Instructor: So, ____, what analogy do you think has the strongest relationship to the one in the question?
Guy who wore a Carlos Zambrano shirt to the first day of class: Uh, I went with PORPOISE : FISH. Although I’m not really sure if a porpoise is a fish or not…
Older woman in front of me: It’s not…
Instructor: That’s ok, but let’s focus on why the relationship isn’t a strong one -
Older woman in front of me, continuing: … it’s a mammal.
Guy who wore Zambrano shirt, turning around to look at her: Really? [looks crestfallen for a minute, and then says in a wilting, earnest tone] And I was hoping to be a marine biologist too…oh, man.
03 September 2008
29 August 2008
humbling though
Olympic record for the marathon, set this year: 2:06'32.
Our finish time for a HALF marathon, if we keep our target pace: 2:10'00.
Before congratulating us, remember that someone can run twice as fast as we hope to for twice the distance!
Our finish time for a HALF marathon, if we keep our target pace: 2:10'00.
Before congratulating us, remember that someone can run twice as fast as we hope to for twice the distance!
28 August 2008
closing in
Ominously, the last run before the big one was not good. Slept restlessy, only sneaking a cat nap during the two hours between 4 and 6 on account of stress, whatever else. The weather for the weekend in VA beach looks to include some rain, so I guess it's good that I ran in the rain this morning. I shuffled through thirty minutes and gave up.
A great trick that I learned from E(M)GK is to keep your old running shoes around when you buy a new pair, and wear the old ones out when it's crappy to make sure you'll get your 300-400 miles out of the new pair. Not sure what to do about Sunday thought - it seems really foolish not to wear my newest pair, which have fewer than 15 miles on them, but not at the cost of needing to replace them that much sooner.
Also, maybe I'm in the minority, but I really feel like the DNC has gotten very little mileage in my household. Political inclinations aside, I was just out-tv'd by the Olympics and the knowledge that football season is almost upon us.
So, I need to sleep, but I've found that sometimes fatigue is a nice distraction while running - it actually allows the mind to wander from the body a bit more freely. And with the rain this morning, I was definitely stumbling down some bizarre mental corridors, only to come back and realize that because my glasses were wet and I couldn't see very far ahead of me, I would have no idea where I was. Pleasantly disorienting.
A great trick that I learned from E(M)GK is to keep your old running shoes around when you buy a new pair, and wear the old ones out when it's crappy to make sure you'll get your 300-400 miles out of the new pair. Not sure what to do about Sunday thought - it seems really foolish not to wear my newest pair, which have fewer than 15 miles on them, but not at the cost of needing to replace them that much sooner.
Also, maybe I'm in the minority, but I really feel like the DNC has gotten very little mileage in my household. Political inclinations aside, I was just out-tv'd by the Olympics and the knowledge that football season is almost upon us.
So, I need to sleep, but I've found that sometimes fatigue is a nice distraction while running - it actually allows the mind to wander from the body a bit more freely. And with the rain this morning, I was definitely stumbling down some bizarre mental corridors, only to come back and realize that because my glasses were wet and I couldn't see very far ahead of me, I would have no idea where I was. Pleasantly disorienting.
26 August 2008
Back to school
It's officially the end of the summer at Abstract Citizen hq, in the least fun way imaginable: after a long hiatus, we're both in classes. Ms. AC is beginning an arduous process that will likely culminate in a career about which she will be truly passionate. I, on the other hand, started my GRE classes tonight, still a little unsure of what I want out of graduate school but pretty confident in the fact that it's realistically the only way I can move forward personally and professionally. And maybe, who knows - move elsewhere, physically, since there's always a remote chance we will be looking outside of the DC metro area...
My first thought is that Kaplan has terrible customer service, and my instructor is...awkward. My second thought is, wow - I love that I can hop on my bike and be there in 10 minutes. My third thought is that Ms. AC's butternut squash soup has kept very well in the freezer for the past several months.
