for Lent. I'm generally not too too strict about it, but it's nice to have at least some mini-goals each year. I was especially hoping to come up with something good because of all of the talk about physical challenges I've been having with Sue and Amanda. So far the only ideas I've come up with are:

eating an apple or some type of apple product (juice, sauce, etc.) every day in an effort to eat more fruit
a ban on all internet shopping, due to my recent uptick in spending from being cooped up in the house from the snow too much
giving up meat, not that I really feel any ethical need to, but maybe a bit for health and maybe a bit because I've been hanging out with a straight edge vegetarian.
reading at least one book because I know I haven't been making enough time for that lately

I'm not convinced that any of these ideas are winners, and I'm open to thoughts/suggestions.

what I want for valentine's day

2010-02-14T00:05:00.001-05:00

for melissa

2010-02-13T23:27:00.002-05:00

nicknames

2010-02-13T22:36:00.002-05:00

facebook ad

2010-01-29T14:32:00.004-05:00

This is what I get for google image searching "twilight wedding", now I see facebook ads like this

Just what I've always wanted.

silvia

2010-01-28T23:31:00.001-05:00

Librarian Mix Tape

2010-01-27T18:28:00.000-05:00

I love this. Can anybody make me a real copy? Or even better, their own library themed mix tape?

Mixtape: 10 Best Songs About Libraries and Librarians

from Andy via flavorwire.

Planetarium

2010-01-27T12:31:00.000-05:00

navigable web-based browser planetarium. Space is awesome!
Neave Planetarium

Realism

2010-01-27T09:15:00.000-05:00

Stream of the new Magnetic Fields album Realism.
on lala.com

Jerboa

2010-01-27T00:10:00.000-05:00

low high rise

2010-01-26T23:01:00.002-05:00

puppy monorail

2010-01-26T22:50:00.002-05:00

sandimation

2010-01-26T22:33:00.002-05:00

two weeks

2010-01-26T21:57:00.001-05:00

chameleon

2010-01-26T13:34:00.002-05:00

the tiniest smooshiest faced cat

2010-01-26T02:30:00.002-05:00

Oh God NO.

2010-01-26T01:34:00.000-05:00

I too long for Yesterday, because this cannot be un-watched.

In Utero

2010-01-26T00:29:00.000-05:00

Photos of animals in the womb

surprise!

2010-01-26T00:22:00.000-05:00

Domesticated Deer

2010-01-25T18:01:00.001-05:00

Meet Dillie, the domesticated deer who eats linguine in her owners' bed

"Living with the Buteras since she wasthree days old, Dillie now knows how to turn lights on and off and howto take ice from the dispenser in the fridge...Dillie has the run of the house, and has even learnt how to use the toilet."

LOST sandwich

2010-01-25T09:26:00.001-05:00

LOST characters explain how to make a sandwich on the island:
via LOST Examiner.

Jack
1. Gather ingredients
2. Point gun at ingredients and shout “HOW DO I MAKE A SANDWICH OUT OF YOU?!?!?”
3. Breathe heavily through your nose as though you were about to hit ingredients
4. Give up and make the sandwich yourself, and eat it bitterly

Kate
1. Make separate sandwiches, one with peanut butter and one with jelly
2. Take a bite of the peanut butter sandwich, declaring it the best
3. Take a bite of the jelly sandwich, declaring it the best
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 ad infinitum
5. Follow peanut butter or jelly sandwich into grave danger

Sawyer
1. Throw the jar of jelly at wall, sneering “I don’t need no sandwich”
2. Call the mascot on the jar of peanut butter lots of clever nicknames
3. Huff and puff and stomp around and grumble a lot
4. When no one’s looking, make perfect, even, symmetrical peanut butter and jelly sandwich and sit in a corner, enjoying every bite

Locke
1. Sit idly by, believing that the ingredients will find a way to make a sandwich out of themselves
2. Lose faith and make the sandwich anyway
3. Realize that you were the instrument by which the ingredients chose to make a sandwich after all
4. Run around the room and grab everyone’s knives, insisting that their sandwiches will do the same in time

Hurley
1. Make sandwich
2. Eat sandwich
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 ad infinitum

Sayid
1. Procure 23 milligrams of uranium-20
2. Set hadron supercollider to eight megajoules
3. Program a sandwich-making macro using Cobol or Visual Basic
4. Act all tough-like

Desmond
1. Eat sandwich
2. Call the sandwich “brother”
3. Place peanut butter slice over jelly slice
4. Spread jelly on the other slice
5. Spread peanut butter on one slice
6. Take two slices of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly

Ben
1. Steal someone else’s sandwich
2. Claim you coerced them into making the sandwich for you all along
3. Say you’ll tell them everything if they make you another sandwich
4. Stare at them all creepy-like

Libby
1. Lay out plans for one of the most intricate, fascinating, and delicious sandwiches of all time
2. Just as you start making it, get shot

Danielle
1. Apply peanut butter
2. Disappear for eight months
3. Apply jelly
4. Disappear for eight months
5. Eat sandwich

Claire
1. Mmmmmmm, peanut butter

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse
1. Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
2. Have someone take a bite, then tell them it’s a baloney sandwich
3. Make up a whole bunch of other shit, then say you had planned it all along
4. Buy a few yachts

Lists

2010-01-21T10:02:00.000-05:00

I used to really be into McSweeney's Lists, and then sort of forgot about them, but then started reading them again today. most of them are medium good.

