miasma

The difference between nauseous and nauseated: "Choosing among the various adjectives derived from nauseate is becoming a problem among English speakers. The cause of the urge is either nauseous or nauseating. The experience of nausea leaves you nauseated—not nauseous. A dill pickle with chocolate sauce and whipped cream is nauseous because it nauseates us. We, on the other hand, feel nauseated at the thought of consuming such an 'indelicacy'." ‡

Nancy Reagan (as well as several other politically and socially prominent people) is a direct descendant of Pocahontas. Also, Pocahontas was just 23 when she died. ‡

I do not advise drinking a large cup of coffee in addition to taking a tablet of Midol. Midol contains caffeine, which aids in its effectiveness, but the extrapolation theory that more caffeine would further the pain relieving properties does not hold as I now feel shaky, anxious, tense, weary and unable to consistently improve my shallow breathing. ‡

There's a NEW laundromat going in across the street from my apartment. ‡

"Darkness on the edge of town" is not just a lyric in a Dead Moon song ("Walkin' On My Grave"), it's also the title of an album by Bruce Springsteen. It should be noted that Springsteen came first. ‡

About Syd Mead: the "industrial designer best known for his vehicle designs in science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens, and Tron." He also worked on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 2010, Short Circuit, Timecop, Strange Days, and Mission: Impossible III among several other projects and achievements. ‡

The term "cruft", after looking up "foo" on Wikipedia. Subsequently I noticed its usage, for the first time, in the documentation for Drupal i.e. "Drupal's generated markup is clean, standards-compliant xhtml. No old school tables. No cruft. No kidding." See also: kipple, kludge, and "metasyntactic variable". ‡

I am now being charged a monthly fee for my checking account. ‡

French fries are hot. "A new front-runner in the battle for the perfect French fry has emerged: the very thin, very crisp ones served at the new Chez Papa Resto, presented in a cone, are not to be missed. But our old favorites remain—how to resist a huge bowl of fries at Universal Café, tossed with handfuls of herbs? They remain the undisputed champions. And, if you want the complete Bastille Day experience, some very fine fries can be ordered at Café Claude, where you can also sample soupe à l'oignon and a fine pan bagnat (the French take on a tuna sandwich)." --from 7x7sf.com ‡

In an informal sample of 14 magazines' websites, only one was wider than 1000 pixels (Traditional Home at 1024), six came in at exactly 1000, and STEP Inside Design's website is unbelievably bad (go ahead, resize your browser, I dare you.) ‡

My latest genius idea: I wash and re-use bread bags and tortilla bags to store food such as bread (like the kind you buy in a paper bag which will turn to stone if it's not stored properly within a day) or crackers, chips, open packages of tofu, cheese, etc. They work nicely to pack things up for lunch to go to work. I also re-use them at the grocery store for veggies, fruits, and bulk items.

I wonder sometimes if my co-workers who see me toting my lunch in re-used plastic bags and re-used yogurt containers look down on me or think I'm weird or a hippie or whatever. But, every day this week, I brought my lunch components, prepared a meal, and ate it on real plates with real silverware. The only trash I produced was paper napkins. I've been wondering if it's feasible to bring my own cloth napkins. A little effort, ingenuity, and not worrying what other people think has resulted in yummy lunches for me and nearly no garbage for us all.

This week: Indian Bowl! basmati rice, with paneer in sauce (recycled packaging), sauteed mushrooms in garlic, tomato, marinated tofu cubes, tomato (all heated) then topped with cool yogurt and garam masala. Snack time: slices of walnut bread toasted in the toaster oven with pats of goat cheese added in the last 30-45 seconds, which softens the cheese just enough to spread. Nibbles: fresh, organic blueberries from the Farmer's Market.

I saw The Dark Knight yesterday with a couple dozen pals. It was bittersweet enjoying Heath Ledger's Joker performance; an unsettling combination of disgusting and sexy. Such a loss.

In other news, I just got hired full-time at the freelance job I've been working at for the past three months. Yay!

I finally signed up for ZipCar.

My new Nudie Jeans and I are in a romance. These instructions came with them: don't wash for six months. If they start to smell, put outside in damp weather, preferably overnight - or put in freezer. It six months, turn inside out, wash btw 40-60 celsius and hang to dry. Ok.

The sound in my ears is currently being improved by these three records I just bought: Justice - Cross, MSTRKRFT - The Looks, and MGMT - Oracular Spectacular. Thanks to H.E.K.

I'm thinking about SF supervisor Chris Daly's proposal to curtail automobile traffic on Market Street east of Van Ness/Hwy 101. At first, I envisioned a long, tree-lined avenue of only bicycles and pedestrians, frolicking gaily in the sun... Back in reality, I think they could leave almost all the streets that cross Market open to crossing, just cut off turning onto Market itself.

Driving up or down Market Street, currently, is frustrating, slow, and often ridiculously circuitous. I ride my bike up and down Market every day, to and from work, and I pass cars just *coasting* on my bike. It fills me with glee. The cars will race ahead to the next light, then sit there and wait as I pass them again. It's a little game I play in my head that goes something like, "Let's see if I can beat these poor saps who are farting out carbon monoxide in addition to pouring a good chunk of their income into fuel, insurance, car payments, repairs, and parking tickets." Also in my head, I hear that "dun-da-dun-da-dunna" music that plays when the Wicked Witch rides off with Toto. It's fun to be me sometimes.