And my fourth thought is that this officially marks the end of the precocious phase of my life. I was always the youngest in school: my last day at college, thanks to some high school IB credits, was actually the day in turned 21. My first year, I was on several occasions the only freshman in classes full of seniors. I was featured in this "year one" magazine as part of a panel of freshmen and nominated to this really silly "emerging leaders" seminar. Within 3 months of turning 21 and getting out of dodge, I was working at the place where I now (still!) work. At 23, I was the youngest director on staff and, as far as anyone can tell, ever. And since then, I've been...almost totally stagnant.
So, I'm not the oldest person in my GRE class, and I probably won't be the oldest person in whatever grad program I enroll. But no one will ever say that I am so ______ for my age. And I don't mind that - I'm happy to say goodbye to the precociousness. But it takes a little bit of getting used to, at least for now.
My first thought is that Kaplan has terrible customer service, and my instructor is...awkward. My second thought is, wow - I love that I can hop on my bike and be there in 10 minutes. My third thought is that Ms. AC's butternut squash soup has kept very well in the freezer for the past several months.
And my fourth thought is that this officially marks the end of the precocious phase of my life. I was always the youngest in school: my last day at college, thanks to some high school IB credits, was actually the day in turned 21. My first year, I was on several occasions the only freshman in classes full of seniors. I was featured in this "year one" magazine as part of a panel of freshmen and nominated to this really silly "emerging leaders" seminar. Within 3 months of turning 21 and getting out of dodge, I was working at the place where I now (still!) work. At 23, I was the youngest director on staff and, as far as anyone can tell, ever. And since then, I've been...almost totally stagnant.
So, I'm not the oldest person in my GRE class, and I probably won't be the oldest person in whatever grad program I enroll. But no one will ever say that I am so ______ for my age. And I don't mind that - I'm happy to say goodbye to the precociousness. But it takes a little bit of getting used to, at least for now.
What you may have missed during the weeks-long celebration of Michael Phelps
Olympic village booty. Lots of it.
Every 4 years, there's an article like this. If I recall correctly, the issue in Athens was a general concern that the plumbing in the Olympic village might not be sturdy enough to withstand the number of condoms that would be flushed down toilets.
I guess it's heartening to think that regardless of bronze, silver, or gold status, latex will always be the winner.
Every 4 years, there's an article like this. If I recall correctly, the issue in Athens was a general concern that the plumbing in the Olympic village might not be sturdy enough to withstand the number of condoms that would be flushed down toilets.
I guess it's heartening to think that regardless of bronze, silver, or gold status, latex will always be the winner.
25 August 2008
Find a city, find yourself a city to live in
StopSmiling's reviewof "The Dark Knight" is a shining example of why that particular magazine is the coolest magazine on the planet. But more importantly, I think it correctly grasps what is the most important theme in the new crop of Batman films: urbanism.
Nolan's unsubtle play in the new Batman series suggests that Gotham is our collective soul - hopelessly complicated, easily corrupted, given to mass hysteria and savagery, and not necessarily a place worth saving. Virtually all of my favorite superhero stories have an element of this "urban landscape as heart of darkness" - certainly Robocop and The Watchmen, but also some less high-minded fare like Darkman.
I also note that the modern city becomes especially scary to the consumer of pop culture sometime around the late 1970s and early 1980s, though I'm not sure what broader conclusion suggested by this. An economist would talk about the fact that this tide shifted back sometime in the mid-90s, during a period of massive growth. A two-bit sociologist might point to the end of the cold war and the advent of political correctness leading to an embrace of the "other." Truth is, there are so many trends - the rise of hip hop and the use of the word "urban" as code for black culture, for example - that it seems silly to say that it happened for any one reason. But what does interest me is that in other countries, living in the city is often perceived as a happy accident borne of necessity, whereas in America, there are a number of people who see cities simply as an inconvenience, a distraction from their real lives.
The gap between urban and non-urban was one of my "themes" a few years ago - I saw just about everything as evidence of this, from consumer behavior to gastronomy and national election results. My formative years were spent in a teeming mess of a city, where I was routinely mugged, where bus routes were fluid and open to interpretation, and where being a self-described native means that you have successfully navigated one of the most complex environments invented by humans.