L I B R A R Y S C I E N C E J A R G O N T H A T S O U N D S D I R T Y .

BY AARON J. ENRIGHT

- - - -

Access point
Authority control
Broad classification
Closed stacks
Coextensive subject entry
Collocation
Colon classification
Cutter number
Date stamp
Depth indexing
Descriptor
Dewey
EAD header
Exhaustivity
Full entry
Fuzzy set
Information package
Location device
Main entry
MARC record
Open stacks
Scope note
Subject entry
Subject heading
Surrogate Record
Syndetic structure
Technical service
Title entry
Tracing
Union catalog
User file
Vertical file
Warwick framework
Weeding
Work mark

ghost ride the whip

2010-01-20T22:25:00.000-05:00

I had kind of forgotten that this happens until recently when someone was talking about how in Louisiana they call tricked out cars "donks" or if they are Asian imports "rice burners." I was trying to explain ghost riding and found this video as an example. The fact it's a Delorean and one of the guys has a fake leg makes it better.

book arts video

2010-01-15T15:41:00.002-05:00

Thanks Sue.

Barbie a Ga-Ga

2010-01-15T15:39:00.000-05:00

A tribute to Lady Ga-Ga in Barbie Dolls. This seems very fitting somehow.

Polar Bear TV

2010-01-15T13:48:00.002-05:00

Only 300 dollars and availalbe in March. Want.

Group Photo

2010-01-15T13:46:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I had a really lovely time hanging out with Ashley who came down for a visit. Aside from the fact that she packed pretty inappropriate clothes for such cold weather, I think she had a nice time. Events included:

lots of walking around and braving the cold
giggling about boys
navigating incredible furniture shop/mazes
good design/kitchen wares/home goods
tea/bento box
cheese grits
thrifting (the store had weaves for sale!)
museuming (taxidermy, bones, and big diamonds)
Badlands
cookies

While we were in the museum on Sunday Ashley and I got separated somewhere after the Hope Diamond and I ended up wandering around by myself for awhile. I got a little lost and ended up in an area about early peoples. I was standing next to a replica of Otzi the Iceman

reading the information about him when this group of Asian people, mainly children, swooped in for a photo op. I didn't realize what was going on until I was surrounded and they either must have not noticed me or thought I was one of the group because they just snapped their pictures and went on their way without even saying anything to me. They came and went so fast, it felt a bit like a flash mob. I sort of wonder if they'll notice that I'm in their pictures when they look at them later; I guess I'll just be the Asian that looks the most surprised.

things I miss in Philadelphia

2010-01-12T15:46:00.002-05:00

amazing

2010-01-08T13:51:00.002-05:00

noble capybara

2010-01-08T11:43:00.000-05:00

I still don't think I quite get what tumblr is, but this is pretty awesome.

fuckyeahcapybara

via Down with the Demiurge

head tilt

2010-01-07T00:54:00.002-05:00

kittens

2010-01-05T14:53:00.000-05:00

that kitten totally does want beef jerky.

Panda Escape

2010-01-04T12:58:00.001-05:00

so close....

buzzfeed

bookshelf staircase

2010-01-04T09:54:00.001-05:00

so lovely, like a literary stairway to heaven.

via Geekologie

Songs I've Listened to Without You - Christmas mix 2009

2009-12-31T21:46:00.000-05:00

This year, in lieu of trying to make and mail tons of copies of my annual Christmas mix, I decided I'd get all 21st Century and just make it available for download. Dan Goat was kind enough to offer me some of his server space to do so. So to get the Christmas mix, go to

http://get-kinetic.com/gkdan/mix

and download the zip file. Unzip and enjoy.

And for those of you who still prefer to make yourselves a physical copy there is also a PDF on there that has all of the track listings. You can simply print it out and fold it into a case for the cd. If you need instructions on how to actually fold the case, you can get them here.

http://papercdcase.com/about.php

Merry Christmas/New Year's everyone!

bells

2009-12-23T16:09:00.000-05:00

Björk - who is it medulla
Uploaded by chicethautaine. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

MSCED

2009-12-23T09:31:00.001-05:00

Make Something Cool Every Day by Mark Weaver

via Street Anatomy

achewood

2009-12-19T17:05:00.003-05:00

Neutra Face

2009-12-19T16:31:00.004-05:00

from Matt.
I am a little bit in love with every boy in this video.

professionalism vs. cookie handshakes

2009-12-18T13:45:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday we took a field trip to the University of Maryland Baltimore Health Sciences and Human Services Library. That library serves as the Regional Medical Library for the Southeastern Atlantic Region of the U.S. That probably won't really mean anything to most of you, but it's basically one of 8 hub libraries in the U.S. that coordinate Heatlh Information Outreach from the NLM to their area. In other words, it's a pretty big deal. The library itself is actually totally gorgeous and has a lot of mid-century modern touches to the architecture and the furniture. Highlights include the longest contiguous stairway in Baltimore.

view from 2nd floor

At the top there is a paned glass windowo that has one small square of red glass. It is situated in such a way that if it is clear on the Winter Solstice (December 21st) a red light will line up directly with the stairs and reach all the way down to the bottom floor.