Back to my Big Idea: people were complaining in the comments on the above referenced article that cutting off automobile traffic from using this street as a through-way would be bad for the businesses on Market Street. But! There is nowhere to park on Market, you already have to go to a side street or a garage. Nobody drives to a business on Market. If cars are not allowed to clog Market, public transit would run smoother, and it would be more welcoming to pedestrians and cyclists. And all of these people? They are on foot. They are physically on the street. Without a giant machine to navigate and stow somewhere, they are much more likely to visit businesses on the street since they can just walk in. People in cars? They have to go park and then walk there anyway!

The tough thing is, Chris Daly rankles people. I think his heart is usually in the right place, but his approach is often so inappropriately simplistic and his stance so stubborn, that it makes it impossible to get behind him. He's like a teenager who thinks he knows everything but can't see the unyielding complications, imbalances, and unfairness in life. I think he looks at a problem and thinks of how things should be, then runs with the first short route from problem to no problem that he thinks of, nevermind the problems his solution might cause. It's not helpful.

For some reason, you can buy every Nine Inch Nails album EVER on iTunes, except Pretty Hate Machine. I hate you! (I think it has something to do with it being an import.) Now I have to buy chunks of plastic to get "Head Like A Hole", wah; I bought it used off Amazon. ‡

Did it ever occur to you that the baby on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind is an actual person? Me either. He's 17 now and his name is Spencer Eldon. He was interviewed last week on NPR's All Things Considered. He thinks Rock Band on Xbox sucks because it keeps his friends from going out and forming real bands (which is debatable since my friend Brian got started on drums that way.) Geffen sent him a platinum album and a teddy bear for his first birthday (though his family only received a $200 flat for his appearance on the album cover.) And, he's trying to graduate high school early because he's "so over" it. "Same people, same teachers ... going to your locker, worrying about stupid girls ... I wanna get something going, I wanna travel," he says. ‡

Either is used with a negative verb; Neither is used with an affirmative verb. "I haven't been to France. I haven't either / Neither have I." ("I have been to France. I have too / So have I.") "I can't see the screen. I can't either / Neither can I." ‡

There are four main types of brackets:

» round brackets or parentheses: ( )
» square brackets or box brackets: [ ]
» curly brackets or braces: { }
» angle brackets or chevrons: < >

The angle bracket was the earliest type to appear in English. Desiderius Erasmus coined the term lunula to refer to the rounded parentheses (), recalling the round shape of the moon. ‡

The interrobang (‽) "American Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest, but he settled on interrobang." ‡

The paragraph sign's (¶) proper name is pilcrow, but can also be called an alinea (Latin: a linea, "off the line"). ‡

There is a great video interview with Charles Eames on YouTube (thanks Drawn!) In this video, he discusses his design principles, and then they debut the Eames Lounge Chair! Goose bumps! His wife Ray comes out near the end of the interview. As the TV interviewer is talking to the camera and signing off, Charles and Ray just look at each other, beaming, nothing else exists to them. It's pretty sweet. ‡

There aren't very many hybrid fruits. You'd think there'd be a truckload, what with people's determination to monkey with nature. I learned of the pluot (of which there are some 13+ varieties). It's a plum and apricot hybrid, 3/4 plum and 1/4 apricot (thanks KellySuzanne!) A pluot is a tradename for a fruit developed in the late 20th century by Floyd Zaiger. Conversely, the aprium is an apricot and plum hybrid, but 3/4 apricot and 1/4 plum. A nectacotum (also known as a nectacotum pluot) is a hybrid fruit, combining an apricot, plum, and nectarine. It was developed by the Ito Packing Company in California. ‡

Since 1992, badminton is an Olympic sport with five events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, in which each pair is a man and a woman. ‡

My new favorite drink is a Gin Fizz. A Gin Fizz contains gin, lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water, served in a highball glass with two ice cubes. The drink is similar to a Tom Collins, the difference being that a Tom Collins historically used "Old Tom Gin" (a sweetened version of, and precursor to, London Dry Gin). A Sloe Gin Fizz contains sloe gin (a blackthorn plum flavored spirit), lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water. It is commonly mistaken that this drink is spelled "Slow" Gin Fizz. A Gin Fizz is the best known cocktail in the Fizz family, but there exist other (some might opine revolting) varieties:

» Silver Fizz—addition of egg white
» Golden Fizz—addition of egg yolk
» Royal Fizz—addition of whole egg
» Diamond Fizz—sparkling wine instead of carbonated water
» Green Fizz—addition of a dash of green crème de menthe ‡

Goose Step: Der Stechschritt (literally: piercing step), commonly known in English speaking countries as "the Goose-Step", is a special form of military step, which is usually demonstrated in solemn military parades and passes in review of closed units. The marching troops swing their legs from a vertical leg to a nearly horizontally-extending one, bringing it down with a loud simultaneous stepping noise and continuing the cycle in unison. It emerged from Prussian drilling regulation during the early 19th Century. Goose-stepping is commonly associated today with the German armed forces of the Reichswehr and of the Wehrmacht. After the end of the Second World War a reduced form of the goose-step (boot point in knee height) was still used by the East German National People's Army under the name drilling step to avoid references to old Prussian or Wehrmacht military tradition. ‡

I finally had a pluot (3/4 plum + 1/4 apricot). It was distinctly plum-like, pretty tasty.