Even when I thought I was likely to move away from urban areas entirely, I still thought cities were absolultely vital to human enterprise, while suburbs were the opposite of all authentic human experience. Moving to the U.S. suburbs in the early 1990s was disorienting, like being placed into a sealed container or something. Where was the streetlife, where did people congregate, why weren't there more bus routes? But I did grow accustomed to that rhythm after a while, at least until graduating from college and realizing that I didn't want any part of a suburban life.
I had a professor in college who used to describe the ideal suburban weekend: car rolls into garage, garage door closes - family is sealed in. The door will not open again until it is time for work and school on Monday morning because the family is in a self-contained unit. This is facile and I don't want to suggest that everyone in the suburbs is drab while all in the city are vibrant - far from it, in fact, and I think the line between the two is fairly blurry.
I didn't know Rubert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" or anything about social capital, nor had I read Jane Jacobs at this point, but I could see that I thought living in a city would mean, in the most basic terms, more entertainment. More action that had little to do with me, and a greater likelihood that I would be a supporting actor in another story (as opposed to always feeling like the protagonist of my story.)
There was a New Yorker "Talk of the Town" piece where Wynton Marsalis, speaking to a school assembly in New York City, used the word "cosmopolitan." Someone asked him what it meant, and he replied something like, "It means that you belong wherever you go." Or something along those lines, I can't seem to find the exact wording. But clearly, it's an idea I like - not because it implies that there's a universal fraternity of urban centers, but because it suggests to me that cities teach valuable life skills: about talking to people directly, about living outside of your own head, about asking questions and about not being such a bumbling idiot just because you happen to be out of your element, and also about the individual's relationship with their environment being a two-way street.
Of course, you can learn these skills and lessons elsewhere. And I've always thought that the people who pride themselves on their urbanity are the most likely to be from Des Moines (no offense, Iowa!) Seriously - remember that Bill Murray's character in "Groundhog Day," who made it clear that he hated central PA, was from Pittsburgh - not exactly a cosmpolitan center, though it is a city that kicks Washington's ass in terms of regional pride and strength of character.
I spent a good chunk of the summer outside of cities, in between them, or in cities that I plain just don't like a lot (hello, San Diego!) It feels good to be home, picking thai chilies off the pot that grows on our windowsill, our tiny spice garden overlooking an infinitely more messy and unweeded garden gone to the proverbial Shakesperean fie.
Nolan's unsubtle play in the new Batman series suggests that Gotham is our collective soul - hopelessly complicated, easily corrupted, given to mass hysteria and savagery, and not necessarily a place worth saving. Virtually all of my favorite superhero stories have an element of this "urban landscape as heart of darkness" - certainly Robocop and The Watchmen, but also some less high-minded fare like Darkman.
I also note that the modern city becomes especially scary to the consumer of pop culture sometime around the late 1970s and early 1980s, though I'm not sure what broader conclusion suggested by this. An economist would talk about the fact that this tide shifted back sometime in the mid-90s, during a period of massive growth. A two-bit sociologist might point to the end of the cold war and the advent of political correctness leading to an embrace of the "other." Truth is, there are so many trends - the rise of hip hop and the use of the word "urban" as code for black culture, for example - that it seems silly to say that it happened for any one reason. But what does interest me is that in other countries, living in the city is often perceived as a happy accident borne of necessity, whereas in America, there are a number of people who see cities simply as an inconvenience, a distraction from their real lives.
The gap between urban and non-urban was one of my "themes" a few years ago - I saw just about everything as evidence of this, from consumer behavior to gastronomy and national election results. My formative years were spent in a teeming mess of a city, where I was routinely mugged, where bus routes were fluid and open to interpretation, and where being a self-described native means that you have successfully navigated one of the most complex environments invented by humans.