That's so Indiana Jones....

The library has other little charming quirks in its design as well, such as a lovely floating bridge over the main entrance

And a reference/circulation desk roughly in the shape of question mark

I think it was probably one of the nicest modern libraries I've evern been in.

The director of the library M.J. Tooey is just so nice and gave us her personal tour of the library. She is a former president of the Medical Library Association and also a big deal in the medical library world. After the tour they provided lunch for us and invited the staff of the library to come and eat with us.

Normally I find these types of situations incredibly awkward, but the two ladies I was seated with were just so nice and chatty. They made it really easy for me to talk to them and I even felt like I ended up asking a few good questions. I even remembered to give them both my business card! I was so excited because this is the first time I've ever handed out my card in a real professional situation. I was feeling pretty great about how I had carried myself through the whole situation.

We had been so chatty that I actually hadn't had time to get any dessert so as our group was leaving, I walked by the buffet and picked up a couple of cookies and a napkin. Immediately after I picked up the cookies MJ walked over to say goodbye. As I thanked her for their hospitality she reached out, and without really thinking about it I transfered the cookies to my left hand and then shook her hand without wiping off the crumbs off of my fingers. I totally gave her a gritty handshake full of sugar crystals and cookie crumbs. She didn't really react because she is a total pro, but I did see her subtly wipe her hand off a second later. I guess I still have a ways to go before I'm a total professional.

knitting + science

2009-12-15T22:22:00.002-05:00

= so good. The World of Knitted Science via Amanda.

Knitted lab rat and knitted frog by Crafty Hedgehog on Etsy. Everyone should feel free to get me these for Christmas.

Digestive System

Uterus

ageism

2009-12-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

One of the weird cultural things I've found in D.C. is that everybody here seems pretty job-oriented, ambitious, and all about what they want to do, which is change/rule the world. All in all it seems like a pretty A-type kind of town and there are probably more 25 year olds with a closet full of suits here than anywhere else in the States. I tend to be a bit more casual about my life and dress (although I did have to buy a couple of big girl suits for work, a fact I still think is incredibly weird), which causes people to have some interesting assumptions about me, especially if any tattoos are visible. This town isn't quite as tatted up as Philly, that's for sure. Well, at least I haven't seen many tattoos that aren't kanji or tribal tramp stamps. 9 out of 10 times when I am in public and back is visible a stranger will come up and ask me about my tattoo often assuming I am an aritst.

Anyhow, I know that many white people find it very difficult to accurately determine the general age range of any of my people. We tend to look either very young and/or ageless. I find that I get carded here a lot, which I admit, could be due to the increased vigilance of bartender/bouncers here in comparison to Philly. However, the fact that I look young and 'dress young' by D.C. standards tends to lead people to think I'm wayyy younger than I am. Last week I went to see Ninja Assassin, an R rated film, and got CARDED while buying my ticket. First of all, who even does that and secondly, you have to 17 to see an R rated film unaccompanied by a parent. 17! While I almost find that flattering, there's no way anyone could possibly think I am that young. Who knew it would take me until 30 to start looking like jail bait.

tourismatism + sightings

2009-12-14T16:36:00.001-05:00

There are so many field trips happening this week.

Today we went on a tour to the Library in the Executive Office of the President. This involved visits to both the new Executive Office Building as well as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB or State, War and Navy Building as it was originally known). Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the Indian Treaty Room. The Law Library is on the 5th floor of the EEOB and made mainly from cast iron. It has 3 levels and some very ornate metalwork.

You can't really see it in this picture, but up at the very top, just below the skylight there is a very lovely terracotta acorn and oak leaf motif. The floor tiles are a fairly elaborate, though worn, mosaic that includes a lot of butterflies. Basically, it's the kind of library that were I someday to be very very wealthy, I would want as my own (although perhaps sans butterflies).

Also, remember that Indian actor, Kal Penn, who played Kumar and was on House for a little bit? Well, Nick told me last year sometime that he left Hollywood for an appointment in the Obama administration. I kind of half didn't believe him, but it's true. He is currently the Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and we happened to see him in the hallway of the EEOB. He's not exactly who I imagined my first government celebrity sighting would be, but I'll totally take it. Also, he's a lot taller than I expected.

printing

2009-12-13T19:51:00.000-05:00

Printing Textiles by Hand

From Life Magazine

Industry & Trade Textiles Italy

Date Taken: 1947

Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt

baby pygmy hippo

2009-12-13T18:39:00.000-05:00

J-Pop

2009-12-11T23:41:00.000-05:00

chivalry

2009-12-11T16:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, as I was walking down the hall at work, the Asian man walking a few paces in front of me turned into the men's bathroom and then paused holding the door open for me. I sort of felt like I should go in because he was holding the door. We made eye contact and I sort of ducked by awkwardly. I guess that means that chivalry isn't dead?