Even when I thought I was likely to move away from urban areas entirely, I still thought cities were absolultely vital to human enterprise, while suburbs were the opposite of all authentic human experience. Moving to the U.S. suburbs in the early 1990s was disorienting, like being placed into a sealed container or something. Where was the streetlife, where did people congregate, why weren't there more bus routes? But I did grow accustomed to that rhythm after a while, at least until graduating from college and realizing that I didn't want any part of a suburban life.
I had a professor in college who used to describe the ideal suburban weekend: car rolls into garage, garage door closes - family is sealed in. The door will not open again until it is time for work and school on Monday morning because the family is in a self-contained unit. This is facile and I don't want to suggest that everyone in the suburbs is drab while all in the city are vibrant - far from it, in fact, and I think the line between the two is fairly blurry.
I didn't know Rubert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" or anything about social capital, nor had I read Jane Jacobs at this point, but I could see that I thought living in a city would mean, in the most basic terms, more entertainment. More action that had little to do with me, and a greater likelihood that I would be a supporting actor in another story (as opposed to always feeling like the protagonist of my story.)
There was a New Yorker "Talk of the Town" piece where Wynton Marsalis, speaking to a school assembly in New York City, used the word "cosmopolitan." Someone asked him what it meant, and he replied something like, "It means that you belong wherever you go." Or something along those lines, I can't seem to find the exact wording. But clearly, it's an idea I like - not because it implies that there's a universal fraternity of urban centers, but because it suggests to me that cities teach valuable life skills: about talking to people directly, about living outside of your own head, about asking questions and about not being such a bumbling idiot just because you happen to be out of your element, and also about the individual's relationship with their environment being a two-way street.
Of course, you can learn these skills and lessons elsewhere. And I've always thought that the people who pride themselves on their urbanity are the most likely to be from Des Moines (no offense, Iowa!) Seriously - remember that Bill Murray's character in "Groundhog Day," who made it clear that he hated central PA, was from Pittsburgh - not exactly a cosmpolitan center, though it is a city that kicks Washington's ass in terms of regional pride and strength of character.
I spent a good chunk of the summer outside of cities, in between them, or in cities that I plain just don't like a lot (hello, San Diego!) It feels good to be home, picking thai chilies off the pot that grows on our windowsill, our tiny spice garden overlooking an infinitely more messy and unweeded garden gone to the proverbial Shakesperean fie.
Run
It's half-marathon week, so expect some run-talk. Meanwhile, there's this, written shortly after a long run.
I was wheezing, left
right. The buttons
called nothing. Fights
on billowy terrain,
light taut. The run
was overwrought,
an arrival ingrained,
the time for precision.
Your names were elisions,
and I was skidding. Laterally
speaking, I wasn’t budging
but through the fog below
I knew left right. Draining
out of me were vowels,
decisions, and deeds. Pace.
Write left in little trowels.
Tamer visions fleeing.
Linear on the grid, topheavy
dimensions. Logging
real hours to sealed rhythms.
Open closed, close to them.
Are the names really done?
Sunbeaten trod, muddy grass
waving follicles at our pass.
Redolent, gamin-toed trot
weathered well. Right. I left
without going anywhere.
Arrived through no threshold.
Thinking I had picked daisies
without ever touching a flower,
traipsing gaps in fear, beads
in shower. The finished end so near.
Covering distances vaster,
the apartness moving faster.
It was farther or further,
though I didn’t know. I knew
little, but I knew well
how the shell formed, and why
scorned, we are in flight. Left.
Right. Left. Right.
I was wheezing, left
right. The buttons
called nothing. Fights
on billowy terrain,
light taut. The run
was overwrought,
an arrival ingrained,
the time for precision.
Your names were elisions,
and I was skidding. Laterally
speaking, I wasn’t budging
but through the fog below
I knew left right. Draining
out of me were vowels,
decisions, and deeds. Pace.
Write left in little trowels.
Tamer visions fleeing.
Linear on the grid, topheavy
dimensions. Logging
real hours to sealed rhythms.
Open closed, close to them.
Are the names really done?
Sunbeaten trod, muddy grass
waving follicles at our pass.
Redolent, gamin-toed trot
weathered well. Right. I left
without going anywhere.
Arrived through no threshold.
Thinking I had picked daisies
without ever touching a flower,
traipsing gaps in fear, beads
in shower. The finished end so near.
Covering distances vaster,
the apartness moving faster.
It was farther or further,
though I didn’t know. I knew
little, but I knew well
how the shell formed, and why
scorned, we are in flight. Left.
Right. Left. Right.
24 August 2008
Of fenceposts and crumb trails
Is there a word for the great feeling you get for a few seconds when you get that feeling that you're on the right track? I'm sure there is a word for it in German, since they seem to be the best at combining disparate words into high-falutin concepts. Something like "feelings-consorting-thoughts" or "connected-object-mindfulnes" maybe.
This can happen when you get a strong feeling of deja vu. I have always assumed that the most logical explanation for deja vu is that you've dreamt about something before it happens. This is not mystical - it's rather the result of the fact that the brain is a powerful computer, repeatedly analyzing myriad scenarios, and occasionally it hits on exactly what might happen a few weeks or months later. I recently had a little bit of this feeling, sitting in my office, talking to a co-worker about a silly work drama.
The other time I get this sort of feeling is when I get the feeling I'm the only person who knows a song that a performer is covering. I don't know why, but I was just so proud of myself for recognizing Nick Lowe's "cruel to be Kind" at a relatively lame corporate function in San Diego. (Well, the people were lame - the open bar and fist-sized truffles being shaved onto the scallops on my plate were awesome.) The guy playing it on a casio-type set up with a microphone looked as generic as could be expected, but I just had this feeling about the fact that I had been recently introduced to the song by a friend for the sole purpose of enjoying that moment more than anyone else at the party. (The great sidenote is that I mentioned this to someone at the table with me, and she nodded, telling me that the first concert she ever attended was Nick Lowe opening for The Cars. So maybe I wasn't so special, but for a few seconds, I was.)
I also recently listened to Mike Gordon's new band for the first time - great, upbeat, quirky pop. On the particular show I found, he does a cover of a Kasey Chambers that I am sure no one in the audience would have known, and I got this feeling that my brief interest in Kasey Chambers - even seeing her on her first US tour, when she was pregnant - was somehow retroactively legitimized by Mike Gordon, several years later.
And finally, Okkervil River covering John Phillips' April Anne has to take the cake. I had just come acros the John Phillips reissue no more than a month or so before I started taking Okkervil River. I loved the L.A. conjured in John Phillips' album - somewhere between Gram Parsons and Joan Didion. Okkervil River's version, on their covers mixtape, is just as sad as you would expect, but I think the song sounds best with John Phillips' crystal-eyed vocals about his ex-wife shacking up with Dennis Hopper. When I saw that Okkervil River had released a covers album, I wanted to skim the tracklist. Seeing that song listed as the opening track was all the convincing I needed that I was, as I suspected, on the right track.
This can happen when you get a strong feeling of deja vu. I have always assumed that the most logical explanation for deja vu is that you've dreamt about something before it happens. This is not mystical - it's rather the result of the fact that the brain is a powerful computer, repeatedly analyzing myriad scenarios, and occasionally it hits on exactly what might happen a few weeks or months later. I recently had a little bit of this feeling, sitting in my office, talking to a co-worker about a silly work drama.
The other time I get this sort of feeling is when I get the feeling I'm the only person who knows a song that a performer is covering. I don't know why, but I was just so proud of myself for recognizing Nick Lowe's "cruel to be Kind" at a relatively lame corporate function in San Diego. (Well, the people were lame - the open bar and fist-sized truffles being shaved onto the scallops on my plate were awesome.) The guy playing it on a casio-type set up with a microphone looked as generic as could be expected, but I just had this feeling about the fact that I had been recently introduced to the song by a friend for the sole purpose of enjoying that moment more than anyone else at the party. (The great sidenote is that I mentioned this to someone at the table with me, and she nodded, telling me that the first concert she ever attended was Nick Lowe opening for The Cars. So maybe I wasn't so special, but for a few seconds, I was.)
I also recently listened to Mike Gordon's new band for the first time - great, upbeat, quirky pop. On the particular show I found, he does a cover of a Kasey Chambers that I am sure no one in the audience would have known, and I got this feeling that my brief interest in Kasey Chambers - even seeing her on her first US tour, when she was pregnant - was somehow retroactively legitimized by Mike Gordon, several years later.
And finally, Okkervil River covering John Phillips' April Anne has to take the cake. I had just come acros the John Phillips reissue no more than a month or so before I started taking Okkervil River. I loved the L.A. conjured in John Phillips' album - somewhere between Gram Parsons and Joan Didion. Okkervil River's version, on their covers mixtape, is just as sad as you would expect, but I think the song sounds best with John Phillips' crystal-eyed vocals about his ex-wife shacking up with Dennis Hopper. When I saw that Okkervil River had released a covers album, I wanted to skim the tracklist. Seeing that song listed as the opening track was all the convincing I needed that I was, as I suspected, on the right track.
22 August 2008
Catachresis
“What is a catachresis?” I said.
“That one I used to know, but I’ve forgotten,” said Lima.
“It’s a metaphor that’s become part of common everyday speech and is no longer perceived as a metaphor. For example: needle’s eye, bottleneck.”
from The Savage Detectives
18 August 2008
Thinking, running
Thoughts during a ten mile run.
-why do adults who are not engaging in athletic activities wear sporty digital watches?
-god, the mouth waters thinking of sushi nippon, for some reason not very popular with these yelp types in the link above
-ok, so I understand the libertarian position that ANY government involvement in a field results in less freedom. It's a simplistic position - as simplistic as the belief that any government intervention in an industry is a good thing - but let's take it as it's pitched. By the libertarian logic, then, universal health care is a government intrusion that will hamper the consumer driven health care market place, resulting in fewer options, more regulation, etc. However, isn't a society where people are reluctant to leave a job and start their own business, or become consultants, or even just move to a new job because they might not have the same health insurance plan or because their coverage might change - isn't that society a lot less free as a result of the lack of universal health care? Isn't this one of those cases where a government program actually makes individuals in a society more free to pursue their own dreams and livelihoods?
-and, to hit back to the other side, if pay-for-performance in health care reimbursement is a democratic initiative - isn't this applying to health care the same principles that democrats oppose so strongly when it comes to school vouchers? Non-performing hospitals or health providers are the ones who need the funding the most, and under this plan, they will be the first to lose funding.
-ugh, running uphill. Keep all joints lined up. Don't lean forward.
-there are too many people on the rock creek park trails.
-why do adults who are not engaging in athletic activities wear sporty digital watches?
-god, the mouth waters thinking of sushi nippon, for some reason not very popular with these yelp types in the link above
-ok, so I understand the libertarian position that ANY government involvement in a field results in less freedom. It's a simplistic position - as simplistic as the belief that any government intervention in an industry is a good thing - but let's take it as it's pitched. By the libertarian logic, then, universal health care is a government intrusion that will hamper the consumer driven health care market place, resulting in fewer options, more regulation, etc. However, isn't a society where people are reluctant to leave a job and start their own business, or become consultants, or even just move to a new job because they might not have the same health insurance plan or because their coverage might change - isn't that society a lot less free as a result of the lack of universal health care? Isn't this one of those cases where a government program actually makes individuals in a society more free to pursue their own dreams and livelihoods?
-and, to hit back to the other side, if pay-for-performance in health care reimbursement is a democratic initiative - isn't this applying to health care the same principles that democrats oppose so strongly when it comes to school vouchers? Non-performing hospitals or health providers are the ones who need the funding the most, and under this plan, they will be the first to lose funding.
-ugh, running uphill. Keep all joints lined up. Don't lean forward.
-there are too many people on the rock creek park trails.
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